Adalah holds emergency training workshop on provision of legal counsel to Palestinian protestors

On 15 May 2021, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel held an emergency legal training workshop for lawyers volunteering to represent protestors arrested or detained by Israeli police.

The workshop, held via Zoom, is the largest legal training held by Adalah on this issue to date, with more than 160 lawyers participating. The session, held in Arabic, aimed to train lawyers to give legal advice to Palestinian protestors who are being detained at police stations. 

Hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel have been arrested over the past two weeks during demonstrations that erupted in Arab towns and mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel against the backdrop of the recent violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and inside Israel.

Adalah’s teams worked intensively throughout this period to provide legal council to protestors arrested and detained at police stations, and coordinated the provision of legal counsel by volunteer lawyers across the country.  Numerous Palestinian lawyers worked hard or expressed their willingness to provide legal assistance to defend the rights of detainees to freedom of expression, protest and assembly.

A number of trainers participated in the workshop, including: Attorney Aram Mahameed (a former Adalah staff attorney); Attorney Ashraf Mahroum, and Attorney Khaled Mahajna. Ms. Soheir Asaad (a former Adalah international advocacy coordinator) gave the lawyers a sample interview form to help them obtain information from detainees at police stations.  

Adalah Attorney and Deputy General Director Sawsan Zaher opened the workshop, and Maria Zahran, Adalah’s Freedom of Expression and Detentions Coordinator, who organized the training, moderated the session. 

Several of the lawyers who participated in the training started providing legal counsel to Palestinian detainees at police stations the day after the session was held.