The Liberties Council, in the message of the Mayor of Maalot Tarshiha, requests that the film "Leah Tsemel, the Lawyer" be shown
2020-04-15
The focal point of the "Freedom Council" project in the “Media-Center” a coalition of people and civil societies to promote freedoms, lawyer Amani Ibrahim, sent a letter to the Mayor of Maalot-Tarshiha Arkady Vomrans and the legal advisor of the lawyer's community, Orit Tawaf, asking them to refrain from the decision. The film "Leah Tsemel, the Lawyer" should have been shown at the Doku Aviv Galilee Festival, which took place on the 5th of November in and was to be released on Saturday, November 9th.
The mayor had announced the cancellation of the film after receiving instructions from the Minister of Culture Miri Regev and other parties that support the restriction of freedom of expression. In the message from lawyer Ibrahim, it was stated that the decision to ban the screening of the film was detrimental to freedom of expression, freedom of creativity and art, which are the highest freedoms under Israeli law and are confirmed by all decisions of Israeli courts.
Lawyer Ibrahim also made it clear that the decisions of the head of the local authority are subject to the administrative law, which obliges them not to interfere with the technical and creative content of the activities organised in the country's surroundings.
She also clarified that the Supreme Court had previously discussed the interference of the municipality of Haifa in creative content related to the Haifa Museum. At that time, a clear decision was taken to oblige the municipality of Haifa not to interfere in the content of events and not to interfere with the creative and artistic freedom of an event, so that the authority of the mayor is free from interference in the content of educational, cultural and artistic works.
Ibrahim emphasized that "Tasemel" is a capable and well-known lawyer with many years of experience in the judiciary and that her legal work as a representative of political prisoners and security detainees does not constitute a consideration to prevent the screening of a film in this regard, but rather that the film is not shown because of this. The considerations constitute a multiple violation of the various internationally recognized fundamental rights, which are also laid down in Israeli law, which, in addition to the obvious violation of the freedom of work of the lawyer "Tasmeel" as a human rights defender, requires the judicial representation of every prisoner or detainee.
