| Submit your comments on this article |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| 2 arrested, several hurt by cops at rally against PM after Shin Bet head’s court filing |
| 2025-04-22 |
”Mostly peaceful”, no doubt. Tiresome, definitely. And probably between half and an order of magnitude fewer protesters than claimed. [IsraelTimes] “Thousands”…scare quotes mine… gather in Tel Aviv, say Netanyahu ‘unfit’ to serve after Ronin Bar said premier urged him to curb protesters; mounted police whip photojournalist, allegedly hurt protest leader.Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square Monday night in an impromptu demonstration called after Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a court filing of having sought to use the domestic security agency against activists opposed to the premier. “The Shin Bet chief revealed today a dangerous attempt by Netanyahu to turn the Shin Bet into a tyrannical tool for persecuting Israeli citizens. He ordered monitoring of citizens, asked for information about them, and in secret talks demanded that the Shin Bet head obey him rather than the law,” a statement from protest leaders said, summing up some of the details included in Bar’s court submission. “This is a clear and immediate danger to Israeli democracy, posed by someone whose office received money from Qatar, Hamas’s chief sponsor, during wartime,” they argued, echoing suspicions at the basis of the Qatargate affair. “Netanyahu has lost all legitimacy to lead,” they charged. “He’s unfit to serve.” Speakers at the event included The Democrats party leader Yair Golan, former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, and various protest leaders. A group of lawyers who give pro bono representation to anti-government activists said two protesters were arrested at the Begin-HaHashmonaim intersection and taken to central Tel Aviv’s Lev police station. According to Haaretz, they were among a group of protesters who marched from Habima toward the Ayalon Highway. The two were detained after sitting down on the street and refusing police orders to clear the road, Haaretz reported. A mounted police officer appeared to whip a Haaretz photojournalist during the stormy protest. Several videos uploaded to social media showed a policeman on horseback hitting Itai Ron with his riding crop, causing Ron to lurch backwards. Footage showed mounted officers bumping up against protesters who had already vacated the road and were standing on the sidewalk, in compliance with the police orders. When marchers reached Begin Road, Lev Tel Aviv station chief Deputy Superintendent Micha Gafni declared the demonstration illegal and called for the “arrests of the protest leaders” through a megaphone. A police horse also trampled on the foot of prominent anti-Netanyahu activist Moshe Radman, who required treatment from a volunteer medic, organizers said. Bar was fired in a cabinet decision on March 21 at Netanyahu’s recommendation after the prime minister said he had lost faith in Bar’s ability to do his job. The High Court of Justice froze Bar’s dismissal and told the government and the Attorney General’s Office to work out a solution for resolving the procedural failures, while also inviting Bar to submit his version of events to the court. Bar submitted an eight-page public statement on Monday via the State Attorney’s Office, along with a 31-page classified statement with five appendices providing greater detail and documentation of his claims. Mr. Bar was clearly insubordinate, and should have been fired for that alone, never mind compounding factors. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 Grom, do you remember during the anti-judicial reform protests (same people, different putative cause) when the protest leaders flew to America to meet with a group of rich Progressive donors to work out approaches and funding? One of them was Daniel Lubetzky, who founded PeaceWorks in the 1990s and the OneVoice Movement in 2002, and I believe went on to support the anti-Bibi Victory2015 effort. He’s apparently been quietly advocating here at home against the Hamas protesters since 10/7. He and a group of his friends helped New York City’s Mayor Adams see that what was going on at Columbia U is unacceptable. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2025-04-22 22:05 |
| #1 I'm still curious about the funding - pretty extensive: going by professionally printed signs, anti-Bibi posters on every bus station, etc.. - of these protests. |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-04-22 09:20 |