It appears that the new regulations prohibiting large-scale demonstrations as part of the campaign against the coronavirus pandemic have failed miserably. Thousands demonstrated Saturday night across Israel against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in Tel Aviv 38 demonstrators were arrested, and hundreds of summonses were distributed by the police. Demonstrators and reporters on the scene blamed the police for the escalation.
Police said that “the protesters did not comply with the emergency regulations and endangered public health.” Of course, it was probably those regulations which enraged thousands of Israelis and drove them to the streets – this time in their communities rather than in front of the PM’s residence in Jerusalem.
In the Gush Dan area, beyond the “official” gathering in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, crowded protests were also recorded at the Clock Square in Jaffa, in Orde’a Square in Ramat Gan, and at the Katznelson Weizmann junction in Givatayim. The Black Flags movement stated that “according to our minimum estimates, more than one hundred thousand demonstrators took to the streets of Israel today to protest against the defendant.”
“The defendant” is the common reference among opposition forces to the prime minister, who is facing three criminal indictments.
The commander of the Yarkon area in Tel Aviv, Lt. Gen. Daniel Levy, referred to allegations of violent arrests by police, saying: “I condemn any use of force that is contrary to policy and law, and if there was such a case we would deal with it.” He then stressed: “The protesters demonstrated violently, we have a policewoman who was injured. Protesters threw eggs at us and our vehicles, still, the Yarkon area is known for its restraint.”
שוטרת נפצעה בהפגנה בתל אביב, וקיבלה טיפול רפואי. מצבה טוב pic.twitter.com/5pa420zcRO
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news)
Levy said that “a great many groups of demonstrators went out to the intersections and to every artery in Tel Aviv, in violation of the regulation that restricted them to capsules of 20, two meters apart. Starting at 5 PM, a lot of people grossly violated this rule, at every possible intersection in Tel Aviv we had dozens and hundreds of such gatherings.”
And so, the government managed to limit the unruly demonstrations of upwards of 10,000 participants to merely hundreds of thousands.
Levy added that “unfortunately, there was no one who obeyed the instructions, both families and those who stood on their own, and so we had to write summonses.”
In Tel Aviv, police blocked Allenby Street from both directions around midnight and prevented protesters from dispersing, keeping them in a virtual corral to prevent them from marching to other parts of the city. The enclosed protesters shouted “Let us go” (see the tweet below).
כעת באלנבי: המשטרה כורזת אתם בהתקהלות אסורה ומאיימת באכיפה. המפגינים קוראים ״תנו לנו לצאת״ ומבקשים ללכת הביתה – מה שהמשטרה לא מאפשרת pic.twitter.com/QH4sV06c4n
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg)
The Police reiterated that the demonstrations were illegal and called on the protesters to disperse, but they continued to walk the streets, some without masks and without keeping the required 2-meter distance from one other. Police further claimed that protesters blocked main junctions, ignored the instructions, and used physical and verbal violence.
MK Bezalel Smotrich issued a radically different view of Saturday night’s demonstrations: “The story of this evening is simple and let no one sell you a false narrative: there are several thousand anarchist criminals who deliberately set out to break the law, defy health regulations, and confront the police who are required to enforce those regulations, and they receive insane support from biased and irresponsible media people who don’t even try to maintain the appearance professionalism.”
Smotrich continued: “It should be emphasized: these are not normative citizens who move on the thin line between law and democracy in legitimate protest activities (as happens from time to time in a democracy), but criminals who organized collectively, consciously, openly, and in advance, to trample the law rudely and irresponsibly, and to endanger the State of Israel, its health and economy, and the struggle against the Corona.”
“I condemn the criminals, back the police in their important and complex task of enforcing the law, and call on them to do so with determination and with an iron fist as required when facing such criminals, to ignore and not be intimidated by hypocritical journalists and politicians who stand by the criminals and threaten to burn down the club with its members and destroy democracy,” Smotrich concluded.
תיעוד: שוטר מכה מפגין בפניו במהלך פיזור המחאה בתל אביב pic.twitter.com/i6Gt0QePkT
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news)
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, who participated in the main demonstration in Habima Square in Tel Aviv, told Kan 11 News the demonstrators were “neither anarchists nor disease spreaders. They are just patriotic Israelis who can no longer take it.”
Huldai was lightly injured by a policeman during the stormy demonstration, he suffered from a bleeding scratch in his hand. He stated: “I am here because I identify with the demonstration. The prime minister wants to stop demonstrations because he wants to avoid a trial – it’s anti-democratic.”
לא אנרכיסטים ולא מפיצי מחלות.
פטריוטים ישראלים שלא יכולים יותר. pic.twitter.com/q0yLeeaUi5— רון חולדאי (@Ron_Huldai)
MK Ofer Shelach, of Yesh Atid-Telem, called on the protesters not to pay the fines they received, saying: “The behavior of the police tonight is a direct result of the madness of the war against the Bibi demonstrations, and the total surrender of Blue&White to this madness. The answer is to increase the protest, and one more thing: do not pay the fines. Choose to stand trial. We’ll see them bring thousands of protesters to court.” Shelach vowed: “I and every elected public official will be there to fight for you.”
Because the safest thing is to trust a politician’s promise.
Chair of the Knesset Interior and Environmental Protection Committee, MK Miki Haimovich (Blue&White – still part of the coalition government), came to the demonstration in Tel Aviv following complaints from protesters about police violence.
“I came to the area to see how things were, and I’m very worried,” she said. “I tried to talk to the event commanders on the ground to prevent violence, but unfortunately without success. The police used unreasonable force tonight, and almost every action taken seemed to fan the flames. In the beginning, things still seemed under control, but after the police brought the cavalry into the demonstration, more and more demonstrators began to pour in from remote demonstrations to Habima Square, where everything got out of hand.”
She concluded: “I hope that the acting commissioner will attend the hearing I convened at the Interior Committee.”