Adalah: Dismantling the Mourning Tent at the Family Home of Recently-Deceased Palestinian Prisoner Walid Daqqa Is Unlawful

09/04/2024

In a letter addressed to the relevant police officials, Adalah argued that the police had conducted a violent and unlawful raid on the mourning tent, seemingly with vindictive and punitive intentions.

Yesterday, 8 April 2024, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel sent an urgent letter to the Israeli Police Commissioner, Yaakov Shabtai, and to the Commander of the Baqa al-Gharbiyye police station, following a violent police raid on the mourning tent set up at the residence of the family of the recently-deceased Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa, during which police officers assaulted and arrested several mourners.

CLICK HERE to read the letter [Hebrew]

Walid Daqqa, who spent 38 years in Israeli prisons and was scheduled to complete his sentence in March 2025, passed away from cancer, reportedly after prolonged medical neglect while in Israeli custody. His family – his wife and a daughter – were prevented from visiting him during his final six months, despite his terminal condition. Mr. Daqqa, born in 1961 in the Palestinian town of Baqa al-Gharbiya in Israel, was incarcerated in 1986 after he was convicted of commanding a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) cell that killed an Israeli soldier - allegations he repeatedly denied. Daqqa was the longest-serving Palestinian political prisoner. During his sentence, he authored several books in which he documented his experiences and advocated for justice for his fellow prisoners and for the Palestinian people in general.

Mr. Daqqa’s family erected a mourning tent in their courtyard following his death, only for the police to forcefully dismantle it. During a violent raid, the police arrested five individuals including some family members and injured others. In the letter, Adalah Attorney Nareman Shehadeh-Zoabi argued that the =police’s actions were extremely unreasonable and their apparent objective was to prevent the bereaved family from mourning the deceased for punitive and vindictive reasons. Adalah further argued that the police had acted without an order to destroy the tent and had raided the premises without any legal authority, alleging that the tent, erected on private property, would “disrupt the public order”.

Adalah highlighted that, under Israeli law, while the police are permitted to intervene in assemblies that include political speeches, they are not authorized to prohibit mourning tents designed for purposes of offering condolences. Adalah therefore demanded that the police refrain from any further interference in this matter and immediately cease violating the family’s right to dignity and to mourn and honor the deceased.

Adalah commented:

“This cruel denial of the family's right to mourn their loved one serves as clear evidence of the police's willingness to abuse their powers to suppress Palestinians. Throughout his life in prison, Mr. Daqqa faced vindictive treatment by the Israeli authorities, and now, in his death, his family is being subjected to persecution and denied the opportunity to grieve their loss with dignity. Time and again, the police employ false pretexts such as ‘maintaining public order’ to justify violence and oppression against Palestinian citizens. However, the actual order that Israel maintains is one of discriminatory, racialized policing that flagrantly violates the basic rights of Palestinian citizens, and is designed to oppress and degrade them.”

Adalah respects the rights of copyright holders, and invests efforts in locating copyright owners for the use of all materials appearing on the site. If, despite these efforts, you believe that an error has occurred involving copyright infringement on Adalah's website, please e-mail us at: ari@adalah.org