The organizers of the "Crime Minister" protests have condemned the government's decision to ban demonstrations during the coming lockdown period. Demonstrations have become a weekly occurrence over the past months and have been called out as potential "super spreaders" of the coronavirus, with some reports alleging that participants put their cell phones on "airplane mode" for the duration, in order to prevent the authorities from being able to trace their movements and link them to coronavirus contagion.
"The right to protest is a basic right in democracies," the organizers said in a statement. "There is no evidence that the coronavirus has spread at protests in the open air which followed guidelines. We will not lend our support to attempts to silence us, which only show how much [Netanyahu] fears us."
They added that, "We will continue to protest regardless, until you [Netanyahu] go! We demand that the police remove the barriers that endanger lives at the protests, and we tell you that the masses will continue to stream to Balfour, even during the lockdown, until the most corrupt and failed Prime Minister in the history of the state leaves Balfour."