11 arrested in mass brawl in Lod after far-right ‘sovereignty march’ in Arab neighborhood

Eleven people, including a woman and a minor, have been arrested in a brawl involving dozens of people in Lod, police say, after far-right activists led a self-proclaimed “sovereignty march” in an Arab area of the city. Police also deny claims that a stabbing took place.

Lod Mayor Yair Revivo says in a statement that “extremists came from outside the city to stoke tensions” and were joined by some 20 boys and teens from a local yeshiva high school.

After police dispersed the group, the local boys chanted derogatory slogans outside Arab homes, sparking a “violent altercation that ended with injuries and arrests on both sides,” Revivo says.

“I’m seething with rage,” he says. “A group comes from outside, sets the area on fire and disappears, and leaves us to deal with the consequences.”

Revivo adds that since the May 2021 violence that wracked mixed Arab-Jewish cities, including Lod, “we’ve managed to maintain relative calm in the city.”

“I’ve no intention to let anyone take us back to those horrible days,” Revivo says, calling on both Jewish and Arab community leaders to “talk to the youth” in their respective communities.

Revivo also says he updated Shin Bet chief David Zini about the developments and “the genuine fear of another escalation.”

“It’s disturbing to me that police and I have been alone in this situation for hours,” Revivo says. “It would be too bad for the Shin Bet and politicians to wake up when it’s too late.”

Far-right activists Mordechai David and Ziv Baranes, both prominent supporters of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, posted videos from Lod on Instagram earlier this evening that showed them walking through an Arab neighborhood with several religious youths in what the activists called a “sovereignty march.”

David claims in a video he posted that the march was a response to an attack by Arabs on Jews in Lod.

Baranes says in one of his videos that the unprecedented 19 seats that Arab parties won in the October 27 Knesset election “opened up the appetite” of Arabs in Lod: “We’re showing them who’s the landlord,” Baranes says.

Footage posted by Baranes from the Arab neighborhood also shows the youths chanting “Jews’ state,” yelling “out” in Arabic and conducting an evening prayer in public.

זיו ברנס ומרדכי דוד:
״באנו ללוד להחזיר את המשילות, עשרות ניידות הגיעו כדי לשמור על הערבים״ pic.twitter.com/VGIXIuJFeN

— אלירן דהן (@elirandahan12) November 8, 2026