Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted an article claiming that protesters against the government’s judicial overhaul package were blocking ambulances during mass demonstrations across the country on Tuesday.
The post included a screen capture of a headline from the Makor Rishon news site claiming “leftist protesters blocked ambulances, cancer patients and the disabled,” which accompanied a news article collecting various stories of people or medical treatment being delayed by protests.
The tweet was Netanyahu’s first response to the protests, which came hours after the coalition passed the first piece of legislation that it plans to pass from its overhaul package by the end of the month.
The headline the prime minister shared, however, writes a check that the accompanying article can barely cover. While people were undoubtedly delayed during the protests throughout the day, its claims of protesters keeping the disabled and cancer patients from treatment were based on accounts from two relatives of two of the right-wing newspaper’s journalists who had to sit in traffic.
FakeReporter, an Israeli group that fact-checks online claims, said that earlier messages sent out by Likud politicians and activists claiming massive delays by ambulances were based on fictitious accounts, after checking with Magen David Adom.
MDA did say in a statement that a number of ambulances were briefly delayed due to road closures earlier in the day.
FAKE WARNING ????
We have identified a false advertisement that is gaining momentum online about a woman who allegedly died in an ambulance that was delayed because of the protests.The facts: from a test done with MDA, no such event is recognized.
The main spreaders of the lie: Likud activists Yigal Malka and Orli Lev; “Israel News on Telegram” channel
Spread the word so we can stop the pike! pic.twitter.com/36YbHv4FrW
— fake reporter | FakeReporter (@FakeReporter) July 11, 2023
Israeli reporter Ben Caspit, who is closely aligned with the protest movement, tweeted out footage of protesters moving out of the way so an ambulance could pass by and wrote that if the junction had been filled with traffic as it normally is, the ambulance would have taken even more time to pass.
At least 77 people were arrested during Tuesday’s mass protests — most under suspicion that they violated public order. The majority were released later in the day.
Israeli protesters have long used the tactic of blocking roads to raise awareness of their cause, though the current government has sought to crack down on the practice at anti-overhaul demonstrations.