How Israel silenced its Gaza war protesters
New report shows courts, police attempted to stamp out opposition to Operation Cast Lead.
By Akiva Eldar Tags: Israel police Israel news Gaza Gaza warA new report from Adalah shows how the courts and police attempted to stamp out opposition to Operation Cast Lead. "This is a time of war, and every incident harms the people's morale."
This was not a sentence in a right-wing journal, but rather a statement by an Israel Police representative during Operation Cast Lead seeking to persuade the Tel Aviv District Court to block anti-war protesters from the city.
Around the same time, in a Haifa Magistrate's Court hearing on extending the remand of minors, Judge Moshe Gilad stated: "Anyone who enables remarks denouncing the state and backing its enemies, even as they rain missiles upon its citizens, must obey its laws, and certainly is prohibited from attacking police who come to impose order. It is similar to a person spitting in the well from which he drinks."
Here are some of the pearls in Adalah's new report: "Prohibited protest - how the law enforcement authorities limit the freedom of expression of opponents of the Gaza military attack." The document, being published for the first time here, was written by attorneys Abeer Baker and Rana Asali. They reviewed and analyzed hundreds of rulings and detention requests, interviewed dozens of human rights activists who were arrested and threatened during the Gaza attack, and documented the behavior of Israeli academia during the moments of truth last winter.
The Adalah report was completed a few days before the Goldstone report was released. It harshly criticizes the damage to freedom of expression and the lack of tolerance for protests, primarily by Arab Israelis, against the attack on Gaza's civilian population. The report shows that enforcements officials did not learn from the October 2000 riots, and did not internalize the Or Commission recommendations.
The authors wrote that while they worked on their report, President Shimon Peres accepted the recommendation by former justice minister Daniel Friedmann to pardon 59 citizens who committed criminal offenses during protests against the disengagement in August 2005. The president stated that the pardons were being granted out of an understanding for the young people's protests, and awareness that this was an unusual, historic event.
The Arabs (and a handful of Jews) protesting against the bloody incidents that took hundreds of lives did not receive a fraction of that understanding.
"In all court decisions we reviewed, the authorities did not mention the reason for the anger of war opponents," they stated. "The hundreds of dead, the injured, the destruction, the tragedy and the damage the Israeli army brought upon Gaza's residents are not mentioned anywhere in any remand decision. The detainees were presented as lawbreakers and criminals who should be treated harshly due to 'the situation,' unconnected from the political climate of their protest."
The war mobilization went up to the Supreme Court. Of seven appeals submitted regarding the detainment of suspects until the completion of proceedings, the court sided with the state in every case. Supreme Court Judge Asher Gronis stated in ruling in favor of the detention of a minor until the end of the proceedings: "Of course, when times change, the matter of detentions will be reconsidered." He added, "When I say 'change in times,' this refers to the end of the military operation in the Gaza Strip and fewer violations in the Northern District."
The researchers note that the "change in times" clause disconnects the detention from the circumstances of the suspect, and makes this a matter of a community's behavior. They note that the detention law was intended to provide uniform tools regarding the revocation of freedom and does not differentiate between war time and peace.
Detentions as a goal
The Adalah researchers found that detentions during fighting became a goal in and of themselves. The police and the State Prosecutor's office vehemently refused to consider releasing even minors from detention or restrictive conditions.
The state's representatives in effect confirmed the detentions were designed "to send a deterrent message to the public as a whole and to the rioters in particular." During another remand extension hearing, they acknowledged this effort was aimed at 'deterring the protesters with force and detaining them until the end of the proceedings in order to convey a message to the public that such behavior is unforgiveable."
These comments were made in a detention motion that the court found was not supported by any factual, evidentiary basis. Somewhat ironically, the police again defined the protests against the war as "a disruption of the peace."
The prevailing trend around the world, including in Israel, is to try minors under proceedings that take into account their needs, welfare and well-being. Despite this, during the operation, hundreds of minors spent weeks behind bars awaiting trial. A review of several decisions regarding "daily detention" indicates how the police inflated the suspicions against the detainees, in order to lengthen their detention.
