Israeli Protesters in L.A. Call on Netanyahu to Resign

At 5 p.m. on Aug. 9, approximately 45 Israeli Americans gathered outside the Israeli consulate building on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood, calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign. They held Israeli flags and carried signs that read: “Enough with the corruption,” “Israel deserves a better leader,” “Bibi, we won’t let you take the country down.”

Drivers honked their horns, and although there were a few signs in English, most were in Hebrew and were intended to send a message to the tens of thousands of demonstrators in Israel: We support you.

“Our goal is to call out the corruption in the Israeli government and say that a prime minister who is suspected of corruption should go home,” said Tamar Forman, who arrived with her husband and four children. “We also wanted to support the protesters in Israel and show them our solidarity.”

WATCH: Israeli protesters in Los Angeles Call for Netanyahu to Resign

Forman said that many of her friends and family in Israel participated in the large-scale demonstrations in Jerusalem just outside of Netanyahu’s house  — one of which drew 15,000 people — calling on the prime minister to resign.

“We asked activists in Israel what they need from us,” Forman said. “We thought maybe we could try and raise money, but they said that all they want is for us to let people in the States know what’s going on in Israel.”

Netanyahu was indicted in January on corruption charges in three separate cases: bribery, fraud and breach of trust. A Jerusalem court ruled in July that his trial, which has been delayed because of the pandemic, will resume in January. He faces more than a decade in prison if convicted on all three counts. Some fear that Netanyahu will try to influence events in order to evade conviction.

Netanyahu is sharing power in the recently formed coalition with Blue and White’s Benny Gantz. The political rivals agreed to rotate the premiership, with Netanyahu serving first, with Gantz as deputy, then Gantz stepping up after 18 months. If the coalition can’t pass a budget, new elections might be called, preventing Gantz from ever taking office. And if Netanyahu emerges with a coalition, he might make a power play for immunity.

Aimee Ginsburg Bikel, widow of the late performer Theodore Bikel, was one the protest’s organizers. Bikel lived in Israel for many years before returning to Los Angeles with her two sons. 

“I was in the Israeli army and went to university in Israel,” she said. “I was very involved politically but eventually left because I was burnt out with the situation. I have not been involved with Israeli politics since then not because I don’t care but because I was overwhelmed and [had feelings] of despair.”

However, things changed when she heard about the anti-Netanyahu demonstrations in Washington, D.C., and Florida. Through a new Facebook group called UnXeptable, she was able to join a group of Israelis in the United States calling for Netanyahu’s resignation. To date, the movement has organized six demonstrations in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

 “We want to send a message to our brothers and sisters in Israel that we support them and that we are all united.” — Hadar Harush

Encino resident Riki Shilo told the Journal she attended the demonstration after hearing about it from friends. “The large majority of Israelis living in L.A. are Benjamin Netanyahu supporters,” she said, “so I’m not surprised not too many [came] to protest, but I had to come. It’s unheard of that a prime minister who is suspected of receiving bribes would not be forced to resign. If Netanyahu claims that he is innocent, let him first go to trial and prove it.”

“No one is calling Netanyahu guilty before he goes to trial,” Bikel said, “but a true democracy cannot be run with a leader being indicted for such a serious crime. Our main goal is to express our own feelings of disgust and anger and demand that justice be done.”

 Hadar Harush attended the demonstration with her husband and her 4-year-old and 2-year-old children. She held signs in Hebrew that said: “No Left and no Right, only straight” and: “We haven’t lost our faith.”

“There are those in the community who support Benjamin Netanyahu but also they can’t stand the lack of justice,” she said. “We want to send a message to our brothers and sisters in Israel that we support them and that we are all united. My siblings and my husband’s siblings in Israel as well as our friends are demonstrating in Israel every weekend. I want to return to Israel one day and I want my children to be able to live in a true democracy, but that’s not what we have right now.”