{"id":8030,"date":"2025-11-25T14:54:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T13:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/?p=8030"},"modified":"2025-11-25T15:08:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T14:08:32","slug":"where-do-we-find-hope-a-letter-from-elscs-executive-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/where-do-we-find-hope-a-letter-from-elscs-executive-director\/","title":{"rendered":"Where do we find hope? A letter from ELSC’s Executive Director\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"


Hello,

2025 has been another challenging year for all of us. It is honestly difficult to find the right words to summarise what has unfolded. The genocide in Gaza and the settler colonial violence in the West Bank has not stopped since the so called \u2018ceasefire\u2019 was declared, with Israel killing at least 399 Palestinians<\/a>, including more than 70 children, and injuring over 871 Palestinians. \u00a0At the same time, Western governments have constructed an architecture of repression aimed at silencing and isolating those who say not in my name<\/em> and never again for anyone<\/em>. It is a dispiriting form of institutional gaslighting: from the proscription of Palestine Action in the U.K., to U.S. sanctions against our colleagues at Al-Haq, Al Mezan, Addameer, The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), and Francesca Albanese, the French governments attempt to dissolve Urgence Palestine, to the systematic and brutal police violence on the streets of Berlin.\u00a0
The main question I keep asking myself is:

Where do we find hope?<\/strong> How do we keep going when the challenges in front of us feel insurmountable?\u00a0<\/em>

Firstly,<\/strong> we find hope in seeing a global movement growing<\/strong>\u2014both in numbers and strength. This year, its power culminated on October 3, 2025, when more than two million workers and young people took to the streets of Italy in a historic general strike for Palestine\u2014the largest protest of its kind in the country\u2019s history. For two days, workers and citizens halted production, logistics, transport, schools, and services to protest the complicity of Western governments that continue to supply weapons and political support to the Zionist regime.\u00a0

Secondly,<\/strong> I find hope in the day-to-day work of our team at the ELSC \u2014lawyers, campaigners, and researchers working tirelessly to ensure that no one in this movement is left behind.<\/strong>\u00a0
I draw hope from our strategic proactive work to end impunity<\/strong>: confronting systems of complicity by taking the Dutch government<\/a> and corporations like Booking.com<\/a> to court; challenging complicit German officials and leaders within the arms industry<\/a>; and holding financial institutions such as Wise<\/a> to account for their discriminatory closures of Palestinian customers\u2019 bank accounts; challenging UK Lawyers For Israel (UKLFI)<\/a> by filing a regulatory complaint<\/a> against their Director; as well as challenging other Zionist lobby groups under data protection laws for their doxing and harassment of workers speaking out against Israel\u2019s genocide.\u00a0

I also draw hope from our defensive work and our legal victories<\/strong>: launching the first database of anti-Palestinian repression<\/a> in Germany which exposes systematic attacks on the movement; providing free legal advice and support to thousands of workers, students, parents, and teachers who stand in unwavering solidarity and refuse to be silenced in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Austria; successfully overturning the German government\u2019s travel ban against Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta<\/a>; bringing a successful appeal<\/a> to the German Constitutional Court reuniting a Palestinian mother with her one year old baby after the infant was denied entry to Germany due to his mother\u2019s Palestine activism;,<\/s> filing criminal complaints against German police officers responsible for violence against protesters<\/a>; assisting in legal battles against the proscription of activist groups<\/a>; and successfully restoring Social Media accounts<\/a> \u00a0censored for standing with Gaza.\u00a0

This work is only possible because of your support <\/strong>\u2014through every contribution, every act of solidarity, and every time you recommended the ELSC to someone facing repression. \u00a0

This is hope! <\/strong>\u00a0

As we look toward 2026, and at times when the world grows darker, we come together and our work grows stronger. The machinery of repression is expanding, so must our capacity to resist it\u2014and that\u2019s why we are asking you to donate to our End of Year campaign.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Donate Now!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Every donation, no matter the size, helps us sustain and expand our work, keeping hope alive.<\/strong>\u00a0

With solidarity,<\/strong>\u00a0
Giovanni Fassina,<\/strong>
ELSC Executive Director<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2025 has been a year of immense challenge and unwavering solidarity.
\nAmid an unrelenting genocide in Gaza and escalating repression across Europe, our work at the ELSC has grown stronger, more urgent, and more necessary than ever.
\nFrom historic mobilisations like the general strike in Italy, to our legal victories across Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and beyond, we continue to defend those standing for justice \u2014 and confront the systems that enable Israel\u2019s violence.
\nThis hope, this strength, comes from you.
\nAs we look toward 2026, we are expanding our capacity to resist\u2014and we ask for your support in our End of Year campaign.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":8031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"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":[130,129],"tags":[112,51,48,74],"test-2":[],"country":[],"blog_categories":[],"class_list":["post-8030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-urgent-call","category-campaigns","tag-anti-palestinian-racism","tag-bds","tag-freedom-of-expression","tag-ihra"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":130,"label":"Calls to Action"},{"value":129,"label":"Campaigns"}],"post_tag":[{"value":112,"label":"Anti-Palestinian Racism"},{"value":51,"label":"BDS"},{"value":48,"label":"Free Speech"},{"value":74,"label":"IHRA"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/elsc.support\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/donorbox.org_-1024x576.png",1024,576,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Bashar","author_link":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/author\/bashar\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":130,"name":"Calls to Action","slug":"urgent-call","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":130,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Urgent and non-urgent actions for the public to take.","parent":0,"count":17,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":130,"category_count":17,"category_description":"Urgent and non-urgent actions for the public to take.","cat_name":"Calls to Action","category_nicename":"urgent-call","category_parent":0},{"term_id":129,"name":"Campaigns","slug":"campaigns","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":129,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Fundraising campaigns.","parent":0,"count":9,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":129,"category_count":9,"category_description":"Fundraising campaigns.","cat_name":"Campaigns","category_nicename":"campaigns","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":112,"name":"Anti-Palestinian Racism","slug":"anti-palestinian-racism","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":112,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"Discrimination against Palestinians","parent":0,"count":60,"filter":"raw"},{"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"},{"term_id":48,"name":"Free Speech","slug":"freedom-of-expression","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":48,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"Relates to censorship and academic freedom","parent":0,"count":89,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":74,"name":"IHRA","slug":"ihra","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":74,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":35,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030","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=8030"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8040,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions\/8040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8030"},{"taxonomy":"test-2","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/test-2?post=8030"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=8030"},{"taxonomy":"blog_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_categories?post=8030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}