For example, on December 29, 2008 the Hadera Magistrate's Court received a police motion to hold for another seven days two people suspected of rioting and interfering with a policeman carrying out his duties. The police representative argued that the suspects burned tires, threw stones at policemen and called for Jews to be killed. The court ordered them freed, stating, "The request to extend the detention is baseless and inflated, and it would have been better if some of the remarks in the motion had never been written."
Under its obligation to uphold freedom of speech, specifically in times of conflict, the police used force to try to silence protest. Adalah found numerous testimonies indicating a widespread phenomenon of people being arrested merely because they were present at an incident. Average individuals were accused of serious violations, spent a night in detention and were brought to court handcuffed. At many protest vigils, large numbers of police showed up and dispersed the gathering with force, under the pretense that the gathering was illegal. The testimonies clearly indicate that not all the protests required a police permit.
In some cases, the police conditioned the release of protesters on their not taking part in more protests. Police used harsher threats to disperse legal anti-war protest vigils when there were also right-wing protesters there voicing support for the operation. In these cases, the police officials claimed that as few as three people is enough to justify crowd dispersal, declare the protest illegal and deem all the participants rioters. Protests were dispersed violently, and protesters sometimes suffered serious bruises. Buses en route to protests were commandeered and forced to turn around.
The Shin Bet General Security Service also took part in silencing protest; the police summoned activists, but when they arrived at the police station, they were questioned by Shin Bet investigators. Some activists said their interrogators asked political questions and threatened to persecute them and make them responsible for every violation that occurred during the demonstrations. The attorney general supported the Shin Bet's questioning and threatening methods, saying that it was meant to calm the atmosphere.
The report accuses intellectuals and academics of standing by during the violence in Gaza and overlooking the collective arrests of peace activists. Only a few lecturers mustered the courage to publicly protest the military operation. Academics who protested the collective arrest of settler teens did not speak out against the suspected IDF war crimes and the collective detainment of protesting minors. Academic institutions hung banners and took out newspaper ads voicing support for the war. They stood by while the Shin Bet and the police charged at Jewish and Arab students protesting the operation.
For instance, at the height of the operation, the University of Haifa released the following announcement despite its many Arab students: "As a show of solidarity with IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza and residents of the south, the University of Haifa has made its central tower into a national flag ... the university is not an ivory tower and is inseparably connected to the community. With this symbolic act, it expresses its great appreciation for the residents of the south and its support for the IDF's soldiers."
The ministry responds
The Ministry of Justice spokesman responded: "During Operation Cast Lead there were serious nationalistically motivated gatherings and rioting, occasionally accompanied by real disturbances including stone throwing and road blockades, and in some cases there was risk to human life and public welfare, similar to the events of October 2000 (albeit not on the same scale and not at the same intensity).
"Alongside police efforts to enforce the law and restore order, the prosecution needed to increase steps to enforce the law and prevent the spread of the phenomenon. This was done via increased enforcement, insisting on detention until the conclusion of proceedings, based on the reasons for the detention (primarily endangerment) and carrying out the law to the fullest regarding criminals, subject to the specific circumstances of each case.
"Court rulings, through the October 2000 events, called for detaining rioters - including minors - who were involved in nationalistically motivated disturbances that posed a threat to passersby and security forces, based on the specific danger posed by each detainee. The Supreme Court on more than one occasion determined that a person who throws stones at government agents seeking to restore order or at innocent bystanders may continue to endanger public safety and even human life.
"That the actions stem from ideological fervor, and take place in large and heated gatherings, make them more dangerous. This is a phenomenon that builds on itself. Once it became part of the agenda of those rioters, the court ruled that the threat to human life cannot be ignored.
"In cases involving the detention of minors, the prosecutors were instructed to ask courts to begin proceedings as soon as possible and to handle the cases quickly."
