Violence was recorded at protests in Jerusalem on Wednesday afternoon and evening, including a car ramming and police using force to disperse protesters.
Thousands marched to Jerusalem, while others demonstrated at various points throughout the country, to protest the government’s firing of Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar and the renewed strikes on Hamas, which are complicating the hostage negotiations. The terrorist group is holding 59 hostages in the Gaza Strip.
A 27-year-old man was lightly injured after being run over while attending a protest in Jerusalem. Democrats Party head Yair Golan said this was not a “traffic incident, but a terrorist attack.”
זה לא "אירוע" דריסה, זה פיגוע.האלימות נגד מפגינים פטריוטים היא תוצאה ישירה של השנאה, השקרים וההסתה היוצאים ישירות מממשלת ישראל.כשהשרים והעומד בראשם מתנהגים כאחרוני הבריונים, הם משחררים את הרסן לפגיעה באזרחים.אני דורש מהמשטרה והפרקליטות למצות את הדין עם המפגע במלוא החומרה.…
— Yair Golan - יאיר גולן (@YairGolan1) March 19, 2025
“The violence against patriotic protesters is a direct result of the hatred, lies, and incitement emanating directly from the Israeli government,” he said on X/Twitter. “When the ministers and their leader behave like the last of the thugs, they unleash their rage to harm civilians.”
Masses descended on the capital throughout the day, with thousands gathering at the Knesset and outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Aza Street home, filling the roads around the residence.
A bonfire was lit on Aza Street near the Prime Minister’s Residence, and video footage viewed by The Jerusalem Post showed police utilizing water cannons to disperse protesters there.
Why were so many people protesting?
Masses of protesters descended on Jerusalem throughout Wednesday, with thousands gathering at the Knesset and outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Aza Street home, filling the roads around the residence.
Another group of protesters from the Shift 101 protest group blocked the road by Jerusalem’s Paris Square.
At least four were arrested, according to Maarach Otef Atzurim, a civil organization that provides legal aid to protesters.
Protests were originally planned after Netanyahu announced his intention to advance the firing of Bar, a move seen by many as a direct threat to democracy, in part because the Shin Bet is leading the “Qatargate” investigation of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Calls for protest only intensified as Israel returned to attacking in Gaza early Tuesday, with protesters calling to prioritize bringing the hostages home and charging the government with returning to war as part of political calculations to maintain its power rather than for the good of the country.
Protesters marched into Jerusalem from Motza before gathering outside the Knesset and hearing from speakers, including heads of regional councils, who called to bring the hostages home.
The protest included groups and individuals focused on the hostages, stopping the perceived re-ignition of the judicial reform, and ending the war.
An alumnus of the Eshkol Regional Council high school, located in the council where many of the communities that Hamas brutally attacked are located, came to the protest to call on leaders to bring the hostages back.
Tomer said 102 people from the community of alumni from the school were taken hostage on October 7, and he had come to Jerusalem to call on the leadership to do something he said was basic – bring the hostages home.
A resident of Kibbutz Be’eri, who is also active in the Changing Direction protest organization and who lost family members on October 7, spoke at the protest, describing his experience on that day.
“In the safe room, with a kitchen knife and baby bed against the door, I did my best, but I was helpless. I could not protect my family,” he said, adding that today, a year and a half later, the country is still nowhere to be found.
He addressed the other protesters, saying, “Today, thanks to you, I am not helpless; today I have power – we have power.”
He also described having to remind his two-year-old son about the “game” of getting up and running to the shelter after the Houthis fired a missile at Israel on Tuesday.
“This is why today I am here to fight – not personally for Ronen Bar or [Attorney-General] Gali Baharav-Miara, but for the future of my kids,” he said, explaining that “an autocracy is not able to defend its citizens.”
Max, a reservist who is part of the Soldiers for the Hostages movement, came to the protest to hand out flyers and call on other reservists to draw a line regarding their service. The group consists of soldiers who served during the war and have now been pushed to their limit, Max explained.
“There is a limit to how much we are going to continue to obey orders when these orders are very clearly killing our hostages [and] not bringing us any closer to the goals that were described at the beginning of the war,” Max said, adding that the decisions that are being made now by the leadership are being made for political reasons.
Masses also gathered in Habima Square Tuesday night, with organizers saying tens of thousands were there, to hear former heads of Israel’s security bodies, including former Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen, former Israel Police chief Roni Alsheich, and the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, Einav.
The crowd then marched to the IDF’s military headquarters to join a protest calling to bring the hostages home now.