Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara issued an opinion to the government on Tuesday permitting protests to be held at Ben-Gurion Airport, claiming that the airport is “a public space.”

She wrote: “Ben-Gurion Airport is a public space and therefore every person has the right to freedom of expression and protest in this space as well. The Director of the Airports Authority or any other entity does not have the authority by law to prevent people from entering the airport solely on the basis of the fact that they do not have a flight ticket for that day.”

Transportation Minister Miri Regev slammed Baharav-Miara and said she will advance a law to ban protests at the airport.“Ben Gurion Airport isn’t a mall or a public space,” she said. “It’s a strategic national asset that requires sensitive and complex management. I expected the Attorney-General to allow the sound management of the facility and not lend a hand to those violating the law, whose behavior can even result in endangerment of human lives.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also excoriated Baharav-Miara, saying: “In recent weeks, the protestors have threatened to silence the State of Israel, that they will take further steps in breaking the law. Indeed, today they crossed all the borders and red lines. Preventing ambulances from passing and reaching their destination is a risk to human lives. I demand from the Attorney-General: stop interfering in the enforcement actions of the police! Stop backing those lawbreakers! Start enforcing the law.”

Likud MK Moshe Saada said: “During the Disengagement period I was part of the team. The prosecutor’s office allowed buses to be stopped on the way to demonstrations. Suddenly there is the right to freedom of movement, everyone is allowed to come to Ben-Gurion even though it’s certain they’re going to harm the freedom of movement of others. What we are seeing here is riots under the auspices of the Attorney-General who is politically motivated and takes the prosecutor’s office hostage.”

A senior official in the government attacked the Attorney-General as well, saying that her opinion “legitimizes turning Israeli citizens into hostages of an extremist minority. She sets a new standard according to which protests in support of her personal position override the freedom of movement in and out of the country while causing unacceptable harm to hundreds of thousands of families who paid good money for a long-awaited vacation.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)