Democrats Activists Attacked in Jerusalem, Party Chairman Heckled in Bnei Brak

Democrats leaders strongly condemned the violence and criticized the police response. MK Gilad Kariv accused the police of delaying their response, hindering the filing of complaints, and failing to arrest the attackers, calling the failed response a policy rather than a failure. Kariv blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for inciting the violence, describing the assailants as their long arm. Kikar HaShabbat reported that activists claimed police officers were called repeatedly but did not exit their patrol car to intervene.

Despite the assault, Democrats Chairman Yair Golan vowed that the party would not be deterred and would continue its nationwide activities ahead of the October 27th elections. Activists planned to return to the market on Friday and Tuesday.

In a separate incident on Thursday in Bnei Brak, Ofer Winter, the chairman of the Am Israel party, was verbally abused by extremist Haredim. Winter, who was in the city to discuss IDF enlistment with Haredi community members, was called a murderer, anti-Semite, and Torah burner. Winter responded by accusing his harassers of desecrating Torah study.