Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square Aug. 11 to protest against the controversial Nationality Law.
“It’s a good thing [Zionist Camp leader] Avi Gabbay didn’t show up here,” said one participant at the rally on condition of anonymity. “That’s all he needs, for [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to spread a photo of the Zionist Camp leader against the backdrop of a Palestinian flag.” At the same time, Gabbay was telling Hadashot News that he had stayed away from the protest because its organizers, the Balad Party and the Arab Joint List (the alliance Balad is part of), “support the right of return” of Palestinian refugees and do not believe in a Jewish state. His colleague and leader of the parliamentary opposition, Tzipi Livni, said she sat out the event because some members of the Joint List do not share her view of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. The vast majority — 22 out of 24 — of the Zionist Camp’s Knesset faction, the biggest parliamentary opposition group, as well as members of the second-largest opposition party, Yesh Atid, stayed home that night.
