Israeli youth held for planning to attack left-wing protesters
Suspect, 18, was caught with large kitchen knife after throwing bottle at participants in Tel Aviv rally on December 19
An 18-year-old Israeli youth is in police custody for planning to attack left-wing demonstrators at a rally in Tel Aviv on December 19, it was reported Monday.
The youth was arrested at the demonstration after he threw a glass bottle at the protesters, which caused no injury. Chased by police, he was found to be carrying several more bottles and a large kitchen knife, Channel 10 news reported.
Under questioning, the youth, from Holon, said he had intended to attack the protesters, the report said.
Some 3,000 left-wing demonstrators rallied in Tel Aviv that night to protest what they called right-wing incitement against left-wing advocacy organizations, President Reuven Rivlin and others.
Organizers gave the protest the title: “Standing together against a government that incites instead of offering solutions, against the far-right’s attempts to silence and intimidate, from inside the government and from outside.”
The protest began outside Likud party headquarters in the city’s Metzudat Ze’ev neighborhood — “because the hands may be those of Im Tirtzu, but the voice is that of Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet ministers,” charged one organizer quoted by the Walla news site.
The protest marched from there to the memorial for assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin at Rabin Square.
The youth was arrested on the corner of King George Street and Prophets Street.
Channel 10 said it was not clear why news of the arrest was not released earlier.
