Mass protests show limit of public's ability to endure the hostage situation

In her eulogy of her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Rachel Goldberg-Polin said that she hoped that his death would be a turning point for the “horrible situation in which we are all entangled.”

Her husband, Jon Polin, expressed that he prayed that Hersh’s death could be “the fuel that will bring home the remaining 101 hostages.”

“For 330 days, mama and I sought the proverbial stone that we could turn over to save you. Maybe, just maybe, your death is the stone,” he said.

We don’t know the full extent of the ways that Hersh's murder, along with that of five other hostages, will be a turning point.

We do, however, know that their deaths were a turning point in the public’s ability to continue to endure the perceived lack of progress on a solution that would bring the hostages back.

Following the news that Hersh, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Ori Danino – all alive just days before their bodies were recovered – had been slain in captivity, huge protests broke out around the country.

Protesters stressed that these hostages survived 11 months in captivity and that three of them were on a list of hostages who would have been released in the first stage of a hostage deal, according to Israeli media reports.

Hundreds of thousands gathered in the streets of Tel Aviv Sunday night, and many thousands more took to the streets at dozens of locations nationwide.

Israel’s airport was closed Monday morning; healthcare providers, the Israel Bar Association, big companies, and more participated in a countrywide strike for a deal, as industry and municipal leaders threw their weight behind the Hostage Family Forum’s call to action for the hostages.

While Sunday and Monday were the biggest days of protest in terms of the number of protesters, thousands continued to gather throughout the rest of the week in a show of momentum that hadn’t occurred since the height of protests against the judicial reform.

A powerful reminder to the entire country 

The deaths of the six hostages were a shocking and powerful reminder that the death of each hostage is a tragedy that the public can no longer endure.

The proximity of the murder of the hostages to the arrival of IDF forces at the site where they were left the public devastated at what felt like a near miss.

The wind had seemed to be out of the sails of protests in the weeks before the retrieval of the hostages’ bodies. While the Knesset recess created a sense of political stagnation, reports of drawn-out negotiations on a hostage deal left the public in an exhausting, prolonged state of bated breath.

The murders reanimated the protests, bringing the furious, grieving public back out to the streets.

The jury is still out on whether this will have a tangible impact on how the hostage situation and war are being handled.

The fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu felt the need to hold a prime time press conference Monday – the day of the general strike and second day of protests – shows that he is concerned about the protests, The Jerusalem Post’s Eliav Breuer reported.

Protests around the country have an impact 

The protests should not be written off, Breuer emphasized. Israelis are familiar with the power of protest to bring change from the judicial reform when public protest played a large part in stalling controversial legislation.

Netanyahu responded to the protests, however, by doubling down on his stance that Israel must stay along the Philadelphi Corridor – seen by the public as a sticking point for a hostage deal, Israel Democracy Institute President Yohanan Plesner emphasized.

“At this current stage, it appears these protests mark a grieving, frustrated public – not a palpable political shift,” said Plesner.

“There may be a large number of Israelis who don’t trust the Prime Minister’s motives, but he knows that among his base who voted for his 64-seat coalition, there is strong support for his stance.”

It’s worth noting that regardless of the efficacy of the protests or their potential to bring real change, the public may feel that they have no choice but to go out and express their horror at the ongoing situation.

As the families of hostages continue to protest and call on Israel’s leadership to bring their families home, as they have done since the first days of the war, the public now especially feels that they must not leave them to do this alone.