In Jerusalem

Rules of engagement

07/05/2012 16:36 By PEGGY CIDOR

Is it the mayor’s job to decide where and how members of the social-justice movement can protest?

Protesters fold up their tents at Menorah Park

Photo by: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies

Law and order are basic requirements of a civil society – up to a point. Even anarchists will subscribe to this statement (though they probably wouldn’t want to be quoted). Therefore, certainly in a democratic society, a local protest movement, no matter how large, needs to take into account that there are limits to the disruption of daily life it can impose on citizens – even if most of the citizens support that protest. Thus demonstrations and marches in the streets have to be coordinated with the police, which has the right to decide on the parameters of such activities.

That was the case at the beginning of the protest movement last summer when, in many instances, the protesters reported that some policemen expressed their personal support of and sympathy for the youth who transformed streets into tent camps across the country.

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Rules of engagement

Is it the mayor’s job to decide where and how members of the social-justice movement can protest?

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