Anti-PM rally raps politicization of holidays
Protesters once again gathered to demonstrate at the Prime Minister’s Residence on Saturday night, protesting against Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued reign in the midst of his trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
The demonstrating organizations accused Netanyahu of unlawfully attributing “sensitive security actions” to Israel, referring to alleged recent escalations with Iran that were, according to Israeli media, attributed to Israel by “Western sources.”
They also accused Netanyahu of “polluting” state ceremonies with political commentary in his own favor.
“The severe politicization of the most sacred symbols of Israeli statehood stems from a criminal defendant who holds the entire country hostage and proves every day that he is unfit for office,” said the Movement for Government Quality. “The attorney-general must send him immediately to be imprisoned, and we look forward to the hearing on the petition we submitted to the High Court to which the state must respond by Monday.”
“There is a prime minister who, in our opinion, cannot currently fulfill his role as a ‘full-fledged’ prime minister because an indictment has been filed against him,” Tomer Naor, one of the lawyers for the Movement for Government Quality who filed the petition, told 103FM last week.
A police blockade was located perpendicular to the entrance to the Prime Minister’s Residence, and a few meters across the road was another blockade along which stood a small protest of solidarity in support of Netanyahu. Protesters there carried Israeli flags, not unlike the Balfour protesters, along with Likud signs.
While there was a time when the anti-Netanyahu protesters would march from the Chords Bridge at the entrance to Jerusalem to Balfour Street, they have since moved the start of the demonstration to the front steps of the Knesset, where they expressed the injustice over Netanyahu having been given the mandate to form the next government.
“Corrupt people should not be in government,” Meretz head Nitzan Horowitz said on one of the stages strewn throughout the demonstration. “We will take care that no Knesset member from the ‘bloc of change’ would dare to help Bibi.”
“Netanyahu has polluted statehood with ‘small’ politics and will enslave Israel’s security for the sake of escaping justice,” the Crime Minister organization – one of the main organizers of the anti-Netanyahu protests – announced on Saturday afternoon.