A Saturday Night in Jerusalem: Occupying Balfour Street
Photo: Protesters hold signs reading "go to jail" outside the Prime Minister's official residence in Balfour Street, Jerusalem. - Nir Hirshman
Lining Jerusalem’s Balfour Street every Saturday night are furious Israelis who chant slogans against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The protests, which began in July 2020, have continued throughout the summer are a culmination of a political crossroads caused by Netanyahu’s three criminal cases and the mismanagement of the Coronavirus crisis. A subsequent attempt to circumvent the rule of law in order to avoid trial has earned Netanyahu the title of “Crime Minister”, which is painted on signs held up and down the streets. The demonstrations have brought tens of thousands of Israelis to surround the Prime Minister’s official residence as well as his private home in Caesarea.
Historically, Israel has always been a multi-party consensus democracy, which has known few but poignant large-scale protests demanding social and political change. Israel is a very fragmented society, with many divisions along religious, cultural, and ethnic lines. In 2011, Israelis demonstrated against high costs of living and social inequality, which the government managed to suppress democratically by making false promises for a brighter and more sustainable future.
A long process of interwoven social and political movements has established this current wave of demonstrations, which reacts, in part, to the severe economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s ineffective containment measures, that have left about a fifth of the population unemployed. Despite this commonality, the protestors do not fit neatly into one category.
Let’s begin with Mushchatim Nimastem (Corrupted Officials, We’re Tired of You). This movement is affiliated to the Israeli Labour party and other opposition parties. Many of these organizations have previously put pressure on the Israeli General Attorney to be impartial in Netanyahu’s cases; resulting in his decision to bring charges against the Prime Minister in several of the ongoing criminal investigations. These lobbying efforts have led to the three different criminal charges that Netanyahu is facing, with his trial being scheduled for January 2021. This group is primarily supported by the left-wing elite comprised of educated, mostly Ashkenazi Israelis who hold liberal democratic values. In their view, a Prime Minister who is facing three sets of criminal charges cannot behave appropriately in the position, due to a severe conflict of interests.
On the other side of the political map, yet still somewhat present in the protests, are traditional Likud voters, who believe that Netanyahu’s situation as a defendant results in him taking calculated decisions to protect his political future, rather than the national interest.
Between the two aforementioned groups are the self-employed, artists, and people who work in the events industry and who were left with practically no compensation for their damages by the government. This group, which is mainly motivated by the economy, stretches across the political spectrum to denounce the economic policies that have left them without a substantial form of financial relief. This group has received small financial grants for the loss of their livelihood in the past six months but these do not come close to making up their losses. Many well known Israeli actors and musicians have openly acknowledged their financial hardship as a result of the National State of Emergency declared in March.
Another subgroup, albeit smaller and less significant, is made up of Ultra-orthodox Jews who believe that the government is neglecting their interests and treating them as spreaders of the disease. Due to different factors such as wealth, over-crowdedness, and lack of access to modern media, this segment of the population in Israel has extremely high rates of infection and exhibits a high rate of civil disobedience towards the government-imposed Covid-19 restrictions.
When speaking about demonstrations in Jerusalem and throughout Israel, we must remember that the demonstrators come from very distinct groups and often represent contradictory interests. This alliance is a compound rather than a single united group. Different factions of Israeli society come to Jerusalem or stand on bridges across the country to demonstrate their discontent with different economic, political, and societal problems, while others protest against their discrimination. In the past year and a half, Israel has held three contiguous elections due to the political instability caused by Netanyahu’s attempt to build a coalition that would grant him a better outcome for his trial.
In Israel, a government is formed by a vote of confidence in parliament. In the past three elections, Netanyahu has not managed to obtain the required parliamentary majority in order to achieve his goals. Concretely, since his indictment, Netanyahu has attempted to target different judicial officers with a series of complaints. Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and State Attorney Shai Nitzan are amongst the chief recipients of his accusations, which are calculated to create a public perception that all those who prosecute Netanyahu are somehow corrupt. The paradox is that many of those targeted were appointed by Netanyahu himself.
Therefore, in the past year and a half, he has done everything in his power to form a government that could help him with his criminal problems. At the beginning of this political impasse, Netanyahu formed a coalition of right-wing parties, known as among left-wing activists as the “corruption block”, as its main purpose was the parties’ promise to Netanyahu that no matter what happens, they will remain united in their unwavering recommendation of Netanyahu as Prime Minister, despite his indictment. However, in the past three elections, this block did not receive the required seats in parliament to secure a majority for a Netanyahu-led government.
In the most recent round of elections, the parliament was left heavily divided between Netanyahu’s block, which gained 58 seats out of a possible 120, and those opposing him, which had 62. Netanyahu realized during the coalition-building process that he needed to compromise and form a “unity” government (a government based on his block and parties willing to concede). This would ultimately break Likud’s strongest opposition, Blue and White, an alliance of three centrist parties: Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid (There is a Future), Benny Gantz’ Hosen L’Israel (Israel Resilience Party), and Moshe Yaalon’s Telem (National State Movement).
With Likud’s main opposition force out of the picture, Netanyahu agreed to a two-year rotation premiership. Under this agreement, current Foreign Minister Benny Gantz is due to take the position of Prime Minister in October 2021. Public opinion largely does not believe that such a transition of power will take place.