“Decision-making on the handling of demonstrations has been given to the police under his leadership; with his pro judgment and without [unrelated] considerations,” mandelblit wrote.
Protests have occurred several times during the following week near the Prime Minister’s residence. The protests attracted thousands of angry Israelis into government corruption, control of the coronavirus crisis, and other ills. There have been occasional scenes of violence during recent demonstrations, through police seeking to disperse protesters, as the videos of the scene have shown.
Netanyahu and some of his supporters have spoken out about the protesters as “anarchists.”
Ohana has reportedly already lobbied for the bannion of Jerusalem protests or moving from the same old site outside the official residence.
The recordings published on Sunday come from closed-door meetings attended by Jerusalem police leader Doron Yadid, senior police officers and Ohana, whose ministry oversees the police.
“We can’t go ahead with this mess,” Ohana can be heard saying, referring to the protests. “We continue with this anarchy. There’s a difference between a demonstration and the occasions we’ve noticed in recent weeks.
The High Court approved the ongoing protests near the prime minister’s official apartment in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood, infuriating some local citizens who asked the court to ban them, saying they were disrupting their lives.
“I need to challenge this court decision,” Ohana told senior law enforcement officials. “Anyone who needs to protest can protest, no problem. But to make citizens’ lives miserable.
“[Protesters] are invading sidewalks with sleeping bags and mattresses. I don’t know how to explain to the public why we ban prayer and cultural and artistic events, but we don’t ban it,” he said, referring to the restrictions imposed to curb the coronavirus epidemic.
Yadid can be heard responding to Ohana by mentioning the unusually high number of fines imposed on protest participants for not wearing a face mask, fines that the police have sometimes refrained from issuing demonstrations.
“Yesterday we [imposed] 160 fines for not disguising the demonstration, which is not common,” Yadid can be heard. “Usually, the demonstrations [we] avoid that.”
However, this seemed to satisfy Ohana.
“District commander, you know I appreciate it, but vandalism for breaking glass,” Ohana said. “Vandalism also makes people’s lives miserable, desecrating the symbols of the state, as happened yesterday, blocking entrances to the Knesset, blocking roads and, of course, violence against policemen. It’s nothing you can accept. »
Israeli police commented on the report, insisting that despite the words of its district commander, it applies the mask disguise “also in demonstrations, without discrimination and without any connection to the identity of the protesters or the subject of the demonstration.”
Michael Bachner contributed to this report.