The police have issued a statement referring to the various articles appearing on the media regarding the pro-Palestinian march held in Valletta on 30 December 2008 saying that “the Police strongly rebut the fact that participants taking part were ordered to stop chanting slogans or else the activity would be stopped. As a matter of fact, the Police only took routine security measures to prevent any incidents which may arise in activities of this kind.”

During the walk, slogans in Arabic were being chanted and since police officers could only understand the words ‘USA’ and ‘Israel’ they approached one of the organizers and requested to know what was being said.

According to the police, the organizer replied that she was not conversant in Arabic, the Police informed her that according to law, no provocative and offensive statements or slogans could be chanted.

The march continued without any incidents whatsoever.

“This shows that police officers did their duty and it was never their intention to stop participants from continuing with their activity or to interfere in their right of expressing themselves as long as everything was done in accordance with domestic law.” The police statement continued.

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