March 23, 2025 (EIRNS)—Israel is boiling over. More than 100,000 people reportedly attended protests in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and dozens of other cities across Israel on Saturday night, March 22—far more than at recent rallies—as anger over the government’s resumption of fighting in Gaza and the planned removal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and assert greater control over the levers of power escalated. “The return to fighting could kill the living hostages and cause the fallen to disappear,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum warned in its rallying cry to the public. “The only fight should take place in the negotiating room, for the immediate return of all the hostages.”
Netanyahu’s government is “doing everything to start a civil war here, Netanyahu is openly pushing for it,” opposition leader (Yesh Atid party) Yair Lapid declared in a speech to the protesters in Hostages Square. “We will not let it happen. We will fight for the country, but we will not let them destroy the country. They use the word ‘unity’ to silence us. It will not work for them. Silence in the face of a destructive government is not unity,” Lapid stated—promising to oppose the government every time it crosses “red lines.”
“If the October 7 government decides not to obey the court’s ruling, it will turn itself that day, that moment, into a criminal government,” he added, referring to statements by senior ministers promising to defy the High Court of Justice if it blocks the cabinet’s unanimous decision on Thursday night, March 20, to fire Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar. “If that happens, the entire country must stop. The only system that is not allowed to stop is the security system. We will oppose any kind of refusal, but apart from that—everything,” Lapid insisted. “The economy needs to strike, the Knesset needs to strike, the courts need to strike, the local authorities need to strike, not only the universities need to strike, but also the schools. If we can organize a tax revolt, we will organize a tax revolt. We will not be accomplices in the destruction of democracy.”
