Published: 6 August 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
"OF COURSE I AM AFRAID, I don't want to get hurt," says Matan Hacohen, a 26-year old student from Tel Aviv. "And of course, I will continue to demonstrate against [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. Because [if I] don't demonstrate, then Israel won't be a democratic country and it won't be worthwhile living here anymore."
Hacohen is one of tens of thousands of young Israelis attending these demonstrations. Dozens of protestors have been sleeping outside the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem for over a month, as the demonstrations grow in numbers, intensity, and determination. On Saturday night, August 1, an estimated 20,000 people demonstrated against Netanyahu in front of his official residence in Jerusalem, and another 10,000 demonstrated at the same time in Tel Aviv and at dozens of other sites throughout the country.
Most of the demonstrators are under the age of 40, and they are bringing a new energy to the more staid protests staged by their parents' generation.
Although he is warning that he and his family are the victims of death-threats from the Left, Netanyahu and his supporters have been unable to stop the momentum or to mobilise any significant counter-response. Instead, they have repeatedly attempted to delegitimise the demonstrators and the media that reports on them. He has referred to them, in various speeches, as left-wing "disease incubators" led by “anarchists” who are attempting to "trample democracy".
This line of attack, according to critics, is inciting, or at least providing tacit encouragement to extremist vigilante groups, who have, on several occasions at protests throughout the country, attacked the protestors. At least a dozen protestors have already been hurt, some seriously.
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Are the limbs, and lives, of protestors, government officials and even the prime minister at risk? Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, thinks they are. Last week, he issued a statement in which he warned, "…given the violent developments over the last day: The murder of a demonstrator who goes to protest in the State of Israel, or the murder of an Israeli prime minister, are not imaginary scenarios.”
The demonstrations are being organised, mostly over social media, by various different groups, with no clear leadership and only ad hoc coordination between them. Over the month, their message has coalesced from sometimes contradictory statements into a demand for Netanyahu resign because he is facing trial on charges of accepting bribes, fraud, and breach of trust; because he is willing to pervert Israeli democracy in an effort to keep himself in power and out of jail; and because he has mishandled the COVID-19 crisis and its economic effects.
The common denominator is a groundswell of deep distrust and rage at corruption, lack of hope and general malaise that have pervaded Israeli society under his successive administrations.
Netanyahu’s reflex response, as in the past, has been to demonise his critics and play the victim. Although he and his family are probably the most protected personalities in Israel, Netanyahu has repeated claims that his political rivals are inciting against him and plan to hurt him physically. He has filed a complaint with the police against individuals who have posted calls to use violence against him – some of which actually engendered little or no response until Netanyahu brought them to the attention of the public.
While these warnings sound absurdly alarmist, nevertheless they resonate with the more moderate elements of his base, who are still on the defensive after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1994 by a right-wing extremist.
The logic is clear. For over a decade his strategy has been based on attempts to energise his base by creating strong distinctions between "us" and them," inciting against his opposition, emphasising loyalty to the party and to him as a key value, and denigrating institutions, such as law enforcement and the courts, that have investigated him and his family and brought him to trial.
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At the same time, Netanyahu has refrained from condemning the right-wing attacks on protesters. As a result, critics contend that Netanyahu and his supporters may be creating an atmosphere that could prompt some radical groups or "lone-wolf" individuals to act.
In particular, the group referred to as La Familia, a small, somewhat shadowy organisation of violent supporters of the Jerusalem Beitar soccer team, have started showing up at the anti-Netanyahu protests. In late July, La Familia attempted to attack the protesters in front of the prime minister's residence but were kept at bay nearly a mile away at another location in Jerusalem. Although there were less than 200 of them there, they were able to stop a Palestinian bus and bang on its windows, chase after Palestinian drivers, and threaten journalists who were filming or reporting on the scene.
There have been close to a dozen incidents of such attacks. In most, such as those in Tel Aviv, the attackers did not identify themselves as members of La Familia, although they did seem to be acting in a coordinated manner.
In all cases, the police ultimately intervened and quenched the violence, but protesters against Netanyahu argue that the police are generally tolerant of the right-wing violence, while their response to them has been unnecessarily brutal.
Hacohen, the student from Tel Aviv, was attacked while protesting in front of public security minister Amir Ohana's home. In an effort to support Netanyahu, Ohana had tried to convince Doron Yadid, commander of the Jerusalem police district, to respond more harshly to the demonstrations and to ban the anti-Netanyahu protests.
