Protesters start fires, clash with police at anti-government after-rally

Hundreds of protesters split off the weekly anti-government rally in Tel Aviv to launch unauthorized protests that escalate into clashes with police in front of the Likud party headquarters and the Histadrut labor union offices.

Outside the Histadrut building, where protesters demand the organization’s leadership support their call for an early election, protesters started fires that firefighters have extinguished, Ynet reports. Police shove protesters and remove several of them from the scene. One police officer is documented threatening a protester by saying: “I’ll rape your mother,” Ynet reports.

In videos of another clash near the Histadrut building, officers appear to try to remove lawmaker Naama Lazimi of the Labor opposition party from the protest. She tells Channel 12 that “policemen assaulted” her and pulled her hair while she was “trying to help another protester.”

שוטרים התנפלו על ח״כ נעמה לזימי, תפסו ודחפו אותה ונתנו לה מכה בפנים לאחר שניסתה לסייע לעצורה. פשוט בושה וחרפה. זו פעם נוספת שבה שוטרי משטרת ישראל משתמשים באלימות נגד חברת הכנסת שמסייעת למוחים נגד האלימות המשטרתית pic.twitter.com/LVn7ecliTg

— בר שם-אור Bar Shem-Ur (@Bar_ShemUr) June 29, 2024

Police spokespeople are not immediately available to comment on Lazimi’s claims.

A police spokesperson tells Ynet that the protester who allegedly got threatened was a repeat provocateur. The spokesperson also condemns the officer’s conduct as “incompatible with the norms expected” of him, adding his action will be “checked and dealt with.”