Flag-waving protester blocks Netanyahu’s car, is tackled by guard
Police reportedly considering charging former Shin Bet agent with harming an officer, disrupting traffic, after incident at anti-corruption demonstration in Beit She’an
An anti-corruption protester who stepped in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s convoy was tackled by a security officer and detained for questioning Saturday night.
The protester was identified as former Shin Bet agent Gonen Ben Yitzhak, a fixture of weekly anti-corruption protests that have dogged the prime minister for over a year.
The incident occurred in the Jordan Valley city of Beit She’an, where Netanyahu was attending a rally in support of MK Jackie Levy, who is running to retake the mayor’s seat in the former development town.
A video of the incident shared on social media showed Ben Yitzhak stepping into the street while waving an Israeli flag as the convoy passed by. A Shin Bet guard can then be seen running up from behind him and shoving him onto the ground and toward the sidewalk, allowing other cars in the convoy to pass by.
#איןלומנדט
המושחת מבלפור נתקל במפגינים גם בבית שאן!!! @GONENB1 @krembo78 pic.twitter.com/8nJaIiVFiU— שרון אור (@sharon27or) October 6, 2018
Police said in a statement that they detained a suspect in his 40s after he stepped into the road the convoy was traveling on.
According to the Haaretz daily, authorities are considering charging him with causing harm to a security officer and disrupting traffic.
The incident occurred as the convoy passed a protest of about 100 people demonstrating against the prime minister, who is suspected in three separate graft cases. Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing in all of them.
There have been weekly anti-corruption protests against Netanyahu for over a year, but they have fizzled from tens of thousands of people to a few hundred or fewer as the investigations have slogged on without any charges.
Ben Yitzhak, a resident of Modi’in, told Haaretz that he sustained slight injuries to his shoulder and hands. He said that this was a rare chance for him to have his voice heard by the prime minister.
“I stood in front of the convoy and yelled at the prime minister ‘sir, you are suspected of corruption’ and the next thing I remember I was on spread out on the ground,” he told Haaretz. “To stand and protest is legal so long as you don’t endanger anyone.”
