\nTens of thousands of Israelis protest the government’s judicial reform in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square seen in this drone footage taken January 14, 2023 (credit: Amir Goldstein)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
How did it go?<\/h3>\n The rally opened with a moment of silence for fallen soldiers, followed by a prayer for the safety of the troops and the return of the hostages.<\/p>\n
Speakers included Effie Shoham, whose son Yuval was killed fighting in Gaza and who alluded to the crisis in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese days we face tough choices between choosing life and good, or war, hunger, death, and evil. We must choose life,\u201d an emotional Shoham told the crowd. \u201cI call on the Israeli government, on behalf of the people of Israel gathered here today, to stop the war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noam Tibon, a retired major general who personally rescued family members from Hamas attackers on Oct. 7, 2023, said the war no longer had a \u201cviable security aim.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s become a political war, managed by a failed government that sent our children to die while passing a shameful draft-dodging law,\u201d he said, referring to a proposed bill granting expanded military exemptions to haredi Orthodox yeshiva students.<\/p>\n
The IDF is \u201csinking deeper into the bleeding swamp of Gaza,\u201d Tibon said.<\/p>\n
Viki Cohen, whose son Nimrod is being held hostage in Gaza, said her son chose to serve in a tank unit out of \u201cZionism and love of the land,\u201d but now \u201cthe country he loves so much is not defending him.\u201d<\/p>\n
She accused the government of pushing for partial hostage deals that could leave her son behind.<\/p>\n
Raphi Ben-Shitrit, whose son Elroi was killed on Oct. 7, told the crowd that prolonging the war threatened \u201cthe future of the Zionist enterprise.\u201d Ending the war, he said, was not a sign of weakness but a reflection of \u201cthe sanctity of life, the heroism of the Jewish spirit, and the strength of the Israeli spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n
A group of leftwing protesters held signs accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and calling on soldiers to refuse service. Not far from them, others held banners identifying with \u201cdignified Religious Zionism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a growing sense that every day soldiers are dying for no good apparent reason,\u201d said Yehuda Mirsky, an American-Israeli who had made the trip from Jerusalem, where he is a religious activist and scholar of Jewish thought.<\/p>\n
He added that while early reports of famine in Gaza were once considered \u201cdisputable,\u201d it now seemed clear Israel had taken on roles in Gaza it couldn\u2019t sustain. Like Tibon, Mirsky cited the ultra-Orthodox draft exemptions as proof that Netanyahu was prolonging the war for political gain.<\/p>\n
But as much as Rieck was heartened by the protest\u2019s size, he lamented that the protest fell short of past mass movements. It lacked the sustained momentum of the 2023 judicial overhaul demonstrations, he said, when hundreds of thousands filled the streets week after week, and nor did it approach the scale of the 1980s antiwar rallies, when more than 400,000 Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv after the Sabra and Shatila massacres during the Lebanon War.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not yet seeing a critical mass,\u201d Rieck said. \u201cAnd look around you here in Tel Aviv \u2014 everywhere else, people are carrying on as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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