Woman indicted for throwing wet sand at Ben Gvir, refusing to cooperate with police
Noa Goldenberg, 27, charged with assaulting elected official on Tel Aviv beach; she denies charges, mother decries ‘farce’; prosecution to potentially seek sentence of time served
A 27-year-old woman was indicted in a Tel Aviv court on Monday for assaulting a civil servant and disrupting a police officer’s job after she allegedly threw sand at National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Friday.
According to the indictment, Ben Gvir was walking on the beach in Tel Aviv with his wife and six kids when Noa Goldenberg threw a ball of wet sand at the minister from the water’s edge.
During her interrogation, Goldenberg said she had thrown the sand out of frustration about “the complainant’s conduct” and the fact that “he found time to vacation with his family in wartime,” the indictment said.
After throwing the sand, Goldenberg ran deeper into the water and refused to heed a police order to come out, the indictment further charged, adding that she stayed for a while and also refused to listen to lifeguards who were sent by the police to retrieve her.
She eventually came out of the water after a friend convinced her to do so before more law enforcement arrived.
The indictment said the prosecution would potentially seek a sentence of time served for Goldenberg. She was kept overnight Friday-Saturday at Neve Tirtza women’s prison, and freed to house arrest on Sunday.
Goldenberg denies the charges.
Her lawyer Nir Alfasa said after Monday’s hearing that “the indictment is gravely disconnected from the circumstances as we know them.”
Noa Goldenberg, 27 (C), during a hearing at the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court after being charged with throwing sand at National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on a beach in Tel Aviv, September 9, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)In a statement on Monday, the police said Goldenberg had been arrested and interrogated, after which they decided to keep her in custody because she had not cooperated fully.
“Israel Police treats harm to elected officials severely regardless of their political leanings and will act against anyone who tried to harm public servants and civilians in general equally and unbiasedly,” the statement said.
Goldenberg’s mother, Sharon, who is an attorney, posted on X on Friday that her daughter has no criminal record, had been arrested with hands and feet cuffed, and was tearful and afraid.
After Monday’s hearing, Sharon said she was “certain that the court will well understand that this is a farce, and this whole absurd episode will end in less than nothing.”
Ben Gvir, the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, oversees the police. He has often been the target of public protest for his hardline positions and has also been criticized for his management of the police.
Since his tenure began in December 2022, police have regularly employed violence against anti-government protesters. Meanwhile, murder rates have risen across both the Arab and Jewish sectors of Israeli society.
Videos posted to social media on Friday showed Ben Gvir and his family at the beach surrounded by several police officers and security forces, as several beachgoers shouted at the minister.
תיעוד של בן גביר והחול בחוף בת"א:
בן גביר מוקף באבטחה משוחח וחלקי חול רטוב עפים לעברו.
בן גביר לא מהסס ונכנס *לתוך הים* עם הנעליים כשהאבטחים מונעים ממנו ומצביעים על בחורה בבגד ים במים.
ברקע קריאות "לך הביתה יא רוצח".
הצעירה בחקירה כאילן מדובר במחבלת, ייתכן ותיעצר למשך הלילה. https://t.co/UK4q2oq3NN pic.twitter.com/7PSLuh3wkd— Josh Breiner (@JoshBreiner) September 6, 2024
“Go, you’re not wanted here,” one man cried.
In another video, a man shouted that Ben Gvir was a “murderer” and that his children should know this.
