Court releases man arrested for throwing mock bills at Likud MK

The Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court rules that a man arrested on suspicion of throwing mock dollar bills at a Likud lawmaker be released from police custody this morning.

Police arrested the man on the highway and asked to keep him in custody for three extra days, after identifying him from a video showing Likud MK Eli Dallal leaving a Likud-organized Rosh Hashanah celebration in Kfar Saba on Saturday night.

The 70-year-old MK is seen making his way through a crowd of noisy anti-government protesters gathered in the lobby of a mall, where the event was held, when he suddenly falls to the ground.

The detained protester, who was dressed in a thobe in an apparent reference to the Qatargate scandal, is filmed throwing counterfeit money at Dallal. He does not lay a hand on the politician, who soon gets back up on his feet and is escorted out of the crowd by police officers.

Protesters denied that they attacked Dallal in any way that night.

“The court, within two minutes, watched the video, read the case, and came to the correct decision that this demonstrator did not commit any offense,” says the protester’s attorney, Nir Alfasa, following the ruling. “Certainly not assault of anyone, certainly not the assault of an elected official.”

The incident drew widespread condemnation from Netanyahu and Likud party figures, with the premier himself accusing demonstrators of “wild incitement” and warning that “the next murder is just around the corner.”

According to Hebrew outlets, the presiding judge during the hearing, Erez Melamed, said that “there was no reason to arrest him [the protester].”

Police also filed an appeal to the Lod District Court and requested a stay on the release of two additional protesters who were arrested Saturday night, after a lower court judge ordered they be freed from police custody.