On December 4, 2023, three women returning from a demonstration boarded a train from Jerusalem on their way to their homes in Herzliya. They wore protest shirts and carried protest signs, which they placed on one of the chairs next to them as they traveled. In the opposite chair sat a man who turned out to be a civilian police officer, who claimed that "they cannot use the train as a place for protest." He shouted and leaned over to one of the passengers, demanded that she show her ID card, and spoke on the phone with a police station and asked to call a patrol car to the train station. At one point, the policeman threatened to confiscate the phone she was using to record what was taking place. When the train's security personnel arrived, the policeman told them that he wanted to detain the train until the officers he had summoned arrived. One of the passengers explained to the policeman that the passengers had not broken the law, and the train's security personnel explained to him that they could not delay the train. The demonstrators were forced to move to another car, and the train left late.
On December 15, 2023, on behalf of one of the passengers, we sent legal correspondence (Hebrew) to the Police Disciplinary Officer. In the correspondence, Freedom of Protest Coordinator Sivan Tahel argued that the policeman radically deviated from police procedures regarding the authority of police officers to detain a person and demand that he identify himself, specifically when it comes to an off-duty police officer. "This is extremely serious conduct that reflects real harassment of civilians," the correspondence states.
On March 22, 2024, we received a response to our inquiry, stating that our complaint was found to be justified. "Disciplinary action will be taken against the policeman and the lessons of the investigation will be learned among all police officers in order to prevent a recurrence of the incident."