Defend

DUTCH BELOW On June 11, 2024, the Human Rights Board, a state-sanctioned institution in the Netherlands that rules on discrimination cases, ruled that Dutch software company Speakap B.V. discriminated on the basis of political affiliation when it fired N.A. for posts on LinkedIn condemning Israel for committing genocide and war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza. […]

Press release of the Berlin Lawyers’ Collective, 11.06.2024 (Deutsche Version unten) In its decision of 10.06.2024 (Az. VG 2 L 119/24), the Administrative Court of Berlin rejected the application of three Palestinians in Gaza for the denial of war weapons deliveries to Israel. The Administrative Court dismissed the application on the grounds that the Federal […]

Case update – Despite a negative ruling, solidarity persists and ELSC funding campaign covers all costs for the court case. In 2019, a secret dossier was created by RIAS Berlin and MBR aimed at misinforming the public about Dr. Younes’ work and opinion misrepresenting her as antisemitic and supportive of sexism and terrorism. The latter depictions […]

ENGLISH BELOW Pressemitteilung – Berlin, 24. Mai 2024 Das Landgericht Berlin hat zugunsten Yasemin Acar gegen den Tagesspiegel entschieden. Das Gericht hat eine einstweilige Verfügung verhängt, welche die Tageszeitung mit Sitz in Berlin zwingt, gleich mehrere Falschbehauptungen über die Aktivistin zurückzunehmen und zukünftig zu unterlassen. Yasemin hatte mit Unterstützung der Rechtsanwältin Ingrid Yeboah und dem […]

Berlin, May 15, 2024  Berlin, Administrative court Potsdam slams German Federal Police: Schengen-Information-System entry for Prof. Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah has no legal basis and is to be revoked immediately after an emergency appeal by ELSC lawyer Alexander Gorski with support from lawyers from the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP). This effectively ends […]

In December 2023, a Dutch court ordered nine public universities to comply with the freedom of information act (FOIA) and answer requests about what role – if any – Palestinian rights play in their decisions to partner with Israeli companies and institutions. They must also disclose ties to pro-Israel organisations. The Rights Forum and students […]

After discovering that the European Commission (EC) was violating its own rules around funding projects involving Israeli entities, an activist with ICAHD Finland, with the support of the ELSC, recently got the EU Ombudsman to issue an important decision which confirms that any entity established in the Israeli illegal settlements in the OPT should be […]

Between 2021 and 2023, the ELSC received several requests for support from students at prestigious French university Sciences Po, targeted by unfounded allegations of antisemitism and terrorism glorification. In all cases, we were successful in preserving the students’ reputation and position, while ensuring that Sciences Po does not repeat the same mistakes again and upholds […]

At a time when expressions of support for the Palestinian cause are facing criminalisation at utterly unprecedented levels across Europe, we draw attention to the Dutch court ruling: “From the river to the sea” fully legitimate! What happened?  After a Dutch activist gave a speech at a Palestine solidarity rally in May 2021 in Amsterdam, […]

In a ground-breaking resolution, Barcelona’s Ombudsman David Bondia recommended that the city breaks its Twinning Agreement with Tel Aviv over concerns about human rights violations committed by Israel against Palestinians. Bondia’s report, released in December 2022, emphasised that maintaining links with Israel constituted complicity in the commission of the crime of apartheid against Palestinians, thus setting an historical precedent among European public institutions in the denunciation of Israel’s crimes.

On 29 March 2023, a criminal court found activist for Palestinian rights Michel Legrand not guilty of trivialising the Holocaust. This decision creates a promising precedent for the freedom of speech of Palestinian rights defenders in Luxembourg, in a climate where similar bogus accusations continue to emerge.

Affy and Aliya are two Muslim women employed by Lloyds Bank (LBP), one of the UK’s biggest banks. In May 2021, both posted statements in support of Palestine on the bank’s internal intranet portal. Both denounced the ongoing human rights violations committed by the Israeli government. Affy also expressed her desire for the company to boycott HP, which is complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. 

Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Farah Maraqa won her lawsuit against German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), which dismissed her and other 6 journalists in February 2022.

Dr. Walaa Alqaisiya was brutally disinvited from the Spring Curatorial Program: Arts Geographies, taking place between 23 May and 1 June 2022 and organised by the Mumok Museum, the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna and cultural organisation Verein K. Thanks to collective efforts and solidarity, Walaa pushed back and pressured the cancelling institutions, with the result of having the program removed from their premises. This showed them that such discriminatory conduct cannot be without repercussions.

In landmark rulings dated 29 April 2022, the French Council of State (France’s highest administrative court) has prevented the dissolution of the Comité Action Palestine (CAP) and the Collectif Palestine Vaincra (CPV). In the decisions, the Council rejected the unfounded allegations of antisemitism and support to terrorism made against the groups and confirmed the legitimacy of boycott calls.

In a milestone ruling delivered on 26 April 2022 by the Regional Court of Stuttgart, attempts by the State Bank of Baden-Württemberg at financial deplatforming against Stuttgart Palestine Committee were found unlawful and the activists could retain access to their two bank accounts. This decision came less than one week after another legal victory for the Committee against the City of Stuttgart.

Dr. Anna-Esther Younes is a German Palestinian academic who has been subjected to several disinformation campaigns, publicly defamed and had her freedom of expression restricted in respect of her journalism, academic and policy work. The latest in this long chain of disinformation campaigns and repression occurred in 2019, when she discovered that her academic work and other data had been privately processed and distorted to frame her as anti-Jewish racist, sexist and as a terrorist sympathiser.

Shahd Abusalama faced a smear campaign and was about to lose a teaching position at Sheffield Hallam University. Her case, which we supported, illustrates the trend of growing repression of Palestinian rights advocacy on UK campuses. Shahd’s case also illustrates that solidarity and coordination are an effective way to collectively push back against unjust repression of legitimate advocacy for Palestinian rights.

On 5 May 2022, The French Court of Appeal of Lyon confirmed the acquittal of Olivia Zémor, issued last year by a French criminal court in Lyon (Tribunal Correctionnel de Lyon) on 18 May 2021. This decision is another recognition of the legitimacy of the BDS (Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions) call.

A member of BDS Austria is being sued by the Municipality of Vienna for sharing a Facebook post stating: ”Visit Apartheid – Free Palestine”. 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.

In the judgment Moerenhout and others v Commission, delivered on May 12, 2021, the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union (GCEU) ruled on a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) calling upon the European Commission to adopt measures to regulate trade with occupied territories. The Court found the Commission violated its obligation to provide with adequate reasons for its initial refusal to register the ECI and, accordingly, annulled that decision.

In December 2019, docP, a Dutch organization representing BDS Netherlands began a campaign to get the Israeli Products Centre (IPC), based in Nijkerk, The Netherlands, to correctly label products that were made in illegal Israeli settlements. In response to the campaign, the IPC threatened docP with a defamation lawsuit in order to silence their advocacy for Palestinian rights. In April 2021, the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) fined the IPC for the intentional mislabeling of settlement products, recognizing the rightful claims of docP.

In the judgement Organisation juive européenne and Vignoble Psagot v. Ministre de l’Économie et des Finances, delivered on 12 November 2019, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on the interpretation of the EU Regulation in relation to foodstuffs produced in the territories occupied by the State of Israel since June 1967. The Court found that these products not only have to bear the indication of the territory of origin, but also specify if they come from an Israeli settlement within that territory, if that is the case.

On 11 January 2021, the Provincial Court of Valencia (Audiencia Provincial de Valencia) dismissed the judicial investigation initiated by the criminal complaint filed by the Legal Committee for the Fight against Discrimination (Comitè Legal para la Lucha Contra la Discriminatión) against eight activists in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

On 22 September 2020, the Constitutional Court of the State of North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) in Germany delivered its final ruling in the complaint brought by lawyer Ahmed Abed and the ELSC against the anti-BDS motion of the NRW State Parliament adopted on 20 September 2018.

In May 2020, lawyer Ahmed Abed, with the assistance of the ELSC, filed a complaint before the Administrative Court of Berlin against the Bundestag’s anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) motion, adopted by the German parliament in May 2019.

On 11 June 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its judgement in the case Baldassi and Others v. France ruling that calling for a boycott of goods from Israel is protected by the right to freedom of expression and cannot be considered incitement to discrimination. In 2009, 11 campaigners advocating for Palestinian […]

In 2017, the City of Cadiz cancelled an Israeli embassy-sponsored film festival, on the basis of a motion which declared the city free from Israeli Apartheid. In response, the association “Action and Communication on the Middle East” (ACOM), filed a criminal complaint for hate crime and arbitrary exercise of power against both the members of the City Council and the Andalusian Association for Human Rights (APDHA). Both the Cadiz Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal rejected ACOM’s complaints.

Three German civil society organisations advocating for Palestinian rights were denied participation in the 2019 Bonn annual cultural festival because of their support for the BDS movement. The groups petitioned the Administrative Court of Cologne challenging their exclusion. The Court ruled in favour of the groups and consequently instructed the city council to allow all three associations to attend the festival.

In February 2019, the City Council of Oldenburg refused to a grant public space to the local Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanction (BDS) movement, claiming that the campaign is antisemitic. BDS Oldenburg petitioned the Court, which acknowledged its claims and instructed the city to grant the venue to BDS Oldenburg.