Court orders all detained protesters released after police fail to provide sufficient reasons

On Wednesday, the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court released all 20 protesters arrested in Tel Aviv on Monday.

During discussions, the police representative failed to answer where everyone was arrested and why.

The lawyers who represented them commented that they were told that keeping them in detention overnight was an order from higher-ups. The detainees in the other protest centers were also released.

It emerged in the discussion that some of the demonstrators were arrested for "holding drums with sticks," claiming that this was a violation of public order.

Others were arrested on suspicion of "endangering human life on a transportation route," an unsuccessful attempt to block Ayalon Highway, and one on suspicion of throwing planks into a bonfire outside of Likud HQ in Tel Aviv.

Most of them were released under minimal conditions of self-reporting to a police station upon request.

Judges criticize police conduct

In relation to one of the suspects, who was released under the condition of avoiding demonstrations that were declared illegal, Judge Moshe Serogovitz noted that "There was enough time and opportunities, despite the fact that she was interrogated at 10:16 p.m., she was arrested in the morning hours, to explicitly slap the charge on her when there was no room to interrogate that investigation."

About another, he said that the suspicions against him "are flawed, general and undetailed." He also clarified that the offense of blocking a road in itself is not grounds for arrest.

"I am not comfortable with the fact that the three police officers who wrote reports about these suspects arrived at the scene without working body cameras, which will make it difficult to get to the truth," he added.

"The hearings revealed that it was an idle arrest and it was possible to spare everyone the night. Either it was determined that there was no reasonable suspicion of any offense or offenses for which there is no reason for arrest, such as blocking a lane," said attorney Nir Alfasa, who represented 18 of them together with attorney Gabi Laski.

During the hearing of the case of the two protestors who were arrested after the train was blocked, their lawyer, Iris Shmueli Tsaler, claimed that an officer at the Sharet station told her that he "received an instruction from above" to keep them in custody at night.

The police representative at the hearing refused to comment but did not deny it. Judge Ofir Tishler rejected the request to keep them away from Tel Aviv for 60 days and stated that it was "disproportionate."

Kelnit Sharon, the founder of the Pink Front that was arrested on Monday, added while criticizing: "We came to demonstrate with thousands more from the Israeli public who are anxious for the lives of the hostages, it was clear right away that we were marked," he said.

"The Israeli police wanted to suppress the demonstration, and their way was to prevent us from drumming and announcing. At first, they took our drumsticks, and when they saw that it didn't work because each time we took out more sticks, they tried to take our drums. Finally, we were stopped on the sidewalk on the way to Hashalom. The police checked where we were and came to us, one took the picture, one answered the message, and one just ate shawarma."

"Around17 detainees from the demonstration arrived at the central Tel Aviv police station at noon, 12 from the Pink Front. We were not told that we were detained, nor were we detained; we were simply picked from the crowd and thrown into a van."

"During the stay at the station, which was horribly long (we arrived at 2:00 p.m. and left for the night in the prisons at 2:30 a.m.), we were told by the police, first by implication and then openly, that we were going to spend the night in detention, the girls in Neve Tirza and the boys in Abu Kabir. At this point, over half of the detainees were not investigated at all. 'Decision from above' that's what they told us."

"It is important for us to note that at the station, there were quite a few policemen who treated us with respect, and we can say that they felt that our worthy struggle to return the hostages and sanity to the State of Israel was clear to them. Of course, not all."

"There was a policeman who told us that we were "coming to the attraction" with a complete emotional detachment from the situation. They handcuffed us like the last criminals and checked if the vehicle that took us from the station to the prison had a "child lock" so that the dangerous criminals wouldn't escape."

The women arrived at the Neve Tirzah prison at 3:30 a.m., arrived at the cell only at 5:00 a.m., and at 6:30 a.m., they were already taken to the court. The wait for the trial also took a long time, and in practice, everyone was released unconditionally.

"As I told the police officer during the investigation, 'I went out to demonstrate for the hostages to return home. I didn't know it was illegal.'"