The Civil Society Alliance CIVICUS, which monitors the state of civil liberties worldwide, has documented systematic Israeli repression of civil liberties amidst the ongoing war of extermination on Gaza, now in its second year.
According to the international alliance, the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza has had a significant impact on civil liberties both within Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
In Israel, the government has misused the state of emergency declared following the October 7, 2013 attacks to enact emergency regulations that fail to meet the criteria of necessity and proportionality and could erode the separation of powers.
The Israeli government has passed at least 19 emergency regulations restricting numerous freedoms, including one granting the Minister of Defense the authority to shut down foreign broadcasters deemed to be “harmful to state security.” The proposed amendments to the Counter-Terrorism Law could disproportionately harm freedom of expression by removing the probability test required under international law.
Israeli police have repeatedly detained journalists covering protests, including using physical violence and making false arrests, and have failed to protect journalists when they have been attacked.
Palestinian citizens in the 1948 occupied territories and some Jewish Israelis have faced political persecution and attacks on their freedom of assembly and expression for expressing support for or showing solidarity with civilians in Gaza.
By May 1, 2024, more than 160 indictments had been filed on charges of incitement to terrorism, almost exclusively against Palestinian citizens in the 1948 occupied territories and East Jerusalem.
Stop the War
As anti-war protests continued to mobilize in Israel throughout the year, widespread restrictions on the right to protest were documented, including the disproportionate use of force, arbitrary arrests, unnecessary permit requirements, bans on previously approved protests, and the confiscation of protest signs.
Civil society observed a systematic police practice of violent arrests, assaults on protesters, vandalism of protest signs, and preventing people from holding signs and chanting slogans.
Civil society highlighted a recurring pattern of police misconduct, with protesters often being detained overnight without proper justification.
For example, between August 31 and September 9, 2024, police arrested at least 127 protesters during anti-war demonstrations. Fifty-six of them were detained overnight, only for the courts to find no substantial grounds for their detention during remand hearings.
The Siege of Palestine
Palestinian students at Israeli universities have faced targeting and reprisals for expressing solidarity with Palestine online. Several universities have taken disciplinary action, suspending and expelling Palestinian students for their social media posts about the bombing of Gaza.
The occupied Palestinian territory has been downgraded to a closed civilian area and added to CIVICUS’s watch list due to Israel’s intensified crackdown on the civilian area amid its military operations and the resulting humanitarian catastrophe.
Israeli bombing has caused the highest number of casualties among journalists and aid workers in any conflict in modern history.
In addition to its violent targeting of journalists, Israel is obstructing the work of humanitarian organizations by withholding aid and jeopardizing the existence and funding of desperately needed Palestinian civil society organizations and UNRWA with baseless accusations.
It is also destroying civil society organizations’ buildings and infrastructure through deliberate targeting and undermining access to life-saving information by regularly shutting down the internet and communications.
