Police repression in Haifa

On June 21st 2025, Haifa anti-war activists were planning a demonstration against the war and the genocide. The demonstration was planned for 6pm, at a place known to activists as “The Prisoner’s Square” in downtown Haifa. Roughly 20 minutes before the scheduled beginning of the demonstration, police forces were already on site, approximately 40 strong, including uniform police officers, plain clothes officers and border patrol (“Mishmar Hagvul”) officers. At around 6pm, the officers started harassing the prospective protesters, including:

1. Requiring identification and searching personal belongings of protesters without cause, including of protesters who were not even in the vicinity of the demonstration.
2. Fining protesters for littering, for posters intended for the demonstration that were set aside.
3. Spitting at protesters.
4. Performing searches on protesters’ persons.
5. Confiscation of a banner and some posters intended for the demonstration.
6. Violence and threats: two protesters were isolated from the group, taken to nearby streets by plain clothes officers, and pushed, each one separately, to hidden corners, out of sight of the other protesters. The officers threatened one of them with immediate arrest, that would be followed by breaking every bone in his body once at the station, had he dared to participate in the demonstration. The officers threatened the other protester with choking, then beat him (actual beating, not threats) while spreading threats and insults. In both cases, the officers managed to hide the victims from the group, preventing any chance of filming these events.
7. One protester was arrested and sent to three days of home arrest for “contempt of cop”. While detained, the arresting officer informed her that from that moment on, she would be arrested on every demonstration, “just for fun”, according to the officer.
8. Surveillance of protesters before, during and after the demonstration.
9. A lone protester who stood in a nearby location (Emil Habibbi square, in the predominantly Palestinian Wadi Nisnas neighborhood) with a poster stating that “Starving Gaza is a crime against humanity” was brutally attacked by the Haifa police chief who tore the poster and removed him from the square, shoving him and making verbal threats. From this versatility of methods used by the Haifa police, we conclude that it has declared war on the right to protest in the city, a basic human right that is a fundamental pillar of democracy. The active, violent role taken by the Haifa police chief himself, along with the practices practiced by the entire police force, indicate that this is not a local initiative, but rather execution of policy that is directed from above.