Activists protested at a Golan Heights town where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife are vacationing on Tuesday after they petitioned the High Court of Justice to allow them to demonstrate against the judicial reform at Neve Ativ on Sunday.
Protest organizer Amy Klein filed the petition challenging the police for restricting movement to the moshav, which her lawyer argues is a public space. Police had claimed to have been acting under a directive not to allow the protests, and set up barriers at the entrances to the town.
"The [High Court] rulings regarding the freedom of demonstration does not allow the police to completely close a place and deny citizens the freedom of movement and the exercise of the right to protest. We see before our eyes an event reserved for dark dictatorial regimes. The ruler and his wife go on vacation in a site that becomes a closed and enclosed place,” said Klein’s lawyer, Gonen Ben Itzhak.
Police have been allegedly checking the identification cards of people and questioning those that are deemed suspicious. Klein's petition challenged the authority of the police to stop them. The petition claimed that people as far away as a kilometer and a half had been detained by police.
Why are protesters being barred from Netanyahu's vacation town?
Klein had allegedly spoken with and coordinated the protest with the local Neve Ativ authorities, and reached an agreement on where they could protest that would balance the security and social needs of the town. The protesters had organized tents and other logistics for the event.
The blockades, checkpoints, and denial of entry violated the democratic right of the activists to demonstrate, the petition argued. The moshav is a public place and under the rights like freedom of expression and movement derived from Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, activists like Klein had the right of entry.
“The role of the police is to balance the needs of security, the needs of the town, and the basic right to protest in a democratic country, but it seems that in the context of the race for commissioners, the superintendents have become the servants of the dictatorship on the way,” said Ben Itzhak.
The court was asked to issue an interim order to allow the protests to occur from Tuesday until the time that the prime minister left the town. The petitioners said that they had attempted to contact the respondent, the local Israel police division, but received no answer. The second attorney representing Klein, Gaby Lasky, said that the High Court had ruled that the police had until 5:30 p.m. to respond. The police requested to delay their response until 8:30 p.m.
Activists have been rallying outside the houses of Israeli officials since the unveiling of the judicial reform in January, and demonstrations have escalated in response to the passing of the Law to Cancel the Reasonableness Standard on July 24.