Milestones

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. […]

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 […]

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.