Israeli police prevent on Wednesday, May 8, holding the Nakba ceremony at Tel Aviv University. As in every year for the past 12 years, Hadash Students at Tel Aviv University, alongside Arab student groups, are organizing a ceremony to commemorate the Nakba – the mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948.
This year, the event is even more important in light of the massacre now being perpetrated on the Palestinians in Gaza – killing thousands of innocent civilians and displacing more than a million – as part of Israel’s illegal war of vengeance and destruction. After a month of delays, yesterday the Israeli police informed Hadash Students that the ceremony is not authorized.
Hadash Students in response: “Ben Gvir’s police continue their dangerous policy of silencing all voices opposing the war and those who challenge the Zionist consensus. We see this as part of the series of restrictions imposed on Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel and the government’s effort to destroy any democratic space in Israel.”
Police violence against a demonstrator against the war in Gaza at Paris Square in Jerusalem, March 30, 2024 (Photo: Free Jerusalem)
“The university administration remains silent in the face of this direct attack on freedom of expression. We expect the universities and the academic establishment to lead the public struggle for true democracy and freedom of expression and not to bow to the fascist atmosphere imposed by the right-wing government. We expect the university to allow students to hold the annual ceremony within the campus space,” said.
The Knesset National Security Committee met Tuesday morning to discuss the violence of Israel Police’s Hadera station officers at protests in Caesarea, near the residence of far-right Primer Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “the continuing violation of the right to protest and the right of those arrested,” the committee said. MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash) said in the meeting that police covered up incidents of police violence, or lied about their behavior in reports.
Protesters shared their experiences at the meeting. A 55-year-old woman said that she was beaten by police at a protest. She described standing on the sidewalk when a senior police officer approached her and slapped her twice before grabbing her and attempting to drag her over police barricades. “I’m going to show you,” the officer said to her while dragging her, she said.
She was released from the officer’s grip before moving to the back of the protest, where she was again approached by officers who she said tackled her to the ground. She was arrested, and despite repeated requests, not given a chance to use a restroom, leading her to wet herself, she told the committee.
“I was the one who was beaten, yet the indictment states that I injured and struck the officer, and that I forcibly upended the barricades. The footage shows the exact opposite – that [lecturer Dr.] Yolanda [Yabor] and I were lifted over the barricades. While in detention, I experienced things that made me fear for my dignity as a woman. A police officer who is young enough to be my daughter declared that I was a commodity of the [employees] of the Israel Prison Service. Such things cannot exist in a democratic country,” she told the committee.
Another protester said he heard threats from police, saying that a senior officer told a protester he would “break all the bones in [their] body.” “I have seen with my own eyes excessive use of force and attempts to impose restrictions on the protest, as well as the police’s refusal to explain the police’s actions and the violation of detainees’ rights. The most severe thing is that we heard officers saying they had received orders from above to finish the nights of protests with arrests. It is our job to supervise the Israel Police, because all the other elements have failed to do so,” he said.
He added that senior police officers have made comments against protesters that are political in nature, and that senior officers often refuse to provide a reason for the arrests.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=31796
