‘We limited the damage’
Anti-disengagement protesters closed off dozens of streets yesterday, but Police Chief Karadi says cops kept disruption to daily life at minimum; magistrates court judge sentencing one protester says police are muscles and tendons of democratic society
Tel Aviv - Anti-disengagement protesters blocked some 40 intersections Monday, but they failed to disrupt the daily life of the country in any profound way, Police Chief Moshe Karadi said Tuesday.
Police arrested 405 right-wing protesters across the country.
"The large number of arrests demonstrates that the police are serious about enforcing the law,” Karadi said. “The officers showed good judgment and acted firmly, with professionalism and empathy."
More to come
Karadi predicted that there would be more road blocking demonstrations in the future, but that the police would do everything to protect the flow of traffic in Israel.
Interior Security Minister Gideon Ezra told Ynet Monday that the police did not fail in their bid to control the crowds
"Officers were at the intersections. The police did its job," he said. "We didn’t want to use violence even though, at certain places, stones and fire-crackers thrown at them (police).”
Still, Ezra said that the police are limited in what they can do when facing thousands.
Before the courts
Earlier Tuesday, the Jerusalem Magistrates Court ordered the release of the heads of the “National Home” organization, Shai Malka and Ariel Vangrover, who organized the roadblocks. The two are set to be held an extra day following a police appeal.
Jerusalem police freed the 130 right-wing protesters arrested on Monday on suspicion of being involved with blocking roads in the capital. They were released on condition they refrain from any involvement in demonstrations for the next 60 days.
Tel Aviv police requested that 38 demonstrators have their arrests extended for four days. Tel Aviv magistrate judge Hanan Efrati said the decision of the Jerusalem court was “interesting,” but it did not oblige him to follow suit.
Efrati complimented the police, and said they are “the muscles and tendons of a democratic society, and an attack on them is liable to bring anarchy and lawlessness.”
