Man jailed for a year for driving car into crowd of anti-government protesters in 2024

The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court sentences Haim Sirotkin, a soccer coach who was convicted of ramming his car into a crowd of anti-government protesters in 2024, to a year in prison for reckless endangerment with a vehicle.

Sirotkin, 52, will also have his license suspended for four years. In addition, he will have to pay damages of NIS 20,000 ($6,800) to one of the people wounded – a woman of around 60, who suffered a head injury and four broken ribs – and NIS 4,000 ($1,360) each to four others.

The five protesters were making their way from a protest that night – April 7, 2024 – against the government and in favor of a hostage deal with the Hamas terror group, which at the time held some 130 captives, living and deceased.

תיעוד דריסת המפגינים בתל אביב. 5 נפגעו. הנהג נעצר לאחר שברח מהמקום

צילום: איתי רזיאל pic.twitter.com/t8Lc54tbfZ

— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) April 6, 2024

At the time, Sirotkin claimed he did not mean to hurt anyone, and that he had lost control of his vehicle as a result of some malfunction. In his sentencing decision, Judge Itai Hermelin notes that the accused did not maintain this claim during the trial.

Hermelin also notes that the government did not accuse the former soccer player of driving with the specific intention of hurting the protesters, but rather that he acted recklessly, with indifference to the results of his actions.

However, he writes, “It’s impossible to completely detach the accused’s impatience, which caused him to step on the gas pedal… from the confrontation that developed between the passengers in the vehicle and the protesters.”

Furthermore, the judge argues, “the harm to protesters creates a harm to freedom of political expression, insofar as it clearly arouses fear of participating in any demonstration lest one get hurt.”