Photo by Tal DahanPolice violations of freedom of expression persisted despite Public Security Minister’s condemnation. Some summonses were subsequently cancelled.
Over the past few days, several social protest activists received summonses to come to police stations. In some cases, the police came to the homes of activists and delivered the summonses personally. Though the summons did not state the reasons for their having been issued, conversations between activists and police made it clear that their purpose was for police to gauge the activists’ protest plans for the summer.
Yesterday (June 13) the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) attorney Sharona Eliahu-Chai sent a letter to the Police Commissioner requesting that he clarify, immediately and unequivocally, that the summoning of protest activists contravenes the policies of the police department. The letter also urged him to instruct commanders of the various districts not to summon any additional activists to police station sand to cancel the summonses that have already been issued.
Although Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich made a public statement yesterday (June 13) in which he denounced the summonses, police continued the practice that evening when they questioned and searched the apartment of social activist Vicky Vanunu.
Police have apparently subsequently cancelled some of the summonses.
According to attorney Lila Margalit, Director of ACRI’s Human Rights in the Criminal Process Program: “In a democracy, police do not investigate activists about the demonstrations they are planning, and certainly do not ask to search their homes to find equipment that may be used for demonstrations. If the police have concrete suspicions of criminal activity justifying the search of a person’s home, they should request a search warrant in court. Issuing a summons to a social activist for questioning in an attempt to elicit her ‘consent’ to a groundless search of her home is unacceptable.”
For an English translation of attorney Eliahu-Chai’s letter to the Police Commissioner, click here (PDF).
