As protests sweep nation, police use aggressive means to clear Tel Aviv rally
Clashes with stun grenades, water cannons mark 1st time these are seen at demos; at least 11 injured, 50 arrested; Netanyahu, Lapid accuse each other of stirring up anarchy
As protesters throughout the country continued their “day of disruption” rallies against the government’s judicial overhaul efforts, violence erupted in Tel Aviv as police aggressively subdued demonstrators attempting to block the Ayalon Highway.
For the first time since protests began some two months ago, cops deployed stun grenades and water cannons to disperse demonstrators near the Azrieli towers. Water cannons were also used at a protest near Pardes Hanna.
At least 11 people injured in clashes with police in Tel Aviv arrived in hospitals for treatment for various bruises, cuts and burns. One man was said to have lost an ear, apparently after being hit with a stun grenade.
And at least 50 people were arrested in the nationwide demonstrations, which blocked roads, disrupted train service, and drew thousands out to march. In one video widely shared online, Border Police were seen subduing a man in Tel Aviv while kneeling on his neck.
Footage from the scene at Hashalom Interchange in Tel Aviv showed police deploying stun grenades and horses, to calls of “shame” by the protesters.
A short while later, police began using water cannons in an attempt to disperse crowds. Several protesters told media outlets they were wounded in altercations with police at the mass rally.
A video showed a group of officers wrestling with a demonstrator before bringing him down to the ground, and one cop kneeling on his neck to subdue him while several others held him down.
ברך על צוואר: על פי הנחיית המשטרה מפברואר 2022: ככלל, אסור להשתמש בברך על צוואר. מדובר באמצעי כח שלא נלמד במסגרת ההכשרה המשטרתית >>>https://t.co/sjQBhyWhlR pic.twitter.com/IoBgpap4TI
— האגודה לזכויות האזרח (@acrionline) March 1, 2023
In a statement, police chief Kobi Shabtai said several police officers were injured in clashes with demonstrators. He said police were committed to allowing protests and free speech so long as demonstrators do not disturb the peace.
“Violence against police officers, such as throwing stones and objects at police officers is, for me, crossing a line, which we will not allow,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused opposition leader MK Yair Lapid of sowing anarchy, saying Lapid’s calls to protest the judicial plan without agreeing to hold compromise talks with the government was a ploy to force fresh elections.
תיעוד: המשטרה השליכה רימוני הלם לעבר מפגינים, אחד המוחים נפצע ושוכב על הרצפה מדמם
צילום: מחאת הסטודנטים pic.twitter.com/kjKeR0b1Bt
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 1, 2023
“It is forbidden to hit police officers, it is forbidden to disrupt the routine life of the country, to block roads,” Netanyahu told reporters in the Knesset.
Lapid “doesn’t want to reach an agreement, he didn’t answer our calls for dialogue, which we keep making and which are in good faith; he wants to prevent that, to bring about a constitutional crisis and by that means, he hopes to get new elections,” Netanyahu said.
Lapid tweeted his response: “Netanyahu, the only anarchy here is being created by the government that has lost the ability to rule.”
“Anyone who lets Ben Gvir play with explosives knows it will end with an explosion,” he said referring to far-right National Security Ministry Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police.
The opposition has said it will not negotiate while the government continues its legislative blitz in parliament. The coalition refuses to pause the process, despite a request by the president to do so to allow talks.
The protests came as the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee approved for its first reading in the Knesset plenum a government-backed bill to radically restrict the High Court of Justice’s ability to strike down legislation, amid opposition outrage directed at committee chair MK Simcha Rothman for his management of the process.
המשטרה החלה לעשות שימוש במכת"זיות בתל אביב | משדר מיוחד >>> https://t.co/SWV0k9FNUl@OferHalfonKan pic.twitter.com/KIB94L0ffm
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 1, 2023
As police aggressively confronted the protesters, Ben Gvir was present at the police’s forward command center, holding a situational assessment with Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai and Tel Aviv police chief Ami Eshed.
Ben Gvir backed the police effort, telling law enforcement officials that there must be “zero tolerance toward anarchists.”
The minister directed his comments toward protesters “who attack policemen, break through police barriers and lead to anarchy.”
Lapid had called on the police to allow the protesters to rally peacefully, urging the police chief “to ignore the dangerous and irresponsible political attempts of Minister Ben Gvir to heat things up even further.”
“The protesters are Israeli patriots and [former] IDF fighters — they are fighting for values of freedom, justice, and democracy,” he said.
Lapid added that the job of the police “is to allow them to express their opinion and fight for the country they love so much.”
תיעוד: המשטרה השליכה רימוני הלם לעבר מפגינים, אחד המוחים נפצע ושוכב על הרצפה מדמם
צילום: מחאת הסטודנטים pic.twitter.com/kjKeR0b1Bt
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 1, 2023
Netanyahu earlier in the day issued a statement condemning the “anarchy” of the protesters and backing Ben Gvir’s call for zero tolerance against demonstrators blocking roads.
“We will not accept violence against police officers, blocking of roads, and blatant violation of the laws,” Netanyahu said. “The right to protest is not the right to anarchy.”
