Civil society in Israel continues to mobilize, and the way these mobilizations are handled is one of the indicators of the health of democratic life. It was against the resumption of fighting that, on May 18, 2025, hundreds of activists and family members of the hostages held in Gaza for 602 days at the time of writing this text, were protesting. The demonstration took place the day after the launch of the military operation “Chariots of Gideon.”
Just before that, Alon-Lee Green, the national co-leader (with Rula Daood) of the Standing Together movement, declared in his call to protest that it was “forbidden to close our eyes, forbidden to remain indifferent” in the face of government actions targeting citizens and children in Gaza, as well as the hostages.
The demonstrations at the Gaza border – “to stop the massacres, the famine, and to bring the hostages back” – are continuing. A second one took place on May 23 2025, and it is this one that is shown in the photos I took there.