JERUSALEM: A coalition of Hamas-held Israeli prisoner’s families and protesters against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s moves against the judiciary and parts of the security establishment is coming together again after conflict returned this week to Gaza.

The prime minister’s decision to resume the conflict and bombard the Palestinian enclave, with 59 prisoners — around 24 of whom are believed to be alive — still held in Gaza has added fresh fuel to the anger of protesters, who accuse the government of continuing the conflict for political reasons.

Tens of thousands demonstrated on Tuesday night and more protests were taking place on Wednesday after Netanyahu announced at the weekend that he had lost confidence in Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, and had decided to sack him.

“This is no longer a war that is about something that is important, it is all about the survival of this government, the survival of Benjamin Netanyahu,” said Koren Offer, a protester in Jerusalem.

Opinion polls suggest Netanyahu likely to lose upcoming election due to continuing public anger over Tel Aviv’s failure to stop Oct 7 raid

Protest groups have ranged from the Defensive Shield Forum, a group representing former defence and security officials, and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, an anti-corruption group that was active in a bitter battle in 2023 over curbing the power of the Supreme Court, alongside families of the prisoners in Gaza. There is an echo in the current movement of the huge protests that erupted in 2023 — before the Oct 7 Hamas raid — when Netanyahu attempted to sack then-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over his opposition to the planned judicial overhaul. It reflects a conviction among critics of Netanyahu that the six-time prime minister represents a danger to Israel’s democracy. “This government does not stop at red lights,” Yair Lapid, a former prime minister and head of the centrist opposition party Yesh Atid, said on the social media platform X.

“Enough! I call on all of you — this is our moment, this is our future. Take to the streets.” While his right-wing coalition holds together, Netanyahu has been able to defy the protests and stave off calls for new elections. Opinion polls suggest he would lose an election due to continuing public anger over the failures that allowed Hamas to raid southern communities on Oct 7, 2023, in Israel’s worst security disaster. Tuesday’s announcement by extreme hardliner Itamar Ben Gvir that he would rejoin the government, after walking out over the ceasefire deal signed in January, underlined the political endorsement the government has gained from the nationalist-religious camp whose support has been vital.

‘Dismantling political unity’

Critics of Netanyahu saw his decision to dismiss the head of Shin Bet as a blow to a key state institution that was inflicted for political reasons linked to Shin Bet’s involvement in investigations into allegations of corruption by aides in Netanyahu’s office.

Netanyahu calls the allegations a politically motivated attack on him. He said the decision on Bar was because he had long ago lost trust in the security chief.

Benny Gantz, head of the largest centrist opposition party, said the decision to fire Bar represented “a direct violation of state security and the dismantling of political unity in Israel for political and personal reasons”.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2025