Thirty demonstrators were arrested overnight Sunday and three policemen were injured in a demonstration that took place outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem.
About 15,000 people arrived there to protest Netanyahu’s policy in dealing with the coronavirus crisis and his handling of the economy against the background of his ongoing criminal trial. Police said the protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer.
This is the ninth week in a row that a protest is taking place in Jerusalem, coinciding with protests in front of Netanyahu’s villa in Caesarea and on hundreds of highway overpass bridges throughout the country.
The demonstrators in the capital marched from the entrance to the city, near the Chords Bridge, towards the prime minister’s residence, in defiance of police instructions. The police warned that the march would block all traffic going into Jerusalem and thus harm city residents. Heavy clashes broke out between the protesters and the security forces.
The commander of the Police Zion District, Lt. Gen. Ofer Shomer, on Sunday morning told Reshet Bet radio about a video showing a police beating a demonstrator during Saturday night’s rally.
“It’s currently under examination,” Shomer said. “Two were arrested for assaulting the officer, one of whom admitted to assaulting him. There’s a video showing the officer being punched.”
The commander of the Zion District also said: “Yesterday a detective fell to the ground during an arrest, and one of the protesters kicked him in the ribs, resulting in a broken rib. The demonstrators have made the Israeli police their target, maybe they think it serves their goals. Have I seen complaints of police brutality? What police brutality? There are five wounded policemen. A stone was thrown at policemen. We are being treated in a racist manner, as if we are not contributing to the state, as if only the demonstrators are contributing. They bark at us as if we are dogs, they threaten to put us behind bars as soon as they come to power, to make commissions of inquiry against us. We will continue to maintain democracy and people will be able to demonstrate.”
Lt. Gen. Shomer explained that the clashes with the demonstrators began due to the procession of protesters from the Chords Bridge in Jerusalem: “There was a request from the protesters to conduct a procession from the Chords Bridge towards the city center. We offered them two alternate routes, but they shirked their responsibility and decided to march from the Chords Bridge anyway.”
“This was not an arbitrary decision,” Shomer explained his objections to the procession Saturday night. “The entrance to Jerusalem is a main highway, a blockage there can greatly disrupt life in the city. This can create public disorder on a very difficult level. Protesters came to Shmuel Hanagid Street and they tried to reach the city center and disrupt traffic. Then a group from the opposite political side gathered and a confrontation began. That’s what can happen when the events are not coordinated with the police.”
גל המחאות | קצין משטרה תועד מכה מפגין בעצרת בכיכר פריז בירושלים (צילום: דיווחים בזמן אמת) pic.twitter.com/RbwcIiwHAe
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news)
On Saturday night, Shomer harshly criticized the protesters in Jerusalem, saying: “what we had here was an illegal hate demonstration against the police. The demonstrators are using our first names, incite against us and threaten payback. From what I saw on social media, they shouted at the cops, blatantly violated the law, cursed at cops, insulted us all the way, and eventually walked in the streets of Rehavia and downtown, trying to block traffic – trampling the law with a rough foot tonight. “Unfortunately there is no leadership here, there is one big mess of people that lead them, so at some point we declared the demonstration illegal, and made arrests during the evening. In the end, we dispersed this demonstration using reasonable force.”
MK Moshe Ya’alon (YeshAtid-Telem) on Sunday morning attacked the conduct of the police in an interview on Reshet Bet: “It’s a wicked spirit directed from above. There is a Minister of Internal Security who is Minister of Netanyahu’s Defense. It is unfortunately also projected by the senior police command, in part. The serious thing is, as I said, that I’ve lost faith in Lt. Gen. Shomer, that a lot of people go around saying they have no faith left in the police.”