Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square has been the site of many large demonstrations. It has been the venue of rallies by the right and the left in favor of a deal with the Palestinians and against, of protests on ideological issues of principle and of socio-economic turmoil, but the most bizarre of them all was the April 19 rally in support of the soldier who killed a wounded Palestinian in Hebron on March 24.

I came to Rabin Square to see with my own eyes what kind of people would turn out and whether Elor Azaria, the soldier who shot and killed the wounded Palestinian assailant, had truly become a national hero, or whether it was simply an illusion created by right-wing activists on social media.

Only a few thousand people came, far fewer than the 20,000-strong turnout anticipated by the organizers. And more than a rally of support for the soldier, it was a show put on by a controversial television host who took cynical advantage of the detained soldier’s distraught parents.

Sharon Gal, formerly a Channel 10 reporter and anchor who was forced to resign over claims of inappropriate conduct, was recruited by the Yisrael Beitenu Party of former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman prior to the March 2015 general elections. He made it into the Knesset, but after only six months decided that he had exhausted his political contribution and stepped down. During his short term, Gal was mostly responsible for several highly publicized clashes. At a Knesset debate about the Breaking the Silence human rights organization, he was removed from the plenary after dubbing the leftist Knesset members of the Meretz Party “a gang of collaborators” and “criminals.”