Tag: Freedom of the Press

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ELSC Newsletter: September 2022

Throughout the past few months, the solidarity movement has won several victories in pushing back against repression. Through legal challenge and public advocacy, it is possible to make our critical voices heard!
 
We need your continued support to keep up the crucial fight for freedom of expression and Palestinian rights.

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GERMANY: TWO SUCCESSFUL LAWSUITS AGAINST DEUTSCHE WELLE

In July 2022, we witnessed the first victory for a journalist involved in the Deutsche Welle (DW) case that began back in February 2022, when the public broadcaster fired seven Arab journalists based on allegations of antisemitism. The Bonn Labour Court found that the dismissal of Palestinian journalist Maram Salem by the German outlet was unlawful. 

Then, in September 2022, the Berlin Labour Court ruled in favour of Farah Maraqa, ordering DW to reinstate her and cover the costs of the legal dispute.

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The ELSC is proud to have supported Farah Maraqa, who stood firm in her convictions and had the courage to take DW to court.

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However, the DW management seems to have institutionalised its prejudiced stance in a new Code of Conduct that mentions Israel twice, including: “Due to Germany’s history, we have a special obligation towards Israel.” It is unclear what obligations this statement is implying for DW employees or subcontractors. This raises important questions related to press independence.

⚖️ Will you help us win more cases? âš–️

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NETHERLANDS: A POSITIVE PRESS COUNCIL DECISION FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES

In August 2022, the Dutch Press Council ruled that Dutch daily newspaper Algemeen Dagblad acted carelessly by publishing allegations of antisemitism against The Rights Forum without hearing them.

This is an important achievement considering the Dutch NGO has been facing a harsh smear campaign since the beginning of the year, after it filed a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) seeking to research ties between Dutch universities and pro-Israel advocacy groups as well as Israeli institutions, government agencies and Israeli arms, surveillance and security companies.

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The Rights Forum also achieved a significant victory against disinformation. After the organisation alerted Google about a Google ad sponsored by the Israeli government labelling Amnesty International as antisemitic, Google took down the ad within one day.

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DOCUMENTA FIFTEEN: “WE ARE DETERMINED, WE ARE TOGETHER, WE ARE NOT GIVING UP”

On 25 September 2022, the world’s largest contemporary art exhibition, documenta fifteen, closed after months of brutal and unfounded allegations against the curators ruangrupa, members of the artistic team and participating artists. Palestinian artists and others who expressed solidarity with them faced smears, insults, assaults, death threats, cyber harassment and vandalism.

In the latest development, a committee appointed to investigate antisemitism into documenta fifteen issued a very controversial preliminary report and a statement accusing the lumbung community (ruangrupa and artists) of Israel-related antisemitism. The community responded with a powerful statement denouncing racism, Eurocentrism and censorship.

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VIENNA: NEW COURSE AT VIENNA FINE ARTS ACADEMY SIGNALS FURTHER ERASURE OF PALESTINIAN NARRATIVE

The Austrian institution that censored Palestinian academic Dr. Walaa Alqaisiyia will host a course entitled “Antiantianti – Conflicts about Antiantisemitism and Antiracism in the Politicized Art World” and will be using Walaa’s disinvitation as a case study.

The abstract of the course clearly displays a pro-Israel bias and misrepresents the Palestine solidarity movement. We condemn the holding of a course that is likely to fuel insidious censorship of genuine anti-racist discourse.

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#STOPTRADEWITHSETTLEMENTS: A NEW PARTNER IN THE GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO BAN EU TRADE WITH ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS

Avaaz just joined the #StopTradeWithSettlements coalition and calls on everyone to sign the European Citizens’ Initiative to ban EU trade with illegal settlements!

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Friends of the Earth Europe also published a compelling and important blog post over the summer. The largest grassroots environmental network in Europe explains the link between food sovereignty in Palestine and Israeli settlements, highlighting the necessity to stop all EU trade with the latter.

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#STANDWITHTHE6: A NEW PHASE OF REPRESSION AGAINST PALESTINIAN CIVIL SOCIETY

On the morning of 18 August 2022, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) raided the offices of seven Palestinian organisations including the six that were designated as “terrorist” by the Israeli government in October 2021. The IOF confiscated documents and equipment, destroyed material, sealed entrance doors and left military orders ordering the closure of the organisations. Over 150 organisations, including the ELSC, demanded the international community take all the necessary action to support and protect Palestinian human rights defenders.

