Published: 8 March 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
SEVEN ISRAELI EXPATS gathered in Kirribilli underneath the north pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday to demonstrate against the Netanyahu government, the 30th consecutive Sunday they have gathered there in support of the anti-Netanyahu protests in Israel.
Since the middle of last year when demonstrations began on Balfour Street outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem, Israeli expats have held protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu around the world.
The demonstration in Sydney comes ahead of the fourth Israeli election in two years, taking place on March 23.
Ron and Hannah Zweig, in their seventies and based in Chatswood, heard about the Kirribilli protests that started in August through various WhatsApp groups.
“We believe Netanyahu should be in jail rather than in government,” Ron Zweig told The Jewish Independent. “The purpose of this protest is to show that Israelis around the world identify with the protest movement in Israel, which is calling for a change in government. Although we are here, our hearts are with the protestors.”
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“We believe that Netanyahu personally and the government that supports him are corrupting the government institutions in Israel, to protect his own legal interests, his own selfish interests.
“He’s doing serious damage to governance in Israel. Institutions that we have fought for, for generations, are being weakened for the advantage of one man and one political movement.”
Yariv Moriah, 56, from Lane Cove, was involved in organising the weekly demonstrations that began last August. Every Sunday afternoon he shares photos of their demonstration on Twitter, which are seen and retweeted in Israel.
“Last week, Or-li Barlev – she is one of the leaders of the protest [in Israel], responded to my tweet. She said ‘mad’him’ – incredible. We got a lot of likes from people who protest in Balfour weekly. We follow each other.”
As well as concern over Netanyahu’s corruption charges and the state of Israeli politics, the Sydney protesters expressed personal grievances with the country they once called home, including dismay over Israel’s shift to the political right, the occupation of the West Bank, and the lack of contribution to civil society by ultra-Orthodox communities and the subsidisation they receive from the government.
When you are in Israel, you think it’s normal, that’s how life is. But then you see how it’s actually done here in Australia – democracy, economy, and how the citizens are the centre of the Government’s agenda – COVID is a great example'
The expats say one of the goals of their protests is to remind the Jewish diaspora that “Bibi is not the only option”.
The Sunday morning demonstrations at Kirribilli has also grown into a community.
“I live with what is happening in Israel all week,” says Noa Lamm, 42, from North Ryde. “I read Israeli news before I read Australian news. I’m pretty much alone with it all week, because my friends at work don’t really care. So this is the place where I can share a bit of my worries and distress about what is going on in Israel.”
For Yonat Murphy 50, from Hornsby, living outside of Israel brings a different perspective. “You realise how different it can actually be. When you are in it, like all my family, they think it’s normal, that’s how life is.
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“But then you see how it’s actually done here in Australia – democracy, economy, and how the citizens are the centre of the Government’s agenda – COVID is a great example… yes, Israel has its own challenges, but I think a lot of the time the challenges are used just as an excuse.”
The protesters noted the tensions of living outside of Israel while still strongly identifying as Israeli. “Sometimes I get comments, what right do you have to protest if you don’t even live there?” says Lamm.
“But I think Israelis that live here deeply care about Israel and what’s going on, and I know that for me, if things were looking different in Israel, I would love to come back and live there.
Israelis that live here deeply care about what’s going on in Israel...we feel that we have the right to say what we we’re seeing, what we think, and fight for it. We’re worried about Israel. I’m worried
“So I think it’s really part of who we are, and we feel that we have the right to say what we we’re seeing, what we think, and fight for it. We’re worried about Israel. I’m worried.”
David and Miriam Levy, in their seventies and eighties from Maroubra, had lived in Israel for many years, had served in the army and started their family there.
“Everybody here loves Israel,” says David Levy, gesturing to the other demonstrators. “I came from Israel… years and years we worked for the Eretz, we changed the world – we came from all over the world. It was a free country, a beautiful country.
“There is a sign that we have here: ‘My country has changed completely’. What I see now is not Israel. I don’t think we can go back, if this time Bibi will win. He lost three elections, and he’s still in power, how come?”
READ MORE
Amid latest protests, anti-PM groups say violence against them now ‘routine’ (Times of Israel)
Demonstrators gather in dozens of locations around country for Saturday rallies; woman assaulted and lightly hurt in north
Anti-Netanyahu protesters attacked in 37th consecutive week of demos (Haaretz)
Protests were held outside the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem, opposite Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea and at dozens of highway intersections and bridges around the country
Photo: Protesters against the Netanyahu government at Kirribilli on Sydney's lower north shore on Sunday, March 7
All photos by Nell Cohen
