IMAGE: Protest in support of Palestine outside the UN (New York) during conference on Palestine and a two-state solution, July 29, 2025. (Source: Stephanie Keith / Getty Images via AFP)
A new report by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) lists the violations of fundamental freedoms in the context of the repression of the Palestinian solidarity movement. This research project was conducted in four countries between October 2023 and September 2025, encompassing France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The report highlights the mounting criminalization of expressions of solidarity with Palestine in the context of polarization and a declining civic space. The report emerges as an urgent call for protective measures for, and not repression of, the rights of those around the World who are seeking peace and justice for Palestine.
REPORT: The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) – Solidarity as a Crime: Voices for Palestine Under Fire (Source: FIDH)
fidh_report_on_palestinian_solidarity_under_fire
The damning FIDH report published on October 14, 2025, titled “Solidarity as a Crime: Voices for Palestine Under Fire”, indicates that “the fight against hate” has led to heightened responses and actions against dissent globally. Following the events of October 7, 2023, numerous countries have experienced a reduction in civic freedoms, a decline in democratic protections, an increase in Islamophobia, and racial profiling. In many cases, authorities are implementing measures such as prohibiting protests, detaining individuals, and censoring media, ostensibly to uphold order or national security. These actions breach international human rights standards and create a chilling effect on freedom of expression, contributing to the erosion of democratic participation and the silencing of minority voices. Yosra Frawers from FIDH has noted that we are observing a concerning escalation in these extraordinary measures.
FIDH argues that governments must guarantee the right to peaceful expression on all matters and warns about “the risk of conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel, and its potential to exacerbate this suppression.” The accountability of the state, the safeguarding of civil liberties for individuals, and the protection of human rights defenders are clearly at risk.
This report features perspectives from various organizations and affected individuals, some of whom will remain anonymous. Nevertheless, all should be afforded reasonable accommodation for their viewpoints in this report. French outlet L’Humanité has the story…
IMAGE: Protesters in support of Palestine outside the UN (New York) arrested by NYPD during conference on Palestine and a two-state solution, July 29, 2025. (Source: Stephanie Keith / Getty Images via AFP)
Arthur Dumas reports for L’Humanité…
Gaza Genocide: How Solidarity with Palestine Was Methodically Silenced by Western Governments
In a report titled “Solidarity as a Crime: Voices for Palestine Under Fire”, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) highlights the repression of Palestine solidarity movements since October 2023 in France, Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) highlights, in a lengthy report entitled “Solidarity as a Crime: Voices for Palestine Under Fire”, the repression of solidarity movements with Palestine in France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom since October 2023.
For two years, these states have stood out for their desire to stifle any popular protest through the repression and banning of demonstrations, the misuse of anti-terrorism laws and the instrumentalization of the fight against anti-Semitism: these are the conclusions of this report – revealed exclusively by L’Humanité – which warns of the authoritarian drift of these four Western democracies.
Banning and repression of solidarity movements
In France and Germany, the report’s authors note a near-systematic ban on demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine. As early as October 12, 2023, Gérald Darmanin, then Minister of the Interior, called for a total ban on all actions in support of Palestine, stating that they “risked causing disturbances to public order” and warning that any protest “would lead to arrests.”
Protesters who decided to defy this ban were largely fined, if not assaulted by the police or arrested. On the other side of the Rhine, the report notes a similar dynamic, with nearly half of the demonstrations banned by the authorities.
But what the FIDH highlights is that this restriction on the right to protest has been significantly greater in the United States and the United Kingdom. Across the Atlantic, more than 12,000 demonstrations were recorded between October 2023 and June 2024. In 2023 alone, approximately 80 bills aimed at suppressing expressions of solidarity with Palestine were introduced.
Some states have gone so far as to revive old laws used against the Ku Klux Klan to prohibit protesters from covering their faces. The federal government has attempted to extend the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act to houses of worship.
The goal: to prosecute protesters gathered outside a temple where an auction of homes confiscated by settlers in the West Bank was taking place. In Britain, Rishi Sunak’s government introduced a new anti-protest law aimed at allowing police to intervene in “more than minor” rather than “serious” disturbances . The measure was ruled illegal by British courts in May 2024. Keir Starmer’s Labour government appealed before losing its appeal in May 2025.
Misuse of anti-terrorism laws
Alongside these restrictions on the right to demonstrate, the report’s authors highlight the significant criminalization of these protest movements. In France and the United Kingdom, FIDH notes a misuse of anti-terrorism laws, with the underlying assumption that any expression of solidarity with Palestine is equated with explicit support for Hamas.
In France, police investigations into the crime of advocating terrorism have multiplied; some even targeting elected politicians, such as Mathilde Panot, who was summoned by the police for the France Insoumise press release published on October 7.
Across the Channel, former Interior Minister Suella Braverman sent a letter to the police at the end of October 2023, explaining that wearing certain clothing and symbols could be interpreted as support for Hamas, which has been banned since 2021.
However, Section 12 of the UK Terrorism Act prohibits any expression or belief related to a banned group. In July 2025, authorities classified the Palestine Action organization as a terrorist organization , allowing for the arrest of people attending their rallies.
The fight against anti-Semitism instrumentalized
These four countries do not systematically align themselves with the same practices of repression, but they share the same definition of antisemitism: that of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Distributed since the mid-2010s, this definition equates any criticism of Zionism or Israeli policy with antisemitism.
While France is the only country not to have adopted it verbatim, it has nevertheless been recognized by the Parliament and the Paris City Hall since 2016. That same year, Theresa May officially adopted the IHRA definition in the United Kingdom. In the United States, it was already included in a Trump executive order in 2019 and is now included in the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act adopted by the House of Representatives in May 2024 and now awaiting Senate approval.
In Germany, this definition was adopted in 2017 and is more broadly aligned with the political movement that describes Israel’s security as a “reason of state.” However, the FIDH documents false accusations by the authorities against activists, researchers, and artists.
Symbolizing this shift, when Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra, co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land“, called for an end to apartheid and a ceasefire in February 2024 during their speeches at the Berlinale, the German political scene labeled them anti-Semitic and demanded accountability from the festival’s organization.
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