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Police disband Knesset protest amid COVID-19 lockdown, 5 arrested

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Police first stopped cars near Latrun about 25 kilometres from Jerusalem, accusing them of slowing and endangering traffic in an unlawful protest.

By Benjamin Brown, TPS

Five people were arrested as police disbanded protests against Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein’s decision to close Israel’s parliament over the Corona crisis.

Protestors see Edelstein’s decision as a move to cling on to power amid calls from the opposition to vote into power a new speaker.

About 200 people had attempted to drive to the Knesset from Tel Aviv, waving Israeli and plain black flags. Police closed down roads to limit access to the Knesset and told protestors to return home, fining individuals citing Ministry of Health regulations banning gatherings of more than 10 people.

Police first stopped cars near Latrun about 25 kilometres from Jerusalem, accusing them of slowing and endangering traffic in an unlawful protest.

In Jerusalem, drivers who had made it into the city scuffled with police, some protestors leaving their cars and subsequently being arrested, videos seen by TPS showed.

Protestors, however, described the police response as an excuse for disbanding the protest, as demonstrators were in their cars at the time and were not at risk of spreading the virus.

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Blue and White leader and former Chief-of-Staff Benny Gantz also criticized police, describing the “detaining of drivers [as] unreasonable for a proper democratic regime.”

The prime ministerial candidate admitted that protestors should have considered holding the demonstration digitally, but added that “We must not sit quietly in the face of the crushing of our democracy that [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and Edelstein are leading.”

The Israeli police stated they “reject in disgust all the futile attempts to drag the police into the political discourse,” adding that “no one is above the law or above the public health orders issued by the Health Ministry, regardless of his or her political views.”