The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel has been met with joy and relief across the Middle East and beyond. Over the past two years, outrage at Israel’s war in Gaza has erupted across Europe and the US, manifesting itself in university campus protests, massive marches through countless capitals and the disruption of major sporting events.
Even as hopes rise of an end to the war, international anger over Israel’s actions in Gaza, which have been deemed a genocide by a UN commission of inquiry, remains raw, as evidenced by last weekend’s huge rallies in Spain and Italy.
While the fury that fuels them has been shared and ubiquitous, the demonstrations – and the authorities’ responses to them – have varied considerably from country to country. If some of the official reactions have been draconian, there have also been exceptions, especially in countries where public opinion is more openly pro-Palestinian.
Free speech on trial
In the US, growing pro-Palestinian activism has been met with arrests, legal action and mounting threats, offering a pretext for the Trump administration’s unprecedented attack on free speech and catalysing what many view as the country’s descent into authoritarianism.
In the early months of the war, thousands of people, many of them Jewish, took part in protests. After students at Columbia University set up a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus in the spring of 2024, dozens more followed at other universities across the country. But bowing to pressure from legislators, donors, and pro-Israel critics, many universities responded harshly to the encampments, calling police on to campuses, which led to thousands of arrests.
A woman shouts slogans during a pro-Palestine protest in New York. Photograph: Olga Fedorova/EPA
Meanwhile, allegations of antisemitism against pro-Palestinian protests have been weaponised by the Trump administration to launch an unprecedented assault on academic freedom, including cutting billions in funding to universities, screening thousands of visa applicants for pro-Palestinian views, and the detention and attempted deportation of foreign scholars over their political views.
Policing protests
In the UK, the Metropolitan police have so far arrested more than 1,900 people at pro-Palestinian events, the vast majority of whom have been detained for allegedly expressing support for Palestine Action, a direct action group that has been proscribed under anti-terrorism legislation. The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has called for the ban to be rescinded, describing it as “disproportionate and unnecessary”.
The prime minister, Keir Starmer, who described plans for protests on the second anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel as “un-British”, has said his government will look at further curbs on protests, including potential powers to take action against specific chants at pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Starmer also urged protesters to show respect by calling off their activities in the immediate aftermath of the Manchester synagogue terror attack, in which two people died.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has called for the UK’s ban on Palestine Action to be rescinded, describing it as “disproportionate and unnecessary”. Photograph: Guy Bell/Shutterstock
Historic tensions
In Germany, whose postwar identity has been indelibly shaped by the Nazi regime’s responsibility for the Holocaust, the protests have revealed tensions between popular feeling and the country’s longstanding solidarity with Israel.
Even as public opinion has turned against the Israeli government’s relentless assault on Gaza – a recent pro-Palestinian rally in Berlin attracted about 100,000 demonstrators – successive German governments have reaffirmed the principle that responsibility for Israel’s security is part of Berlin’s own Staatsräson, or reason of state.
Activists have repeatedly said that police tactics have been excessive, at times brutal, and in violation of constitutional protections of freedom of assembly and expression.
Much of the dispute between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and German authorities has centred around which slogans are banned under the law as antisemitic.
In May last year, a pro-Palestinian activist was convicted of condoning a crime for using the chant, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, at a rally four days after the 7 October attacks. The judge said she “could not comprehend” the logic of previous German court rulings that determined the saying was “ambiguous”, and that, to her, it was clear it “denied the right of the state of Israel to exist”.
This chant however has also been widely used to call for equal rights both in Israel and Palestine.
When asked about crackdowns on pro-Palestinian activism after an alleged case of brutality against an Irish protester, Berlin police this month said they had opened an investigation into the officer but denied a pattern of violence or infringement of civil rights.
Artists and intellectuals have cited a chilling effect in Germany around support for the Palestinian cause since the 7 October attacks, as criticism of Israeli tactics in Gaza can be quickly smeared as antisemitism, resulting in the withdrawal of prizes, positions and public funding.
Meanwhile, many Jewish leaders in Germany have described a sense of isolation over the last two years and point to a sharp rise in attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions.
Liberty in question
In May this year, France’s interior ministry announced it would dissolve the pro-Palestinian human rights and solidarity collective, Urgence Palestine, stating that it condoned Hamas, called for intifada in France, and provoked hatred, violence and discrimination against Jewish people. Urgence Palestine has contested these allegations, saying that the move to dissolve it is politically motivated and part of a wider crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism. The collective has not yet been dissolved.
