DWestern democracies, including the United States, Canada, France, Germany and Belgium, were accused at the UN on Friday of having “harshly” repressed the right to demonstrate for the Palestinian cause, particularly in start of the war in the Gaza Strip.
In a report presented to the General Assembly and the press, the Special Rapporteur for the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, also accused Israel of “serious attacks” against media in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, speaking in particular of “targeted assassinations of journalists”.
This Bangladeshi human rights lawyer, an “independent” UN expert since 2020, criticized “a number of European countries for having imposed measures restricting freedom of expression, repressing protests against the carnage in Gaza and banning pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
“Never on demonstrations for Israel”
“Demonstrations on campuses in the United States have been harshly repressed,” she said, referring to the intervention at the end of April by the New York riot police to dislodge dozens of pro-Palestinian activists who occupied part of Columbia University.
As for European countries, Irene Khan targeted “Germany (which) imposed a total ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations last October, and since then, restrictions on these protests in various German regions.” “Never on demonstrations for Israel, but always on pro-Palestinian ones,” she stressed.
“France tried to take the same measures but the courts rejected them and the evaluation is done on a case-by-case basis,” continued the lawyer, citing again “Belgium and Canada having adopted identical positions”.
At the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza a year ago, the French Interior Ministry requested that pro-Palestinian demonstrations be systematically banned due to potential disturbances to public order. The Council of State, the highest administrative court, had called the government to order by demanding decisions on a case-by-case basis.
Israel singled out
Irene Khan also castigated Israel for “serious attacks against the media in the Occupied Palestinian Territories – Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem – the targeted assassinations of journalists, arbitrary detentions, dozens of destructions of infrastructure and equipment of the press in Gaza, the refusal to let the international press in.” “The tightening of censorship in Israel and the Occupied Territories suggests that the Israeli authorities have a strategy to silence critical journalism,” she concluded.
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