Tens of thousands of demonstrators began marching to Jerusalem on Wednesday ahead of a mass protest planned outside the Knesset. The marchers temporarily blocked the main highway leading to the capital while more arrived in the city filling its main terminal with chants.
"At a time when all fronts are escalating, the government and its leader are trying to fire the head of the Shin Bet," a leading member of the "Brothers in Arms" movement said. "Just a week after issuing 400,000 emergency call-up orders to reservists, who already served for a year and a half across all fronts, the so-called defense minister is dancing at an event for draft dodgers and promising them that they would be exempt from military service."
Former lawmaker Yaya Fink said Netanyahu would not succeed in his plans to fire the head of Shin Bet and the AG. "What we are doing here is civilian reserve duty. The prime minister has launched a 'war for his seat,' while we are fighting for Israeli democracy and for the lives of our brothers and sisters abandoned in Hamas captivity. This is not what our parents built the Jewish state for. This is our generation’s struggle, and we have no choice but to protect the gatekeepers and prevail."
"The only solution is unity—not silent unity, not submissive unity, not fake unity, but the unity of an entire nation coming together to say 'Enough.' We will not break the law, we will continue to serve our country, but we will stand firm against a government that is trying to dismantle it."
The protests also extended to academia. Faculty members from Tel Aviv University and deans from the Hebrew University announced a strike in solidarity. Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem also declared it would participate, with faculty members planning to march to the Knesset.
Meanwhile, retired Brig. Gen. Amir Haskel, a prominent anti-government activist, was arrested in Jerusalem near the prime minister’s residence. According to the protest movement’s legal support team, Haskel was giving a speech via megaphone when police detained him during a live broadcast on Facebook and took him to the city’s Moriah police station.
First published: 11:31, 03.19.25
