On January 16, 2023, Israeli police arrested four students during a protest at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

The four students were arrested for blocking a road and not complying with Israeli police instructions.

The protest was one of many that occurred across more than 10 institutions of higher education across Israel in protest of the Israeli government’s plan to limit the power of the Israeli judiciary. Protestors waved Israeli flags and carried protest signs.

Scholars at Risk is concerned about police detaining students peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression on campus – conduct which is expressly protected by international human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Israel is a party. In addition to the harm to the immediate victims, the use of detention to restrict or deter nonviolent student expression undermines academic freedom and democratic society generally.

Sources:
*SAR identified this incident in data made publicly available by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED)
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-16/ty-article/.premium/students-arrested-as-hundreds-across-israel-against-judicial-shake-up/00000185-bac0-df90-a3d5-fff7efc40000
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-728672