Four United Nations experts have “expressed alarm at the worldwide wave of attacks, reprisals, criminalisation and sanctions against those who publicly express solidarity with the victims of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine”.

A press release issued by the UN’s rights agency stated that calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, or criticism of Israeli government’s policies and actions, “have in too many contexts been misleadingly equated with support for terrorism or anti-Semitism”.

The rights experts pointed out that “artists, academics, journalists, activists and athletes have faced particularly harsh consequences and reprisals” for voicing their support for Palestinians.

They noted a “highly disturbing trend to criminalise and label pro-Palestinian protests as “hate protests” and to pre-emptively ban them”, which it said was “detrimental to democracy and any peace-building efforts”.

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