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Thousands of protesters are expected to take to the streets in the nation’s largest cities on Saturday night amid a series of damning reports about Qatar’s ties with aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The focus on Qatar, a key backer of Hamas, came after the publication this week of reports and interviews that appeared to tie Netanyahu to the so-called Bild and Qatargate probes in which his top aides have either been prime suspects or indicted. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called Qatargate “the most serious act of treason in Israeli history.”
The anti-government rallies are backed by a range of activist groups that are also protesting the Netanyahu government’s bids to weaken the judiciary, codify the Haredi exemption from military service and avoid a state commission of inquiry into failures surrounding the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.
Meanwhile, the family of slain police officer Ran Gvili, the last remaining October 7 hostage, will hold a rally in his honor Saturday night demanding that there be no progress on the Gaza truce until his body is returned.
Protesters in Jerusalem will march from Netanyahu’s residence to President Isaac Herzog’s residence, while protesters in Haifa will gather at the central Horev area, where Ayala Metzger, daughter-in-law of slain hostage Yoram Metzger, is expected to speak.
“We’re not taking our foot off the gas,” Haifa protest organizers wrote on X, demanding new elections and an investigation into “Netanyahu’s involvement in the treason in his office.”
Protesters in Tel Aviv will gather at Habima Square and march to the Savidor train station. Set to speak at Habima is Merav Svirsky, whose parents were murdered in Kibbutz Be’eri during the October 7 attack and whose brother Itay was killed in captivity in Gaza.
Former police chief Roni Alsheich is also scheduled to speak. He has accused Netanyahu of insisting Qatar serve as a mediator in the war in Gaza, and of pulling Qatar out of international isolation nearly a decade ago by letting it send millions of dollars in cash to Gaza each month before the October 7 attack that sparked the war.
In a rare Shabbat statement, Netanyahu’s Likud party on Friday blasted the “Qatar-fake” investigation following the publication of correspondence indicating his aides were paid to run a pro-Qatari influence campaign from his office during the war in Gaza.
The statement also downplayed Netanyahu’s relationship with one of the former aides, Eli Feldstein, who in a bombshell interview with the Kan public broadcaster this week claimed the premier supported the leak of stolen intelligence to a German tabloid last year in a bid to sway public opinion against a Gaza truce-hostage deal.
The protests Saturday night come after the Gvili family earlier this month said it would halt the Hostages and Missing Families Forum’s mass Saturday night rallies at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, and would instead gather for a Kabbalat Shabbat service there on Friday afternoons. The family continues to hold a rally in Meitar on Saturday nights.
Gvili, a master sergeant in the police’s Yasam unit, was killed defending Kibbutz Alumim in the October 7 onslaught. His body was snatched to Gaza, where it is reportedly held by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
At the time, Gvili, 24, was at home in Meitar awaiting surgery on his shoulder. When the onslaught began, he donned his police uniform and went out to fight.
“This is where Yasam fighter Master Sgt. Ran Gvili went out on the morning of October 7 to protect the State of Israel, and this is where he needs to return,” the Families Forum said in a press release urging Israelis to attend the rally in Meitar on Saturday night.
The Forum also demanded Israel hold off on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire as long as Gvili’s body is held captive.
The second phase of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan would see Israel stage a further withdrawal in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas disarm and cede power to an International Stabilization Force and Trump-chaired Board of Peace.
The original text of the plan, first made public in late September, envisioned the second phase beginning only after the return of all 48 hostages, living and dead, who were still in Gaza when Israel and Hamas agreed to a truce-hostage deal on October 9. Mediators have yet to secure an agreement on the second phase.
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