Israel Police officers on Wednesday worked to disperse bereaved families and other activists who gathered for a weekly protest outside the Knesset after clashes broke out between two sides at the protest. One activist was detained. The protests are part of a permanent demonstration set up next to the Knesset about a month ago, demanding the “replacement of Benjamin Netanyahu and his government with a worthy one.”
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In a video released from the scene, police officers are seen holding a sign belonging to Yael Alon, whose son, Lt. Dor Shadmi, was killed at the beginning of the war with Hamas while fighting against terrorists in Israeli communities in southern Israel, and whose father, Yitzhak Bar-Sade Klarsfeld, who was killed in the Yom Kippur War. The sign read: "My father was killed in the '73 failure, my son was killed in the '23 failure; Bibi [Netanyahu] and the destructive government to stand trial."
Alon shouted at the police officer, "Give me back my sign," several times and other demonstrators also called on the police to return her sign. One of the officers at the scene can be heard telling the protesters: "You coming after us won't make us return it." However, in another video, police officers are seen forcibly pushing protesters away.
Alongside Alon, a police officer also confiscated a sign from Yaakov Godo, whose son Tom was murdered in Kibbutz Kissufim after being locked inside a protected room for over a day. His sign read: "Tom's blood cries from across the protected room’s door in Kissufim." One of the demonstrators asked: "Why did they abandon my parents? The government is to blame; the government abandoned us."
Alon said: "Since this morning, I knew that no one would show us any compassion. I come with the sign and show it everywhere. I just wanted to show my sign. After my family has been harmed by the state twice, this morning, they hurt me again by having a police officer, who is supposed to protect me, confiscate my sign.”
"My son and many others paid the price of the failure on October 7, and I protest so that other Israelis won't pay the price of this government's failure, as I have too many times. We can’t rely on this government, which cares more about its personal interests than its citizens," she added.
Israel Police said in a statement: "Even during wartime, the police operate to allow freedom of expression and protest within the bounds of the law. However, we won’t allow the disruption of public order and harm to freedom of movement of elected officials going to their workplace.”
“Accordingly, this morning, a woman was detained in Jerusalem after actively blocking and encouraging others to block the access road to the Knesset. We will continue to allow freedom of protest according to the law, but we won’t allow the violation of public order against the law," the statement read.
In response to the confiscation of Alon's sign, the police said: "The sign was returned to the woman. It was taken after she struck a Knesset member's car with it."