As in every year on Independence Day eve, Zochrot planned a street activity to commemorate and raise public awareness of the Nakba. Last night, after a theoretical discussion held in our offices, some 15 activists intended to go out on a symbolic, non-violent presentation activity at Rabin Square, which involved posting postcards with the names of Palestinian towns and villages destroyed in 1948 in Arabic, Hebrew and English.

As we intended to leave the offices, around 10:30pm, we were astonished to find that the building had already been surrounded by police – before we even had a chance to leave the offices – and that police officers had closed all exits. The senior officers who arrived on the scene made it clear to us that they would under no circumstances allow us to "disrupt public order", and would therefore prevent us from leaving the grounds. Besieged in the heart of Tel Aviv, we were shut in for nearly four hours and prevented from leaving the premises, unless we would agree to hand over our materials, present IDs and submit to questioning which including searches in our belongings. A lawyer who was present on the scene informed the officers that this was false arrest and that they had no probable cause to ask us to identify ourselves, but they refused to budge. We were "released" around 2:00am, but there are now three detainees that we are acting to release. After the holiday, we intend to press charges for false arrest.

Tonight, in the heart of Tel Aviv, silencing reached new heights and left a bitter taste of dark regimes.

Liat Rosenberg, CEO, Zochrot

Update: the three detained activists were freed on Thursday evening.