Hundreds of thousands of people protested Saturday evening around the country for the 26th week, with most of the speakers at these demonstrations invoking the “reasonableness standard,” a clause that gives the Supreme Court the power to block far-right government decisions that it finds unreasonable.
Protest leaders announced that protests would be intensifying this week. A major demonstration scheduled to take place Monday afternoon at Ben-Gurion International Airport, including blocking the main road leading to the airport. On Monday morning hundreds of protesters blocked access roads to the Haifa port, preventing vehicles from entering the terminal and large numbers of police were deployed to the area as demonstrators disobeyed an order to clear the roads leading to the country’s largest seaport.
Organizers of the Haifa protest said in a statement: “Blocking the port of Haifa is one step out of dozens of resistance actions that will stop the government of destruction and will not allow any dictatorial law to pass.” Protesters laid down barbed wire across the road to stop trucks and other vehicles from entering the port.
Footage published by Zo Haderech showing members of the Brothers and Sisters in Arms protest group clashing with anti-occupation block of protesters, July 1, 2023
According to protest organizers over 286,000 people came out to protest on Saturday night of which 150,000 were present in Kaplan junction in Tel Aviv. Even before the Tel Aviv rally officially began, some protesters descended to the nearby Ayalon Highway and briefly blocked southbound traffic near HaShalom Interchange. While clearing the road, police arrested two people for disrupting public order. After the rally protesters again blocked the highway, this time the northbound section.
Another protester was arrested for attacking anti-occupation activists. The members of the Brothers and Sisters in Arms group, representing Israeli army veterans, clashing with the anti-occupation block of protesters, among them several Hadash and Communist Party of Israel activists who were decrying Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories.
As part of the confrontation, an activist of the Brothers of Arms reservist protest attacked a demonstrator holding a Palestinian flag with pepper spray. Another Brothers in Arms members attacked anti-occupation while they spread out a huge banner reading “We must oppose settler terror,” and claimed that the reservists were supported by the Border Police stationed there.
According the Haaretz “Brothers of Occupation” editorial published on Monday, “The attack by members of the Brothers and Sisters in Arms movement on members of anti-occupation protest bloc, even as both groups were marching in Tel Aviv Saturday night to demonstrate the government’s planned legal overhaul, was a black mark for the protests.”
In Jerusalem, around 12,000 people protested against the government’s judicial overhaul on Saturday night in front of the President’s Residence. Hundreds of demonstrators also blocked Gaza Street, close to the prime minister’s official residence; police cordoned off a large area around the home.
A violent incident was reported Saturday night at just before 7 p.m. at Kabri Junction near Nahariya. Three men were reported to get out of a car and attempt to grab flags and physically confront demonstrators. They were promptly detained by police for questioning and taken to Nahariya police station.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31057
