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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israeli police repressing anti-war protests with ‘iron fist,’ say activists</h1>
<span class="gmail-prefix">By </span><a class="gmail-author" title="Oren Ziv" href="https://www.972mag.com/writer/orenziv/">Oren Ziv</a> <span class="gmail-date">January 24, 2024</span>
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<p><span>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 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C2K_Lsft5tG/?hl=en&img_index=1">acted swiftly</a>
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 </span><a href="https://twitter.com/OrenZiv_/status/1747352042052493343"><span>offended public sentiment</span></a><span>. One activist was arrested, and several others were assaulted by police.</span></p>
<p><span>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 </span><a href="https://www.972mag.com/israelis-kidnapped-gaza-protest/"><span>hostages and their families</span></a><span>, which have been permitted in certain areas. This policy is still in effect despite Israel’s Supreme Court issuing an </span><a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/high-court-says-ben-gvir-violating-ruling-not-to-interfere-with-policing-of-protests/"><span>interim injunction</span></a><span>
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.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>“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.’” </span></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_176376" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A9723.jpg"><img title="Israeli activists protest against Israel’s war on Gaza outside the Kirya, Tel Aviv, January 16, 2024. (Oren Ziv)" src="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A9723-1280x854.jpg" alt="Israeli activists protest against Israel's war on Gaza outside the Kirya, Tel Aviv, January 16, 2024. (Oren Ziv)" width="427" height="285" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p><p>Israeli activists protest against Israel’s war on Gaza outside the Kirya, Tel Aviv, January 16, 2024. (Oren Ziv)</p>
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<p><span>“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.”</span></p>
<p><span>“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.”</span></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>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 <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C2U1aMhtG8j/?hl=en">police capped</a> the Hadash-led rally in Haifa at 700. </span></p>
<p><span>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.”</span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_176371" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A0037.jpg"><img title="Several hundred Jewish and Palestinian activists protest against Israel’s assault on Gaza, Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)" src="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A0037-1280x854.jpg" alt="Several hundred Jewish and Palestinian activists protest against Israel's assault on Gaza, Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)" width="427" height="285" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p><p>Several hundred Jewish and Palestinian activists protest against Israel’s assault on Gaza, Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)</p>
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<h3>‘They are trying to intimidate us’</h3>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>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 </span><a href="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"><span>said</span></a><span> in a video posted to Israel Police’s Arabic social media pages; “I’ll put him on the buses that are heading there now.” </span></p>
<p><span>Police Spokesperson Eli Levy echoed this sentiment soon after, </span><a href="https://www.gly.co.il/item?id=30113"><span>telling</span></a><span>
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.”</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_176360" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/2G5A0282.jpg"><img title="Over 1,000 people attend a demonstration against Israel’s war on Gaza in Tel Aviv, January 18, 2024. (Oren Ziv)" src="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/2G5A0282-1280x854.jpg" alt="Over 1,000 people attend a demonstration against Israel's war on Gaza in Tel Aviv, January 18, 2024. (Oren Ziv)" width="427" height="285" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p><p>Over 1,000 people attend a demonstration against Israel’s war on Gaza in Tel Aviv, January 18, 2024. (Oren Ziv)</p>
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<p><span>“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.”</span></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>“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.”</span></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>After his arrest, Barakeh petitioned his case to the Supreme Court, but the justices </span><a href="https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/HCJ_8808_23_ruling.pdf"><span>rejected</span></a><span> it. The following day, the commander of the Nazareth police station, Eyal Kihati, sent Barakeh a message, </span><a href="https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/Letter_of_Barakeh_persecution_271223.pdf"><span>warning</span></a><span>
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.” </span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_176375" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A8922.jpg"><img title="Police confiscate signs during a protest against Israel’s war on Gaza, Tel Aviv, November 18, 2023. (Oren Ziv)" src="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A8922-1280x854.jpg" alt="Police confiscate signs during a protest against Israel's war on Gaza, Tel Aviv, November 18, 2023. (Oren Ziv)" width="427" height="285" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p><p>Police confiscate signs during a protest against Israel’s war on Gaza, Tel Aviv, November 18, 2023. (Oren Ziv)</p>
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<p><span>In December, Barakeh was </span><a href="https://www.adalah.org/he/content/view/11009"><span>trailed</span></a><span> by police vehicles. The protest was ultimately permitted to take place later that month, without further arrests. </span></p>
<h3>‘There is a sense of helplessness’</h3>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>“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.” </span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_176361" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/2G5A0311.jpg"><img title="Israeli activists protest against Israel’s war on Gaza outside the Kirya, Tel Aviv, January 16, 2024. (Oren Ziv)" src="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/2G5A0311-1280x854.jpg" alt="Israeli activists protest against Israel's war on Gaza outside the Kirya, Tel Aviv, January 16, 2024. (Oren Ziv)" width="427" height="285" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p><p>Israeli activists protest against Israel’s war on Gaza outside the Kirya, Tel Aviv, January 16, 2024. (Oren Ziv)</p>
</div>
<p><span>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 </span><a href="https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-medical-student-permit-social-media/"><span>“incitement” on social media</span></a><span>. </span></p>
