Urgent New Piece of Reporting

 

Inside the Israeli Crackdown on Speech

Since the October 7th attack, Palestinians and peace activists in Israel have increasingly been targeted by employers, universities, government authorities, and right-wing mobs.

Illustration by Nicholas Konrad / The New Yorker

In an urgent new piece of reporting, Masha Gessen explores the many ways in which civilian life in Israel has been frozen in place during the past month. 

• Universities have postponed the start of classes; courts are hearing fewer cases. 
• But perhaps the greatest example of the society-wide chilling has come in the form of a lockdown on free speech and expression that has targeted Palestinian and Israeli citizens voicing dissenting views on the war with Hamas. 

This has come in the form of arrests, interrogations, job losses and suspensions, and public doxings that have led to violence. 

Israeli peace activists, Gessen writes, have been “targeted by right-wing mobs with what appears to be the tacit approval of the government.” 

Palestinians, meanwhile, “experience the full force of the government’s repressive apparatus.” As a lawyer currently representing dozens of Israeli Arabs who have lost their jobs or been suspended from universities argues, “The general public alleges that it is hurt, and they don’t want anyone to express other feelings.”

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