A crowd of some 1,500 people gathered at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square on Saturday night to protest the government, as smaller crowds gathered in Jerusalem, Haifa and other locales across the country.

Among the demonstrators’ demands were the return of the last deceased hostage from Gaza, a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, and that President Isaac Herzog not grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a pardon in his ongoing corruption trial.

“We are guided by the Jewish and Israeli values we were raised on, and we fight today because Ran Gvili is still in Gaza,” said the emcee, Kalanit Sharon, head of the Pink Front performing arts protest group, referring to the last hostage whose body is still held by terror groups in the Gaza Strip.

After the speech, the crowd sang the national anthem and listened to a speech by Ron Scherf of the Brothers in Arms reservist protest group, which clashed this week with Education Minister Yoav Kisch after he declared the group’s activists would be banned from speaking in schools.

“You think they’ll stop us from speaking to students? They’ll shut one door, and we’ll open 50,” he said.

“We’re fighting for the State of Israel’s identity and existence. Will we be a Jewish, democratic, strong and secure state, or a zealous messianist one?”

Carmit Palty Katzir, whose brother Elad was killed in Hamas captivity, said a “moral gulf” separates Netanyahu from his detractors.

“‘They sanctify death, and we sanctify life,’” she........

© The Times of Israel