Constitution, Law, and Judiciary Committee Chairman MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) on Monday morning convened a surprise meeting on “the roadblocking policy of the Israel Police and how it has been applied in recent demonstrations.” The meeting was called against the background of the protests and roadblocks throughout the country, mainly concerning the protests against the judicial reform, on the request of the Im Tirtzu and Regavim movements as well as right-wing MKs. The first leftist MK who made it to the meeting was Gilad Kariv (Labor), who protested the near-clandestine committee meeting.
The discussion included representatives of the Attorney General’s Office and the Israel Police and opened with a call by MKs Ohad Tal (Religious Zionism) and Almog Cohen (Otzma Yehudit) on selective enforcement and unjustified forgiveness of the Israel Police in treating rioting demonstrators who block major highways.
Likud MK Ariel Kallner insisted “there must be one law for all,” and presented photos from right- and left-wing demonstrations that prove different treatment by the Israel Police – water hoses at a right-wing demonstration and letting left-wing demonstrators take over Ayalon Highway, Tel Aviv’s major artery, with no police presence at all.
MK Kariv asked MK Kallner if he also meant the different treatment of the settlers when they burn down Arab villages in Judea and Samaria. And MK Efrat Rayten Marom accused the committee chairman, “You simply want revenge and for our protesters’ arms and legs to be broken.”
Regavim Attorney Boaz Erzi suggested, “It seems that the policy is being enforced according to the public relations of the given demonstration. When is it allowed to interfere with the freedom of movement and when is it not?” He demanded the committee get clear answers regarding the policy for dealing with protesters who block roads.
“The Israel Police lend a hand to anarchy in the streets,” added Erzi. “For months, we have witnessed the police themselves creating chaos: blocking roads long hours before the demonstration begins, or blocking them even when there are only a handful of demonstrators. This is how the police repeatedly allow the left-wing protesters to block our life’s arteries, when to this day only a few protesters have been arrested and not a single indictment has been filed, and the protesters, pretending to be the knights of democracy, trample it every week.”
The response of the State Prosecution at the meeting was: “So far we have received one case from the police regarding risk to human life on a transportation artery.”
The police representative claimed that “there are no red lines that are defined in advance by local precincts, but discretion is exercised.”
Discrimination, thy name is Discretion.
According to the police, since the start of 2023, 626 suspects have been arrested in all the demonstrations, and only 4 indictments filed.” The police do not keep records of the political affiliation of the protesters they arrest.
But the police representative did concede that “Ayalon is an essential evacuation route in an emergency.”
Yes, it is.
