Israeli anti-war protests continued Sunday evening in Tel Aviv [1], with demonstrations reported in more than twenty Israeli cities. In Tel Aviv, police dispersed the Habima Square crowd using force, according to multiple reports from participants and international observers. Accounts on X documented beatings and pushed barriers.

The same day, Israeli police blocked Christian pilgrims from entering the Old City through Jaffa Gate for Palm Sunday processions. Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch described the blockade in a statement, calling it an unprecedented interference with Christian practice during Holy Week. Israeli authorities cited security conditions stemming from the war.

This paper reported the Saturday protests as a continuation of the domestic anti-war movement that has organized weekly in Israeli cities since the third week of the war. The protests oppose the Iran war itself and what organizers describe as Netanyahu's consolidation of emergency powers during wartime. The two grievances are not separable — the war provides the legal architecture for the emergency measures that the protests are also opposing.

Sunday's police response was notable for its intensity given the Houthi attack situation. Air defense resources were deployed for the third wave threat. Simultaneously, police were deployed to disperse civilian demonstrations. Israel is fighting a three-front war while managing domestic dissent that its government has so far refused to categorize as legitimate political opposition. The Palm Sunday blockade adds a dimension: the government is also, in the middle of a war, restricting Christian religious practice in a city watched closely by every Christian denomination on earth.

The international community has not formally commented on the domestic crackdown. It is watching the missiles.

-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem