<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent years, especially between 2023 and 2026, the Western world has witnessed a phenomenon that transcends technical-legal debate: the promotion of a new definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). We are facing a coordinated political offensive on an international scale\u2014a deliberate attempt to criminalize solidarity with the Palestinian people, while simultaneously restricting fundamental democratic freedoms in the very countries that present themselves as \u201cdefenders of democracy.\u201d
In Brazil, this offensive already has concrete victims. The worker, union leader, and also president of the PSTU (United Socialist Workers’ Party), Jos\u00e9 Maria de Almeida, known as Z\u00e9 Maria, has been sentenced to two years in prison for racism, stemming from a speech against the State of Israel. This decision lays bare the use of the fight against antisemitism to criminalize solidarity with Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The simultaneous calls for legislation are part of the same political movement that seeks to impose an artificial equivalence between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, a real and historically documented form of racism against Jews. It is a political tool with a deliberate dual purpose. It is a political tool with a deliberate dual purpose. First, to undermine the struggle against the genocide of the Palestinian people, which is gaining popularity every day, and to legitimize the Zionist project as \u201cdefensive\u201d and one of \u201cself-determination,\u201d rather than what it is: colonial, racist, and genocidal.\u00a0[1] Second, to intimidate and, when necessary, criminalize any form of organized opposition to the policies of the State of Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new legal definitions seek to create the political and ideological conditions for the continuation\u2014and normalization\u2014of the destruction in Gaza and the complete colonization of the rest of the Palestinians\u2019 historic territory. They also set dangerous precedents for the repression of social movements, paving the way for broader attacks on democratic rights. This is how imperialist states\u2014under the leadership of the U.S. and Germany\u2014are testing a new regime of social control in the 21st century, using the fight against antisemitism as a fa\u00e7ade to criminalize internationalist solidarity. It is a class and imperial offensive. And it must be confronted as such.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the center of this offensive is the so-called definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), adopted in 2016 and progressively incorporated by dozens of governments, universities, and public institutions. At first glance, its wording seems generic: it defines antisemitism as \u201ca certain perception of Jews that may manifest as hatred toward them.\u201d[2]\u00a0The problem lies not in this basic definition\u2014which enjoys broad consensus\u2014but in the examples that accompany it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is in these examples that the political shift occurs. There, it is established, in practice, that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In practice, this shifts the focus from combating racism against Jews to protecting a specific state against legitimate political criticism.\u00a0[3]\u00a0Kenneth Stern himself, the principal drafter of the IHRA definition and a self-declared Zionist, stated in a 2025 interview with NPR that the definition is being \u201cabsolutely weaponized\u201d to suppress political debate, characterizing its current use as \u201can attack on academic freedom and freedom of expression.\u201d[4]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are facing an instrument of power. As of January 2026, 47 countries had formally adopted the IHRA definition. By 2021, 37 countries had adopted the definition; following the events of October 2023, there was a new wave of adoptions, with a total of 97 new adoptions, including all types of entities (such as local governments and universities). Today, in addition to the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, 26 of the 27 member states of the European Union legally recognize this definition. Several Latin American and Asian countries aligned with U.S. imperialism (Argentina, El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, South Korea, the Philippines, etc.) have also adopted it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the United States, this process takes on a particularly advanced form. This is no coincidence. The country functions as a veritable laboratory for political experimentation. By 2026, 39 U.S. states had adopted the IHRA definition in their legislation or administrative guidelines. Missouri, for example, passed HB 2061 in April 2026, which requires schools and universities to incorporate the IHRA definition into their codes of conduct, to treat antisemitism as racial discrimination, and to establish reporting mechanisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Civil rights organizations have denounced the instrumental use of the definition. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) warned that the IHRA definition has been \u201crepeatedly used to silence advocacy against genocide and for Palestinian human rights,\u201d and that any attempt to punish students for criticizing the Israeli government would violate the First Amendment [4]. Stern himself warned in 2019, in an article for\u00a0The Guardian, that codifying the definition into law \u201cwould be used to suppress political speech and undermine academic freedom.\u201d\u00a0[5]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Germany, the situation is particularly grave. Human Rights Watch\u2019s\u00a0World Report 2026\u00a0documented that German authorities \u201cundermined freedom of expression, assembly, and association, targeting in particular demonstrations of solidarity with Palestine.\u201d The Council of Europe expressed concern over restrictions on freedom of assembly and expression related to the Israeli offensive in Gaza, the excessive use of police force against protesters in Berlin, and restrictions on academic freedom based on the \u201cbroad classification of criticism of Israel as antisemitism.\u201d[6]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The repression is rooted in the principle of Staatsr\u00e4son, according to which Israel\u2019s security constitutes a matter of state. The memory of the Holocaust is mobilized to shift the focus from protection against antisemitism to shielding a specific state from political criticism. Recurring reports indicate the filing of thousands of lawsuits against activists, the cancellation of cultural events, and the exclusion of artists and intellectuals from public spaces due to their political positions. In Austria, a German-speaking country with a similar legal framework, the international socialist activist Michael Pr\u00f6bsting faces lawsuits based on a broad interpretation of the IHRA definition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, recent judicial decisions reveal internal tensions within this model. In November 2025, a higher court in North Rhine-Westphalia ruled that the state cannot broadly prohibit speech that questions Israel\u2019s right to exist, recognizing such positions as protected by freedom of expression. The decision states that critical analysis of the state\u2019s founding and the advocacy of peaceful changes to existing conditions are compatible with the constitutional order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In France, the same movement takes on a distinct legal form, shifting from the realm of administrative guidelines to an explicit attempt to create new criminal offenses. The so-called \u201cYadan Bill\u201d\u2014introduced in November 2024 and under discussion until April 2026\u2014sought to create a new crime: \u201cpublic incitement to the destruction of a state recognized by France.\u201d[7]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the text did not mention Israel by name, the preamble made the target clear, aligning with slogans such as \u201cFrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free\u201d\u2014an expression that, for Palestinians, signifies the end of the occupation and the attainment of equal rights, but has been reinterpreted as an existential threat to the State of Israel.\u00a0[8]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law also sought to expand the crime of \u201cglorifying terrorism\u201d to punish the \u201cdevaluation\u201d or \u201ctrivialization\u201d of attacks, which, according to critics, serves to criminalize the defense of Palestinian resistance as an internationally recognized right against military occupations.[9]\u00a0Amnesty International and UN experts warned that the law, by vaguely punishing the \u201ctrivialization\u201d or \u201cjustification\u201d of terrorism, could be used to silence defenders of Palestinian rights, conflating legitimate political criticism with the glorification of criminal acts.[10]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The public reaction, however, was massive. Faced with a petition that surpassed 700,000 signatures and strong parliamentary obstruction from La France Insoumise (LFI),[11] the government was forced to withdraw the bill from the National Assembly\u2019s agenda on April 16, 2026.
The Macron government pledged to resubmit the text in June of the same year, which shows that the battle is far from over. The episode is not an accidental contradiction of French liberalism\u2014it is its true face: when the defense of \u201chuman rights\u201d threatens geopolitical interests, the state does not hesitate to trample on it. The tactical defeat of April 2026 was a victory for popular mobilization. But the struggle continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the United Kingdom, the criminalization of solidarity with Palestine reached a new level with the proscription of Palestine Action, in effect since July 5, 2025, under the Terrorism Act 2000.\u00a0[12]\u00a0The group, founded in 2020, engaged in acts of civil disobedience\u2014such as symbolic occupations of arms factories, destruction of equipment, and painting with red paint\u2014to denounce the role of the British arms industry in supplying weapons to Israel. None of its members has ever been accused of violence against people; their targets were exclusively properties of companies such as Elbit Systems, Israel\u2019s largest arms manufacturer. Nevertheless, the British government classified their actions as \u201cterrorism,\u201d paving the way for sentences of up to 14 years in prison for mere support of the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The numbers are staggering: by November 2025, more than 2,000 people had been arrested under the anti-terrorism law\u2014some for something as simple as holding a sign reading\u00a0\u201cI oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action\u201d. Of these, about 700 were formally charged. In December 2025, eight Palestine Action activists\u2014part of the so-called \u201cFilton 24\u201d\u2014went on hunger strike in British prisons, with some going 49 days without food, after being held in pretrial detention for over a year while awaiting trial. More than 800 healthcare professionals warned of an \u201cimminent risk of death,\u201d but Keir Starmer\u2019s government refused to negotiate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government\u2019s decision was challenged in court by the group\u2019s co-founder, Huda Ammori. In April 2026, the High Court ruled the ban illegal for violating the rights to freedom of expression and assembly (Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights).[13]\u00a0However, the government appealed the decision, and the ban remains in effect until the final ruling. The Palestine Action case starkly reveals what is at stake: turning activists who oppose genocide into \u201cterrorists\u201d is not a one-off excess\u2014it is the new normal that they intend to consolidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brazil is not immune to this offensive. On the contrary, it has become one of the most recent and troubling battlegrounds for the criminalization of solidarity with Palestine in Latin America. The main legislative instrument of this offensive is\u00a0Bill 1424\/2026, authored by federal deputy Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP), which defines antisemitism based on the IHRA parameters and equates it with the crime of racism, providing for a prison sentence of 2 to 5 years, without a statute of limitations or bail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proposal\u2014which has already garnered the support of 45 deputies from 15 parties, including eight from the PT who later withdrew their signatures in the face of negative backlash\u2014establishes that criticism of the State of Israel, \u201cviewed as a Jewish collective,\u201d can be classified as antisemitism. Although the text notes that \u201ccriticism of Israel that is similar to that directed against any other country cannot be considered anti-Semitic,\u201d the trap lies in the unique nature of the criticism that Israel attracts: there is no other country in the world that is committing genocide against the Palestinian people, killing tens of thousands of children, illegally occupying territories, and imposing the death penalty on prisoners from a specific ethnic group. Thus, Bill 1424\/2026 effectively criminalizes anti-Zionism\u2014opposition to the colonial project of the State of Israel\u2014under the label of antisemitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Bill 1424\/2026 is being debated in the Chamber of Deputies, the crackdown is already beginning to produce its first concrete victims on Brazilian soil.\u00a0On April 28, 2026, Judge Massimo Palazzolo of the 4th Federal Criminal Court of S\u00e3o Paulo sentenced the president of the PSTU, Jos\u00e9 Maria de Almeida\u2014Z\u00e9 Maria \u2014 to two years in prison for the crime of racism, based on a complaint filed by the Federal Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office following a notification from the Israeli Confederation of Brazil (Conib) and the Israeli Federation of the State of S\u00e3o Paulo (Fisesp). Z\u00e9 Maria was convicted for a speech against the State of Israel. For his defense of the Palestinian people. For publicly stating what the images from Gaza show every day: that Israel is committing genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These two phenomena\u2014Z\u00e9 Maria\u2019s conviction and Bill 1424\/2026\u2014are neither accidental nor isolated. They are two sides of the same coin: the importation of the IHRA definition into Brazil, with the explicit aim of criminalizing anti-Zionism and silencing solidarity with Palestine. If the bill is passed, the persecution currently targeting Z\u00e9 Maria will become systematic and spread to activists, journalists, teachers, union members, and any citizen who dares to criticize Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The intensification of repressive measures cannot be understood without considering the power of the Palestinian resistance as a whole and the material effectiveness of the BDS movement, one of its central expressions. The target of the imperialist offensive is the heart of the Palestinian struggle: its multifaceted resistance \u2014 from\u00a0sumud\u00a0(steadfastness) in Gaza and the West Bank to the organization of the diaspora, from global demonstrations to internationalist solidarity. This resistance produces concrete impacts on the circuits that sustain Israel, such as the historic call by Palestinian trade union federations for workers around the world to boycott weapons destined for Israel.
The persistence of Palestinian resistance amid genocide has triggered a historic shift in popular consciousness, including at the heart of the empire. On the contrary: it is the Palestinian resistance itself \u2014 its courage in the face of death, its refusal to abandon its lands, its ability to document and transmit the barbarity of genocide to the world \u2014 that has broken through the barriers of Zionist propaganda. By exposing the weaknesses of the Israeli colonial project, Palestinian resistance produces a delegitimizing effect that reaches not only Israel but also the entire global system of domination. That is why, according to Gallup polls from 2026, 57% of Americans support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and sympathy for the Palestinian people (41%) exceeds sympathy for Israel (36%). Among young people aged 18 to 34, the shift is dramatic: 53% express more sympathy for Palestinians, compared to only 23% for Israel. This phenomenon is all the more remarkable because it occurs under an intense campaign to criminalize solidarity, proving that repression cannot contain the truth when it is fueled by concrete struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the streets of the world, solidarity remains firm. In Istanbul, more than half a million people refused to take part in New Year’s Eve festivities in 2026 to march for Palestine under the slogan “We will not bow, we will not be silent, we will not forget Palestine.” From Spain to South Africa, unions and activists have blocked warships and cargo destined for Israel. What Western elites fear is not only the end of the occupation in Palestine but also the precedent that a Palestinian victory would set for other peoples subjugated by imperialism. That is why the criminalization of solidarity with Palestine serves as a test and a model: if they succeed in silencing the voice that denounces genocide in Gaza, they will succeed in silencing any voice that denounces colonial wars, capitalist exploitation, and internal repression of social movements. The offensive against freedom of speech, the right to protest, and academic freedom \u2014 documented in previous sections of this text \u2014 is not a side effect of repression against Palestine; it is the parallel strategic objective. By targeting Palestinian solidarity, imperialism rehearses the mechanisms of social control that tomorrow will be applied against striking workers, Black movements, defenders of the Amazon, and undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The BDS movement, as an organic part of this broader resistance, has produced significant material impacts on the Israeli economy, proving that international solidarity is not limited to the symbolic realm. According to the Bank of Israel\u2019s 2025 annual report, the Israeli economy lost more than $57 billion (about 8.65% of GDP) between 2023 and 2025 due to the two-year war in Gaza.\u00a0[14]\u00a0The report also indicates that exports to eight European countries critical of Israel fell by $2.5 billion between 2024 and 2025\u2014\u201cwhich may indicate that political positions are influencing export volumes,\u201d according to the Israeli central bank.\u00a0[15]In addition, the Israeli government approved a $13 billion increase in the 2026 budget to fund military operations.[16] These numbers do not lie: Palestinian resistance and the international solidarity movement are already bleeding the Zionist war machine where it hurts most \u2014 in the pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the logistical front, ports have become a central mobilization point. In Spain, authorities denied access to vessels suspected of carrying military material; in Belgium and South Africa, unions publicly declared that they would not collaborate in transporting armaments. In the United States, actions at ports such as Oakland and Tacoma temporarily blocked cargo flow, connecting the labor movement to international solidarity networks. On the institutional front, universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries have become epicenters of divestment campaigns, with students demanding the withdrawal of funds from companies linked to the Israeli military complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The establishment\u2019s reaction was swift: in New York, Mayor Eric Adams signed an executive order in December 2025 prohibiting the city from contracting with or investing in companies participating in boycotts of Israel, affecting over $32 billion in annual contracts and nearly $300 billion in pension investments. [18] Taken together, these actions signal a qualitative shift: it is not merely a matter of expressing opposition, but of concretely interfering with the economic circuits that sustain the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is precisely this effectiveness \u2014 economic, political, and symbolic, born from Palestinian resistance and amplified by international solidarity \u2014 that helps explain the coordinated response of the imperialist states. The criminalization of solidarity is not preventive but reactive: it responds to a movement that has ceased to be merely discursive and has begun to interfere materially in strategic interests, combining resilience on the ground, the shift in public opinion at the centers of power \u2014 produced by the Palestinian resistance itself \u2014 and a true “embargo of the peoples” spreading across the world. It also responds to the recognition that the same impetus for resistance may one day turn against their own restrictive democracies and their class privileges. It is a dress rehearsal for criminalizing all organized opposition to imperialism and capital. The Palestinian resistance shows that it is possible to confront Western barbarism and expose its weaknesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The imperialist response is not only against Palestine but also against the democratic freedoms of everyone. The impact of these policies goes far beyond the Palestinian issue and reflects a deeper movement to reorganize the mechanisms of domination in contemporary capitalist democracies. It constitutes a direct attack on fundamental rights historically won through popular struggles: (1) freedom of expression, restricted when criticism of a state allied with imperialism is treated as illegitimate; (2) the right to protest, stifled by police repression and the criminalization of demonstrations; (3) academic freedom, subjected to surveillance, censorship, and punishment; and (4) the right to political organization, threatened when internationalist solidarity\u2014such as support for BDS\u2014can result in economic, legal, and political persecution. These rights are not being formally abolished\u2014the constitutions remain as a facade\u2014but are being hollowed out through legal interpretations, administrative guidelines, and diffuse mechanisms of intimidation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Education emerges as a central battleground in this offensive, precisely because it is a strategic space for the formation of social consciousness. In the United States, the United Kingdom, and various European countries, there is a coordinated effort to regulate what can be taught about Palestine, colonialism, human rights, and resistance. Teachers are punished for mentioning the 1948 Nakba, curricula are adjusted to eliminate analytical categories such as \u201coccupation\u201d or \u201capartheid,\u201d and students are intimidated for expressing solidarity.
