PERSONAL: 'Bibi, go!' - Israeli protester wants Netanyahu out and 'my country back'

Record ID: 1986172

  • Title: PERSONAL: 'Bibi, go!' - Israeli protester wants Netanyahu out and 'my country back'
  • Date: 27th March 2025
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (MARCH 25, 2025) (REUTERS) ISRAELI PROTESTERS MARCHING TOWARDS ISRAELI PARLIAMENT CARRYING BANNER READING (Hebrew): 'Person under investigation can't fire the investigator' PROTESTERS CHANTING CHINAYA MADAR, 78, MARCHING WITH PROTEST, CHANTING (Hebrew): 'We all together until he's gone' VARIOUS OF MADAR CHEERING IN PROTEST RALLY MADAR CHANTING (Hebrew): 'We are t
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: 78-year-old protester Israel anti-government protest government parliament personal protest
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City: JERUSALEM
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Middle East,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001146025032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: In the cacophony of voices protesting against the Israeli Prime Minister and his government, Chinaya Madar makes it clear: she wants the hostages back and Benjamin Netanyahu out.
    The 78-year-old retired educator from southern Israel joined the recent wave of mass protests against Netanyahu's moves to dismiss Israel's domestic intelligence agency chief and the attorney general, which critics say pose a danger to Israel's democracy.
    "I want my country back. I lost my country, before a year and a half I lost my beloved country," she said during a protest in Jerusalem. "Once upon a time my country was a democracy and now.."
    Madar is no stranger to protests. She's been taking part in anti-government protests for the past eight years, she says, since suspicions of fraud emerged against Netanyahu, who was officially indicted in 2019. His corruption trial is still ongoing. She later attended mass protests against the judicial overhaul plan that Netanyahu's government put forward and critics said it meant to curb Israel's democracy.
    But after the outbreak of the Gaza war in the wake of Hamas October 7 attacks in 2023, and with 59 hostages still in Gaza, Madar says protests now feel different.
    "Never in my life I remember such a protest. It is something else, it's something else. People are coming with all of their heart, all the things are going out from the heart. It's a very important moment now - it's to be or not to be."
    Israel resumed the war against Hamas in Gaza last week, after a two-months of relative calm under a truce deal that saw the return from Hamas captivity of 33 Israeli hostages, alive and deceased. Fifty-nine hostages are still held in Gaza, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.
    Since then, daily protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the seat of Israel's government, have turned more angry, and blended with calls to return the hostages under a ceasefire deal, end the war and safeguard democratic institutions.
    Some protesters, like Madar, have been more vocal against Netanyahu.
    "Netanyahu, our prime minister for the last 15 years, is not any more a democrat. He wants Israel to be a dictatorship. We can't allow this, it's dangerous," she said. "We don't want this war. It's enough. We don't want to live all our lives in danger, in a war, we want to live in peace, it's enough. If Bibi Netanyahu will go out, all will be ok."
    Madar is a mother of three and two of her nine grandchildren are now in military deployment in Gaza,.
    She decided to take two weeks away from her work and her family in Ein Habsor, a farming community near Gaza, and join the protests in Jerusalem.
    "I'm a big girl. I retired before many years, and I have the strength and the energy in spite of my age," she said from a hotel room where she and her friend have stayed to support the protest.
    On Wednesday (March 26) Madar geared up for another day of protests.
    "We are going again and again and again and again to demonstrate. We need to succeed, to succeed. it's horrible. We need to do all what we can to succeed," she said as she headed to another protest outside the Israeli parliament.
    (Production: Dedi Hayun, Avivit Delgoshen)
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