Hundreds of black-clad protesters clashed with police on the streets of Copenhagen on Saturday night, shooting fireworks at the officers and getting batons in return. Violent demonstrations have become a weekly occurrence in the Danish capital, where lockdown measures were extended at the beginning of the year and where the government recently clamped down further on the size of gatherings permitted.The Netherlands:
The group, calling themselves the 'Men in Black', torched an effigy of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. By the end of the night, at least five people were arrested, Copenhagen police said on Twitter.
A group of rowdy protesters gathered in the port area of Urk, 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the capital, Amsterdam overnight, shortly after the curfew went into effect at 9pm. The group was driving cars, honking horns, and waving national flags at the square, footage from the scene shows.And Israel:
The protesters became rowdy and set a drive-in coronavirus site located at the square on fire. The group then apparently waited for police to arrive to taunt the officers and pelt them with various projectiles.
A similar incident also unfolded in the town of Stein close to the border with Belgium. A group of around 100 young people gathered in the streets, playing music and drinking. When a sizeable police force was deployed to disperse them, scuffles ensued, resulting in at least 14 arrests.
Protests against the nighttime curfew continued in the Netherlands on Sunday, with the southern city of Eindhoven becoming the hotspot. At least 30 people were arrested near the train station where the demonstrators pelted foreign objects at the police, overturned cars and set barricades, built from bicycles snatched from nearby parking lots, on fire.
On Sunday morning, hundreds of Orthodox believers gathered to defend the yeshiva in Jerusalem's neighborhood of Mea Shearim, a Haredi stronghold in the city. Religious schools that teach the Talmud and the Torah sacred texts are scheduled to open for in-person studies this week, which contradicts the restrictions by the government of PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
As soon as the police arrived, the protesters began tossing foreign objects at the officers and shouting obscenities. They labeled the police "Nazis" and "kapos" - Jews that collaborated with Hitler's forces during World War II
Following the unrest on Sunday, the police reiterated that it will continue to enforce anti-coronavirus measures "in all communities" despite the protests. The lockdown in Israel, which among other things orders the closure of all educational institutions, will be in place until at least January 31.
Orthodox Jews have been actively protesting against the Covid-19 restrictions, which hinder their religious practices, since the start of the pandemic, with clashes and arrests happening on a regular basis. At the same time, the Haredi has become one of the groups hardest hit by the virus, with experts blaming neglecting health regulations and the large sizes of their families for such a scenario.
Tensions were also high in the Mediterranean city of Ashdod where dozens of Haredi tried breaking into a local religious school.
A shocking video from the scene shows a police officer grabbing a young Haredi school boy and throwing him to the pavement before picking him up again and tossing him into the crowd.
Comment: From suicides, missed critical healthcare, to the impact of the economic fall out, it's fairly clear by now that lockdowns have and will kill a great many more people than the coronavirus ever could: