A petition was filed with Israel's Supreme Court Tuesday against Israel Police for preventing buses from transporting anti-Disengagement protesters to a rally in the southern Negev town of Netivot Monday.
Police originally approved the rally, but not the march to Gush Katif planned for afterwards. Midday Monday police decided they would not allow the Netivot rally to take place at all and began stopping buses as they left major Israeli towns, preventing them from driving toward the Negev town and threatening bus drivers. Roadblocks were set up to delay private vehicles as well. Tens of thousands succeeded in arriving nonetheless.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) condemned the behavior of the police Monday. In an urgent letter submitted to Police Chief Moshe Karadi, ACRI attorney Lila Margalit said that the police did not act within its authority when it obstructed civilian buses. She explained that while police have a right and an obligation to prevent law-breaking, law-enforcement agencies do not have the right to limit and prevent the transport of people to a legal congregation site merely due to what they suspect they might do afterward.
Attorney Margalit wrote:
In a second appeal, MK (National Union) Uri Ariel is petitioning the Supreme Court against the deployment of IDF soldiers at Kfar Maimon, the second stop along the route of the march toward Gush Katif. Protesters arrived there Monday evening, spent the night and woke Tuesday morning to find themselves surrounded by soldiers assigned the task of preventing the march from moving westward toward the Kissufim Crossing into Gaza.
Ariel called the move a disgrace, stating soldiers are being deployed at Prime Minister Sharon's whim in order to advance his political agenda, without any regard to the military’s role and responsibilities.
In another Disengagement-related case, a Haifa District Court rejected a petition by the Arab Balad Party Monday that claimed rights to the color orange and sought to make it illegal for Disengagement opponents to use the color as a symbol for their struggle. Justice Yitzchak Amit ruled that no organization has rights to the color orange and registered his displeasure over the petition and the attempt to make a legal case over the matter.
Finally, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz is reportedly preparing to issue administrative detention orders against people with knowledge of details regarding the implementation of the Disengagement Plan. The attorney general says that they pose a threat to the smooth carrying out of the expulsion.
Administrative detention is a legal remnant of the British Mandate period, allowing people who are immediate threats to state security to be imprisoned without trial or knowledge of the charges against them. It has traditionally been used to detain terrorists known to be in the midst of planning attacks but has increasingly been used against outspoken Jewish critics of government policy.
Police originally approved the rally, but not the march to Gush Katif planned for afterwards. Midday Monday police decided they would not allow the Netivot rally to take place at all and began stopping buses as they left major Israeli towns, preventing them from driving toward the Negev town and threatening bus drivers. Roadblocks were set up to delay private vehicles as well. Tens of thousands succeeded in arriving nonetheless.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) condemned the behavior of the police Monday. In an urgent letter submitted to Police Chief Moshe Karadi, ACRI attorney Lila Margalit said that the police did not act within its authority when it obstructed civilian buses. She explained that while police have a right and an obligation to prevent law-breaking, law-enforcement agencies do not have the right to limit and prevent the transport of people to a legal congregation site merely due to what they suspect they might do afterward.
Attorney Margalit wrote:
"The use of extreme unauthorized measures in order to prematurely thwart the staging of the demonstration - even an illegal demonstration - is reminiscent of regimes that we do not want to be compared with. The attempt to prevent civilians from traveling from one city in the State of Israel to another is illegal and constitutes a severe infraction of the right to freedom of movement."Attorney General Menachem Mazuz released a statement Monday evening saying that the decision by Israel Police to block buses was supported by his office and that he was consulted prior to the decision.
In a second appeal, MK (National Union) Uri Ariel is petitioning the Supreme Court against the deployment of IDF soldiers at Kfar Maimon, the second stop along the route of the march toward Gush Katif. Protesters arrived there Monday evening, spent the night and woke Tuesday morning to find themselves surrounded by soldiers assigned the task of preventing the march from moving westward toward the Kissufim Crossing into Gaza.
Ariel called the move a disgrace, stating soldiers are being deployed at Prime Minister Sharon's whim in order to advance his political agenda, without any regard to the military’s role and responsibilities.
In another Disengagement-related case, a Haifa District Court rejected a petition by the Arab Balad Party Monday that claimed rights to the color orange and sought to make it illegal for Disengagement opponents to use the color as a symbol for their struggle. Justice Yitzchak Amit ruled that no organization has rights to the color orange and registered his displeasure over the petition and the attempt to make a legal case over the matter.
Finally, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz is reportedly preparing to issue administrative detention orders against people with knowledge of details regarding the implementation of the Disengagement Plan. The attorney general says that they pose a threat to the smooth carrying out of the expulsion.
Administrative detention is a legal remnant of the British Mandate period, allowing people who are immediate threats to state security to be imprisoned without trial or knowledge of the charges against them. It has traditionally been used to detain terrorists known to be in the midst of planning attacks but has increasingly been used against outspoken Jewish critics of government policy.