The Lefitst file a complaint with the police, they gain greater security, after a right-wing activist called them “germs.”
Israeli police were sent to protesters who opposed Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday after the convicted murderer of a 1983 pacifist protester called existing protesters “germs” and hinted that they might encounter violent opposition.
Extremist Yona Avrushmi served 27 years in prison for throwing the hand grenade that killed activist and instructor Emil Grunzweig and wounded nine others at a demonstration in Jerusalem opposed to Israel’s war in Lebanon.
On Friday night, he told Israel’s twelfth personal television station that he would not attend Saturday’s rally, but that there would be others who would express his love for Netanyahu and his hatred for his opponents.
“There are other young people who can go, they know what to do,” he said.
The organizers of the demonstration took the comments seriously and said they had filed an opposition to Avrushmi for inciting violence.
“Germs are germs,” Avrushmi told Channel 12.
“I still hate them and they hate me, ” he said. “They’re bad people.”
Shlomi Bachar, head of operations for the Jerusalem police, said he had deployed uniformed and civilian officers, as well as “technological means” to protect Saturday’s demonstration near Netanyahu’s official apartment in the city.
“Our main goal is to ensure the arrival and departure of the protesters,” he told state broadcaster KAN 11. “We will show 0 tolerance for violence.”
Speaking from Saturday night’s demonstration when participants were still arriving, he estimated that the crowd was “a few thousand” of people.
In recent weeks, the number of protesters increased considerably over the course of the night.
Protesters on Caesarea’s exclusive beach network, where Netanyahu has a house, also reported a strong police presence.
Unscathed protests for Netanyahu to resign over several corruption allegations and his handling of the new coronavirus crisis have intensified in recent weeks and the minister has been scathing in his counterattack.
Last week, he accused Channel 12 and the personal channel, Channel 13, of “propaganda for left-wing anarchist demonstrations” through a broad rallies policy.
On Sunday, a Jerusalem court imposed an opposing order on his son Yair, preventing him from harassing individual protest leaders after tweeting their addresses. Yair Netanyahu has received death threats from left-wing activists.