Police arrest activist for bereaved families at Knesset protest against government

Ayelet Katzir released after being taken to police station; officers also confiscate sign from a bereaved mother

By ToI Staff 29 November 2023, 5:03 pm Edit
Yael Alon holding a sign outside the Knesset during a protest against the government, Nov. 29, 2023. It reads: 'My father was killed in the debacle of '73. My son was killed in the debacle of '23. Prosecute Bibi and his government of ruin.' (Twitter screenshot used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Yael Alon holding a sign outside the Knesset during a protest against the government, Nov. 29, 2023. It reads: 'My father was killed in the debacle of '73. My son was killed in the debacle of '23. Prosecute Bibi and his government of ruin.' (Twitter screenshot used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Police on Wednesday arrested a woman outside the Knesset during a protest of bereaved families calling for the government to resign.

According to police, Ayelet Katzir, a leading figure in the Families’ Tent group of activists who lost family members in the October 7 Hamas massacres, was arrested for blocking the entrance to the Knesset and preventing Knesset members from driving into the building.

Katzir was detained and questioned at the Moriah Police Station in Jerusalem before being released.

Labor MK Naama Lazimi drove to the police station to protest Katzir’s arrest, describing it as “an embarrassing and outrageous arrest.”

Police also confiscated a sign from Yael Alon, a protester whose father was killed during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and whose son was killed on October 7. Her sign called to prosecute Netanyahu and his government for the “debacle” of October 7.

Police said Alon banged the sign against the cars of Knesset members being blocked. Protesters denied the allegation, and police said it was returned to her a few minutes after confiscation.

Several dozen people participated in the protest to demand that the government resign due to the military and intelligence failures that enabled Hamas to carry out its October 7 atrocities.

Those failures led to approximately 1,200 people being killed on October 7, most of whom were civilians, while another 240 were taken hostage into the Gaza Strip. Israel declared war on Hamas with the aim of toppling the terror group’s regime in Gaza, which it has ruled since taking over in a bloody coup in 2007.

Several prominent organizers of the protests against the government’s now-frozen judicial overhaul have lent their voices to the cause of the families of hostages and bereaved families.

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