Rights groups say pro-Palestinian demos ‘repressed’ in Europe – eNews Malaysia

PARIS, April 30 — European authorities are clamping down on pro-Palestinian protests, rights groups advised eNM, because the Israel-Hamas battle in Gaza sharply polarises opinion throughout the bloc.

“We see hate speech legal guidelines and we see counterterrorism legal guidelines being instrumentalised, being weaponised to go after what’s legit speech underneath worldwide requirements,” mentioned Amnesty International researcher Julia Hall.

She added that there was “an avalanche of cancellations and focusing on of peaceable protesters, lecturers, anybody who’s principally on the market in solidarity with Palestinian human rights or is criticising the state of Israel”.

Hamas’ bloody October 7 assault on southern Israel and the devastating Israeli response have stoked present rancour over the Middle East battle between two diametrically opposed camps in Europe.

The Islamist group’s assault ensuing in the loss of life of 1,170 folks, principally civilians, in response to an eNM depend primarily based on Israeli official information.

Meanwhile Israel’s marketing campaign to destroy Hamas in Gaza has killed greater than 34,000 folks, additionally principally civilian, in response to the Hamas-run native well being authorities.

People demonstrating in help of Palestinians are sometimes accused of excusing Hamas, of rabid anti-Zionism, and even anti-Semitism.

‘Disproportionate measures’

Back throughout the Atlantic, “in not less than 12 EU member states, authorities have taken disproportionate measures, together with the pre-emptive banning of protests primarily based on obvious threat to ‘public order’ and ‘safety’,” the Brussels-based European Civic Forum mentioned in a report revealed this month.

Its creator Aarti Narsee advised eNM that “repression towards pro-Palestinian solidarity” is in line with “blanket help” for Israel emanating from the continent’s historical past with the Holocaust.

France, which has Europe’s largest communities of each Jews and Muslims, fears the Middle East battle being imported onto its soil.

French authorities have banned pro-Palestinian demonstrations, cancelled conferences and most not too long ago summoned two far-left politicians for police questioning over alleged “help for terrorism”.

Students at elite universities Sciences Po and the Sorbonne have blockaded or occupied areas, with police on Monday hustling out dozens of demonstrators who had arrange tents contained in the Sorbonne.

Germany this month barred entry to former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis “to stop any anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda”.

Varoufakis had been slated to talk at a “Palestinian Congress” in Berlin, which police closed one hour after it started.

In Austria, conservative parliament speaker Wolfgang Sobotka blasted the Wiener Festwochen cultural competition for invitating Varoufakis and French literature Nobel winner Annie Ernaux.

Festival director Milo Rau rejected the decision to disinvite the pair, saying it was “simply as ridiculous” to name Ernaux anti-Semitic as it will be to name her “anti-French” for criticising her personal authorities.

‘Double commonplace’

The variety of reported anti-Semitic incidents in Austria elevated fivefold after October 7, whereas French authorities reported an “explosion”.

But Amnesty’s Hall mentioned that conflating anti-Semitism with criticism of the Israeli authorities “doesn’t make any sense” — particularly given many opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insurance policies are Jewish.

In October, psychotherapist Iris Hefets was arrested in Berlin for carrying a placard studying “As an Israeli and a Jew: cease the genocide in Gaza”.

Also in Germany, marketing campaign group Jewish Voice — which opposes German help for Israel and its “political apartheid” in the West Bank — says its financial institution accounts have been frozen.

While Berlin was defending itself earlier than the International Court of Justice (ICJ) towards Nicaragua’s allegation it was facilitating a “genocide” in Gaza, left-wing Berlin day by day TAZ in early April condemned “censorship and violence” towards the Palestinian Congress.

“Germany is making use of a double commonplace. Israel is evaluated in a different way than different states,” the paper mentioned.

In the Netherlands, the European Legal Support Centre tallied 310 “acts of repression” towards pro-Palestinian demonstrations or people throughout the EU in the 12 months as much as October 2023 — from “authorized motion” to “harassment” and “cancelled occasions”.

It recorded greater than twice that quantity, or 836, between October 7 and March, a determine ELSC undertaking supervisor Layla Katterman mentioned “is simply the tip of the iceberg”. — eNM