Anti- PM protest leaders indicted for attacking police
Black Flags movement: Police becoming executive arm of Netanyahu’s criminal and evil organization
Two leaders of the protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had indictments filed against them by the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday.
Gonen Ben Yitzhak was indicted for interfering with a police officer in the performance of his duty and for being at a prohibited gathering, while Bar Binyamin was indicted for aggravated assault against a police officer and for being at a prohibited gathering.
According to the indictment filed against Ben Yitzhak, on July 18 a mass demonstration took place near Paris Square in Jerusalem. Around midnight, police forces began removing the protesters, as they announced to the demonstrators over loudspeakers that the demonstration was illegal and that they must leave.
Many protesters, including the defendant, did not respond to police calls and continued to demonstrate. The police made subsequent announcements to the demonstrators, but protesters continued to make noise using whistles, drums and by shouting.
At 12: 05 a. m., police commander Kobi Yaakovi ordered for the water cannon to be moved in the direction of the intersection where the demonstrators stood. The police repeated their announcement to the crowd and prepared to use the cannon on the demonstrators, should they not withdraw from the protest.
Following this, the defendant called on other demonstrators to run toward the water cannon. The defendant stood in front of the water cannon and blocked its path.
Subsequently, the defendant laid down under the water cannon and wrapped his hands around part of the cannon’s bore, with the intention of preventing it from progressing further and to stop it from being used.
Despite the repeated demands of the police officers, the defendant refused to release his grip on the water cannon and leave the premises. The police officers were then force to pry the defendant off the cannon and remove him from the protest.
THE INDICTMENT filed against Binyamin concerned a mass demonstration that took place near the Prime Minister’s Residence on Balfour Street on September 20, in which many people protested in the vicinity of the residence and on side streets.
At about midnight, the police announced to those protesting that the demonstration was now illegal, and that the demonstrators must clear the roads so that traffic could resume.
At around 12: 40 a. m., police began removing protesters who did not obey the police’s orders and remained standing or sitting on the roads, including the defendant, who was standing at the time with other protesters on a road near Paris Square.
One of the policemen at the scene approached Binyamin and asked her to get off the road. The defendant refused and the policeman told her that if she would not do so of her own free will, he would be compelled to evacuate her by force.
The defendant insisted on refusing to vacate, and as a result the policeman began to remove her from the road. The policeman put his hand on the defendant’s back to remove her, and she, in response, turned toward him, took out her pepper spray and sprayed it in his face while trying to flee the scene.
“The decision to file the indictments was made in accordance with the State Attorney’s Office’s policy when it comes to dealing with offenses committed in the context of demonstrations, as reflected in the State Attorney’s Deputy Directorate ( Special Positions),” said the Attorney’s Office. “This policy was established with the aim of properly balancing the basic right of every citizen in Israel to participate in demonstrations and express themselves freely, and the public interest in preserving public safety and property, the rule of law and public order.”
The Black Flag protest movement condemned the legal proceedings.
“A black flag hovers over the actions of the ‘ Netanyahu police.’ The Israeli government, through [ Jerusalem Police chief] Doron Yadid, is pursuing the leaders of the anti- corruption protest,” the Black Flag movement said. “Israel Police is becoming an executive arm of Benjamin Netanyahu’s criminal and evil organization. [ Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny] Gantz, [ Foreign Minister Gabi] Ashkenazi and [ Justice Minister Avi] Nissenkorn should be ashamed of cooperating with this political persecution.”
2020 and only a fifth of that amount – NIS 50m. – has been allocated to the project.
On Tuesday, the Knesset’s Finance Committee called for the immediate transfer of NIS 100m. to the cause.
But is anything really going to be done?
Such a program could be a lifesaver for women and children alike throughout the country, but without proper funding, no program can function. Women’s organizations nationwide have been struggling to keep their heads above the water, depending on the slowly dwindling funds of philanthropists.
One such organization is the Women’s International Zionist Organization ( WIZO).
Rivka Neumann, director of WIZO’s Division for the Advancement of Women, told The Jerusalem Post that their government- backed coronavirus women’s shelter is only funded through December. The shelter is run like a coronavirus hotel for women who are victims of domestic abuse but need to quarantine.
COMMUNICATE
A number of ministries currently deal with the issue of domestic abuse. What the Welfare Ministry may consider a light punishment, the Internal Security Ministry may see as severe. Oftentimes, the numerous ministries have no communication between them on the subject.
The Committee for the Advancement of Women and Gender Equality has proposed a new committee to synchronize efforts made by several ministries. Such a committee is crucial for the proper treatment of domestic abusers.
CHECK- IN
Coronavirus is in full swing, and there are rumors of a third lockdown facing Israel during Hanukkah. Sometimes, when families are holed up for too long with one another, challenges can surface.
The pandemic has also led to a massive wave of unemployment, leaving many people vulnerable or depressed.
Children are learning from home, some of whom are too young to be left on their own, forcing many parents to choose between their job and their children. In most cases, the children are really the only choice.
This can have an extreme impact on even once- stable families. If a family was getting along perfectly fine, perhaps things are now tense. But if a family was already on the brink of toxicity, such tensions could lead to abuse of its women and children. Israel knows this is happening from the exponential rise in calls to domestic violence hotlines during both lockdowns.
But how would anyone – any outsider – ever know that something was wrong?
We cannot, after all, go and see one another amid the pandemic. The children are not going to school, and so their teachers are not seeing them and cannot perhaps notice the warning signs of domestic abuse. That is why it is crucial to be present online and to check in with others, even during the pandemic. Teachers and meeting attendees: Encourage everyone to have their cameras on. Speak to friends, reach out.
EDUCATE YOURSELF AND OTHERS
From a young age, today’s children are being shown content that inaccurately depicts romantic relationships. In porn, every single person’s sole purpose is sex. Every single other is a means to an end. Sounds that express pain in real life are used to express pleasure in this skewed context.
Children these days are being exposed to pornographic material at a drastically younger age: eight to nine on average, according to the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel ( ARCCI). That is why it is crucial to educate them on proper discourse surrounding sex and relationships.
Otherwise, the main information that they are capable of gaining is that a man must get sex, while a woman must be promiscuous, yet naive. Women screaming extremely loud is a sign of pleasure, men must dominate women and everyone is a sexual object.
SEEK HELP
If you or someone you know is being abusive, recognize the patterns. The most difficult step in any recovery process is recognizing that there is a problem. Once a person has done so, Israeli organizations offer countless treatments and therapies for people with abusive tendencies to go and work through the issue.
WIZO, for example, offers both group and individual treatment for men with abusive tendencies.
LISTEN
It is as simple as that: listen. In so many cases of domestic abuse and sexual assault, the issue simply is that the victim is waved away offhandedly without being listened to.
Dalal Daoud, a woman who was released from prison in 2019 after serving 18 years for murdering her extremely abusive husband, told the Post that everyone saw the abuse she had gone through.
“If there was one person who would have listened to me, I would not have reached that point,” she said. “My social worker ran away from me [ while I was] bleeding in my own home with my two- yearold daughter. The hospital knew, the police knew – who didn’t know?”
The Israeli institutions meant to cope with these sorts of issues, then, must give them the proper attention necessary. Such situations tend to escalate quickly if they are not cut off at the root.
Coronavirus is not expected to go away for at least another year. Now is the time to make targeted efforts to stop domestic violence – before it is too late. •