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Israeli legislators protest outside attorney general’s home

Israeli legislators should not join demonstrations criticizing Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit for taking his time in investigating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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"This is a demonstration of the left … it’s anti-constitutional and anti-democratic. They say it explicitly, 'We want to influence decision-makers,'" chairman of the coalition David Bitan was heard saying at the Likud Party’s demonstration on the evening of Aug. 5, next to the home of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in Petach Tikva. His words reflect a dangerous confusion of basic terms of democratic rule.

Bitan, alongside Minister of Communications Ayoob Kara, Deputy Minister Yaron Mazuz and Knesset members Amir Ohana and Nava Boker of the Likud, headed several hundred Likud members who gathered as part of a counterprotest to the demonstrations that have been taking place at Mandelblit’s home for 37 weeks in a row. These protests began at the end of 2016, even before the investigations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Case 1000 (gifts from businessmen) and Case 2000 (conversations with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes over a deal for positive coverage of Netanyahu) became public. These protests were organized by left-wing activists to pressure Mandelblit to quickly advance investigations of the prime minister, since they feared he is delaying them in order to allow Netanyahu to evade them. With the significant developments in these cases, an element of protest against corruption was added to these weekly demonstrations, which grew from a few dozen protesters to several thousands.

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