Israeli police continue unlawful suppression of Palestinian protests
Israeli police continue to unlawfully disperse Palestinian protests in Israel and suppress free speech. Police and government officials have consistently criminalized these protests, labeling Palestinian protesters “supporters of terrorism”, preemptively banning demonstrations, and employing excessive force during dispersals.
In November and December 2023, after the Israeli Police Commissioner explicitly banned Palestinian protests and asserted that he would personally participate in the transfer of Palestinians who “identify with Gaza” to the Gaza Strip, Adalah challenged the police’s repressive policies before the Supreme Court. Despite making general assertions about the importance of the freedom to protest, the Supreme Court granted the police unfettered discretion to suppress protests, even those that do not require a police permit. This discretion has allowed the police to continue implementing an almost total ban on protests by Palestinians.
Between 27 May and 4 July 2024, at least five demonstrations against Israel’s deadly assaults in Gaza were dispersed in Haifa, four of which involved excessive force and the arrests of numerous protesters. On 1 June, the police dispersed a protest in the Palestinian city of Nazareth in northern Israel, where demonstrators were demanding the release of the body of the late Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa. The police arrested four protesters, including Walid’s 70-year-old brother. In these protests, 34 protesters have been arrested on allegations of conduct ‘liable to breach the public peace’.
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Adalah has provided legal representation to around 30 detainees in the last several weeks, both at police stations and later in court, challenging either their detention or restrictive conditions imposed upon their release.
Minutes after most of these protests began, the police commander declared them illegal, regardless of whether the protesters carried posters, and without connection to the slogans they chanted. For instance, on 27 May, during a peaceful protest in Haifa against massacres perpetrated by the Israeli military in the Rafah refugee camp, police aggressively confiscated banners reading “save Gaza” and “stop the massacre” and violently dispersed the protesters.
During several court hearings at which Adalah attorneys represented detained protesters, police representatives asserted that "the protest was illegal from the start." According to the Israeli Attorney General's guidelines and Supreme Court caselaw, however, protests that do not involve marches or speeches—including protests recently held in Haifa, Nazareth, and other Palestinian towns and villages—do not require a police permit. Since the protests in question were peaceful and did not require a permit, the police’s claims that they were “illegal” are legally baseless and clearly demonstrate that the police criminalize these protests due to their content and/or the identity of their participants—Palestinians demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza.
The protesters were generally met with excessive force and violence upon dispersal. In multiple instances, Adalah presented several videos in court documenting police officers assaulting detainees using varying degrees of violence. The court also reviewed evidence of the injuries sustained by detainees. In a court hearing following the violent dispersal of a protest organized on 27 May, the judge issued a directive instructing the police to refer the case to the Israeli Police Investigations Department (“PID” or “Mahash”).
The police arrested multiple protesters at each demonstration, before conducting late-night interrogations. Following the interrogations, the police would either bring the protesters before a judge to request an extension of the period of detention or release them with restrictive conditions. For example, on 30 May, during a protest titled “From Haifa to Gaza,” police arrested eight protesters. Five were released following interrogation, with three subjected to restrictive conditions, including a 15-day ban on entering Haifa. The remaining three were detained overnight. In other instances, house arrest was also imposed as a restrictive condition.This pattern of arrest, interrogation, and restrictive conditions of release has characterized nearly every Palestinian protest held in recent months.
Short-term arrests and restrictive conditions have become tools of repression, which Israeli courts consistently refuse to intervene in, thereby granting— similarly to the Supreme Court—the police the discretion and power to continue enforcing its ban on Palestinian protests. In many of these cases, Adalah challenged the legality of police-imposed conditions of release or argued against the police's request to continue detaining protesters. Rather than reviewing the police’s policies, the courts typically examine each case to determine whether the military commander had the authority to arrest the protesters. The court repeatedly refuses to address Adalah’s arguments that the police are systemically violating protesters’ fundamental rights, casting a chilling effect on the wider Palestinian population in Israel.
For instance, after a protest on 29 June titled “Stop the War in Gaza: No to Genocide,” the police arrested three protesters and released them with conditions, namely, a prohibition to enter parts of Haifa. Adalah Attorney Hadeel Abu Salih appealed to the Haifa Magistrates Court, demanding the cancellation of all conditions. During a court hearing held on 4 July, Attorney Abu Salih presented videos demonstrating that the protest was completely peaceful. The videos further showed that the police officers attempted to confiscate the signs carried by the demonstrators, which called for an end to the war and genocide. Adalah argued that the dispersal of the protest and subsequent arrests had no legal basis and were unlawful. In response, the judge refused to examine the matter, stating, “I did not see it fit to address the general and principal arguments raised by the appellants”.
Cementing the police’s ban on Palestinian protests, and following several protests held in Haifa, the city’s mayor, Yona Yahav, commented that anti-war demonstrations should not take place in “his city”. His associates clarified that Yahav was referring to demonstrations by the city’s Arab residents against the war in Gaza, and not to demonstrations against the government in general or the release of Israeli hostages, which have been taking place on a regular basis in Haifa’s Horev Center.
The police continue to suppress Palestinian protests while having approved demonstrations in several cities, including Haifa, in early June to commemorate "Jerusalem Day," which marks the occupation of East Jerusalem. These demonstrations were marked by the use of incitement against Palestinians and violent slogans such as “death to Arabs” and “may your village burn”, and by assaults against journalists and others. These demonstrations have long been known for their violent nature, and the fact that they were permitted to proceed clearly demonstrates that Israel is implementing policies of apartheid in law enforcement and has decided to block and criminalize Palestinian protests.
