Civic space is shrinking. Every year, human rights defenders, humanitarians, social justice activists and their organizations face new threats in their ability to organize campaigns and protest oppressive policies. This crisis is particularly acute in the context of dissent and speech related to Palestine–Israel.
In the occupied Palestinian territories, civil society actors face arrest, mass surveillance and movement restrictions, while in Israel, various legal mechanisms are used to restrict dissent, and measures are being taken to limit judicial review. Meanwhile, in the United States, widespread efforts have been deployed to prohibit advocacy in support of Palestinian human rights, whether in the public square or online.
Since October 7, we continue to see the systematic suppression of pro-Palestinian voices and a shrinking of civic space when it comes to conversations about Palestine. From a crackdown of speech at protests to the arrests of students and professors on university campuses, there is a deepening constraint on engagement with pro-Palestinian speech. Things stand to only get worse with the return of Donald Trump to the White House.
A new book co-edited by H.A. Hellyer and Zaha Hassan dives into the policies that have gotten us to this moment and what comes next. Suppressing Dissent: Shrinking Civic Space, Transnational Repression and Palestine–Israel looks at the impact of this suppression on civil liberties and what policymakers need to know about the conflict. The full book available for digital download as an open access publication is here. A hard copy is also available from Simon and Schuster in the US and One World Academic in the UK.
The book features chapters from Carnegie Endowment scholars–Professor Nathan Brown and former Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher–as well as outside subject matter experts focused on the Middle East, national security, and digital rights. Some of the experts are also members of your distribution list including Yousef Munayyer. I have attached excerpts here.
We have had great endorsers of the book from the UN’s Martin Griffiths to a former US diplomat in Jerusalem and a director at the US National Security Council responsible for democracy and human rights.
The Carnegie book launch event can be viewed here: Dissent, Protest, and Palestine-Israel: Restrictions on Civic Space During Violent Conflict | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace