Demonstrators against the war in Tel Aviv on Saturday

Linda Dayan, Yair Foldes,Bar Peleg, Adi Hashmonai, Josh Breiner and Nir Hasson – Haaretz April 11, 2026

Several thousand protesters gathered at Habima Square in Tel Aviv at a protest against the war and the government, according to organizers, marking the sixth consecutive week of demonstrations since the start of the joint Israeli-U.S. military operation against Iran, as demonstrations took place across the country, including Be’er Sheva, Jerusalem and Haifa.

In Tel Aviv, the demonstration was organized jointly by dozens of civil society and human rights organizations. Protesters are chanting, “Occupying southern Lebanon is a recipe for disaster,” and, “We won’t have security here until we make peace. Only peace will bring security.”

Within the larger protest, a bloc of demonstrators, some in keffiyas, held up a banner reading “No more feeding the war machine” while chanting “Pilots, stop killing children.”

In one of the invitations circulated, organizers called on the public to protest “against a government of neglect and against an eternal war.” According to them, “there is no military solution – not in Iran, not in Lebanon and not in Palestine.”

MK Ayman Odeh, chairman of Hadash-Ta’al, addressed protesters: “I see thousands of people who oppose the war,” explaining that approval for the wars has dropped. “Now we represent the majority.”

“For war, we don’t need a Jewish-Arab partnership. But we do for peace. I have a lot of pain in me – but a lot of optimism as well,” he said, adding, “The most expensive and longest war hasn’t brought peace and safety. Only peace is the way.”

Protesers holding a banner that reads ‘No more feeding the War Machine’

Professor Yael Barda of the NGO Ir Amim said, “Our goal here isn’t just to stop this war, but the next one, and the cycle of eternal wars.” She emphasized, “The time has come to say that Israel’s state of emergency did not begin on October 7 or with talk of the Iranian threat, but in 1948.”

“Security cannot be reached by oppressing the Palestinians, who live here without the same rights in their homeland,” she said.

A smaller protest gathered on the side with yellow flags, demanding the return of Haymanot Kasau, a young Ethiopian girl who was abducted, chanting, “Stop the world, Haymanot is still there,” and, “It’s the second year that her mother is waiting.”

Alon Lee-Green, co-director of Standing Together, told protesters, “We struggled with the police to hold our protest, and week by week we grew. We defeated the Ben-Gvir police.”

“For six weeks, we ran to shelters, shut down businesses, kept our children at home, lost family members, and endured yet another reckless war. For what? From the start, it was possible to reach negotiations. But for the Israeli government, war is the only option – and the price is paid not only by Iranians, Lebanese, or Palestinians, but also by Israeli citizens. It’s time to end the endless war.”

“We’re here to say, ‘There is another way!’ Instead of wars and occupation and ruling over millions of people and going to the same fronts again and again. Instead of sending our children to kill and get killed, we can have peace,” he added

In the police permit granted to protest organizers, protest participation was capped at 1,000 people. In recent weeks, police have dispersed protesters because they were “violating Home Front Command guidelines.”

The High Court ordered that the Tel Aviv demonstration be permitted following a petition by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and Justices Yehiel Kasher and Ruth Ronen emphasized that even if the number of participants exceeds the permitted limit – 1,000 people under current guidelines in central Israel – “this does not necessarily mean the protest must be dispersed.”

A group of about 20 right-wing protesters, led by Mordechai David, attempted to disrupt the demonstration and entered the center of the square, but were blocked by demonstrators. Border Police officers who were present and initially escorted him out of the square deliberately refrained from following him until he returned to the square later, and he was removed several minutes later.

In the northern Israeli Arab town of Umm al Fahm, police dispersed what they called an “illegal demonstration” and arrested 7 anti-war protesters, who police say “condemned the state of Israel and its actions in the war and called for the release of Palestinian prisoners, which could violate public order.”

A protester is arrested in Jerusalem on Saturday

In Jerusalem, hundreds of protesters gathered and three protesters were arrested.

An anti-war, anti-government protest also took place in Haifa, where about a thousand people have gathered.

At last week’s protest in Habima Square, 17 demonstrators were arrested; 16 of them were released within hours without being questioned. One additional suspect was questioned on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and was later released.

Shortly after the protest began, police forcibly dispersed the crowd, despite the High Court’s earlier statement that the state must allow demonstrations of at least 600 participants.

During the dispersal of protesters, a siren sounded due to missile launches from Yemen’s Houthis. Police refused to take detainees into the parking garage under Habima Square, part of which is considered an emergency bomb shelter. Instead, they were taken to the stairwell of a nearby building. Police later said that “to ensure their safety, and due to congestion on the way down to the protected area beneath Habima Square, officers acted quickly and moved the bus [of detainees] to a location between two buildings, where the detainees were taken to a safe place.”

During Friday’s High Court hearing, Amit noted that the Haifa protest takes place near an underground parking garage. Representatives of the Home Front Command argued that a protected space is a standard shelter that can be sealed with a door. However, throughout the war, the Haifa Municipality has directed residents without emergency bomb shelters in their homes to that same parking garage.

In the north of Israel, about fifty residents also gathered to protest. Dorit Elmaleh from Kibbutz Snir, near Kiryat Shmona, said, “We are here because we are being lied to! We will continue to demonstrate until there is a strong and genuine multilateral diplomatic solution, so that we can continue to hold the north.”

Oded, a protest activist, 28, said, “The north continues to be abandoned under aimless fighting in Lebanon, which only claims innocent victims, in order to allow another day in power.”

Source