The double standards of free speech on Palestine | UpFront

as Israel's Siege of Gaza continues a battle is playing out in the realm of public opinion while demonstrations have taken place across the globe in solidarity with Palestinians there have also been campaigns to silence critics of Israel's actions commentators academics and even common citizens have reported an increase in threats and retaliation for expressing their views or voicing solidarity with the Palestinian people often in countries that Proclaim to uphold values of freedom of expression and democracy so who decides what the limits of free speech are and are their double standards when it comes to Palestine joining me to discuss this from Chicago is De M she is founder and director of Palestine legal and from haa is Elan Pape he is author of numerous books on the issue of Israel and Palestine including the biggest prison on earth a history of the occupied territories he's also a professor of history at the University of exor I want to thank you both uh for joining me Elan I'm going to start with you uh at the moment Pro Palestine protests are being suppressed in a number of countries across Europe uh Austria and Germany that they've blocked protests uh in France we've seen Pro Palestine demonstrations uh only now being allowed on a case-by Case basis when at first there was a total ban on them uh how do these nations how do they justify this kind of Crackdown on Free Speech I I think that they justify it by accepting and I hope not for too long the Israeli Narrative of totally dis historicizing the event of the 7th of October decontextualizing it uh namely as if what happened on the 7th of October uh totally absorbs Israel from all its criminal policies in the past and gives a free license for criminal policies now uh in the present and as such it is uh immunized by this re kind of framing any support for the Palestinian as a support for Terror and so on I I'm I'm quite confident that this would not hold water for too long we already see some of it being kind of some of the scene changes but uh all in all you know double double talk about Palestine hypocrisy about Palestine a progressive people who are progressive on anything but on Palestine is not a new thing in fact the 7th of October hasn't changed anything fundamental in the way Israel is covered perceived or immunized in the west I I like that word immunized is an interesting one dimma uh and an important one because even to elon's point if these large Western nation states have accepted the Israeli narrative and they've dehistoricized October 7th that explains their political position but what it doesn't explain is why they're stopping people from having a different political position why they why they stop people from disagreeing I mean the point of free speech is not to be able to articulate your point of view when it goes along with the state narrative the whole point of these protections ostensibly is to protect you when it doesn't so how do how can these democratic nations justify this kind of behavior it seems so clearly anti-democratic it is anti-democratic and I think it is signaling a a really quick descent into fascism uh that we're seeing around the globe um in the United States there are very strong First Amendment protections um much stronger than in Europe and and yet even here we are seeing a Crackdown on uh descent on Palestine we're seeing across the board uh not only government action to surveil and investigate uh activists for Palestinian rights but but also in the private sector uh a purging a a very mccarth type of purging of uh any support for Palestinian rights even as people are mobilizing right now to stop what international experts have called a an unfolding genocide and and this is so dangerous and uh certainly hypocritical um I I think you know the United States and European nations have no moral Authority right now uh as they are uh you know shutting down this critical conversation and these critical protests that are uh challenging what our governments are allowing to happen Elon we've seen a very real and concerning rise in anti-Semitism since October 7th which of course should be addressed and taken very seriously and yet the governments are responding with these types of bands uh is this the West's attempt to make amends for centuries of anti-Semitism yes Mark it is and and I think that's what I meant that the 7th of October as dramatic and tragic it as it is is uh does not change the fundamental issues that relate to the the issue of Palestine the whole zus project was in part uh an attempt to deal with anti-Semitism in Europe at the expense of uh of uh the Palestinians he became even more urgent uh project of of guilt if you want after the Holocaust and and it was a very easy way in fact of not having a closure with Holocaust in Europe itself or with racism in America for instance uh by solving this issue by giving this license to colonize Palestine and build the Jewish states on the ruins of Palestine this is something that uh was there before the 7eventh of October it just you know uh it comes back to us in this particular issue of how it's being covered uh today uh and how anti-Semitism again is manipulated by Israel or weaponized rather by Israel and its supporters in order to suppress and silence criticism of the policy even if the criticism is now directed against actual genocidal policies on the ground a good example of what you're talking about Elon just happened the Israeli ambassador to the UN gilad erdan has called for the body's Secretary General Antonio gz's resignation and even accused him of blood liable after he said that the Hamas attack was horrifying and unjustified but quote did not occur in a vacuum Israel has also said that it will ban un representatives from visiting the country to quote teach them a lesson DEA were you surprised at this reaction well it's what Elan is saying and uh you know it is an attempt to completely dehistoricized to Shield Israel from any criticism or accountability um you know the Israel has been on a path to delegitimize the United Nations to undermine uh all institutions that try to uphold international law um because it is in fundamental and flagrant violation of international law and the only way that