Police deny anti-Netanyahu protesters right to march, barricade protests

The protesters who attended the march began by the Chords Bridge by the entrance to Jerusalem and moved all the way to Paris Square at the corner of Balfour Street.

By TAMAR URIEL-BEERI
Protesters demonstrate against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (photo credit: TAMAR BEERI)
Protesters demonstrate against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
(photo credit: TAMAR BEERI)
Thousands of protesters who have been regularly gathering throughout the country, most of whom have been demonstrating at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence on Balfour street in Jerusalem, began to march on Saturday night, despite their request to hold a march being rejected by Israel Police.
This led to human barricades by the police, blocking those in Balfour from exiting and those coming from the march from entering.
Water cannons stood poised at the ready at the entrance to the protest as demonstrators came marching in, crying out against corruption within the government which they said behaves much like the criminal underworld.
People supporting a wide range of causes, from humanitarian to ecological, attended the protests and demanded the government bring about change. One such group was the Women’s March in Israel which insisted that the government act following the violent gang-rape of a 16-year-old girl during her vacation in Eilat.
“We want significant change in the education system, in the judiciary system,” the Women’s March told The Jerusalem Post. “That is why this protest is very political.”
Walking among protesters with signs reading “To Be or Not to Bibi,” some cried out against ecological issues in the country.
“There is a direct connection between climate change and corruption within the government,” Liel Biran, a climate activist from The Green Course, told the Post. The Green Trend is an Israeli ecological movement calling to make immediate policy changes in order to prevent climate change and global warming.
“The government sold our futures to tycoons who... ruin our health, safety, even the air,” he said. “We already feel climate change. Coronavirus is nothing in contrast to what will happen if things continue in this manner. We suffer a lot now and we will suffer a lot more in the future. We call on the government to stop this. Stop using oil, stop using gas, stop EastMed, stop any other gas pipelines.”
“The economy is in a free-fall with about one million unemployed and a raging pandemic – and Bibi is busy dragging the country to another round of elections, because his trial is more important than the State of Israel,” the Black Flags Movement announced ahead of the march.
“The defendant from Balfour doesn’t care about the Israeli nation, he doesn’t care about the unemployed, the hungry, about the dreams of entire families that are being thrown into a future of poverty.”
The protesters who attended the march began by the Chords Bridge by the entrance to Jerusalem and moved all the way to Paris Square at the corner of Balfour Street. Police suggested a smaller, alternate route, but organizers refused.
Police claimed they had refused the request because the path of the march disturbed “the fabric of everyday life” of those living in the region.
Demonstrators nevertheless began their procession “in violation of police instructions,” according to Israel Police. “Police forces are working at the scene to prevent traffic jams,” the police spokesperson’s unit explained, referring to the attempts of the police to break up the march.
Police clashed with protesters after creating a barricade to stop the march. Protesters therein attempted to walk around it, only to meet with police officers.
Once the demonstrators reached Balfour Street to unite with the other protesters, however, police had formed a human barricade, effectively blocking those in Paris Square and across from the Prime Minister’s Residence from exiting and preventing those who had marched from the Chords Bridge from entering the region. Water cannons stood at the ready along the barricade as protesters grew restless.
However, within the chaos was a circle of calm, with some 30 protesters meditating together in a circle. One of the meditators who goes by Assaf is a nomad currently living in Gan Haatsamut. “There are a lot of protests against and even when protesting against something, you give what you are against power,” he told the Post. “We need a positive force. We are pro-peace, pro-meditation. The problem is bigger than Netanyahu.”
Meanwhile, another gaggle of protesters called on Netanyahu to retrieve Avera Mengistu, an Ethiopian man who crossed the border into Gaza. Mengistu was deemed mentally unwell, and was immediately taken captive by Hamas.
“Today is his birthday,” Sigal Kook Avivi, a human rights activist for the Ethiopian community, told the Post.
“The IDF saw him crossing the border and saw that he was a person of color and did nothing. This is filmed on footage the IDF has.
“His family does not know if he is even alive,” she continued. “Only Netanyahu can retrieve him from Hamas through negotiations. We saw what they did for Gilad Shalit, but the Ethiopian community is alone.”
Groups of Netanyahu supporters gathered outside the borders of the protests, calling at those who walked away to “go home.”
“Most of the rural areas in Israel love Netanyahu,” Yosef Mamila, one of the Netanyahu supporters and a resident of Jerusalem, told the Post.
“The public hates [the protesters]. They represent the minority alone. They are funded by George Soros.