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... where the "liberated" states were justifying the terror inside by waging the war in between themselves. After such literal coincidences one is left guessing if Orwell was so profoundly prophetic that he confused only numbers '48 with '84, or if the Ministry of Justice, IDF & Shin Beth were sort of tongue-in-cheek interpreting in a caricaturesque fashion the classics in dystopia genre.
A standard procedure in war time is to attempt to weaken the enemies morale and willingness to fight by sowing the seeds of defeatism and division. Its Adalah's reason for existance.
Israel's attack "on Gaza's civilians?" Come on. Israel's actions were against Hamas and you know it. Can't believe Ha'aretz let *that* one through.
i would not presume to judge the mind of akiva eldar.yet his thinking is quite beyond comprehension.why would a normal person not support his own nation?
jewish boys aged 18 years were fighting for us in gaza.the university of haifa was right to show its support.why would mr akiva eldar think otherwise?
Odd, I do not remember Haaretz advocating protest during Cast Lead? I recall Haaretz being for the operation along with ALL of Israel! Even Arab Israelis I spoke to felt Israel was too light on Hamas and should increase it's efforts! So who did Israel stop protesting? It seems they stopped some ISMers, some pro Hamas provocateurs and some other enemies of Israel. Good job!
If it wasn't so tragic, it would be amusing to consider the rank hypocrisy of this state touting itself as the only true democracy in the ME - protecting the rights of the minority and permitting free speech are not only ignored but attacked, using a supposedly independent judiciary. For my part, the cowardly and cheerleading academics are beneath contempt for failing to act in response to every aspect of the "operation" and the muzzling of anyone critical of it.
Israel is a rather small country, everyone knows what's going on Detentions, sort of reminds us of the Britsh laws on "Remand"
You ask about people protesting rocket attacks on Southern israel. Let me ask you a question. What would be the point of doing so - do you think it would have any effect on those shooting the rockets? If it wouldn't (which is almost certainly true), why should one bother?
which, if any Muslim country, Including Iran, Egypt, Lebanon or Syria allows it's people to demonstrate contrary to the interests of their country While you're at it, from the above list, name just one of those countries that's a democracy BTW- You can't live peacefully if the other countries, like Iran, continually threaten to destroy you It's best to be like the Boyscout Motto "Be Prepared", Israel won't endure another Holocaust, which as I recall was a German innovation "Eliminiating freedom of speech, ignoring international law, all signs of a "good" democracy that intends to live peaceful among other nations."
Let us not forget just how well it worked. And how well it is working.
To silence a war protest is wrong,stupid,and unnecessary.Only one thing is worse.Lack of anti war protest.There is never an anti war protest in the Arab world,and that should worry us more.No peace movements in Syria?Egypt Iraq? only terror groups?only war movements?. We should practice our right to protest,but don't expect much.The protest against war in the US in the war of Vietnam went for a decade, and the protest against the war in Iraq never stopped the invasion.
there was no name of the author.i knew it was akiva eldar. the same akiva eldar who interviewed yassir arafat the day after 40 young soldiers were massacred in a bus explosion.he fielded easy questions to the terrorist chief. many were upset with him.we have a short attention span.
You know very well (and if you don't in Australia, then you SHOULD) that there has never been any shortage of medical supplies in Haifa or Ashkelon or Sderot. Whereas Gazan hospitals didn't even have electricity much of the time, due to Israeli bombing. And even aspirin was in short supply at times. If you want to know whether as peace activists we are involved in Sderot, yes - especially with other peace activists such as Another Voice, based in Sderot. So less knee jerk please, and more humanity. As Jews we care about the weak, no?
you don't belong in Israel. Most Israeli's support Israel NOT those who continually fire over 12,000 missiles into Israel, and having strap bomb carrying pal youths to die by assassinating Jews. You'll be lucky NOT to end up as Rachel Corrie, another loon. But, I do hope so.
The entire operation lasted three weeks, so no one seems to have been detained all that long. With so many Israelis more than fed up that it took Israel years to respond to 1,250 deaths from Hamas suicide bombers plus 7,000 missiles fired into southern Israel, it was safest for the protestors to be kept away from the public. I am assuming this is a serious article and not a send up of political correctness.
