After the Tel Aviv district police objected to allowing the Hadash party to hold a demonstration in Tel Aviv for a ceasefire and a prisoner swap with Hamas, the party announced Thursday morning that it had changed its mind.
Following a petition filed by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) to the High Court of Justice, the police responded that they had changed their minds and would allow the demonstration to take place, but that they intended to limit the number of participants and the location of the demonstration, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday night. At this time, the hearing in the High Court of Justice on the petition begins.
"The Israel Police is now proposing two additional alternatives for holding the demonstration requested in the petition," the police statement to the High Court said. "In the opinion of the Attorney General, the alternatives balance the interests and rights that should be concerned, and provide a reasonable response in the concrete circumstances to the relief requested by the petitioners – holding a demonstration on Saturday night in a central location in Tel Aviv."
IDF activity in the Gaza Strip, photo: IDF Spokesperson
The police suggest that demonstrators hold the demonstration at Charles Clore Park on the Jaffa Promenade with no more than 500 participants, or at the Reading parking lot in Tel Aviv Port, where they will allow no more than 600 people to participate. According to the attorney general and the police, the demonstrations will be allowed for about two hours, from 16:00 p.m. to 18:00 p.m.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) noted in the petition that "when the cannons thunder, the muses do not go silent. The protection of freedom of expression and the freedom of demonstration, which derives from it, is of particular significance in times of crisis and fighting. Calls for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange are legitimate and protected by freedom of expression."
The association also said that in requesting a permit to hold the demonstration, its organizers, representatives of the Hadash movement, stressed that the messages of the demonstration would be a call for a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange agreement, and promised that "out of sensitivity to the difficult moment, we will make sure that it is held without flags and difficult calls to digest."
The Supreme Court (Archive), photo: Oren Ben Hakon
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