Newsletter

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 […]

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, […]

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.