Thousands of Israelis protest Shin Bet chief’s dismissal, for captives

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration fired the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service and resumed fighting in Gaza, are protesting in Tel Aviv with a hund of thousands of Israelis.

Netanyahu announced this week that he intended to fire Ronen Bar as Shin Bet’s leader effective April 10, causing three days of protests. He claimed he had lost faith in Ron Bar.

The Israeli leader stated on Saturday that despite the dismissal of the security chief, the country would continue to be democratic.

Protesters chanted blue and white Israeli flags in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square and demanded a resolution that would allow the Palestinians who are still being held in Gaza to be released.

Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel’s most dangerous enemy, protester Moshe Haaharony, 63, told the Reuters news agency.

Benjamin Netanyahu has been in charge of this for 20 years, but he has no regard for the country or the citizens.

Netanyahu has refuted claims that the decision was motivated by politics, but his critics claim that he sought to remove Bar from the institutions that support Israel’s democracy.

Friday, the dismissal was temporarily halted by the Supreme Court of Israel’s injunction.

In the midst of hostility over a bribery investigation involving the prime minister’s office and accusations that Israel failed to stop the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, the two sides have been at odds with one another for months.

Bar claimed in a letter that his ouster was motivated by a desire to put an end to the “pursuit of truth” about the events that followed October 7.

If Netanyahu refuses to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision to stop Bar from firing, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid demanded a general strike on Saturday.

Lapid warned protesters in Tel Aviv that “if the October 7 government decides not to comply with the court’s decision, it will become an outlaw government that day.”

The security system is the only system that needs to be shut down, he said, adding that “the entire country must shut down” if this occurs.

Some Israelis are protesting what they perceive as Netanyahu’s shift in the country. On Sunday, the cabinet will start hearing allegations against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, another critic of the prime minister.

Netanyahu was cautioned by Baharav-Miara, who also serves as the government’s legal adviser, that the Supreme Court’s decision “prohibits” him from appointing a new Shin Bet chief.

On Sunday, the attorney general’s dismissal will be protested outside Israel’s Knesset, which is located close to the prime minister’s West Jerusalem residence.

No more bloodshed and “How much more blood must be shed” were the slogans displayed at the rally on Saturday. and “Stop the war, now”! 59 of the people still being held in the Gaza Strip will be released.

On Tuesday, Israel resumed its occupation of Gaza, breaking a ceasefire that saw Palestinian prisoners being exchanged for Israeli prisoners in Israeli jails, and offering a welcome to the besieged and battered enclave.

Families and supporters of the captives held by Hamas during the October 7 attacks have regularly protested since the start of the conflict, which have occasionally also criticized the government.

A year and a half after we had very bloody fighting in Gaza, protester Erez Berman, 44, told Reuters: “Hamas is still in power.” The Israeli government actually failed in achieving its own objectives by not achieving the goal of the war because it still has tens of thousands of fighters.

The fate of the captives, some 24 of whom are still thought to be alive, is still unknown, according to protesters, who claimed a second world war could result from Israeli bombardment or Israeli bombing.

Source: Aljazeera