Thousands of Israelis have demonstrated outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in central Jerusalem, demanding he resign over his trial on corruption charges and what is widely seen as his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.
With Israel reporting record levels of new cases each day, the country appears to be headed toward a nationwide lockdown this week ahead of the Jewish New Year.
Saturday’s demonstration came a day after Israel announced an agreement to establish diplomatic relations with Bahrain, the second Arab country to normalise ties with Israel in under a month and just the fourth overall.
But the surprise announcement had little effect on the thousands of demonstrators, who have been gathering outside Netanyahu’s residence every Saturday throughout the summer.
Protests against Netanyahu over his corruption trial have expanded to include demonstrations against his handling of the health crisis and the resulting economic pain.
Late Saturday, police detained several protesters.
Israel earned praise last spring for its early handling of the virus crisis, moving quickly to seal the country’s borders and appearing to bring an outbreak under control.
Read the article in The Canberra Times (AAP).