"Get out of your homes, get out of your slumber, get out of your fears! I'm Roni, I lost a brother on October 7, and I won't give up. I won't give up until he's kicked out, until this entire government is kicked out! They murdered my brother, criminals!"
These words were shouted on Monday, in heartrending screams, by one of the demonstrators who blocked the entrance to the Knesset, while he was being dragged away by two expressionless police officers.
Not far from there, inside the Knesset building, family members of the hostages broke into a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee. The ushers tried to repel them by force, but they were unable to stop the wave of human grief that flowed into the room. "You dismantled a government over chametz, and you won't do it for the hostages?!"
Dozens of family members of hostages disrupt a Knesset finance committee meeting on Monday.Credit: Oren Ben Hakoun
Shachar Mor, the nephew of hostage Abraham Munder, called out to the lawmakers in a hoarse voice. "Disband the government now! Go to the prime minister and tell him: I disbanded it for chametz, I'm disbanding it over this too!" he hurled at Finance Committee Chairman Moshe Gafni, a reminder of the petty dispute over food that's not kosher for Passover being permitted in hospitals that caused Idit Silman to resignfrom the previous coalition, triggering the collapse of the government.
There was also a tempestuous atmosphere in the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. "What kind of country is this, where I have to beg the Knesset to do something to bring back my loved ones?" asked Dalia Kushnir, the sister-in-law of brothers Yair and Eitan Horn, who are being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Kushnir's question is rhetorical, but still the answer is unbelievable: in Israel.
Protesters, holding a banner that says "The blood of the hostages is on your hands," in Jerusalem on Monday.Credit: Naama Grynbaum
She's living in Israel, a country whose government ministers are abandoning dozens of civilians to rot in captivity, where their families are forced to plead and push in order to be heard in the legislative body, and where bereaved siblings are dragged out by force when they ask for justice.
Listen to this howling, which, like boiling lava, is bubbling below the surface a moment before a tremendous eruption. The pure fury is gradually increasing in light of the incomprehensible disconnect and imperviousness of the coalition members. Only a complete fool could think that it's possible to close one's eyes in the face of this public volcano and to continue trampling the citizens as in the past.
Unfortunately, there are quite a few such complete fools in the government and the Knesset, like National Missions Minister Orit Strock, who reprimanded an activist from her party who was furious about the government's reckless economic policy: "I know ministers who can't make ends meet … whose parents support them financially," said Strock, explaining the distress of the lords of land, and demanded: "Less evil eye, more practical and constructive criticism."
We should recall that the salary of the ministers is about 53,000 shekels ($14,000) a month, while businesses are failing, workers are losing their jobs and reservists are finding it hard to buy food for their babies.
The disconnect and imperviousness of Strock and the other members of the coalition are the hurricane that's fanning the growing rage. Remember them – the bereaved brother at the entrance to the Knesset, the family members of the hostages shouting during Knesset committee discussions, the father of kidnapped army spotter Liri Elbag, who during a demonstration in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in Caesarea this Saturday swore, "As long as I live, only cemeteries will be named after him, since they filled up because of him." And he added: "I sat quietly for 100 days of grace. But my heart can't take it any longer, I can't take it any longer."
Elbag's words echo the declaration of the late Prime Minister Menahem Begin, who said that the harsh consequences of the first Lebanon war caused him to declare that he can't take it any longer and to resign from his position. But the present government is too obtuse and corrupt; it can go on longer and longer. And the seething anger keeps rising and bubbling up: These voices are the howling of an entire nation that can't take it any longer.