Protesters who were detained, held overnight claim police used arrests as punishment

Two men arrested during Sunday’s demonstrations in Jerusalem alleged in court that police had detained them as “punishment” for their activity as organizers, and to dissuade other demonstrators, rather than from a genuine desire to ensure public order.

The judge, who was asked by police to sign off on an order extending the two men’s detention after they were held overnight, rejected the request, batting down the police’s supposed reasoning for keeping them in custody.

“It was a very improper arrest,” claimed Matanel Ciechanowski, one of the demonstrators who was held overnight in the capital. “We’re protesters, not suspected criminals.”

He and fellow activist Rom Leor were brought to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court around noon on Monday, in Sunday’s clothes and with their ankles cuffed, and a police representative requested they remain in detention for another two days.

They were two of 34 demonstrators arrested across the country for blocking roads during a nationwide strike at the start of the week aimed at pressuring the government into negotiating a hostage release and a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

The vast majority of arrested demonstrators were released after a few hours from police stations with traffic fines at worst, but five were kept locked up overnight, Ciechanowski and Leor in Jerusalem, and three others in Tel Aviv.

Of the three in Tel Aviv, two were sent to house arrest while the third was freed entirely. They were all barred from attending demonstrations until September 15, according to their lawyer Nir Alfasa.

Representing the two Jerusalem protesters before the court, lawyer Yoni Nussbaum claimed his clients’ arrests were “political” — intended as punishment to suppress future protests.

For a court to extend a suspect’s detention, the judge must be convinced that they either pose a threat to public safety or stand to obstruct the investigation if set free.

Police argued the former, casting the two as a safety risk and warning they would “sweep others up” in future acts of civil disobedience. But the argument was rejected almost immediately by Judge Moriah Cherka on the basis that Sunday’s protest was part of a day-long strike that ended that night.

“There is no intention to disrupt traffic intersections tomorrow,” she reasoned, and allowed both men to go free with no restrictive conditions.

Police arrested Ciechanowski and Leor near the end of a three-hour-long march through Jerusalem, which took an unexpected turn in the first few minutes, when hundreds of demonstrators rushed onto the Begin highway and blocked traffic.

Law enforcement allowed the march to take place along the major road until it reached a tunnel on Route 16. Demonstrators sat on the asphalt and refused to budge, at which point police began dragging them onto the sidewalk and spraying those who remained in the middle of the road with a water cannon.

Five were arrested on the spot, a law enforcement spokesman told The Times of Israel Sunday. But Ciechanowski and Leor were arrested separately from the five, long after protesters had ceased to block traffic in the tunnel.

“At the end of the march, after five people were already arrested, a group of undercover cops caught me and Rom,” Ciechanowski said, “even though I was at the back of the march, without a megaphone.”

Leor was arrested a few minutes earlier, also by undercover police. “They clasped my hands behind my back, handcuffed me, and told me I’m arrested,” he recounted, noting that officers “didn’t give a reason for the arrest” at the time.

Ciechanowski and Leor told The Times of Israel that they believe police recognized them from past demonstrations. Both have been part of  Jerusalem’s anti-government protest scene for years, first during the mass protests against the judicial overhaul, and more recently in support of a hostage deal and an end to the Gaza war.

“The difference [in time] between the arrest of the five protesters and both the respondents was over half an hour. I’ll tell you why — because they… were marked as organizers,” Nussbaum, their attorney, told the judge Monday.

The police representative, 1st Sgt. Ziv Harari responded in the courtroom that “he does not dispute that they are organizers.”

“During the event, a police officer noticed suspects who were there leading people toward Bezalel [Bazak] Road to disrupt public order. The two respondents served as organizers of the disturbance,” Harari said, arguing the pair systematically encourage “grave public disorder” as activists.

Ciechanowski alleged that his arrest represents one of many attempts by police to “punish protesters” for demonstrating. “This is a problem, because it’s not within the judge’s purview. [When dealing with arrests], she’s not supposed to punish people,” he said.

He claimed that there has been a “decline in democratic practices in this country, which manifests especially when it comes to demonstrations about the war.”

By 7 p.m. Sunday, the five other protesters were released from Jerusalem’s Moriah police station, but police held on to Ciechanowski and Leor. They recounted being transferred to Harel station in Mevaseret Zion for part of the night, since there were no open cots for the pair to sleep in Jerusalem.

Police then brought them back to the capital in the morning. Ciechanowski was kept in police custody, while Leor was transferred to the Israel Prison Service and held in a cell in the Russian Compound ahead of their court hearing.

“The hardest part for me about being detained is this feeling that they see you as a bad person, a criminal who has done something bad,” said Leor, a Hebrew University student.

He said that he demonstrates for “reasons he believes to be just and important, for the good of the country.”

Of the arrested protesters in Sunday’s demonstrations, 26 were in Tel Aviv, seven were in Jerusalem, and one was in Ness Ziona. Several others were detained by police but released on the spot, amounting to a total of 38 detained demonstrators.