Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict. imra@netvision.net.il
Israel Police to deny basic rights inside Green Line?
By Dr. Aaron Lerner
July 29, 2005
When Israel Television Channel 10 broadcast a recording of Israel Police Lieutenant-Commander Nisso Shaham's shocking instructions to use violence against disengagement opponents it was hoped that a healthy reaction of embarrassment would cause the police brass bend over backwards to avoid the appearance of abusing police power against protesters.
But with reports that the police are considering preventing Israeli citizens who oppose the disengagement from reaching Sderot and other Israeli cities within the Green Line to protest next week it appears that the police were embarrassed Shaham was caught on tape -- not that he said what he did.
The Israel Police certainly want to stop protesters from reaching the Gaza Strip -- but that cannot justify denying Israeli citizens the basic freedom to protest within the Israel's the Green Line. The very idea that police officials should even consider the possibility of denying freedom of movement and assembly within Israel's sovereign borders just to simplify the enforcement of a ban on entry into the Gaza Strip indicates a serious gap in the education of the police leadership (as well as of the various civilian authorities who are supposed to supervise police activity).
The Israel Police are anything but helpless with regards to the challenge of handling protestors who enter the Gaza Strip. Under the disengagement law, anyone who dares to enter the Gaza Strip today without proper authorization can be thrown into jail for two years. That's two years in jail for a first "offense" -- no warnings required.
Armed with such a draconian law, if the Israel Police leadership can't figure out how to face the challenge presented by the disengagement protest movement, without undermining the basic rights of Israeli citizens to freedom of movement and freedom of speech, they should seek another profession.
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