Updates

A new legal brief produced jointly by the European Legal Support Center and Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights has found that it is legal for HS2 Ltd – the company building the UK’s new high speed railway HS2 – to exclude from its procurement process companies which are complicit in ongoing breaches of international law, such as Spanish construction company Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF).

The ELSC, PAX, Oxfam Novib, SOMO, and The Rights Forum are hosting a webinar on shrinking space in Area C of the occupied Palestinian territories. The event will take place on Thursday 4 February from 3 pm until 4:30 pm CET.

More than 35 organisations and 31,000 signatories are already supporting the campaign “Facebook, we need to talk – and you’re not letting us.” calling the main social media platform to not add Zionist to its hate speech policy. Right now, Facebook is reaching out to stakeholders to ask if critical conversations that use the term “Zionist” fall within the rubric of hate speech as per Facebook’s Community Standards. Basically, Facebook is assessing if “Zionist” is being used as a proxy for “Jewish people or Israelis” in attacks on its platform.

The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) is seeking a full-time staff member, who has strong communication skills and experience in designing and leading advocacy campaigns around legal issues. The position is located in Amsterdam and available from 1 April 2021. The ideal candidate is passionate about social justice issues and thrives in a collaborative and […]

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. The Constitutional Judges recognized the complainants’ claims under the law.

31 prominent human rights organisations, networks and trade unions from Palestine and Europe have submitted a report to the OHCHR demanding that CAF be included in the UN database of businesses involved in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise for its role in expanding and operating Israel’s Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR).

Another German court ruled that the denial of public spaces for BDS related events is violating fundamental rights.

ELSC Programme Director featured in a documentary on the repression of advocates for Palestinian rights and the weaponisation of antisemitism in Germany

The ELSC has been assisting lawyer Ahmed Abed who is representing three plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought before the Administrative Court of Berlin challenging the lawfulness of the anti-BDS motion passed by the German Bundestag on 17 May 2019.

Thursday 11 June 2020 marked a decisive victory for freedom of expression of Palestinian rights defenders in Europe. The European Court of Human Rights Court (ECtHR) rendered its judgement, unanimously ruling that the French highest court’s criminal conviction of BDS activists campaigning for a boycott of Israeli products violated their freedom of expression, protected by […]

Along with 180 civil society coalitions and organisations, ELSC signed the Open Letter that was submitted to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, on 29 April. We express our strong support for the opening of an investigation into Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which was initiated by Bensouda in December.

The ELSC provided assistance to the Palestinian NGO network PNGO in finding clarity and a common position about a problematic clause concerning EU sanctions that had newly appeared in EU funding contracts with civil society organisations.