The protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit peak on Saturday as more than 30,000 demonstrators gathered in close to close to 300 locations across the country, calling for his resignation, according to the Black Flags protest movement.
The “Jerusalem District Police came unprepared for today’s demonstration. Thousands are cramping up at the borders of the area enclosed by police,” the protest movement said. “We call upon police to allow all demonstrators to use their democratic right to protest against the rule of the defendant.”
Likud Central Committee members said late Saturday the party was preparing a “surprise” at the anti-government protest near his residency.
According to Israel Police foreign press spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, the number of demonstrators on Balfour Street is “over 10,000” and “hundreds of police officers are mobilized in the area to implement health, safety and security measures and prevent any incident from taking place.”
Tensions rose high last week as a group of anti-Netanyahu protesters were reportedly attacked by far-right activists in Tel Aviv with “knives, bats and glass bottles,” 27-year-old protester Shai Sekler said in an interview with Ynet.
“Covered in blood, I saw undercover officers and asked them for help, that they’d call for backup or an ambulance, and they ignored me,” he recalled. “The moment that scared me the most out of all that happened yesterday was that police are here not to protect public order and civil rights,” he said.
“As far as I am concerned, they chose the side of the regime, and that is the result of incitement,” he concluded.
The Right “should start shooting them with live fire. They should be treated like terrorists and even worse,” IDF soldier Mor Cohen posterd on Facebook. “Three minutes of live fire and everyone goes home, and as a bonus we can get rid of this filth.”
According to The Jerusalem Post’s sister-publication, Maariv, Military Police opened an investigation into the comment.
This week “we saw how far the defendant is willing to go against the people of Israel for the sake of his interests,” the Black Flags movement said Saturday, “The incitement and hatred coming out of Balfour targeting citizens proves once again he is unfit for office.”
The violence “coming out of Balfour will not scare us off. With every time they incite against us we will rise, as much as they attack us we shall triumph,” Black Flags added.
“The people of Israel deserve leaders that work for the people, not for tax exemptions, not for benefits from submarine deals – leaders that are busy day and night with fighting the health and economic crisis,” they added.
“We will continue every week – until Bibi (Netanyahu) resigns.”
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