Freedom of expression also under fire in Gaza war, rights expert says

This article is published in association with United Nations.

o conflict in recent times has threatened freedom of expression so far beyond its borders as the war in Gaza, an expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said on Friday in New York. 

“Rarely have we seen – and this is what bothers me – extensive patterns of unlawful, discriminatory and disproportionate restriction by States and private actors on freedom of expression,” said Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur mandated to promote and protect this right globally.

Ms. Khan briefed journalists at UN Headquarters on her latest report, which she had presented to the UN General Assembly the previous day.

It documents severe restrictions of violations of freedom of expression arising from the conflict, including the killing of journalists in Gaza, the crushing of protests worldwide, and the silencing of artists and scholars.

Muzzling the media

Ms. Khan drew attention to the severe attacks on media in Gaza, but also in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

She pointed to the targeted killing and arbitrary detention of journalists, extensive destruction of press facilities and equipment in Gaza, the denial of access to international media, the banning of the Al Jazeera news channel, and the tightening of censorship within Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

These actions “seem to indicate a strategy of Israeli authorities to silence critical journalism and obstruct documentation of possible international crimes,” she said. 

Although the deliberate killing of a journalist is a war crime, “not a single killing of a journalist this past year or, for that matter, in previous years in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, has ever been properly investigated, prosecuted or punished,” she added, noting that “impunity is total”. 

UN Photo/Evan Schneider

Protesters demonstrate outside the Columbia University campus in New York City.

Protests and Palestinian symbols banned

Her report also highlights discrimination and double standards restricting freedom of expression in support of Palestinian rights and suppressing protests against the carnage in Gaza.

Ms. Khan said bans, including some blanket bans, of pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been imposed in many European countries, and campus protests held earlier this year in the United States were crushed harshly.  

Public display of Palestinian national symbols like the flag or the keffiyeh, as well as certain slogans, have also been prohibited and even criminalized in some countries.

She explained that such blanket discriminatory prohibitions are inherently incompatible with international human rights because they fail to meet the test of necessity, proportionality and the principle of nondiscrimination.

“This failure to respect international standards is an issue of global concern because it sends a message around the world that freedom of expression can be suppressed at will or with political expediency,” she said.

Artists and academics silenced

The silencing and sidelining of dissenting voices in academia and the arts have also accompanied the war, her report revealed. 

Ms. Khan noted that “some of the best academic institutions in the world have failed to ensure equal protection to all members of their academic communities, whether Jewish, Palestinian, Israeli, Arab, Muslim, or otherwise.”

As a result, intellectual exchange has been diminished and artistic freedom is being censored in many institutions in the west.  

“I received complaints from scholars about a chilling effect on their academic research, on their political policy discourse relating to the Palestinian situation or to Israeli policies,” she said.  

Meanwhile, artists and writers have been threatened, isolated, or excluded from events because they expressed their views on the Gaza conflict or criticized Israel – or failed to criticize Israel.

Social media split

The report also examines social media platforms, which have been both a lifeline for communication to and from Gaza but also “major vectors” of disinformation, misinformation and hate speech.   

While Arabs, Jewish Israelis and Palestinians are all targeted online, “most companies have shown a bias in their responses, as far as I could see…being more lenient regarding Israel and more restrictive about Palestinian expression,” she said.

“From what I can see, it seems that inherently biased policies, opaque inconsistent content moderation, and heavy reliance on automated tools have led to this over-restrictive unbalanced content moderation.”

Hate speech vs protected speech

She then addressed how international legal standards are being distorted and misinterpreted to conflate criticism of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism, which is occurring both on and offline.  

Ms. Khan acknowledged that this was a controversial issue “but I stand my ground on this”.

She explained that antisemitism is racial, namely it is the worst form of racial and religious hatred against Jews and must be unequivocally condemned.

“But conflating protected speech, which is political criticism, with prohibited speech, which is hate speech, undermines the fight against antisemitism, and it also chills freedom of expression,” she said.

About UN Rapporteurs

Special Rapporteurs like Ms. Khan are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system.

They are appointed by the Council to monitor and report on specific country situations or thematic issues.

These experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive payment for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.