Civic space worldwide is shrinking – nowhere is this plainer than in Palestine–Israel
Suppressing Dissent brings together leading experts of shrinking civic space and transnational repression concerning Palestine–Israel to show how failing to address the phenomenon has impacts in the United States, the Middle East and beyond.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Palestine, Israel, and the Battle for Hearts and Minds – and the Levers of Policy by Zaha Hassan
Palestinian Civil Society in the Shadow of a One-State Reality: Managing the Terms of Subjugation After the Oslo Accords … Resentfully and Ineffectively by Nathan J. Brown
The Oslo Framework and Palestinian Authoritarianism by Dana El Kurd
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Impact of Israel’s Occupation and Palestinian Authoritarianism on Community Organizing and NGOs by Zaha Hassan and Layla Gantus
The Rise, Weakening, and Resurgence of Civil Society in Israel by Dahlia Scheindlin
Neo-Kahanism: The Growing Influence of a Violent, Jewish Supremacist Ideology by Jessica Buxbaum and Katherine Wilkens
US Counterterrorism Law and Policy: Its Role in Shutting Down Palestinian Activism and Agency by Nour Soubani and Diala Shamas
Israeli Mechanisms to Restrict Civic Space: From Surveillance and Repression in the Occupied West Bank to Policing Israelis Writ Large by Yael Berda
Made in Palestine: Repackaging Apartheid as “Smart” Cities by Matt Mahmoudi
Digital Repression: How Palestinian Voices are Censored, Surveilled, and Threatened Online by Marwa Fatafta
The How-to of Shutting Down Pro-Palestinian Speech and Protest in the US by Lara Friedman
Restrictions on Financial Services and Banking and their Impacts on Palestinian NGOs by Ashleigh Subramanian-Montgomery and Paul Carroll
Closing Spaces Beyond Borders: Israel’s Transnational Repression Network by Yousef Munayyer
From Exclusion to Erasure: The Attempt to Silence Arab Americans on Palestine by Maya Berry
Shrinking Civic Space in the Arab World and its Relationship to Palestine/Israel by Marwan Muasher and Rafiah Al Talei
Conclusion: Rules, Dissent, and National Security by H.A. Hellyer
About the Author :
Dr H.A. Hellyer is a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He serves as a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London, and as a Cambridge University fellow.
Zaha Hassan is a human rights lawyer and a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research focus is on Palestine-Israel peace, the use of international legal mechanisms by political movements, and U.S. foreign policy in the region. Her commentaries have appeared in the New York Times, Salon, Al Jazeera English, CNN, and others.
Review :
“An urgent and compelling read, this collection of essays dismantles the false promise that repression can ever guarantee safety. A must-read that envisions a future grounded in the self-determination and human rights of both Palestinians and Israelis.” Tess McEnery, Executive Director, Middle East Democracy Center, former director for Democracy and Human Rights at the White House National Security Council
"There is perhaps no more important way of expressing disagreement, disappointment, insight, the experience of pain, and calling for justice than through dissent. This is how political systems are corrected. This is how oppressed/repressed/suppressed communities are heard and eventually liberated. Unfortunately, this is also why those who engage in dissent are targeted, harassed and killed. The path to freedom and an improvement of the human condition sits at the intersection of dissent and repression. Nowhere is this more important to explore than in Palestine–Israel and Suppressing Dissent is a much-needed reflection on how neglected forms of repression, which target individuals and organizations throughout the world, operate. The book clearly reveals that to understand struggles and counter-struggles within individual nation-states one must understand struggles and counter-struggles throughout the world." Christian Davenport, Mary Ann and Charles R. Walgreen Professor for the Study of Human Understanding, University of Michigan
"Democracy is under threat around the world, as illiberal governments cooperate to develop and refine their tools of repression. This incredibly timely book sounds the alarm about efforts by the Israeli government to export its repression of Palestinian rights to the United States, with implications for political dissent and activism globally. Anyone who cares about the future of democracy should pay attention." Matt Duss, Executive Vice President, Center for International Policy, former foreign policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders
"No issue since the Cold War has tested our society’s commitment to free expression like the Palestine–Israel conflict. This timely anthology—examining censorship campaigns against dissidents and civil society groups in the United States, Israel, and Palestine, and the Arab world—is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the tactics of McCarthyism have been refurbished for the globalized twenty-first century." Brian Hauss, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project
"Repressing speech is never the end of a problem, but rather the beginning of a bigger one. This volume clearly shows that creation of a bigger problem for Israel and Palestine, a region desperately in need of dialogue not imposed silence. Suppressing Dissent fills a gap in the policy community’s understanding of how shutting down discussion only fuels anger, limits cooperation, and undermines possibilities for peace." Sarah Yager, Washington Director, Human Rights Watch
"This comprehensive collection unpacks how policy on an issue ever more central to US and global security has often been precooked by the delimiting and even criminalization of open discourse and debate. For anyone trying to figure out the appalling policy outcomes and American complicity in war crimes, this collection is a good place to start." Daniel Levy, President, U.S. / Middle East Project, former Israeli negotiator under prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak
