Yair Netanyahu under fire for likening protesters calling for hostage release to Nazis

Yair Netanyahu, the son of the prime minister, compared the protesters calling for the return of the hostages and the overthrow of the government to Nazis on Wednesday. 

"Violent torch marches were a hallmark of the Nazis, by the way," he wrote on his Telegram channel, alluding to the torch-carrying demonstrators at Tuesday night's demonstration in Jerusalem.

This is not the first time that Prime Minister Netanyahu has expressed himself in this way against the protesters against the government.

A history of these remarks 

In September 2023, he compared demonstrators in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur to "antisemites in Europe who would blame the Jews after pogroms were carried out against them."

In March 2023, Yair Netanyahu called the protesters against the anti-judicial reform protests "domestic terrorist operatives." In a tweet he published on Twitter, he wrote: "They are not protestors, they are not anarchists either - they are terrorists. A violent underground has arisen here (financed by criminal and evil billionaires). Even if it takes time, in the end, they will be prosecuted for all their crimes in the years 2016-2023."

Tuesday night, many demonstrated in front of the Prime Minister's house on Aza Street in Jerusalem, where they called to set a date for new elections as soon as possible.

Severe clashes broke out between the protesters and the police after they marched from the Knesset to the president's house and from there to the prime minister's residence. Several of them were detained for questioning.