Israeli left-wing groups have begun relocating the country's coalition talks into the Caesarea villa of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after organisers concluded that the arrangement "should not be presented a second time" and therefore must be carried out in full. Demonstrators who gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday were bused to the villa in relays, and the first negotiating table was carried through its front door on Sunday morning by volunteers in matching grey vests.
Organisers say the move is intended to make the transition irreversible. Every door in the residence has been relabelled in Hebrew and Arabic, the dining room has been converted into a committee room with thirty-one chairs, and the swimming pool has been drained to make space for a rotating podium. A spokesperson for the coalition working group said that "anyone who wants to enter the building must first agree to include the Arab parties in the government, and the staff have been instructed to ask this at every gate."
The villa's gardeners have been reassigned to carry sandbags along the perimeter fence, and a temporary ministry of cafeteria affairs has opened on the terrace to feed negotiators in shifts of six hours. Local residents of Caesarea say they have been asked to keep their cars out of the lane, and a neighbourhood committee has begun drafting a timetable for who may walk their dogs past the building.
Asked what would happen when the talks end, a volunteer coordinator replied calmly that the group intends to stay in the house until the next election, "because the occasion will not come a second time and we have nowhere else to put the coffee machine."