Pro-Palestine group tries again to get picket permission

Just over three months after being denied police permission to stage a peaceful picket outside the Israeli Consul office on Harbour Road, the Caribbean Against Apartheid in Palestine (CAAP) has asked for another chance to do so.

In a letter dated September 10, attorney-at-law Lalu Hanuman, secretary of the group, asked Commissioner of Police Richard Boyce to give the organisation approval to hold a “rally against Zionist genocide” on the pavement outside the consulate.

The proposed rally described by Hanuman as “not a march, but a picket,” is scheduled to take place on October 11 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

When he denied the first request for permission in May, Commissioner Boyce informed Hanuman that CAAP could not stage the picket in Harbour Road because it would pose a security risk in the lead-up to the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup at the nearby Kensington Oval. He also told Hanuman that holding a march would cause congestion and inconvenience to people using the area.

The commissioner reminded the lawyer-activist that he had been allowed to relocate to an alternate area which would eliminate the “hindrances” but he declined the offer.

Hanuman had denounced the police decision as a breach of the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and assembly. He said while the police suggested that the group use another venue, none was identified. 

(EJ)