Netanyahu won’t be worried about Israel’s coronavirus protests

The Israeli Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem is located in a leafy neighbourhood of stately villas, many of which date from the era of the British mandate and combine Bauhaus and Arabic architectural styles. Over the last few weeks the neighbourhood has come to resemble more of a protest camp, festooned with a mix of Israeli and black flags and banners calling prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a dictator. Amid the Covid crisis, with Israel suffering a second wave of the virus, the protests are a unique spectacle that could grow into a wider movement.

It is a rare sustained protest against more than ten years of rule by the same man, during a historic period of relative calm and economic growth in Israeli history. Netanyahu is Israel’s political master, surviving three elections over the last year and a half by doggedly clinging to power, despite a corruption trial that began this year and numerous political enemies on the far-left and far-right.