Dictator: don’t look back! With this slogan, Israeli demonstrators booed their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahuduring his episodic departure from Ben Gurion International Airport to Rome, where he makes a three-day visit.

Continuing a cycle of popular protests that have raged for two months against Netanyahu’s attempt to impeach Justice, mounted protesters have created a traffic jam on the road leading to the airport. At the risk of missing his flight, Netanyahu had to be airlifted to Ben Gurion, handing a symbolic victory to the protesters, who now had in their hands a graphic depiction of the distance separating him from most of society.

The protests in Israel also changed the plans of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who had originally planned to spend the night in Tel Aviv on Wednesday and meet with Netanyahu on Thursday. Finally, Austin landed in Ben Gurion yesterday morning and met with the Israeli prime minister at a nearby factory for an hour.

The main topic of discussion was the new cycle of violence in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, where more than 70 Palestinians and 14 Israelis have been killed since the beginning of the year. The Pentagon has made no secret of its concern about the Israeli raids and their wider implications.

“Defense Secretary Austin has called for an end to unilateral actions that undermine the two-state goal,” the Pentagon said in a statement regarding the Netanyahu meeting. A senior official in the same ministry told Reuters that Israel’s actions in the West Bank “detract from the need to focus on the strategic threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program and its aggressive regional policies.”

During yesterday’s Day of Action, dozens of activists, including six former naval commanders, tried to blockade the port of Haifa with a flotilla of sailboats, rowing boats and kayaks. Earlier, civil disobedience conscripts laid siege to the offices of a conservative think tank in Jerusalem that supports justice “reform” efforts.

World-renowned historian and writer Yuval Noah Harari is also among the fighters against the government’s plans. Referring to the recent demonstration in Tel Aviv, Harari spoke of the government’s “anti-democratic takeover” and told the prime minister and his allies, “Hands off our freedoms! Stop the coup or we will stop the country!”

In an interview with La Repubblica, Netanyahu asked the Italian government to move its embassy to Jerusalem, while offering to supply it with hydrocarbons. The head of the far-right League, Matteo Salvini, immediately supported his request.