JERUSALEM: As most Israelis rally behind the country’s second offensive against Iran in under a year, a small group of anti-war activists equipped with posters and loudspeakers have mobilised to voice dissent.
According to national polls published since the joint US-Israel invasion began on Feb 28, a majority of Jewish Israelis and a broad sweep of politicians from across the spectrum support the ongoing campaign of strikes on Iran,
But over the weekend, a few dozen protesters holding placards reading “oppose the war” and “silence means consent” gathered in Tel Aviv - the second such rally in a week.
“We are against this war because it’s just another war in an endless amount of wars,” said Iddo Elam, 19, an activist and conscientious objector to Israel’s mandatory military service.
Even the opposition is convinced their role right now is not to ask any questions and to automatically support Netanyahu
“Last June, in the last attack on Iran, we were also promised security and peace,” said Elam, who served time in prison for refusing the conscription.
“It just goes to show that the reason to go to war is not our own wellbeing. It’s not the wellbeing of the Iranian people. It’s mostly the geopolitical reasons of Trump and Netanyahu,” he added.
The group includes left-wing activists who have objected to Israel’s previous military campaigns and the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Similar small-scale demonstrations were also held in Jerusalem and Haifa over the weekend.
A handful of right-wing activists staged a counter-protest at the Tel Aviv rally, which was swiftly dispersed by police.
“It’s very isolating, very hard,” Elam told AFP.
“A lot of people are sending us death threats, sending us wishing of ailment online because they do not agree with us,” he said, adding that he had received abuse “a lot in the past week”.
‘No opposition’
According to an opinion poll published Wednesday by the Israel Democracy Institute, 93 per cent of Jewish Israelis back the strikes on Iran, with the survey finding a majority of support across the political spectrum.
“There’s nobody in the Jewish political world in Israel, and very few people in the public too, who disagree that Iran is the biggest material security threat to the country,” Dahlia Scheindlin, an Israeli pollster and political analyst, told AFP.
“Israelis are completely convinced of that,” she added, explaining that PM Benjamin Netanyahu “has deeply undermined the entire idea of diplomacy with Iran, and in fact, for any conflict resolution”.
Among Israel’s Arab minority, however, support for the strikes stands at only 26pc, according to the Israel Democracy Institute poll.
Scheindlin suggested this could be down to the Arab public viewing the renewed campaign as “another example of Israel dragging the country into war”, which she said “never works out well for the Arab citizens”.
“Unfortunately the opposition in Israel is convinced that their role right now is not to ask any questions and to automatically support Netanyahu,” Alon-Lee Green, the co-director of Israeli-Palestinian grassroots group Standing Together, said.
Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2026
