Outcry as protesters block Likud MK in home, prevent special needs daughter leaving
Tally Gotliv denounces demonstrators as ‘anarchists;’ PM Netanyahu, opposition leader Lapid condemn incident, but organizers vow to keep protesting at coalition lawmakers’ houses
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
Protesters on Monday drew widespread condemnation after they blocked Likud lawmaker Tally Gotliv in her apartment, preventing her from taking her special needs daughter to her care service.
Demonstrators had gathered outside the homes of several coalition lawmakers amid large-scale protests ahead of a Knesset vote on a radical overhaul of the judiciary,
Protesters gathered early in the morning outside the front door of MK Tally Gotliv in Jerusalem’s Givat Shmuel neighborhood. Though she pleaded with them to let her through for the sake of her daughter, they refused to budge and the police were called.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader MK Yair Lapid both condemned the incident, though organizers vowed to keep protesting at the homes of government lawmakers until the judicial change is dropped.
Other protesters blocked the entrance to the home of MK Education Minister Yoav Kisch in Ramat Gan, and six were arrested. Also, demonstrators blocked a road in the West Bank settlement of Pnei Kedem to stop the car of MK Simcha Rothman, chair of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee that is shepherding the judicial changes through parliament. Another protest was held outside the home of Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter.
At Gotliv’s apartment block, a video shared on social media showed a police officer arriving and the MK stepping outside to explain to protesters sitting on the floor that she needs to take her daughter to her routine care institute.
A voice is heard responding “find someone else to take the girl, you are staying at home today.”
???? אחד מהאנרכיסטים – ״חיות טרף״ קראה להם טלי גוטליב בצדק – אמר לה לאחר שביקשה שקט כדי שבתה האוטיסטית לא תיכנס להתקף חרדה "שימי מוסיקה ותמצאי מישהו שיקח אותה למסגרת כי את היום נשארת בבית״.
???? פני הרוע, הרשעות והאטימות של השמאל. pic.twitter.com/KIElC1kjHG— אלי ציפורי (@elizipori) February 20, 2023
איבדתם את זה לגמרי!
טלי גוטליב:" חיות טרף וחיות אדם"
מי שרואה מה שקורה כאן לא יכול שלא להסכים,
מונעים מח"כ לקחת את בתה בעלת הצרכים המיוחדים למוסד החינוכי! בושה!חסימת משפחות ח"כים בבתיהם הפרטיים היא חציית קו אדום. pic.twitter.com/LWhSOKs9qf
— Yael Zien יעל צין (@YaelZien) February 20, 2023
Two of the protesters were eventually arrested, Ynet reported. Gotliv was later able to take her daughter to the care service.
Netanyahu said in a statement “when protesters prevent a public representative from coming to vote in the Knesset and make an autistic girl miserable, that is not a legitimate protest. The protesters who are talking about democracy are the ones who are bringing an end to democracy.”
Lapid lashed out at the protesters saying he “completely condemns the siege of MK Tally Gotliv’s home…and the fact that they didn’t let her take the girl to her care. This is not our way. This is not the way of the protest.”
Lapid added that he “sends Tally support and a hug for her daughter,” drawing fury from Gotliv herself.
Speaking to Ynet Radio she said Lapid is just “posing” and called on him to “end your divisive speeches and incitement.”
Later, at a meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, Gotliv spoke of the clash outside her home and in an impassioned speech implored opposition lawmakers to lower the level of rhetoric against the judicial overhaul.
Calling protesters at her home “anarchists” said the incident should serve as a “wake-up call.”
“These are animals! Predators!” she said. “You can’t come to the home of a person and tell me I can’t leave the house — that’s the height of anarchism. You will not harm the right to privacy in the name of a protest.”
“Had it come to violence I cannot defend myself,” Gotliv yelled tearfully.
“Friends, calm down,” she said to opposition MKs.
Knesset Speaker MK Amir Ohana, who also faced demonstrators outside his front door, said in a statement that the attempt to prevent Gotliv from reaching the Knesset is a surrender of democracy, that is “especially abominable when it is done to a member of Knesset who is the mother of a girl with special needs.”
“This is not how you build bridges, this is how you burn them,” he said, an apparent reference to calls for dialogue between the government and opposition to reach a compromise on the judicial legislation.
Those who organized the protests at Gotliv’s home said in a statement that they will continue to “block the revolution with our bodies, we won’t stop until the legislation is canceled,” Walla reported.
The Knesset vote and protests will mark the most fateful day yet for the controversial judicial overhaul package pursued by Netanyahu’s hardline government, which would cramp the High Court’s ability to overrule certain Knesset or government decisions and give politicians control over nominations to the bench.
A wide chorus of criticism stretching from the judiciary through civil society and to the business community has warned that the moves will essentially neuter Israel’s democratic system of checks and balances; weekly protests have drawn 100,000 or more to the streets, piling pressure on the government to compromise.
Backers of the overhaul dismiss the criticism and say it will rebalance the relationship between judges and politicians in favor of democratically elected lawmakers.
Nearly two months of angry wrangling between proponents and opponents of the overhaul were set to come to a head Monday, as lawmakers readied a planned bid to push a central part of the controversial package, giving the coalition control over choosing judges, past a first major Knesset hurdle.
The Times of Israel Community.