Police Forcibly Disperse anti-Iran War Protest in Tel Aviv Amid IDF Restrictions
The IDF refused to permit a protest of 1,000 participants in Tel Aviv, citing Iranian missile threats. Authorities disregarded a High Court order to find a framework balancing 'security needs and freedom of speech' • Hundreds are protesting in Haifa, Jerusalem
Around a thousand protesters gathered in Tel Aviv's Habima Square and hundreds gathered in several locations across the country on Saturday to protest Israel's ongoing war in Iran, despite the IDF limiting gatherings in public areas to 150 people.
At least 14 people were arrested in Tel Aviv's Habima Square.
Around 500 protesters also gathered in Haifa's Horev mall to protest against the war, and in Jerusalem, around 300 demonstrators gathered.
The clashes come after the IDF's Home Front Command earlier Saturday refused a request to approve the participation of some 1,000 protesters at Tel Aviv's Habima Square later in the day, and a senior Israel Police officer said authorities would enforce wartime restrictions on public gatherings.
The protests in Tel Aviv were organized by a coalition of Israeli protest organizations. Alon-Lee Green, co-director of Standing Together, briefed demonstrators ahead of the rally: "Don't give the police and army excuses. We're responsible here, and we will demonstrate against the war until we reach victory."
"The violent assault by Ben-Gvir's police tonight on the anti-war protest at Habima Square, in blatant disregard of the High Court's ruling allowing the demonstration, shows that the government is afraid of the protest. At dozens of locations across the country today, thousands of people took to the streets to protest Netanyahu's endless war, and a government that is dragging us from Gaza to Iran to Lebanon, sacrificing the lives and security of all of us," he added.
After the protests had began, the High Court issued a decision according to which at least 150 people must be allowed to protest at each location and at least 600 people in Tel Aviv's Habima Square. According to the decision, the police has not enforced the limitations on other gatherings. "This means the police is enforcing Home Front Command's instructions on protests but not in other places and events", said the decision. According to the police, the protesters were violating instructions, and it therefore is working to clear the area.
Earlier on Saturday, police announced in Habima Square that there are "a lot more [people] than Home Front Command's orders. Stay safe and abide by the instructions." Despite these and similar announcements made, no instructions to clear the area have been given. Protesters responded by booing police during each such announcement. Around 19:37, police announced that the protest is to be dispersed, saying "no force will be used to disperse it within the next 5 minutes."
Shortly thereafter, police officers announced to the crowd to limit the protest in Tel Aviv to 600, and ordered demonstrators to exit the square "before we need to disperse the protest by force." Around an hour after clashes began, police began forcibly removing protesters from Habima Square and confiscating loudspeakers and other equipment from demonstrators.
The arrested protesters from Habima Square in Tel Aviv are being held in a bus designated to take them to a police station for further processing later. The bus is parked around the street from the square and its underground shelter.
An early warning went off earlier Saturday, prompting some protesters to urge police officers to accompany the detainees off of the bus and into shelter. The officers ignored the request. When a siren went off in Tel Aviv, the bus drove to another nearby street where the detainees were led into a nearby building's lobby – not a designated shelter.
החל פינוי הכיכר. בג״ץ קבע בהחלטה שניתנה בדקות האחרונת שכמות המפגינים המותרת לא תפחת מ-600, במשטרה מסבירים את ההחלטה הפתאומית לפזר בכך שיש כאן כאלף מפגינים
A police spokesperson announced that it is working to disperse an "illegal protest" in Tel Aviv, citing security reasons and apparently incorrectly citing the High Court's decision as setting the limit on protesters at 600.
מאות כבר פה בכיכר, החלו בכריזות. בינתיים המשטרה צופה בהם מהגבעה שנחסמה לגישה
המשטרה בהיערכות משמעותית בכיכר הבימה, בדומה לזו של שבוע שעבר. במקביל, גודרה גבעת הדשא בכיכר, שהייתה אמורה לשמש בשבוע שעבר לנואמים. המשטרה ופקע״ר עוד לא העבירו מתווה לקיום ההפגנות הערב, על אף שהיו אמורים לעשות זאת עד שש וחצי. ההפגנה פה צפויה להתחיל בעוד חצי שעה
In accordance with the IDF's request, the protesters in Habima Square divided into two main groups to allow easier evacuation in an emergency. One group is chanting, "The government has no solutions – no peace and no security." The other is chanting "from Masafer Yatta to Jenin – Free Palestine." Protesters are also chanting "Stop the War."
Earlier Saturday, Israel's High Court of Justice said that the Home Front Command's decision to limit protests to 150 people does not give due weight to the freedom of protest during wartime, and ordered authorities to submit a new framework to permit protests in central locations across Israel by 6:00 P.M. Such a framework was not submitted.
The State Prosecutor's Office informed the court that the Home Front Command's position had not been reviewed by it or by the Military Advocate General, and did not take the right to protest into account.
In response, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) urged Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to instruct police not to use force at protests on Saturday evening. The group said that regardless of the plan, demonstrators would already be at the protest sites when a decision is made.
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On Friday, Israeli Supreme Court President Isaac Amit told the Israeli Police to allow demonstrations during the Iran war, saying that protesters "don't need to beg to hold a demonstration."
The court ordered the government's counsel to submit the police's and the IDF's position on planned protests against the ongoing war in four locations across the country, setting Saturday at 11 A.M. as the deadline.
The court's decision came after the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and anti-war activist Itamar Greenberg submitted a petition following the police's dispersal of a rally against the war in Iran in Tel Aviv's Habima Square on Saturday.
On Tuesday, police also violently cracked down on a protest against Israel's new death penalty law. Footage from the scene showed officers grabbing protesters and slamming them to the ground.
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Police also deployed water cannons at close range, striking both demonstrators and members of the press. Authorities defended the crackdown, claiming protesters blocked roads and incited violence by chanting, "Every soldier is a terrorist."
At the Friday hearing, the court president said police must "come to us with recommendations and rules regarding how they think it should be."
The protesters "don't need to beg to hold a demonstration. The rules of the game go the other way around," he said, adding that "hundreds of people" were shopping at malls during the hearing or spending time on the beach, contrary to police arguments that holding demonstrations in wartime is unsafe.