Around 2,000 people demonstrated this Saturday in Tel Aviv and in other cities in Israel to demand the participation of Arab formations in a future Executive and cooperation based on "equality". The protests are framed in the scenario opened after last Tuesday’s elections, in which the far-right party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won the vote but without managing to obtain a sufficient majority to govern alone.
During the march, attendees carried banners with messages such as "there is a majority in favor of change" and "equality for all", while chanting in Hebrew "with collaboration and equality, we are replacing the Government". Likewise, slogans in Arabic in favor of "peace, freedom and social justice" were heard, according to the information published by the Israeli newspaper 'The Times of Israel'.
In addition to the main gathering in Tel Aviv, protests were held in Jerusalem, Haifa and in localities in the north of Israel, although with a smaller turnout than in the country’s economic capital.
In parallel, some 200 supporters of Prime Minister Netanyahu gathered in another area of Jerusalem to denounce that the Arab parties "stole Tuesday’s elections". In this counter-demonstration, slogans such as "Jewish State" or "terrorists to Gaza, not to the Government" were heard, along with other chants of a racist nature.
Those attending the rally in favor of Netanyahu accused the Arab-majority party, Raam, and the Joint List of "supporting terrorism" and presented this mobilization as the first step of a protest campaign against a "possible Government that depends on the Arab parties".
According to the provisional results of Tuesday’s elections, Likud, the formation led by Netanyahu, would have obtained 27 seats, while the opposition bloc headed by former Army chief Gadi Eisenkot would add 21 seats. Nevertheless, neither of the two blocs reaches a parliamentary majority on its own, which places the Arab parties, or alternatively a right-wing pact that leaves the ultra-Orthodox out, as key actors for the formation of the next Government.