MK Naftali Bennett
MK Naftali BennettOren Ben Hakoon/POOL

MK Naftali Bennett, head of the Yamina party and a former Defense Minister, has called for all demonstrations to cease during the current lockdown period, pointing out that democracy will not suffer a fatal blow by making a pause in protests for two weeks.

“We’re in the middle of a nationwide lockdown, and we need to place restrictions on both communal prayers and protests,” Bennett said. “Yesterday, on Yom Kippur, I prayed outdoors in not such easy conditions, but it was certainly possible – just as it is possible for people to protest without violating the regulations. People can protest outside their homes for the next two weeks – and nothing will happen to democracy,” he said.

An Intelligence report published earlier on Tuesday morning revealed that Israel has now overtaken the United States in the number of coronavirus-related fatalities per capita population each day. Responding to the latest data, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein announced that the lockdown would “without doubt” be extended beyond the original three weeks mentioned and said that “no amount of pressure” would cause the government to back down. He stressed that the country would only emerge from lockdown gradually, “having learned its lessons from the way things were done following the first lockdown” this spring.