Ahuvia Sandak, z”l
Thursday, January 7, 2021, 20:24 The wave of demonstrations throughout Israel over the past 18 days in protest of the death of Ahuvia Sandak, z”l, has led to increased distribution of tickets for coronavirus regulations violations to protesters. So that protesters are not unjustifiably ticketed or fined, Honenu has publicized an online brochure which clearly explains what protesters’ rights are in light of the coronavirus regulations and how to have tickets and fines that were given in violation of the law and the coronavirus regulations canceled.
See here for a list of posts connected to the Ahuvia Sandak, z”l, case.
The online brochure, Hebrew only, is here.
From the brochure:
The Supreme Court ruled that regarding protests with up to 500 participants, there is no need to inform the police or to request a permit. Even during the lockdown which is expected to come into effect starting midnight tonight, protests are allowed.
According to the coronavirus regulations, a two-meter distance must be maintained between people, however a policeman is not authorized to issue a fine for this violation. At a demonstration in which proper distance is not maintained, a policeman may demand that the protesters keep their distance, but he does not have the authority to disperse the demonstration itself.
Sometimes the police issue fines for disrupting traffic. However if the individual protester did not disrupt traffic or if the police themselves blocked traffic, then there are no grounds for issuing fines. If the police did issue a fine, the protester should answer, “I did not violate the law,” and then file a request to cancel the fine or a request to appeal before a judge.
Honenu described the need for the brochure: “The police brutally harassed demonstrators and detained many of them in what were definitely false detentions. Hundreds of detainees received legal assistance from Honenu Attorneys. Another way that the police attempted to quell the protests was to issue tickets, traffic fines and coronavirus fines, in bulk. A very large number of demonstrators who had received tickets for no reason requested assistance from us. Attorney Hanamel Dorfman volunteered to write a brochure explaining the best way to handle the tickets.”