“Haredim get the stinkwater hose pretty much by default.”
Tel Aviv, July 4 – A new set of procedures formalizes longstanding default Israeli law enforcement policies toward demonstrations on public property, the Israel Police announced today, under which the permissibility of a given demonstration will depend on the political views of its participants, which officers will assess either in advance or on site by administering a questionnaire.
Commissioner Kobi Shabtai laid out the details of the new procedures today at a press conference. “We aim to clarify the process by which our personnel in the field can reliably determine whether a given protest or rally violates the law, regardless of whether a permit has been issued,” he stated.
“The permit is but one step,” he explained. “The issuance of an assembly permit does not in itself render the activities of the demonstrators legal or legitimate – that depends only on their political views, as our attitude toward demonstrators over the last several years have shown. Only certain political views are allowed. We are happy to have had the cooperation the Haaretz editorial board in formulating the criteria and language of the questionnaire.”
“We acknowledge that not in all cases will the administration of a questionnaire prove practicable or appropriate,” Shabtai continued. “For that reason, we have written into the clarified policy a set of shortcuts and rule-of-thumb for situations when the proper attitude toward the demonstrators is manifest even without the questionnaire: right-wingers and Haredim, for example. Haredim get the stinkwater hose pretty much by default.”
The policy will help police decide how much leeway to allow demonstrators who may or may not violate the provisions of the permit, or who engage in possibly illegal behavior while demonstrating. A handout for journalists gave further details of the policy, which mandates different responses to different populations for the following: disrupting traffic; vandalism; harassment; assault; breach of noise restrictions; and creating a public nuisance, among others. Police are also directed to use the assumed or assessed political leanings of a subject in deciding whether an individual’s behavior amounts to obstruction of law enforcement personnel performing their professional duties.
Minister of Public Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Jewish Power party allied with the Religious Zionism Party on a platform of restoring order and safety, catapulting them to kingmaker position in the current Likud-led government, vowed in response to the announcement that he would continue to do what he does best, i.e., calling left-wingers Nazis, broadly referring to Arabs as aliens who do not belong in the land, and showcasing his political and administrative incompetence.
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