Live Update arrow right icon From the Liveblog of Tuesday, April 30, 2024

MK claims cops beat her at hostage deal rally

30 April 2024, 12:32 pm 7 Edit
Demonstrators clash with police during a protest calling for the release of Israelis held kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, April 29, 2024. (Itai Ron/Flash90)
Demonstrators clash with police during a protest calling for the release of Israelis held kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, April 29, 2024. (Itai Ron/Flash90)

Labor MK Naama Lazimi says she was manhandled and beaten by police during a demonstration calling for a hostage deal in Tel Aviv last night.

“The violence on the part of the cops was unrestrained; we all felt it was much much different from previous protests,” she tells Kan radio. “They grabbed me, they pushed me, threw me to the ground, hit me — it was all filmed.”

Videos taken during the protest show cops roughly grabbing and pushing Lazimi away from a building housing Likud’s headquarters, as she apparently attempted to check on a detained protester. The videos do not show cops throwing her to the ground or hitting her.

“To think that the police force, the body that is supposed to protect me, is something I should be afraid of, that protesters should be afraid of, is a reality that cannot be,” she adds.

Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, speaks outside the military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, April 6, 2024. (Screen capture: Ynet, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Lazimi claims police also mistreated the family of hostage Matan Zangauker at the protest, an allegation backed up by Zangauker’s mother Einav.

“Yesterday the violence crossed every line,” Einav Zangauker tells Army Radio. “I saw a cop grab a flyer of Matan out of my daughter’s hands and laugh.”

Five people were arrested at the protest. Police said “a small number of protesters started an illegal demonstration including disrupting order and violence toward cops,” adding that some protesters, “including a Knesset member,” were stopped as they tried to enter the Likud headquarters and scrawl graffiti writings.

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