<p><span>In one of the hearings, Khalifa — one of the pair who were indicted — </span><a href="https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/law/2023-12-30/ty-article/0000018c-b51e-d45c-a98e-bf5e7a340000"><span>described</span></a><span>
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.” </span></p>
<p><span>Khalifa also testified that a detainee in the cell next to his
was beaten and later died of his wounds, echoing testimonies that +972 </span><a href="https://www.972mag.com/palestinians-abused-israeli-prisons-torture/"><span>reported on</span></a><span> last month.</span></p>
<p><span>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 </span><i><span>is</span></i><span> the end of the world, even among people who are regulars at protests, because of the physical violence during the detentions.” </span></p>
<p><span>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.”</span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_176367" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/2G5A4531.jpg"><img title="Activists protest against Israel’s war on Gaza in Tel Aviv, November 11, 2023. (Oren Ziv)" src="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/2G5A4531-1280x854.jpg" alt="Activists protest against Israel's war on Gaza in Tel Aviv, November 11, 2023. (Oren Ziv)" width="427" height="285" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p><p>Activists protest against Israel’s war on Gaza in Tel Aviv, November 11, 2023. (Oren Ziv)</p>
</div>
<p><span>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.” </span></p>
<p><span>Abu Obeid also links the lack of protests to the chilling effect caused by the </span><a href="https://www.972mag.com/akka-detainees-police-palestinians/"><span>mass arrest campaign</span></a><span>
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.”</span></p>
<h3>‘We are silenced from all directions’</h3>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>The latest such action to be forcibly dispersed by police was a </span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2AJ58vNx1T/?igsh=cHZqdjZtcjZzY3Z6"><span>small gathering</span></a><span> last week in the Arab town of Al-Batuf, near Nazareth. Earlier in the month, activists in Tel Aviv held a </span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C1xNirGtzNu/"><span>street exhibition</span></a><span>
of recent photographs from Gaza; passersby, some of them armed,
attacked the activists and ripped the pictures away while the police
watched on.</span></p>
<p><span>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 “</span><a href="https://www.972mag.com/radical-bloc-israel-protests-tel-aviv/"><span>radical bloc</span></a><span>,”
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.”</span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_176374" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A0508.jpg"><img title="Activists protest against Israel’s war on Gaza in Tel Aviv, December 16, 2023. (Oren Ziv)" src="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A0508-1280x854.jpg" alt="Activists protest against Israel's war on Gaza in Tel Aviv, December 16, 2023. (Oren Ziv)" width="427" height="285" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p><p>Activists protest against Israel’s war on Gaza in Tel Aviv, December 16, 2023. (Oren Ziv)</p>
</div>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>“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.” </span></p>
<p><span>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.”</span></p>
<p><span>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 </span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C1m8Lstxvf8/"><span>vigil for those killed in Gaza</span></a><span>
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.</span></p>
<p><span>“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.” </span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_176377" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/F231222YS05.jpg"><img title="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)" src="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/F231222YS05-1280x853.jpg" alt="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)" width="427" height="285" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p><p>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)</p>
</div>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>“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.'”</span></p>
<h3>‘Police swore at us, called us sluts, and told us to go back to Gaza’</h3>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>“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.”</span></p>
<p><span>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.”</span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_176378" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/WhatsApp-Image-2024-01-18-at-15.57.34.jpeg"><img title="Police suppress a protest against Israel’s war on Gaza in Haifa, December 15, 2023. (Yair Gil)" src="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/WhatsApp-Image-2024-01-18-at-15.57.34-1280x824.jpeg" alt="Police suppress a protest against Israel's war on Gaza in Haifa, December 15, 2023. (Yair Gil)" width="427" height="275" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p><p>Police suppress a protest against Israel’s war on Gaza in Haifa, December 15, 2023. (Yair Gil)</p>
</div>
<p><span>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.”</span></p>
<p><span>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.”</span></p>
<p><span>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.”</span></p>
<p><span>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
</span><a href="https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/191023_Demo_Arrest_hearing_Hafia_mag.pdf"><span>ordered</span></a><span> their release.</span></p>
<p><span>On Oct. 29, activist Yoav Bar was </span><a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10943"><span>arrested at his home</span></a><span>
with what police called “incitement materials” — which turned out to be
political posters — before being released without conditions. </span></p>
<p><span>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.”</span></p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_176372" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><a href="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A0334.jpg"><img title="An activist is arrested during a protest against Israel’s assault on Gaza, Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)" src="https://static.972mag.com/www/uploads/2024/01/448A0334-1280x854.jpg" alt="An activist is arrested during a protest against Israel's assault on Gaza, Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)" width="427" height="285" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;"></a></p><p>An activist is arrested during a protest against Israel’s assault on Gaza, Haifa, January 20, 2024. (Oren Ziv)</p>
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<p><span>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.”</span></p>
<p><span>+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. </span></p>
<p><span>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.”</span></p>
<p><i><span>A version of this article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it </span></i><a href="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/"><i><span>here</span></i></a><i><span>.</span></i></p>
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