Police fire water cannon, make arrests after scuffles

21/3/2025 6:13

Thousands of Israelis

joined protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as

demonstrations against his move to oust the head of the domestic

intelligence service flared for a third consecutive day.



Police fired water cannon and made numerous arrests as

scuffles broke out during the protests in Tel Aviv and close to

the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem, where police said

dozens of protesters tried to break through security cordons.



Over the past three days, demonstrators protesting against

the move to sack Shin Bet head Ronen Bar have joined forces with

protesters angry at the decision to resume fighting in Gaza,

breaking a two-month-old ceasefire, while 59 Israeli hostages

remain in the Palestinian enclave.



"We're very, very worried that our country is becoming a

dictatorship," Rinat Hadashi, 59, said in Jerusalem. "They're

abandoning our hostages, they're neglecting all the important

things for this country."



Netanyahu said this week he had lost confidence in Bar, who

has led Shin Bet since 2021, and intended to dismiss him.



The decision followed months of tension between the two

over a corruption investigation into allegations that a number

of aides in Netanyahu's office were offered bribes by figures

connected with Qatar.



Netanyahu has dismissed the accusation as a politically

motivated attempt to unseat him but his critics have accused him

of undermining the institutions underpinning Israel's democracy

by seeking Bar's removal.



In a letter to the government that was distributed by

Shin Bet as ministers met to formally approve his dismissal, Bar

said the decision was founded on "baseless claims that are

nothing more than a disguise for completely different,

extraneous and fundamentally unacceptable motives."



He has already announced that he intended to step down

early to take responsibility for the intelligence failures that

allowed the attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, to take place.







DEEP DIVISIONS



The angry scenes on Thursday highlighted divisions that

have deepened since Netanyahu returned to power as head of a

right-wing coalition at the end of 2022.



Even before the war in Gaza, tens of thousands of Israelis

were joining regular demonstrations protesting at a government

drive to curb the power of the judiciary that critics saw as an

assault on Israeli democracy but which the government said was

needed to limit judicial overreach.



On Thursday Yair Golan, a former deputy Chief of Staff in

the military who now leads the opposition Democrats party, was

pushed to the ground during a scuffle, drawing condemnation and

calls for an investigation by other opposition politicians.



Former Defence Minister Benny Gantz said the clashes were a

direct result of divisions caused by "an extremist government

that has lost its grip".



In Tel Aviv, demonstrators rallied outside the Kirya

military headquarters complex as ministers met to formally

approve the dismissal of Bar.



Since the start of the war, there have also been regular

protests by families and supporters of hostages seized by Hamas

during its assault on Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 that have

sometimes echoed the criticisms of the government.



With the resumption of Israel's campaign in Gaza, the fate

of 59 hostages, 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 accidentally by

Israeli bombardments.



"This is not an outcome the Israeli people can accept,"

The Hostages amd Missing Families Forum, a group representing

hostage families, said in a statement.