‘Those Who Identify With Gaza Can Be Escorted There on Buses’
A protester against the war in Gaza, in Haifa on Wednesday.Credit: Rami Shllush
“Anyone who wants to be a citizen of Israel, ahlan wa sahlan (welcome). Anyone who wishes to identify with Gaza, is welcome to – I will put him on the buses that are heading there now,” said Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, after a Coastal District strategic assessment session he attended with senior officers.
Shabtai explained on Wednesday that the police will not allow demonstrations of solidarity with Gaza residents. “There is no authorization for protests, and the [Coastal] district has proven that it is taking a firm hand,” he said.
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“We’re not in a position to start letting all kinds of people come and mess with us. It’s zero tolerance treatment of the highest standard.” These statements were also posted on the police’s official Arabic-language Twitter and ticktock accounts.
The demonstration on Wednesday night, organized in the German Colony in Haifa under the headline “We will not be silent about Zionist massacres and streams of blood in Gaza,” saw five protesters arrested on suspicion of illegal gathering.
Earlier, the police issued a statement explaining that the demonstration did not have a permit, and that the police “will not allow any demonstration of support or identification with the Hamas terrorist organization, or on matters of foreign and security policy, and will take a firm hand, subject to the law, to disperse the demonstration, including using mass dispersal measures as required.”
Following the police announcement, Adalah – the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel – wrote an urgent letter to the Coastal District Commander, Maj. Gen. Danny Levy, along with copies to the Attorney General and the Police Attorney General. The letter claims that the police statement counters Israeli law and “clearly violates the freedom of political expression of citizens who wish to protest against the continuation of the war.”
In the letter, attorney Maisana Morani stated on behalf of Adalah that the claim that a demonstration on foreign policy and security issues requires approval is incorrect. “The Attorney General’s Guidelines on the Freedom of Demonstration make it clear that a demonstration requires a license when the following conditions are met in aggregate: 50 or more people, who gather outdoors to hear a speech or lecture on a political subject; walk together or gather outdoors to walk together. In other words, it is not enough that the demonstration concerns a political issue in order to make it a license-requiring,” she wrote. Therefore, she emphasized that the order to disperse the demonstration solely because it deals with a foreign policy issue is illegal.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel recently appealed to the commissioner to ensure the protection of freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate even during wartime, pursuant to the Home Front Command’s safety guidelines.
In the appeal, attorney Hagar Shechter and Sivan Tal who leads ACRI’s freedom of protest activities wrote that, especially during this period, protection of freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate must be guaranteed. “These are very difficult days, and we are aware that the public is filled with anger, and the Israel Police is operating in multiple arenas while contending with serious losses in the organization,” the letter said.
“At the same time, the possibility of conducting public discourse and protesting is essential at this time, and the police still have the mandate of preserving law and public order, while protecting the right of citizens to demonstrate. Even in this difficult time, the Israel Police is obligated to protect demonstrators from public violence against them, and the police must do their job without letting their personal position or feelings influence them.”