Police briefly arrest 2 after Barkat says he was attacked outside Tel Aviv venue

Police arrested two anti-government protesters on Thursday night after Economy Minister Nir Barkat of the ruling Likud party said he was attacked by a group of demonstrators outside a restaurant in Tel Aviv.

The two people, later reported to be brothers, were released overnight without restrictions, police said.

Prior to their release, protesters gathered outside the police station where the siblings were being held and demanded they be let go.

According to Barkat, a group of some 10 demonstrators accosted him and his security team as they headed to the car after dinner near the beach in Tel Aviv on Thursday night. He said they also attacked officers who arrived at the scene, injuring one of them, a charge the protesters vehemently denied.

“A number of rioters physically confronted the minister’s security guards and policemen while trying to reach him and hurt him,” Barkat’s office said in a statement. “The minister’s bodyguards and the policemen protected him, the rioters also attacked the policemen violently,” the statement claimed.

Other protesters who were at the scene told Haaretz that there was no violence. “They did not use violence at all, even when the police arrested them,” one protester told the news outlet.

2 עצורים בתל אביב לאחר שמחו מול ניר ברקת במסעדת סי אנד סאן.
ככל הנראה נלקחים לתחנת מרחב ירקון (וולנברג 10, תל אביב), נעדכן שנדע סופית

עו״ד שלנו איריס שמואלי צסלר בדרכה אליהם pic.twitter.com/ulgkwYT3yn

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— מערך עוטף עצורים (@AtzurimHafganot) April 27, 2023

Barkat’s office said there was “no excuse for violence. Everyone has the right to demonstrate, but no one has the right to act violently.”

Protesters against the overhaul have dogged coalition politicians at their public appearances and have also staged rallies outside their homes. Though the legislation has been put on hold while the government conducts negotiations for an agreement with opposition parties, mass weekly protests have also persisted.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his scheduled evening appearance at a convention organized by the Jewish Federations of North America, amid plans by anti-government protesters to disrupt his arrival and speech at the event.

This week, tens of thousands held a protest against the government on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv to coincide with the official Independence Day ceremony on Tuesday evening in Jerusalem that was attended by Netanyahu and other senior ministers and officials.

Then on Thursday, some 200,000 attended a mass rally in support of the government’s proposals.

The Knesset is scheduled to return from its month-long recess on April 30. A law to put the appointment of judges within political control, a key part of the legislative package, is ready for its final readings and could be passed within days if the coalition so desires. Netanyahu suspended the legislation last month until the coming Knesset session, to allow for compromise talks, but said the overhaul will pass “one way or another.”

Critics say the overhaul, which will shift much of the judiciary’s power into the government’s hands, will make Israel a democracy in name only, shielding leaders from accountability while leaving minority rights largely unprotected and subject to the whims of Netanyahu’s hard-right government. Proponents say the changes are needed to rein in what they see as an overly activist court.