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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Protesters in Jerusalem demand deal to free hostages, end ‘Netanyahu’s war’ |
| 2025-04-18 |
| [IsraelTimes] Democrats party head vows to fight government ‘with all the power at our disposal’; ex-captive’s relative says PM will stand trial for ‘traitorous deeds’ Some one thousand anti-government protesters marched Thursday evening from Jerusalem’s government complex to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence, drawing on the Passover holiday’s celebration of freedom as they demanded a deal to bring home the remaining 59 hostages from Gaza. Police and Border Police officers manned crowd control barricades, keeping protesters from drawing close to the premier’s home. No arrests were reported. Yair Golan, head of the left-wing The Democrats, could be seen shaking protesters’ hands outside Netanyahu’s home as he moved through the crowd before giving an impromptu speech in which he demanded new elections. “We have a giant task — to bring hope to the people and citizens of Israel,” said Golan, who was knocked down by police in the same spot last month during a mass protest against the government’s bid to oust Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. Calling to fight the government with “every power at our disposal,” including strikes and civil disobedience, Golan repeated his offer to leaders of other opposition parties to band together. “We’ll build a unified and coherent alternative to the government,” he said. Maybe this is why there are so few protesters: Critics cry foul as police use noxious Skunk liquid to disperse anti-government protests[IsraelTimes] Authorities have sprayed the putrid substance out of water cannons at Palestinian and Haredi demonstrators for years. Now they’re turning it against political protesters When Hebrew University professor Nilly Mor joined the throngs of demonstrators protesting near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence on March 20, she was stunned by the brutal police response — which included the use of a controversial crowd control weapon called “Skunk” that has been increasingly seen at anti-government demonstrations. “They sprayed us directly with a strong jet of foul-smelling water. We were completely drenched… from head to toe in the putrid liquid,” said Mor, who was demonstrating against the government’s renewed military offensive in Gaza. Protesters who have come into contact with Israel’s Skunk liquid weapon have described the nauseating odor as a “mix of horseshit and sewage.” “The moment the bo’ash started firing… everyone jumped to their feet and started running away. You can smell it from 100 [yards],” said Tel Aviv resident Itay Manor, using the Hebrew word for “Skunk.” Skunk — usually sprayed from a high-pressure water cannon truck — has long been a trusted tool of the police, who claim that its use reduces the need for more violent crowd control methods. But use of the liquid on civilians often conflicts with the force’s own regulations, to the detriment not just of protesters but of entire neighborhoods. “It’s a tool with the goal of punishing the collective. It’s not discerning, it’s not exact,” said Sivan Tahel, a field researcher for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. For years, police made regular use of Skunk against Palestinian and Haredi demonstrators, particularly in Jerusalem. But in summer 2023, they used it during the peak of mass demonstrations against the government’s planned judicial overhaul, prompting concern that it had become the new normal. Those protests quieted down after the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, when Gazan terrorists butchered some 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostage to the Strip. At that point, the nation put politics aside and pulled together in the face of the tragedy. But now, with the war dragging into its 19th month and the ruling coalition again setting its sights on a judicial overhaul, anti-government demonstrations have resumed — and with them, the use of Skunk liquid by police. Skunk has a smell so intense that it can shut down businesses and schools for days. Police guidelines forbid spraying it into “enclosed buildings” and onto “roofs and balconies.” They specify that its use in built-up and dense areas is only as a last resort. Regardless, law enforcement has a history of flouting these protocols by spraying the liquid onto buildings indiscriminately, especially in Palestinian and Haredi neighborhoods of Jerusalem. The spray has proven useful for police in quickly dispersing crowds, causing fewer severe injuries than stun grenades or rubber bullets. But those hit with Skunk find that the powerful odor sticks with them long after the protest they participated in has ended. “It took me two or three showers and laundries to get rid of the smell,” said Manor, who was only lightly doused in 2023 during a Jerusalem protest against the judicial overhaul. “By 10:30 p.m., I was back home in Tel Aviv and took a shower. My wife still made me sleep on the couch.” Mor recounted the stench lingering on her skin for three days and taking over a week to finally wash out of her hair. A police spokesperson said that the method allows cops to “avoid resorting to physical force or employing more potentially harmful means.” The overwhelming force of the water cannon, which police use routinely in Tel Aviv protests, is not nearly as effective at dispersing protests as Skunk liquid blasts. “It took the Skunk only two minutes to get rid of everyone [in Jerusalem],” Manor said about the 2023 anti-overhaul protest near the Knesset. He was fearful at the time that police would henceforth rely on it more when dealing with anti-overhaul demonstrations after realizing its efficacy. Mor, a Jerusalem resident and regular protest-goer, said she has felt an uptick in police use of Skunk in recent years. While protesting for a hostage deal after Hamas’s murder of six hostages in summer 2024, she took a direct hit from the cannon, and she had another close call during the demonstrations that rocked Jerusalem last month. She noted that Skunk disperses most protesters except a “core group” of activists “who have been hit so many times, so they’re less fazed.” ‘DUNKED IN SEWAGE’ In March 2023, police confronted protesters blocking Karkur Junction with a water cannon that protesters claimed sprayed Skunk. If true, this was the first time police used the liquid against anti-government protesters. Police classified the machine used at Karkur as a regular water cannon, rather than one containing Skunk. But those on the ground reported a putrid smell. “People began to shout and run in all directions. I smelled a terrible odor. I was also sprayed with something very smelly that felt like I was dunked in sewage,” said Tamar Ben-Aryeh, who regularly demonstrates at Karkur Junction. Police said they used “approved water dispersal liquids” at Karkur Junction that day, without further elaboration. Four months later, in Jerusalem, as the Knesset passed the first law in the judicial overhaul package, police sprayed protesters blocking Begin Road with the pungent liquid. Ben-Aryeh, who was in the capital that day, picked up on a more potent stench in Jerusalem than she did in Karkur. “I came a few hours after the police used the Skunk in Jerusalem, but there was still that smell everywhere, much worse than sewage,” she said. A HARMLESS SUBSTANCE? Created by Israel’s Odortec, a privately held firm specializing in scent-based repellents for law enforcement, the foul-smelling Skunk liquid debuted in 2008 in the West Bank village of Nil’in when Border Police used it on Palestinian protesters demonstrating against the expansion of the West Bank security barrier. In 2014, reports began filtering in from East Jerusalem of police spraying Skunk in Palestinian neighborhoods. Around the same time, US media reported that police departments in St. Louis, Missouri, and elsewhere had begun purchasing the spray. Jerusalem police expanded their application of the method in 2017, using it to scatter demonstrations against the military draft in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. On the surface, Skunk liquid is composed of water, yeast and baking soda, fermented in an oxygen-deprived environment. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #6 ^ It takes time to setup alternate NGO funding channels. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2025-04-18 14:35 |
| #5 Smells like State Department. USAID funding was not terminated. Mostly shutdown, but parts remain merged and hidden within State. |
| Posted by: mossomo 2025-04-18 13:47 |
| #4 That’s the second pro-war letter. It’s important to hear from the silent majority. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2025-04-18 10:05 |
| #3 More than 1000 bereaved families have signed a letter contradicting the various calls to end the war from various groups of IDF soldiers. |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-04-18 06:55 |
| #2 p.s. I do hope somebody is recording the "protestors" names. |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-04-18 06:41 |
| #1 Democrats party head vows to fight government ‘with all the power at our disposal’ 4 MK out of 120. May fail to pass the electoral threshold (3.25%) in next elections. |
| Posted by: Grom the Affective 2025-04-18 06:37 |