Or is helping Jews not part of a peace activists role?
during Operation Cast Lead. A central part of Operation Cast Lead was to make sure nobody knew how Israel was collectively punishing the Gazans for the actions of at the most 2000 people. For the Israeli government it is still important, hence the detentions without trial of political activists who dare to try to tell the Israeli people the truth. Problem for Israeli leaders is of course despite their best efforts the rest of Planet Earth saw Israeli Jews cheering the sound of explosions, and it didn't matter what Mark Regev said on our televisions. We'd already seen the 2 year old child (major HAMAS rocketeer) with her head blown off. Which is wh the accusations of war crimes are ringing in the ears of Askhenazi, and Barak's and Livni's ears.
Sure, Israel has to decide: it's time to commit "collective suicide" ala Jones. That will satisfy the proponents of the skewed (sic) FREEDOM 0f SPEECH... Its funny that Akiva has not spent few moments of his time to ask himself "how come the majority of Israeli Jews, have'nt even dream of harming anyone among the Israeli Arabs? As you can see, even the most loving Freedom of Expression's Land of the Free USA, has joined the Japanese American into camp". Answer, Akiva...
Well said!!!
As did I. There was no real opposition to this just war.
I participated in a PHR solidarity mission to Erez escorting medical aid to Gaza during Op Cast Lead; police literally hijacked our bus and others anywhere in the region, confiscated bus-drivers' licences so we were immobilised, while cars managed to continue to the site. And when I organised a press conference at Yad Mordechai near Erez, all international press having lunch at the cafe there attended the conference. Israeli Channel 1 & 2 stayed eating even though they knew Israeli peace activists were speaking against Op. Cast Lead in the same building; Channel 10 attended so we got airtime with them on Israeli TV. An activist went and complained after the presscon to the Ch 1 & 2 journalists - who looked shamefaced but stayed silent. They were obviously not interested in reporting any criticism of the "war"...
Perhaps the Adalah 'researchers' and those who protested against Cast Lead should move to Sderot and live for a few years.
Missed your protests at the thousands of qassams that landed in Israel. Indicates where you are coming from doesnt it? Nothing to do with freedom of speech is it?
The rioting and stone throwing could wait till the war was over.
I've seen this during the Marcos years in the Philippines and it's nothing short of disgusting and not the actions of a supposedly democratic state. Possibly, the regime in Israel should go the way of the Marcos regime - down the tubes.
Freedom of speech in Israel is obviously compromised and justice absent. Still there is a glimmer of hope that Israel is not turning into the standard Middle-Eastern black hole: this report has been published. Despite the blatant repression there are still human rights activists bucking the trend. Long live Uri Avnery and his ilk.
That's probably a bit harsh. But definitely on the way there.....
if this was to happen in any real democratic country there would be mutiny, yet everything israel does against it's people when zionists aren't happy is said in the name of "national security", huh, freedom of speech my butt. i'm surprised they haven't shut down haaretz, the real freedom of speech newspaper, keep on going haaretz, good or bad, you print it.
Generally I have huge respect for Haaretz, but I did notice during Cast Lead that it massively clamped down on comments critical of Cast Lead. When you think of the fury around the world over Cast Lead, there were amazingly few critical posts allowed on here, and 90 per cent of mine were censored. I wonder if they'll censore this one!
No matter how you protested, even if it was only here in talkbacks, and no matter who you were, it never made it through. BTW, it wasn't a war it was an operation.
Eliminiating freedom of speech, ignoring international law, all signs of a "good" democracy that intends to live peaceful among other nations. Of course all those right wing lunatics who commented above think it's perfectly OK to eliminate freedom of speech for their adversaries. It was an extreme leftist who said "Freedom always had to include the freedom of the people oposing you" (Rosa Luxemburg) Too bad those guys didn't learn anything from history.
