Former lawmaker Colette Avital, 86, injured by police during anti-government protest last night

Colette Avital, chairperson of the Center Organization of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, at a reception in Krakow, Poland, on January 26, 2025, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. (Zev Stub)
Colette Avital, chairperson of the Center Organization of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, at a reception in Krakow, Poland, on January 26, 2025, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. (Zev Stub)

Among those injured last night by police during an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv is retired lawmaker and diplomat Colette Avital, who formerly served as Israel’s consul-general in New York.

The 86-year-old former Labor MK is set to undergo a CT scan tomorrow, after a policeman forcefully shoved her to the ground, causing her to hit her head on the pavement, according to several politicians close to the former diplomat.

News of her injury has sparked shock among current and former opposition lawmakers, including Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid, who rebukes police chief Danny Levy for neglecting to apologize for the incident.

“Who is the policeman who saw such a dangerous threat in her that he pushed her?” Lapid writes on social media after speaking with Avital. “Will someone explain to me how the chief commissioner has still not called to ask how she is and apologize?”

Avital was shoved at a hundreds-strong protest at Habima Square last night, which law enforcement violently broke up soon after it exceeded 600 participants, leading to clashes between police and demonstrators. Seventeen protesters were detained during the dispersal.

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