A disturbing pattern of repression is emerging in Europe. Opinion

In November, the Dutch political elite overwhelmingly supported Israeli football fans after they incited violence in Amsterdam and clashes with local residents. The injustice did not stop at the distorted narrative adopted by Dutch politicians.

The clashes gave the ruling Dutch right-wing coalition a convenient excuse to introduce a series of measures explicitly targeting the country’s Muslim community. These proposals – which he presumably had up his sleeve for a long time – included depriving dual citizens of their passports and stripping migrants of their temporary residence permits if they were deemed “anti-Semitic” – this warning With that being said, in today’s political climate almost any statement criticizing Israel’s massacre in Gaza is being labeled anti-Semitic or terroristic.

Other measures include barring so-called anti-Semitic organizations from public funding, labeling them as terrorist entities and placing them on sanctions lists, banning the Palestinian prisoner support network Samidoun, and criminalizing “glorification of terrorism.”

So far, the government has implemented only one of these proposals – the establishment of a “task force to fight anti-Semitism”. It remains to be seen when and how the others will be put into practice.

The Dutch government’s rhetoric and actions may sound familiar to anyone who has followed closely what Germany has done over the past 15 months. For over a year now, the German government has gone out of its way not only to support Israel, but also to criminalize and scapegoat its Muslim, refugee, and immigrant communities. By doing this it has set an example which is now being followed by other European countries.

In June, the German parliament passed a new citizenship law that mandates an “anti-Semitism test” for applicants and bars citizenship from anyone deemed “anti-Semitic” or who cannot commit to Germany’s unconditional support. Denies. Israeli state. The criteria rely on the problematic IHRA definition that conflates anti-Semitism with anti-Semitism.

Liking social media posts with slogans such as “from the river to the sea” or accusing Israel of killing children could be enough to deny applicants citizenship. Dual citizens may also not be safe – German law allows authorities to revoke citizenship up to 10 years after it was granted, although the threshold for doing so is still high and largely untested.

In October, German lawmakers also approved new immigration policies allowing the state to revoke the refugee status of individuals deemed “anti-Semitic.”

In November, the German parliament passed a resolution targeting individuals and groups critical of Israel. Under the IHRA definition those deemed “anti-Semitic” or found to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement should be excluded from any public funding initiatives – even if their work is entirely based on Palestine. Be kind of unrelated.

The resolution also calls for “using repressive options” and using “criminal, residence, asylum and nationality laws” against people deemed “anti-Semitic.”

Although the resolution is non-binding, it also cannot be legally challenged, and would likely have a cascading effect on civil society that is highly dependent on government funding and would normalize encroachments on the rights of asylum seekers and migrants. As Nadija Samour, senior legal adviser at the European Legal Aid Centre, warns, this proposal is “going to reinforce the use of migration law as a form of oppression”.

Less than two weeks after the proposal was voted on, a German foundation cited it in its decision to revoke an architecture award given to an artist who had signed a letter condemning Israel.

The threat of “repressive measures” is nothing new for groups and organizations focusing on Palestinian solidarity in Germany. Since October 7, 2023, they have faced widespread repression, police violence and surveillance, with their bank accounts frozen and demonstrations and events cancelled, or banned altogether like Samidoun. Has been done.

Rights groups have warned about Germany’s authoritarian trajectory. He warned that freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of art and academic freedom are being violated. In a statement, leading civil society organizations called out the proposal for enabling “serious violations of fundamental and human rights and considerable legal uncertainty”.

In asylum policy, we have seen how one country’s most destructive migration measures are initially criticized, then normalized, and ultimately adopted by others. A similar pattern is emerging with the repression of protests against Israel, as the Netherlands follows Germany’s move toward authoritarianism. And she is not alone in this.

In December, France passed a bill that, if approved by the Senate, would bar foreigners convicted of discriminatory acts based on race, religion or national origin from citizenship, naturalization or residence. It follows a proposed law from October that would make “terrorist apologetics”, denying Israel’s existence, and comparing Jews or Israel to the Holocaust illegal.

In what has been described as an attempt to silence pro-Palestinian campaigners, Britain introduced a new extremism definition in March last year that blocks “extremist” groups from receiving government funding and meeting with authorities.

What is worrying is that there has not been an adequate public reaction against these authoritarian tendencies. In the Netherlands, public outrage focused on racist comments that Dutch officials made following the violence.

There was some opposition when in late November, the Dutch Parliament adopted a motion asking the government to collect data on the “norms and values” of Dutch citizens with a migration background. These data were supposed to “provide insight into[their]cultural integration” and help “address problems in a targeted manner.” Following an outcry on social media about the apparently discriminatory proposal, the Dutch Prime Minister promised not to act on the proposal.

But there has been no mass mobilization to protest against it and to prevent any further repressive measures from being implemented. The situation is similar elsewhere in Europe.

Europeans need to understand that protecting freedom of expression is not only a concern for Palestinians and those expressing solidarity with them. European history is replete with examples where oppression aimed at one group expands to include others.

We must demand that our governments protect people’s rights to speak out and take action against Israel’s genocide in Gaza as well as European complicity in it. Ignoring this issue will allow authoritarianism to spread unabated in Europe.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.