Police arrest Palestinian human rights lawyer in Florida

• More than 100 residents spoke out against a $1 billion county investment to ‘Israel’; a commissioner told a protesting veteran he was an "embarrassment" to his uniform.

Palestinian-American human rights lawyer Noura Erakat was detained by Palm Beach County deputies and charged with trespassing after a county budget hearing over more than $1 billion invested in ‘Israel’ bonds devolved into one of the more contentious public meetings the county has seen in recent memory.

Erakat, a Rutgers University professor of Africana studies and a member of the editorial committee of the Journal for Palestine Studies, was among more than 100 residents who turned out Tuesday night to oppose Palm Beach County's holding of ‘Israel’ bonds, government-backed securities that help finance the ‘Israeli’ state. 

The county's investment, among the largest of its kind by any municipal government in the country, has drawn sustained criticism from residents who argue it makes the county complicit in the humanitarian toll of ‘Israel's’ war in Gaza.

A meeting cut short

According to accounts from Erakat and others in attendance, commissioners initially allotted the roughly 15 people who signed up to speak one minute each rather than the customary three, a decision county officials attributed to the sheer volume of speakers. Only about seven people managed to address commissioners before repeated interruptions prompted a recess. Public comment never resumed.

Mayor Sara Baxter reportedly told the crowd that the bond investment fell outside the proper scope of a budget hearing and could not be discussed, and warned that anyone who applauded a speaker would be removed. Video of the meeting shows deputies escorting several attendees out as the room grew louder.

One of those removed was a retired Air Force airman who had come to the podium in uniform. He managed to tell commissioners he opposed extending the bond investment on fiscal grounds before Baxter cut him off.

After he apparently made further remarks from the audience, inaudible on the county's own video of the meeting, Commissioner Joel Flores ordered deputies to remove him, telling him he was "an embarrassment" to his uniform. 

The comment drew gasps and shouts of protest from the crowd.

Erakat's detention

Erakat, who was not among the small number of people permitted to speak, was later detained by two deputies who handcuffed her and walked her to an elevator inside the county government building.

In video of the encounter, she can be heard telling the officers she was simply trying to exercise her right to free speech. She spent the night in the Palm Beach County jail and posted bond the following morning; the sheriff's office had not released an arrest report detailing the circumstances of her detention.

Erakat is a prominent scholar of international and human rights law. Born in California to Palestinian immigrant parents, she earned her law degree at the University of California, Berkeley, and has addressed the United Nations on the treatment of Palestinians. 

She did not immediately respond to requests for comment following her release.

Reaction

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, its Florida chapter, and the Internationalist Law Center condemned the arrest within a day, calling it an unjust attempt to punish protected political speech and demanding the trespassing charge be dropped. 

The groups also renewed calls for the county to divest from ‘Israel’ bonds altogether, arguing that continuing to hold them implicates taxpayer money in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Palm Beach County has held ‘Israel’ bonds since shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas, when the county's then-clerk and comptroller, Joseph Abruzzo, directed tens of millions of dollars into the securities as what he called a show of support for ‘Israel’. 

The holding has since grown into the roughly $1 billion at issue in Tuesday's hearing, making it one of the largest municipal investments of its kind in the United States.

Erakat is due in court to face the trespassing charge; a date has not been publicly announced. Representatives for Palm Beach County did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the arrest or on Commissioner Flores' remarks to the veteran.

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