In response to an appeal by The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) the Israel Police rescinded their requirement that the organizers of a demonstration hire security personnel and rent barricades at their own expense, as a condition for the issuance of a license to hold the demonstration. ACRI sent a written appeal to the Commander of the Tel-Aviv District Police, Commissioner David Tsur, after ACRI received a complaint by the demonstration organizers, which subsequently resulted in the Israel Police rescinding the requirement.
The demonstration organizers, the ODA (Da’‘am in Arabic), a workers party operating inside Israel, and WAC (Ma’‘an in Arabic), a non-profit organization that provides support for unorganized workers in Israel, submitted an application for a license to hold a demonstration on the inner court of the Tel-Aviv Cinemateque, in recognition of May 1 (Labour Day). To their amazement, the Police conditioned the issuance of the license upon the agreement of the organizers that they close off the court with barriers and that they hire four security guards privately, to be stationed at the entrances, and all this at the expense of the demonstration’‘s organizers.
Attorney Margalit wrote in the written appeal to Commissioner Tsur that this “requirement, which transfers onto the demonstrators the basic obligation of the police to maintain public security, fatally undermines the legal right to hold a demonstration and is illegal”. She further adds that it is unconceivable that the realization of the basic right to demonstrate will become, in the State of Israel, the sole domain of those with financial means, and that in a democratic state the right to freedom of expression will be reserved for the rich. The decision by the police department to evade one of the most basic responsibilities of policing, to secure a demonstration, she further states, severely undermines the foundations of democracy and must therefore be revoked.
As previously stated, as a result of the appeal the police rescinded its demand, which would have imposed a heavy financial and illegal burden on the demonstration’‘s organizers.
last updated : 06/06/06
