Ben Gvir supporters say police summoned them over Lod ‘sovereignty march’ that preceded brawl

Far-right activists Mordechai David and Ziv Baranes, whose self-proclaimed “sovereignty march” in an Arab area of the mixed city of Lod last night preceded a mass brawl, say they each received a summons for police interrogation.

Police decline to comment on the claims of the two men, both vocal supporters of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, citing the ongoing investigation.

Baranes films a video showing a letter he says he received from police today that ordered him to report to a police investigator and to refrain from entering Lod for 15 days.

David says in a separate video that he received a phone call summoning him for interrogation “because I walked around in Lod yesterday.”

“Never mind that there was violence a couple hours before, a couple hours after. That’s unrelated,” David says.

According to David, the march was meant to show “this is our land and we’re not afraid to walk around here,” in response to what he claims was an attack last week on a Jewish couple that entered an Arab neighborhood of Lod.

“Did I come to fight with Arabs? Did I come to provoke? No,” David asks. “What did I come to say? That if a Jewish couple enters a neighborhood and is assaulted, then we’ll go and sing at the top of our voices, Am Yisrael Chai.”

In videos from last night’s march, Baranes said that the group was there to show the Arabs “who’s the landlord” — a common campaign slogan from Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party.

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

The violence in Lod led to eleven arrests and multiple injuries on both sides, according to police and Mayor Yair Revivo, who has decried the “extremist” outsiders for entering his city to “stoke tensions.”