From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
‘People are being trampled upon’: Airport protesters warn of overcrowding as rally swells
Protesters continue to complain about the overcrowded conditions in the designated protest area outside Ben Gurion Airport, as the rally continues to swell with demonstrators arriving by train.
Over 10,000 protesters are now at the airport, Channel 12 news estimates.
“This is becoming very dangerous,” says the network’s reporters. “We’re on the way to something that began as a protest but that could — and we’re being careful here — could end in disaster.”
The police have allowed the protesters to block the road, to alleviate some of the crowding.
“People are being trampled upon,” two protesters say.
Police are barring people who have gotten off the trains from coming out of the station, the TV report says.
In response to the concerns of crowding, police say there is more room at an area they cordoned off nearby.
Shlomi Sagi, a police spokesman, urges the protesters “to act responsibly” and move to areas designated for them that are not overcrowded.
His Channel 12 interviewer tells Sagi that there are no police officers at the key places where they are needed at the airport to direct people to those safer areas.
From the protests, Channel 12 interviews a woman who says, simply, “There is no room to move.”
The Channel 12 studio anchor, veteran Oded Ben-Ami, notes that cellular phone coverage is overwhelmed by the crowds, and implores Sagi to ask his commanders to use their communications systems to send word to the police at the airport so that they move to restore order and safety.
