Israel Matzav

IDF surveillance vehicle on Tel Aviv streets Saturday night

Israel's Left is fuming after someone put an intelligence gathering raccoon (pictured above) on the streets of Tel Aviv during a rally being held Richie Rich's female clone and her friends.

Contacted by the Jerusalem Post on Sunday, the Tel Aviv Police said they would not comment on the vehicle, where it came from, or if it was being operated by police or for what purpose. The IDF spokesperson’s office said that they had no knowledge of the vehicle’s deployment in Tel Aviv. Nonetheless, the Border Patrol said that they had fielded similar inquiries from the press on Sunday, and said that the vehicle was being operated by the police.

Association for Civil Rights in Israel Attorney Avner Pinchuk said Sunday that “Israel has long used aggressive means to suppress demonstrations in the Occupied Territories, and last night we saw the use of similar tactics in Tel Aviv, where an armored surveillance vehicle was present at the social justice demonstration. The presence of such a vehicle has an obvious chilling effect on the freedom of expression.”

At any protest in Tel Aviv a number of police are outfitted with camcorders to record the demonstration, in case the situation escalates into violence and police find themselves facing misconduct or police brutality charges. At Saturday’s protest, which brought around 10,000 people onto the streets of Tel Aviv, there was a higher than normal amount of police equipped with camcorders, including a large number of undercover cops. There were also reports of police posing as TV camera crews, but such reports could not be confirmed.

During the protest on May 23rd, police arrested over 80 protesters and were dogged by complaints of excessive use of force in the days that followed. Videos of police using force against demonstrators have circulated online since, while police have as of yet not released a single video of violence used by protesters.

YNet adds:

On Sunday morning, social justice activists arrived in Ashdod in order to help set up a tent city. One of the protest movement's leaders, Daphni Leef, told reporters that "its inconceivable that while citizens in the south don’t even have functioning shelters, Israel's defense budget is used for trying to thwart and frighten a non-violent civilian protest."

Another protester added: "It seems that Israel's existential threat this summer is students and kindergarten teachers that go out on the street to fight for education, housing and our welfare."

The security establishment uses the Raccoon vehicle for routine operations in the country's borders and in the West Bank. The intelligence gathering vehicle is also deployed during complex operations such as arrest of suspects, thwarting infiltrations or smuggling at the Egypt border and other cases.

The advantage of the vehicle is its ability to mobilize in open areas, and its use in a crowded place such as Tel Aviv is highly unusual.

Boo Hoo. It's about time the police started treating the Left's protesters like they treat the Right's.

Labels: Daphne Leef, Israeli Left, Tel Aviv

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:36 PM