Thousands of people in Israel have gathered in Tel Aviv to protest against the decision of the Government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dismiss the head of Shin Bet’s Domestic Intelligence Service combat In Gaza.
Netanyahu said this week that he had lost confidence in Ronen Bar, who has been running Shin Bet since 2021, and intended to say goodbye from April 10, causing three days of protests.
On Saturday, the Israeli leader said that the country will remain democratic despite the removal of the security chief.
In the Habima square of Tel Aviv, the protesters stirred blue and white Israeli flags and asked for an agreement to see the launch of the remaining Israeli captives held in Gaza.
« Israel’s most dangerous enemy is Benjamin Netanyahu, » said 63 -year -old Moshe Haaharony at Reuters’ news agency.
« Benjamin Netanyahu for 20 years does not care about the country, he does not care citizens. »
Netanyahu has dismissed the allegations that the decision was politically motivated, but his critics have accused him of undermining institutions that base Israel’s democracy, seeking the removal of the bar.
The Supreme Court of Israel issued a court order on Friday, temporarily freezing the dismissal.
Netanyahu and Bar have been in Loggerheads for months in the midst of tensions on a bribe investigation focused on the Prime Minister’s office and recriminations on the lack of avoiding October 7, 2023, led by Hamas, attacks in southern Israel.
Bar said in a letter that his ear was motivated by the desire to detain « the search for truth » about the events that came on October 7.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid requested a general strike on Saturday if Netanyahu refuses to take into account the freezing sentence of the Supreme Court bar.
« If the government of October 7 decides not to obey the court’s decision, it will become a prohibited government that day, » Lapid told protesters on Tel Aviv.
« If this happens, the whole country has to close, » he said, emphasizing that « the only system that should not be closed is the security system. »
Some Israelians report what they see as an autocratic change from Netanyahu, who says their cabinet on Sunday to launch arrest procedures against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, another critic of the Prime Minister.
Baharav-Miara, who also acts as a government legal advisor, warned Netanyahu that the Supreme Court’s decision « forbids him » to appoint a new Bet Shin chief.
A protest is also planned against the dismissal of the Attorney General for Sunday outside the Kicesset, the Parliament of Israel and near the Prime Minister’s private residence in Western Jerusalem.
At the Saturday rally, protesters celebrated banners reading, « there is no more blood spill », « the more blood has to spill? » And « Stop war, now! » To ensure the return of 59 captives that are still in the Gaza Strip.
Israel returned to the war on Tuesday in Gaza, destroying a cessation of fire, which saw that the exchange of captives was retained by Hamas by Palestinian prisoners retained in Israeli prisons and led a breath to the abused and besieged enclave.
Since the beginning of the warThere have been periodic protests by families and captive supporters captured by Hamas during the October 7 bombings who have sometimes also criticized the Government.
« We are a year and a half after having very fierce struggles in Gaza, and Hamas is still in power, » said the manifestor Erez Berman, 44, in Reuters. « It still has tens of thousands of fighters, so the Israeli government failed to achieve its own goals outside the war. »
With the resumption of the Israeli war in Gaza, the fate of the captives, up to 24 of which are still believed to be alive, it is still unclear, and protesters said that the return to war could be killed by their captors or the Israeli bombings.
Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s Foreign Policy Advisor, said that military pressure pushed Hamas to accept the first truce in November 2023, which returned to about 80 captives. He argued that this was also the safest way to force the release of the remaining captives.
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