[News] Israeli police repressing anti-war protests with ‘iron fist,’ say activists

[Anti-Imperialist News]

972mag.com <https://www.972mag.com/israel-police-repression-protests-gaza/>
Israeli police repressing anti-war protests with ‘iron fist,’ say activists By
Oren Ziv <https://www.972mag.com/writer/orenziv/> January 24, 2024
------------------------------

On the evening of Jan. 16, several dozen activists gathered in front of the
Kirya in Tel Aviv, home to Israel’s Defense Ministry and army headquarters.
It was one of the first Jewish-Israeli demonstrations explicitly condemning
the military’s assault on the Gaza Strip since the war began, and the
police acted swiftly
<https://www.instagram.com/p/C2K_Lsft5tG/?hl=en&img_index=1> to suppress
it: dozens of officers were deployed in advance, and they refused to allow
the protest to take place in its intended location. They confiscated signs
reading “Stop the massacre” on the grounds that these offended public
sentiment <https://twitter.com/OrenZiv_/status/1747352042052493343>. One
activist was arrested, and several others were assaulted by police.

This sequence of events is far from exceptional. Since October 7, Israel’s
police have been implementing a consistent policy of preventing or limiting
any protest against the war — in contrast to protests in solidarity with
the hostages and their families
<https://www.972mag.com/israelis-kidnapped-gaza-protest/>, which have been
permitted in certain areas. This policy is still in effect despite Israel’s
Supreme Court issuing an interim injunction
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/high-court-says-ben-gvir-violating-ruling-not-to-interfere-with-policing-of-protests/>
earlier this month prohibiting National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir
from interfering with the policing of demonstrations; in large part, police
appear nonetheless to be enforcing the minister’s desired crackdown on
freedom of expression during the war.

Anti-war activists across the country — Palestinian citizens as well as
Jews — who were interviewed for this article all mentioned one word:
“fear.” Even veteran political activists say they have never been so
fearful of protesting. They are afraid of being arrested, which for
Palestinian citizens could spell months in prison. More than ever, they
said, it is dangerous to show solidarity with the people of Gaza, and they
feel that politicians’ belligerent rhetoric is directly impacting police
behavior.

“From the early days of the war, it was clear that this was the policy,”
Maysana Mourani, an attorney with the Haifa-based human rights and legal
center Adalah, told +972 and Local Call. “The police have taken on new
powers to immediately repress protests, even when a protest permit isn’t
required, because of their supposed ‘lack of manpower.’”

Adalah has petitioned the Supreme Court several times since October 7 to
challenge such police bans on the right to protest. Despite the Court’s
intervention earlier this month, however, it has repeatedly failed to
intervene on numerous other occasions, meaning the police have had broad
discretion to decide which protests to permit. “It depends on the identity
of the demonstrators and the slogans,” Mourani said.

[image: Israeli activists protest against Israel's war on Gaza outside the
Kirya, Tel Aviv, January 16, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
<https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A9723.jpg>

Israeli activists protest against Israel’s war on Gaza outside the Kirya,
Tel Aviv, January 16, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

“The courts see danger in every act of protest,” she continued. “People are
automatically thrown into detention for a few days, and pretty quickly it
turns into an indictment and a decision to keep them detained until the end
of the proceedings. It’s completely deranged; this is a new standard.”

“The rule is that the police suppress any protest,” Amjad Shbita, the
national secretary of the leftist Hadash party, told +972. On Jan. 9,
Hadash attempted to organize a protest in the northern town of Kabul; given
that the attendance would have been fewer than 50 people, there was no
requirement to obtain a permit. Regardless, the protest was over before it
even began: “The police detained the secretary of the local Hadash branch
and threatened him, so we gave up. The branch canceled the protest.”

Some of the strictures appear to have relaxed slightly in the past few
weeks. In Arraba, another Arab town in the north, an anti-war rally of
approximately 150 people took place on Jan. 12, making it the largest
Palestinian-led rally inside Israel since the start of the war.

Last weekend, larger demonstrations in Haifa and Tel Aviv — which the
police had originally prohibited on the grounds that they didn’t have the
manpower to secure them — were allowed to take place following petitions to
the Supreme Court. Over 1,000 people took part in the Tel Aviv rally, which
was organized by the Jewish-Arab movement Standing Together, while police
capped <https://www.instagram.com/p/C2U1aMhtG8j/?hl=en> the Hadash-led
rally in Haifa at 700.

Nonetheless, there is a feeling among the interviewees that these are
changes around the margins. “The police let up a bit,” Shbita said, “but
you still feel their iron fist.”

