UK Lawyers for Israel’s repression tactics exposed

On 25 February, the European Legal Support Center (ELSC) is launching a publicly searchable database.

Otherwise known as ‘Britain’s Index of Repression,’ it catalogues instances where UK institutions and craven bodies have used the law. More specifically, it shows how Israel-adjacent groups are using legal means to stifle Palestine solidarity.

Unsurprisingly, a quick search for UK Lawyers for Israel brings back 128 results. It seems that what the Canary has known all along is becoming public knowledge.

The nefarious lobbyists at UK Lawyers for Israel have and remain to be actively involved in repressing British civil liberties. Only, they’re batting for the wrong team — by which we mean a hostile, foreign state.

In its own words, plucked from its website, UK Lawyers for Israel describes its remit as follows:

We use the law to counter attempts to undermine, attack and delegitimise Israel, Israeli organisations, Israelis, and supporters of Israel.

 

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‘Unregulated law firm’

ELSC has long advocated for those facing persecution for expressing solidarity with Palestinians, arguing that legal interventions by Israel-aligned lobby groups have led to:

institutional action against Palestine solidarity in schools, workplaces, universities and beyond.

The database is a work in progress and it is possible that there have been other depraved interventions that aren’t yet in the database. The items that are searchable, as the ELSC points out, is just what it is able to verify at present — suggesting that pro-Israel interventions are possible much higher.

The post in full reads:

This is why ELSC, alongside the Public Interest Law Centre, filed a formal complaint with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) against the Director of UK Lawyers for Israel.

Our complaint sets out serious breaches of professional standards, including the use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) designed to intimidate and silence Palestine Solidarity.

We further call on the SRA to investigate whether UK Lawyers for Israel is operating as an unregulated law firm and to bring it under formal regulatory oversight.

Lawfare must not be used to silence Palestine solidarity.

Stating that the new index represents the legal centre’s ‘push back’ on repression on behalf of a genocidal state, it added that:

Anti-Palestinian repression in Britain is not accidental. It is structural and systemic.

Our new report shows how repression works to depoliticise solidarity, forcing the movement onto the defensive, draining resources, and fracturing collective power.

The goal is bigger still: to erase Palestinian history and struggle from public consciousness.

Referring to the report being released on the 25 February, it finished:

We will expose the architecture of repression, from universities to workplaces, cultural institutions to public space.

We are making this resource public so the movement can understand it, challenge it, and make it undeniable.

The ELSC will livestream the launch and invites those who want a first look to register their interest on the website.

Repression at Kings College London

The Canary wrote earlier this month about a mass walkout at Kings College London (KCL), protesting Usama Ghanem’s indefinite suspension. Ghanem is an Egyptian student at KCL who has had his student visa revoked. To make matters worse, he now faces deportation to Egypt, putting his life at risk.

We wrote:

Organisers say Usama’s case is part of a broader crackdown targeting pro-Palestine staff and students, including disciplinary action and intimidation. At KCL, more than twenty students – primarily students of colour – have faced disciplinary procedures linked to Palestine activism. However, far-right and Zionist groups have repeatedly targeted demonstrators on campus.

A KCL staff member talked about the broader context of Usama’s suspension. They noted that the college:

“escalated disciplinary action against pro-Palestine students, closed down hard-won fora on divestment and the reconstruction of Gaza’s education system, rejected all divestment demands, and unilaterally introduced new protest restrictions.

At the same time, it has failed to challenge Zionist and fascist groups like Stop the Hate and Betar, allowing them to intimidate and assault staff and students with impunity.”

Eyes open

British society is no longer blind to the fact that our freedom of speech faces institutional attack. Those same institutions answer to Keir Starmer who, as we’ve reported before, has chosen Israel at every turn.

Even the far right has long expressed concerns that free speech is being curtailed. But not to call out blatant attacks on universal civil liberty and the unspoken institutional veto against anyone opposing the murder of innocent men, women and children in Gaza.

As UK citizens, we need to ask ourselves ‘why are some people more outraged about limits on hateful speech than about our ability to object to mass murder’?

Once the ELSC releases its Index of Repression, those in power will no longer be able to deny this reality. The layers of secrecy keeping people misinformed and beguiled by political trickery have been stripped back.

Featured image via Barold / the Canary