In a blow to civil and social rights activists on Wednesday, the Tel Aviv District Court rejected a petition demanding rights to pitch a new protest tent city on Rothschild Boulevard. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and five social justice activists filed the petition three weeks ago, asking the court to force the Tel Aviv Municipality to change its policies regarding tent protests.

ACRI attorney Sharona Eliahu-Chai slammed the court’s rejection of the petition, saying it “legitimized draconian municipal policies that suppress the freedom to protest.”

Wednesday’s court ruling is the latest stage in what has turned into a protracted legal struggle between social protesters, local residents and municipal authorities over Tel Aviv’s public space. Under municipal rules, activists who want to erect protest tents must first apply for and obtain a permit from city hall, a policy the petitioners say constitutes harassment and violates their civil rights.

One petitioner, Tamir Hajaj, said that when municipal inspectors removed the protest tent he erected in Rabin Square, he applied to city hall for a permit – but was asked to file separate applications for a business license, a fire department permit and a police permit. To obtain the latter, Hajaj says he was told to present official approvals from a safety engineer, an electrician and Magen David Adom in addition to providing a security guard for the tent. ACRI said all the bureaucracy is a deliberate ploy to keep the activists off Rothschild Boulevard’s grass.

“The bureaucratic harassment of protesters – which also involves considerable expense – is a means to suppress protests, specifically the protests of those who have no other means to make their voices heard in public,” Eliahu-Chai said. She added: “Because of weak concerns about ‘anarchy’ in the city streets, the court approved a violation of freedom of expression that is ongoing, harsh and in no small measure dangerous.” In court, the petitioners argued that public demonstrations are a fundamental constitutional right, and that the authorities must allow them to mount protests in major public spaces including Rothschild Boulevard, Rabin Square and Nordau Boulevard. Despite losing the latest court battle, petitioners say they plan to continue the war, vowing to appeal the decision in the Supreme Court.

In response to a letter from ACRI demanding the return of equipment confiscated from protest activists, the Jerusalem Municipality stated that it will not allow the erection of tents without a permit and will not return the equipment unless the activists agree to stand by its conditions because the repeated evacuations of protest tents are “a waste of public money.” ACRI, along with four individual activists, filed Monday a petition against the municipality, claiming its policies are unauthorized by law.

Camp No Choice, established by homeless people and social activists, was made up of seven tents and erected in Jerusalem’s Independence Park on July 14, 2012, in commemoration of the social protests’ one year anniversary, and ahead of a Knesset discussion on the subject of public housing scheduled to take place three days later, on July 17.  Even though the activists declared their intent to maintain the camp only until the end of Tuesday’s Knesset discussion, at six o’clock on Monday morning, the camp was brutally dismantled by municipal inspectors. Activists were dragged out of their beds and their equipment and personal property were confiscated. When the activists demanded the return of their property, the municipality refused to so until they agreed not to establish protest tents without the municipality’s permission.

“The right to demonstrate is important everywhere, but especially so in the capital city. The Jerusalem Municipality has no legal authority to determine whether or not to permit the erection of tents.  As long as a given tent does not constitute a significant hazard, the activists have the right to express their protest in this framework,” said ACRI Attorney Eliahu-Chai.

Related:

For the petition against the Jerusalem Municipality (in Hebrew), click here.

For ACRI’s letter to the municipality regarding the confiscated property (in Hebrew), click here.

For the municipality’s response (in Hebrew), click here.

To read about a similar petition filed against the Tel Aviv Municipality, click here