[image: Several hundred Jewish and Palestinian activists protest against
Israel's assault on Gaza, Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
<https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A0037.jpg>

Several hundred Jewish and Palestinian activists protest against Israel’s
assault on Gaza, Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
‘They are trying to intimidate us’

Suppressing protests, both during war and otherwise, is hardly new for
Israel’s police. But the current attack on freedom of expression is being
carried out with unprecedented speed and force.

A week after the war began, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai announced a
ban on demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. “Anyone who
wants to identify with Gaza is welcome to,” he said
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-19/ty-article/.premium/israel-police-commissioner-those-who-identify-with-gaza-can-be-escorted-there-on-buses/0000018b-4735-df22-a5eb-4f7dca0c0000>
in a video posted to Israel Police’s Arabic social media pages; “I’ll put
him on the buses that are heading there now.”

Police Spokesperson Eli Levy echoed this sentiment soon after, telling
<https://www.gly.co.il/item?id=30113> IDF Radio: “Anyone who even dares ask
permission to hold a demonstration in support of Gaza or the Nazi terror
organization that committed a Holocaust here — of course we will not allow
it. Whoever holds demonstrations without permission — we will come and deal
with the demonstration with all the tools [we have].” He added: “Anyone who
dares to go out and say one word in praise of Gaza will be behind bars.”

On Nov. 7, the Supreme Court rejected Adalah’s petition against the
police’s decision not to grant a protest permit to Palestinians in the
cities of Umm al-Fahm and Sakhnin on the grounds of a “manpower shortage.”
The Court did say, however, that “a sweeping and general prohibition
banning demonstrations in advance because of their content is not within
the authority of the police commissioner,” and insisted that every permit
request is given due consideration. Yet despite these guidelines, all but
one protest organized independently by Palestinian citizens of Israel since
October 7 have been prohibited.

Rula Daood, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and the national co-director of
Standing Together, which organized the largest demonstration against the
war so far last week in Tel Aviv, explained the extraordinarily
difficulties of trying to organize protests in the current climate. “The
police gave us a permit, but then they retracted it. At first, they said
the march was approved, but the location was not suitable and speeches were
banned. Things kept changing.

[image: Over 1,000 people attend a demonstration against Israel's war on
Gaza in Tel Aviv, January 18, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
<https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/2G5A0282.jpg>

Over 1,000 people attend a demonstration against Israel’s war on Gaza in
Tel Aviv, January 18, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

“Before that, they said that there could be no march, only standing, and no
speakers,” Daood continued. “We wanted thousands of people to march in Tel
Aviv calling for an end to the war, a ceasefire agreement, and the return
of the hostages. We want to strengthen that voice and talk about the day
after.”

The police rationale for the prohibitions — that they lack sufficient
manpower to secure the protest from counter-protesters — seems to have been
unfounded. None of these rallies have generated significant
counter-protests, save for a few passersby shouting curses at those
protesting.

“They are trying to intimidate us: to create a feeling that the police are
sovereign, that they do what they want, and that no one can do anything to
them,” Daood said. “It’s political policing, and it’s very scary. When
you’re a Palestinian citizen, the fear more than doubles. People are even
afraid to attend small rallies, to appear in photographs, to write
anything.”

On Nov. 9, the High Follow-Up Committee — an umbrella organization
representing Palestinian citizens of Israel — planned to hold a peaceful
protest in Nazareth, with the participation of a limited number of
invitees. But the police carried out preventive arrests — including former
Knesset member Mohammad Barakeh, the Committee’s chairman — effectively
banning the protest from taking place.

After his arrest, Barakeh petitioned his case to the Supreme Court, but the
justices rejected
<https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/HCJ_8808_23_ruling.pdf> it. The
following day, the commander of the Nazareth police station, Eyal Kihati,
sent Barakeh a message, warning
<https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/Letter_of_Barakeh_persecution_271223.pdf>
him against holding the protest: “As stated, the message is clear and
unequivocal. We will not tolerate violations of judicial decisions or local
decisions of mine as station commander, and any organizing by you or
representatives of the High Follow-Up Committee will be met with zero
tolerance and in accordance with the tools that the law gives us.”

[image: Police confiscate signs during a protest against Israel's war on
Gaza, Tel Aviv, November 18, 2023. (Oren Ziv)]
<https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A8922.jpg>

Police confiscate signs during a protest against Israel’s war on Gaza, Tel
Aviv, November 18, 2023. (Oren Ziv)

In December, Barakeh was trailed
<https://www.adalah.org/he/content/view/11009> by police vehicles. The
protest was ultimately permitted to take place later that month, without
further arrests.
‘There is a sense of helplessness’

On Oct. 19, an anti-war demonstration was held in Umm al-Fahm. The fierce
police pushback — the demonstration was dispersed with stun grenades,
clubs, and sponge bullets, and the police arrested 12 of the protesters —
made it a symbol of police repression since the start of the war.

