The streets of Jerusalem regained an animation forgotten for six months, Sunday March 31. At the call of opponents of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered around the Knesset to call for elections and an agreement with Hamas, which would allow the release of hostages in Gaza. Lights were lit on the Menachem-Begin expressway.
Late in the evening, around 500 people set up a tent village on a boulevard that goes up to the Parliament. They plan to stay there until the spring break of parliamentarians, scheduled for the end of the week, and ask elected officials to continue to sit as long as the hostages remain in Gaza.
The scale of this gathering cannot be compared to that of the historic parades, which crowded the streets of the country every week last year, until the eve of the war. A majority of Israelis were then opposed to an upheaval of the institutional balance of the country desired by Mr. Netanyahu and his religious fundamentalist allies – described by his opponents as ” Rebellion “. But a form of awakening is indeed taking place. It had been expected for months, after a long phase of uneasy national solidarity, which imposed silence on the streets as long as tens of thousands of reservists remained mobilized.
In part, the same groups are at work – the Kaplan Force, companies in the new technology sector which are giving free rein to their employees wishing to demonstrate this week, veterans of the Brothers and Sisters in Arms. One of the movement’s leaders, former tech entrepreneur Moshe Radman, said the goal was to demand a deadline for elections to be announced.
Anchor yourself in the moment, avoiding the future
However, this gathering does not resolve the deep divisions of these representatives of different currents of Israeli society, which were able to overcome them last year. The Brothers in Arms, who want to be non-partisan, have thus stood out apart from the main procession. They went to the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Jerusalem to challenge the haredim (the “God-fearing”), who demand from the Prime Minister a law perpetuating their exemption from military service.
Throwing of eggs, theft of Israeli flags by fiercely anti-Zionist religious students, police ramparts… The videos of these scenes of stampedes resonate with Israeli society, which is less and less tolerant of the haredim’s exemption from service (18 % of young people of military age), at a time when the army is short of arms, and when reservists are starting to receive their recall orders for the spring.
You have 66.32% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.