For the third night in a row, thousands of anarchists, under the guise of supporting the hostages’ families, rallied outside the Knesset on Tuesday and later tried to breach the Prime Minister’s residence. One police officer was injured by a protester who threw an iron fence at him, and a mounted police officer was set on fire by a torch thrown at him by another protester.
Perhaps Defense Minister Yoav Gallant who spoke about Israel’s facing seven fronts should add an eighth?
תיעוד: חמישה מפגינים נעצרו בהפגנות בירושלים@VeredPelman pic.twitter.com/LYjX9oTqHP
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) April 2, 2024
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir pointed an accusing finger at the Shin Bet, saying, “Only last week, I warned the head of the Shin Bet about the lackadaisical treatment of the Prime Minister’s security and was dismissed contemptuously. I demand that the Shin Bet wake up immediately and take seriously the security of the Prime Minister of Israel and his family. A situation in which thousands of people break into the area near the prime minister’s residence and the Shin Bet turns a blind eye is inconceivable.”
Watch: a burning torch thrown at a mounted policeman at the anarchist rally:
The head of the Shin Bet, Ronan Bar, said Tuesday night that “this is a worrying trend that could lead to dangerous areas that should not be reached.” By which he meant a full-blown insurrection.
A senior Shin Bet official told senior police officials that “yesterday’s incident could have ended with the police firing on the protesters who broke through the fences and reached the entrance to the building. Red lines were crossed yesterday.”
The Prime Minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu, posted on Telegram that “violent marches with torches were a hallmark of the Nazis.”
He was not wrong. The Israeli extremist left is strangely influenced by the extremist right in the West. Back in the summer of 2017, the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, featured angry white men carrying torches who belonged to the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and far-right militias.
The leader of the Israeli insurrection, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, has made no secret of his murder fantasies, revealing in a July 2020 video:
“A friend of mine, a historian, once told me, Ehud, they will call you when bodies will float in the Yarkon River. I wish to stress: not the bodies of illegally residing Palestinians from the territories will be floating, and not Israeli Arabs. The floating bodies will be of Jews that were killed by Jews.”
According to the Shin Bet, Bar warned Tuesday night that “The violent discourse on the Internet and some of the scenes we saw tonight in Jerusalem, go beyond the accepted rules of protest, harm the ability to maintain public order, and may lead to violent friction with the security forces, hinder them from fulfilling their duties, and even harm politicians who are being guarded.”
Bar added, “There is a clear line between a legitimate protest and a violent and illegal protest.”
One would think that the head of the clandestine police agency who detects such danger to his country’s democracy would order the roundup for questioning of suspects, including the presumed mastermind of these violent insurgencies, Ehud Barak. But none of that was even contemplated, at a time when several Jewish settlers are being kept in administrative detention, largely for being Jewish settlers.
Ronen Bar who failed to foresee the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, is failing to see the coming violent coup in the streets of Israel.
לאחר פריצת המחסום כמה עשרות מפגינים שנבלמו ונהדפו עמדו בפינת רחוב ברלין, המשטרה התיזה עליהם בואש. להבנתי מוקדי ההפגנה בירושלים התפזרו. כמעט חמש שעות של הפגנה, ושלוש שעות של צעדות לעבר רחביה. 5 מפגינים נעצרו, משליך הלפיד לעבר השוטר להבנתי לא ביניהם. ימ״ר ירושלים חוקר את האירוע… pic.twitter.com/D9wxQ6KoMc
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) April 2, 2024
The Police issued a statement saying officers acted “to secure the many protestors and maintain public peace and order,” but “some of the protesters decided to riot and try to get near the Prime Minister’s residence, in violation of the court’s decision. The police stopped them and pushed back those who did not obey the policemen’s instructions to the distance allowed for a demonstration at that location. Also, some rioters moved police fences to block additional roads and violate the order, and some of them threw torches in the direction of the mounted police, a dangerous, illegal, and irresponsible act.”
MK Tali Gottlieb did not mince words, stating, “The Shin Bet leadership that failed to protect Rehavam Zeevi, Yitzhak Rabin, and also failed on October 7, should know there is an open incitement to assassinate the Prime Minister. And don’t say you didn’t know.”
In the end, only five protesters were arrested Tuesday night for violating public order and for violent rioting. Also, the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office launched an investigation following the throwing of a flaming torch at a police trooper.
