Thousands of Israelis are expected to take to the streets across the country Saturday night for weekly protests demanding a Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal and new elections.
Another demonstration in Haifa will protest plans by lawmakers, including from the opposition, to kick Arab MK Ayman Odeh out of the Knesset for saying “Gaza will win” and comparing the hostages held in Gaza to Palestinians in Israeli jails.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum’s central rally, at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, is set to open with an English-language statement by Eli Sharabi, who was released from Hamas captivity in February as part of the last hostage deal. Sharabi’s wife Lianne and two teenage daughters, Noiya and Yahel, were murdered by terrorists on October 7.
In a statement, the Forum noted that Monday will mark 4,000 days since Lt. Hadar Goldin’s body was abducted by Hamas after he was killed fighting in Gaza on August 1, 2014.
Of the remaining 50 hostages, Goldin is the only one abducted before the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023. The Forum, which mainly comprises families whose loved ones were abducted in that onslaught, said “the 4000th day is not just Hadar’s — it’s the 4000th day for all of us.”
“The captivity of Lt. Hadar Goldin is a stain on the Israeli story,” said the Forum. “There is no, and will be no, Israeli victory… without bringing home all 50 hostages.”
Goldin’s father, Simha, will speak at the Hostages Square rally, as will the mothers of three captive soldiers held in Gaza: Anat Angrest, mother of Matan Angrest; Herut Nimrodi, mother of Tamir Nimrodi; and Viki Cohen, mother of Nimrod Cohen.
Dvora Idan, the remains of whose son Tsahi Idan were returned to Israel in February as part of the hostage deal, will also speak, as will Adam Hajaj, cousin of hostage Rom Braslavski.
Smaller Families Forum rallies will take place in Jerusalem, Kiryat Gat and the southern Shaar HaNegev Junction.
The protests come as hostage-ceasefire deal talks in Doha have apparently hit an impasse, after cautious optimism earlier in the week.
In tandem, anti-government hostage families and activists in Tel Aviv will protest outside the Begin Road entrance to the IDF headquarters, a block away from Hostages Square.
The Begin Road demonstration will be bolstered by protesters marching from an earlier anti-government demonstration calling for elections at Habima Square.
That demonstration is set to feature speeches by former Yesh Atid MK Ofer Shelah and by Eran Littman, whose daughter Oriya was murdered in the Reim-area Nova music festival during the October 7 onslaught.
Protesters on Habima and Begin typically accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of extending the war in Gaza to appease his far-right coalition partners, facilitating Haredi draft evasion to appease his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, and seeking to avoid accountability for his alleged failures around the Hamas onslaught.
Meanwhile, in Haifa, supporters of Hadash-Ta’al MK Odeh are set to march from the municipal auditorium to the city’s Horev area.
Odeh wrote on X: “I’ll speak at the protest in Haifa tonight, and we’ll stand together, strong, Jews and Arabs for democracy.”
The Knesset is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to eject Odeh. The vote, which requires a supermajority of 90 out of 120 to pass, takes place after the Knesset House Committee last month approved lawmakers’ statutory 70-signature petition, which included at least ten signatures from the opposition.
The petition was originally put forth in January, when Odeh said he was “happy for the release of hostages and prisoners” as part of the Gaza truce that was signed that month. The petition clinched the required number of signatures after Odeh said at an anti-war protest in Haifa in May that “Gaza has won and Gaza will win.”
Several opposition figures, including Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, have expressed support for Odeh’s ouster. However, some anti-government protest groups have threatened to no longer give a platform to any opposition lawmaker who supports Odeh’s ouster.
Odeh’s fellow party member, Ofer Cassif, was suspended from parliamentary activity for two months this past week for accusing IDF soldiers of serious war crimes in Gaza.
The Knesset had in February voted on the ouster of Cassif for supporting South Africa’s International Court of Justice Case accusing Israel of genocide, which Israel has angrily rejected. That motion gained 85 votes, falling five short.
The October 7, 2023, onslaught saw thousands of Hamas-led terrorists storm southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages. Terror groups in Gaza still hold 50 hostages, including Goldin.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 57,000 people have been killed in the Strip since the war there began on October 7, 2023. The toll cannot be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.