Police made eight arrests Thursday during a protest at a Tel Aviv police station. Demonstrators were protesting a police raid on two websites that promote draft-dodging in Israel and the simultaneous arrests of several activists involved in their activity.
About 50 protestors arrived at the Dizengoff St. Police Station; six women and two men were detained by Police Special Forces.
Police say protestors arrested for rioting (Photo: Yaron Brener)
Ayelet Maoz, an activist with the Coalition of Women for Peace and one of the organizers of the protest, said the police had been excessively violent with the demonstrators.
"They were pushing people into the street without stopping the traffic. There are a few people here who nearly got run over. These are women over 80 years of age," she said. "This is not how the police are supposed to behave in Israel. We plan to file a complaint."
She said the law did not require them to file for a permit to stage the protest because it was merely an act of maintaining a quiet presence there throughout the day.
A police statement said the demonstrators had been offered a meeting with the station chief but had refused.
"This was an illegal protest staged by feminists and anarchists. The women besieged the station and would not allow anyone to enter or exit," the statement said, adding that attempts were made to move the protestors across the street before eight were detained for "rioting and failure to obey police orders."
Earlier this week police raided the offices of New Profile and Target 21, two websites that promote the dodging of the IDF's mandatory draft.
A total of 23 feminist organizations were angered by the move, and an enraged letter on the matter was sent to the Interior Ministry.
Dorit Abramowitz, an activist for the organizations, explained that the large-scale feminist uprising was due to a violation of freedom of speech laws.
"In any democracy there must be an opposition, but as we understand it, once an organization says something that differs from the government's opinion they start to probe their files. We see this as a dictatorial move," she said.
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