Published: 28 November 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Following his indictment for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three corruption cases, Benjamin Netanyahu has escalated his long-running battle into an all-out attack on the Israeli justice system, which, he claims, is attempting a coup against him.
Under the slogan, “Safeguarding the country; putting a stop to the coup,” Netanyahu’s offices invested tremendous efforts over several days to create a show of political and public support for him.
The strategy is intended to generate strong public sentiment against the Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, who handed down the indictments; the State Attorney, Shai Nitzan, and Chief Prosecutor Liat Ben-Ari. It also looks intended to ensure that hesitant MKs will vote for immunity for Netanyahu when the Knesset reconvenes.
Only two cabinet ministers and a few second-rung Likud members of Knesset attended the rally. Although they refused to speak publicly, the media reported that many felt that Netanyahu was “going too far” in his efforts to save himself from trial and possible conviction.
And the numbers of demonstrators who showed up at the open square in front on the Tel Aviv Museum (widely regarded as one of the smaller venues in Tel Aviv for demonstrations) remained a matter of extensive debate, with organisers saying that “at least” 10,000 people attended and press reports ranging from several thousand to 15,000.
Yet if demonstrations are to be evaluated not by the size of the crowd but rather by the demonstrators’ intense conviction in the justice of their cause; their determination to save their leader from prosecution and what they believe is persecution by the leftist elites who control the press and the justice system; and by the decibel-level of their slogans – then Netanyahu can certainly consider this demonstration to have been a success.
That success, however, could have the potential to spin out of control.
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Whatever the actual numbers, the square was crowded. Large screens showed slow-motioned video montages of the Mandelblit, Nitzan and Ben-Ari, accompanied by menacing music and alternating with live footage of the demonstrators as they cheered themselves on.
Hundreds of large Israeli and Likud party flags waved in the unseasonably warm Tel Aviv evening. The music system was strong, playing popular rhythmic songs ranging from religious-themed to folksongs, to football anthems as the crowd stomped their feet and sang along.
The organisers had prepared official signs, including banners supporting Netanyahu, denouncing his persecution, and many that called for Nitzan and Mandelblit to be criminally investigated. But many had brought their own signs, including several, large hand-printed signs that read that the “legal junta is protected by the press and is stealing the country from the people.”
The speakers, including Culture Minister Miri Regev and Likud faction chairman MK Miki Zohar, gave emotional speeches. “This is an evening to be remembered,” Zohar declared as the crowd cheered. “We want to strengthen the system of the rule of the law. How will it be strong...if we don’t blame the system for its mistakes. Should we simply be silent?”
“No!” the crowd screamed, then began to chant, “We won’t let them” and to sing an adaptation of a popular song with the words, “Bibi [Netanyahu’s nickname] is king of Israel.”
“Safeguard the country, stop the coup,” MC Galit Distal Atbarian, writer and publicist, declared. Sarcastically, she read from the indictment as the crowd jeered enthusiastically, “The State of Israel against Benjamin Netanyahu. Never has there been a more abominable, more filthy, more chilling sentence. How ungrateful!”
Paula Aviv, 78, a retired French teacher and Natali Siksak, 52, a homemaker, both from Ashdod, a city on Israel’s southern coast, waved a large Israeli flag and a sign reading, “the Likud is Bibi.”
Said Aviv, “We have to see the difference between Bibi the individual and Bibi, the best prime minister Israel has ever had. If as an individual he committed some crimes – and I don’t believe he did – then we can find that out afterwards, after he is our prime minister for many, many years.”
Added Siksak, “Thanks to Bibi, Israel is the strongest country in the world. But we still face threats, and only Bibi can guide the country through them.”
"We want to strengthen the system of the rule of the law. If we don’t blame the system for its mistakes. Should we simply be silent?”
Netanyahu has also pushed the idea of popular democracy and that the justice system is attempting to overthrow the will of the majority - although, in fact, Netanyahu and his party did not receive the largest number of votes in the September elections and he is actually an interim prime minister until another government is formed.
Waving a large Israeli flag, Michael Ben Israel, 66, a quality control engineer, said, “The right is the majority, but the left can’t accept that. They [the left] can’t win in the polls, so they are trying to win by taking over the courts. But we won’t let them do that to us.”
