Judge Nechama Netzer of the Kiryat Gat Magistrates’ Court ordered the immediate release Sunday of seven activists arrested by police at a rally in Sderot earlier in the day. The judge had exceedingly sharp criticism for the police’s actions.
“The use of the power of government and the authority to arrest in order to prevent this right of expression, besides being an act of censorship, shows us that very dark days are upon the State of Israel,” she determined.
Sderot police detained more than 20 activists Sunday morning, including children, who participated in a rally at Sderot. The activists were among some 400 people who took part in the rally, and were planning to participate in a protest march from Sderot to Gaza. However, dozens of police, including mounted police and Yasam units, blocked the activists’ way and prevented the march from taking place. Despite the dete
“Woe to us if we reach days in which people are afraid to express their opinions legally.”
ntions, some activists were able to reach the edge of Gaza, opposite the remains of Jewish communities that were uprooted in the Disengagement of 2005.
Seven of the detainees were brought before the judge because they had refused to sign orders distancing them from Sderot and the Gaza Belt.
On the night before the demonstration, police in Judea and Samaria placed three organizers of the event under arrest.
The right to protest is among the most basic rights, the judge said. “Is it conceivable that the [protesters], whose only sin was that they were in the town of Sderot or intended to arrive there, would be detained, arrested and possibly find themselves held under arrest for another night just because of this wish? It seems that the answer to this is clear,” she stated. “Woe to us if we reach days in which people are afraid to express their opinions legally.”
Netzer said that the arrests were apparently carried out with the sole purpose of preventing the activists from exercising their right to demonstrate and express their “legal and legitimate protest” and added that she was sorry that the police succeeded in this.
MK Ben Ari wants inquiry
Ichud Leumi (National Union) MKs Yaakov Katz and Michael Ben-Ari participated in the demonstration in Sderot. Katz said that he expects the IDF to launch Operation Cast Lead 2, conquer Gaza and “bring the settlers back to the Gaza Strip.”
Ben Ari wrote a letter to Minister of Public Security Yitzchak Aharonovich requesting that he establish a commission of inquiry into the arrests of the protesters and all of the day’s events.