Opposition chief warns protests over virus economic fallout could turn violent

Opposition chairman Yair Lapid warns that the ongoing protests against the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic could turn violent as Israelis lose hope amid the spiraling economic situation.

“We are talking to people who are becoming more and more desperate and angry, who feel, and rightly so, that the country has deserted them in their hardest hour,” Lapid tells the Reuters news agency.

“We are trying to be responsible…to calm things down, telling people, ‘You know violence is not the answer,’” he adds.

“But it’s getting harder by the day…I sympathize with the anger and I also worry about the possibility of violence as a result of this anger. What I am trying to do is not to encourage it but to raise a red flag as to what might happen.”