The police requested that 11 of the detainees, including four minors, be
remanded in custody, and the Magistrate’s Court approved the request
without a hearing for the detainees because Shabbat had already begun.
After a hearing on Saturday night, nine of the detainees were released on
conditions, and two others — Ahmad Khalifa and Muhammad Jabarin, whom the
police considered the organizers of the protest — remained in detention.

The pair were indicted for shouting political slogans that the Court deemed
to constitute incitement, and their detention was extended through the end
of the proceedings — possibly the first time this has happened purely on
the grounds of slogans. Mourani, the attorney with Adalah, represents
Jabarin. “They claim it’s about incitement and slogans and not about the
demonstration, but you can’t separate one from the other,” she said.

“This is a change of policy,” Mourani continued. “When we discussed an
alternative to detention, they argued that house arrest and remote
monitoring were impossible because [the detainees] would theoretically be
able to violate it and leave the house to demonstrate. So, it really is
about the demonstrations, ultimately. It’s political persecution. These are
not new slogans, and it’s not anything specific to October 7.”

[image: Israeli activists protest against Israel's war on Gaza outside the
Kirya, Tel Aviv, January 16, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
<https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/2G5A0311.jpg>

Israeli activists protest against Israel’s war on Gaza outside the Kirya,
Tel Aviv, January 16, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

Theirs is not a singular case. Since October 7, the State Prosecutor’s
Office has encouraged investigators in dozens of cases to ask the court to
extend detention until the end of proceedings, including cases
centered on “incitement”
on social media
<https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-medical-student-permit-social-media/>.

In one of the hearings, Khalifa — one of the pair who were indicted —
described
<https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/law/2023-12-30/ty-article/0000018c-b51e-d45c-a98e-bf5e7a340000>
the conditions at Megiddo Prison, where he is being held as a security
detainee, to a judge: “People are being held in handcuffs … They are being
dragged around as if they were animals. If you lift your head, you get hit
on the head. I saw it on a daily basis. If one of the guards catches
someone smiling, they take him away; there’s an area there with a ‘blind
spot’ [out of view of security cameras] that the whole prison knows about.”

Khalifa also testified that a detainee in the cell next to his was beaten
and later died of his wounds, echoing testimonies that +972 reported on
<https://www.972mag.com/palestinians-abused-israeli-prisons-torture/> last
month.

According to Shbita, people are afraid to protest because of stories like
these that they hear from those who were arrested. “Political activists
have said to themselves in the past, ‘We’ll be detained for a day or two,
it’s not the end of the world,’” he said. “But now there’s a feeling that
this *is* the end of the world, even among people who are regulars at
protests, because of the physical violence during the detentions.”

While small protests in Arab localities in the north have taken place in
recent weeks, there have been no such demonstrations in the Naqab/Negev in
the south. “It pains me that all over the world people are demonstrating
for us — in Europe people are out in their hundreds of thousands — but that
here we are unable to demonstrate for ourselves,” said Huda Abu Obeid, a
political activist from the Naqab. “There is a sense of helplessness. The
only thing we could do before the war was protest, and now we can’t even do
that.”

[image: Activists protest against Israel's war on Gaza in Tel Aviv,
November 11, 2023. (Oren Ziv)]
<https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/2G5A4531.jpg>

Activists protest against Israel’s war on Gaza in Tel Aviv, November 11,
2023. (Oren Ziv)

According to Abu Obeid, there were initially no protests because people
were so taken aback by the events of October 7. “It was a real shock,” she
said. “We are used to Israel attacking, but this was the first time that
the Palestinians are the ones attacking in such a massive way. We didn’t
know how to react.”

Abu Obeid also links the lack of protests to the chilling effect caused by
the mass arrest campaign
<https://www.972mag.com/akka-detainees-police-palestinians/> against
Palestinian citizens of Israel in the wake of the “Unity Intifada” of May
2021. “The Shin Bet succeeded in frightening everyone,” she said. “They
summoned activists [for interrogations], they intimidated them, they came
to places of political activity. The feeling is that no matter what you do,
even if it’s not related to demonstrations, you’ll always be persecuted.”
‘We are silenced from all directions’

In the absence of larger protests, most anti-war activity has consisted of
small, local vigils for which permits are not required — but even these
have been attacked by the police and passersby. The vigils tend not to be
advertised publicly on social media, but rather in closed groups. In order
to avoid the formation of a right-wing counterprotest, they usually last
less than an hour, and activists arrive and leave together fearing that
they will be attacked on the way.

