Likud lashes out at press amid protests against arrest of anti-Netanyahu demonstrators

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party responds to the arrest of demonstrators yesterday during a protest outside the premier’s official residence in Jerusalem, lashing out at the media’s coverage of the detention and accusing it of bias against him.

“The media didn’t say anything about the shocking arrest of right-wing activist Sheffi Paz or the arrest of many other right-wing activists at right-wing protests,” Likud says in a statement.

The party doesn’t specify which of the several times that Paz, an anti-African migrant protester in south Tel Aviv, has been arrested it is referring to.

Likud also claims without evidence that the protest was organized by former prime minister Ehud Barak, a vocal critic of Netanyahu.

“The press is turning this into a media festival to support the protests against Likud and Netanyahu’s leadership. It’s unsurprising [that] all this is happening [while] Likud is at peak support in every poll,” the party says.

Likud’s reaction was markedly different from that of its Blue and White coalition partners, who earlier this evening called for the immediate release of three anti-Netanyahu protesters who remained in custody after refusing to be released with restrictive conditions.

To protest the arrests and Netanyahu’s continued premiership despite his indictment on graft charges, thousands of people rallied outside the Prime Minister’s Residence this evening. Additional protests were also held elsewhere in Israel.