Labor Party leader Merav Michaeli and her staff on Sunday were cursed and spat by protesters during an election campaign event at a market in Tel Aviv.
A handful of attackers at the Hatikva Market, some of whom appear to have been stall owners, yelled homophonic remarks at Michaeli and her staff and then continued to chant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nickname "Bibi" through the loudspeaker.
While Michaeli attempted to ignore the aggressors and continue the tour as usual, a passerby came and attacked Michaeli's spokeswoman, Gal Bejarano, and spat in her face, before shouting "whore" at the Labor leader.
Later, two passersby on electric bicycles, tried to approach Michaeli's team in order to drive them out of the market, which has resulted in a riot that was quelled only thanks to the efforts of some of the stall owners.
The Labor Party condemned the incident and said they were considering filing a complaint with the police.
Michaeli for her part slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who she says has been continuously ignoring the violent acts of his supporters.
"How long will you stay silent about the violent ways of your thugs?" said. Michaeli. "Netanyahu, after your thugs had finished beating up protesters across Israel, they spat on my spokeswoman, beat my photographer and cursed out members of the gay community.
"Violence is eroding the foundations of our democracy. You stood silent in the face of the same violence against [Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin, and we all know how that ended," she said, adding that violence will not deter her from holding campaign events.
3 View gallery
A Likud election banner with a sticker on it
(Photo: National Responsibility Association)
Meanwhile, Likud announced that it had filed a criminal complaint with the police against Attorney Oshi Elmaleh - the director general of the National Responsibility Association - for vandalizing the party's billboards.
Elmalech earlier admitted that his activists were the ones who plastered stickers on Likud election banners, which have the slogan of the Health Ministry's coronavirus vaccination campaign on them despite orders from the Central Election Committee.