The latest such action to be forcibly dispersed by police was a small
gathering
<https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2AJ58vNx1T/?igsh=cHZqdjZtcjZzY3Z6> last
week in the Arab town of Al-Batuf, near Nazareth. Earlier in the month,
activists in Tel Aviv held a street exhibition
<https://www.instagram.com/p/C1xNirGtzNu/> of recent photographs from Gaza;
passersby, some of them armed, attacked the activists and ripped the
pictures away while the police watched on.

While the international and local Arabic media have shown great interest in
these protests and vigils, the events are almost completely ignored by
mainstream Israeli outlets. “Our voice is barely heard in Israel,” said
Michal Sapir, an activist with the “radical bloc
<https://www.972mag.com/radical-bloc-israel-protests-tel-aviv/>,” which
organized the street exhibition. “We are silenced from all directions. The
state is not showing what is happening in Gaza, so it’s important for us to
stand up and say that the killing of civilians in Gaza that is being done
in our name must end, and that there is no military solution.”

[image: Activists protest against Israel's war on Gaza in Tel Aviv,
December 16, 2023. (Oren Ziv)]
<https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A0508.jpg>

Activists protest against Israel’s war on Gaza in Tel Aviv, December 16,
2023. (Oren Ziv)

When the war began, the activists had to figure out how to circumvent the
ban on demonstrations. “We did it gradually,” Sapir said. “We didn’t know
what the reaction would be. At first, we just joined the families of the
hostages. We tried to see if it was possible to stand there with signs
calling for a ceasefire, and we saw that we could. Slowly, we switched to
more radical slogans and marches from HaBima [a large public square in
downtown Tel Aviv]. We noticed what could be said, and what would be met
with [police] violence.

“Until the crackdown on the signs [at the Jan. 16 protest outside the
Kirya], the police didn’t really bother us, but now they have a new
policy,” Sapir continued. “They’re tired of us being near the military
headquarters.”

>From time to time, Sapir added, the activists are attacked by passersby. “A
delivery man threw eggs at us. But there is usually tolerance, and
sometimes support.”

Activists in Jerusalem have held several small demonstrations against the
war in recent weeks, including some in front of the U.S. Consulate. One of
those, a vigil for those killed in Gaza
<https://www.instagram.com/p/C1m8Lstxvf8/> which took place in early
January, was forcibly dispersed by police, with two demonstrators arrested
and photographs of those killed in Gaza confiscated. Last week, another
protest vigil in Jerusalem was attacked by police, who confiscated signs
and pushed demonstrators away.

“Everything is scary,” an activist with the left-wing group Free Jerusalem,
who preferred not to be named, told +972 and Local Call. “The stakes are
higher. Unlike in the past, when we would advertise events openly, now we
are more careful. Public opinion and statements by Israel’s entire
political leadership have shifted to the right, and this has raised the
level of fear and anxiety.”

[image: Activists hold up photos of Palestinians killed by Israel's war on
Gaza during a vigil in front of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, December
22, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90)]
<https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/F231222YS05.jpg>

Activists hold up photos of Palestinians killed by Israel’s war on Gaza
during a vigil in front of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, December 22,
2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90)

According to him, at one of the first demonstrations calling for the
release of the hostages, Free Jerusalem activists called to end the war in
order to ensure their release, and were attacked by passersby. “It wasn’t
even directly against the war, but there was violence,” he said.

“In the two demonstrations we held on consecutive Saturday nights [Jan. 6
and Jan. 13], the police violently dispersed us after only a few minutes
and didn’t allow us to protest,” he continued. “They took our big signs
that said ‘No to war in Gaza’ and ‘Ceasefire now.'”
‘Police swore at us, called us sluts, and told us to go back to Gaza’

In Haifa, activists have come up with creative ways to evade the police’s
aggressive repression of anti-war activity in the city. On Dec. 28, a small
group of activists held what they called a “jumping” demonstration, in
which they moved from place to place before the police could stop them.

“We didn’t publicize it in large [social media] groups, because we know
police officers are monitoring those,” said Gaia Dan, a Haifa-based
activist. “It actually worked pretty well. We stood in the German Colony
[in downtown Haifa] for 20 minutes, and by the time the police arrived, we
were already at another point. There the police arrived within five
minutes, so we fled to the third point. We’re trying to be present without
it leading to violence.”

