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Left-wing Israelis take to the streets as new government presses right-wing agenda further
(JTA) – As Israel’s new right-wing government continued to signal that it would push through measures to cripple the judiciary and clamp down on public dissent and news operations, thousands of citizens took to the streets in protest and one prominent opposition figure warned of imminent “civil war.”
A reported 10,000 demonstrators gathered Saturday night in Tel Aviv to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new right-wing government, which contains several ministers who are openly hostile to Arabs and Palestinians, LGBTQ people and liberal forms of Jewry. Organizers, many of whom hailed from Israeli left-wing groups, advertised the demonstration as “against the coup d’etat carried out by the criminal government which threatens to harm all citizens whoever they are,” according to the Times of Israel.
Many of them directed their ire toward the proposed legislation that would allow the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to overrule decisions by the Supreme Court. Some carried signs comparing Netanyahu and his coalition to Nazis. Others used the rallying cry “Crime Minister,” referring to Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial.
Counter-protesters were present as well. At least one anti-Netanyahu lawmaker who attended the protest, the Israeli Arab Knesset head of the Hadash Ta’al party Aymen Odeh, was assaulted, according to video of the event, and police are investigating.
Netanyahu and his allies decried the protests, with the prime minister condemning the Nazi comparisons and displays of the Palestinian flag. “This is wild incitement that went uncondemned by the opposition or the mainstream media,” he tweeted on Sunday. “I demand that everyone stop this immediately.”
Another protest was set for Thursday, this time by attorneys who are planning a walkout to register their disapproval of the proposed judiciary changes. But government ministers have offered no indication that they are considering the views of Israel’s left, instead pressing forward with a raft of right-wing proposals. In recent days:
Public security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered Israeli police to remove Palestinian flags from all public places, apparently incensed by the sight over the weekend of an Arab town waving the flags to celebrate the release from prison of a local who served 40 years in prison for killing a soldier in 1980. Ben-Gvir said the Palestinian flag “is a form of supporting terror.” Displaying the flag is legal but frequently challenged nonetheless.
Israel’s new communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, told an Israeli university that “there is no room in this age for public broadcasting,” and said the country’s publicly funded news organization, Kan, was trying to “police the conversation.” Karhi, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, has previously stated his desire to end public funding to Kan and other Israeli public broadcasters, accusing them of being too left-wing. A crackdown could interfere with Israel’s participation in the Eurovision song contest, which recently warned Netanyahu against threatening public broadcasting.
The government is also set to fast-track a bill that would revoke the citizenship or residency from people who are convicted of terrorism who receive payments from the Palestinian Authority. The move is seen as a step toward ejecting “disloyal” Arabs from Israel, something that Ben-Gvir has said should happen. When an Arab lawmaker questioned why the legislation does not apply to Jewish terrorists who are supported by extremist groups, one Knesset member from Netanyahu’s party said,“In the Jewish state, I prefer Jews over disloyal Arabs. We’ve stopped apologizing for it.”
Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich over the weekend blocked millions in tax revenue from reaching the Palestinian Authority and redirected the funds to families of terror victims instead, a reported punitive measure to punish the Palestinians for pushing the United Nations to deliver a judgment on Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank. The PA’s prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, told Haaretz that such a move could lead to the “collapse” of the authority, an outcome Smotrich seemed to welcome at a press conference: “As long as the Palestinian Authority encourages terror and is an enemy, I have no interest for it to continue to exist.” Most analysts see the Palestinian Authority, for all of its faults, as a bulwark against more extreme groups taking charge in the West Bank.
It is not yet clear whether the moves will turn into policy or whether they represent a flurry of proposals and posturing as parties stake out their positions at the start of a new government. But either way, tensions are flaring. Former defense minister and chief Netanyahu rival Benny Gantz said that Netanyahu was spurring on a “civil war in Israeli society” and called on protestors to keep up their pressure; the prime minister in turn accused Gantz of leading “a call to sedition.”
At least one proposal by members of the new government appears to have already hit a snag. Lawmakers in a haredi Orthodox party said they wanted railway maintenance to cease on Shabbat, and Netanyahu reportedly backed their demand. But on Thursday, the transportation minister, a member of Netanyahu’s party, rebuffed the demand.
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Pope Leo Says Those Who Wage War Are Thieves Stealing Away Our Peaceful Future
Pope Leo XIV looks on as he meets with Catholic religious education teachers attending a national meeting organised by the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, April 25, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi
Pope Leo on Sunday described those who wage wars and appropriate the earth’s resources as thieves who rob the world of a peaceful future, issuing a warning about the use of nuclear power on the anniversary of the Chernobyl reactor accident.