Marie Laure Geoffray, freedoms advocacy officer for Amnesty International France, said there had been “significant repression and a silencing of voices in solidarity with Palestine” and that this was ongoing.
She said it had taken various forms in France, including the banning of some street demonstrations in certain cities, the decision to dissolve Urgence Palestine, as well as legal action. Geoffray said students on French campuses had also been accused of disrupting the peace or troubling the public order.
Strikes and solidarity
In Italy, the extent of public opinion against Israel’s war became evident on 22 September, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets calling for an end to the conflict as part of a general strike coordinated by trade unions.
The mostly peaceful event was overshadowed by clashes between police and masked protesters at Milan’s central train station, giving the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, an opportunity to condemn the “shameful” scenes and attack her leftwing opponents rather than show solidarity with the Palestinians.
Police said at least 250,000 people turned out for a pro-Palestine march in Rome last Saturday. Photograph: Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
The pressure on Meloni increased further when Israel’s interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla triggered protests across Italy nine days later. Rome’s police said at least 250,000 people turned out for a march, which came a day after more than 2 million people took part in a one-day general strike to support Palestinians in Gaza.
Meloni’s government is mindful of public opinion, and in recent months has become increasingly critical of Israel’s killing of Palestinians – even as Italy remains one of Israel’s strongest EU allies. Meloni now says Italy would recognise a Palestinian state if the remaining Israeli hostages were freed and the militant group Hamas was out of government.
‘We steward ourselves’
In Ireland, which joined Spain and Norway in formally recognising a Palestinian state in May 2024, the police force, An Garda Síochána, has mostly applied a light touch to Gaza protests, which usually pass without incident.
Government policy and public opinion are strongly pro-Palestinian, which creates a supportive atmosphere for marches and rallies.
“Overall it’s kind of hands-off policing,” said Zoë Lawlor, the chair of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. “National demonstrations pass off fine. In Limerick we have a demonstration every week and we never see the Garda unless the far right show up too. Otherwise we just steward ourselves.”
In Ireland, government policy and public opinion are strongly pro-Palestinian, which creates a supportive atmosphere for marches and rallies. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
Police have on occasion been “heavy-handed” when dealing with sit-ins and other acts of civil disobedience but that did not compare with the “shocking” police behaviour in some other countries, said Lawlor.
Ireland enjoyed greater freedom to protest than in countries such as the UK, US and Germany, but Irish policing still required monitoring, said Joe O’Brien, the executive director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. “We have heard testimony, including allegations of unnecessary strip-searches and a cavity search, that raises serious concerns regarding Garda compliance with human rights frameworks and national law, regulations and policies governing the treatment of people in custody.”
In May, the then Garda commissioner, Drew Harris, said allegations of strip-searches were inaccurate and that his force at all times had acted professionally and lawfully.
A nation mobilised
Similarly, Spain has proved something of an exception when it comes to government support for protests.
Not long after more than 100,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators forced a premature, scrappy and sporadically violent end to the Vuelta a España cycle race in Madrid last month, due to the participation of the Israel Premier Tech team, senior Spanish politicians lined up to bemoan the damage the protest had done to the country’s global reputation.
Figures in the conservative People’s party called the episode “an international embarrassment” and compared scenes on the streets of Madrid to “Sarajevo during the war”.
But one political figure took a different line. Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said he had “a deep admiration” for all those who had protested in a non-violent manner and for “a Spanish society that mobilises against injustice and defends its ideas in a peaceful manner”.
Sánchez, who had already been fiercely criticised by his adversaries, also said he hoped the events in Madrid would lead others to reconsider whether Israel should be included in major sporting events.
Last weekend, an estimated 200,000 people rallied across dozens of cities to show their solidarity with Palestine.
Both the protests and the prime minister’s backing for them demonstrate the strength of public opinion in a country where, according to a recent poll, 82% of people believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Sánchez’s conservative opponents have also recently begun to step up their criticisms of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, while King Felipe – hardly a habitual courter of controversy – used a speech before the UN last month to beg Israel to “stop the massacre” and end its “abhorrent acts” in Gaza.
