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Shop ban for activist

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A man has been ordered to stay away from an Israeli shop which was the subject of mass protests during the last Gaza conflict.

A two-year restraining order will prohibit David Addison, 47, from entering the area around Kedem Cosmetics in Manchester city centre until April 2018.

Mr Addison, from Burnley, was also told by Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court that he must not make direct contact with three men associated with the shop, including its co-owner Zahi Surezki.

The restraining order was handed down by the court on Wednesday last week despite Mr Addison being found not guilty of one charge of harassment of Kedem staff and customers.

He was judged to have not exceeded "the threshold of legitimate protest" on any of the six occasions last year when he demonstrated near the shop.

Several weeks of demonstrations in the summer of 2014 caused a spike in communal tensions, with police arresting activists who made Nazi salutes and anti-Israel protesters who shut off busy shopping streets in the city.

Retailers said tens of thousands of pounds worth of trade was lost.

Police eventually moved demonstrations from outside Kedem to a nearby "designated protest area" after shoppers and workers reported being intimidated.

Leading officers accepted that the "cumulative impact of the daily protests" had caused "significant disruption" to businesses and had breached public order laws.

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