Demonstrations today have seen roads blocked across Israel as part of a ‘Day of Disruption’. Highway One near Jerusalem, Highway Two near Haifa, and the Ayalon highway in Tel Aviv, as well as roads in Tirat Hacarmel, Modi'in, and Binyamina, are disrupted. Police are operating across Israel to vacate protesters.
Early this morning protests began in Herzliya, where protesters set up tents and burned tyres at the HaSira junction. They blocked the intersection with a banner reading “no entrance for dictatorship”.
Protests are set to continue, with demonstrations taking place outside the Presidents’ Residence in Jerusalem and the US consulate in Tel Aviv this evening. A protest planned at the Ben Gurion Airport at 4pm today is likely to disrupt travel.
This morning Yom Kippur war veterans gathered in the airport alongside protestors from the “Building an alternative” movement. They carried signs saying “Welcome to Gilead,” a reference to The Handmaid’s Tale.
Similar action on July 3 succeeded in blocking traffic to the airport. Police have said they take action to prevent this from repeating.
Escalating police action, including by mounted officers, has been condemned by protest groups. Josh Drill, a spokesperson for the national protest movement, told the Jewish Chronicle: “Recent alarming incidents of brutal police violence, marked by the egregious use of excessive force have cast grave doubts on the preservation of our democratic rights”.
He placed blame on Minister Ben Gvir, whose “inflammatory rhetoric has directly fueled this surge in abhorrent police brutality”.
Demonstrators lift placards and flags as they block Highway 443 between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, near the Israeli city of Modiin on July 11, 2023. Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)
Today’s ‘Day of Disruption’ is only the latest in 28 weeks of consecutive protests against the Netanyahu coalition’s legislation curtailing the independence of the judiciary. Opponents say that his reforms are pushing the country toward authoritarianism.
Brothers in Arms, a protest group led by military veterans, said in a statement: “The struggle against the regime coup is escalating, Everyone is coming out to the streets to fight for democracy”.
Strikes are also planned in response, with Histadrut threatening to take action. 300 reservists in cyber units in the IDF, Shin Bet, and Mossad will also strike, which they announced in a letter on Sunday morning. “We won’t develop abilities for a criminal regime,” they stated.
