Police to Deploy 1,000 Officers for Blocking Roads at Tel Aviv Protest

Beginning Saturday afternoon, police will deploy 1,000 officers and have also approved plans of blocking access of vehicles across roads throughout Tel Aviv.

This is in anticipation of the huge anti-government protest that has been planned against the judicial reforms of the new government.

Large crowds

On Thursday, the police did an assessment in which it predicted that this week’s demonstration was expected to have larger crowds than the one last week, as it had rained the previous Saturday.

This forecast indicates clear weather for this Saturday and the bombshell ruling delivered by the High Court this week, which declared Shas chief unfit to be minister, is also expected to draw a bigger crowd.

Police officials were also concerned about right wing counter-protestors clashing with the anti-government protestors.

They have posted on social media for the government supporters to flood the streets. The Tel Aviv protest will also be a divided one.

There will be one rally at Habima Square, same as the previous weekend, where the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, will be focused.

Meanwhile, other organizers are planning on demonstrating at a distance of less than a kilometer, at the intersection of Begin and Kaplan streets.

The preparations

Roads around the sites of the protest will be blocked by the police from 4 p.m. onwards. The protest areas will face traffic disruptions and public buses will also be cancelled.

The areas that will be affected include Arlozorov Street, Menachem Begin Street, Habima Square, Shaul Hamelech Boulevard, Namir Road and Dubnow Street.

The Tel Aviv protest has been divided because the organizers are expecting more people to attend the protest.

Apart from Tel Aviv, there will also be protests in other parts of the country, including Jerusalem and Haifa.

Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, had skipped the events last week, but he announced this week on Wednesday that he would be attending the protests, along wither other opposition leaders.

The attendees

Benny gantz, the chairman of the National Unity party, posted on Friday on social media that he would attend the protest, just like he did last week.

He said that regardless of political positions, people will take to the streets on Saturday for telling the government that they cannot run over what is written in the Declaration of Independence by the founders.

He added that they were marching because while they did not have issues with reforms, they would not accept ones that would dismantle the country’s democracy and resilience.

Another member of the National Unity party, MK Gideon Sa’ar said on Friday that he would also attend the protest and called onto members of his New Hope sub-faction to attend the rally.

They had also been absent from the last demonstration. Sa’ar said that they were struggling for Israel’s future and this means there is no left or right.

He said that the citizens of the country were struggling and this would benefit their children’s future. He said that it was an unrestrained and dangerous government that was forcing them to struggle this way.