Police detain 6 at left-wing protest, said to also detain man over Palestinian flag

Police detain a young man in the northern Arab town of Umm al-Fahm for waving a Palestinian flag during a dozens-strong protest “against the war of annihilation and policy of forced starvation” in Gaza, Arabic-language news site Arab48 reports.

Meanwhile, police also detain six people at a left-wing protest outside major television news studios in Neve Ilan, near Jerusalem, according to a group of lawyers that represents detained anti-government protesters pro bono.

The six were taken to the Harel police station in Mevaseret Zion, the Protest Detainee Legal Support Front says.

The Maariv newspaper reports that far-right settler activist Daniella Weiss, who had just left the Channel 13 studio, got caught up in the protest and that police needed to intervene to get her out.

In a WhatsApp message quoted by Maariv, Weiss put the number of protesters at about 100.

Neve Ilan is the site of several studios, including those of Channel 12 and Channel 13, which are accused by some on the Israeli left of pedaling pro-Israel propaganda and hiding the humanitarian toll of Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

Protesters in Neve Ilan could be seen on social media hoisting a large banner that read, in Hebrew and Arabic, “What is the media hiding?”

In advance of the protest, organizers said it would feature speeches by independent journalist Hila Tov and Rula Daoud, co-chair of the Israeli-Palestinian socialist group Standing Together.

An announcement from several left-wing groups said protesters would come “to remind the media of its true job.”

“Stop being a mouthpiece of the government, platforming fraud, and hiding the price of the war and the abandonment,” the announcement said.

A similar protest in July led to a conversation, later leaked, among Channel 12 reporters and executives about how or if to broach Gazans’ suffering on air.

The leaked conversation provoked further ire on the left, as it appeared to show leading executives and reporters at Channel 12 saying they “don’t connect with” Gazans’ suffering and therefore consider it less deserving of coverage.