In a recording leaked to the media, Ohana can be heard telling Yadid that he wants to "challenge the ruling of the court," a reference to a recent ruling that allows the protests to go ahead even though large gatherings have been banned due to fear of COVID-19 infection.
"Right-wing demonstrators were standing with us. We didn't identify them, then suddenly, they pulled out broken bottles and bats and started beating us. It was vicious. And the police did nothing," says Hacohen.
According to other demonstrators and press reports, the police intervened only after a protester was hurt by a broken bottle. The attackers were not masked and were easily identifiable, yet the police made arrests only two days after the event. The accused are being represented by Itamar Ben-Gvir, a self-declared supporter of the racist ideology of Meir Kahane.
Despite the minister's demands, the police have regularly given permits to the anti-Netanyahu demonstrations. However, when the demonstrations have continued beyond the time specified by the permit, they have used mounted horses and water cannons to disperse the crowds.
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Yet their response seems to have reinforced the demonstrators' resolve. "I hadn't gone to many demonstrations, but now I will go regularly, says Heli, a 25-year-old teacher who did not want to be fully identified. "I am a law-abiding, loyal citizen of Israel. We are protesting because we love our country. Yet the police treat us as if we are criminals or traitors."
Heli tells The Jewish Independent she was sitting on the pavement near the prime minister's residence "as an act of passive resistance. Then the police charged us. Four or five policewomen nearly choked me and tried to carry me out of the area. Then, they turned the water cannons on us, and, running away, I slipped in the water and bruised my arm very badly.
"It is still hard for me to believe that the police were so brutal and violent," Heli continues. "It's scary to get hit by the water cannons, or to be pushed aside by the huge horses, but now I know that we are really fighting for our democracy. I will attend every demonstration and protest that I can."
Attitudes like Heli's may be the reason that at the demonstration on August 1, which was the largest so far, the police waited until nearly two hours after the official end of the demonstration before dispersing the crowds with hundreds of troops, but without any use of the water cannons, which had become a symbol and even rallying call for the demonstrators.
Netanyahu and his cabinet have already informed the public that they are considering a return to a full lockdown over weekends, in an attempt to stem the Covid-19 virus. But protestors are convinced that such measures are intended to stop the spread of the demonstrations, not the disease. Many have already stated publicly that they will disobey the government's regulations.
This would create further problems for the police, who would be required to enforce the regulations which could lead to further violence.
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To this writer, the toxic atmosphere brings up memories of other periods of similar political tensions. In 1983, teacher and peace activist, Emile Grunzweig, was killed by a grenade thrown by a radical right-wing activist at a peace rally in Jerusalem after extreme incitement by right-wing politicians against the peace movement.
The assassination of Rabin in 1994 was preceded by months of incitement against the Oslo Accords and Rabin himself, and the assassin has stated that he would not have carried out the act if he had not felt that he had the support of the rabbis and other religious and political leaders.
In the summer of 2014, members of the supremacist, anti-assimilation group, Lahava, terrorised downtown Jerusalem for weeks, hunting for "leftists" and Arabs, following the murder of the three Jewish teens from the West Bank who were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas. Only hours after one of Lahava's most violent marches through the city, three Jews kidnapped a 16-year old Palestinian, Mohammed abu Khdeir, from East Jerusalem, then burned him alive.
As the sides trade insults and accusations, as the government continues to incite against the protesters, and as Netanyahu warns of an impending assassination, the risk of a “lone wolf” act is genuine. But it must also be said that to date, all such ideological violence in the State of Israel has been committed by the Right against the Left.
READ MORE
Why Religious Israelis are steering clear of the anti-Netanyahu protests (Haaretz)
Religious Zionists and ultra-Orthodox Jews are conspicuously absent from the demonstrations, emblematic of a deep-seated distrust of ‘left-wing’ protests. But that doesn’t mean there aren't any there
Why religious Zionists refuse to join anti-Netanyahu protests (Ynet)
The religious Zionists learned very well during the 2005 disengagement from Gaza that protests don't lead anywhere because they don't represent the majority, and the majority of Israeli public is sitting at home and not rallying in front of PM's house
Main photo: Anti-Netanyahu protest in August (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)
