The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted Sunday to the fact that some members of a large crowd in Tel Aviv booed his name during a rally to celebrate the imminent return of the Israeli hostages.
The gathering at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, possibly the last of the weekly rallies that have been held to demand the hostages’ freedom, included hundreds of thousands of people. Some carried banners thanking U.S. President Donald Trump for his role in negotiating the ceasefire-and-hostage deal between Israel and Hamas that took effect Friday, and that will reportedly see the 20 living Israeli hostages returned on Monday.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff addressed the crowd, as did Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his daughter, Ivanka. Kushner was thought to have played a key role in bringing Arab allies on board to the deal.
When Witkoff thanked Netanyahu, some people in the crowd booed, causing Witkoff to pause his remarks.
Netanyahu is unpopular in Tel Aviv, a predominantly left-wing and secular city. Still, the boos made headlines. Israeli spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian, responding to a question from Breitbart News, told journalists in a briefing that despite the boos, Netanyahu deserved credit for ignoring demands to end fighting prematurely: “Prime Minister Netanyahu took risks, and those risks led us to this point.”
Some Israeli observers, including opposition leaders, said that the boos were well-deserved. Others were critical, saying that the hostage movement had been taken over by left-wing, anti-Netanyahu organizations.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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