Several thousand Israelis rallied on Tuesday in support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he faces the gravest threat to his political survival after corruption charges and two failed elections. Organizers pegged the number of participants at 15,000.
Held under the banner "Stop the Coup", most Knesset members from Netanyahu's own party and right-wing bloc failed to attend the rally, held at the Tel Aviv Museum plaza.
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Two of the prime minister's most outspoken supporters, Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev and parliament member Miki Zohar, did make an appearance at the demonstration and echoed Netanyahu's line that the judiciary and law enforcement were conspiring to oust him from power.
"We, too, want to protest, we are also justified in holding a demonstration," Regev said at the event.
"The rule of law is not above the law. The law is equal to everyone, there is not one law for one person and one law for another. ... You – citizens of the State of Israel – will determine who will head our country. Those who want to maintain the rule of law came here tonight. They will not silence you," she added.
"The legal establishment's goal is to topple an elected prime minister," said Ron Nahmani, 70, who had come to the protest. Addressing the crowd, Likud lawmaker Miki Zohar said the justice system was playing a part in a leftist conspiracy.
Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, who made the decision to charge Netanyahu, said that attacks on the legal system had gone too far.
"I'm hearing threats. I'm hearing baseless slander. It's shocking," Mendelblit said at a judiciary conference in southern Israel. Two of the lead prosecutors on the Netanyahu investigations have had to have bodyguards assigned to them, he said.
Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader and in power since 2009, presently heads a caretaker government after two inconclusive elections this year. He is not obliged by law to leave office over the charges and has vowed to stay in power.
But the indictment against him, the first of a sitting Israeli premier, has prompted calls from the Center-Left opposition for him to step down, and has stirred up a leadership challenge from within his Likud party.
Israel is facing unprecedented political turmoil after neither Netanyahu nor Gantz failed to form a coalition government following elections held in April and in September. With the political deadlock unresolved, Israel could be facing a third election within a few months.
