Police arrest over 50 protesters in anti-Netanyahu protest in Jerusalem

One of the protesters at the rally, accused the prime minister of “taking advantage of the coronavirus for power,” and said he was trying to increase his authority by leveraging the health crisis.

By CELIA JEAN
Protesters gather out the Prime Minister's Residence to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's COVID-19 response and the ongoing financial difficulties it has caused, July 23, 2020 (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Protesters gather out the Prime Minister's Residence to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's COVID-19 response and the ongoing financial difficulties it has caused, July 23, 2020
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
In the shadow of the political instability and ongoing COVID-19 crisis, several thousand protesters gathered again outside the Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu's official residence in Jerusalem on Thursday night to protest his handling of the public health crisis and call for his resignation.
Others were displeased with different sectors of society displeased with the economic response of the government to job losses and unclear policies.
By the end of the protests, 55 people were arrested for disruption of public order and assaulting police officers.
Police distributed flyers at the entrance to the protest with a set of rules to abide by during the protest, and an insistence that “public order” be maintained.
Two groups of pro and anti-Netanyahu protesters were separated by police using barricades in order to create a buffer zone.
Tamar Shneck, one of the protesters at the rally, accused the prime minister of “taking advantage of the coronavirus for power,” and said he was trying to increase his authority by leveraging the health crisis.
“You can see that he's continuing to do so. You can see that he's always stripped Israel of its democratic powers,” she said.
Wherein earlier police mostly observed from the sidelines, after 11 P.M., the hour in protests must end according to city sound ordinance law, the protest began to heat up, as protesters began to congregate into one central area approaching the police.
Police warned the crowd that they were participating in an illegal demonstration, and would be forcibly removed if they did end taht Thursday's protest. The protesters had pre-arranged to relocate to a nearby park,  and following the police announcement tried to relocate to the nearby park but were prevented by police, as they blocked off all but one entrance to the protests.
The only entrance left available for people to leave through was the furthest away from the park and the prime minister's residence, leaving some who wanted to leave the scene as events began to heat up, unsure of how to do so.
The earlier hours of the protest was mostly good-natured, and included a “meditation protest,” a classical music protest" and demonstrators burning sage leaves, with no violence or confrontation with the heavy police presence in the early hours of the rally.
A protester in the meditation group said they had come to show the “need for quiet strength instead of violence,” and lead by example.
However, most voices were heard coming from a stage set up on the opposite side of the protest from the prime minister's residence, wherein loud music was played over speakers, interchanged with protesters voicing their opinions and rallying the crowd.
Rhetoric towards the prime by some demonstrators was however extremely sharp, with one protester carrying a sign saying “Stopping the plague of dictatorship” in reference to Netanyahu, and another describing him as “a fatal plague” residing in the prime minister’s residence on Balfour street.
Supporters of Netanyahu were also present at the scene of the demonstration, with reports alleging that anti-Netanyahu activists were assaulted by members of  "La Familia," a strongly right-wing organization associated with the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team.
Some also gathered against police brutality, as they yelled "I can't breathe" and "the law isn't protecting us" in Arabic, English and Hebrew.
Protesters stood in front of a police line, yelling "Justice for Iyad," in reference the 32-year-old special needs student, Iyad Al Hallak, who was shot by Border Police in May after they assumed he was holding a  suspicious object.
On Friday morning, 20 of the arrested were brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court. Of those, police have requested for 19 individuals to be released under different conditions specific to their situation, while the remaining protester is to be detained for an additional period of time. According to police reports, the detained protester has been placed under house arrest after he was accused of having attacked a police officer.
Cody Levine contributed to this report.