Police allow protesters into community where Netanyahu is vacationing

After petitioning the court, hundreds of protesters advanced to the hotel where the prime minister and his wife were staying. 

By World Israel News Staff

Following a 48-hour standoff, police have allowed anti-judicial reform protestors into the Golan Heights community of Neve Ativ where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently vacationing.

The protesters, numbering in the hundreds, advanced towards the hotel Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, are staying at but stayed within 300 meters from its entrance, in line with a new police directive.

On Monday, authorities had sealed off entrances to the moshav, causing an uproar among both residents and activists. The protestors subsequently filed a petition with the High Court challenging the police action.

Protest organizer Amy Klein filed the petition, which argued that protests must be allowed to take place in the moshav since it is a public space.

“The [High Court] rulings regarding the freedom of demonstration does not allow the police to completely close a place and deny citizens the freedom of movement and the exercise of the right to protest. We see before our eyes an event reserved for dark dictatorial regimes. The ruler and his wife go on vacation in a site that becomes a closed and enclosed place,” Klein’s lawyer, Gonen Ben Itzhak, said, according to The Jerusalem Post.

“The role of the police is to balance the needs of security, the needs of the town, and the basic right to protest in a democratic country, but it seems that in the context of the race for commissioners, the superintendents have become the servants of the dictatorship on the way,” said Ben Itzhak.

After initially being denied entry, demonstrators had set up an encampment outside Neve Ativ, limiting access to only residents and hotel patrons. Protesters then erected tents outside the restricted zone, pledging to stay as long as the prime minister does.