5/11/2014 Social justice movement leader Daphni Leef' s trial opens in Tel Aviv

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May 11, 2014 Sunday 11 Iyyar 5774 22:01 IST
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Photo by: YONAH JEREMY BOB
Social justice movement leader Daphni
Leef's trial opens in Tel Aviv
By Yonah Jeremy Bob
26/01/2014
Leef said at beginning of hearing that police were trying to suppress her freedom of
expression, but she would not back down.

The trial of social justice movement leader Daphni Leef on charges of forcefully resisting arrest in a June 2012
protest began Sunday in the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court.
She is basing her defense on a counter-charge of police brutality, arguing that they improperly roughed her up
at the time of her arrest.
Leef said before the hearing that the police had violated her right to free speech, as well as that of others, but
that she would not back down and hoped cooler thinking would prevail over thuggery.
The case has been controversial, both because of the political implications of bringing a criminal case
associated with a social justice protest and because the state prosecution refused to file the case, forcing the
police to hire independent counsel on its behalf.
Also, in September 2013, Leefs legal team succeeded in uncovering that one of the policemen who arrested
her had a past history of roughing up protesters, which the police allegedly tried to conceal.
The trial itself started with additional controversy, as police officer Yosef Shavi, who arrested Leef, and Leefs
lawyer, Gabi Lasky, shouting at and interrupting each other during cross-examination.
When Lasky implied that Shavi was lying about having seen Leef push a police officer the reason he gave
for arresting her he raised his voice in anger, saying, I saw what I saw. You can try to make me sound like a
liar.
Not you and not anyone else can make me out as a liar.
He added, God forbid that a policeman would lie. I cannot think of a policeman who lies.
Lasky responded equally forcefully stating, The Israel Police is not on trial here, seeming to imply that the
police should be on trial, not Leef.
In his description of Leefs alleged use of force against police, Shavi said that she pushed a police officer
with both hands and also tried to pull him down.
Relating that protesters were throwing water bottles at and cursing the police, Shavi said that the situation
was not pleasant and like a war.
When Judge Shamai Becker intervened, pressing Shavi as to why he called what seemed to be minor
physical contact an attack on a police officer, Shavi replied that she had disturbed the police from doing its
job in removing tents and containing the protest.
Shavi also came under fire from Lasky in light of the fact that no police officer has claimed that Leef pushed
him.
5/11/2014 Social justice movement leader Daphni Leef' s trial opens in Tel Aviv
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him.
In other words, the entire arrest and case is based on Shavis word that he saw Leef push someone, who
themselves did not report being pushed.
Undeterred, Shavi explained that he was standing on an outer portion of the protest and had the best vantage
point to see what Leef was doing.
He also said that the officer whom he says Leef pushed was in the middle of a melee of people, could have
been pushed by many people from different directions, and may not have seen who was pushing him.
Leef became nationally famous as the face of the summer 2011 social justice tent-protest movement, which at
one point had hundreds of thousands protesting poor housing and living conditions, especially for poor people
but also for the middle class.
Although initially highly successful and forcing the government into offering all sorts of new initiatives, the
protests lost their mass appeal when the summer ended and when the Tel Aviv Municipality fought hard to
remove the tents.
The summer 2012 protests were much smaller but more chaotic, in that the municipality tried to stop the
protesters from re-pitching tents in public areas, leading to clashes that included the June 2012 incident at
issue in the trial.
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