ByESTHER DAVIS
Updated:

Likud MK Elisha Medan was joined on Saturday night by dozens of supporters after he set up a tent outside the Knesset, calling for a unity government.

"This Saturday, I made a decision," Medan wrote on X/Twitter. "I’m heading to Jerusalem to set up a tent next to the Knesset, calling for unity."

"I intend to stay in the tent day and night, in the cold and the rain, to give voice to large sections of the people who keep reaching out to me with their longing for unity."

I came to the Knesset to help this nation remain one people. In recent years, we’ve seen what we can do when we’re together - on the battlefield, on the home front, in volunteering, at home. It’s time the parliament looked that way too," he added. "The tent is open to everyone. Come sit, have a cup of hot tea, and talk."

Medan lost both his legs in an explosion in northern Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war. The explosion killed four other reservists.

Likud MK Elisha Medan sets up his tent outside Knesset as part of his efforts to call for national unity. (credit: Office of MK Elisha Madan
Likud MK Elisha Medan sets up his tent outside Knesset as part of his efforts to call for national unity. (credit: Office of MK Elisha Madan (Likud))

Netanyahu's statement called for national unity gov't with Eisenkot

Medan's demonstration began shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Yashar Chairman Gadi Eisenkot to form a national unity government.

Netanyahu wrote on X that meeting with Eisenkot on Thursday for a security briefing "only strengthened my understanding of how essential it is at this time to establish a national unity government."

"Gadi, Instead of trying to establish a shaky and dangerous government that will be unable to meet, even in part, the immense security and national challenges before us, let us do what is called for."

"Let us enter the room, without preconditions, set aside all our disagreements and all our boycotts, and reach agreements for Israel’s security and future, including on the issue of conscription, which can be resolved together with representatives of the Haredi public."

"We must remove this existential threat [posed by Iran] from over our heads once and for all," Netanyahu wrote. "A narrow government, or a government that relies on supporters of terrorism, will not be able to achieve this monumental goal. But a national unity government can achieve it in time, thereby ensuring Israel’s security for many years to come."