Israel’s state prosecution filed an indictment on Monday, December 2, against four anti-government protesters involved in firing maritime flares toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private house in Caesarea, charging them with “attempted arson and reckless use of fire with a terrorist motive.” Nobody was harmed in the incident and no damage was caused, and Netanyahu was not home at the time.

Anti-government protesters calling for release the four anti-government protesters involved in firing maritime flares toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private house in Caesarea (Photo: Moked Caesarea)
Rear-Admiral Ofer Doron (res.) (63), who served as chief of the Space Division at Israel Aerospace Industries, his son Gal (27), Itay Yaffe (62), and Amir Sade (62) were indicted, and the prosecutor asked to extend their arrest until the conclusion of legal proceedings against them. The four are active in the protest organization Moked Caesarea, which protests outside the prime minister’s home, according to the indictment.
The elder Doron was suspended from the Israeli army in August 2023 in response to his decision to stop performing volunteer reserve duty over the far-right government’s judicial overhaul plot. Sadeh and Yafeh are also well-known figures in the anti-government protest movement, which has held regular protests outside Netanyahu’s home, alongside larger rallies in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Gonen Ben Itzhak, a lawyer from the Legal Aid for Protesters organization who is representing three of those accused, responded to the indictment, saying that the State Attorney is falling in line with the far right government. “I think we are facing a new era,” he said, highlighting that the State Attorney chose to submit terror charges against leaders of the protest when similar offenses [of use of pyrotechnics] have happened previously and noting that the state prosecution had acknowledged that the defendants were not trying to harm Netanyahu. “This decision is sullied with politics, a warning to all protesters that any use of pyrotechnics could turn into a terror incident,” he said. “By the way, pyrotechnics are also used at soccer games,” he added, stressing that similar offenses have not reached indictments on acts of terror in the past.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) asked the State Attorney to reconsider the indictment, saying that it disproportionately harms freedom of protest. ACRI emphasized that it does not represent the accused but is turning to the State Attorney due to concern over the “harsh implications on freedom of protest in Israel stemming from the enforcement authorities’ behavior on the incident.”
“Freedom of protest is a fundamental right in a democratic society, and the use of criminal law and security services against demonstrators, in an attempt to suppress protests against the government or imprison protesters, is characteristic of oppressive regimes. The effort to label protesters as terrorists is also a hallmark of regimes we do not wish to emulate,” ACRI said.
The organization stressed that the description from the indictment of an incident could be used to describe many protests at which loud noises and fireworks are used and fires area sometimes set. “Let us remember that every protest has a ‘political-ideological motive,'” the organization added, stressing that “every protest is intended ‘to create a cumulative effect of significant pressure on the prime minister, which, in their view, will ultimately advance the protest’s objectives.'”
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=32251