ACRI appealed to acting Police Commissioner, Moti Cohen, demanding that the direct the Jerusalem District Police Commander to allow the protest taking place outside of the Knesset.
ACRI also demanded that all tickets distributed among those participating in the demonstration be canceled. After ACRI received testimony that the police were preventing the convoy traveling toward Jerusalem, including distributing tickets to the drivers, and at the protest, one of the police officers calling the participants “Arabs, leftists,” ACRI appealed to the Police’s Legal Counsel, Ayelet Elishar, who had not been updated about the decision to prevent the demonstration.
Although the police subsequently allowed the protesters to continue toward the Knesset, the vehicles were once again blocked as they neared and were told that the demonstration was illegal.
The letter was sent by ACRI’s Executive Director, Atty. Sharon Abraham-Weiss, who states “there is no need to recall the basic tenets of the right to freedom of expression and freedom of protest. These fundamental rights do not disappear during a state of emergency, such as the situation we are now in, and they are often relevant and important especially during such times.”
The importance of this demonstration is particularly significant in light of “the forced dispersal of the Knesset yesterday marking a new high in the fierce attacks waged in the past year against all institutions and symbols of a democratic government in the State of Israel.”