Protesters clashed with police near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Jerusalem on Sunday, as thousands marched across the capital to demonstrate against the government’s moves to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara.
At least three protesters were arrested, according to police.
On Sunday afternoon, thousands of protesters streamed toward Jerusalem’s Azza Road from the direction of the Knesset, many of them carrying tents they planned to set up as part of an overnight protest encampment near Netanyahu’s private residence on the busy street.
Holding Israeli flags and bullhorns, demonstrators blew horns, chanted slogans and held pictures of hostages, singing a familiar song from Hanukkah, “Though the night is cold and dark/ In our soul, there lies a spark.”
Sunday’s protests took place as the cabinet voted no confidence against Baharav-Miara, unanimously. The vote was the first step in a process to dismiss her, as the government has said she has acted as an arm of the opposition and stands in the way of their policies.
Baharav-Miara, who did not attend the cabinet meeting, said in a letter to the cabinet on Sunday that the effort to fire her was born of the government’s fundamental misunderstanding of her role, and insisted it was her job to tell the government when it was acting unlawfully.
Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, March 23, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
During the main gathering, protesters held banners reading “A suspect does not fire an investigator,” in reference to a series of ongoing legal cases against several aides in Netanyahu’s office that the attorney general initiated.
According to Channel 12, police blocked off an additional section of road near Netanyahu’s house, and confiscated equipment from the encampment such as tents, mattresses and chairs.
During the protest, former Supreme Court Justice Ayala Procaccia told the crowd that “we are in the midst of a huge rift the likes of which we have never known.”
Israelis clash with police during a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, March 23, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“A rift that threatens to collapse our democratic structure,” she added. “A moral rift the likes of which we have never known. Government policy is gradually taking shape that aims to destroy all independent state institutions and the mechanisms for criticizing the government.”
She warned rallygoers that Israel is “no longer a free democracy, but another regime, one that we do not know. A regime in which there is no rule of law and no true freedom, a regime that lacks human rights protections.”
Police, border cops clash with protesters trying to break thru barricades on Azza st pic.twitter.com/3WxIDXPLgl
— charlie summers (@cbsu03) March 23, 2025
Later in the afternoon, police clashed with the crowd in front of Netanyahu’s residence, as a number of protesters attempted to break through crowd control barricades.
Police and border police officers were filmed shoving demonstrators away from the two layers of barricades separating them from Netanyahu’s home.
Police said they arrested three protesters during the demonstrations in the capital, and brought the suspects in for questioning.
One demonstrator hit a Border Police officer in the head, according to a law enforcement spokesman. No serious injuries were reported.
Anti-government protesters rally at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, March 22, 2025. (Amir Goldstein / Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Well over 100,000 people attended protests in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and dozens of other cities across Israel on Saturday night as anger mounted over both the planned removal of the country’s top gatekeepers and the resumption of the war in Gaza in the absence of a hostage deal to release the 24 presumed-living, and 35 dead, captives held by terror groups there.
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