Anti-PM protest organizers lament decision to coordinate Jerusalem march with police

The Black Flags, one of the three main groups demonstrating against Netanyahu, signed a permit which would allow protesters to march through the city center at 10:00 p.m.

Some protest organizers disagree with the decision to conduct a march in coordination with Jerusalem police.

“I opposed the permit because I see it as a trap,” says protest organizer Gonen Ben Yitzhak, who believes that police would use any violations of the permit to shut down the protest.

“In my opinion, the protest is simply legal. There’s no reason for us to go to the police [so that they] permit a legal protest,” Ben Yitzhak tells The Times of Israel.

Protester organizers said that they had heard from many concerned for their safety at Saturday night’s protest following several reports of far-right attacks on anti-Netanyahu demonstrators across the country.

One organizer, Avi Ofer, says that some demonstrators were organizing self-defense units formed of graduates of IDF combat units to respond in the event that far-right extremists assaulted anti-Netanyahu protesters.

“People are scared. I’ve spent all day speaking to people, calming them down. But I think in the end they’ll come,” Ben Yitzhak says.

“There’s a palpable fear that’s spreading among us about what could happen. Especially on side streets when we leave the protest where there’s no police presence,” says Mor Elyakim, another protest organizer, referring to demonstrators reportedly attacked by far-right extremists in Jerusalem after leaving the Balfour demonstrations.

— Aaron Boxerman