Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior members of his coalition accused anti-government protesters of “wild incitement” on Saturday, after a member of the ruling Likud party fell to the ground while passing through a group of protesters outside a Likud event in central Israel.
Protesters denied that they had touched the lawmaker, 70-year-old MK Eli Dallal, who fell as he made his way through the demonstration blocking the entrance to the Likud event. Dallal, however, said he felt as though he was “being lynched” by the group.
The incident occurred outside of a celebratory event hosted by the Likud Party ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, in Kfar Saba. A video from the scene shows Dallal being escorted by police through a crowd of protesters — many of whom are shouting and blaring horns — when he suddenly falls to the ground.
As the police officers close in around him, a member of Dallal’s entourage — said by anti-government protesters to be the lawmaker’s adviser — reacts furiously, shoving one of his security guards in the chest until police officers break them apart.
A protester dressed in a costume referencing the so-called “Qatargate” scandal that has engulfed Netanyahu’s aides can be seen throwing what looks like mock dollar bills at the Likud MK as he is pulled out of the crowd by the police officers.
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As the video spread on social media, condemnation began to pour in from Likud lawmakers and other members of the government, who called to bring Dallal’s “attackers” to justice.
מהומה בכפר סבא: מוחים הגיעו לאירוע הרמת כוסית של הליכוד בתיעוד נראה ח״כ אלי דלל עובר בין המפגינים – ונופל קרדיט: משנים כיון
????זירה פוליטית‼️ pic.twitter.com/ly0qFLggkK
— ???? זירה פוליטית‼ (@Zira_politit) September 20, 2025
In a statement published by the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu said he had spoken with Dallal following the incident, and called “to bring the attackers to justice and warned against the wild incitement against coalition members.”
“This incitement is becoming more extreme every day, as the inciting rioters find out that the majority of the public is not with them,” Netanyahu declared. “If law enforcement authorities do not put an end to these dangerous phenomena, it will end with blood on their hands.”
A separate statement published by Likud branded the protesters “extremist rioters” and accused them of operating as “violent and unbridled militias in order to silence and intimidate right-wing voters.”
“The next murder is just around the corner,” Likud insisted, accusing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara of doing “nothing against the rising tide of violent incitement.”
Dallal himself seemed hesitant to apportion blame for the incident, instead telling Channel 14 that he had bumped into a protester and fallen down as a result.
Still, he told the Ynet news site that in the moment he felt as though he was “being lynched” by the crowds of furious protesters.
The demonstration, he said, “crossed a red line.”
“I really saw murder in their eyes,” he said of the protesters. “Everyone should be shocked. When you physically go through what I went through — nobody can remain silent.”
He said the entire nation should do some “soul-searching,” as “we need to be in a different place.”
MK Eli Dallal leads a joint meeting of the Special Committee for the Rights of the Child and the Special Committee for Combating Drug and Alcohol Abuse at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on April 19, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana didn’t mince his words, however, and took to X to assail the “filthy ‘democratic’ scum” for “throwing objects” at Dallal — apparently referring to the man who threw fake money at him as he was helped up from the ground.
Blaming Baharav-Miara, Ohana said she was willing “to legitimize everything just so the government falls.”
Transportation Minister Miri Regev recalled an incident earlier this month, in which anti-government activists accidentally burned an IDF reservist’s car when torching tires and dumpsters near Netanyahu’s residence.
“This is not a protest, this is anarchy,” she fumed, drawing a line between the two incidents.
She urged law enforcement to act with an “iron fist” against the “rioters.”
Politicians from other parties waded in too, with Religious Zionism lawmaker insisting that the incident was “more proof that the next political assassination like that of Charlie Kirk is closer than ever.”
Kirk, a right-wing American political commentator, was shot and killed while speaking at a US college campus earlier this month by a suspect with unclear motives.
The Israel Police declared the protest illegal, and said four people had been arrested for “attacking police officers and disturbing public order.”
It said in a statement that the four were taken for questioning, while the remainder of the protesters were removed from the building.
According to Ynet, police chief Daniel Levy ordered a probe into the police force’s operational preparations for the event, to ensure no further threat “to the life of elected officials.”
The protesters had gathered outside the Likud event to protest the expected appointment of former IDF general David Zini as the next director of the Shin Bet, as well as the decision to expand the fighting in Gaza rather than reach an agreement for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Last week, police forcibly cleared out hundreds of protesters and arrested at least one at a similar protest outside a Likud gathering in Petah Tikva, which was attended by several Likud ministers.
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