Israeli police shut down Hadash office over screening of film on West Bank occupation

The regional office for the Israeli left-wing political coalition Hadash was shut down by Israeli police for around 10 hours on Monday over the screening of a film about Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

Israeli police closed the party's Haifa office after claiming that the film 'Jenin, Jenin II', which the party had intended to screen, had been banned by an Israeli court.

The film, directed by Palestinian director Mohamad Bakri, was about the Israeli army's assaults into the occupied West Bank city of Jenin in 2023.

The film has not been banned by an Israeli court, although Bakri's original film on Jenin titled 'Jenin, Jenin', which was about the 2002 Israeli invasion of Jenin Refugee Camp and was released in the same year, was banned by an Israeli court in 2021.

Israeli human rights lawyer Amnon Brownfield-Stein told The New Arab that police had initially arrested Hadash Secretary Rim Hazan on Sunday for trying to screen 'Jenin, Jenin' and that she was released after she clarified to police that Hadash was screening the sequel.

Following her release police summoned her again to tell her that the screening should not occur because there was a "risk to public safety", with Brownfield-Stein noting that there was also a large campaign by right-wing activists to stop the screening.

Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Israeli police as saying that the screening could "result in a violation of public order and peace, and therefore there is a danger to those present on the site and the general public."

Israeli police subsequently shut down the party offices after the party refused to stop the screening.

The Hadash Party Secretariat told The New Arab that the party and the Communist Party, which is part of the coalition, condemned what it called a "fascist" move.

"The police's decision reveals the depth of fascist practice that affects political and party activism, especially those opposing the war and the government's policy.

The Communist Party and Hadash also emphasised that their anti-war activities will continue and will be even stronger until the criminal war waged against Gaza is stopped," it added.

The secretariat also noted that it had rescheduled the screening of 'Jenin, Jenin II' in two weeks, and has sought help from the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah) in ensuring that the Israel's Attorney General will prevent another shutdown.

Hadash Knesset Member Ofer Cassif added that the shutdown was a "clear tyrannical persecution by Ben-Gvir's militia" that "demonstrates the efforts the right-wing government goes through to shut down and censor anti-war voices in Israel".

The closure of Hadash's offices in Haifa was the latest in a spate of police action against the party, as well as anti-war protests more generally.

Israeli police have repeatedly sought to prevent Hadash and other Israeli parties from holding anti-war protests on account of endangering public safety, with police repeatedly confiscating anti-war banners against orders from the State Prosecutors Office.

In Haifa, former commissioner for the Costal District, now the newly appointed police commissioner for Israel, Danny Levy refused to hand out permits for protests on that basis.

Brownfield-Stein told The New Arab that the continued occurrence of this action from the police was troubling.

"I think this should trouble more than just Hadash supporters in Israel. It should trouble most Israelis, because it shows that basic civil liberties are under threat," he warned.