State to cancel some 39,000 lockdown fines unlawfully given last year — report

29 July 2021, 5:12 pm

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Police clash with anti-Netanyahu demonstrators during a protest against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in memory of assasinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, in Jerusalem, on October 31, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

The state will cancel some 39,000 fines issued last year to protesters who demonstrated against then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rule, after the High Court ruled that they were given unlawfully, Channel 12 news reports.

The fines were given in Jerusalem during the first two weeks of October 2020, when Israel was under its second coronavirus lockdown.

Police had issued the fines over alleged violation of the restrictions, but the court has ruled the protesters had the right to rally wherever they wanted, the report says.

More than 18,000 of the fines have already been paid, meaning the state will reimburse those who got them. A total of almost NIS 11 million ($3.4 million) will be paid back.