Woman jailed overnight after allegedly throwing sand at Ben Gvir on Tel Aviv beach
Citing ‘fear of tampering,’ judge denies lawyer’s request for suspect’s release on medical grounds; activists enraged by police’s initial failure to disclose her location
A 27-year-old Tel Aviv resident arrested Friday for allegedly tossing wet sand at National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was held overnight at Neve Tirtza Women’s Prison in Ramle.
A group representing detained anti-government protesters identified the suspect as Noa Goldenberg.
She is being held until at least Saturday night, when a court will hear her case. Goldenberg denies the allegation.
The group had petitioned the court for Goldenberg’s release on medical grounds, but the request was denied for “fear of tampering” with the investigation.
Activists were enraged by the police’s hours-long failure to disclose Goldenberg’s location while she was being processed at Neve Tirtza.
Sharon Goldenberg, the suspect’s mother, posted to X a picture of her daughter in a cell at the Lev Tel Aviv police station with her hands and feet bound.
זו הבת שלי שנעצרה בחוף הים בטענה שזרקה חול על בן גביר.
משטרת הדיקטטורה החליטה, ללא הצדקה לסכן את חיי הבת שלי, שחולה במחלה כרונית – ומשאירה אותה במעצר מסכן חיים מבחינתה.
אין לה שום עבר פלילי, אפס מסוכנות.
אבל זאת ההנחייה מלמעלה.
אם למישהו שם בכל זאת יש לב ושכל, בבקשה… pic.twitter.com/tNBH8NFRBH
— Sharon Goldenberg ????️ (@goldens32) September 6, 2024
“The dictatorship police has decided, without justification, to risk the life of my daughter who suffers from a chronic illness, and is leaving her in detention, which is life-threatening for her,” she wrote, adding that her daughter has no prior offenses.
Police said it “takes the offense of assaulting a public servant extremely seriously.”
Goldenberg was apprehended at roughly 2:30 p.m. on Friday. She was at Tel Aviv’s Geula beach with friends when Ben Gvir, who is in charge of the police, passed through.
The minister’s appearance sparked an angry reaction from some of the beachgoers, who could be heard yelling “murderer” at him in footage posted to social media.
Critics accuse Ben Gvir of thwarting a ceasefire deal to secure the release from Gaza of the remaining 101 hostages, including 97 abducted on October 7.
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
Footage on social media showed officers walking toward the sea to make the arrest after some wet sand was apparently flung in the minister’s direction.
For several hours after her interrogation in Tel Aviv, police failed to disclose Goldenberg’s location to her family.
According to Ynet, she had been taken to Neve Tirtza, returned to the police station due to “faulty paperwork,” and then sent back to the prison.
Anti-government activists, together with Labor MK Naama Lazimi and Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak, gathered at the prison late Friday to demand Goldenberg’s release.
Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben-Ari also helped locate the suspect, update her family and bring her medication, party chief and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid said on X on Saturday morning.
Beliak said on social media Saturday morning that “large swaths of the police have fallen into the hands of the criminal” Ben Gvir.
“No I don’t think it’s okay to throw sand, or anything else, at elected officials,” said Beliak. “Not even at unlawful, criminal, lying, clownish ministers.”
“Ben Gvir did this to Noa because he wants you to be afraid. Don’t be afraid,” he wrote.
“Together we have power. We have hostages to bring back. We have a country to save,” added Beliak, urging the public to attend the anti-government, pro-hostage deal demonstration on Tel Aviv’s Begin Street on Saturday night.
Ben Gvir, who assumed his position in late 2022, has been accused of politicizing the police. He has reportedly ordered the police to refrain from arresting rightwing extremists who attacked trucks bringing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Police have also failed to make any arrests in several recent instances of settler violence in the West Bank, and in the case of rightwing mobs that stormed two army bases on July 29 after ten reservists were detained on suspicion of having sodomized a Palestinian prisoner.
