SILENCING SOLIDARITY

 

When 20 armed police officers stormed Yoav Haifawi’s home in Haifa, Israel, the veteran anti-Zionist activist was unsurprised. The 29 October raid was his second arrest in a week for protesting Israel’s war on Gaza. This time, police detained the 68-year-old and confiscated protest material, refusing him food and diabetes medication. Haifawi began to feel ill and was taken to hospital, where he spent two days handcuffed to the bed, legs bound, before being released without charge.

In 50 years of activism, Haifawi has been detained countless times. But amid Israel’s ruthless bombing of Gaza, he notes that political repression within the country that styles itself as the only ‘democracy’ in the Middle East has intensified.

Anti-war protests have been totally banned. Online solidarity with Gaza has led to arrests and loss of work. One Palestinian citizen of Israel was interrogated under counter-terror laws and put under house arrest for posting ‘my heart is with Gaza’, Haaretz reported. She’s one of over 170 people arrested during the first three weeks of the war, according to police, the majority over social media posts. Palestinian civilians – who make up a fifth of Israel’s population – are the worst affected by the crackdown. But Jewish Israelis have also been targeted. ‘They attack every small expression of dissent like never before,’ says Haifawi, who was born to Jewish parents but does not define himself as Israeli due to his political beliefs. ‘They want everyone to be quiet unless you support the genocide in Gaza.’

The repression is part of a global crackdown. Rights group European Legal Support Centre says it is handling ‘hundreds’ of incidents where Palestine solidarity has been repressed. Meanwhile pro-Israeli protests proceed unchallenged. ‘This shows the hypocrisy of European democracy,’ says the representative Alice Garcia. ‘As is often the case, Palestine is the exception.’ ■