On Saturday evening, demonstrators gathered at Habima Square in Tel Aviv to protest the government’s decision to continue the military assault. Protesters carried banners and placards reading, among other slogans, “Stop the imperialist aggression” and “Justice for Palestine,” calling for resistance to the war and to Israel’s deeper involvement in the regional conflict.
Meanwhile, in the northern city of Haifa, around forty Arab and Jewish citizens took part in a demonstration demanding an end to the war in Iran and Lebanon. Among those present were Member of Knesset Ayman Odeh of the Hadash coalition and Raja Za’atara, a Hadash representative on the Haifa City Council.
The protest was organized with the participation of the “Peace Partnership” coalition, whose representatives called for the immediate cessation of hostilities. “This is a war of choice that endangers all of us,” the coalition said in a statement. “The government is once again choosing a dangerous path of endless war that brings loss of life, destruction, and pain without any political solution.”
Members of the coalition also pointed out that only eight months ago the government had declared that the so-called “Iranian threat” had been eliminated for generations. “They lied to us then, and they are lying to us now,” the statement said, adding that the attack on Iran—along with the ongoing crimes against Palestinians carried out under its cover—will not bring security.
The climate of repression against anti-war activists has also intensified. Last week, occupation refuser Itamar Greenberg was forcibly arrested during a protest vigil against the war held at Habima Square in Tel Aviv. According to Greenberg, he was subjected to an unlawful strip search at a police station. He stated that such searches have become “a common practice by police against opponents of the right-wing government,” intended to humiliate, politically repress, and punish dissent.
