'An endless nightmare named Netanyahu': Israeli public lacks energy to oust him during a war
Family and supporters of the estimated 240 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza complete the final leg of a five-day solidarity rally calling for their return. Picture: AP/Leo Correa
“Maybe instead of talking about the dead, talk about the living. Stop talking about killing Arabs. Talk about saving Jews," shouted Hen Avigdori outside the Israeli parliament, or the Knesset, on Monday.
Avigdori’s wife and daughter were taken by Hamas on October 7. Along with other relatives of hostages, he had taken part in a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to pressure the Israeli government to agree on a deal to release hostages held in Gaza, who have now faced six weeks under heavy bombardment.
At another earlier hostage rally in Tel Aviv, a woman wearing a tee-shirt saying “psychological first aid” was there if demonstrators needed emotional support. She described the anger and betrayal that many Israelis felt after October 7 and that the Israeli government had failed to keep them safe.
“It’s part of the basic contract between the government and Israelis: you keep us safe,” said the first aid responder, who did not want to give her name.
An opinion poll by the newspaper last month found 80% of Israelis believed Netanyahu should publicly accept responsibility for the security failures that led to the bloody October 7 attack which killed 1,200 and triggered a war that has displaced 250,000 in Israel and killed more than 13,000 Palestinians.
Protestors have increasingly targeted the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu specifically. Outside his residence in Jerusalem earlier this month, protestors chanted “Jail Bibi” and held posters with Netanyahu’s face smeared in blood and calling him “the minister for crime”.
One protestor held a board sign saying: “An endless nightmare named Netanyahu. When the f**k will it end?”
According to polling earlier this month by Israeli TV Channel 13, 29% of Israelis believe Netanyahu should resign immediately, while 47% believe he should resign after the war.
“It's hard to overstate just how much anger and resentment and frustration there is, with Netanyahu specifically, and the far right government in general,” said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group.
Zonszein said Israel’s long-serving prime minister was “not able to communicate any kind of empathy with the families of hostages and years and years of corruption and political appointments are exposing how corrupt and dysfunctional Israel's institutions are”.
According to a survey by Bar Ilan University, fewer than 4% of Israelis view Netanyahu as a reliable source of information regarding the war against Hamas.
The military “loathes” the Israeli prime minister, Zonszein said, particularly after he attempted to blame them for October 7 in a now-deleted post on X, formerly Twitter.
Opposition Knesset member Avigdor Lieberman, who was once Netanyahu’s defence minister, said the Israeli premier “is not interested in security, he is not interested in hostages, only politics”.
“Everybody is waiting for him to take some kind of responsibility, and he hasn’t,” said Zonszein.
While many Israelis are angry with the government, they are also still reeling from the October 7 attack and lack the energy to take the streets to protest en-masse.
“If people wanted Netanyahu out of there, there would either have to be mass protests in the street, which is something that's very difficult to do right now,” Zonszein said.
“There’s a lack of understanding of what should be done and a fear of what the next steps will bring — people aren't able to really organise anyway.”
Many left-leaning activists and Arab-Israeli citizens have reported an increasingly repressive climate for free speech since the war began.
Dr Meir Baruchin lost his job teaching American history at a school and had his teaching license revoked by the Ministry of Education after the 62-year-old Israeli activist wrote posts online that were critical of the Israeli military.
He was initially detained by the Israeli police while he was investigated for sedition and intent to commit treason and placed in solitary confinement for four days before being released.
Jude Liemburg, who is involved in Looking the Occupation in the Eye, a collective of Israeli human rights activists focused on the occupied West Bank, said: “You're not allowed to say anything regarding Palestinians or people get crucified on social media, or fired from their work.”
Yahli Agai, 18, said they received death and rape threats when they wrote “relatively mild” posts online calling for civilians in Gaza not to be killed.
“A ceasefire isn't a very popular position among the Israeli public right now,” said the Israeli anti-war protestor.
“A lot of people are scared and traumatised and think only in terms of winning the war.”
Agai said many people in Israeli view a ceasefire as “offensive” and “giving up to the people who murdered children” but Agai believes it is not and that Israelis need to support an end to “the cycle of bloodshed.”
- Hannah McCarthy is a freelance journalist based in the Middle East
