Police arrested two people for allegedly attacking activists with the left-leaning The Democrats party in south Tel Aviv’s Hatikvah Market on Friday, according to a police statement and footage from the scene.

Video clips from the market showed the activists had set up a stand and were accosted by at least two men who cursed at them, yelled at them to leave and overturned or kicked their equipment. One of the men could be seen in the footage hitting an activist.

The market is located in the Hatikvah neighborhood, one of the few Tel Aviv neighborhoods — all on the city’s lower-income southern edge — where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party received the most votes in Israel’s last national election in late 2022.

The activists included Tel Aviv Deputy Mayor Chen Arieli, who chairs the Israeli Gay Youth movement and is running in the Democrats’ July 20 primary.

Sharing footage of the incident, Arieli wrote on X: “Watch this video of the violence we suffered just now when I arrived with young Democrats activists to Hatikvah Market to speak openly and honestly, including with people who don’t necessarily agree with us.”

“This is the result of the Netanyahu regime that sows hatred and division in the nation… and........

© The Times of Israel