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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Anti-government activist indicted for indecent act against police officer at protest |
| 2025-05-07 |
Follow up to this story from yesterday. [IsraelTimes] 72-year-old Eyal Yaffe also charged with illegal protest activity; previously indicted for illegal possession of firearms over AK-47, submachine gun, grenades found in his home Anti-government activist Eyal Yaffe, 72, was indicted Monday on charges of performing an indecent act against a female police officer during a protest, as well as participating in an illegal demonstration and interfering with a police officer in the performance of their duty. During the protest on March 25 outside the Knesset, Yaffe blocked the street together with other protesters and ignored instructions to disperse, according to the indictment. At a different point during the demonstration, Yaffe came up behind a female police officer and rubbed his crotch against her as she was bending over to deal with other protesters. The officer and a colleague pushed him away. The incident was caught on video and posted to Instagram by rapper and right-wing activist Yoav Eliasi, also known as "the Shadow." Yaffe has denied any wrongdoing. "The video was completely fabricated," he told Channel 12 in March, adding that he was shoved as he tried to help protesters who were sitting on the ground. Last month, Yaffe was indicted for the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. The police discovered a loaded AK-47 assault rifle, along with a submachine gun and ammunition for it, 12 magazines, a stun grenade, and a tear-gas grenade in Yaffe’s home when they raided it following the incident. Police said that a number of the weapons dated back to the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Yaffe said the rifle was a memento from his late brother Amir Yaffe, who fell during his military service, and that the remaining items were from his own time in the army. Yaffe’s lawyer said that the various weapons found in his client’s possession were "family mementos" with "deep sentimental value" that were unconnected to his role as a protest activist, decrying the detention of his client as "political." "It is difficult not to notice the obsession of law enforcement officials with finding every possible reason to incriminate a major protest activist," Attorney Gonen Ben Yitzhak added. "The police and prosecutors are choosing to ignore the personal, family and historical context of these items, and instead are trying to present them as incriminating evidence." Yaffe, along with several other veterans of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, is a member of the "Lochamei Kippur ’73" protest group, which rose to prominence during the judicial overhaul protests of 2023 and has taken a major role in the anti-government, pro-hostage release protest movement. |
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