On Monday, Israeli police arrested 12 demonstrators in West Jerusalem during a demonstration against the performance of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which protesters considered a “government of destruction.”
The police said in a statement that they arrested 8 people and subjected them to interrogation, then arrested 4 others, whom they considered “rioters who intended to close Route 1, which is the highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.”
She added: “Police investigators arrested 8 people and subjected them to interrogation. Some of them resisted arrest, disobeyed the instructions of the police officers, and tried to confront them.”
According to the Israeli police statement, “The arrest and resistance operation resulted in one of the policemen sustaining minor bruises on his face, but the policemen were able to prevent the axle from being cut off and the vehicles burned with a flammable substance with their bodies.”
The police stated in their statement that they had “transferred 4 other rioters for investigation” after summoning additional forces to the protest site. It accused the demonstrators of “trying to lift vehicles with ropes on Route 1 during rush hour, with the aim of closing it and setting fire to the vehicles while exposing road users to danger.”
The Israeli “Brothers in Arms” organization called for protests, in which participants raised pictures of Israeli prisoners in the Gaza Strip and Israeli flags.
In a post on the “X” platform, the organization said: “In the call to return the mandate to the people: This morning we arrived at the entrance to Jerusalem and stood on the road with pictures of the kidnapped people and flags of Israel.”
She added: “This is Netanyahu’s legacy: kidnapped women and men in hell, burned vehicles and homes, the displacement of residents of the north, wasting time on the evasion law, exempting religious Jews from military service, and political calculations at the expense of our forces… It is time for the public to stand up and dissolve the government of destruction.” .
The “Brothers in Arms” organization emerged last year in protests against controversial judicial amendment bills. It is a right-leaning group whose members are former military personnel.
Recent weeks have witnessed an escalation in demonstrations and protests against the Israeli government to pressure it to sign a prisoner exchange agreement and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and to withdraw a draft law exempting religious Jews from conscription, and to demand the dissolution of the government and the holding of early general elections.