Yair Golan, the leader of Israel’s left-wing “The Democrats” party, on Monday called on all citizens to join daily “strikes, protests and acts of civil disobedience” in an attempt to force early elections and bring down the government.
“We need to change direction. Unfortunately, Saturday night protests are not enough. For this government to understand that we are serious, we need to be active all week, every day,” Golan stated at the National Economic Conference of Calcalist and Bank Leumi in Tel Aviv.
Accusing the opposition of “narcissistic” politics, Golan urged citizens to “tell the government that we will not continue to pay taxes according to the law, go to work and perform all the duties imposed on us so that this government can take our money, steal it and invest it in places without national consensus,” according to a readout published by Calcalist.
“Except for my faction members, no one is fighting, only [Yesh Atid Party MK] Vladimir Beliak maybe,” he said. “I ask [National Unity Party leader] Benny Gantz: What did you do in this coalition for eight months?” he added, referring to the wartime government formed following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
According to the far-left leader, a ceasefire with Hamas is urgently needed “so we can finally move on to the most important thing: A change of government in Israel; because without this there will be no revival, no correction and no restoration.”
Last month, Israel’s Labor and Meretz parties announced that they would unite into a new party, called “The Democrats.” Golan, an ex-Meretz lawmaker and former Israel Defense Forces deputy chief of staff who was elected as Labor leader on May 28, serves as the party chief.
“Today, we have built a framework that will serve the public as best as possible on the way to promoting elections and replacing the worst government since the establishment of the state,” Golan said in June.
Golan is a hard-left politician, often at the center of controversies. In 2016, as IDF deputy chief, he compared developments in Israel to those that unfolded in Nazi Germany before the Holocaust.
Golan more recently got into hot water when he appeared to call for military reservists to refuse service to bring down the government.
Shortly before Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel, Golan faced accusations of antisemitism after he attacked Israel’s ultra-Orthodox population, calling them a “parasitic population.”
“It is impossible to have a huge population that is growing at a rapid rate, a parasitic population in the State of Israel,” Golan stated in a Sept. 11, 2023, interview with Israel’s public Kan Reshet Bet radio station.
In June 2023, the Israel Police announced it had launched a preliminary investigation into Golan’s calls for civil unrest to oppose Netanyahu’s now-shelved plans to reform the Jewish state’s judiciary.
A year earlier, while serving as a deputy economy minister in the Bennett-Lapid government on behalf of Meretz, Golan was forced to issue an apology after he described Samaria Jews as “subhuman.”
Asked on June 6 whether the United States government would rule out contacts with Golan, a State Department spokesperson told JNS that Washington “unequivocally rejects dehumanizing and inflammatory language, regardless of who is targeted by such rhetoric,” adding, “Freedom of religion is a cornerstone of any democracy and should be respected.”
The official referred JNS back to Golan for comment “regarding his specific remarks.”
A survey published on Thursday by the Direct Polls Institute projected that the left-wing party under Golan’s leadership would win 10 seats in Israel’s 120-member legislature if elections were to be called.