As the many signs about “saving democracy” attest, showed, Netanyahu’s declarations about a sort of deep state cabal of legal officials and a leftist press, permeated the crowd.
Said a middle-aged woman, who spoke softly but refused adamantly to identify herself other than as Miriam, “Of course I’m afraid to tell you my name or where I come. There are people sitting in jail because they oppose the left’s control over our country. They will do anything they can to stay in power, and many people have paid for opposing them.”
The demonstration also gave voice to resentment felt by some Mizrahi’im who, despite socio-economic achievements, continue to face discrimination by what they perceive as an arrogant Ashkenazi left. Moshe Ajami, a 17-year-old 11th grader from Tel Aviv, was wearing a T-shirt on which he had hand-drawn, “Davka Bibi” (loosely translated as “Bibi in your face.”)
Why “dafka”? “Because we will keep Bibi in power in the face of all the lefties who want to take him down,” he answered. “We are the majority. We elected him. We have the power.”
Noting that the army had called him in to try out for the prestigious 8200 intelligence unit for his compulsory military service after high school, he added, “Lefties think that we, the Mizrahi’im, can’t serve in intelligence units. They think that we aren’t smart enough. We’ll show them.”
“The right is the majority, but the left can’t accept that. The [left] can’t win in the polls, so they are trying to win by taking over the courts. But we won’t let them do that to us.”
As he set up his mobile broadcasting unit, Yoav Krakovsky, Israel public radio’s political commentator, was physically accosted by several demonstrators. Krakovsky later told Israel radio that he texted some of the speakers, calling on them to denounce the violence, but none did. Plus61JMedia requested a response to the incident from the Prime Minister’s office but did not receive one by the time that this report was filed.
Regarding the threat of violence, Attorney Simcha Rothman, leader of the non-profit Movement for Governance and Democracy, one of the groups sponsoring the event, responded, “I want the public to wake up and realise that our lives are being taken over by the left and the legal system, which is actually running the country. And if the public becomes very angry after realizing this, and that anger is certainly justified, then that would be a wonderful result.”
Over the past few days, Netanyahu has faced a few first signs of resistance within his own party. The low turn-out by politicians at the demonstration is widely regarded as an indication that most of the party officials believe that Netanyahu has gone too far in his attempts to mobilize public support by undermining the legal system and the media.
Knesset chairman Yuli Edelstein, a member of the Likud, met with Netanyahu the day before the demonstration. And while no statement was officially released, it was widely reported that Edelstein is trying to convince Netanyahu to either step down or declare himself “temporarily incapacitated,” (a legal provision) so that the Likud could form a unity government with the Blue and White Party, which refuses to join a cabinet with Netanyahu since he has been indicted.
Several mayors belonging to the Likud party have issued similar statements. But only Likud MK Gideon Sa’ar has openly challenged Netanyahu’s leadership as party head and called for primaries within the party. For that, he has been loudly denounced by many Likud leaders and was labelled a traitor on many of the signs held up at the demonstration.
Furthermore, a Channel 12 survey found little change in the parliamentary math that has prevented the formation of a government after two consecutive elections in April and September as long as Netanyahu remains head of the Likud.
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According to the survey, given a choice of Netanyahu or Gantz, for Prime Minister, 40% said they would prefer Netanyahu and 39 percent prefer Gantz. However, when asked the same question with regard to Sa’ar and Gantz, support for the Likud leader dropped to 23% and for Gantz rose to 40%.
Knowing that this would mean fewer seats in the Knesset, it seems unlikely that many of the current Mk’s will therefore support Sa’ar’s bid to replace Netanyahu.
Yet despite his attempts to delegitimize Mandelblit personally and the justice system in general, it is obviously also unlikely that the indictments will somehow be retracted. And while the legal maneuvers and the election campaign can last for months, at some point, it seems likely, Netanyahu will be brought to trial.
Mandelblit, Nitzan, Ben-Ari, and others have been provided with security details, and the attack on Krakovsky was not the only attack on a journalist by self-identified Likud supporters in the past few weeks.
What then happens to the emotions so strongly expressed at the demonstration? Will the state institutions be able to contain the frustration and anger before they spill onto the streets?
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