Israeli police acknowledge attempted investigation of activist was ‘error’
An Israel Police spokesperson has acknowledged an attempted investigation against a prominent LGBTQ and intersex rights activist that authorities tried to launch earlier this month was an “error.” Hila Peer, chair of the Aguda, the Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel, told the Washington Blade last week the police called her on Sept.
3 about “an emergency investigation for my involvement and suspicion of disturbing the peace.” Peer said she was told to report to a police station at 1:30 p.m. “A few hours after that, with immense public pressure and public attention and articles that came out about it, they called me 10 minutes before the investigation was supposed to take place … they called me at 20 past one to say you know what, never mind, you don’t need to show up,” she said.
Peer told the Blade that press reports a few hours later “got information from a leak from inside the police that they were trying to calling me in” to interrogate her about “underground” protests that took place in Tel Aviv on Fridays in August. “It’s a very lame excuse,” Peer told the Blade. “Throughout the month of August schools are on break and I was home every Friday with my babies, meaning I was not even present in any of those protests.” The Israel Police spokesperson in an emailed statement to the Blade said “the initial summons for questioning of this individual (Peer) was issued due to an error.” “As soon as this error was detected, the police promptly took corrective action,” said the spokesperson. “As the summons had been scheduled erroneously, consequently, the individual in question was informed that the appointment was canceled.” The Aguda is among the myriad groups that have participated in protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government’s efforts to reform the Israeli judicial system.
Netanyahu in March postponed them after a nationwide strike paralyzed the country. The Knesset in July approved a bill that would, among other things,