So far, the EU has remained quiescent on the matter, as it has regarding the protection of French-Palestinian human rights defender Salah Hammouri.  For the past two decades, Salah has been subjected to constant harassment and deprivation of his fundamental rights by Israeli authorities. His three-month administrative detention based on “secret evidence” was again renewed at the beginning of September 2022 and he has now been transferred into solitary confinement. Along with other political prisoners, Salah began a hunger strike on 25 September and has since been deprived of salt. Read more in the urgent letter sent to French President Emmanuel Macron by Salah’s lawyers.

READ OUR JOINT STATEMENT

đź“Ł Join the #JusticeforSalah campaign and amplify it on Twitter and Instagram  đź“Ł

Undeterred by these worrying recent developments which contradict the basic principles of international law, the EU continues to tighten its cooperation with Israel by convening the EU-Israel Association Council after 10 years amid widespread protest from Palestinian, European, and international civil society organisations.

RESOURCES & NEWS FROM AROUND EUROPE AND BEYOND

#PromisedLand: the Italian centre for investigative journalism Irpi Media launched a series of reports exposing the links between the Israeli government and far-right parties in Europe. The first piece of “Promised Land”, authored by journalists Christian Elia and Lorenzo Bagnoli, shows how the Italian far-right cultivates relationships with antisemitic figures while strongly supporting Israel’s policies, including silencing pro-Palestine voices.

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Our Canadian partners, Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), are launching a pivotal report on the suppression of speech concerning Palestine in Canada. Join the report launch event with a panel of brilliant activists and scholars, including Anna-Esther Younes.

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Dr Anna-Esther Younes has herself been facing ongoing attempts to suppress her voice as a Palestinian decolonial scholar. Read more about her case and how you can help us push back against increasing repression in Europe below:

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The ELSC recently joined CASE, the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe! We are happy to join other non-governmental organisations united in recognition of the threat posed to public watchdogs by SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation). SLAPPs are an abuse of the legal system and an attempt to intimidate and silence public watchdogs, including Palestinian rights advocates, through lengthy and expensive litigation that drains a target’s resources and seeks to dissuade critical voices.

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With CASE, we will work to expose legal harassment and intimidation, protect the rights of those who speak out and advocate for comprehensive protective measures and reform. As part of this work, the ELSC will join the next European Anti-SLAPP Conference in Strasbourg on 20 October 2022.

Remember to follow the ELSC on social media @elsclegal and amplify our work!

If you are interested in empowering the Palestine solidarity movement in Europe, we welcome your one-time or monthly donations to the ELSC. For any inquiries, contact us at info@elsc.support.

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If you are a legal practitioner or a volunteer who wants to be part of our movement in support of Palestinian rights advocates, please contact us at info@elsc.support.

Photo: CC Jan-Hendrik Pelz12, “An Inner Place” talk at the documenta fifteen exhibition.

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Newsletter

ELSC Newsletter: June 2022

This month, at least three cases confirmed, again, that public pressure and collective support, sometimes coupled with litigation, constitute a great tool to achieve our rights as advocates for Palestinian rights!

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GERMAN AUTHORITY HOLDS RIAS AND MBR ACCOUNTABLE FOR VIOLATING ANNA YOUNES’ DATA RIGHTS

The Berlin Data Protection Authority (DPA) held German organisations RIAS Berlin and MBR accountable for violating the rights of German Palestinian scholar Dr. Anna-Esther Younes. The two organisations had previously circulated a secret dossier which led to her disinvitation from a public event.

Two years after Dr. Anna Younes filed a complaint to the DPA with our support, the DPA finally found that RIAS/MBR violated European data protection law (GDPR) in refusing to give Dr. Younes access to the data they hold on her. The DPA recognised Dr. Younes’ basic data rights as a European citizen, which comes after another previous success where the civil court affirmed the right of Dr.Younes to have access to her data.

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But this is not over yet! RIAS/MBR previously acknowledged that the purpose of the dossier was to identify Dr. Younes’ positions on Israel and BDS. They secretly sent this dossier to a third party to get her disinvited. However, the DPA considered that this was lawful and that RIAS/MBR pursued a legitimate purpose in collecting and transmitting information about Dr. Younes.

