Opposing genocide is a moral duty. Defend the right to political dissent.

Across Europe and Britain, the crackdown on the Palestine solidarity movement has reached new extremes

In Britain, the Starmer Government is moving to proscribe Palestine Action – a direct-action group that has been protesting the ongoing genocide by disrupting weapons shipments to Israel and targeting arms factories and contractors complicit Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 

In France, the Macron Government is trying to ban Urgence Palestine, a youth-led movement that mobilised thousands across the country.  

In Germany, the BDS movement has been officially labelled as extremist – meaning that activists campaigning for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions are being surveilled, harassed, and repressed by the state.
 
In the case of Pal Action the state is now labelling these protesters as “terrorists.” Governments across Europe and Britain are attempting to set a dangerous escalation: that resisting genocide can be labelled “terrorism”, and that organising for justice becomes grounds for prosecution. This weaponisation of law is designed to isolate solidarity groups and silence dissent. 

At ELSC, we’ve been defending those persecuted for speaking out since 2019. We have documented thousands of incidents of censorship and suppression across Europe and Britain. Activists are being arrested, suspended from universities, blacklisted from jobs, or visited by law enforcement – simply for standing with Palestine 

With increasing repression, the Palestine solidarity movement needs coordinated and affordable legal defense and protection: that’s what we’ve been building but we need your help to sustain it.

This is a coordinated campaign to crush dissent. 
The banning of Urgence Palestine, Palestine Action and BDS are not isolated acts, but part of a broader strategy designed to suppress and criminalise those who refuse to be silent in the face of a live-streamed genocidal annihilation campaign. 

The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) is one of the only independent organisation working across Europe and Britain to defend the Palestine solidarity movement. Our mandate is to defend and protect those who resist genocide and complicity.  

Since October 2023, we’ve received 936 legal support requests and are currently working on 323 active cases across six countries. From students and trade unionists to teachers, journalists, and artists, we are defending the people targeted for refusing to stay silent. 

But the scale of repression is growing, and we urgently need your support to keep going. 
If political protest can be banned, no one is free. Legal defense is political resistance. 
We urge you to Donate now to help us defend the people demanding a just future for Palestine. 


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