On November 24, 2023, we attended a lecture by Hassan Jabareen, the CEO of Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, who talked to us about the active limitation and shrinking of the space for freedom of expression amid the war. The lecture was given as part of the course “Leaders of Change in Mixed Cities.” Hassan provided a comprehensive overview of the political context which enables such an attack on the freedom of expression of Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel’s in the course of the war, and emphasized the rise of Israel’s most extreme government to date. As some examples, Hassan pointed to the unprecedented arming of Israel’s Jewish citizens, the police prohibiting Arab citizens from protesting (a direct order from the highest of ranks), and the wide-spread arrests of Arab citizens as well as the persecution through disciplinary proceedings of Palestinian university students under ludicrous and inadmissible claims.

Adalah is involved in handling the cases of 116 students who were suspended from their higher education institutions or summoned to a hearing without any acceptable grounds for the allegations lobbied against them. Interestingly, one of the participants asked Hassan about the potential inclusion of falsely accused Palestinian students who hold Israeli citizenship in the then-current hostage/prisoner exchange deal. Hassan emphasized that Adalah is unequivocally opposed to the inclusion of the students in the deal since it is vital to first fully exonerate them. The students’ inclusion in the deal could be considered an admission of guilt and forever connect these students with the false title of “Terror Supporters.” Unfortunately, a few days after the meeting, this notion became a reality, as you can read here in Amal Orabi’s analysis. You can read more about the persecution of Palestinian students and citizens on Adalah’s website.

As another unprecedented example of such institutional silencing, Hassan spoke of the case whereby the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel was prevented from holding a Jewish-Arab conference about 3 weeks ago. At the same week, the Police arrested 5 prominent Arab leaders who were on their way to take part in a legal peaceful protest, and by that prevented their right for freedom of expression, with no legal grounds.

Another question that came up during the lecture, from one of the participants, sought to know what might we be able to do? Hasan said that as a Jewish-Arab group, any action virtual or physical that declares and reaffirms such partnership can be significant in resisting the silencing and censuring. Likewise, any and all public support for persecuted students could lead universities to change their minds.