Protesters return to Caesarea after night of violence outside PM’s home
About a thousand people protested against the judicial reform in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house in Caesarea on Saturday after violent clashes between police and protesters at the same location on Friday night.
The protesters blocked traffic on a main road, holding signs that read “We are all Gidi,” referring to 21-year-old Gidi Baran, who was arrested on Friday night amid the clashes.
Four demonstrators were arrested in that protest, including Moshe Radman, one of the leaders of the hi-tech protest and one of the organizers of Saturday’s demonstration in Caesarea.
Later on Friday night, 14 more protesters were arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct, when hundreds of people gathered at the police station in Hadera and blocked the station gate, in protest of the clashes in Caesarea.
National Security Minister Itamar BenGvir said on Saturday that he supported the conduct of police in Caesarea on Friday night. Ben-Gvir said he will speak with the prosecutor’s office and encourage them to use the full extent of the law against “thugs who attack cops.”
He continued that “those who attack the police should be treated with zero tolerance. Our job is to protect the police and democracy.”
Responding to Ben-Gvir, organizers of the protests said “a person convicted of terrorism supports police violence. He is not the national security minister, he is the minister of violence and incitement. Ben-Gvir, get it into your head: we are not afraid of you, we will continue to demonstrate everywhere against the accomplices of the coup attempt.”
Aside from the protest in Caesarea, the main demonstration on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv opened with a minute of silence and was held in a different manner than usual due to the death of the three soldiers at the Egyptian border.