Disruption Day: Protesters block highways, demonstrate across Israel

Dozens of protesters blocked the Ayalon highway southbound on Thursday morning near Giv’at HaTahmoshet St. in Tel Aviv, according to Israel police. The demonstrators were cleared by security forces within an hour, and the highway was reopened to traffic just after 12 p.m. 

Protest group “Brothers in Arms” arranged a pile of bloodied mannequins in front of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Kiryat Arba home on Thursday morning for Israel’s “Disruption Day,” to call attention to the ongoing issue of violence in the Arab sector as well as femicide in Israel in general.

In the West Bank settlement of Kedumim, Brothers in Arms teamed up with the “Democratic Religious Zionist” protest group to pray shacharit (morning prayers) in front of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich‘s home. Demonstrators were also heard chanting, “true religious Zionism is carrying the burden,  not immortalizing the shtetl.”

The protests are part of a nationwide “Disruption Day,” which is also being called “Equality Day.” Protest organizers clarified that the overall event is entitled “Disruption Day to Demand Equality.”

Tel Aviv Disruption Day protest events

In Tel Aviv, demonstrators threw cereal into the fountain in HaBima Square to protest against the cost of living in Israel.

Representatives of Israel’s hi-tech sector constructed a display entitled, ”If hi-tech falls, we all fall” at HaBima Square in Tel Aviv on May 4, 2023 as part of the national ”Day of Equality.” (credit: TALI MELAMED)

The water was dyed white to look like milk, and accompanied by signs saying, “here [we] cry over spilled milk” and “what about life itself?”

פעילים ביצעו הבוקר מיצג מחאה בכיכר הבימה בתל אביב במסגרתו צבעו את המים בכיכר בלבן, שפכו קורנפלקס ותלו שלט עליו נכתב ״ומה עם החיים עצמם״ ושלט נוסף עליו הם כתבו ״כן בוכים על חלב שנשפך״. המחאה היא בעקבות עלית מחירי החלב וכחלק מפעולות יום השיבוש צילום: @tomerappelbaum pic.twitter.com/dyq7KnC8gh

— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) May 4, 2023

Also at HaBima, representatives of Israel’s hi-tech sector constructed a display entitled, “If hi-tech falls, we all fall.” Activists set up 10 giant dominoes in a row, each about six feet tall, to illustrate that when the hi-tech “domino” falls, it will set up a chain reaction in the Israeli economy and society at large. “The deterioration of hi-tech will lead to fatal damage to the state’s revenue [streams], and like dominoes, the health, education, welfare and infrastructure systems will collapse one after the other,” wrote hi-tech protest organizers. 

Ongoing protest initiatives and arrests

Later in the morning, dozens of women in Tel Aviv marched in front of the Rabbinate building in Tel Aviv on King David St. dressed in red Handmaid’s Tale costumes. 

The performance is intended to warn against the transformation of Israel from an egalitarian democracy into a theocracy that separates women and dismisses their rights, similar to the dystopian world of The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel by author Margaret Atwood that recently was successfully adapted for television. 

Several such performances have taken place during judicial reform protests over the last several months.  

Israelis dressed as characters from The Handmaid’s Tale television show protest the Israeli government’s planned judicial overhaul, in Tel Aviv, May 4, 2023. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)

Seperately, Israel police arrested a protester at HaKfar HaYarok in Ramat Hasharon on suspicion of disturbing the peace. 

Road blockings, disruptions expected across Israel

Dozens of demonstrations are expected in towns and cities and on roads and bridges across the country, from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat. Demonstrators will likely try to block roads and highways in multiple locations, including Highway 6, Highway 4 and the Ayalon highway.

The organizers of the protests announced the “day of disruption” during the weekly anti-judicial reform protests in Tel Aviv this past Saturday night, stating “the days in which one side serves the country and also funds the yeshivas – while they try and establish a halachic dictatorship here – are over.”

The protest organizers added on Wednesday that they will begin to block roads and create disruptions in central locations throughout the country starting at 8 a.m.

Student protest groups will hold marches and demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Sderot, Givat Shmuel, the Metzudot junction, Beersheba, Rehovot and Holon.

Demonstrations will also be carried out in front of branches of the Rabbinate in multiple cities. Many of the planned protests center around demands for Haredim to be required to draft to the IDF, as well as complaints about the security situation and the cost of living crisis.

The protests come as haredi members of the coalition threaten to topple the government if a Draft Law which would provide widescale exemptions to many Haredim from having to draft to the IDF.

JPost