Anti-Netanyahu rally called off – or is it?

"I call on police to use a heavy hand against those who protest illegally to put inappropriate pressure on the Attorney-General and continue to cause suffering to residents of the area.”

By LAHAV HARKOV
Anti-corruption demonstration near the Petah Tikva home of Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit. (photo credit: ALON HACHMON)
Anti-corruption demonstration near the Petah Tikva home of Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit.
(photo credit: ALON HACHMON)
A leader of the demonstrations calling to charge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with corruption called on supporters to violate a police decision to no longer give a permit to the protesters Friday.
Anti-corruption crusader and unsuccessful Labor Knesset candidate Eldad Yaniv, a leader of the weekly rallies near Attorney-General Avihai Mandelblit’s home in Petah Tikva, wrote on his Facebook page that the police are “hysterically lying” and that protesters should show up in the usual place at 8 p.m. Saturday.
“The police is being pressured by Bibi’s hysterics, and when it’s pressured, it lies. The demonstration is legal. It was authorized by the High Court and nothing changed. It’s that simple,” Yaniv wrote. “The government is crapping its pants. They are afraid! That is the truth.”
On Thursday, the Police Legal Adviser Ayelet Elissar, wrote to the protest’s organizers that the police “will not authorize the demonstrations…because of a significant change in the size of the demonstrations and their character.”
In addition, she wrote that if they want to hold the protests elsewhere, they will have to apply for a new permit.
Coalition chairman David Bitan (Likud), who had been organizing counter-protests, praised the police’s decision, calling the rallies “anti-democratic” and “immoral.”
Bitan accused Yaniv of being a “left-wing anarchist who doesn’t respect the laws of the State of Israel and police instructions.”
“Those who paint themselves as law-abiding have turned out to be law-breakers,” Bitan said. “The anti-democratic and immoral protests of a number of left-wing tyrants will not happen in that place. That is what we wanted, and we are happy it will be. I call on police to use a heavy hand against those who protest illegally to put inappropriate pressure on the Attorney-General and continue to cause suffering to residents of the area.”
Petah Tikva residents had petitioned against the demonstrations, saying that they were disturbing them. The city has a large religious population, and the rallies usually began before the end of Shabbat.
The Movement for Quality Government and former Prime Minister’s Residence maintenance man Meni Naftali, who is among the protest’s organizers, asked the judiciary to issue injunctions against the police, allowing the rallies to continue and preventing police from making any further decisions in relation to them.