Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel filed Wednesday a petition to the Supreme Court challenging the police’s unlawful obstruction and conditioning of anti-war protests in Nazareth. The petition was submitted on behalf of Mohammad Barakeh, Chairman of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens in Israel, ahead of a scheduled protest at the Al-Ein Square in Nazareth on 16 December. In the petition, Adalah urged the Court to order the police to refrain from obstructing this event and to halt the broader unlawful policy of prohibiting protests against the ongoing war and in support of the exchange of hostages.
Jewish-Arab protests against the war in Gaza, held last Saturday in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, December 9, 2023 (Photo: Zo Haderech)
The Supreme Court dismissed an earlier petition on 3 December that was filed by Adalah to stop the police from obstructing protests organized by the High Follow-Up Committee in Nazareth. The court dismissed the petition, asserting that the petitioners had not adequately proven their argument that the protest was not subject to requirements for a permit under Israeli law, despite the clear exemption stipulated in law and in related guidelines of the Attorney General. Notably, on December 10 the Supreme Court affirmed that no permit was required for such a protest, in the context of a separate petition concerning a similar protest in Tel Aviv.
Following the court ruling, the High Follow-Up Committee decided to organize a protest vigil on 16 December. Adalah subsequently contacted the police and the State Attorney’s Office to request that they ensure that the police respect the participants’ right to protest against the war and allow the planned protest to go ahead. In response, the Deputy State Attorney for Special Matters claimed that, “The State Attorney’s Office is not the address for this appeal, but the Israeli Police.” In its own response to former Hadash MK Barakeh’s request, the police stated that it was “authorized to set conditions even on protests that do not require a permit, based on its discretion and assessment of the situation,” and that such assessment “will take place closer to the date of the event,” following which it would address Mr. Barakeh’s request.
In the petition, Adalah argued that, as the protest in question does not involve any marches or speeches, it does not require a permit under either the Police Ordinance or the Attorney General’s guidelines, regardless of the number of participants. Adalah therefore contended that the police’s claim that it is entitled to impose its own conditions on such a protest is tantamount to conditioning it on a permit, a situation that breaches the rule of law, and the rights to freedom of protest and assembly.
Adalah underscored that the police’s policies of systematically blocking protests organized by the High Follow-Up Committee and imposing conditions on protests that do not require a permit are unlawful. Moreover, they seek to preemptively censor legitimate political expression by Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. Finally, Adalah emphasized that the police’s de facto ban on protests by Arab-Palestinians in Israel constituted a flagrant contravention of Israeli law.
For several weeks, the police have systematically and unlawfully obstructed the High Follow-Up Committee from conducting small protest vigils at the Al-Ein Square in Nazareth, protests that do not require a permit under Israeli law. This policy follows statements by the Commissioner of Israel Police in which he made racist and inflammatory remarks and issued an unlawful directive to deny all requests for permits for demonstrations in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza or against the ongoing war.
On 8 November, Barakeh, in light of the commissioner’s directive, notified the Nazareth police in advance about the scheduled protest. On 9 November, the police detained several Palestinian political leaders, including Barakeh, a leading member of the Communist Party of Israel, while he was en route to the planned protest. The police also detained several political leaders and former members of Knesset. The police claimed that the detained leaders had defied instructions and sought to organize an unlawful protest, despite the fact that the protest did not require a permit under Israeli law.
In light of the violent conduct of the police during the first vigil and in an attempt to prevent a similar unlawful police intervention, on 22 November Adalah, on behalf of Barakeh, sent a letter to the relevant authorities to inform them that the Follow-Up Committee intended to organize a small protest vigil for several dozens of participants at the Al-Ein Square in Nazareth on 25 November. Shortly before the scheduled time of the protest, a sizeable police force was deployed to the square, and the police sent a message requesting that Mr. Barakeh cancel the protest to avoid its forcible dispersal by the police.
A third protest was planned by the High Follow-up Committee for 4 December, at the same location. In an attempt to enable it to go ahead, on 29 November, Adalah once again wrote to the Nazareth police and relevant authorities, urging them to ensure that the police respect the participants’ rights to protest.
On 30 November, the State Attorney’s Office responded that the Deputy State Attorney on Special Matters had examined the matter and found no grounds to intervene in the police’s decision. Adalah then filed its petition from 30 November against the Israeli police’s unlawful policy of prohibiting demonstrations in Palestinian towns in Israel, and demanding that the police stop obstructing the protests organized by the High Follow-Up Committee.
On 3 December, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition outright, thereby preventing the third protest from taking place, without affording Barakeh the opportunity to present his case before the court. The rejection of the petition was primarily based on a technical argument that the petitioners had not adequately proven that the planned protest vigil did not require a permit. This determination was made even though there is no doubt, as Adalah argued in the petition, that a protest vigil without speeches, without a march, and with a limited number of participants, does not require a permit.
According Adalah’s Legal Director, Dr. Suhad Bishara: “The police’s unprecedented and systematic policy of preventing protests by members of the Arab community in Israel in general, and protests organized by the High Follow-Up Committee in particular, is discriminatory, racist, and contrary to the rule of law. The policy has faced significant local and international criticism for almost outright denying the right of the entire population in Israel to protest against the war in Gaza. The Attorney General has so far, as the gatekeeper of the rule of law, failed to fulfill her role in this matter. Furthermore, the Supreme Court, in its decisions, has allowed the police to continue implementing a policy that violates the freedom of protest for Arab-Palestinian citizens. Therefore, we now call for the court’s urgent intervention to halt the police’s actions in this case, which are in direct violation of the law.”
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31433
