Ref: 54/2012
Date: 10 May 2012
Time: 11:30 GMT
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the break-up of the concluding colloquium of the Palestine Festival of Literature, which was being held in the ancient al-Bahash Castle in Gaza City, by Palestinian security forces on Wednesday, 09 May 2012. PCHR stresses that this measure constitutes a violation of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to peaceful assembly, which are ensured under the Palestinian Basic Law.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 17:00 on Wednesday, 09 May 2012, the concluding colloquium of the Palestine Festival of Literature was initiated in the ancient al-Bashal Castle in the east of Gaza City, with a number of Arab poets and writers in attendance. The colloquium was opened with a speech by ‘Amru ‘Izzat, an Egyptian blogger, who talked about liberty. Following the opening of the colloquium, a security officer wearing civilian clothes arrived at the place and introduced himself as a member of the Palestinian police investigation department. He cut off the electricity and requested the attendees to leave the place. Shortly after this occurred, a number of security officers were deployed to the place when attendees refused to leave. They confiscated cameras that had filmed the colloquium, chaos spread and the colloquium was broken up. At approximately 18:30, the colloquium resumed at al-Quds International Hotel in the west of Gaza City.
PCHR condemns breaking up the colloquium, and:
1) Calls upon the government and security services in Gaza to abstain from intervening into conferences and meetings held in closed places, because they do not need to notify concerned authorities about these events;
2) Calls for abolishing the Executive Regulation of the Public Meetings Law issued by the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, in his capacity as the then Minister of Interior, because it is in contrast with the word and spirit of the Public Meetings Law and the amended Basic Law of 2003.