it can uh avoid that is is by undermining the entire system and this is the danger um and and the European and Nations and the united states are following in that path of completely undermining any uh any protections that we have in the International Community against these egregious violations of of international law that were ironically put in place uh post World War II to prevent what happened in Europe and to to Jews and other minorities from happening again and it's also about uh again erasing Palestinians and Palestinian history and experience from from this conversation many people are experiencing very real troubles legal troubles they're they're coming under attack Etc I your organization Palestine legal uh Works uh to protect people's rights at least here in the United States what kind of cases are you seeing now uh from people who have been offering critiques or protests of of of what's happening in Israel and Palestine Mark we've seen an exponential increase in requests for legal help in the last two weeks um almost as many as we saw in all of last year um so the attack is widespread and it's far reaching a lot of what we're seeing are employment consequences for people who post something or speak out in their workplaces or uh share their opinion on what's going on and uh a number of of uh dozens of incidents of people being fired or investigated by their employers uh students in particular are being severely doxed and harassed and even targeted by their own universities for uh their advocacy and their activism and their protests right now and this is not new uh we have been documenting over the last decade that Palestine legal has existed a Palestine exception to free speech and these exact same tactics but it is being escalated at an exponential rate Elon you are a an imminent scholar uh and you're also known as one of the new historians those Israeli Scholars uh who have questioned the official Israeli Narrative of the state's creation arguing that uh in your words events were quote much closer to the Palestinian historical narrative than to the Zionist one uh you've questioned the Zionist project which many people believe is anti-Semitic as such uh looking at those who now claim that expressing solidarity with Palestinians after October 7th is fundamentally anti-jewish I I can't help but draw a little bit of a parallel here um how are we still in a place where voicing any kind of support for Palestinians is deemed anti-semitic or any critique of Israel is anti-Semitic well I I think Mar depends who we're talking about I think in what one can Define as a civil society if I compare it to the 1980s for instance I think there's a deeper and more profound understanding of the difference between Judaism and Zionism and therefore the difference between anti-zionism and anti-Semitism I think one of the challenges we have those of us who are being attacked either either as anti-sites or in my case as a self-hating Jew one one of the the problems we have that we cannot answer these challenges with sound bite uh we need we need we need space to explain because we are facing a project of propaganda in FA ation and immunization and also weaponization of anti-Semitism not that that began many many years ago and is supported by a state so so we cannot challenge this with sound bit and I think that's why it takes time to make Headway into the uh public domain and to the political discourse but we should insist on this I I guess the question for me DEA is how you know because I agree with everything Elan just said there's no space for nuance uh the public opinion is very uh polarized at the moment and a lot of it is because people are speaking in sound bites there's no room to have a complicated conversation here uh how do we close that Gap how do we have the Nuance well Mark I think you know well this is a a narrative battle as as much as it is a political one um we are talking about a settler colonial state that has dispossessed a people of their Homeland and that has tried to replace it with another population and uh that is the fundamental re uh truth that we have to go back to um you know when we're talking about a a state's actions um this is a state that describes itself itself as Jewish that claims Jewish Supremacy as a as its its foundation um and that is what we have to be talking about uh this is an exclusivist uh ethn nationalist state that is uh founded on the eradication expulsion ethnic cleansing of another people and if we can't uh uh oppose and criticize this state and if we are allowing our elected officials to pass legislation um that that defines anti-Semitism as uh you know any criticism of Israel which is what's happening right now across the across the globe and um this this debate and this Nuance uh can't happen Elon how do we close the gap how do we create space for historicizing this this struggle yeah I I think that we we should insist of of having the conversation on our terms uh uh instead of uh sitting in in studios or whatever we are attacked and uh apologizing or defending our s by saying no we are not anti-sites and we should just be patient and build our campaign because it is build on Truth we have allies in in the global South we have allies in the global North we can build a campaign because it's so absurd and it's such a fabricated accusation allegation that it should not hold water even if it's still enables uh institutions to get rid of people and so on uh this is a form of racism to to to uh you know to accuse you of being a racist by being an anti-zionist or even criticizing Israel it means that you are a victim of racism yourself uh and that's the way it should be F to my mindan de M thank you both so much for joining me on up front that is our show up front we'll be back next week

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 144,804

Keywords: Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English, al Jazeera, al jazeera English, al jazeera live, al jazeera video, aljazeera, aljazeera English, aljazeera latest, aljazeera live, aljazeera live news, censorship, free speech, gaza, gaza war, israel, latest news, media, news headlines, palestine, upfront

Id: c1G4JrnAGKw

Length: 14min 37sec (877 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 27 2023