Adalah: Dismantling the Mourning Tent at the Family Home of Recently-Deceased Palestinian Prisoner Walid Daqqa Is Unlawful
Yesterday, 8 April 2024, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel sent an urgent letter to the Israeli Police Commissioner, Yaakov Shabtai, and to the Commander of the Baqa al-Gharbiyye police station, following a violent police raid on the mourning tent set up at the residence of the family of the recently-deceased Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa, during which police officers assaulted and arrested several mourners.
CLICK HERE to read the letter [Hebrew]
Walid Daqqa, who spent 38 years in Israeli prisons and was scheduled to complete his sentence in March 2025, passed away from cancer, reportedly after prolonged medical neglect while in Israeli custody. His family – his wife and a daughter – were prevented from visiting him during his final six months, despite his terminal condition. Mr. Daqqa, born in 1961 in the Palestinian town of Baqa al-Gharbiya in Israel, was incarcerated in 1986 after he was convicted of commanding a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) cell that killed an Israeli soldier - allegations he repeatedly denied. Daqqa was the longest-serving Palestinian political prisoner. During his sentence, he authored several books in which he documented his experiences and advocated for justice for his fellow prisoners and for the Palestinian people in general.
Mr. Daqqa’s family erected a mourning tent in their courtyard following his death, only for the police to forcefully dismantle it. During a violent raid, the police arrested five individuals including some family members and injured others. In the letter, Adalah Attorney Nareman Shehadeh-Zoabi argued that the =police’s actions were extremely unreasonable and their apparent objective was to prevent the bereaved family from mourning the deceased for punitive and vindictive reasons. Adalah further argued that the police had acted without an order to destroy the tent and had raided the premises without any legal authority, alleging that the tent, erected on private property, would “disrupt the public order”.
Adalah highlighted that, under Israeli law, while the police are permitted to intervene in assemblies that include political speeches, they are not authorized to prohibit mourning tents designed for purposes of offering condolences. Adalah therefore demanded that the police refrain from any further interference in this matter and immediately cease violating the family’s right to dignity and to mourn and honor the deceased.
Adalah commented: