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Israel cracks down on Palestinian citizens who denounce the war in Gaza

Umito November 25, 2024

Umm al Fahm, Israel – Israel’s year-long crackdown on Palestinian citizens who speak out against the war in Gaza has prompted many people to self-censor for fear of being imprisoned and further marginalized in society, while some still find means of expressing disagreement – with caution.

Ahmed Khalefa’s life was turned upside down after he was accused of inciting terrorism for chanting in solidarity with Gaza during an anti-war protest in October 2023.

The lawyer and city councilor from central Israel says he spent three difficult months in prison, followed by six months in an apartment. It is unclear when he will get a final verdict on his guilt or innocence. Until then, he is prohibited from leaving his home from dusk to dawn.

Khalefa is one of more than 400 Palestinian citizens of Israel who, since the start of the Gaza war, have been the subject of a police investigation for “incitement to terrorism” or “incitement to violence”, according to Adalah, a minority rights group. . More than half of those under investigation have also been criminally charged or detained, Adalah said.

“Israel has made it clear that it views us more as enemies than as citizens,” Khalefa said in an interview at a cafe in his hometown of Umm al-Fahm, Israel’s second-largest Palestinian city. .

Israel has approximately 2 million Palestinian citizens, whose families remained within the borders of what became Israel in 1948. Among them are Muslims and Christians, and they maintain family and cultural ties to Gaza and the West Bank, captured by Israel in 1967.

Israel says its Palestinian citizens enjoy equal rights, including the right to vote, and are well represented in many professions. However, Palestinians face widespread discrimination in areas such as housing and the labor market.

Israeli authorities opened more incitement cases against Palestinian citizens during the Gaza war than in the previous five years combined, Adalah archives show. Israeli authorities have not said how many cases have resulted in convictions and imprisonment. The Justice Ministry said it did not have statistics on these convictions.

Simply being accused of inciting terrorism or identifying with a terrorist group can land a suspect in custody until sentenced, under the terms of a 2016 law.

In addition to being accused of criminals, Palestinian citizens of Israel – who make up around 20% of the country’s population – have lost their jobs, been suspended from their schools and have been subjected to police interrogation by posting in online or protesting, activists and rights organizations say.

This had a deterrent effect.

“Anyone who tries to talk about the war will be imprisoned and harassed in their work and studies,” said Oumaya Jabareen, whose son was imprisoned for eight months after an anti-war protest. “The people here are all afraid, afraid to say no to this war. »

Jabareen was among hundreds of Palestinians who filled the streets of Umm al-Fahm earlier this month, holding signs and chanting political slogans. This is reportedly the largest anti-war demonstration in Israel since the October 7 Hamas attack. But turnout was low and Palestinian flags and other national symbols were conspicuously absent. In the years before the war, some protests could have attracted tens of thousands of Palestinians to Israel.

The authorities tolerated the recent protest march, keeping it under heavily armed surveillance. Helicopters flew overhead as police armed with guns and tear gas ran alongside the crowd, which dispersed without incident after two hours. Khalefa said he chose not to attend.

Shortly after the October 7 attack, Israel’s far-right government moved quickly to reinvigorate a task force that has accused Palestinian citizens of Israel of “supporting terrorism” for online posts or having protested against the war. Around the same time, lawmakers amended a security bill to increase surveillance of Palestinians’ online activities in Israel, said Nadim Nashif, director of the digital rights group 7amleh. The measures gave authorities more power to restrict freedom of expression and step up their arrest campaigns, Nashif said.

The task force is led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hardline national security minister who oversees the police. His office said the task force monitored thousands of posts allegedly expressing support for terrorist organizations and that police arrested “hundreds of supporters of terrorism,” including opinion leaders, social media influencers, religious figures, teachers and others.

“Freedom of expression is not the freedom to incite … harm to public safety and our security,” his office said in a statement.

But activists and rights groups say the government has broadened its definition of incitement too far, targeting legitimate opinions that are at the heart of free speech.

Myssana Morany, a human rights lawyer at Adalah, said Palestinian citizens have been charged for seemingly innocuous things, like sending a meme of a captured Israeli tank in Gaza during a private group chat on WhatsApp. Another person was charged for posting a collage of photos of children, captioned in Arabic and English: “Where were the people calling for humanity when we were killed? Feminist activist group Kayan said more than 600 women have called its hotline because of negative reactions in the workplace, for speaking out against the war or simply speaking about it unfavorably.

Over the summer, around 20 anti-war protesters in the port city of Haifa were allowed to complete only three chants before police dispersed the gathering into the night. Yet Israeli Jews demanding a deal to release the hostages demonstrate regularly – and the largest has drawn hundreds of thousands of people into the streets of Tel Aviv.

Khalefa, the city councilor, is not convinced that the crackdown on free speech will end, even if the war eventually does. He said Israeli prosecutors took issue with slogans that largely praised the resistance and urged Gaza to be strong, but did not mention violence or any militant groups. For this, he said, the government is trying to disbar him and he faces up to eight years in prison.

“They wanted to show us the price of speaking out,” Khalefa said.

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Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem, Mahmoud Illean in Umm al-Fahm and Drew Callister in New York contributed to this report.