Palestine Solidarity Systemically Targeted in Britain, Data Shows

Opponents of Israel’s genocide in Gaza have faced intensive and systemic repression at all levels of British society, a new index by legal experts has found, with arrests, threats, sackings, harassment, censorship and even physical violence playing a role in the crackdown.

Experts at the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) have verified 964 cases of pro-Palestinian voices being targeted since 2019, with cases spiking after Israel launched its war of annihilation against Gaza in October 2023.

The index of repression includes: 111 cases of harassment, violence, doxing or surveillance;130 cases of arrests or intervention by law enforcement; 41 cases of protests or events being cancelled or establishments refusing services and 217 cases of legal threats or threats to employment or funding.

“These incidents, it is critical to note, represent the tip of the iceberg,” the index’s authors said, adding that “students, precarious workers, migrants, and racialised communities” were the most likely to be targeted.

The ELSC, which gives legal assistance to people targeted for their pro-Palestine views, said the index is the first publicly accessible database of its kind in the UK.

Many of the cases it highlights depend on spurious claims of antisemitism and on weaponising anti-terror legislation to repress free speech, the ELSC  said. ​

The index details 261 instances of people suffering censorship or disinformation and smears, which ELSC said often originated from pro-Israel blogs and the rightwing media.

The index does not individually list the roughly 2,700 people arrested for expressing support for the banned direct action group Palestine Action, but instead includes them as a single case study.

Among those leading the crackdown, according to the index, police and security personnel were the most active, listed in 220 incidents. Educational institutions, involved in 192 incidents, were listed as the second most common alleged culprits.

“Headteachers have forcibly removed keffiyehs from pupils and universities have confiscated Palestine flags,” the index’s authors said.

Pro-Israel advocacy and ‘lawfare’ groups were in third place among those allegedly enforcing repression, having been involved in 141 incidents, while journalists and media actors were involved in 113 incidents, according to the authors.

In one case, Arsenal kit manager Mark Bonnick was sacked by the club after he posted on X criticising Israel and was subsequently accused of antisemitism by pro-Zionism accounts, allegations that several media outlets repeated.

The Football Association privately told Arsenal that Bonnick had not breached any of the governing body’s rules, Novara Media reported last week, but the club fired him anyway.

In other cases, NHS trusts and private companies ordered staff to remove ‘Free Palestine’ badges and security guards were accused of physically assaulting and verbally harassing activists.

The index authors also accused several newspapers of publishing smears against activists.

The ELSC report also highlighted some “key successes where the movement has pushed back” against repression. They include the case of two activists who had their convictions overturned after being found guilty of harassing Welsh Labour party MP Alex Davies-Jones in June last year.

Ayeshah Behit and Hida Ahmed filmed themselves in 2024 asking the MP why she had abstained on a vote to support a ceasefire in Gaza. In the clip, Jones denies abstating, but the video then cuts to a screen recording of someone searching her voting record on a tool on the BBC’s website, which displays the words “did not vote” under her name.

Davies-Jones said she was out of the country at the time of the vote.​

Behit and Ahmed told Novara Media last year that they were subjected to traumatising police raids after filming the clip and “silenced” as part of their bail conditions.

In another case highlighted in the index, a Warwick University student was arrested after holding a sign at a campus protest in November 2023 comparing Israel to Nazi Germany.

The student was accused of “racial aggravation against the Jewish community”, but police dropped the charges in January 2024 after the ELSC stepped in. The university later confirmed it would not continue disciplinary action.

The ELSC also highlighted the recent jury acquittals of members of the Filton 24, who were facing severe prison sentences on aggravated burglary charges after allegedly breaking into a facility owned by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons firm. The defendants are still facing other allegations.  

“These outcomes demonstrate that juries, drawn from the public, can and do reject the state’s framing of Palestine solidarity activism as criminality,” the report said.