Protester tackled in front of Netanyahu’s car says he doesn’t blame the guard

An anti-corruption protester who stepped in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s convoy and was tackled by a security guard said Sunday that he did not blame the officer as he was wearing a backpack at the time and understands he could have been seen as a threat.

Gonen Ben Yitzhak, a former Shin Bet agent who spent 10 years working in counterterrorism, has been a fixture of weekly anti-corruption protests that have dogged the prime minister for over a year.

A video of the incident shared on social media showed Ben Yitzhak stepping into the street while waving an Israeli flag as the convoy passed by. A Shin Bet guard can then be seen running up from behind him and shoving him to the ground and toward the sidewalk, allowing the convoy to pass by.

“There was a kind of tension among the security guards that the prime minister was supposed to arrive, so I wanted to go to the other side of the road in an attempt to photograph the convoy passing the sign,” he told the Ynet news site, referring to a giant billboard declaring Netanyahu to be “crime minister.”

Netanyahu is suspected in three graft cases. He has denied wrongdoing in all of them.

“I found myself standing with an Israeli flag in front of one of the vehicles of the convoy, so I stood up and yelled, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, I accuse you of corruption.’ and immediately I felt as if I had been hit by a train,” Ben Yitzhak said.

“A Shin Bet security guard ran and tackled me. I flew to the floor. He grabbed my hands. He must have been frightened because I was wearing a backpack. I do not think he was interested in me as a demonstrator against corruption, but acted automatically because he saw a threat,” he recalled.

Ben Yitzhak was detained for questioning. According to the Haaretz daily, authorities are considering charging him with causing harm to a security officer and disrupting traffic.

The incident occurred in the Jordan Valley city of Beit She’an, where Netanyahu was attending a rally in support of MK Jackie Levy, who is running to retake the mayor’s seat in the former development town.

#איןלומנדט
המושחת מבלפור נתקל במפגינים גם בבית שאן!!! @GONENB1 @krembo78 pic.twitter.com/8nJaIiVFiU

— שרון אור (@sharon27or) October 6, 2018

There have been weekly anti-corruption protests against Netanyahu for over a year, but they have fizzled from tens of thousands of people to a few hundred or fewer as the investigations have slogged on without any charges.

Ben Yitzhak, a resident of Modiin, told Haaretz that he sustained slight injuries to his shoulder and hands. He said that this was a rare chance for him to have his voice heard by the prime minister.

“I stood in front of the convoy and yelled at the prime minister ‘sir, you are suspected of corruption’ and the next thing I remember I was on spread out on the ground,” he said. “To stand and protest is legal so long as you don’t endanger anyone.”