Israeli authorities battled with protestors gathered near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence to show their displeasure with his contentious judiciary reform agenda.
They seized 17 persons on Friday night, three of them were taken near Netanyahu’s private residence and 14 others outside police stations.
A video shows security forces assaulting and beating demonstrators as they try to physically evacuate them from the location.
“The police officers are acting with ferocious violence,” one protester said.
The Resistance to the Dictatorship group, which organized the protest, said, “The violence of the police… is suitable for dictatorial regimes.”
“The attempt to violently suppress the protest will not succeed. If the coup d’état goes through, police violence against those who protest against the government will be routine,” it said.
Netanyahu has been attempting to increase the regime’s hardline cabinet’s influence in the process of picking supreme court judges, while also attempting to empower politicians and the Knesset to veto the court’s verdicts.
The controversial measures were implemented in January, sparking months of unprecedented anti-Netanyahu protests, with critics portraying the proposal as a threat to the independence of the courts by the prime leader, who is on trial for graft.
In response to mounting public pressure, Netanyahu declared in late March that he would halt the project and engage in talks with the opposition.
The regime’s extreme cabinet, on the other hand, has committed to carry out the makeover plan.
Several Israeli leaders have warned that the entity is in “real danger” as cities have seen back-to-back rallies amid major schisms over the regime’s radical path. Israeli President Isaac Herzog has warned of “collapse” and “implosion” among them.
Former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid have both stated that Netanyahu would be held accountable if an internal war broke out.
Netanyahu was re-elected prime minister after forming a coalition of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, labeled the most radical in Israeli history.
His supporters include the Religious Zionism movement and the Jewish Power Party, whose founders, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, both reject Palestinian independence and have a history of making incendiary remarks regarding Palestinians.
