As in every year on Independence Day eve, Zochrot planned a street activityto commemorate and raise public awareness of the Nakba. Last night, after atheoretical discussion held in our offices, some 15 activists intended to go out on asymbolic, non-violent presentation activity at Rabin Square, which involved postingpostcards with the names of Palestinian towns and villages destroyed in 1948 inArabic, Hebrew and English.
As we intended to leave the offices, around 10:30pm, we were astonished to findthat the building had already been surrounded by police – before we even had achance to leave the offices – and that police officers had closed all exits. The seniorofficers who arrived on the scene made it clear to us that they would under nocircumstances allow us to “disrupt public order”, and would therefore prevent usfrom leaving the grounds. Besieged in the heart of Tel Aviv, we were shut in fornearly four hours and prevented from leaving the premises, unless we would agreeto hand over our materials, present IDs and submit to questioning which includingsearches in our belongings. A lawyer who was present on the scene informed theofficers that this was false arrest and that they had no probable cause to ask us toidentify ourselves, but they refused to budge. We were “released” around 2:00am,but there are now three detainees that we are acting to release. After the holiday,we intend to press charges for false arrest.
Tonight, in the heart of Tel Aviv, silencing reached new heights and left a bitter taste of dark regimes.
Liat Rosenberg, CEO, Zochrot
Update: the three detained activists were freed on Thursday evening.