Thousands of Israelis protest Shin Bet chief’s dismissal, for captives

Thousands of people in Israel have gathered in Tel Aviv to protest against the decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service and resume fighting in Gaza.

Netanyahu said this week that he had lost confidence in Ronen Bar, who has led Shin Bet since 2021, and intended to fire him effective April 10, prompting three days of protests.

On Saturday, the Israeli leader said the country will remain democratic despite the security chief’s dismissal.

In Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, protesters waved blue and white Israeli flags and called for a deal that would see the release of the remaining Israeli captives being held in Gaza.

“The most dangerous enemy of Israel is Benjamin Netanyahu,” protester Moshe Haaharony, 63, told the Reuters news agency.

“Benjamin Netanyahu for 20 years doesn’t care about the country, doesn’t care about the citizens.”

Netanyahu has dismissed accusations the decision was politically motivated, but his critics have accused him of undermining the institutions underpinning Israel’s democracy by seeking Bar’s removal.

Israel’s Supreme Court issued an injunction on Friday, temporarily freezing the dismissal.

Netanyahu and Bar have been at loggerheads for months amid tensions over a bribery investigation focused on the prime minister’s office and recriminations over the failure to prevent the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.

Bar said in a letter that his ouster was motivated by a desire to halt the “pursuit of truth” about the events leading up to October 7.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called for a general strike on Saturday if Netanyahu refuses to heed the Supreme Court’s ruling freezing Bar’s firing.

“If the October 7 government decides not to obey the court’s decision, it will become an outlaw government that day,” Lapid told protesters in Tel Aviv.

“If this happens, the entire country must shut down,” he said, stressing that “the only system that must not shut down is the security system.”

Some Israelis are denouncing what they see as an autocratic shift by Netanyahu, who is convening his cabinet on Sunday to launch impeachment proceedings against Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, another critic of the prime minister.

Baharav-Miara, who also serves as the government’s legal adviser, warned  Netanyahu that the Supreme Court’s decision temporarily “prohibits” him from appointing a new Shin Bet chief.

A protest against the attorney general’s dismissal is also planned for Sunday outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and near the prime minister’s private residence in West Jerusalem.

Protesters in Tel Aviv call for action to secure the release of Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip since the October 7, 2023, attacks [Jack Guez/AFP]

At Saturday’s rally, protesters held up placards reading, “No more bloodshed,” “How much more blood must be shed?” and “Stop the war, now!” to ensure the return of 59 captives still being held in the Gaza Strip.

Israel returned to war in Gaza on Tuesday, shattering a ceasefire that saw the exchange of captives being held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and brought a respite to the battered and besieged enclave.

Since the start of the war, there have been regular protests by families and supporters of captives seized by Hamas during the October 7 attacks that have sometimes also criticised the government.

“We are a year and a half later after we had very fierce fighting in Gaza, and Hamas is still in power,” protester Erez Berman, 44, told Reuters. “It still has tens of thousands of fighters, so the Israeli government actually failed in getting its own goals out of the war.”

With the resumption of Israel’s war in Gaza, the fate of the captives, as many as 24 of whom are still believed to be alive, remains unclear, and protesters said a return to war could see them either killed by their captors or by Israeli bombardments.

Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser, said military pressure pushed Hamas to accept the first truce in November 2023, in which about 80 captives were returned. He argued this was also the surest way to force the release of the remaining captives.