{"id":3259,"date":"2026-10-25T00:04:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T19:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3259"},"modified":"2026-10-25T00:04:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T19:04:42","slug":"thousands-rally-in-tel-aviv-against-netanyahu-ahead-of-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3259","title":{"rendered":"Thousands rally in Tel Aviv against Netanyahu ahead of vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday for a large anti-government demonstration, three days ahead of a general election widely viewed as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The protest was organised by the October Council, a group founded by the families of victims and hostages taken by Palestinian fighters on October 7, 2023, to demand accountability for the failure to prevent the Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war.<\/p>\n

The gathering is expected to see the participation of the leaders of the four main opposition parties, including Gadi Eisenkot, who is neck and neck with Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree days before the election, we will hold the culminating event marking three years of struggle to uncover the truth, demand accountability, and establish a state commission of inquiry,\u201d the October Council wrote on X ahead of the rally.<\/p>\n

The latest polls published before a gag period entered into force on Friday night showed that neither bloc would obtain a majority of seats in Israel\u2019s parliament.<\/p>\n

An AFP<\/em> reporter said thousands were marching from the central Rabin Square towards Hostages Square, the location of the rally, a focal point for past anti-government protests to demand the release of those held captive in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever has been leading us for the past four years (since Netanyahu\u2019s government took office in late 2022) has done such a terrible job,\u201d Hadas Feuershtein, 68, told AFP<\/em> shortly before the start of the rally.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael has never been in a situation as it is now,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The October Council alerted law enforcement of possible \u201cprovocations\u201d from pro-government agitators.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have sent an urgent letter to the Police Commissioner following alerts about attempts by entities linked to the coalition to disrupt tonight\u2019s rally,\u201d the October Council wrote on X.<\/p>\n

The rally comes after years of campaigning by Israeli civil society and opposition parties to establish an independent commission of inquiry on the security failures that led to October 7.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s government has refused to establish such an independent body, the likes of which Israel has commonly set up in the past to investigate major state-level failings.<\/p>\n

It has instead offered to create a \u201cpolitical\u201d commission, half of whose members would be appointed by the ruling coalition and half by opposition lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Opposition leaders, however, said they would boycott a commission appointed by politicians.<\/p>\n

<\/a>No \u2018bbCoin\u2019<\/h3>\n

First-time voter Naama Bitterman, 18, said at Saturday\u2019s rally that she was confident the anti-Netanyahu bloc she supports would have the upper hand in the vote and improve Israel\u2019s international standing, tarnished by three years of war in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran and surging violence in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that if we win \u2014 and we are going to win \u2014 we can change how other people in the entire world see us,\u201d she told AFP.<\/em><\/p>\n

Britain and several other countries imposed sanctions targeting goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank in response to a wave of settler attacks on Palestinians and settlement construction approved by Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing government.<\/p>\n

To circumvent Israel\u2019s growing international isolation, Netanyahu suggested Friday that Israel may need to develop an alternative digital economy.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu, who has previously called for Israel to become self-sufficient militarily, also said that multibillion-dollar weapons packages from key ally Washington \u201cwon\u2019t keep coming\u201d.<\/p>\n

Opposition leaders on Saturday lambasted the premier\u2019s suggestion.<\/p>\n

Leading rival Eisenkot sarcastically referred to the proposed parallel digital currency as \u201cbbCoin,\u201d using a common nickname for the premier, Bibi.<\/p>\n

\u201cNetanyahu says that if he is elected again, Israel will disconnect from the global economy. No online shopping, no investments in high-tech, no security. We must not let bbCoin destroy Israel,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Yair Lapid, a former prime minister and current leader of the opposition, accused Netanyahu of \u201cpromising Israeli citizens before the elections that they will stand in line for an hour and a half for bread like in Russia or Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he wins the elections, that\u2019s what will happen: there will be sanctions, there will be no security agreement with the United States\u2026 and there will be no Israeli economy,\u201d he said in an interview with Israel\u2019s Channel 12.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday for a large anti-government demonstration, three days ahead of a general election widely viewed as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The protest was organised by the October Council, a group founded by the families of victims and hostages taken by Palestinian fighters on October 7, 2023, to demand accountability for the failure to prevent the Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war. The gathering is expected to see the participation of the leaders of the four main opposition parties, including Gadi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}