The way out of Israel’s political crisis should be the resignation of current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That’s what the participants in the thousands of rallies in Tel Aviv said.
Despite the quarantine in Israel, the time of mass protests has begun, caused by the inability of politicians to agree and form a stable government.
The largest mass rally since the quarantine was held on Sunday in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. According to its organizer, the recently emerged movement “Black Flags”, about 5 thousand people took part in it. The police are calling the smaller figure, 2,000.
Given the quarantine conditions, the mass action turned out impressive. The protesters, who called the event an action to save democracy, demanded the cessation of negotiations on the establishment of the ruling coalition between the Likud party and the second main political force in the country – the center-left Cahol Lavan block. They are afraid that the price of the agreement will be to keep Prime Minister Netanyahu in power. He is the leader of Likud, as well as a figurehead in several corruption cases, which will resume trial in late May. If negotiations to form the ruling coalition are completed by then, Netanyahu will be immune from prosecution.
In order not to be accused of spreading the pandemic, the Black Flags rallied unusually, keeping a one-and-a-half-meter distance between the participants.
What the Israeli protests have in common, in addition to being held against the ban on mass protests, is that the participants are dissatisfied with Netanyahu’s government. The politician whose party won the parliamentary elections in March this year is now losing popularity. He is accused of disrupting the establishment of the government, unwilling to stand trial. That has made the authorities’ response to the pandemic increasingly chaotic, creating new problems for the people rather than solving the old ones.
Aware of the gravity of the situation, Netanyahu is ready to make concessions. Since Monday, the quarantine has been partially eased by the Government’s decision. It is permitted to open shops that are not inside shopping malls and to conduct individual sports activities in the street. The lifting of the ban on street mass prayers should be recognized as a step towards the religious part of the population. However, the complete lifting of restrictions and compensation for business is out of the question. Nor is it clear what political concessions Netanyahu is willing to make.
There is little time left for politicians to find any compromise. The question of creating a government has been passed on to the Knesset, which has less than a month to do so. If no agreement can be reached in that time, new extraordinary parliamentary elections will be announced in May. Cahol Lavan has already stated that this option, which promises continued uncertainty in power, does not scare them. Unfortunately, representatives of Israeli society who are protesting these days cannot say the same.