Date: 11 May 2008

PCHR and Al-Dameer Condemn Gaza Police Ban on Annual Bada’el Centre Conference

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights condemn the ban of the Palestinian Bada'el Media Research and Studies Centre annual conference by the police and the dismissed government in Gaza. PCHR and Al-Dameer view the ban, apparently issued on the grounds Bada'el not having a conference licence, to be politically motivated and an attack on the right to peaceful assembly that is guaranteed by the Palestinian Basic Law. Annual conferences do not require any prior permission, only a notice to the police as stipulated by the law.

At 9:30 on Saturday, 10 May 2008, the Bada’el Centre organized its annual conference, entitled  "Negotiations and Resistance: Searching for New Bridges” via video-conference in the Best Eastern Hotel in El-Bireh and the Commodore Hotel in Gaza City. At approximately 12:00, four civilian-clothed persons arrived at the Gaza conference site, introduced themselves as members of the Police and proceeded to curtail the video-conference and confiscate the recorded video and a list of the conference participants.

The Gaza conference coordinator, Mohammad Ibrahim Hijazi, said "I asked them why they were doing this. One of them answered that it was a decision by the Police Director-General to ban the conference and cancel the conference, as no permission had been issued. I asked him to show me the police decision in writing; but he said the decision was verbal.”

In light of these developments, PCHR and Al-Dameer:

1. View the interference and ban by the Police as a violation of the right to peaceful assembly that is guaranteed by the Basic Law, as well as being a violation of the Public Assemblies Law No. 12, (1998).
2. Affirm that the Police do not have the legal jurisdiction to ban such an assembly under the pretext of lack of permission. This annual conference did not require police permission, as it was held in a private venue, which the law categorizes as an assembly thereby not requiring a notification of public assemblies' notification. Article 1 of the Public Assemblies Law states that a public assembly is “Any meeting to which at least 50 persons are invited in an open area including public squares, sports fields, parks, etc…”
3. Demand that the Police of the dismissed government rescind the illegal decision requiring prior permission for public assemblies, and refrain from interfering in any future form of peaceful assembly.