Riga Vice Mayor Linda Ozola (JKP) has called on the city’s executive director Jānis Langi to ban the march “in support of Palestine” announced on Saturday, according to Ozola’s tweet.
Ozola has “reasonable concerns” about the insufficient level of awareness of the organizers of the march about the potential violations of national security interests, as well as “the meaning and compliance of the use of slogans and symbols related to Palestine with the regulatory framework.” She refers to the only coordinated march on February 17, when the marchers “repeatedly allowed and did not stop the use of anti-Semitic slogans and symbols, although they were invited and promised not to allow it”.
Ozola also informed that the municipality received several appeals from Jewish communities “not to allow this event and expressions of anti-Semitism”.
“The official position of the Republic of Latvia is to prevent and combat all kinds of anti-Semitic expressions, as well as to combat anti-Semitic hate speech. I believe that the Riga City Council, as an important part of the state’s executive power, must act actively in the implementation of this position,” Ozola says in the recording.
As Lange explained to the LETA agency, after evaluating the information provided by the security authorities, he sees no reason not to allow the event to take place.
LETA already wrote that a march in support of the Palestinians is planned in Riga on Saturday. The goal of the march will be “to show solidarity with the Palestinian civilians and demand that the Latvian government resume funding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees”. The application states that there could be around 200 participants in the event.
The march has been registered in the municipality from 12:00 to 14:00, and it is planned on the route Neatkarības laukums – K. Valdemāra iela – Sporta iela – Sporta iela 11.
Representatives of the local government previously stated that according to the law, the organizers do not have to obtain permission from the local government, at the same time, the local government can decide to ban the march if it is established that its holding threatens the rights of other people, the democratic state system, public safety, well-being or morality or promotes activities that are prohibited by law.
At the moment, the municipality does not have any information that would require restrictive actions to be taken, according to the city council.
The organizers of the march told the LETA agency that they condemn and demand that the Latvian government condemn “Israel’s failure to implement the UN Security Council resolution, which demanded an immediate ceasefire and an urgent increase in the amount of humanitarian aid in Gaza”. The organizers also demand that the government immediately restore the funding of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and state the reasons for the suspension of funding. Several countries suspended funding to this agency after Israel announced that part of the funds also went to the terrorist organization “Hamas”.
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