On March 19, 2024, we sent legal correspondence to the police commissioner and the legal advisor of the police, following two cases in which police officers were documented using fire extinguishers as a tool to disperse a crowd at a demonstration – whether accidentally or intentionally, during a demonstration in Caesarea in which demonstrators carried large, lit wax candles in their hands. In an attempt to extinguish the candles, the officers aimed the fire extinguisher at a demonstrator and hit her in the face. In the second case, As part of a gathering of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Meron, a policeman is seen holding a fire extinguisher and using it against the worshippers and in an attempt to disperse them, spraying directly at their faces and bodies.
Freedom of Expression and Protest Coordinator Sivan Tahel and Attorney Anne Suciu wrote: "There is no dispute that the use of fire extinguishers for the purpose for which they are intended is legitimate and clear. However, the use of fire extinguishers as a tool to disperse a crowd, endangering civilians by spraying a chemical directly and forcefully, is illegal. Apart from harming the health of the demonstrators, this is a humiliating and degrading use of a fire extinguisher against civilians." We sought to examine the circumstances of the incidents and make it clear to police officers on the ground that fire extinguishers should not be used as a means to remove demonstrators, disperse crowds, or for any use other than firefighting.
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