Two prominent leaders of Israel’s protest movement against the government’s judicial overhaul are entering formal politics, joining the Democrats party led by former deputy military chief Yair Golan, the party announced Tuesday.
Golan said Moshe Radman and Ami Dror, key figures in the mass protests that have shaken Israel over the past three years, will join the party along with several other protest activists. Danny Elgarat, the brother of Itzik Elgarat, a hostage who was killed in Hamas captivity, is also expected to join.
“This evening marks the most natural and necessary transition of the past three years,” Golan said. “The protest is not our guest — it is part of our backbone. These are the parents and children who stood on bridges waving flags and shouting ‘democracy,’ and the citizens who filled the squares with persistence and determination.”
Radman and other protest leaders are expected to run in party primaries. Under an agreement signed about 18 months ago between the Democrats and the left-wing Meretz party, the two groups are to hold joint primaries ahead of the next national election, with guaranteed representation for Meretz candidates.
Additional figures joining the party include Moran Michel, Hadas Ragolsky, Tomer Avital, Lee Hoffman, Kati Piasecki and Dr. Rotem Sivan.
Radman, 41, was born in the central Israeli city of Lod and served as an intelligence officer in the military. After earning a degree in economics, he co-founded a data-driven customer management company in 2014. His business activity largely halted after he became one of the most visible leaders of the protests against the judicial overhaul, founding the “High-Tech Protest” movement and delivering frequent speeches at demonstrations nationwide.
Over the past three years, Radman has been detained several times, mainly for blocking roads. In March 2024, a district court judge barred him from participating in protests for two months.
Dror, 52, grew up in the southern city of Ashkelon and served as a tank commander in the military. After the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, he joined Israel’s state unit responsible for securing senior officials and delegations, later guarding former prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. He later worked for the Foreign Ministry, serving in Ireland and France.
Dror joined the protest movement in January 2023 following Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s announcement of the judicial overhaul. In July 2024, police questioned him on suspicion of incitement to violence against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over remarks made at a protest near the prime minister’s private residence.
Michel, 47, a documentary editor and content creator, is a well-known protest activist who was arrested during demonstrations and injured when struck by a police horse at another protest. In an August social media post announcing her decision to enter politics, she wrote that what protesters achieved in the streets must now be carried into the Knesset.
Ragolsky, 52, a Tel Aviv city council member, is a leading figure in women-led protests and a founder of the “Building an Alternative” movement. Avital, 43, is an independent journalist and founder of the transparency outlet Shakuf and the civic initiative Lobby 99. Piasecki, 42, is a Bat Yam city council member who previously ran in Meretz primaries.