Ten percent of all civic repression worldwide related to Palestine, study finds
A Johannesburg-based civic freedom monitor has pinpointed the Palestinian cause as the reason behind 10 percent of all global repression of free speech in 2024.
The civil society alliance Civicus, which monitors the state of civic freedom globally, said the violations it documented either took place in occupied Palestinian territories or were “perpetrated against those expressing solidarity with Palestine” elsewhere, according to its 2024 report.
“The lack of open civic space is rooted in a number of issues,” the report says.
Major conflicts, it explains, such as Israel’s war on Gaza, "have affected millions of people and their livelihoods and created the conditions for state and non-state sources to implement authoritarian policies”.
The report says that this is most notable in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), which “continues to be home to some of the most repressive governments in the world”.
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All of the 18 countries assessed in the Mena region - including occupied Palestine - were found to be "obstructed", "repressed" or "closed", according to the study. There are five categories, with the top two being "open" and "narrowed".
Israel, Lebanon, and Morocco are the region's highest-ranked countries under the “obstructed” classification.
Most of the Gulf countries, as well as Egypt and Iran, are considered “closed”.
In Israel as well as Jordan, authorities have “instrumentalised laws to target and prosecute people expressing solidarity with Palestinians through anti-war protests and social media”, the report reads.
Israel also “continued its campaign of restricting journalists, media outlets and mass media coverage, including through the closure of Al Jazeera’s [West Bank] office and the J-Media Agency through military orders”.
The report also highlighted Israeli police brutality and arbitrary detentions at the weekly protests by Israeli citizens calling for a hostage deal with Hamas.
During the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, some 250 captives were taken back to Gaza, but fewer than one hundred are now still believed to be in their custody.
Israel's devastating war on Gaza has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children.
Space for US dissent narrows
In the Americas, only two major economies are ranked as “open”, Canada and Uruguay.
The other open societies are several of the island nations in the West Indies.
The United States is ranked as “narrowed”.
“Since October 2023, the USA has seen one of the largest displays of support for Palestinian people in recent history, expressed through an unprecedented wave of solidarity protests,” the report says. “This surge in protests has been met with a heavy-handed and violent response.”
In April and May 2024 alone, the report continues, “authorities detained over 3,200 students, faculty, staff and journalists in nationwide campus raids. University authorities have accused students and organisations showing solidarity with Palestinians of offences such as ‘material support for terrorism’, despite a lack of evidence, and have proposed discriminatory actions such as visa cancellations and deportations”.
Civicus said there has been a “discernible rise” in the closure of civic space worldwide.
Its data shows that nearly 71 percent of people on Earth reside in repressed or closed societies, while only 2.1 percent live in open societies.
The report included recommendations in its report for governments, international bodies, the private sector, and other shareholders, urging them to work to repeal legislation that hinders the work of civil society and criminalises human rights defenders, journalists, protesters and “members of excluded groups” such as Indigenous and LGBTQ+ people.
Civicus also called for “adequate consultations” with the public and civil society, so that their input is taken into account before the drafting of laws, and for “reliable and unfettered” access to the internet without shutdowns in times of crisis.
Defamatory remarks, threats, acts of intimidation, and stigmatisation must also be publicly condemned by elected officials, the report says.
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