Freedom of peaceful protest at risk

On January 15, 2010, 17 protesters and human right activists, including Mr. Hagai El-Ad, Executive Director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), were arrested by the police at a lawful peaceful demonstration in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, against forced evictions, and subsequently released on January 16 without charges and conditions.

Their release occurred after the hearing held on January 16, during which the Jerusalem Magistrates Court stated that the gathering was not unlawful since it did not require any permit and that there were consequently no legal grounds for dispersing the demonstration or to arrest the demonstrators. On January 22, 22 more demonstrators at Sheikh Jarrah were arrested.

These demonstrations are part of weekly protests that have taken place each Friday over the past five months, wherein Israelis and Palestinians have peacefully challenged the eviction of two Palestinian families from the homes they have lived in since 1948 so as to allow the former owners to inhabit the houses they owned prior to the 1948 war in accordance with a Court order. However, the case is highly asymmetric as Palestinians cannot reclaim property once owned by them in Israel. In addition, the current inhabitants are settlers who bought the rights from its previous owners with the aim of establishing a Jewish presence in the heart of the Palestinian neighbourhood. To date, 92 protesters have been arrested during these demonstrations, the majority acted according to the law and thus their arrests were unjustified and illegal.

This crackdown against a peaceful protest movement takes place in a context of increased repression against dissenting voices by the Israeli authorities. Throughout 2009, the peaceful demonstrations denouncing the “cast lead” operation conducted by the Israeli army in the occupied Gaza Strip from December 27, 2008 to January 17, 2009 were systematically forbidden or repressed by the security forces, and hundreds of demonstrators were arrested.

The Observatory denounces these arbitrary arrests and the repression of demonstrations, which constitutes a restriction to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, and urges the Israeli authorities to guarantee the free exercise of these rights.

More generally, the Observatory calls upon the Israeli authorities to conform in all circumstances with the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as international human rights instruments ratified by Israel.

For further information, please contact:

• FIDH: Gael Grilhot / Karine Appy: + 33 1 43 55 25 18
• OMCT: Delphine Reculeau: + 41 22 809 49 39