Index on Censorship weekly round-up
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Friday, 05 April 2024
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A raly calling for the return of Israeli hostages organised by the Bring Them Home campaign. Photo:Ziv Barak
This weekend marks the sixth month anniversary of the Hamas invasion of Israel that left the world in shock. At least 1,160 people were killed, most of them civilians. Many others were injured, women were raped as an act of war, and 240 Israelis were taken hostage. It was the biggest anti-Jewish atrocity since the Holocaust. Israel’s military response, intended to destroy Hamas and return the hostages, has led to more than 30,000 Palestinian deaths, according to the Hamas-led health ministry. This weekend, the international community continues to call for a ceasefire and Israel is bracing itself for possible attacks from Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and possibly Iran itself. The conflict has led to pro-Palestinian demonstrations in world capitals and a rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia. It has also provided the pretext for a further erosion of free-expression rights inside Israel.
To mark the anniversary of 7 October, we are running a piece by the journalist, poet, and regular Index contributor Jo-Ann Mort ([link removed]) , who is also an advisor to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). She quotes ACRI’s director Noa Sattath: “The government has pushed forward with existing trends such as targeting Arab society, restricting freedom of movement, increasing the prevalence of firearms in public spaces, and accelerating the annexation of the West Bank. Given the general climate in a time of war, these efforts are met with less resistance.”
During this past six months, Index has kept its focus, as always, on threats to free expression and the work of writers, journalists and artists during the conflict. As soon as the conflict began, we raised concerns ([link removed]) about the missing and killed journalists, the difficulties of reporting from Gaza, the slew of misinformation about the war and the attempts to curtail protest.
The misinformation issue was addressed by American academic Sophie Fullerton, who challenged Elon Musk ([link removed]) , the owner of X (formerly Twitter) to get his house in order over lies being told about Gaza on his platform. We paid tribute ([link removed]) to our friends at the Alliance for Middle East Peace (AllMEP) and Standing Together attempting to keep the dialogue open between Israelis and Palestinians despite what was happening on the ground. In November, Palestinian poet Samir el-Youssef wrote a powerful piece ([link removed]) reminding readers that dissident voices were being silenced by Hamas as well as Israel.
In December, internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei spoke to us ([link removed]) after he and other artists signed an open letter saying art institutions were: “systematically repressing, silencing and stigmatising Palestinian voices and perspectives.” And extremism expert Jakob Guhl reported on the concern ([link removed]) that voices of support for Palestine were being silenced across Germany.
Meanwhile, Index editor-in-chief Jemimah Steinfeld stepped into the controversy over remarks made by Russian writer Masha Gessen when they said of Gaza: “the ghetto is being liquidated”. Jemimah wrote ([link removed]) : “If the goal is to lessen hatred, to create more tolerant societies, the approach of trying to block out speech we don’t like doesn’t work, not least because the instinct itself is authoritarian. Pro-Palestinian voices are being silenced, as are Jewish ones. It’s minorities who always lose out.”
By the beginning of 2024, the situation for many Palestinian journalists inside Gaza had become intolerable. Al-Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh finally left Gaza in January after the death of his son in an Israeli drone strike. He had already lost his wife, two other children and a grandson during the war, but carried on working. I interviewed his colleague ([link removed]) Youmna el-Sayed in January about al-Dahdouh. El-Sayyed had herself been forced to leave for Egypt but told Index: “But I’m only here with my body. My heart and my mind are totally in the Gaza Strip”.
The reverberations from the conflict have affected every aspect of public life – including sport. Daisy Ruddock wrote about ([link removed]) the heavy-handed way governing bodies in sport were dealing with athletes expressing solidarity for those involved in the conflict.
As we reflect on the consequences of the ongoing war in Gaza for Palestinians, it is also right that we remember the devastating effect 7 October has had on Israeli society.
As Index CEO Ruth Anderson writes in her blog this week ([link removed]) : “Let us not forget the human faces behind the headlines – the families mourning the loved ones, the children traumatised by violence and the communities struggling to rebuild in the aftermath.”
Martin Bright, editor at large
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** Marking 1,000 days of hunger strike by
Dr Abduljalil Al-Singace
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The award-winning Bahraini academic, blogger, and human rights defender Dr Abduljalil Al-Singace has now been on a liquids-only hunger strike for 1,000 days. Index has joined more than 25 other organisations in writing to the Bahraini king and prime minister to urge them to take action to demand his immediate release. Read the letter here ([link removed]) .
** When the old fox walks the tightrope
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President Museveni signed the AntiHomosexulaity Act into law in 2023. Illustration: Amorim
Despite a petition from a group of activists and legal experts, Uganda’s Constitutional Court recently made the decision to uphold the Anti-Homosexuality Act, one of the most oppressive anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the world. A few parts of the Act were struck out, including the “duty to report acts of homosexuality”, and the restrictions on publishing “material promoting or encouraging homosexuality”, but the rest remains strong. In our summer 2023 magazine, just as the Act was passing, Danson Kahyana and Stella Nyanzi discussed the implications for free speech ([link removed]) , and what the petition from activists would mean for President Yoweri Museveni’s balancing act where this law was concerned.
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** The long reach: How authoritarian governments silence critics abroad
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Join Index on Censorship at the University of Exeter ([link removed]) for an evening discussing the growing – and worrying – trend of transnational repression. Transnational repression takes many forms: from UK residents being poisoned by Russian agents, to a Saudi dissident being murdered in Turkey, to a Polish art gallery being subject to attempted acts of censorship by Chinese diplomats, to UK-based BBC Persian journalists being threatened and harassed by Iranian authorities. John Heathershaw, Professor of International Relations at the University of Exeter, and Belarusian poet Hanna Komar join Index’s magazine Editor-in-chief, Jemimah Steinfeld, for a discussion about the extent and impact of states silencing their critics abroad and the fundamental right to free expression. Get a free ticket here
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** From the Index archives
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** Fighting back against the menace of Slapps
by Jessica Ní Mhainin
Spring 2021
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Today, 5 April, the Council of Europe has issued a recommendation ([link removed]) to its 46 member states containing guildelines aimed at countering the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs). Together with the other members of the CASE Coalition, Index welcomes the announcement. If properly implemented, the recommendation will limit the chilling effect SLAPPs have on freedom of expression in Europe. Index has been campaigning on the subject for many years. Read this article ([link removed]) by our head of policy and campaigns Jessica Ní Mhainin in our Spring issue in 2021.
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Index on Censorship defends people's freedom to express themselves without fear of harm or persecution. We publish censored writers and artists, monitor and campaign against censorship, and encourage debate.
We rely on donations from readers and supporters. By donating ([link removed]) to Index you help us to protect freedom of expression and to support those who are denied that right.
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