JERUSALEM: Israeli left-wing opposition leader Yair Golan called on Monday for an immediate end to the Gaza war and said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government no longer represented most Israelis.

“Today the government of Israel doesn’t represent the vast majority of Israelis,” said Golan, chairman of the Democrats party and a former deputy army chief, days before a planned parliament vote which the opposition hopes would trigger a general election.

He told journalists in a briefing that after more than 20 months of fighting that Israel “should end the war as soon as possible”.

Golan’s party, a conglomeration of left-wing factions, has only four seats in Israel’s 120-member legislature. But in a country where coalition building is essential to achieving a political majority, even relatively small parties can wield considerable power.

Golan said that the current government — one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history — was a threat to democracy.

He said that the vast majority of Israelis wanted to see an immediate end to the war in Gaza, the return of all prisoners held by the Palestinians in a single exchange deal, and the establishment of a national commission of inquiry into Hamas’s 2023 attack, arguing that the Netanyahu government was opposed to these objectives.

He expressed the hope that a deal on the release of prisoners could be reached in a matter of days. “The vast majority wants new elections as soon as possible,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2025