Netanyahu gave “full backing to National Security Minister Ben Gvir and to the Israel Police chief and police officers, who are working against those who violate the law and disrupt the lives of Israeli citizens.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu canceled his planned participation in a Navy officers’ graduation course scheduled for later Wednesday evening.
A schedule from the Prime Minister’s Office had said Netanyahu was due to speak at the ceremony in Haifa at 5 p.m., but by the afternoon he was no longer listed on the list of speakers. The cancellation was thought to be related to the ongoing protests.
Demonstrators also blocked Route 1, laying down barbed wire and chains across the main highway connecting Jerusalem to the coastal area. Other disrupted train services by preventing the doors on carriages from closing.
כביש 1, הכביש המרכזי במדינה – נחסם בגדרות תיל על ידי חבורת פריבילגים, באירוע שהיה ידוע מראש. רוצים לנחש איפה המשטרה?
רמז: יצהר, תפוח, אביתר. pic.twitter.com/L5tKIMZ22n
— מאיר ליוש Meir Layosh (@MeirLayosh) March 1, 2023
פעילי המחאה מונעים יציאת רכבות באזור תל אביב | כל העדכונים >>> https://t.co/Z9v6K0WWzI pic.twitter.com/uv0AVa0gVe
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 1, 2023
Transportation Minister Miri Regev tweeted that “Israeli citizens are not your hostages.”
“A barbed wire fence, roadblocks, tampering with doors and stopping trains, damage to the economy, and risk to human life,” she wrote.”These are not demonstrations, this is an attempted coup by lawbreaking anarchists!”
“The reform is just a poor excuse for the inability of the media and the left to accept the law of the voters,” she continued. “The people are sovereign, not bureaucrats or a bunch of failed and disgruntled politicians. We are here to stay. Get used to it.”
‘Police have decided to take things up a notch’
Several protesters reported that police acted aggressively toward demonstrators.
Omri Lavi told Channel 13 news that a stun grenade exploded next to him during the protest, hurting his legs. “I have cuts on my legs and need to seek medical treatment.”
Lavi said that a woman next to him “was bleeding from her ear” after the stun grenade went off. “There is no doubt that the police have decided to take things up a notch today. They see us as enemies of the nation.”
Dan Peled, 36, a Tel Aviv resident who was injured by a stun grenade and required hospital treatment, told Ynet that “at a certain point, for no observable reason, the police started to move in front of us and fire stun grenades in our direction.”
Peled was treated at Ichilov Medical Center, along with others injured in the clashes.
“It caused a very bad burn and a very strong blow to the shoulder,” he said. “I don’t understand why this happened. Police shouldn’t shoot at demonstrators in any situation or with any weapon.”
Noah Gefen Ron, 41, suffered burns and cuts to her face from an exploding stun grenade.
“Demonstrators who go out to rally legally to protect democracy are not supposed to end up this way in the emergency room,” she told Ynet.
Gefen Ron claimed that she, and the protesters around her, were not blocking the road or acting against police officers at the time.
“I am shocked at the intensity of the wounds and the pains that I am experiencing at the moment,” she said.
Ive Eileen, 42, who arrived at the demonstration in the morning, told The Times of Israel that despite two dozen arrests and police minister claims of “anarchy,” the protests are “nonviolent.”
“No one is pouncing on police officers, they’re pouncing on us. I got a scratch from a female officer,” he said, pointing to a minor cut on his arm.
Shira Aronof, 32, originally from Germany, who has lived in Israel for 19 years, said she witnessed some of the violence against the protesters.
“I saw a lot of pushing, a lot of unnecessary stun grenades. These are mostly peaceful protesters,” Aronof said. “You can see on both sides people are scared. It’s very tense.”
Protester Nava Rozolyo said her Likud-supporter family was “shocked” by the government’s judicial reform program, and that it is not what they expected based on the party’s election platform.
The 36-year-old lawyer lives in Tel Aviv, but comes from a religious family in Jerusalem.
“My family voted for Likud, some voted for Ben Gvir because they thought they needed Ben Gvir to strengthen security,” she said, noting that the judicial reform has made several regret their support.
“Only now after the elections, do they realize and they are in shock about what’s happening. My mom said she’s unable to watch the news, she’s terrified about what is going to happen,” Rozolyo added.
Asked why more were not taking part in rolling protests across the country, Rozolyo said “they’re afraid to come out of the closet,” based on what she said were private conversations with several disgruntled long-time Likud supporters.
Walking by the protest, a middle-aged couple said they would have joined the demonstration, but were dissuaded by its adoption of other causes.
“It should have just been about judicial reform, but instead they also made it about Huwara,” said the man in his 50s, who declined to share his name. “The problem isn’t in Huwara.”
He was referring to a rampage by settlers in the West Bank town on Monday night where they set fire to cars and buildings in revenge for the deaths of two Israelis in a terror attack there earlier that day.
Wednesday’s “day of disruption” includes a series of planned demonstrations and protest marches around the country throughout the day, as well as temporary strikes at various workplaces and schools, the blocking of roads, and “house calls” at or near the homes of coalition lawmakers and ministers.
“Israel won’t become a dictatorship — the millions who have taken to the streets over the past eight weeks have made this clear — and we are now moving on to direct action,” the organizers said in a statement. They called on police to “ignore the neighborhood thug Ben Gavir” and allow the demonstrations to pass peacefully.
