Israel’s Minister of Economy and former Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Thursday was accosted by a protester who broke through the line of the minister’s security personnel. Barkat was on his way to a meeting with the leaders of the Jewish community in Boston.
Barkat’s security eventually restrained the man who consequently require hospital treatment.
Barkat said in response: “Political murder is a matter of time in the State of Israel. Under the auspices of the protest, some shed the blood of elected officials. We are on a slippery and dangerous slope. I thank the security guards of the Personal Security Unit who repelled the attacker and prevented me from being harmed. Violence is an erosion of the foundation of democracy.”
Ami Dror, a hi-tech entrepreneur and an Aspen Institute moderator, posted a video of the event, boasting: “Barkat, we will chase you everywhere! Even in Boston.” Obviously, this includes Boston’s emergency rooms, where the attacking anarchist ended up.
ברקת, נרדוף אותך בכל מקום! גם בבוסטון @NirBarkat pic.twitter.com/4LgRLeR0jp
— Ami Dror ?? עמי דרור (@AmiDror) June 8, 2023
Barkat’s office issued a statement Thursday, saying an Israeli citizen tried to physically attack the minister in a demonstration that was held during his official visit to Boston. The announcement stated: “Several protesters tried to physically reach Minister Barkat and tried to repel the security guards of the Personal Security Unit. Thanks to the minister’s security guards, physical harm to an Israeli government minister was avoided. The Israeli consulate’s security officer filed a police complaint against the attacker – who was arrested.”
The attacker also issued a statement, saying: “I, Yaniv Bejerano, am speaking here from the hospital in Boston after Nir Barkat’s security guards pushed me with great force and broke my femur and I will have to undergo surgery soon. All we tried to do was shout ‘shame’ at Barkat and his security guards reacted with crazy violence. Our protest in Boston – we have always maintained a non-violent line and we are shocked by the violence used by his security guards. We will continue this protest in a non-violent manner, this is our way, this is the way of the protest and we will continue it.”
Speaking of non-violence, on April 27, Economy Minister Nir Barkat and his staff were violently attacked when the minister was on his way to his car in Tel Aviv. Police forces that arrived at the scene confronted the attackers and arrested some of them.
Barkat’s office said at the time that “several rioters physically confronted the minister’s security guards and policemen while trying to reach him and hurt him. The minister’s security guards and the policemen protected him with their bodies. The rioters also violently attacked the policemen, and one policeman was taken by ambulance to receive medical treatment at a hospital.”
You see the difference? In Boston the criminal ends up in the emergency room, in Tel Aviv, it’s the cops.
But on May 15, Barkat was assaulted by a group of anarchists in the Kfar Blum Hotel where he was going to speak. This time it wasn’t his security detail but the hotel’s Druze employees who beat the living daylights out of the uninvited guests:
מוחים שהגיעו להפגין בכנס בכפר בלום שבו משתתף ניר ברקת הותקפו | תיעוד@rubih67 pic.twitter.com/WucVYAXQom
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 15, 2023
These incidents of tough love may not deter the small group of hardcore and presumably well-paid anarchists, but they might tame everyone else into keeping their protests civilized.
