Tens of thousands of Israelis attended a rally in Rabin Square on Saturday night, March 7, to demand a new government. While police estimated that 40,000 people were present, the event’s organizers claimed more than 80,000 showed up for what was billed as an anti-Benjamin Netanyahu and extreme-right government rally held under the banner “Israel wants change.”

Among the speakers who took part in the event were former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, Michal Kestan-Kedar (the widow of a lieutenant-colonel killed during “Operation Protective Edge” last summer), former general Amiram Levine, artist and author Yair Garbuz, social justice activists, journalists, and others. In his speech, Dagan told the crowd that he is more frightened of Israel’s leadership than he is of the country’s enemies. Saying that he wants neither a bi-national nor an apartheid state, the former Mossad chief derided the current leadership for using fear and threats to depict peace as unattainable.

Tens of thousands of people attend the “Israel Wants Change” rally calling to replace Netanyahu as Israel’s prime minister, Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, March 7, 2015. (Photo: Activestills)

“To those who say we don’t have any alternative, as somebody who worked directly with three prime ministers: there is a better alternative,” Dagan said. Former general Levine addressed the crowd, stressing the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative. Both men used the word “apartheid” in their warnings of the direction Israel is headed.

The event came 10 days before Israelis will head to the polls with no clear winner currently in sight. Most polls now predict that Labor and Tzipi Livni’s “Zionist Camp” will be the largest party, although Netanyahu’s Likud is not far behind. Behind the Zionist Camp (23) and the Likud (21), the Joint List of Hadash and the Arab parties rose in the most recent polls to up to 15 seats, according to aggregate polling Project 61.