Above photo: Police repressed and dismantled the Gaza solidarity encampment at the Free University of Berlin hours after it began. Dominik Wetzel / Unsere Zeit.
Studies by human rights organizations confirm what activists have warned.
In Europe, and especially in Germany, fundamental rights are under attack with regard to Palestine.
Since October 7, and the subsequent genocide in Gaza, millions have taken to the streets worldwide to demonstrate against the current genocide, as well as against the 76-year-long Israeli occupation of Palestine. In Europe and North America, and in countries in West Asia, these protests are largely directed against their own governments that are accused of not doing enough for Palestine, or are directly involved in the occupation in Palestine and in the genocide in Gaza.
Political protest, which is opposed to the state and government policy, inevitably runs the risk of being met with state repression. In the case of the Palestine solidarity movement, however, this repression in Europe has escalated to levels not seen in recent decades, in the context of Gesinnungsjustiz (opinion-based justice). This was recently confirmed by several examinations by international human rights organizations, published in April 2024.
IHRC: “Authoritarian Drift”
The first of these reports comes from April, and was created on behalf of the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC). The British NGO has advisory status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). The report was presented at a meeting with the UN special rapporteur for freedom of assembly and unification last June. The study takes a close look at Germany, France and Great Britain, and comes to the conclusion that all three countries “have reached an alarming level of repression against protests and dissent in support of Palestinians, with the indiscriminate targeting of activists, artists, protestors, political and civil organizations through the use of bans, intimidation, harassment and arrests.”
The main methods used by these states for repression are criminalization and censorship. Both affect slogans and symbols such as the keffiyeh or the Palestinian flag. But censorship is particularly useful in the academic and school framework. Germany’s bans on pro-Palestine demonstrations as well as the ban on the international prisoner-solidarity network Samidoun by the Federal Ministry of the Interior are used as examples. At the time of the publishing of the ISC report, the group Palästina Solidarität Duisburg (Palestine Solidarity Duisburg) was not yet prohibited.
Laws in France and Great Britain are cited as examples in the report, which are intended to be directed against the “Glorification of Terrorism Act,” and against “extremism”. In Germany there were laws such as this on the books before October 7. However, there are current efforts to create even more laws in the area of criminal and immigration law: Particularly surrounding Israel’s so-called “right to exist”, but also about people without German citizenship for allegedly supporting terrorism or so-called “anti-semitic“ statements on social media, including “likes”. In the UK, however, a law was also introduced that criminalizes the Shahada flag.
A legislative initiative of the German government from October 2023 would allow intelligence agencies to “out” persons in their social environment, such as the workplace and the landlord.
In addition to the attacks already mentioned on freedom of expression of people without German citizenship, the ISC study here also refers to the demands for the “systematic withdrawal of residence permit” in France or of “large-scale deportation” in Germany. It is significant that the report does not even have to refer to the right-wing radical parties AfD and Rassemblement National, since such calls have come from liberals, social democratic and green government parties since October.
The author of the study points out that in this context, the grievances against Muslim organizations are a continuation of racist attacks, which have been driven in all three countries, especially against Black, Arab, and Muslim people as well as migrants for around 20 years.
However, she also emphasized that even Jewish activists are often accused of anti-semitism. The equation of anti-Zionism and anti-semitism is identified as an essential tool for intimidation and defamation in the study.
ELSC: “Suppressing Palestinian Rights Advocacy“
A report by the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) was published in early June 2024. It provides the results of the first case-based study on human rights violations, which result from the institutionalization and application of the much critiqued definition of anti-semitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) by the EU and the UK. The ELSC was founded in 2019 and, according to its own statements, is the “first and only independent organization of movement lawyers defending and empowering the Palestine Solidarity Movement in Europe through legal means.”
The study is based on 53 incidents in Germany, Austria and Great Britain in the period from 2017 to 2022, in which organizations or individuals were accused on the basis of the IHRA definition of anti-semitism. In doing so, one comes to the conclusion that the IHRA definition is increasingly being applied to “Israel-related anti-semitism,” despite the fact that the IHRA definition is not legally binding. According to the study, this in turn has “led to widespread restrictions of the right of assembly and freedom of expression.”
The study initially traces how the IHRA definition was taken over by various European governments, including Germany, Austria and the UK, which was still an EU member at the time. It must be emphasized that this working definition does not represent a law.
Nevertheless, these “working definitions” and resolutions “have acquired the de facto force of law,” according to the ELSC. On this basis, anti-semitism allegations were made in the three countries, public spaces and funds were denied, employees dismissed, disciplinary proceedings against students opened, assemblies prohibited criminal charges. According to the report, these reprisals are often initiated by pro-Israeli organizations. Palestinians and pro-Palestinian organizations, as well as Jewish ones, are also affected.
As far as the criminal charges have been concerned since October 2023, the ELSC reported in June that dozens of documented procedures have now been discontinued.
Like the IHRC, the ELSC also connects its report with an appeal: it calls on the European Commission as well as the individual governments, parliaments and authorities of EU member states as well as the UK to reject the IHRA definition of anti-semitism.
Amnesty: “Under-Protected And Over-Restricted“
Amnesty International (AI) published a report on the right to assemble in 21 European countries in early July 2024. It found that in at least eight EU member states (namely Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands) as well as in the three European non-EU countries of Great Britain, Serbia and Switzerland, pro-Palestinian demonstrations “were disproportionately restricted.” This includes bans on certain slogans, the display of the Palestinian flag and the keffiyeh, the dissolution of protest encampments, as well as the “excessive use” of police violence and “arbitrary prison terms.”
Amnesty also criticizes racist narratives against Arabs and Muslims in said European countries. In addition to the countries listed above, this also applies to the EU member Slovenia. With a view to the UK, the human rights organization also reports that there is great fear and “self-censorship” among Muslim children and parents.
In a separate subchapters, Germany is not only accused of “unnecessary and excessive use of force by policy” against pro Palestinian protestors and “hundreds of arbitrary arrests,” but also illegal bans from meetings and “racial profiling.” The prohibition of the slogan “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” by the German police and politics is repeatedly criticized in the report as illegal.