Judicial reform protests will end with blood on the street, organizer warns

Israel's judicial reform protests will end with the deliberate spilling of blood of protesters on the streets, protest organizer Eran Schwartz warned in a Sunday morning interview with 103FM.

Speaking with radio hosts Nissim Mashal and Gideon Oko about the increasing cases of violence against protesters throughout the country, Schwartz warned that "these events will end with blood on the streets. Nothing is spontaneous, there is a deliberate hand here that is trying to kill this demonstration."

"We see the level of violence going up," he continued. "We see that it's not by chance. If at first we were compared to pus and called anarchists and terrorists, which is the beginning of marking a certain milestone, we got a great upgrade from the prime minister's son, who called us 'Nazi stormtroopers.'

"This is no accident. The [government] ministers don't condemn it, the prime minister doesn't condemn it. There are vague statements at best," Schwartz continued to elaborate.

"This thing will end with blood in the streets, our protesters will be hurt. People who raise the Israeli flag, who wave it with the intention of taking care of everyone and taking care of Israeli democracy, they may end up in the hospital, or somewhere further, heaven forbid."

"We are warning you, there have been political attacks in the past, and from a very specific side, and they are going to increase now as well. This is very, very troubling to us."

Asked to elaborate on the indications of violence that he was referring to, Schwartz said that "there are already calls in advance for activists from Lehava, from Likud, from other places, to come and deliberately create provocations at our sites. 

"I saw a lot of blood in the eyes of a lot of people."

Protests show no sign of slowing down

In response to the question of whether or not he believes the threats against protesters to be deliberately organized, he replied: "There is a prime minister and there are ministers who say terrible and violent things.

"There is verbal violence that is translated in the field into physical violence. Does anyone pick up the phone and activate them? You should ask them and not me, but this incident is not accidental."

Concluding the interview, Schwartz stressed his belief in the need for the judicial reform protests which have taken place across Israel for 11 consecutive weeks, with no signs of slowing down.

"We are at a defining event in the history of the State of Israel," he explained. "If in 1944, Begin tried to prevent a rift in the nation, and then a state was created in some sense, today the head of Likud stands and does exactly the opposite. There is a state and he is causing a rift in the nation.

"We will find ourselves in the midst of a dictatorship, and we will not allow that, and so [the protests] will only get stronger and stronger, and they will be on Thursday and Saturday, and Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday.

"People are not giving up, they are fighting for their home, for the image of the State of Israel, for the democracy of the State of Israel, that is why we are here, and that is why it will not end."