Around a 1500 people protested against government corruption on Saturday night in the central Israeli city Petah Tikva near the home of Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit.
According to Israeli news sources hundreds of Israeli protesters gathered in front of Israel’s attorney general’s home on Saturday to demand him to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges.
The weekly vigils have become the vanguard of a grassroots protest movement against Netanyahu’s financial misdeeds and illicit ties to executives in the media international business and Hollywood.
The main demonstration at Goren Square was restricted to 500 people by a High Court of Justice ruling on Thursday. Police barred additional protesters from entering the square. Hundreds who remained outside the demonstration site gathered in nearby squares.
Similar events were simultaneously held in 17 other cities across the country.
Rallies protesting the attorney general’s handling of the investigations into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption charges have been held in Petah Tikva for some 40 consecutive weeks.
Saturday night’s demonstration comes a week after a pair of high-profile organizers were arrested and after Israel’s Supreme Court ruled the protests could continue as long as they didn’t exceed 500 people or include the use of loudspeakers in the residential area.
Israeli police said far more than that arrived Saturday with some 2000 attending. They also said protesters violated the other conditions set by the court using loud speakers and spreading out to adjacent streets.
What began as a gathering of a handful of good governance activists outside the home has now in its 40th week swelled into a powerful display of flag-waving Israelis each Saturday night that has drawn heavy media coverage sparked counter pro-Netanyahu protests and unnerved police.
Israel law says the prime minister can only be removed by parliament though the Supreme Court has since ruled that government ministers and mayors had to resign if indicted.
Israel’s justice minister has said the prime minister is not compelled to do so. But should the attorney general issue an indictment there will be a legal challenge and public pressure for him to step aside. The weekly protests are ostensibly aimed at encouraging an indictment.
