Thousands hemmed in by police at cordoned-off protest site at airport, prompting crush fears

Carrie Keller-Lynn is a former political and legal correspondent for The Times of Israel

Border guards deploy around an area behind barriers designated for anti-government demonstrators at Ben Gurion Airport, July 11, 2023. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)
Border guards deploy around an area behind barriers designated for anti-government demonstrators at Ben Gurion Airport, July 11, 2023. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

With more and more anti-overhaul protesters arriving at the airport, demonstrators complain of the heat and smell, as they are cordoned off into an area lining the main approach to Ben Gurion Airport. Police are confining the protesters to that space in an effort to prevent them from taking total control over access roads, as they did at a similar demonstration last Monday.

“Brother, do you have any water?” a young man asks a man standing to his side.

Many protesters are wearing significant ear protection, with drums beating and noisemakers blaring.

A woman clasps her hands in thanks to another protester for handing her a pair of earplugs from a jumbo pack she is holding.

Police push several demonstrators within the cordoned-off section apparently to open a lane for transiting passengers to reach a parking lot entrance. Some protesters raise their hands above their heads.

According to Channel 12 news, some protesters say they are having trouble breathing and warn about the danger of a repeat of the Meron disaster, when 45 people were fatally crushed at Mount Meron at a Lag B’Omer religious gathering in 2021. “It is very, very crowded here,” says Channel 12’s reporter at Terminal 3.

A studio guest says the organizers of the protests should tell activists not to come to the airport for fear of the consequences of the crowding.

Some 84,000 people are flying in and out of the airport today on some 500 flights.

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