A personal report on 4 political false arrests, by Elie Adelman
Wednesday May 12, 2010, 16:00:
I arrived at the public garden in Sheikh Jarrah to protest the “unification” of Jerusalem 43 years ago. As I arrived there, a few other activists and I noticed that the police were letting a few hundred settler protesters, some carrying M-16s, into the area of the neighborhood where most of the houses had been confiscated from the Palestinians. We then proceeded to enter the compound, since we are all citizens of Israel there is no reason why we should not all be allowed inside along with our fellow citizens, regardless of political affiliation. Instead, we were stopped at the police barricade. We, the friends and guests of the residents who have lived in those houses for over 50 years, were not allowed in, while hundreds of right wing activists who have been known to be violent and who harass the residents on a daily basis could enter with the blessings of the police.
We proceeded to argue with the head police officer who refused to give us a reason for not letting us in, occasionally stating a “security reason” because apparently the power of the point and shoot camera seems to them a greater threat than any settler or his automatic firearm. As we argued with the officer and videotaped his discriminatory remarks as to who is allowed where - all of this on a day on which Israel was celebrating the union of its capital for all of eternity – he started to get uneasy and claimed that I was invading his “private space,” and that is the reason why we had to move backwards.
After a few minutes I received a phone call from a friend up the street who suggested we try to get into the neighborhood through the back way. When that attempt failed, we went back to the police barricade, and as we arrived we saw our fellow activists being pushed violently across the street. They were shouting, “brave policeman beating activists!” (in Hebrew this makes a clever rhyme). We too were pushed across the street, back to the public garden where the police allow our “legal, no-need-for-prior-approval” protest watches. As we all reached the sidewalk, Daniel, who was videotaping everything, was violently pushed to the ground, and as he got up, he demanded to see the identification of the policeman who pushed him. However, as with most of the weekly demonstrations in Sheikh Jarah, the policemen either tuck in their IDs so that they cannot be seen, or simply do not wear them. As soon as Daniel demanded to see the identification, he was told that he was under arrest. Moments later Uri, another demonstrator, was dragged away and taken into a police car.
Parallel to all of this, on the hill right next to us, a memorial ceremony for fallen soldiers was taking place. We had asked the police to allow our protest to be in another area of the neighborhood so that we would not disturb the ceremony, but they refused. After the first two arrests, a few representatives from the ceremony asked us to stop for five minutes so that they could conclude their ceremony. We obliged, and after the agreed recess period we returned to our chanting only to be stopped again by other representatives who declared us “scum” and “traitors.” We explained to them that we had been asked to stop for five minutes, and that we were under the assumption that they had finished. We then agreed to postpone our protest until they were finished which took another few minutes. As the concluding bars of the Tikva rang with a bizarre accordion accompaniment, we returned to our demonstration.
After the ceremony, a few of participants in the ceremony came down from the hill to our side of the street to call us traitors and scum. A few of us tried to talk to them, a few of us chanted at them, and Tamar decided that if they were allowed on “our” side of the street, since we are all citizens of the same country, we should be allowed on “their” side of the street. She crossed with her sign that said “Discrimination in East Jerusalem is Racism” and was arrested almost immediately. A few protesters went across the street to try talk to the police and to ask them why she was arrested. Within minutes they were violently pushed across the street, back to the “permitted” free speech zone.
After a few more minutes a few of us noticed that around one of the confiscated Arab houses that once belonged to the Hanoun family, there was a red police ribbon that said “No Crossing.” Nevertheless, there were dozens of young settlers inside of the red ribbon. Five of us protesters, myself included, starting crossing the street towards the Hanoun house, an area in which we have always, reluctantly, been allowed to hold some kind of protest. As we crossed the street, we made sure that we were walking on the edge of the road so as not to obstruct traffic. About 20 feet into our journey, we were surrounded by the police who stated that we were participating in an illegal protest. This was not true: the Israeli courts have stated time and time again that all of our protests in Sheikh Jarrah have been legal and have not necessitated a police permit. Nothing about what we did fell into any category of an illegal protest or an illegal march. Nonetheless, they told us that we had to go back. We told them that inside the police ribbon there were citizens, and since we are also citizens, unless this is a country where some citizens have more rights than others, then we should be allowed there as well. It was around this point when they started to aggressively push us back towards the garden.
It was also at this point that I found myself arrested. I immediately put my hands behind my back as to avoid the chance that they could somehow accuse me of assault and went along with my escorts. As I walked away I continued to shout my opinions about inequality within the system and pointed to the house and the settlers. One of my escorts forced my hand down behind my back.
I calmly walked with them until we got past the police barricade. There I found Tamar handcuffed, and after a few minutes she was taken away. I was soon cuffed and placed into a police car where a policeman watched over me. Since the car that I was kept in was completely in the sun, after a while, at my request, the policemen, seeing that I was harmless, allowed me to get out and sit in the shade. I was quite and kept to myself. After a while the policeman offered me water, and as all of the policemen took a lunch break I was offered a sandwich. After about an hour of waiting, a car came to take me to the station. It was at this point the head officer from earlier that afternoon came to search me. He, unlike the rest of the officers who were quite nice to me, immediately started to berate me, asking me why am I quiet now since I was shouting a little while earlier, that the reason is I’m not too big without my friends around, that in fact I was a nothing. It turns out that this was not the end of his false accusations towards me. I found this out during my interrogation when the officer questioning me told me that the arresting officer claimed that as I was arrested I started to call the policemen fascists, murderers, and Nazis (which I did not), and one of the charges against me was “insulting a police officer.” They charged that at first I was only detained, but when I resisted they were forced to arrest me – apparently I also resisted – for as they claim in my arrest report, since I was resisting arrest, they were forced to cuff me.
The four of us were eventually released with a 15 day restraining order, which, although it seemed like a better deal than having to spend a night in jail, is still a harsh penalty for four false arrests.
That’s my boy!