The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), petitions the High Court of Justice, demanding an end to what they claim is an effective ban on political demonstrations during wartime, after police forcefully dispersed several protests against the government this past week. ACRI filed the on behalf of Itamar Greenberg, a student and leading Hadash activist arrested twice in the past weeks for partaking in demonstrations against the Iran war and the recently passed death penalty law.
Itamar Greenberg arrested by police officers during a demonstration against the war at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, March 3, 2026 (Photo: Flash90)
The petition heard yesterday and today morning, April 4, accuses police of effectively barring protests in a “sweeping and systematic” manner since the outbreak of war with Iran over a month ago. On last weeks, police dispersed anti-wars protests near one of Israel’s largest shelters on Habima Square in Central Tel-Aviv citing “public safety concerns.” Responding to a High Court petition against the crackdown, police said the right to protest “is not absolute” and must be balanced with the “right to public order”.
ACRI argues that this trend ramped up in the wake of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack and subsequent Gaza war, as police began “refusing to give permits for demonstrations and hindering protests, especially those whose core is a critical stance toward the war or government.” Today morning, Avi Milikowsky, the attorney representing the state, delivered an official position to the petitioners on holding Saturday night protests in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beer Sheva, Kfar Saba and dozens of locations.
Leading a three-judge panel, Chief Justice Isaac Amit hints at a double standard in police enforcement of the army’s wartime guidelines. He notes that protesters in Habima Square are relatively safe compared to pedestrians on the city’s coastal promenade, or those shopping at the mall. “At Habima [Square], the situation is excellent; there’s a parking lot there. It could be that there are people who come to demonstrate because the parking lot is much better than what they have at home,” he says.
Assistant Commissioner Tzachi Sharabi, the Yarkon precinct’s police commander, who on Saturday night gave the order to disperse a Tel Aviv protest against the war, says he decided to do so after he “saw the number of people and the amount continuing to arrive” at Habima. “Even if Habima is a location that has seen many protests, our ability to lead one to two thousand people within a minute-and-a-half to several parking lot entrances, this is something different,” he says.
Oded Feller, the petitioning attorney, argues protesters have more time to shelter before Iranian missile fire as opposed to attacks from Lebanon or Gaza, due to the Home Front Command’s advanced phone warnings. He argues throughout the hearing that police have used “disproportionate force” to break up the demonstrations in question, at times injuring protesters and journalists by forcefully shoving them to the ground and directly blasting them with a water cannon.
On March 29, 2026, ACRI submitted an appeal to the Commander of Home Front Command and to the Acting Legal Adviser to the Police following the violent and unlawful dispersal of another demonstration in Habima Square, on the grounds that it was held contrary to Home Front Command guidelines. Attorney Eden Gilad wrote that there was no justification for dispersing a protest held near a protected space that could accommodate the protesters in the event of an attack and requested that it be clarified that restrictions on gatherings do not apply to demonstrations, or at least not to demonstrations held near protected spaces.
Related: https://maki.org.il/en/?p=33331
