Three days before the election, about 20,000 people, according to police estimates, demonstrated on Saturday night in Paris Square near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence.
According to the organizers, who distributed stickers to count the participants, more than 50,000 people attended the demonstration. Other demonstrators estimated that about 35,000 people were present, also based on the number of stickers distributed to those present. On at least one rightwing social media site, commenters sarcastically tried to outdo one another by declaring ever increasing participation levels that eventually surpassed 10 million demonstrators.
Dozens of protesters sat on the road and refused to be evacuated from the protest area. But shortly thereafter they dispersed and no unusual confrontations were recorded.
3 ימים לבחירות: אלפים בהפגנה בכיכר פריז, מהגדולות שהיו בחודשים האחרונים. הדיווח של ב- pic.twitter.com/Iz05nIxYoB
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news)
The police accompanied some 2,000 protesters who lingered behind. Around midnight, the police reported that most of the protesters had been dispersed from the demonstration site in Paris Square and the roads around it had been cleared for traffic.
The demonstrations of the various protest organizations began Saturday afternoon at bridges and intersections across the country. Several protest processions took place in Jerusalem, starting at the Knesset and the String Bridge, ahead of the rally in Paris Square. As they were marching, Ramban, Ben Maimon, Gaza, Agron, King George, and Keren Hayesod Streets were blocked to vehicular traffic. Police officers were deployed on these and nearby streets to maintain public order.
הצעדה מזדחלת לבלפור והכיכר כבר די עמוסה. ככה זה נראה כרגע מהמרפסת של המלון הסמוך pic.twitter.com/AuH4VDZKMg
— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg)
Black Flags movement organizers complained that the movement’s activists were attacked at the Hemed Interchange near Jerusalem by two Netanyahu supporters.
On Friday, attorney Gonen Ben Yitzhak of the Crime Minister movement wrote Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai demanding to increase police presence at the rally in Jerusalem and in other locations around the country to prevent the infiltration of provocateurs and violent elements into the crowds and to avoid needless confrontations.
Also on Friday, Central Election Commission Chairman Judge Uzi Vogelman rejected a petition filed by the Likud asking to ban the demonstrations.
“In three days he’s gone,” one protest organizer announced on his megaphone. “In three days, Israel will win. This has been the most stubborn protest Israel has ever known. We fought for a whole year and now is the moment of truth. ”
“We will win the election by ballot and not by a demonstration,” Golan Cabiat from Givatayim shouted at a demonstration in Paris Square. He told Haaretz: “I have been protesting for a year, every Saturday and in the middle of the week, shouting and unwilling to give up. But everything we have invested so far will go down the drain if on election day we don’t take steps to maintain the purity of the election.”
According to Cabiat, Israelis should volunteer to be poll watchers on election day. “There are quite a few fakes,” he claimed, adding, “A demonstration is beautiful, but Election Day is the most important thing – nothing else matters.”
The Likud also warned against election fraud and announced that they would send observers to each of the 12,000 polling stations around the country.