Tel Aviv forbids marijuana legalization rally
On Sunday the demonstration’s organizer, Liora Gelber received a notice from Tel Aviv Municipality official Ruby Zelof reading, “I hereby inform you that your request to hold a rally for the legalization of cannabis has been rejected.”
“The police did not give us any trouble, but the municipality said it would cost us NIS 16,600 (about $4,300) to hold the rally at Rabin Square,” said Gelber. “We began to raise the money, and various artists confirmed their participation. The notice we received today infuriated us. The municipality did not even give us a reason for why it is not authorizing the rally.
A small thing to us, but in a way, we are responsible. It is our drug war that we promote and export to the world that gives all sorts of governments (from the more permissive to the most severe) the justification, the cover, the encouragement to cancel a rally, suppress political talk, imprison, and worse.
We can hope that other countries will rise up and collectively force global change despite the drug war bullying of the U.S. But it’s really our responsibility to fix what we’ve broken.
This is not a small thing, and I’m glad Pete wrote about it. We are passionate about ending the drug war, but we are also an extra-electoral force vehemently trying to overturn the status quo.
It is important to recognize our position as activists demanding the change our legislators will not voluntarily enact. Although we limit ourselves to rectifying the horrific damage caused by prohibition, in doing so we are agents of an authentic grass roots campaign.
When you take the courage to stand up to an unjust policy, you make yourself a target for the establishment. It is our duty as activists to persist and highlight the repressive tactics used against us because the cause is just.
MLK said it best: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Tel Aviv flip flopped and is going to allow the rally.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3911468,00.html
“In response to a Ynet appeal, the municipality said, “All mass events in public places in the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo require permits from the city and the police. The matter was reexamined by the city’s legal advisor, who ruled that there are no grounds to forbid the gathering/protest aimed at changing the existing law on the use of cannabis.”
Hey they pull this same crapola in the US, at least they did in the early ’90s. One thing I vividly recall about my days in DC NORML was having to appeal arbitrary denials of planned rallies. We’d have a lawyer write and then they’d give us our permit. It’s amazing that some people will do everything that they can do to stop people from even talking about policy reform.