Protester remanded in custody on suspicion of ‘indecent act’ against female cop

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Saturday extended the detention of a prominent anti-government protester suspected of pressing against a female Border Police officer in a sexual manner at a mass demonstration in Jerusalem last week.

The suspect, Eyal Yaffe, was ordered to remain in detention for five days.

Footage of the Tuesday incident, posted to Instagram by rapper and right-wing activist Yoav Eliasi, showed Yaffe appearing to cling to the officer from behind as she and other cops bent down to try to disperse demonstrators who were blocking the road. The officer and another female colleague pushed him away.

Police accused Yaffe of committing an indecent act against the officer.

Speaking to Channel 12 on Thursday, Yaffe denied wrongdoing. “The video was completely fabricated,” he said, adding that he was shoved as he tried to help protesters who were sitting on the ground.

In a statement published late Saturday, police said that during a raid of Yaffe’s home, they recovered a number of illegally acquired weapons dating back to the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The weapons included a Kalashnikov, hundreds of bullets, an expired stun grenade and a carbine rifle.

Yaffe, 72, requested to be released to house arrest, citing health issues and PTSD from years of military service.

“I know that I made mistakes, and I need to answer for them, and I will,” he said, in remarks quoted by Hebrew media outlets. “I will be available for any questioning immediately.”

Yaffe’s lawyer, Attorney Gonen Ben Yitzhak, responded to the police statement on Saturday, clarifying that the various weapons found in his client’s possession were “family mementos” with “deep sentimental value” that were unconnected to his role as a protest activist, decrying the detention of his client as “political.”

“The Kalashnikov rifle found in my client’s warehouse is a valuable family memento from his late brother Amir Yaffe, who fell during his military service. This is an object of deep sentimental value to the family that lost their loved one,” Ben Yitzhak said in a statement.

“The remaining items found, including an old carbine and cartridges, remained in my client’s possession from his long and significant military service as a reserve battalion commander, during which he contributed many years to the security of the country,” the lawyer continued.

“It is difficult not to notice the obsession of law enforcement officials with finding every possible reason to incriminate a major protest activist,” he added. “The police and prosecutors are choosing to ignore the personal, family and historical context of these items, and instead are trying to present them as incriminating evidence.

“There is no connection between the possession of these objects, which serve as personal and family mementos, and the political accusations leveled against my client. The attempt to connect the two is a transparent manipulation whose sole purpose is to prolong my client’s unnecessary detention,” the statement said.

Yaffe, along with several other veterans of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, is a member of the “Lochamei Kippur ’73” protest group, which rose to prominence during the judicial overhaul protests of 2023 and has taken a major role in the anti-government, pro-hostage release protest movement.

In early 2023, a number of the group’s members were arrested for allegedly stealing a decommissioned armored personnel carrier for symbolic use in a protest against the government’s push to upend the judiciary.

Weeks earlier, other members of the group were detained after they allegedly stole a decommissioned tank from a military memorial site, also intended for symbolic use during the protests.

While Yaffe was not detained in connection to either incident, some Hebrew media sites reported that he was involved in the theft of the tank, though they did not provide evidence to back up the claim.