A new campaign video by the Meretz Party depicts a number of violent incidents committed against anti-Netanyahu protesters, and links them to the violence committed in the period leading up to the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995.
The video includes clips of violence inserted every few seconds, in between the words: “this violence did not start now. It has been like this for two years, just like then.” The video then shifts to the 1990s, when Benjamin Netanyahu led a protest march against Rabin that included people in the back out of eyesight of Netanyahu carrying a large coffin with the slogan: “Rabin, the killer of Zionism” written on it.
“Today, too, the dogs bark,” the video says, showing right-wing TV and radio host Yinon Magal saying he would take a submachine gun and shoot all of the journalists attacking Netanyahu. “The bullies attack, and he is silent,” the video continues, again reverting back to 1995, showing Netanyahu famously standing on a balcony overlooking Jerusalem’s Zion Square, at a mass rally that included many signs that said “Death to Rabin” and “Rabin is a traitor.”
The video concludes with a call for people to join demonstrators at bridges across the country on Saturday evening, with the chant “Bibi go home” in the background.
2020 demonstrations
The demonstrations at the bridges began in 2020 when Netanyahu was still prime minister and were held every Saturday night in parallel to a demonstration at Jerusalem’s Paris Square, near the prime minister’s official residence. The protesters on the bridges were assaulted dozens of times by people passing by, including physical attacks, pepper spray, and verbal abuse.
The bridge protests resumed approximately three weeks ago. Four attacks have already been recorded since then, one of which involved two teenage boys who threw rocks that hit one of the protesters in the head, bloodying him.