Thousands rally against Netanyahu ahead of vote, demand inquiry into October 7 failures

• Survey projects 52 seats for Eisenkot’s bloc and 50 for Netanyahu’s.
• Opposition slams Netanyahu’s alternative digital economy proposal.
• Netanyahu rejects independent probe, floats politically appointed body.

Thousands of people rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, three days before a general election widely viewed as a referendum on his leadership.

The demonstration was organised by the October Council, a group founded by families of people killed or taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The group is demanding accountability for the security failures that allowed the attack to take place.

Israeli media reported that leaders of the four main opposition parties attended the rally, including former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, who is challenging Netanyahu and received a warm welcome from the crowd.

“Three days before the election, we will hold the culminating event marking three years of struggle to uncover the truth, demand accountability, and establish a state commission of inquiry,” the October Council said on X ahead of the demonstration.

The latest opinion polls published before a blackout on political polling took effect late on Friday showed that neither bloc was projected to win a majority in Israel’s 120-seat parliament.

A poll published by public broadcaster KAN projected 52 seats for Eisenkot’s bloc and 50 for Netanyahu’s, with the remaining seats going to parties outside the two blocs, including Arab parties.

An AFP reporter saw thousands of demonstrators marching from Rabin Square towards Hostages Square, a focal point of previous protests demanding the release of people held captive in Gaza.

“Whoever has been leading us for the past four years has done such a terrible job,” Hadas Feuershtein, 68, told AFP shortly before the rally began, referring to Netanyahu’s government, which took office in late 2022.

“Israel has never been in a situation as it is now,” she added.

Ahead of the demonstration, the October Council had alerted law enforcement to possible “provocations” by pro-government agitators.

Israeli police said on Saturday evening that they had arrested a suspect for assaulting the security team of a public figure in Tel Aviv. Israeli media identified the target as former prime minister and opposition leader Naftali Bennett.

The rally followed years of campaigning by Israeli civil society groups and opposition parties for an independent commission of inquiry into the security failures surrounding the October 7 attack.

Netanyahu’s government has refused to establish such a commission, of the kind Israel has commonly set up to investigate major national failures. Instead, it has proposed a political commission whose members would be appointed equally by the governing coalition and opposition lawmakers.

Opposition leaders have said they would boycott a commission appointed by politicians.

As the campaign enters its final days, Eisenkot and Bennett are expected to hold separate meetings with voters in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening.

‘bbCoin’ controversy

Naama Bitterman, an 18-year-old first-time voter attending Saturday’s rally, said she was confident the anti-Netanyahu bloc she supports would win and improve Israel’s international standing.

She said that standing had been damaged by years of war in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, as well as rising violence in the occupied West Bank.

“I think that if we win - and we are going to win - we can change how other people in the entire world see us,” she told AFP.

Britain and several other countries have imposed sanctions targeting goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, amid concerns over settler attacks on Palestinians and settlement construction approved by Netanyahu’s right-wing government.

Netanyahu suggested on Friday that Israel might need to develop an alternative digital economy to counter its growing international isolation.

The prime minister, who has previously called for greater military self-sufficiency, also said multibillion-dollar arms packages from key ally the United States “won’t keep coming”.

Opposition leaders criticised the proposals on Saturday.

Eisenkot sarcastically dubbed the proposed parallel digital currency “bbCoin”, using a common nickname for Netanyahu, Bibi.

“Netanyahu says that if he is elected again, Israel will disconnect from the global economy. No online shopping, no investments in high-tech, no security. We must not let bbCoin destroy Israel,” he wrote on X.

Yair Lapid, a former prime minister and current opposition leader, accused Netanyahu of warning Israelis that they could face severe economic hardship if he won another term.

“If he wins the elections, that’s what will happen: there will be sanctions, there will be no security agreement with the United States ... and there will be no Israeli economy,” Lapid said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12.