Following a weak showing at last Saturday night’s anti-judicial reform rally (estimates put it at between 15 and 20 thousand), the protest organizers want to take advantage of the four weeks remaining in the Knesset summer session to portray themselves as those who succeeded in blocking the legislation. They fear that come the winter session, after the high holidays, they would lose their momentum.
Bar Peleg reported in Haaretz Sunday that the anarchists intend to hold “resistance actions” almost every day of the coming weeks, including demonstrations outside government buildings. Among other things, they will set up blockades of main traffic routes such as Highway 6, the country’s toll, high-speed artery; blockade of the seaports; a plethora of borderline violent demonstrations outside the homes of Coalition members, in the style of last week’s rally outside Justice Minister Yariv Levin, where barbed wire and burning tires were used; and a mass demonstration two weeks from now outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The NYC chapter of the anarchist’s cabal declared a demonstration “rain or shine” on Sunday at noon, across the street from the Israeli Consulate at 800 Second Avenue. As they put it: “We protest against the government of destruction and its plan to abolish the Reasonableness Doctrine, and against ministers who send criminals to burn villages – We protest against the government of destruction!”
It should be noted that normally that sidewalk is reserved for the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta and Satmar folks, so, it’s nice to see this new brand of religious fanatics who hate Israel join those forces.
On Monday, the anarchists are planning a large demonstration in Terminal 3 of Ben Gurion International Airport. Anarchist leader Yishai Hadas, who belongs to the WhatsApp group that includes Ehud Barak and Moshe Yaalon, was the brains behind this action, explaining: “The airport is the glass ceiling of the so-called ‘legitimate demonstration’ here in Israel, which must move a little. We have to invent something new of our own.”
On Saturday night, a United Airlines flight to Newark was forced to return to Ben Gurion for an emergency landing because of a broken window. This incident made it clear to the Israel Police that tolerating the blocking of Ben Gurion’s access roads could result in a massive disaster.
In the words of the spokesperson for Ben Gurion International put it: “As soon as the malfunction was discovered, the plane made its way back to BGI, which was prepared for an emergency landing. There were 339 passengers and crew members on the plane whose lives and rescue depended on the emergency teams on the ground. As part of the assessments for the emergency landing, dozens of ambulances, firefighters, police, and emergency teams arrived at the airport from all over metropolitan Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and prepared for the plane to land.”
In other words, if the airport is jam-packed by protesters, driving their cars slowly from one end to the other, people could die.
Police Central District Commander Superintendent Avi Biton warned that the police would allow demonstrations at Ben Gurion, but not blocking the traffic arteries. “Blocking the roads could put tens of thousands more at risk, show some responsibility to avoid a catastrophe we will regret.”
Hadas instructed his fellow middle-class anarchists: “Those who arrive by car were instructed to drive slowly, beep, circle the airport three times, then park and arrive at the demonstration.” In recent protests involving slow-going vehicles at the airport, the police managed to deal with the situation by narrowing lanes, diverting traffic outside the airport, and handing out reports. Should privileged anarchists choose to abandon their cars and leave, the police are ready with tow trucks.
