Dutch court confirms: Expressing solidarity with the Palestinian resistance is protected under Dutch law\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Palestinian employee Nouraldin Alsweirki has won a landmark legal victory over his former employer, Dutch software company Speakap B.V., which fired him in October 2023 over LinkedIn posts in which he supported the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Zionist settler-colonial occupation. In November 2024, the Court of Amsterdam affirmed\u00a0that Speakap had discriminated against Nouraldin based on his political beliefs and ordered the company to pay a significant compensation to him. Now, three months later, Speakap officially let the deadline to appeal the Court\u2019s decision expire, making the judgement final. This case was won in a collaboration with lawyer Seyma Arikan from Spuistraat 10 Advocaten.\u00a0Read more<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n We call it a landmark because it shows that expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people, including speaking out for the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Zionist settler-colonial occupation also through armed struggle, is a protected political belief<\/strong>\u00a0on the basis of which you cannot be discriminated against under Dutch anti-discrimination law. The ELSC encourages employees to express any form of solidarity, keep records of the repression\u00a0by your employer whenever it occurs, and\u00a0reach out to the ELSC for legal support or advice<\/a>\u00a0as soon as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n This legal victory demonstrates that there can no longer be impunity for employers that repress anti-genocide, anti-apartheid, and anti-colonial voices, so let there be none. Speak out. Collect evidence. End the impunity.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Attempted criminalisation of the slogan \u2018Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea\u2019. Hearing at the Tiergarten District Court\u202fsuspiciously postponed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong> However, the judge postponed the ruling on spurious grounds, citing that an expert witness could not attend the trial for health reasons. The expert witness in question is a police officer in the Berlin State Criminal Police who had written and submitted an extensive report to clarify whether the slogan “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea” constitutes a symbol of Hamas,\u00a0highlighting that the slogan had been used by a large political spectrum for many decades<\/strong>, and concluding that there was no compelling evidence to claim the slogan was a Hamas symbol in particular. Check out Dror’s interview with left Berlin<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n SHARE THIS IMPORTANT UPDATE!<\/em><\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Vienna Administrative Court Declares Police Raid of Palestine Solidarity Encampment Vienna Unconstitutional\u202f\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n ELSC’s Senior Legal Officer Kiran comments:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cWe welcome the ruling obtained by our partner lawyers in Austria as a legal victory against the increasingly authoritarian anti-Palestinian repression committed by European police authorities. The court made it abundantly clear that freedom of expression and assembly are constitutional rights which are not to be granted by the police but, rather, must be protected by the authorities. This ruling can serve as a legal precedent for similar unlawful police actions against the growing Palestine solidarity movement in Europe.\u201d\u202f Read More<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n SUPPORT THE LEGAL AID FUND<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Setting up a small monthly donation to our legal aid fund can go a long way to ensure ELSC\u2019s stability and security at this critical time where we face an all-time-high number of repression cases. We cannot do this alone, and we need your help to continue supporting the movement!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n ELSC EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Last week, our Senior Communications Officer Abir spoke at a panel organised by Palinale 2025 in Berlin on\u00a0\u201cManufacturing Consent in Germany: who’s (dis)informing the narrative on Palestine?\u201d<\/strong>. The discussion addressed how public opinion is manufactured in Germany; how we are (dis)informed about wars abroad and at home; who\u2019s arranging the facts and non-facts presented to us in film, news media, and academia; who determines the vocabularies and grammars used in German discussions on Palestine; and who decides which opinions are allowed and which views are prohibited in Germany.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n On February 12th, we held a special discussion on the occasion of the new submission of the Ziada case before the European Court of Human Rights, challenging the Netherlands\u2019 decision to grant immunity to Israeli officials accused of war crimes. Joined by UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese, and leading experts in the field of international justice and human rights advocacy,\u00a0we discussed the challenges faced by legal activists, the role of the Netherlands in upholding international justice, and the broader implications for accountability for international crimes committed by Israel.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n ELSC IN THE MEDIA<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Nouraldin, Seyma, and ELSC’s Juul were interviewed by several Dutch media about the\u00a0landmark legal victory<\/a>\u00a0of Nouraldin shared earlier in this newsletter. In a video of Left Laser, for example, they explained what the ruling means for employees in the Netherlands expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people and resistance.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n WATCH HERE<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The national Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant focused on Nouraldin’s storyfeaturing an interview\u00a0<\/a>with him, with Seyma and Juul putting the case into a broader perspective.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n Our\u00a0Advocacy and Communication Officer in Britain,\u00a0Tasnima,\u00a0commented on\u00a0<\/a>the\u00a0University of Birmingham’s targeting of two students over their support for Palestine<\/strong>. The ELSC\u00a0has observed a growing\u00a0trend of repression targeting speech in solidarity with Palestine across European universities over the past year.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n We also support academics like Ray Campbell<\/strong>,\u00a0who was wrongly accused of antisemitism for his criticism of Israel\u2019s genocidal project. Goldsmiths University has now apologised and paid a settlement. Tasnima commented: \u201cUniversities need to uphold their commitment to free expression and resist the undue influence of Zionist lobby groups that seek to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism (…). The misuse of frameworks like the IHRA definition to retroactively punish lawful speech sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the principles of academic freedom.\u201d Read More<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n RESOURCES OF SUPPORT<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Repression of Palestine Solidarity\u00a0in Britain\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Were you arrested at the London National Palestine Protest on January 18, 2025? We\u2019re gathering information to build a clearer timeline and push back against the state\u2019s false narrative.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
On Monday, 27 January 2025, another case in the attempted criminalisation of the slogan \u2018Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea\u2019\u202fshould have been heard at the\u202fTiergarten District Court.\u202fThe Berlin public prosecutor had opened an investigation against\u202ffilmmaker Dror Dayan\u202ffor the\u202fuse of symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organisations\u202f(\u00a7 86a\u202fStGB), pressing\u202fcharges.\u00a0The case concerns a Twitter comment from November 2023, in which Dror Dayan denounced the criminalisation of the slogan in Germany.<\/strong>\u202f\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-1-819x1024.png\")
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