Solidarity with Palestine repressed: Trends and case studies

On 7 October 2023, Hamas forces launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing over 1,100 people and taking more than 200 hostages. This was followed by Israel’s devastating military offensive on Gaza, in which more than 41,431 people, the majority of them civilians, have been killed. Gaza’s entire population of 2.1 million people now requires humanitarian aid. Almost all, including around a million children, lack adequate access to food, water, shelter and medical care. Some 60 percent of Gaza's buildings have been destroyed, including civilian facilities such as hospitals, schools and places of worship. Despite diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire, Israel continues its offensive.

Palestine’s already constrained civic space has deteriorated, with many human rights violations documented. Israeli forces are deliberately targeting humanitarian aid convoys and killing aid workers: 304 have been killed so far, and more UN aid workers have been killed in Gaza than in any other conflict in the organisation’s history. Israel’s bombardment is also destroying civil society buildings and killing civil society staff. Suspensions of funding for UNRWA – the UN’s agency for Palestine – and civil society organisations (CSOs) have further impeded vital humanitarian efforts.

Over 130 journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, and others have been attacked, injured and detained, while recurring telecommunications blackouts have limited people’s access to vital information and hindered the humanitarian response.

The civic space implications go beyond Palestine. The CIVICUS Monitor, a collaborative research initiative that tracks the health of civic freedoms, has documented violations across the globe that restrict people’s right to express solidarity with Palestine.

In numerous countries – including Australia, Egypt, France, Kenya and Malaysia – freedom of peaceful assembly has been restricted for people wishing to gather to show solidarity with Gaza and demand a ceasefire. Restrictive measures taken by authorities include protest bans, arrests of protesters and organisers and excessive use of force. For example, in Sweden in May 2024, police used pepper spray and forcibly removed and detained protesters during a sit-in near Malmö Arena where the Eurovision Song Contest was taking place. In Kenya, protesters marching peacefully in solidarity with Palestine have been arrested and violently dispersed by the police, including in protests held in October 2023 and January 2024. In Malaysia, peaceful protesters have been hauled before the police for questioning after organising or participating in solidarity protests for Palestine.

In Europe and the USA, authorities have repressed pro-Palestine activism by university students. At the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, police violently broke up a student encampment to demand that the university administration cut ties with Israeli-affiliated institutions. Police used batons, pepper spray, police dogs and bulldozers against protesters. Clashes broke out as protesters resisted eviction, with a protester and a police officer injured. Police detained 169 protesters.

In the USA, at least 3,000 people – students and university faculty and staff – have been detained as a result of raids. CSOs have reported a troubling pattern of institutions scrutinising pro-Palestinian students for alleged ‘material support for terrorism’, despite a lack of evidence, and proposing discriminatory measures such as visa cancellations and deportations. Universities in the UK have been accused of collaborating with the police to monitor and potentially criminalise students taking part in pro-Palestine protests or expressing solidarity with Palestine on social media. On 19 November 2023, police visited a University of York student at home due to a social media post supporting Palestine.

People expressing solidarity with Palestine have been targeted with reprisals, including activists and journalists who have been dismissed or suspended from their jobs. In Canada for example, Global News dismissed journalist Zahraa Al-Akhrass October 2023, over social media posts expressing her critical views on Israel’s violence in Gaza. A month later, the University of Ottawa temporarily suspended Yipeng Ge, a physician, over social media statements that referenced ‘apartheid’ and ‘settler colonialism’. In Egypt, the BBC arbitrarily suspended Sally Nabil, its bilingual correspondent, in February 2024, after Nabil liked a tweet expressing solidarity with Palestine.

CSOs have also been targeted. In October 2023, the Belgian Minister of Culture asked his administration to investigate two CSOs because they had published statements on the situation in Gaza. Even after they were cleared of wrongdoing, the minister stated that he wanted to keep the organisations under ‘heightened scrutiny’. In Germany, Berlin police deployed around 200 officers in December 2023 to conduct raids on homes and premises connected to members of Zora, a pro-Palestinian anti-fascist feminist collective. The raid was prompted by a statement the group posted on its Instagram account on 12 October that said ‘No liberation of women without the liberation of Palestine’.

Recommendations

Additional resources:

Recommendations for universities worldwide for the second semester of 2024: Safeguarding the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association on campuses in the context of international solidarity with the Palestinian people and victims - Gina Romero, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association (FoAA).

Analysis by the European Civic Forum examines how European governments have repeatedly cracked down on individuals and organisations expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people in marches, demonstrations and cultural activities. See report, Restrictions on Palestine Solidarity (May 2024).