We will appeal this decision. Do you want to help us?

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Read more in the last media articles published about the case:
– See an update by Dania Akkad in Middle East Eye
– this piece by Hebh Jamal in +972 Magazine
– a piece in German by Nidal Thawri in Marx21
– an oped by Abir Kopty in Middle East Eye

EU RESUMES FUNDING TO TWO PALESTINIAN NGOS

After Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq started legal proceedings against the European Commission for suspending its funding in May 2021 based on an Israeli disinformation campaign, the EU recognised there were no grounds to do so and resumed its funding to Al Haq on 28 June 2022.

Read Al-Haq’s statement and share the good news on Twitter.

The EU also resumed unconditionally and with immediate effect its funding to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), which had faced the same suspension as Al-Haq.

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MOHAMMED EL KURD V. GOETHE INSTITUTE

The prominent Palestinian activist and poet Mohammed El Kurd faced an attempt of censorship at a conference organised by the Goethe Institute in Hamburg about right-wing extremism and authoritarian regimes’ tactics, where he was invited to speak. Few days before the start of the conference, the institution revoked the invitation, raising social media posts criticizing Israel that they “did not find acceptable”. In solidarity with El Kurd, the curators of the conference Moshtari Hilal and Sinthujan Varatharajah withdrew their participation and denounced the climate of anti-Palestinian racism in German institutions. Thanks to this push back, many other participants of the event withdrew, which led to the entire program being scaled down.

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OTHER CASE UPDATES IN GERMANY

We also celebrate a victory in Stuttgart this month, as the City of Stuttgart decided it will not appeal the decision issued by the Stuttgart Administrative Court on 21 April 2022 in favour of the Stuttgart Palestine Committee. The Court had upheld the Committee’s complaint against the City’s decision to remove their access and details from the Municipality’s website.
 
This incident had happened following a smear campaign launched by the Jerusalem Post against the Committee because of its support to the Palestinian-led BDS movement. The City of Stuttgart had justified its decision citing the Bundestag’s anti-BDS resolution, while the Court had recalled that the BDS movement is protected by freedom of expression and that the Bundestag’s resolution is not binding.

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But this time, the City acknowledged the illegality of their decision. One of their spokespersons said:

for purely legal reasons, we have decided not to appeal against it. Based on the current jurisprudence, as it has been elsewhere, we estimate the chances of being successful with an appeal to be very low. That is why we have put the address of the Palestine Committee back on the municipal homepage.

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Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Farah Maraqa, who has been unfairly dismissed by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) along with five other Arab journalists in February 2022, published an update about her court case against DW.

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AUSTRIA: THE CASE OF PALESTINIAN SCHOLAR WALAA ALQAISIYA

Dr. Walaa Alqaisiya, Research Fellow at Columbia University, the LSE Middle East Centre and Università Ca’ Foscari, also faced anti-Palestinian racism and censorship from Austrian public institutions when she was disinvited by the Mumok Museum and the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna from their Spring Curatorial Program at the end of May 2022. The cancellation of her lecture followed a smear campaign on social media and a complaint from pro-Israel advocacy groups. Art media Art Forum and Hyperallergic wrote about the episode.


Hundreds of artists, writers and academics, including Judith Butler, Roger Waters, Angela Davis and Dirk Moses, have voiced their outrage in the wake of the last-minute cancellation, which pushed one of the co-curators to remove the remainder of the program from the premises of the cancelling institutions. Nevertheless, the Fine Arts Academy and the MUMOK still have not stepped back on their statement, nor recognised the damage done to Dr. Alqaisiya’s reputation. She is still waiting for a public apology from the Rector of the Fine Arts Academy and further explanation on the decision making process.

7 MORE MONTHS TO BAN EU TRADE WITH ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS WORLDWIDE!

Join the European Citizens Initiative #StopSettlements to ban EU trade with illegal settlements!
 
With one million EU citizens signing the Initiative, the EU will have to reassess its complicity with illegal settlements. It would be an historical step in realigning the EU with its own rules when it comes to trade and in making Israel accountable for its illegal settlement policy.

