Can there be protests during a coronavirus lockdown?
To date, Mandelblit and Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn have strenuously defended the right to protest even during the coronavirus era as a general principle.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBDEMONSTRATORS PROTEST the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, in Tel Aviv on July 18.(photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)
With a lockdown imminent, there is still no clarity about whether protests will be allowed and, if so, under what conditions.The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, part of a coalition of groups organizing protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now for several months, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that there was still no official dialogue taking place with the police over the issue.The movement had sent a letter to Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit on Monday demanding not only that protests be allowed to continue during the national lockdown, but that no limits be placed on the protests.During the March-April lockdown, Netanyahu critics said limiting protests to dozens of people or to people in their cars effectively eviscerated the right to demonstrate because protests only have influence with large numbers. They accused Netanyahu of using coronavirus to quash dissent.To date, Mandelblit and Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn have strenuously defended the right to protest even during the coronavirus era as a general principle.However, at press time, Mandelblit still had not responded to inquiries about whether he would set limits on protests, and if so, what kind?Critics of the protesters say that they do not follow social distancing guidelines and that a sizable minority of protesters do not even wear masks.The critics, usually from the Likud, say the right to protest does not grant a right to violate public health guidelines.Critics from the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties usually declare the protesters and their political supporters hypocrites, claiming secular politicians permit secular groups to violate coronavirus guidelines during protests, while cracking down harshly on prayer services.There is an unresolved debate about whether protests or prayer services lead to more virus infections given that protests are always outdoors, and prayer services are a mix.It is unclear how the state or the protesters would respond to some kind of middle-ground idea in which there would be theoretically no limit to the number of protesters, but they would need to be socially distanced and fenced in capsules of 20, like worshipers at the Western Wall.During a Knesset Interior Committee hearing on Tuesday, Likud Coalition Chairman Miki Zohar challenged the police to answer how they could enforce a lockdown on someone who said they were traveling to protest at Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea or his state residence at Balfour in Jerusalem.Committee members and law enforcement officials also had complex debates about how police would handle persons who succeeded in leaving a lockdown area and then tried to return later despite rules prohibiting entry.Also, late Tuesday, a video came out of a couple dozen soldiers singing “Bibi, King of Israel” to support Netanyahu as they passed anti-Netanyahu protesters.
