Q&A: Unofficial Demonstration
Unofficial Demonstration
Question
When there are demonstrations and road blockages—I’m talking about any group and at any time—situations arise where a sick person or a woman in labor is delayed from reaching the hospital. In the past, a police officer who came to restore order was injured moderately, which means he will live but was left with irreversible damage, disability, and so on. When there is violence near people, then even if it is not directed straight at them, both in terms of intent and in physical terms they can be harmed, and therefore it is dangerous. What do you think about allowing such a situation? On the one hand, it seems to me good to allow people to let off steam, because otherwise who knows. On the other hand, you have a situation with a high probability of immediate danger.
Answer
For these reasons, I really think road blockages should not be allowed. True, the law apparently permits this to a reasonable extent (at least that is what the Attorney General and the court claim). But in my opinion, that is not reasonable.
Discussion on Answer
What difference is there?
In another responsum you wrote this:
That is exactly what I meant when I spoke about dosage. The dosage is made up of two components: the intensity of the distress (the reason for the protest), and opposite it the intensity of the protest (the level of disruption to the public). In principle, there is no permission to disturb one person in order to save yourself from another person. For that there are elections. In an extreme situation, you can declare that you no longer accept the rules of the game.
In a situation that you regard as extreme, I can understand your blocking roads, and I still think it should not be allowed. That is my view. The law apparently says otherwise, and a discussion within the framework of the law is too different from a fundamental moral discussion.
Whoever does not accept the rules of the game must bear the consequences.
Do you also think that in the case of demonstrations against Haredi draft evasion or against a draft-evasion law, road blockages should not be allowed, or is it unreasonable to allow a blockage?