Anti PM Protester Netanyahu Clashes With Israeli Police

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu/PHOTO via Instagram @b.netanyahu

JAKARTA - Israeli police deployed water cannons and arrested a number of demonstrators protesting the move by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire the intelligence chief.

Thousands of Israelis joined anti-Netanyahu demonstrations with opponents of the move to dismiss Shin Bet Ronen Bar joining angry protesters over the decision to continue fighting in Gaza.

"We are very, very worried that our country will become a dictatorship," said 59-year-old Rinat Hadashi, in Jerusalem.

"They abandoned our hostages, they ignored all important things for this country," he said.

On Thursday, police and demonstrators clashed as hundreds of people marched along the road to the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem. Dozens of protesters tried to break through security barricades.

Demonstrations are planned to be held outside the Kirya military headquarters complex in Tel Aviv.

A day earlier there was a fierce confrontation between protesters and counter demonstrators, highlighting the deepening divide since Netanyahu returned to power as leader of the far-right coalition by the end of 2022.

Even before the war in Gaza, tens of thousands of Israelis joined routine demonstrations to protest the government's efforts to curb judicial rule which critics view as an attack on Israeli democracy.

Since the start of the war, there has also been a routine demonstration by the family and supporters of the hostages who were carried out by Hamas during its attack on Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023.

The Israeli Cabinet is expected to meet on Friday to officially approve the dismissal of Bar, which has clashed with Netanyahu over a corruption investigation into his aides at his office which the prime minister called a politically motivated attack.