‘Index of repression’ includes smears, harassment, job losses and arrests, legal advocacy group says
Palestinian solidarity is being “silenced, criminalised and sanctioned”, according to an advocacy group that says it has recorded more than 900 examples of repression across Britain in the last six years.
People had been targeted with smears, disinformation, harassment, doxing (having private or identifying information published online), visa cancellations, financial blacklisting, loss of employment and arrest, according to the European Legal Support Center, which, along with the research group Forensic Architecture, has created the “index of repression”.
The ELSC said such consequences had been justified by allegations of antisemitism or terrorism support, with the main “actors of repression” being police (220 incidents), educational institutions (192), pro-Israel advocacy groups (141), and journalists and other media actors (141).
At a press conference on Wednesday, Bob Trafford, of Forensic Architecture, said: “The data, painstakingly gathered and verified by ELSC, reveals the operation of a system, not something which is centrally directed, of course, but something which is organic, multipolar, self-reinforcing and mutually exacerbating.