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Send the petition to your friends, family members. Share on your chat groups and social media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

UK: LEGAL ACTION AGAINST TWITTER TROLL AFTER AN ONLINE SMEAR CAMPAIGN

Peter Bolton is a journalist with The Canary, where he writes about Israel-Palestine among other topics. One year ago, Peter Bolton published a piece denouncing the continuous smear campaigns and unfounded allegations of antisemitism made against the Left in the UK.

Following that, Peter Bolton became himself the target of similar unfounded allegations on Twitter. A fake Twitter account started to spread smears against the journalist, which were amplified by other accounts and retweeted many times. Peter Bolton decided to take legal action against the troll to make it accountable and deter others who would spread defaming allegations online against anyone standing for justice with Palestinians and Palestinian rights advocates.

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EVENTS: PANEL DISCUSSION IN THE NETHERLANDS

Last month, the ELSC joined the in-person panel organised in Amsterdam by the Leonhard-Woltjer Foundation (LWS) and Een Ander Joods Geluid (A Different Jewish Voice) on “How Israel lobbies make it harder to speak up against Israel’s policies”.

Our Advocacy and Communication Officer Alice Garcia joined Dina Zbeidy (anthropologist at Leiden University and LWS board member), Peter Beinart (professor of journalism and Editor-at-large of Jewish Currents), as well as Layla Kattermann and ItaĂŻ van de Wal (student activists in Leiden and Utrecht universities) in the panel to give an overview of the situation in The Netherlands (see from 45min).

Read our report on the attempt to suppress Palestinian rights advocacy in the Netherlands.

OTHER GOOD NEWS FROM EUROPE

In a milestone decision for accountability and Palestinian rights, Catalonia Parliament became the first Parliament in Europe to recognise that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid, after the approval of a resolution.

READ MORE

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Media Coverage

Over 100 Civil Society Organizations Call on DW to Retract the Biased Report and End the Smear Campaign

Over one hundred local, regional and international civil society organizations have signed an open letter in solidarity with Palestinians, condemning Deutsche Welle’s (DW) inaccurate and defamatory report, calling for the retraction of the accusations and demanding the protection of the right to Palestinian freedom of speech.

On Monday 6th February 2022, Deutsche Welle (DW) published the findings from its internal investigation into accusations of antisemitism within its Arabic-language news department. The investigation committee also examined Deutsche Welle Akademie (DWA) partners. The report includes a number of defamatory accusations and smears DWA’s Palestinian partner organizations. 

This report is just the latest development in an ongoing anti-Palestinian smear campaign intended to silence Palestinian voices, restrict freedom of expression, suppress legitimate criticism of ongoing Israeli violations against Palestinians, and ultimately prevent Palestinian journalists and Palestinian organizations from seeking accountability. The result is a chilling effect that prevents Palestinians from sharing their experiences of oppression and systematic human rights violations with the rest of the world.

The undersigned coalition of civil society organizations stressed their commitment to fighting racism in all forms, including antisemitism, Islamophobia and xenophobia. However, the DW report adopts a problematic framework that conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and seeks to position legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitism. This approach also dangerously associates the actions of the Israeli authorities with Jewish communities around the world, and falsely links them to the systemic oppression of Palestinians. 

In addition, the coalition also condemns the lack of professionalism in the procedural process adopted by DW’s investigation committee. The committee lacked diversity and relevant expertise,none of the committee members  are experts in anti-racism and some have also made Islamophobic statements in the past. Additionally, the targeted partner organizations were not invited to a consultation during the investigation process, they were only notified hours before the report release that they were mentioned, and their relationship with DWA would be impacted. This further proves the lack of transparency and accountability of DW’s investigation committee. 

We, the targeted organizations and supporters, are calling on DW and DWA to immediately take the following actions:

  • Retract the biased report and end the smear campaign.
  • Form an objective, non-biased committee made up of anti-racism experts to investigate any wrongdoing, and consult with the journalists and Palestinian partner organizations. 
  • Commit to freedom of expression and the adoption of a less biased antisemitism definition endorsed by both Jewish and Palestinian human rights defenders, such as the Jerusalem Declaration on antisemitism.
  • Allow political debate free of all forms of racism and hate, including antisemitism and islamophobia.

Read the letter here.

Resource: https://7amleh.org/2022/02/21/over-100-civil-society-organizations-call-on-dw-to-retract-the-biased-report-and-end-the-smear-campaign