{"id":1434,"date":"2022-01-20T10:05:51","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T09:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.elsc.support\/?p=1434"},"modified":"2025-04-14T13:13:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T11:13:49","slug":"austrian-advocates-facing-lawsuit-for-a-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/austrian-advocates-facing-lawsuit-for-a-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Campaign for Austrian Activist Facing Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <strong>A member of BDS Austria is being sued by the Municipality of Vienna for sharing a Facebook post stating: \u201dVisit Apartheid \u2013 Free Palestine\u201d. The Municipality has filed a strategic lawsuit against public participation (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-case.eu\/about#block-b1b01b79fa1caf24f59f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SLAPP<\/a>) to deliberately repress and intimidate BDS-Austria and Palestinian rights advocates. Such a tactic threatens democratic values and fundamental rights. The hearing at the Commercial Court of Vienna will take place on the 28<sup>th<\/sup> of January 2022.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\"><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/ViennaApartheid\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-color\">T<\/span>AKE ACTION NOW to push the Municipality of Vienna to withdraw its complaint!<\/strong> <\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p> On the 29<sup>th<\/sup> of August 2021, BDS-Austria published a social media post with a picture of the famous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo\/?fbid=1765043937017350&amp;set=pcb.1765048770350200\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">poster<\/a> stating \u201cVisit Apartheid\u201d that was stuck on a billboard along with the official logo of the Municipality of Vienna. The post had the sarcastic caption \u201c<em>We are pleased that the City of Vienna also takes note of apartheid and publicly states it<\/em>\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In November 2021, a member of BDS-Austria was notified that the Municipality of Vienna officially filed a lawsuit against him. According to the municipality, the BDS movement \u201c<em>incites to hatred against Israeli people<\/em>\u201d and therefore being publicly associated with BDS would amount to defamation since \u201c<em>the designation of the situation in Israel\/Palestine as an \u201cApartheid\u201d constitutes damage to our reputation<\/em>\u201d. <a href=\"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/cases\/m\/\"><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-accent-color\">Read the whole case summary here.<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>To support the activist and BDS Austria, you can:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/municipality-of-vienna-support-palestinian-rights-advocates-in-austria-facing-unjust-lawsuit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sign the petition asking the Municipality of Vienna to drop its lawsuit<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/bds-austria-v-vienna-city-council\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Donate to help the activist with the legal fees<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<script src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/widget.js\" paypalexpress=\"true\"><\/script><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/embed\/bds-austria-v-vienna-city-council\" name=\"donorbox\" allowpaymentrequest=\"allowpaymentrequest\" seamless=\"seamless\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"max-width: 500px; min-width: 250px; max-height:none!important\" width=\"100%\" height=\"900px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Share the campaign on social media with the hashtag <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ViennaVisitApartheid?src=hashtag_click\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#ViennaVisitApartheid<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.palestineposterproject.org\/poster\/visit-apartheid-original\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Visit Apartheid poster<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udea8While <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Israel?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#Israel<\/a> is enforcing apartheid by expelling Palestinian family in Sheikh Jarrah, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Stadt_Wien?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@Stadt_Wien<\/a> filed a lawsuit against a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BdsAustria?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@BdsAustria<\/a> activist for sharing online the \u201cVisit Apartheid\u201d poster.<br>Case details\ud83d\udc49<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PXL7GYHh17\">https:\/\/t.co\/PXL7GYHh17<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SaveSheikJarrah?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#SaveSheikJarrah<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ViennaVisitApartheid?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#ViennaVisitApartheid<\/a><br>1\/6 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/k9OiFIUAdR\">pic.twitter.com\/k9OiFIUAdR<\/a><\/p>&mdash; European Legal Support Center (ELSC) (@elsclegal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elsclegal\/status\/1484133403222024193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">January 20, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> A member of BDS Austria is being sued by the Municipality of Vienna for sharing a Facebook post stating: \u201dVisit Apartheid \u2013 Free Palestine\u201d. The Municipality has filed a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) to deliberately repress and intimidate BDS-Austria and Palestinian rights advocates. Such a tactic threatens democratic values and fundamental rights. The hearing at the Commercial Court of Vienna will take place on the 28th of January 2022. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[51],"test-2":[],"country":[92],"blog_categories":[],"class_list":["post-1434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","tag-bds","country-at"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":55,"label":"Press Release"}],"post_tag":[{"value":51,"label":"BDS"}],"country":[{"value":92,"label":"Austria"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/elsc.support\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/BDS-austria-1024x510.png",1024,510,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Bashar","author_link":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/author\/bashar\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":55,"name":"Press Release","slug":"press-release","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":55,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Official updates shared with media or public.","parent":0,"count":76,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":55,"category_count":76,"category_description":"Official updates shared with media or public.","cat_name":"Press Release","category_nicename":"press-release","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":51,"name":"BDS","slug":"bds","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":51,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign","parent":0,"count":41,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1434"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1465,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434\/revisions\/1465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1434"},{"taxonomy":"test-2","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/test-2?post=1434"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=1434"},{"taxonomy":"blog_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_categories?post=1434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}