Israel-Gaza War Has Dissent Under Fire At Home

Reactions in the US to the Israel-Gaza war have created an inhospitality to dissent that has many recalling the aftermath of September 11, 2001 attacks. 

Both supporters of Palestine and Israel are entitled to the same First Amendment protections.

However, it is impossible not to note that it is supporters of Palestine who are facing systematic attempts to suppress their speech, harassment, and official condemnation. Even before the current war, states across the country were passing unconstitutional bills designed to chill constitutionally protected boycotts in support of Palestinian rights. For decades, the FBI has treated speech in support of Palestinian rights as terrorism, using some of its most intrusive foreign counterintelligence powers to gather information on domestic political speech.  Borrowing a page from the blacklists of the McCarthy-era, people have sought to have supporters of Palestinian rights silenced, fired from jobs, and permanently barred from participating in civil society. 

Defending Rights & Dissent has been at the forefront of challenging many of these attacks. We opposed the FBI’s home visits of Arab-Americans during the First Gulf War, the Clinton Administration’s use of secret evidence against Palestinian immigrants and guilt-by-association counter terrorism policy, and the post 9/11 attack on the Bill of Rights.

Right now, many politicians supportive of Israel are trying to say that Israel’s war is also the US’s war, paving the way for the type of civil liberties crackdowns that always happen during war time. As a US-based civil liberties organization, Defending Rights & Dissent does not have an organizational position on foreign affairs. But, just as Americans were within their First Amendment Rights to question and oppose US wars in Vietnam and Iraq, our Constitution affords them the right to question and oppose a foreign government’s military policies. Issues of war and peace are when robust public, democratic debate is the most vital. As we debate whether to send aid to Israel, how involved we should be in their response, and hear growing calls for war with Iran, the US people have a right to a robust, public debate. They have the right to register their dissent.

Right now, Arab-American civil rights organizations are reporting an uptick in harassment, including FBI visits to mosques and FBI and ICE detention of Palestinian nationals. 

Politicians are pressuring activists to cancel First-Amendment protected assemblies and boasting to the press that police will be monitoring them. 

The media for its part, instead of serving as a critical watchdog on government abuses of power, including repression of dissent, has helped to whip up this atmosphere. They are conflating protesters with terrorists, pushing politicians to condemn them. They have devoted attention to critiquing the social media posts of college students.

When journalists have asked critical questions, they have been rebuked by officials. During a State Department news conference after several independent journalists asked questions about the impacts of Israel’s bombardment on civilians, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller chastised the journalists stating “Some of the questions I am getting today do seem to ignore the fact that Israel just had 100s of its citizens killed, taken hostage[…]some of the questions seem to pretend that Israel should not be able to conduct operations to be able defend itself and hold accountable terrorists that killed civilians.” 

Defending Rights & Dissent will not be silent as some seek to degrade our democracy and pull the country backwards by imitating the worst abuses of the McCarthy and post-9/11 eras.