![Mounted policeman whipping a demonstrator on Ayalon Highway, April 1, 2023](https://www.jewishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Mounted-policeman-whipping-a-demonstrator-on-Ayalon-Highway-April-1-2023-696x461.jpg)
![Mounted policeman whipping a demonstrator on Ayalon Highway, April 1, 2023](https://www.jewishpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Mounted-policeman-whipping-a-demonstrator-on-Ayalon-Highway-April-1-2023-696x461.jpg)
Yael Reuveni, a female protester against the judicial reform on Saturday night was whipped by a mounted police officer when she was marching on the Ayalon Highway. She said the officer had used disproportionate force and used his whip on her while she was already on her way to clear the road (watch the whipping in the second video).
תיעוד מההפגנה בתל אביב: פרש משטרתי מכה מפגינה באלה| עדכונים שוטפים >>> https://t.co/seflcJeHck@shani_na pic.twitter.com/t2oKmNIyV7
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) April 1, 2023
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who normally backs up policemen in these situations, said Sunday morning: “The documentation last night from Tel Aviv showing violence against a protester is disturbing. I intend to contact Tel Aviv district commander Ami Eshed and demand clarifications about the incident.”
Ami Eshed was the chief of the police Tel Aviv district Ben Gvir and Commissioner Kobi Shabtai wanted to remove from his post for being too lax with left-wing demonstrators, but Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara intervened and froze the move––with no legal foundation.
But even before checking with Eshed, Ben Gvir announced: “At the same time, I strongly condemn the shocking incitement slurs that were hurled at the police such as ‘Nazis,’ which cheapen the value of the Holocaust, along with serious harm to police horses, and I call on the state prosecution to prosecute the instigators and law breakers.”
About that: the whipping policeman said he hit the protester after she had hit his horse with a flagstick. First, as you can see in the video above, she didn’t. Also, Reuveni responded: “I work with horses as a therapeutic instructor. The last thing I would do is attack a horse. What I was holding in front of me was a cardboard sign in an attempt to protect myself from the horse after it stepped on me, on my foot, and [the rider] continued to hit me with his whip.”