Under the pretext of combating antisemitism, an ideological framework is imposed that limits the production of critical knowledge. By stifling debate on colonialism and international law, these policies do not merely silence a specific issue\u2014they serve to reproduce a conformist consciousness, incapable of questioning existing power structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even when they do not result in formal condemnations, these policies produce a profound and pervasive effect: fear. Academics avoid certain topics to preserve funding; journalists self-censor to keep their jobs; organizations moderate their discourse to avoid sanctions; students refrain from speaking out to avoid punishment. This \u201cchilling effect\u201d constitutes a central mechanism of social control in advanced liberal democracies. There is no need to resort to mass repression when the limits of discourse are internalized within the social body itself. Thus, censorship ceases to be merely an external imposition and becomes widespread self-censorship. The result is the contraction of the public sphere and the preventive neutralization of dissent, setting a dangerous precedent: the tools mobilized today against solidarity with Palestine may tomorrow be applied against any social struggle that challenges the interests of capital and imperialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The governments promoting these laws are not combating real anti-Semitism\u2014they are hijacking the fight against racism to serve the geopolitical agenda of Israel and U.S. imperialism. The proof lies in their selective application: Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, and anti-Roma sentiment remain unaddressed by analogous mechanisms. By expanding the concept of antisemitism to the point of including legitimate criticism of a state and its policies, these measures weaken the effective fight against racism. When historical comparisons, boycotts, or political slogans are treated as forms of discrimination, the term loses precision, analytical depth, and political force.
What is underway is not merely a legal or semantic dispute. It is a coordinated political offensive against the right to say \u201cFree Palestine.\u201d And, like any offense, it must be confronted through collective organization\u2014not with resignation, not with self-censorship, not with passive waiting for favorable court rulings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conviction of Z\u00e9 Maria in Brazil is a warning. If the left and social movements do not react now, the repression that has struck a union leader and historic activist will spread. Tomorrow, it could be a teacher who mentions the Nakba in the classroom. Then, a journalist covering the genocide in Gaza. Then, any citizen who shares a post in solidarity with Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The experience of recent years teaches a clear lesson: where there has been massive popular mobilization, repression has retreated. In France, the withdrawal of the Yadan Bill was a direct victory of the parliamentary obstruction by La France Insoumise and the more than 700,000 signatures demanding its shelving. In the United Kingdom, the High Court ruled that the proscription of Palestine Action was illegal\u2014though the government has appealed. In Austria and Germany, activists like Michael Pr\u00f6bsting continue to face prosecution, but international solidarity can make a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is why organizing today means, above all, making concrete commitments to the most direct victims of this criminalization. Right now, in Brazil, the immediate struggle has a first and last name: Z\u00e9 Maria. We demand the immediate overturning of his conviction and the withdrawal of all charges against him. At the same time, we stand in solidarity with internationally persecuted activists such as Tom Alter, Rima Hassan, and Michael Pr\u00f6bsting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are not isolated cases. They are the visible faces of a systematic persecution affecting dozens, perhaps hundreds, of activists around the world. To defend them is to defend the right of everyone to speak out against genocide and in favor of Palestinian freedom.
The struggle for the liberation of Palestine and the struggle against the criminalization of solidarity are the same. Defending Z\u00e9 Maria is defending the right to say \u201cFree Palestine.\u201d This struggle unites us all\u2014socialists, trade unionists, human rights activists, students, teachers, workers\u2014and is also the defense of the democratic freedoms that allow us to organize future struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If it passes, the same mechanisms will be applied to other causes\u2014to the Black movement, to striking workers, to defenders of the Amazon, to undocumented immigrants, to teachers who teach critical history. The refusal to accept this regression begins today, with local organization, international coordination, and the uncompromising defense of every activist imprisoned or prosecuted for speaking out for what is just.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No to the conviction of Z\u00e9 Maria! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
No to Bill 1424\/2026!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For freedom of expression and a free Palestine!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There can be no neutrality in the face of a repressive machine that has already chosen its side. Silence is not prudence\u2014it is complicity. Let us organize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[1]\u00a0On the colonial nature of the Zionist project, see Pappe, Ilan.\u00a0The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.\u00a0S\u00e3o Paulo: Sundermann, 2017.
[2]\u00a0Brown, Sara E. \u201cSan Diego Adopts Antisemitism Definition That’s Needed More Than Ever\u201d.\u00a0American Jewish Committee. March 23, 2026.
