Index of Repression shows widespread institutional censorship of Palestine support

Analysts have documented over 900 cases of UK institutions and pro-Israel groups targeting supporters of Palestine with different types of repression.

The European Legal Support Center (ELSC) and research group Forensic Architecture have put together an Index of Repression. Upon launching this public database, the ELSC said:

For too long, anti-Palestinian repression has been dismissed as incidental, exceptional, and justified. On 25 February, we confirm what the movement has long known: this repression is multi-sited, institutionalised and systematic, unfolding across varied stages.

This, it insisted, is a “coordinated system” seeking to undermine public criticism of Israel’s settler-colonial crimes and genocide in Gaza. And the Index of Repression has documented:

964 verified incidents of repression targeting Palestine solidarity documented across Britain (January 2019 – August 2025)

Those responsible, the Guardian said, were:

police (220 incidents), educational institutions (192), pro-Israel advocacy groups (141), and journalists and other media actors (141).

‘Strategic targeting to dismantle solidarity’ with people living under Israeli occupation

The UK’s crackdown includes smears, sanctions, and other repercussions for speaking out. And it:

focuses deliberately on sectors fundamental to shaping public discourse and holding public trust: Education; Activism and Protest; Workplace; and Culture.

It is a “strategic targeting across sectors” that:

aims to dismantle solidarity at every stage, from the formation of political consciousness in universities and schools, to its expression in culture, to its organisation in public spaces.

The cancel culture on behalf of a genocidal foreign state has targeted educators and those they teach in particular. As the Guardian summarised:

Students, academics and teachers (336 incidents) appeared most frequently on the index as targets of repression, followed by activists and organisers (229). The report says they are often targeted in different ways, with artists and cultural workers often having events cancelled (71 incidents).

The paper added that techniques included:

smears, disinformation, harassment, doxing (having private or identifying information published online), visa cancellations, financial blacklisting, loss of employment and arrest

Large-scale Western repression in service of Israel’s genocide

The UK has faced significant criticism domestically and internationally for its unlawful proscription of non-violent direct-action group Palestine Action. The government has already spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on its highly controversial ban. But it is still fighting the courts to keep it in place.

The ELSC’s Tara Mariwany clarified that it was “not our role” to discuss or determine whether allegations against targets were true or not, emphasising:

It’s simply our role to document it and to show that it doesn’t matter if you wear a watermelon sticker on your shirt, that might give rise to the allegation of antisemitism…

It’s simply about showing the scale of it and that should give enough of a cause to question the allegation itself and question the smearing itself.

The project is not a standalone piece of work either. Instead, as the ELSC explained:

It builds on Germany’s Index of Repression, which we have launched in May 2025, and is both a continuation of this work and an expansion into a broader transnational effort to document and expose repression across Europe.  The forthcoming Index of Repression for the Netherlands – alongside other country reports – marks the next phase of this sustained, cross-border project.

Featured image via the Canary