Demonstrators blocked a road in Tel Aviv on Monday, calling for a deal for the release of hostages held in Gaza. Photo / Avishag Shaar-Yashuv, The New York Times
Demonstrators blocked a road in Tel Aviv on Monday, calling for a deal for the release of hostages held in Gaza. Photo / Avishag Shaar-Yashuv, The New York Times
In strikes and protests, many Israelis are pushing their government to prioritise the release of hostages above the immediate defeat of Hamas. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to change course.
When Israel’s largest union began a strike Monday, building on the largest anti-government protests since the start ofthe war in the Gaza Strip, the group hoped to persuade the Government to swiftly agree to a cease-fire.
Within hours, its effort fizzled as the union – which represents 800,000 Israelis – complied with a court order to end the strike. And the day ended with a defiant speech from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he refused to compromise in the negotiations with Hamas and implicitly rebuked the protesters for straining Israel’s social cohesion.
Despite one of the biggest displays of wartime dissent in Israel’s history, an emotionally potent moment failed to evolve into a political turning point.
“Politically, it could have been much worse for Netanyahu,” said Ariel Kahana, a commentator for Israel Hayom, a leading right-wing newspaper. “It looks like the opposition has lost,” Kahana added.
While the strike slowed or suspended services at thousands of schools and several municipalities, transport networks and hospitals, some sectors were only partly affected. Many municipal authorities and institutions declined to take part.
Unlike in March 2023, when a general strike and mass protests prompted Netanyahu to suspend a contentious plan to overhaul the judiciary, this time his right-wing party maintained the public unity it has displayed throughout the war. Only Yoav Gallant, the Defence Minister, voted against a recent Cabinet motion to restrict the circumstances in which Israel could agree to a ceasefire, and few, if any, other senior officials from his party, Likud, have broken ranks in public.
“The first condition for victory in this existential war is internal unity,” Netanyahu said in his speech Monday night, even as more protesters tried to break through police lines near his private residence in Jerusalem. “We need to stand together as one against a cruel enemy that wants to destroy us all, each and every one,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remained defiant in his aim to defeat Hamas. Photo / Getty Images
The defiance from Netanyahu and dissent from his critics reflected the growing schism within Israel about the country’s immediate priorities.
The protesters want the Government to compromise and agree to a cease-fire and hostage release deal even if it allows Hamas to survive the war. On Tuesday more protests erupted in Tel Aviv. The Government and its supporters want to hold out for a deal that will make it easier for the Israeli military to continue fighting Hamas after a short truce – even if playing hardball delays the release of the hostages and allows more to die in captivity.
The protesters were particularly incensed by the announcement Sunday that the Israeli military had discovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages who were previously thought to be alive, and who the military said had recently been killed by Hamas. The Government’s critics said that most if not all of them could have been saved if Netanyahu had agreed to a truce.
Funerals for some of the slain hostages took place Monday afternoon in the presence of vast crowds of mourners.
“I really hope that this is a turning point,” said Gil Dickmann, a cousin of one of the hostages buried Monday, Carmel Gat. Speaking at a news briefing hours before the funeral, Dickmann agreed that it was important for Israel to destroy Hamas, but said that the hostages must be freed first.
“Act now and sign this deal,” Dickmann said. “We must save lives before it’s too late.”
By nightfall, Dickmann’s demand had gone unmet, as the Prime Minister doubled down on his refusal to withdraw from strategic areas of Gaza, a core Hamas demand.
In part, Netanyahu remained unswayed because the protesters were not drawn from his right-wing base, meaning that he faces little political cost for ignoring them, analysts said.
Netanyahu’s right-wing supporters largely accept his argument for driving a hard bargain with Hamas. In fact, the strike and protests are likely to boost Netanyahu in the eyes of right-wing Israelis, because they feel he is being criticised in bad faith, according to Nadav Shtrauchler, a political analyst and former strategist for Netanyahu.
“His supporters see this strike as a prize for terror,” Shtrauchler said. “For many people on the right wing, it’s not reasonable,” Shtrauchler added.
After Netanyahu rejected the protesters’ demands on Monday night, a firebrand Likud lawmaker, Tally Gotliv, exemplified the buoyant mood of his base. “This is how you do it!” Gotliv wrote on social media. “Mr Prime Minister, a demonstration of control and leadership.”
In 2023, it was increasingly vocal unease from a handful of members of Likud’s moderate wing that helped persuade Netanyahu to slow the pace of his judicial overhaul.
Now, there is less internal opposition. Gallant was the sole Cabinet member who voted against a motion last week that prevents Israel from agreeing to withdraw from Gaza as part of a cease-fire deal, a decision that makes a deal less likely. And Gallant was again a lone voice Sunday, as he called on the Cabinet to reverse its decision.
“No one in Likud is saying: We’re going to bring you down,” Shtrauchler said. “The only opposition is from Gallant.”
Some political moderates may have been put off by the accusatory tone of the protests and strikes, Kahana said. Two recent polls suggested that significant numbers of Israelis still feel there are legitimate reasons to be wary of a ceasefire deal that cedes too much ground to Hamas.
“Everyone wants, of course, the hostages back home now. But at the same time we want our security,” said Kahana, who shares Netanyahu’s wariness of a hasty truce. “The disagreement is about how to bring them home.”
Others may have avoided joining the strike because they feel that the social unrest throughout the first nine months of 2023 made Israel more vulnerable to Hamas’ attack last October.
Israelis of all backgrounds agree that the 2023 domestic unrest weakened Israel in the eyes of its enemies. The fear of creating a similar impression likely dented support for the protests among some Israelis, Kahana said.
“One of the main lessons for mainstream Israelis from 2023 was that we must keep our unity,” he said.