Dan had been arrested at another protest in the city held one month
earlier, where activists stood silently with tape over their mouths to
protest the political persecution against those expressing dissent against
the war. “When we arrived, there were already three police cars there, and
within moments, the district commander shouted through a megaphone that if
we didn’t disperse in two minutes, they would disperse us by force.”

[image: Police suppress a protest against Israel's war on Gaza in Haifa,
December 15, 2023. (Yair Gil)]
<https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/WhatsApp-Image-2024-01-18-at-15.57.34.jpeg>

Police suppress a protest against Israel’s war on Gaza in Haifa, December
15, 2023. (Yair Gil)

According to Dan, police then pounced on the protest. “They arrested one
protester and began tearing up signs and pushing people everywhere. They
tore down my sign, which was very tame: ‘Stop the silencing.’ I was dragged
and kicked. That’s how I was arrested.”

Inside the police car with two more detainees, Dan said the police officers
“swore at us, called us sluts, told us to go back to Gaza, and asked how we
weren’t ashamed to demonstrate like this in wartime. While we waited at the
station, the policemen continued to curse, and sang songs about returning
to Gush Katif [the bloc of Jewish settlements in Gaza that were dismantled
in 2005] and destroying Gaza. After three hours, we were released without
conditions.”

The police’s crackdown on dissent in Haifa came immediately after the
outbreak of war. On Oct. 18, the Hirak movement planned to hold a
demonstration in the city; hours before it was due to start, the police
issued a statement saying no permit had been granted and that they “will
not allow any show of support or solidarity with the Hamas terrorist
organization” and “will act with a firm hand in accordance with the law to
disperse the demonstration, including using mass dispersal measures as
necessary.”

The activists went ahead with the demonstration regardless; dozens of
police officers came and declared it illegal, violently dispersing the
protesters and arresting five activists who refused to leave. Adalah, whose
lawyers represented three of the detainees, was told that the detainees
would remain in detention all night on orders from the police commissioner.
The next day, the Haifa Magistrate’s Court ordered
<https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/191023_Demo_Arrest_hearing_Hafia_mag.pdf>
their release.

On Oct. 29, activist Yoav Bar was arrested at his home
<https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10943> with what police called
“incitement materials” — which turned out to be political posters — before
being released without conditions.

Since the arrests at the Dec. 28 protest, Dan believes people in Haifa have
been afraid to go out to the streets. “At the first demonstration, there
were 20 of us; now it’s hard to get five,” she said. “People also see
what’s happening in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem — they don’t want to come to a
demonstration and get beaten, and I understand them. It’s hard and
exhausting, every time you arrive thinking it might end in arrest or being
squashed onto the pavement. I’m scared too. But at the end of the day, we
are privileged as Jews to know that we usually won’t face prolonged
detention, and it’s important to demonstrate however we can.”

[image: An activist is arrested during a protest against Israel's assault
on Gaza, Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
<https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A0334.jpg>

An activist is arrested during a protest against Israel’s assault on Gaza,
Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

Shbita, the Hadash secretary, hopes that now, three months into the war,
the Jewish mainstream will also understand why they are protesting. “The
shock on October 7 was real, but I think as time goes on people are asking
questions,” he said. “Sadly, people in Israel only start asking the tough
questions when their own side is harmed. They don’t care about the
20-30,000 Palestinian victims but the danger to the lives of the hostages,
the soldiers killed, the diplomatic problems, the economic crisis — all
these elements will cause the public to ask questions.”

+972 and Local Call contacted Israel Police for comment on their policy of
preventing protests against the war, what authority they have to confiscate
signs, and the treatment of detainees in Haifa by police officers.

In response, a police spokesperson stated: “Without referring to one case
or another, we note that Israel Police operates in accordance with the
provisions of the law and the conditions set by the Attorney General’s
directive. Israel Police will allow the legitimate right to express the
freedom of protest, but will not allow manifestations of violence against
police officers engaged in security and maintaining public order and will
not allow disturbances of public order of any kind.”

*A version of this article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call.
Read it **here*
<https://www.mekomit.co.il/%d7%94%d7%9b%d7%9c%d7%9c-%d7%94%d7%95%d7%90-%d7%a9%d7%94%d7%9e%d7%a9%d7%98%d7%a8%d7%94-%d7%9e%d7%93%d7%9b%d7%90%d7%aa-%d7%9b%d7%9c-%d7%9e%d7%97%d7%90%d7%94-%d7%a0%d7%92%d7%93-%d7%94%d7%9e%d7%9c/>
*.*
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