Intense Israeli protests against government

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Following demonstrations in Tel Aviv, protestors took to the streets of Jerusalem this week to prevent the passing of a controversial law that would give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government powers to impose extensive COVID-19 restrictions on the population without parliamentary oversight until June 2021, CBN News reports.

Israeli citizens are also outraged at inconsistent, arbitrary lockdown measures affecting small businesses and at inadequate government support as the unemployment rate rose to 20% from 3.9% prior to the pandemic.

As lawmakers review the proposed new law, dozens of protestors chained themselves together to block the entrance to Israel’s parliament Wednesday morning, CBN News reported. Four people were arrested as police dispersed protestors.

Over 2,000 protestors demonstrated outside Netanyahu’s official Jerusalem residence on Tuesday night, in a lawful protest that had been coordinated with police. Indeed, Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld told CBN News: “More than 90 percent [of protests] are from the public who have the right to protest who are in a situation where they feel like they need to. These protests are coordinated with Israeli police.” Rosenfeld added that a small minority of protestors had acted unlawfully: “They are troublemakers, individuals, extremists who want to take the law into their own hands, want to block roads, want to attack police officers,” he said. At least 34 people have reportedly been arrested for attacking police.

Also protesting on Tuesday, at a separate demonstration on Balfour street, were restaurant owners whose businesses have suffered under the government’s inconsistent lockdown measures, CBN News said.  “We decided to act because on Friday we got news in the morning that we have to shut down, then in the afternoon, we got news that we can operate again until Tuesday. In the middle, we heard two different other decisions. So we have the feeling that nobody is driving the car and this car is about to go into a rock,” Jonathan Borowitz, Chef and Owner of M25 Restaurant told i24 News.

At another protest, citizens expressed outrage that Netanyahu continues to serve as Prime Minister while on trial for corruption. Others also called for justice for the May 30 police killing of unarmed Palestinian Iyad Halak, who suffered with autism.

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