Police arrest four in protest at Knesset against death penalty law for Palestinian terrorists

Police say they have arrested four demonstrators during a protest outside the Knesset against a controversial new law mandating the death penalty for West Bank Palestinians convicted of carrying out deadly terror attacks.

The small protest, which drew several dozen people, was quickly dispersed by police. Officers used a water cannon on participants and injured two in the process. Both were taken to receive medical treatment, activists say.

מאות מחו מחוץ לכנסת על חוק עונש המוות למחבלים, המשטרה הפעילה מכת"זית כדי לפנותם@VeredPelman pic.twitter.com/wZUYjUd2lY

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 31, 2026

Footage from the protest shows officers directly spraying protesters with forceful blasts of water at close range, which goes against the police’s own regulations regarding the use of the crowd control measure.

Police and Border Police officers began breaking up the demonstration after protesters refused to comply with officers’ calls for them to disperse, police say in a statement.

Two of those arrested were taken in on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.

The force claims the protest runs contrary to the law and wartime regulations set by the IDF Home Front Command, which restrict outdoor public gatherings to a maximum of 50 people.

The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv derides police’s behavior as “selective enforcement,” noting that Jerusalem police have neglected to disperse much larger public gatherings since the outset of war with Iran over a month ago.

“At any given moment there are dozens of other gatherings in Jerusalem that don’t meet the Home Front Command restrictions. We all remember the photos from the Purim parties. And the photos of Haredi schools before the Passover break. They [police] dispersed the dozens of madmen who broke into Joseph’s Tomb [in Nablus, in the West Bank] with less violence,” Kariv writes.

Officers disperse demonstration against newly-passed death penalty law, blasting protesters with a water cannon from close range — against police's own regulations pic.twitter.com/R1mqYW0xup

— charlie summers (@cbsu03) March 31, 2026