Israeli Activist Jonathan Pollak May Face Prison for Riding a Bicycle

PSCC – The verdict in Pollak's trial will be handed down at the Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court this coming Monday. If convicted Pollak is expected to face imprisonment for his participation in a 2008 "critical mass" bicycle ride that took place in Tel Aviv in protest of the siege on Gaza.


In April 2009, Jonathan Pollak, a prominent Israeli activist, was indicted on a charge of illegal assembly for his participation in a January 2008 Critical Mass ride against the siege on Gaza. If convicted, Pollak is expected to be sentenced to three to six months in prison. A conviction in this case will activate an older three month suspended sentence, imposed on Pollak in a previous trial for protesting the construction of the Separation Barrier. Tel Aviv Magistrates court judge Yitzhak Yitzhak could feasibly add an additional prison term in addition to the suspended sentence.

On January 31, 2008, some 30 protesters participated in a Critical Mass bicycle ride through the streets of Tel Aviv in protest of the siege on Gaza. During the protest, Pollak was arrested by plain-clothes police who recognized him from previous protests and because, as claimed in court, they assumed he was the organizer and figurehead of the event. The protest was allowed to continue undisturbed after Pollak's arrest and ended with no further incidents or detentions.

The arrest and consequent indictment appears to be the result of police vindictiveness, rather than of Pollak's behavior at the time of the event; Pollak was but one in a group of protesters who behaved exactly like him, yet he was the only one to be singled out. Moreover, environmental Critical Mass events take place in Tel Aviv on a regular basis, but have never been met with such a response. Other protests, which have caused far more sever obstruction of traffic (e.g. the motorcade protest of thousands of motorcycles) did not result in arrests, and surely did not lead to the filing of criminal charges and imprisonment.

Adv. Gaby Lasky, Pollak's lawyer: "The police not only singled out Pollak from a crowd of people who all did exactly as he did, but also singled out the entire protest for no reason other than its political alignment. Similar events regularly take place in Tel Aviv without police intervention, let alone arrests and indictments.”