Tel Aviv: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed on Sunday at swelling protests against his rule, saying they are egged on by a biased media that distorts facts and cheers on the demonstrators.
Netanyahu has faced a wave of protests in recent weeks, with demonstrators calling for the long-serving, indicted leader to resign and panning his handling of the coronavirus crisis. Netanyahu has painted the protests as dens of anarchists and leftists” out to topple a strong right-wing leader.
The protests have largely been peaceful. In some cases they have ended with clashes between demonstrators and police. In others, small gangs of Netanyahu supporters and individuals affiliated with far-right groups have assaulted demonstrators.
In a six-minute rant at a meeting of his Cabinet, Netanyahu slammed the media for inflaming the protests and for misrepresenting incidents of violence against the protesters.
There has never been such a distorted mobilization I wanted to say Soviet but it has already reached North Korean terms of the media in favour of the protests, he said. (AP)
