Driver held after swerving toward anti-government protesters on Beersheba sidewalk
Man steered menacingly toward university students rallying against judicial reform plans while yelling at them, police and witnesses say; detainee not suspected of ramming attempt
Police arrested a driver on Tuesday whose car appeared to veer menacingly toward a group of students holding an anti-government protest in Beersheba.
The suspect, a 26-year-old man from the religious city of Elad, was arrested for “endangering a protest group” in Beersheba and brought in for questioning, police said.
The man is accused of steering his car onto a sidewalk where dozens of Ben-Gurion University students had been holding a protest against government plans to limit the judiciary’s powers. According to police, the suspect “stopped [the car] in front of them in a dangerous manner while shouting.”
Police clarified in a statement later Tuesday that the detainee was not currently suspected of attempting to ram the protesters, adding that the investigation was ongoing and that if needed, he would be brought for a remand hearing on Wednesday morning.
“The driver came to the curb and started to shout at us,” Ben-Gurion University student Daniel Guy-Tsabary said. “He already had two wheels on the sidewalk, I hit the car so he would stop, and at that moment he got out and came toward me threateningly.”
The driver yelled that the protesters were “anarchists” and “Ashkenazis,” one protester told the Ynet news site. Ashkenazi Jews of European extraction are often viewed in Israel as a liberal elite.
Several protests have been held in recent days against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government since it rolled out a sweeping judicial reform proposal. On Monday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir ordered police to crack down on the protesters if they stood in traffic or waved “inciting” signs.
רכבו של אדם שהתקרב ברכבו בצורה מסוכנת לסטודנטים המפגינים נגד ההפיכה המשטרית של ממשלת נתניהו. המשטרה עיכבה אותו, עדיין לא ברור אם ייעצר. דניאל גיא צברי, סטודנט שהרכב נסע לכיוונו: "הוא הגיע לקצה הכביש והתחיל לצעוק עלינו. הוא כבר היה עם שני גלגלים על המדרכה, דפקתי על האוטו שיעצור,> pic.twitter.com/hWS5FDz3AY
— Nati Yefet (@ntiyft) January 10, 2023
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said the Beersheba protest had been organized by the university’s local Yesh Atid chapter.
“The government’s incitement will end in bloodshed,” tweeted Lapid, who heads Yesh Atid.
“Miraculously nobody was harmed,” Lapid added, blaming Ben Gvir and Justice Minister Yariv Levin for fomenting unrest. “You won’t succeed in running us over, you won’t succeed in running over the state that we love.”
Coalition and opposition officials have traded blame in recent days over incitement among the public as rhetoric over the planned overhaul has reached a fever pitch.
Speaking at a National Unity party faction meeting on Monday, MK Benny Gantz said the government’s judicial reform plan will lead to “civil war,” and urged the public to head to the streets “en masse and demonstrate; it’s time to make the country tremble.”
Thousands protested against the government in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, gathering in Habima Square and marching through the surrounding streets. Many in the government accused the protesters of inciting against the right wing and lambasted those who held posters comparing Levin to Nazi officials.
Netanyahu on Monday accused Gantz of “planting the seeds of disaster” by calling the public out to the streets while not condemning protesters who compare Netanyahu’s government to Nazis.
“I heard what MK Gantz said and I have to say that I’m shocked,” Netanyahu said, in a clip released by a Likud spokesperson. He added that Gantz’s statements were “a call to sedition from with the Knesset.”
“When someone does not condemn the comparison of the justice minister to a Nazi and of the government of Israel to the Third Reich, he is the one planting the seeds of disaster. I call on you, Benny Gantz, take it back, immediately,” Netanyahu added.
