The attempt by the Israel Police to prevent a conference by the left-wing Arab and Jewish party Hadash scheduled for next Saturday in Shfaram shows that under the cover of the war, the "temporary" violation of basic rights threatens to become permanent.
This is what stands behind the drive to impede party activists' ability to meet in order to discuss various issues. Precisely during wartime, the freedom to express oneself, to organize and even to protest against the government's policies and actions must not be subject to the will of the state authorities.
In the language of the police, a gathering of a veteran parliamentary party like Hadash became a meeting of "extremist elements" that "would include calls against the State of Israel and the security forces' actions against Hamas." According to the police, these are liable "to disrupt the peace and endanger public welfare." From there, it was a short leap to threatening the owner of the venue, saying that he would "bear the consequences" if the convention went ahead as planned.
According to the secretary general of Hadash, Amjad Shbita, the purpose of the members-only conference is to discuss "plans for political action against the continuation of the war and against the political persecution." Now the party is searching for a new venue.
Threatening venue owners appears to be a preferred modus operandi of the police. In late October, the owner of an event hall in Haifa that had been hired for a Jewish-Arab conference calling for an end to the war was similarly warned of "consequences" – that is, a closure order.
As in Shfaram, the threat worked. A few days after that, four former lawmakers (including Mohammad Barakeh, chair of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee), were detained for questioning on suspicion of trying to organize, or planning to attend, a demonstration in Nazareth against the war.
After the silencing of criticism of the war – through the restriction of demonstrations, the wholesale filing of charges against Arab citizens of the state for posts on social media and arrests such as those of Yael Abadi-Reiss and Meir Baruchin – comes a new and disturbing phase: the restriction of the freedom of association of political parties and citizens, Arabs and Jews alike.
Israeli democracy, fragile before the war, has become attenuated even further in its wake. The police's claim that speeches at a party conference may "endanger public welfare" is a concrete violation of freedom of _expression_, which in wartime takes on added importance.
State Prosecutor Amit Aisman sharply criticized the police last month for its actions against Barakeh, Abadi-Reiss and Baruchin. Aisman and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara must urgently clarify to the police the limits of their capacity: They have neither the right nor the authority to police political activity.
The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.