After pausing during Knesset recess, anti-government demonstrators resume massive protests across Israel, including blocking major roads and highways.
By World Israel News Staff
Anti-judicial reform demonstrators staged dramatic protests across Israel on Thursday morning, piling mannequins meant to look like dead bodies in front of Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s home and blocking major intersections throughout the country.
The Brothers in Arms protest group, whose members consist of military veterans and reservists, placed a giant tarp splattered with fake blood and dummies resembling corpses, some of which were dismembered, in front of Ben-Gvir’s house in Kiryat Arba, Hebron.
“Three months, 78 dead, one guilty,” read banners outside of the home, which appeared to criticize spiking murder rates and seemed to blame Ben-Gvir for the phenomenon.
More than three quarters of the 78 killed since Ben-Gvir’s tenure began in December 2022 were members of Israel’s Arab community, and most murders in the sector remain unsolved due to witnesses being notoriously uncooperative with police.
“Several dozen demonstrators from the extreme left [working] on behalf of Ehud Barak came this morning to demonstrate at the entrance to my house,” the lawmaker responded on Twitter.
“The truth is…you will continue to shout and hate, we will continue to work for the people of Israel.”
Some one thousand protesters blocked the Kfar HaYarok interchange, north of Tel Aviv, with police arresting at least one demonstrator. The Rokach-Namir intersection in the city itself, near Tel Aviv University, was blocked to traffic by protesters.
Junctions and highways near the central Israeli cities of Herzliya and Raanana were also blocked by protesters, along with the Nahalal Junction in the north.
At HaBima Square in Tel Aviv, protesters poured white liquid into the site’s iconic fountains, holding signs reading “Yes, we’re crying over spilled milk.” Organizers at HaBima said they were protesting the soaring cost of living in Israel and told Hebrew-language media that lowering prices should be the government’s priority, rather than judicial reform.
Also at HaBima, some dozen protesters who claimed to be representing the high-tech industry staged giant dominoes that appeared to be close to tipping over, alongside banners that read, “if high tech falls, we all fall.”
Protesters also set up a mock military recruitment office in the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Bnei Brak in reference to a proposed law which would grant blanket exemptions from IDF service to the community.