The Letter (H)On 19 March 2006, Adalah wrote to the Attorney General (AG) of Israel, Menachem Mazuz, demanding that he close all criminal files against protestors from the Arab town of al-Tira who participated in a demonstration held in the town on 16 March 2006. The protest was organized by representatives of all Arab political parties in al-Tira against a visit to the town made by the Deputy Minister of the Interior for the purpose of canvassing households for the Kadima Party.
Police officers in al-Tira attempted to prevent the protestors from demonstrating on the pretext of illegal assembly. Attorney Fuad Sultani, a former member of the Board of Directors of Adalah and one of the protestors, approached the police and explained that the demonstration was legal and that the police had no authority with which to disperse it, particularly given that the demonstrators were merely carrying placards with slogans and were not disturbing the public order. After Attorney Sultani’s attempts to calm the situation failed, police officers began to break up the demonstration by force and arrested some of the demonstrators who tried to free themselves from them. Police detained four demonstrators, who were later placed under house arrest by the Kufr Saba Magistrate Court. On 18 March 2006, the police summoned Attorney Sultani for investigation on the charges of illegal assembly and disturbing public order.
In the letter to the AG, Adalah Attorney Abeer Baker emphasized that, according to the Police Ordinance – 1971 and the Attorney General’s Directives, the holding of a demonstration without political speeches in public space does not require permission from the police, and thus, the protestors in al-Tira had the right to demonstrate and did so legally. Moreover, even if the demonstrators had, theoretically, caused slight inconvenience to the public, Adalah argued, this would not constitute cause for charging them with disturbing public order: one of the reasons for building streets and roundabouts is in order to allow for a town’s residents to demonstrate and express their opinions, even if doing so creates a certain amount of traffic congestion.
Adalah further argued that the arrests made by the police were illegal, as the protestors did not break the law in sufficient degree to justify their arrests. Adalah further stated that the summoning of Attorney Sultani for investigation and attempts to photograph him allegedly disturbing public order were also illegal actions, given that the police were certainly aware that his intervention in the matter and attempts to talk to police officers fell within the scope of his occupation as a lawyer representing protestors before the police and providing them with the necessary legal counsel.
In addition to the violation of the constitutional rights of the protestors to demonstrate and express their opinion, the incident raises apprehensions that the arrest of protestors and misrepresentation of their demonstration is an attempt to intimidate residents of al-Tirah into not exercising their rights of expression and political dissent in the future.