[3]\u00a0CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations). \u201cCAIR Calls on Va. Schools to Reject Outgoing AG’s Call to Falsely Label Students Critical of Israel’s Racism \u2018Antisemitic\u2019\u201d. Press release. January 6, 2026.
[4]\u00a0CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations). \u201cCAIR Calls on Va. Schools to Reject Outgoing AG’s Call to Falsely Label Students Critical of Israel’s Racism \u2018Antisemitic\u2019\u201d. Press release. January 6, 2026.
[5]\u00a0CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations). \u201cCAIR Calls on Va. Schools to Reject Outgoing AG’s Call to Falsely Label Students Critical of Israel’s Racism \u2018Antisemitic\u2019\u201d. Press release. January 6, 2026.
[6]\u00a0Human Rights Watch.\u00a0World Report 2026: Germany. Events of 2025. Published in February 2026
[7]\u00a0The proposal provided for the creation of a new criminal offense related to contesting or questioning the existence of a state recognized by France.
[8]\u00a0The law aimed to ban slogans such as \u201cFrom the river to the sea,\u201d considering them an incitement to hatred or a challenge to the existence of the State of Israel. For Palestinian activists, the slogan represents the aspiration for a single democratic and egalitarian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, with equal rights for Jews, Muslims, and Christians.
[9]\u00a0The proposal included expanding the crime of glorifying terrorism to punish the \u201ctrivialization\u201d or \u201cexcessive minimization\u201d of terrorist acts, a measure criticized for its vagueness and potential impact on freedom of expression.
[10]\u00a0Amnesty International and UN experts warned that the law could be used to silence Palestinian rights advocates, confusing legitimate political criticism (including the defense of resistance against occupation, which is a right recognized under international law) with the glorification of criminal acts.
[11] The LFI caucus, led by Mathilde Panot, engaged in intense legislative obstruction (repeated requests for quorum checks and session suspensions), making it impossible to pass the bill within the established deadline.
[12]\u00a0UK Home Office. Proscription of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000. July 5, 2025.
[13]\u00a0High Court of Justice, United Kingdom. Ammori v. Secretary of State for the Home Department. April 2026.
[14]\u00a0Bank of Israel, 2025 Annual Report. Cited by Bloomberg, March 23, 2026. Available at: https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com (restricted access). See also Anadolu Ajans\u0131: https:\/\/www.aa.com.tr\/en\/middle-east\/israeli-economy-lost-over-57b-during-2-years-of-gaza-war-central-bank\/3876500
[15] Bank of Israel, 2025 Annual Report, section on international trade patterns\u2014same source as above.
[16] \u201cIsrael to Expand Budget by $13 Billion to Fund War with Iran.\u201d Bloomberg\/CNBC TV18, March 10, 2026. Available at: https:\/\/www.cnbctv18.com\/world\/netanyahus-cabinet-to-expand-budget-by-13-billion-to-fund-war-ws-l-19865785.htm
[17]\u00a0See, for example: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, \u201cDivest for Humanity Act,\u201d passed by the student government on February 4, 2026, calling for divestment from arms manufacturers (Nebraska Public Media, February 5, 2026); University of Maryland, SJP resolutions passed by the student government in September, October, and November 2025, and a new resolution in February 2026 (Jewish Journal, February 9, 2026); University of Glasgow, divestment campaign involving \u00a36.8 million in investments in arms companies (Morning Star, April 26, 2026).
[18] Executive Order 60, Office of the Mayor, City of New York, December 2, 2025. Available at: https:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/mayors-office\/news\/2025\/12\/executive-order-60. The order prohibits contracting and investment practices that discriminate against Israel, affecting $32 billion in annual contracts and nearly $300 billion in pension assets. See also amNY (December 3, 2025), Jerusalem Post (December 3, 2025), and Newsmax (December 3, 2025).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Around the world, Zionist organizations have been leading a charge against free speech based on cynical, false charges of antisemitism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":14091,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"litci_post_political_author":"Florence Oppen","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4154,6235,3508,3738,3505,4236,3710,3498],"tags":[5268,6708,6711,6709,6703,4049,3592,6710],"class_list":["post-76035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-palestine","category-austria","category-brazil","category-europe","category-france","category-germany","category-palestine","category-usa","tag-anti-semitism","tag-antisemitism","tag-ban","tag-free","tag-law","tag-oppression","tag-repression","tag-speech"],"yoast_head":"\n