At app.
3am on Sunday 19 September 2010, more than 20 armed men arrived in two jeeps at the Crazy Water Park, southwest of Gaza City, and broke into it.
They set to fire the two main buildings and the al-Badiya (desert) wing at the Park.
They also destroyed about 300 tobacco pipes (shisa’s) and set to fire four shades and their chairs.
Their attempts to burn the other shades were unsuccessful.
The armed men broke into the main gate and spread around the Park, according to the park’s guards.
They handcuffed and blindfolded the guards and confiscated their cell phones before they started to set the park to fire.
  On Thursday 19 August 2010, the Gaza Government's police ordered the park closed.
The park administration did not comply with to the closure decision, as it was informed of it orally by two policemen who spoke with the guards.
On the next day, the park was working as usual.
A police force arrived at the park and ordered it closed and instructed the people who were there to leave.
At approximately 3:30pm on that day, Friday 20 August 2010, the police banned a Ramadan breakfast (iftar) at the park and ordered it closed.
They kept the park under its supervision and summoned the administrative manager and the accountant.
The reasons behind the closure have remained unknown.
About two weeks later, on Wednesday 5 September 2010, members of the Gaza police informed the owners of Crazy Water Park that the park was closed and handed them a written notice issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, by which the park was closed for 21 days because it had not obtained some necessary licenses.
  The closure of the park comes amid a campaign of harassment of restaurants and hotels in the Gaza Strip.
Al Mezan and Al-Haq have documented a series of closings of and threats to suspend the work of a number of hotels and restaurants in Gaza City.
Justifications were given by the police for the closings; however, the two organizations believe that those are only attempts to make these procedures appear legal.
Al-Haq and Al Mezan believe that the closings are rather related to enforcing instructions preventing women from smoking shisha in public places.
The police had ordered restaurants and coffee shops in Gaza not to serve these water pipes to women.
The police had asserted that this ban was limited to open places.
However, according to the information available to the two organizations, shisha has not been served for either men or women in open places on the Gaza beach.
Most of the restaurants and hotels have closed internal halls where they can serve them.
This conclusion is supported by a number of actions by the police recently; including the following:   ·         At approximately11:30pm on Wednesday 1 September 2010, the police closed the ‘Sama Gaza Restaurant and Coffee Shop’, which is located in the Ash-Sheikh I'jleen neighborhood west of Gaza City.
The restaurant was ordered closed for three days starting on Thursday 2 September 2010.
·         At approximately 3pm on Sunday 5 September 2010, the Gaza police handed the administration of the ‘Al Aseel Club for Horse Riding’ a written notice issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, closing the club for 21 days.
According to the notice, the club was closed because it had not obtained the necessary licenses.
The club is located also in the Ash-Sheik I'jleen neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City.
·         At approximately 9:30pm on Tuesday 7 September 2010, the police Investigations Unit in Gaza interrupted and prohibited a literary event organized by the cinema forum in the As-Sammak Restaurant, west of Gaza City.
Information available to Al Mezan and Al-Haq indicates that the forum had followed the legal procedure and obtained permission from the same Police Investigations Unit to organize the event.
However, members of the Unit appeared at the restaurant and banned it.
They detained two of event’s organizers and the owner of the restaurant.
They also forced the administration of the restaurant to sign a document obliging him not to allow for what it called ‘illegal evenings and parties in breach of the law’.
·         At approximately 10pm on Sunday 12 September 2010, the Police Investigations Unit forcibly prohibited a literary event organized by the Community Colleges Alumni Society in Gaza.
The event was scheduled to be held in the Al Baidar resort’s hall, southwest of Gaza City.
The police ordered the administration of the resort to stop the event immediately.
·         At approximately 2pm on Tuesday 14 September 2010, the police closed the Beach Restaurant west of Gaza City.
The restaurant was closed for three days started on Wednesday 15 September 2010.
·         At approximately 7:30pm on Saturday 18 September 2010, the Police Investigations Unit forced the owner of the Laterina Restaurant to sign documents obliging him not to serve tobacco pipes for women and to ‘respect the law’.
  Al-Haq and Al Mezan question the limitations imposed on the work of restaurants and hotels in Gaza.
Some of the justifications given by the police are related to the lack of licenses, such as a license needed for digging water-well at the park, which is a requirement by the law.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that the number of water-wells in the Gaza Strip which were dug without obtaining such a license is higher than those which are licensed.
This raises doubts that there could be other, unclear reasons behind these limitations.
Many of the police acts and orders in fact contradict basic freedoms, such as the decision related to women smoking shisha pipes.
  Al Mezan and Al-Haq assert that a ban on these pipes, if made through legal procedures, must be applied on all persons without any discrimination; including on the basis of gender.
The two organizations assert that such a ban must be strictly legal in character and enforcement, and not on the basis of political or personal beliefs.
  The two organizations call on the Gaza Government and the members of the Legislative Council in Gaza; particularly the members of the Committee on Freedoms and Human Rights, to ensure full respect of the law and to act towards stopping all the unjustified limitations imposed on restaurants and hotels in Gaza.
Most of these limitations violate the law and only follow its letter without considering its soul, the core of which must be the protection of freedom and rights.
  The two organizations condemn the act of arson at the Crazy Water Park and question the fact that 20 armed men were able to move freely and commit this felony without being arrested.
They call for a serious, prompt and transparent investigation into this incident.
Its perpetrators must be brought to justice and their motivations must be revealed and challenged.
  Al Mezan and Al-Haq believe that the covert investigations and the refraining from revealing their results and conclusions raise serious doubts about the seriousness of the intentions of the authorities and their investigations.
The Palestinian public has not been informed of the results of many of investigations that have been conducted into similar incidents in the past.
  Al-Haq and Al Mezan call on the Gaza Government to ensure the rule of law and to hold any persons or groups, particularly law enforcement forces and persons affiliated by the ruling authorities, accountable for any violations of the law.
  Ends