Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday for a large anti-government demonstration, three days before a general election that many see as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The rally was organised by the October Council, a group founded by families of victims and hostages taken by Palestinian militants on October 7, 2023. The group is demanding accountability for the failure to prevent the Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war. According to Israeli media, the leaders of the four main opposition parties took part, including Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief of staff who is running neck and neck with Netanyahu. He received a warm reception from the crowd.
Polls point to a deadlock in Israel’s parliament
The latest polls, published before a legal gag period began on Friday night, suggested that neither bloc would win a majority of seats in the Israeli parliament. A poll published by the public broadcaster KAN estimated that out of 120 seats, 52 would go to Eisenkot’s bloc and 50 to Netanyahu’s. The remaining seats would go to non-aligned parties, including Arab ones.
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Before the rally, the October Council wrote on X that the event was the culminating point of three years of work. The group said it aimed to uncover the truth, demand accountability and establish a state commission of inquiry.
Marchers call for an independent inquiry into October 7
A reporter at the scene said thousands marched from Rabin Square towards Hostages Square, a long-standing focal point for anti-government protests calling for the release of those held captive in Gaza. The rally came after years of campaigning by Israeli civil society and opposition parties for an independent commission of inquiry into the security failures that led to October 7.
Netanyahu’s government has refused to set up such a body, of the kind Israel has often used in the past to investigate major state-level failures. It has instead offered a “political” commission, half of whose members would be appointed by the ruling coalition and half by opposition lawmakers. Opposition leaders said they would boycott a commission appointed by politicians.
Hadas Feuershtein, 68, told the reporter shortly before the rally began that the leadership of the past four years, since Netanyahu’s government took office in late 2022, had done “such a terrible job”. “Israel has never been in a situation as it is now,” she added.
Ahead of the event, the October Council had warned law enforcement of possible “provocations” by pro-government agitators. Israeli police said on Saturday evening that they had arrested a suspect for assaulting the security team of a public figure in Tel Aviv. Israeli press identified the target as former prime minister and opposition party leader Naftali Bennett.
Netanyahu’s digital economy remark draws opposition fire
Netanyahu suggested on Friday that Israel may need to develop an alternative digital economy to counter its growing international isolation. He also said that multibillion-dollar weapons packages from its key ally, Washington, “won’t keep coming”, and he has previously called for Israel to become self-sufficient militarily.
The remarks came as Britain and several other countries have imposed sanctions on goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Those measures were a response to a wave of settler attacks on Palestinians and to settlement construction approved by Netanyahu’s right-wing government.
Opposition leaders on Saturday criticised the proposal. Eisenkot mockingly called the proposed parallel digital currency “bbCoin”, using a common nickname for the premier. “Netanyahu says that if he is elected again, Israel will disconnect from the global economy,” he wrote on X. “We must not let bbCoin destroy Israel.”
Yair Lapid, a former prime minister and current opposition leader, accused Netanyahu of promising Israelis they would “stand in line for an hour and a half for bread like in Russia or Iran” before the election. In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12, Lapid said that if Netanyahu won, there would be sanctions, no security agreement with the United States and no Israeli economy.
First-time voters hope for a shift in Israel’s image
First-time voter Naama Bitterman, 18, said at the rally that she was confident the anti-Netanyahu bloc she supports would have the upper hand. She argued that a win would also improve Israel’s international standing, which she said had been tarnished by three years of war in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, as well as surging violence in the occupied West Bank. “I think that if we win — and we are going to win — we can change how other people in the entire world see us,” she told the reporter.
As the campaign nears its end, Eisenkot and Bennett are expected to hold separate final meetings with voters in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening.
