Many Israelis were arrested on Saturday evening as thousands protested in western Jerusalem and Tel Aviv against premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption and his government’s response to the economic fallout caused by coronavirus and high unemployment according to Haaretz website.
Police forces quelled the protesters using different anti-riot means and arrested at least 28 of them. Later they released some of them with restrictions and referred others to courts.
Haaretz said that thousands of unemployed people rallied in Tel Aviv’s Charles Clore Park before marching through the city to Habima Square. 13 protesters were reportedly arrested after clashing with police forces.
In Tel Aviv the police said that toward the end of the protest some hundreds of protesters violated police orders and kept marching while blocking main roads until arriving at Habima Square where they started clashing with police officers.
In western Jerusalem some 2000 protesters demonstrated outside Netanyahu’s official residence calling for his resignation over his corruption charges for the fourth time this week and his failure to address economic problems that worsened as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
15 were arrested after protesters started blocking the streets surrounding Paris Square. Some of the demonstrators began marching toward the city center before returning to the area surrounding Netanyahu’s residence.
Police forces closed Jerusalem’s central Jaffa Street to traffic and erected barriers to prevent protesters from nearing Netanyahu’s residence.
The protesters in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem carried placards and chanted slogans against Netanyahu and his government.
The protests were not organized by a single centralized organization but they were made up of a variety of different groups and young people who are unaffiliated with any particular movement Haaretz noted.
