Though this story dates from February it is still relevant and still a source of concern. Increasingly Western governments are equating anti-Israel and anti-Zionist speech with being pro-Hamas and tantamount to expressing support for that democratically elected political organisation.
It's especially concerning that many of the protestors are Jews themselves and recently even a Holocaust survivor who was protesting the Netanyahu government and its genocidal policies was questioned - an act of intimidation to be sure.
The Trump administration wants to outlaw such speech and has already deported some foreign-born people connected to it - kidnapping them right off the street. They've hinted that they would also be willing to send US citizens to offshore and outsourced prison camps and the Theonomist thug heading the Pentagon has expressed a willingness to use the military on dissenters.
These are authoritarian moves to say the least and meant to crush the re-emergence of an anti-war movement. There really hasn't been one since the early 1970's. There were brief episodes surrounding Reagan's nuclear policies and a large but very brief and thus meaningless protest against Bush's deceitful and illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. Since, then there's been little in the way of a sustained anti-war movement - or really even one at all. Even the handful of adversarial journalist outfits have been harassed and marginalised. The mainstream media has played a significant, even an essential role in this whole process.
But Trump and many leaders in the EU want to raise the bar. Israel is so critical to their Middle East policies that they will not tolerate dissent - especially any that could grow into a real challenge. Brussels is not quite as concerned with Israel as say London which is fully on board with American policies. But, all the governments within Europe (and even the non-NATO members) are keen to stay in good standing with Washington.
We need not agree with all that is said or expressed in the protests to be concerned. American law protects free speech and ostensibly the same is granted in Europe. There are limits but there's something ridiculous about the fact that members of the AfD and other far-Right political groups are allowed to speak and rally - while those who protest an ongoing Western-supported genocide are treated like criminals, labelled as anti-Semitic, and looked at as if they're the offspring of the Third Reich.
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