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Police deny permit for antiwar rally in Tel Aviv
TEL AVIV (JTA) — An anti-war protest organized by a broad coalition of Israeli left-wing organizations in the heart of Tel Aviv was canceled after police denied the event a permit.
Organizers say they will appeal the denial to the Supreme Court and make plans for an even bigger event next week. The rally, and its cancellation, illustrate cracks in Israelis’ support for the war as well as what peace groups have called a chilling of left-wing activism.
“We were supposed to have, tonight, a big rally and demonstrations in Tel Aviv under the name that only peace can bring security, and calling out for Israeli-Palestinian peace,” said Rula Daood, national co-director of Standing Together, one of the rally’s lead organizers, along with Women Wage Peace and 20 other human rights groups.
Daood told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that police greenlit the rally earlier in the week, only to revoke that permission later on. According to Haaretz, police denied the permit on the grounds that the rally’s location, at HaBima Square in central Tel Aviv, increased the likelihood of violence breaking out.
“They said that us having a demonstration that talks about peace will only bring chaos and incitement to violence in the streets of Tel Aviv,” she said.
An antiwar demonstration in Haifa is planned for Saturday, though police have also denied a permit for that gathering.
Since the fighting began with Hamas’ invasion on Oct. 7, Israeli officials have tussled over whether to allow any protest against the war. In the days following Oct. 7, dozens of Arab Israelis were arrested or suspended from university for alleged support of Hamas or its invasion of Israel.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister, supports a ban on all antiwar protests, and in early November, Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a ban on protests in two Arab-Israeli cities. Police later questioned three former Arab-Israeli lawmakers over plans to organize a protest in Nazareth, in northern Israel.
Days later, Israel’s first organized antiwar protest of several hundred people took place in a fenced-off area in a Tel Aviv park, after a Supreme Court hearing in which police allowed it to go forward.
This week, the Supreme Court issued an injunction saying that Ben-Gvir, who oversees the Israel Police, is not allowed to give police officers instructions during protests.
In response, Ben-Gvir criticized the injunction and Israel’s attorney general, with whom he has repeatedly clashed.
“Immediately after the slaughter on Oct. 7, I instructed the Israel Police to prevent protests identifying with the Nazis from Hamas,” he wrote on Facebook. “To my disappointment, the state prosecution forced the Israel Police to agree to these protests. This morning, the Supreme Court made an outrageous decision to deny me the authority to prevent support for the enemy at a time of war.”
Organizers from Standing Together suggested that the denial of their permit indicates that Ben-Gvir’s policy to prevent anti-war protests is still being heeded in spite of the injunction.
“He’s trying to make the police force also police his own point of view, that anything that talks about peace, or I think that criticizes the Israeli government action right now, is not welcomed,” said Daood.
The absence of large protests now is a stark contrast to the period before Oct. 7, when massive protests against the government’s proposed judicial overhaul dominated Israeli discourse and frequently filled major intersections. In this case, polls show that the vast majority of Jewish Israelis support Israel’s war effort against Hamas in Gaza, while Arab-Israeli opinion is mixed.
Still, Daood says that the Israeli left is drawing new members as Standing Together’s activities have grown to record levels in the last three months. The group has organized a series of gatherings across Israel post-Oct. 7, and drew audiences of hundreds to a recent series of events in the United States.
“Many people say that on October 7 people became more extreme and it is true that tons of people went more to the right, but also more people went to the left,” Daood said. “When you combine them all together, we’ve had thousands of people coming to our rallies talking about partnership and talking about a real peace and a ceasefire agreement.”
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The post Police deny permit for antiwar rally in Tel Aviv appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.