The protest action of the writer Zeruya Shalev against Netanyahu

It’s not that she hasn’t demonstrated in recent months. She has. She has taken part in rallies and protest marches in Israel, and has even given speeches at some of them. But when the deaths of the six Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip became known last weekend, her despair grew even more. And the writer Zeruya Shalev decided to carry out a protest action that she had been thinking about for a few weeks. She wrote an email to friends and acquaintances: she wanted to turn to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the urgent request to “raise a strong and clear voice against the ongoing criminal neglect of our kidnapped brothers and sisters and the entire country.” She wanted to remind him “that the number one duty of a citizen” is the one he has towards his fellow citizens. “To this end,” Shalev wrote, “I will stand in front of the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday, September 4, 2024, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and hope that you will join me.”