J14 protest leader to face indictment in TA court

Daphni Leef to face charges of using violence to prevent arrest, obstructing a police officer, and taking part in a disturbance.

By BEN HARTMAN
Daphne Leef arrested 370 (photo credit: Courtesy Michal Grossberg)
Daphne Leef arrested 370
(photo credit: Courtesy Michal Grossberg)
A little over six months after she and 11 others were arrested in a Tel Aviv protest that quickly spiraled out of control, J14 protest leader Daphni Leef is set to face charges of using violence to prevent arrest, obstructing a police officer, and taking part in a disturbance in the Tel Aviv Magistrate's court on Monday.
The indictment, originally presented on November 1st, 2012, alleges that Leef and hundreds of other protesters began attacking police and municipal workers who came to break up an illegal protest they were holding on Rothschild Boulevard.
The indictment, which will be read on Monday morning, alleges that while Leef was being arrested other protesters began fighting attacking and disturbing police in an attempt to free her, and that Leef herself sat on the ground in order to prevent them from taking her away, an act that severely complicated the police work.
Leef and other protesters, for their part, accused police of using violence and excessive force in breaking up the protest. The protest was followed the next night by a protest march in Tel Aviv during which some demonstrators broke bank windows and dozens were arrested, in what was then seen as the beginning of a new, more heated version of the social justice movement of the previous summer.
Leef could not be reached Sunday night, but in a message on her Twitter on Monday she wrote “an indictment?? they're presenting an indictment against me??”