The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a petition that Arab-Israeli organizations submitted against the Israel Police Force and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai. The organizations wished to hold a protest march in Umm al-Fahm and a rally against the war in Sakhnin and demanded the court reject the police's position that "a demonstration against the war may lead to a total flair-up of tensions."
Judge Ruth Ronen ruled that "the freedom to protest and march are basic freedoms that can only be denied in highly unusual cases. Above this, the police are obligated to assign forces to protect the peace during the protest, and the necessity and the difficulty of doing so should not usually prevent the granting of permission to protest."
The Judge noted further: "The police are allowed to prevent a demonstration on a specific date or location under special circumstances in which there are more important needs that do not allow them to assign the needed workforce in order to hold the demonstration at the requested date or location.
She concluded: "Today's circumstances are certainly special circumstances, unusual circumstances - such that have not been experienced in the past. These are difficult days of war, and the circumstances require the assignment of police human resources to contend with a wide variety of issues that arise from it.