Stopping the bus of the “Order 9” protestors: This morning (Tuesday), the police prevented the passage of the bus of the movement’s activists, who arrived at the Kerem Shalom crossing in order to block the humanitarian aid convoys to the Gaza Strip. In the end, the protesters managed to reach the crossing.
According to the protesters, a police officer got on the bus, refused to allow the passengers to get off and took them to the police station in Netivot.
In the last two weeks, operatives of the Order 9 movement and other organizations disrupted the passage of aid trucks to the Strip, and even succeeded in blocking the entry of trucks several times. The movement and other organizations are protesting the transfer of aid, when there are 136 Israeli abductees in the Gaza Strip whose fate is unknown, and are demanding that it be prevented from being transferred until they are released.
Last Wednesday, the commander of the Southern Command, Major General Yaron Finkelman, signed the expansion of the closed military area order on route 211 and the Nitsana crossing, and last Sunday Finkelman declared the Kerem Shalom crossing area a closed military area. This is because the introduction of humanitarian aid through the crossings in Israel is the implementation of the cabinet’s decision from last December, which also includes ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, who support the protest.
According to a publication in News 12, at the cabinet meeting last Thursday, the ministers attacked Police Commissioner R.N. Yaakov Shabtai with claims of “selective enforcement” against the protesters at the border crossings, compared to the protesters against the legal reform. According to the reports, Commissioner Shabtai replied to the ministers: “You here make the decisions, I merely enforce them. You are the ones who want to introduce aid through Kerem Shalom.”
“We are appalled by the conduct of the police, who are willing to break the law and prevent the freedom of movement and freedom of demonstration of citizens in the State of Israel,” the Order 9 movement said in response to the events, “and all this in order to allow income from aid to the enemy during wartime.”
Earlier this morning, dozens of passengers who were on a bus belonging to “Torat Lehima” and “March of Mothers” activists, which made its way to the Kerem Shalom crossing in order to block the aid trucks to Gaza, were also arrested.
Mothers’ march chairman Sima Hasson: “This is about gagging. Arresting the parents of fighters is a shame, especially when they are on their way to legally protest the introduction of aid that only strengthens the enemy. I call on the Minister of National Security to intervene and instruct the police to allow the protest to take place and release the detainees.”
Rabbi Leo Di, whose late wife Lucy (Leah) and his two daughters, Maya and Rina, were murdered in an attack in the Jordan Valley, also came to take part in the activities of the Order 9 movement and to block the convoys of trucks and supplies to Gaza.
Last week, his son Yehuda was arrested at the Kerem Shalom crossing with about 40 other people. “I am proud of my child,” said Rabbi Dee after the arrest. “He did everything he could for the abductees and their families.”
Meanwhile, in the discussion held in the Constitution Committee of the Knesset regarding the closed military area order, the chairman of the committee, MK Rothman, closed the committee’s discussion following the absence of representatives of the Ministry of Defense from the committee, saying: “There will be no discussion on the issue when the bride and groom and the in-laws, which is the Ministry of Defense, are not present … The time has come for Defense Minister Yoav Galant to understand that this is not an army that has a country.”
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