Protestors took to the streets in Tel Aviv on Saturday to voice their concerns about the country’s new coalition being formed by Benjamin Netanyahu that they say will crush individual liberties like gay rights and create new animosity with Palestinians. 

The Trends Journal has reported on Netanyahu’s effort to form his coalition. (See “NETANYAHU’S COALITION MAKES DEAL WITH CONVICTED RACIST TO STAMP DOWN PALESTINIANS.”) These protesters expressed concerns that the country’s democracy could be jeopardized. 

Eliad Shraga, the head of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, who organized the protest, said he thinks the new government will attempt “conversion therapy” on the current political system, The Times of Israel reported. The report said these protesters were also concerned about gay rights in the country.

“We will never give up our liberties, rights, and freedoms,” he said. “And we will never, but never, surrender to either corruption or corrupt criminals.”

The Jerusalem Post noted that the protest was attended by prominent politicians, including former IDF chief of staff and politician Moshe (“Boogie”) Ya’alon and former IDF general and outgoing MK Yair Golan.

Netanyahu’s government has also received criticism in the U.S. The New York Times ran an editorial titled, “The Ideal of Democracy in a Jewish State is in Jeopardy,” and argued that his coalition creates a threat.

The paper noted that its editorial board has been a “strong supporter of Israel and a two-state solution” but the new government is a “significant threat to the future of Israel—its direction, its security and even the idea of a Jewish homeland.”

The editorial said the coalition could make a serious effort to make concessions to “ultra-religious and ultranationalist parties.” 

The article took issue with the effort to make MK Itamar Ben Gvir the national security minister. He was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism and belonging to a terrorist organization.

Benny Gantz, the outgoing defense minister, told reporters that Netanyahu’s decision to tap Ben-Gvir for the security role means the leader of the Jewish Power party is the country’s de facto prime minister. 

“Netanyahu’s conduct is an admission that the real prime minister is going to be Ben-Gvir,” he said.

The Times’s editorial board wrote that Netanyahu’s new cabinet “includes radical far-right parties that have called for, among other things, expanding and legalizing settlements in a way that would effectively render a Palestinian state in the West Bank impossible; changing the status quo on the Temple Mount, an action that risks provoking a new round of Arab-Israeli violence; and undermining the authority of the Israeli Supreme Court, thus freeing the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, to do whatever it wants, with little judicial restraint.”

TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal has reported extensively on how the relationship between Palestinians and Israelis is worsening due to Israel’s crackdown in these areas. (See “UN COMMITTEE TO ISRAEL: STOP STEALING PALESTINIAN LAND,” “BLINKEN IS SHINING EXAMPLE OF HYPOCRISY, PALESTINIAN LIVES AND LAND DON’T MATTER,” “ISRAEL KILLS 4 PALESTINIAN TEENS” and “UNPROVOKED, ISRAEL BOMBS GAZA, KILLING 43, WOUNDING HUNDREDS.”)