Israel: Supreme Court refuses to allow protests against Gaza war

The Israeli Supreme Court today rejected petitions submitted to it against the police’s decision to prevent demonstrations in the Arab community in protest against the war in the Gaza Strip.

The decision stated: “Despite the high status accorded to the right to demonstrate and assemble, there is a complex reality in which we find ourselves, which affects the way balances are drawn in this regard.”

The petitions submitted by political party Hadash and Adalah – the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel were demanding demonstrations be organised in the Arab majority cities of Sakhnin and Umm Al-Fahm, according to Haaretz.

Israeli police yesterday petitioned the Supreme Court for an opinion stating that the demonstrations could harm public safety and security.

The Supreme Court “accepted the police’s position, according to which it would have to allocate a large number of personnel to the two demonstrations that were scheduled to be held in areas exposed to the threat of missiles from Lebanon, at the expense of other emergency tasks.”

According to the decision, the Supreme Court “has been looking at the heavy burden that the police have been bearing for about a month, as it is not possible at this time to allocate the required manpower to ensure the maintenance of public order.”

About two weeks ago, Israel Police suppressed a demonstration in the city of Haifa against the war on Gaza, and forcefully prevented the Arab and Jewish participants from gathering in the city.

For 33 days, the Israeli army has been waging a war on Gaza, during which it destroyed residential neighbourhoods of their residents, killing more than 10,569 Palestinians, including 4,324 children and 2,823 women, and wounding 26,475. In the occupied West Bank 163 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces and armed settlers and arresting 2,280 in the occupied West Bank.

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