The government has exposed its discrimination against nationalists during the anti-expulsion protests five years ago by pardoning motorcyclists who blocked highways this week, according to National Union Knesset Member Dr. Michael Ben-Ari.

The cyclists clogged Tel Aviv and caused a mammoth rush-hour traffic jam in a demonstration against higher insurance rates. More than five years ago, police - often through violence that  was filmed and used as evidence to convict them for brutality - beat and arrested dozens of youth protesting the Disengagement program that led to the demolition of hundreds of Jewish homes and the expulsion of nearly 10,000 Jews.

 Handcuffed nationalistPhoto: Flash 90
MK Ben-Ari pointed out to Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch (Yisrael Beiteinu) that the cyclists were motivated by “worrying about their own pockets” while nationalists demonstrated to promote a Jewish presence in all of Israel.

“In the future, will the police also be so forgiving against demonstrators who were concerned for the Land of Israel and not their own pockets?” he asked the minister

“I praise the police for its behavior in forgiving the motorcyclists, but…in the wake of protests in the same place five years ago by anti-expulsion nationalists, [why] were youth beaten and jailed without charges?”  the freshman legislator continued.

The minister responded, “I am stating that there never has been differentiation between one person and the other or between one protestor or another… If that was what was meant, we would never do this. The law is the law.”

 

Before this week’s renewed protests by the motorcyclists, they announced their intention to stage “the mother of all protests” and crawl along high-speed highways. They succeeded in creating a nightmare for motorists on the highway linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as well as those on the Coastal Highway and on the Ayalon road which runs through Tel Aviv.