Published: 29 June 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
SOME 2,500 ISRAELIS demonstrated on Saturday night outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem.
The immediate trigger for the demonstration was the arrest the day before of seven protesters, including the protest leader, a Holocaust scholar, and Brigadier-General (ret.) Amir Haskel, 67, at a similar demonstration the day before, ostensibly because he was responsible for blocking traffic on a major street in Jerusalem.
Protesters came out in larger numbers than have been seen since the coronavirus lockdown began in Jerusalem and in smaller groups throughout the country. While some of the demonstrators carried signs calling for Haskel's release, many more carried signs demanding that Netanyahu, whose trial for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust began in May, resign immediately. There was little social distancing observed.
Surrounded by police, including tactical forces, and separated from a group of about a dozen pro-Netanyahu protesters, the demonstrators waving Israeli flags and equipped with snare drums and hundreds of kazoos, maintained a high-pitched, nearly deafening, rhythmic cacophony for hours.
Wearing a black T-shirt with the slogan, "Crime Minister," Merav Salamant, 26, shouted above the din. "This is the beginning of the end. Arresting Haskel was the last straw, but there have been so many incidents over the past few weeks, it was just a matter of time until the pressure broke through the despair and made people get up and get out on the streets."
Netanyahu's home is screened off from the crowds by a huge black curtain that is drawn across his street every time there is a demonstration nearby. The heavy curtain didn't even sway in the Jerusalem breeze, and Netanyahu was insulated from the sights and sounds.
[gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="36460"]
"Yeah, well," Salamant said with a big smile as she stopped kazooing and took a breath and pointed at the curtain. "The walls of Jericho came down when the Children of Israel blew their shofarot (rams' horns.) Netanyahu's walls will come down, too."
Indeed, a series of political incidents created seemed to have come together this week to re-energise the anti-Netanyahu protest movement. The arrest of Haskel has been widely interpreted as politically motivated, which immediately transformed the gently speaking man, who has been protesting against Netanyahu for well over a year, into a hero and a rallying cause.
Israelis have also been concerned about what appears to be the government's mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis. If that wasn't enough, they were incensed when, last week, the Knesset Finance Committee approved retroactive tax reimbursements for Netanyahu worth about one million shekels (A$432,000). In the regularly-scheduled Sunday cabinet meeting, following the demonstrations, Netanyahu said his request for a tax break was justified but added that the "timing was wrong and that I regret". By "timing," he was most likely referring to one of the worst economic crises, brought about by the coronavirus, that Israel has faced since its founding.
Haskel started what became known as the "Protests by Individuals," in which he and other individuals stood at intersections throughout the country or in front of the prime minister's residence, calling for Netanyahu's resignation because of the corruption charges.
In mid-March, a group of activists organised what became known as "the black flag movement" against what they view as the erosion of Israeli democracy. Using social media, the protest leaders called on Israelis, who by then were in lockdown in their homes due to the coronavirus (but were permitted to drive in their cars), to organise car convoys to Jerusalem and to fly black flags. Thousands of cars joined the convoy, in many cases flying black garbage bags because they weren't able to find black fabric in the lockdown.
But neither of these efforts, nor others, caught on to create an effective protest movement.
Motti Berliner, 63, a retired accountant, is convinced that now they will. Standing in the crowd Saturday night, wearing a T-shirt with the slogan, "Justice, justice shall though pursue" (Deuteronomy 16:20), Berliner said forcefully, "Netanyahu has become too greedy and power-hungry. When he first came to power, more than a decade ago, I supported him. But now he's abusing his power and has corrupted democratic institutions, even the police."
[gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="36461"]
Indeed, many of the protesters, like Berliner, along with much of the press, emphasised their conviction that Haskel's arrest was an attempt by the Minister for Public Security, Amir Ohana, an ardent Netanyahu supporter, to cut back on democratic rights.
To rebuff the accusations, Ohana posted on his FB page an account of Haskel’s arrest, which was purported to prove that Haskel had been handcuffed after demonstrators had violated police guidelines, blocked the streets near the prime minister’s home, held up traffic and endangered public safety.
But videos of the arrest and eye-witness accounts showed that the disruptions started after – and not before, as the police claimed – Haskel's arrest.
Seven demonstrators had been arrested at the earlier demonstration but were released when they agreed to be banned from Jerusalem for 15 days. Haskel and two others refused to agree to those restrictions. They were brought before a judge in Jerusalem late Saturday night for a ruling on the police's request to extend his arrest. Hundreds of people walked from the scene of the demonstration to the courthouse, cheering wildly when the court severely criticised the police and released him and the two other prisoners without any restrictions.
Banning the defendants from Jerusalem, the court declared, was an attempt to "prevent the protesters from exercising their right to demonstrate in a particular place of their choice”.
At a press conference Sunday night carried by all major TV and radio stations, Haskel said he was convinced his arrest was "dictated from above." His lawyer added Ohana had published a quote from his conversations with the commander of the police station where Haskel was being held.
"A situation in which the commander of a local police station picks up the phone to a politician and reports to him about what is going on – that is a smoking gun [that proves] that the arrest was political."
Israelis have been demonstrating against Netanyahu since the late autumn. In mid-March, a group of activists organised 'the blag flag movement' against the erosion of Israeli democracy. But neither of these efforts caught on
Standing outside the courthouse after his release, Haskel vowed to "continue the struggle for Israeli democracy" and, almost in unison, promised to join him.
Even while he was still under arrest, members of the more radical left in Israel were criticising Haskel's military background. Writing on Local Call, a Hebrew-language left wing blogsite, political activist Orly Noy wrote, "Where were [the demonstrators] when Palestinians, Ethiopians,asylum seekers were arrested? Should we take part in a protest that transformed a privileged detainee into a hero solely because of his military rank?
“The transformation of Haskel into the hero of the demonstrations … is a clear expression of the sick militarism in Israeli society, and the Israeli flags that fly over these demonstrations are a clear expression of our sick nationalism."
But even among those who are willing to anoint Haskel, or others, as new leaders, can they overcome what publicist Avirama Golan refers to as the growing paralysis in Israeli society? Writing in Haaretz, Golan argues that the lack of a mass protest movement is not "an expression of apathy. It is a survival tactic. It is a dulling of our human senses as we, the citizens …. are abandoned to our fate while the government puts more pressure on us, frightens us, and brings us to despair."
In his press conference, Haskel was more hopeful. "If my arrest and the arrest of my two colleagues lit a fire, the price was worth it. I never thought I'd see the inside of a prison, but for the State of Israel, I'll do everything I can."
READ MORE
With Netanyahu's insinuated blessing, the police are crushing the right to protest in Israel (Haaretz)
The real test of a democratic government is its attitude toward major demonstrations with mass participation, the kind that reveal the deep currents flowing in society
Photo: Brigadier General (Res.) Amir Haskel (centre) and two other protesters at Jerusalem Magistrate's Court hearing on June 27, after they were arrested during a protest outside Netanyahu's official Jerusalem residence (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