If israel may be considered a western country, it is definitely the most censored and police controlled of any I have been in - more on par with some south american dictatorships. The policies mentioned in this article are however not new: they have been in force against the haredim for decades. Anything that stands in the way of the state realising its expansionist goals or secularisation is repressed in the same manner.
Adalah's credibility is compromised. Bias, vested interest! That was to be expected I suppose. Well the methods described in this article would make any dictatorship proud! Way to go oh light of democracy in the dark, dark Middle-East!
So, both this report and the Goldstone report says the same thing about the Israeli government suppressing protests. And to those who want to discredit the Goldstone report, the inclusion of that conclusion shows anti-Israeli bias on his part. So, I assume they'll have to say the same thing about Abeer Baker and Rana Asali, though it is harder to sell that line when dealing with Israeli citizens.
Strange that a university should be questioned for its nationality. Yes, Israeli Arabs attend Haifu U in great numbers. Yes, Israeli Arabs have been killed in war crimes committed by Palestinians who fired rockets at Israeli civilians - including Arabs. It is indeed a strange attitude that Palestinian war crimes are immune from condemnation in Ha'aretz, and amount to nothing when the causes of Cast Lead are looked at. Adalah is known not just as a supposed "rights" organization, but also as a pro-Palestinian lobby group. Adalah has not, of course, released any report that is critical of the human rights abuses or war crimes perpetrated by the Palestinians. It simply goes against its lobbying efforts, thus revealing Adalah not as a "human rights" group, but as a vested interest group.
The damnation of the only act (Cast Lead) that brought peace to the south is sick. It is to be expected from this paper. News quality down, editorial quality non existant.
This is an example of what can happen if you let freedom of speech be trampled on all over, I'm glad we don't let that happen in Sweden.
But leftist hypocrisy must be exposed..I didn't hear any complain when Sharon betrayed his electorate and implemented his illegal-suicidal- catastrophic Gaza retreat policy and Livni's (Minister of Justice)illegal-undemocratic violent crack down on the opponents of that crazy policy. Preventive arrests took place, people were prevented to hold protests etc. I am not a so-called "settler", I am no part of any political party. I am just an old powerless, regular, unimportant citizen but nevertheless a convinced Zionist who made alyia almost 40 years ago, have been years on kibboutzim, went to the army and reserve duty for decades as an officer..and I am disgust by the leftist self-destructive propaganda machine who plant the seeds of our destruction! By the way 80% of my posts are never published!!
I've said it before, Israel is in dire need of at least one human rights organization without a political agenda. During the Rabin years (and in the run up to the withdrawal from Gaza) when right wing demonstrators were being beaten by the police and minors incarcerated, the left was silent. When Arabs and leftists suffer at the hands of the police the right is silent. And when charadim are beaten by the police, everyone is silent. Without accountability any agency is likely to abuse its powers on occasion. This has nothing to do with Israel, the "occupation" or the Palestinian Arabs. Everyone from the tax authorities to the people who hand out parking tickets are subject to the same temptations. The Israel Police know that, when dealing with political demonstrations, they can rely on at least a third of the public to tacitly accept abuse because it's against "them" and not "us" and "they" probably deserve it. Haaretz is a good example of this kind of human rights tunnel vision.
I am surprised and would like to as those "academists" if they are for real. Where were they when Israelis were suffering - but that does not matter, does it. IDIOTS, THAT IS THE ONLY DECENT WORD TO SAY TO THEM. Why dont they do the same protests in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan etc. That is abusing democracy and yes, that would have impacted the soldiers. They should have been tried for treason and thrown in jail together their pals, the Palestinians for a while.
And how come the Goldstone report did not include this "outrageous" crime against humanity?
How can this be true when there was an anti-war protest in Tel Aviv during the war which had over 100,000 people?
Keep banging your drum Eldar: no serious person in Israel or anywhere else cares what you and your radical leftist ilk say, think, or do. Maybe you should consider another line of work.
They do similar things in other outlaw regimes, like Myanmar and Zimbabwe.