Ukraine is commemorating the 40th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear disaster on Sunday amid lingering fears that Russia’s four-year-old war could spark a repeat of the tragedy.
In his weekly address after the Angelus prayer, the Pontiff said the Chernobyl accident had left a mark on humankind’s collective conscience.
“It remains a warning over the use of ever more powerful technologies,” the Pope, who has just returned from a 10-day tour across four African nations, said.
“I hope that at all decision-making levels, wisdom and responsibility always prevail, so that atomic power can always be used to support life and peace,” he added.
Commenting on the Gospel of the day, which contained the metaphor of a sheep thief, Pope Leo said thieves came under many appearances, listing as examples “superficial lifestyles driven by consumerism,” prejudices and wrong ideas.
“And let’s not forget also those thieves who, by plundering the earth’s resources, by fighting bloody wars or feeding evil in whichever form, are simply taking away from all of us the chance of a future of peace and serenity,” he added.
Leo, the first US pontiff, has attracted the ire of President Donald Trump after becoming more outspoken against war and despotism.
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UK’s Starmer and Trump Discuss ‘Urgent Need’ to Restore Shipping in Strait of Hormuz
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump (not pictured) hold a bilateral meeting at Trump Turnberry golf course in Turnberry, Scotland, Britain, July 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump discussed the urgent need to get shipping moving again in the Strait of Hormuz during a call on Sunday, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
“The leaders discussed the urgent need to get shipping moving again in the Strait of Hormuz, given the severe consequences for the global economy and cost of living for people in the UK and globally,” the spokesperson for Starmer’s office said in a statement.
“The prime minister shared the latest progress on his joint initiative with President (Emmanuel) Macron to restore freedom of navigation,” the spokesperson added.
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Palestinian Leader’s Loyalists Win Local Elections, Including Some Seats in Gaza
A Palestinian man votes during the municipal election at a polling station in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip April 25, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Loyalists of President Mahmoud Abbas won most races in Palestinian municipal elections, election officials said on Sunday, in a vote that for the first time in nearly two decades included a city in the Gaza Strip run by rival Hamas.
Saturday’s ballot marked the first elections of any kind in Gaza since 2006 and the first Palestinian polls since the Gaza war began more than two years ago with Hamas’ cross‑border attack on southern Israel.
Abbas’ West Bank–based Palestinian Authority (PA) said the inclusion of the Gaza city Deir al‑Balah, which suffered less damage than other areas of the coastal territory during the war, was intended to show that Gaza was an inseparable part of a future Palestinian state.
The elections, in which voter turnout was low, had been held “at a highly sensitive moment amid complex challenges and exceptional circumstances,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said as results were announced on Sunday.
But they represented “an important first step in a broader national process aimed at strengthening democratic life … and ultimately achieving the unity of the homeland,” he said.
POSSIBLE INDICATOR OF HAMAS SUPPORT
Hamas, which ousted the PA from Gaza in 2007, did not formally nominate candidates in Gaza and boycotted the race in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Fatah’s victory was widely expected.
But some candidates on one of the Deir al-Balah lists were widely seen by residents and analysts as aligned with the movement, making the vote a potential indicator of support for the Islamist group.
Preliminary results showed that the list, known as Deir al‑Balah Brings Us Together, won only two of the 15 seats contested in Gaza.
The Nahdat Deir al‑Balah list, backed by Abbas’ Fatah party and the Western-backed PA, secured six seats. The remaining seats were won by two other Gaza-based groups, Future of Deir al‑Balah and Peace and Building, not affiliated with either faction.
Abbas loyalists swept the election in the West Bank, running unchallenged in many seats.
Fatah spokesperson Abdul Fattah Dawla noted that turnout was close to that for the last municipal elections in the West Bank, in 2022, praising voters for participating despite ongoing violence by Israel.
“By electing figures linked to Fatah, voters appear to be seeking unrestricted international support for municipal governance and a gradual political shift that could extend beyond the local level,” said Palestinian political analyst Reham Ouda.
The recent war has left much of Gaza reduced to rubble, with many residents displaced and focused on survival. Israel has continued conducting strikes despite an October ceasefire.
In Gaza, voter turnout reached just 23 percent, while in the West Bank it was 56 percent, according to Chairman of the Central Elections Commission Rami al‑Hamdallah.
Al‑Hamdallah said some of the ballot boxes and voting equipment did not make it into the enclave because of Israeli security restrictions, though those challenges were overcome.
Hamas’ Gaza spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, downplayed the significance of the election results, saying that they had no impact on wider national issues.