Ashkelon Man Charged for Using Pepper Spray on Tel Aviv Protestors

On Tuesday, charges were reportedly filed against a man for threatening and assaulting protestors of the government’s judicial overhaul.

Reports had said that the man had allegedly attacked the protestors at a rally with a pepper spray in the previous week.

The charges

The indictment revealed that 24-year old Ram Eyal, who is a resident of Ashkelon, had driven at high speed to the rally being held in Tel Aviv at a blocked junction on Thursday in the previous week.

Eyal had then left his vehicle and had injured four protestors after he used pepper spray on them. According to the police, political motivations were the reason for the attack.

The incident was witnessed by another protestor named Dor, who disclosed that the accused had also attempted to run them over with his car.

He said that they had blocked him and prevented him from advancing due to which he had stepped out of his vehicle and had used pepper spray on them.

Dor stated that they had called the cops, who had arrived after 15 minutes, and three people had been detained after due process.

The response

A lawyer representing the accused said that their client did not have a criminal record. They further said that their client had entered a rally area by mistake and had not intended to harm the demonstrators.

The defense added that they would present their arguments after they get the investigation materials related to the incident.

Other than this indictment, two more have also been filed that are also related to attacks on the anti-government overhaul protestors.

A resident of Kiryat Ono was charged on Monday for hitting a demonstrator in the face. The 68-year old had caused serious injury to the protestor.

A resident of Ramat Gan had also been charged two weeks ago for threatening anti-overhaul demonstrators with a screwdriver.

The protests

There have been mass rallies held in Tel Aviv and other areas of Israel for 11 weeks in a row against the judicial overhaul proposals of the government.

These proposals would allow the government to override the decisions of the court with a majority and also protect legislation from judicial review and oversight.

Most importantly, it would also hand the coalition the control of appointment judges. This has prompted opponents to fiercely argue against the proposals.

According to critics, the democratic character of Israel would weaken significantly due to these proposals because it would eliminate the system of checks and balances that exist and monitories would be left unprotected.

Meanwhile, supporters believe that the reforms are needed because the courts have a lot of power and they need to be controlled.

On Saturday, the weekly protests drew thousands of participants, but they involved numerous acts of violence against the demonstrators.

Protest organizers have said that they would escalate their demonstrations if the government does not hit pause on taking its legislative proposals forward in the Knesset.

Another day of disruption has been scheduled in the country on Thursday for this purpose.