Israeli Lawmaker Naama Lazimi Isn’t Afraid of Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir.
Labor Party MK Naama Lazimi, center, at an anti-government protest in Tel Aviv last month.Credit: Tomer Appelbaum
Allison Kaplan Sommer reports in Haaretz
Labor MK Naama Lazimi has been a prominent presence on the front lines of anti-government protests in recent months, fighting alongside hostage families for the return of their loved ones from Gaza. “I’m a parliamentary opposition member, it’s my duty to do whatever I can to rein in the police and stand in solidarity,” she says
At the Tel Aviv anti-government demonstrations last Saturday, Naama Lazimi made the dramatic transformation she has performed regularly in recent weeks: from smiling, glad-handing politician to fierce street fighter defiantly confronting the police.
Lazimi, 38, a Labor Party lawmaker since 2021, arrived early in the evening at the Kaplan Street demonstration. For the next two hours, casually dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt with red sneakers, she calmly wove her way through the groups of protesters, smiling and greeting acquaintances, indistinguishable from anyone else.
The only thing that gave away her status was the presence of a young parliamentary aide, Ofir Dayan, who followed her around and recorded her every move, snapping selfies for those in the crowd who recognized her.
As the official speeches took place ahead of Memorial Day, with bereaved parents and families of fallen soldiers attacking the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Lazimi stood quietly and listened.
During the breaks between speakers, she edged her way north, arriving at the more fiery demonstration with the families of hostages who are being held by Hamas. There, her presence grabbed more attention. She was a celebrity – particularly among the 20-somethings wearing uniforms of the left-wing youth movement or T-shirts bearing logos of the independent protest groups that have emerged over the past two years in the large-scale demonstrations against, first, the government’s judicial overhaul and now its behavior over the course of the Gaza War.
Standing among the banging drums and shouting protesters, Lazimi was cool and relaxed. And then, in a flash, everything changed.
All the while, she had been talking to acquaintances, glancing at her phone, keeping her finger on the pulse of the activist leaders – and learned, as it approached 10 P.M., that they were ready to cross the intersection of Kaplan and Begin streets and head down onto the Ayalon Highway.
Her warm brown eyes narrowed and grew intense. “Let’s go!” she told Dayan and began striding quickly, racing to take her place at the front of the growing human wave heading in that direction. Her haste was justified. Police officers soon began slamming metal barriers between the demonstrators and the road to the highway exits. Flanked by mounted police using their horses to drive the crowd back as water cannon trucks took their positions, they soon began dousing any demonstrators nearing the barriers. Undeterred, Lazimi raised her arm, holding her white Knesset ID card like a banner and identifying herself as a Knesset member, using her parliamentary immunity to get through.
Dayan hurried to keep up, continuing to take photos and film, and keeping track of updates from protesters regarding their location and on any detentions and arrests as they moved to block the highway. They were led by hostage family members under the banner “Netanyahu is sacrificing the country and sending our families to their death for political reasons.”