Activists rent home less than 1 km from PM protest camp; police fine them anyway

Police fined a group of protesters at an encampment near the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem on Friday evening, despite the activists renting a nearby apartment so as not to run afoul of new regulations preventing them from gathering more than one kilometer from their home.

The protestors told the Haaretz daily that they were each fined NIS 500 (approximately $145) and that police officers said they would return frequently to issue further penalties.

The activists said that they showed the law enforcement officers the lease for a nearby apartment which they rented specifically so that they would not break the law.

However, protest leader Amir Haskel said that the police officers refused to accept that the protesters were legally at the encampment.

The apartment was “legally rented” using a lawyer and five people were named on the lease, four of whom were fined on Friday evening, Haskel said.

“The police determined that the contract was improper. Where does their legal knowledge come from? God knows,” Haskel told Haaretz.

The protestors said they would not clear the encampment, which has been in place for some four months, and would apply for the fines to be scrapped.

There was no comment from the police on the matter.

The Knesset’s Constitution Law and Justice Committee late Thursday night authorized the government’s emergency regulations to limit demonstrations and indoor prayer, which will remain in force at least until October 7.

The new rules bar would-be demonstrators from gathering more than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from their homes and limit protests to groups of 20 people.

The law also prohibits indoor prayers at synagogues and bans people from visiting others’ sukkahs over the upcoming week-long Sukkot holiday, which began on Friday night.

Police had not specified whether they would continue to allow up to 2,000 demonstrators to gather in 100 socially distanced “clusters” of 20 people each outside the Prime Minister’s Residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem.

Tens of thousands of protesters have attended such previous protests, but these were being limited to 2,000 in recent days, and it is not clear whether that will still be the case now that the new restrictions have been approved.

Channel 13 reported that the Justice Ministry would permit a space of 30 meters (98 feet) between each cluster of 20 people, which would allow for fairly large protests in some squares and junctions, including outside Netanyahu’s residence.

While proponents of the restrictions say that they are intended to curb Israel’s rising curve of coronavirus infections, organizers involved in the anti-Netanyahu protest movement of the past three months have vociferously opposed the new regulations, saying that they violate their freedom to protest, and opposition MKs have accused the coalition of skewing COVID-related restrictions in an effort to thwart the demonstrations.