Geneva, Switzerland – In a human rights intervention, the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) brought the voices of pro-Palestine demonstrators from the streets of European capitals into the halls of the United Nations in Geneva, exposing before the UN Human Rights Council a growing and alarming pattern of repression by certain European authorities targeting movements of solidarity with Palestine within their territories.

The intervention went beyond a political complaint. PRC delivered its statement under Item 9 of the Council’s agenda, which addresses “racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.” Through this framing, the Centre stressed that the ongoing crackdown on pro-Palestine activism entails forms of racial discrimination. It emphasised that such repression is often not arbitrary but rather directed against activists of Arab and Muslim descent, constituting a compound form of discrimination based on both political opinion and national origin. PRC further warned against the deliberate conflation of identity and opinion, as the suppression of one’s political expression becomes a façade for the marginalisation of their very identity.

The Centre highlighted that under the pretext of “maintaining public order,” several European governments are applying blatant double standards. While freedom of assembly is upheld for other causes, advocates for Palestinian rights face unjustified repression, including bans on demonstrations, criminalisation of organisations, excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests, and judicial harassment.

In an even more concerning observation, PRC drew attention to the weaponisation of the accusation of antisemitism, increasingly used as a tool to silence any criticism of Israeli occupation policies and human rights violations. The Centre argued that this practice not only amounts to the criminalisation of solidarity and the erosion of freedom of expression, but also fosters a hostile environment against anyone who challenges Israeli policies, reinforcing the dangerous notion that some calls for justice are less legitimate than others.

In conclusion, PRC urged the Human Rights Council to call upon European states to uphold their obligations to guarantee freedom of peaceful assembly and expression without discrimination. The Centre also called for the opening of an international investigation into the disproportionate use of force by police authorities in those states against demonstrators expressing solidarity with Palestine.