The Gaza effect: how a global pro-Palestine protest movement met repression and resistance | Protest

TThe ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was greeted with joy and relief in the Middle East and beyond. Over the past two years, outrage over Israel’s war in Gaza has erupted in Europe and the United States; It has manifested itself in college campus protests, mass marches in numerous capital cities, and the blocking of major sporting events.

Even as hopes rise for an end to the war, international outrage over Israel’s actions in Gaza, which have been deemed genocide by the UN commission of inquiry, remains fresh, as last weekend’s events showed. Large rallies in Spain and Italy.

Although the anger that fueled them was shared and ubiquitous, the demonstrations and the authorities’ response to them varied significantly from country to country. While some of the official reactions were brutal, there were exceptions, especially in countries where public opinion was clearly pro-Palestinian.

Freedom of expression in trial

inside WEIncreasing pro-Palestinian activism has been met with arrests, legal action, and increased threats; This provides an excuse for the Trump administration’s unprecedented attack on free speech and facilitates what many see as the country’s collapse into authoritarianism.

Thousands of people, mostly Jews, participated in protests in the first months of the war. After students at Columbia University organized a pro-Palestinian camp on campus in the spring of 2024, dozens more students followed at other universities across the country. But bowing to pressure from lawmakers, donors and pro-Israel critics, many universities reacted harshly to the camps, calling police to campuses and leading to thousands of arrests.

Meanwhile, allegations of antisemitism against pro-Palestinian protests have been weaponized by the Trump administration to launch an unprecedented attack on academic freedom; This includes cutting billions of dollars in funding to universities, screening thousands of visa applicants for pro-Palestinian views, and detaining and attempting to deport foreign academics for their political views.

policing protests

inside EnglandThe Metropolitan police have so far arrested more than 1,900 people at pro-Palestinian events; the vast majority of them were detained for allegedly supporting Palestine Action, a direct action group banned under anti-terrorism legislation. UN human rights chief Volker Türk stated that the ban was “disproportionate and unnecessary” and called for the ban to be lifted.

Describing plans for protests on the second anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel as “un-British”, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government would look at further restrictions on protests, including the power to take action against certain slogans at pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Starmer also called on protesters to show respect by halting their activities in the immediate aftermath of the Manchester synagogue terror attack in which two people died.

historical tensions

Inside GermanyThe protests, whose postwar identity was indelibly shaped by the Nazi regime’s responsibility for the Holocaust, revealed tensions between public sentiment and the country’s long-standing solidarity with Israel.

Although public opinion is against the Israeli government’s relentless assault on Gaza, a recent pro-Palestinian rally in Berlin attracted around 100 people. 100,000 demonstrators – successive German governments have reaffirmed the principle that responsibility for Israel’s security is part of Berlin’s own Staatsräson, or the cause of the condition.

Activists have repeatedly said police tactics are excessive, sometimes brutal, and violate constitutional protections of freedom of assembly and expression.

Much of the conflict between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and German authorities centered around which slogans were banned under the law as anti-Semitic.

In May last year, a pro-Palestinian activist was convicted of turning a blind eye to crime for using the slogan “From river to sea, Palestine will be free” at a rally four days after the October 7 attacks. The judge said he “could not understand” the logic of previous German court rulings, which held that the phrase was “ambiguous” and that, in his opinion, it was clear that the phrase “denies the right of the state of Israel to exist”.

But this hymn was also widely used to call for equal rights in both Israel and Palestine.

Asked about a crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism following alleged brutality against an Irish protester, Berlin police said this month it had launched an investigation into the officer but denied any violence or civil rights violations.

Artists and intellectuals say that support for the Palestinian cause in Germany since the October 7 attacks has had a chilling effect, and that criticism of Israel’s tactics in Gaza can quickly be smeared as antisemitism and result in the withdrawal of awards, positions and public funding.

Meanwhile, many Jewish leaders in Germany talk about the feeling of isolation experienced in the last two years, stating: A sharp increase in attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions.

Liberty is at stake

In May this year, the French Ministry of the Interior He announced that he would close down the pro-Palestinian human rights and solidarity group Urgence Palestine, stating that it turned a blind eye to Hamas, called for an intifada in France, and incited hatred, violence and discrimination against the Jewish people. Emergency Palestine disputed these claims, saying the move to dispel them was politically motivated and part of a broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism. The collective has not yet disbanded.

Marie Laure Geoffray, freedom campaign officer at Amnesty International France, said there was “serious repression and silencing of voices in the name of solidarity with Palestine” and that this “continues”.

This has happened in various ways, he said, including the banning of some street demonstrations in certain cities in France, the decision to dissolve Urgence Palestine, and legal action. Geoffray said students on French campuses were also accused of disturbing the peace or public order.

Strikes and solidarity

Scope Italian Public opinion against Israel’s war in Gaza emerged on September 22, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets in a union-coordinated general strike to call for an end to the conflict.

The mostly peaceful event was marred by clashes between police and masked protesters at Milan’s central train station; This gave prime minister Giorgia Meloni the opportunity to condemn the “shameful” scenes and attack his leftist opponents rather than show solidarity with the Palestinians.

Pressure on Meloni increased further when Israel’s intervention in the Global Sumud Fleet triggered protests across Italy nine days later. Rome police said at least 250,000 people attended the march a day later. more than 2 million people He participated in a one-day general strike in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

Meloni’s government cares about public opinion and in recent months has become increasingly critical of Israel’s killing of Palestinians, despite Italy being one of Israel’s strongest EU allies. Meloni now says Italy will recognize a Palestinian state if the remaining Israeli hostages are released and the militant group Hamas withdraws from the government.

‘We take care of ourselves’

Inside IrelandAn Garda Síochána, the police force that officially recognized the state of Palestine along with Spain and Norway in May 2024, has mostly kept a light touch on the Gaza protests, which have generally been peaceful.

Government policy and public opinion are strongly pro-Palestinian, creating a supportive atmosphere for marches and rallies.

“Overall it’s a bit of hands-off policing,” said Zoë Lawlor, president of the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. “The national demonstrations go very well. We have a demonstration every week in Limerick and we never see the Garda unless the far right come. Otherwise we just get by ourselves.”

Lawlor said police had at times been “harsh” when dealing with sit-ins and other acts of civil disobedience, but that this did not compare to “shocking” police behavior in some other countries.

Joe O’Brien, chief executive of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, said Ireland had more freedom to protest than countries such as the UK, US and Germany, but Irish police still needed oversight. “We have heard statements, including allegations of unnecessary strip searches and cavity searches, that raise serious concerns about Garda compliance with human rights frameworks and national laws, regulations and policies governing the treatment of people in custody.”

In May, then Garda commissioner Drew Harris said allegations of strip searches were unfounded and that his force had always acted professionally and lawfully.

A nation mobilized

SpainMeanwhile, the government has proven to be an exception when it comes to its support for the protests.

Shortly after more than 100,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators brought a premature, combative and occasionally violent end to the Vuelta a España cycling race in Madrid last month over the involvement of the Israeli Premier Tech team, senior Spanish politicians lined up to lament the damage the protest was doing to the country’s global reputation.

Members of the conservative People’s Party called the incident an “international disgrace” and likened the scenes on the streets of Madrid to “Sarajevo during the war”.

However, one political figure took a different line. Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he had “deep admiration” for all those protesting nonviolently and “for a Spanish society that mobilizes against injustice and defends its ideas peacefully.”

Sánchez, who has already been harshly criticized by his rivals, also said he hoped the events in Madrid would lead others to rethink whether Israel should be included in major sporting events.

Last weekend, an estimated 200,000 people marched in dozens of Spanish cities to show their solidarity with Palestine.

Both the protests and the prime minister’s support for them show the power of public opinion in a country. a recent survey82 percent of people believe that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. Sánchez’s conservative rivals have also begun to step up their stance recently. Criticisms about Israel’s attitude in GazaMeanwhile, King Felipe, a not-so-traditional sidekick in controversy, made a speech before the UN last month imploring Israel to “stop the massacre” and end its “heinous actions” in Gaza.