Ahead of the March 23 Legislative elections in Israel, a naked-statue resembling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was erected in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square on Wednesday. After finding out the same, municipal authorities put a barricade around it and posted a removal notice.
The charcoal, grey statue depicted the prime minister squatting naked in a corner while his head turned to look at the passerby. Located in the city’s central square it soon drew too much attention of on-lookers.
However, the sculpture is yet to be located and the hunt for the same is in the process. According to news reports, the statue measured five meters tall and weighed six tons and was dubbed “Israeli Hero".
It is being speculated that a statue is a form of protest against the current Prime Minister, who is preparing to run in elections a week from now, reports The Times of Israel.
This is not the first time when residents woke up to a statue of PM Netanyahu. Last year residents of the city of Tel Aviv saw a jarring site: a pop-up exhibit depicting a life-size statue of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enjoying a lavish meal by himself at a sprawling table in a mock re-enactment of the Last Supper.
The installation, displayed in Tel Aviv’s central Rabin Square, was the latest twist in the summer of demonstrations against Netanyahu. In those recent weeks, thousands of people took to the streets, calling on Netanyahu to resign, angry over what they say is his bungled response to an economic crisis caused by the coronavirus and depicting him as a hedonist out of touch with common people.
Israel will hold a snap election next week after parliament failed to meet a deadline to pass a budget in December, triggering a ballot presenting new challenges for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Campaigning in Israel’s fourth parliamentary election in two years gets underway with Netanyahu facing public anger over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and while he is engaged in a corruption trial, the first against an Israeli prime minister.
Israel’s longest-serving leader will also have to contend with a new rival from the right, Gideon Saar, a defector from Netanyahu’s Likud party. An opinion poll on Israel’s Kan public TV on Tuesday showed Saar drawing even with the prime minister.
Netanyahu, who has denied any criminal wrongdoing, and the current defence minister, centrist politician Benny Gantz, established a unity government in May after three inconclusive elections held since April 2019.
But they have been locked in a dispute over the passage of a national budget, the key to implementing a deal in which Gantz was to have taken over from Netanyahu in November 2021. A new election means that “rotation” will never happen.
Some political analysts said Netanyahu had hoped to use the budget dispute to force an election that would get him out of the power-sharing deal with Gantz. But they said he had preferred a ballot in May or June, when a vaccination campaign now underway could bring him more voters.
“If an election is forced upon us, I promise you that we will win,” Netanyahu said in a televised speech on Tuesday, blaming Gantz - who has plunged in the polls - for the early ballot.
( with inputs from Agencies )
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