Palestine Legal Publishes Report on Trends in Palestine Advocacy and Backlash in 2022

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Palestine Legal published our 2022 Year-in-Review this week, which documents trends in backlash facing the movement for Palestinian rights in the U.S. and the movement’s resilience against them.

Read our summary of the report below and view the full report here.

Please contact us here if you are a journalist interested in reporting on these trends.

Please contact us here if you wish to document an incident of your own or receive legal support.

Executive Summary

PHOTO CREDIT: WITHIN OUR LIFETIME / IG @WOLPALESTINE

Palestine solidarity activism in 2022 was characterized by bold campaigns, particularly by students and faculty, to draw attention to the Palestinian liberation struggle and to invite concrete acts of solidarity from a growing community of allies.

This emboldened advocacy was met with vicious silencing efforts by Israel-aligned groups, which went into overdrive to undermine activists. Palestine advocates persevered through and often overcame repression on campuses—in the form of increasingly aggressive disciplinary proceedings, censorship, and condemnations from administrators—as well as in the workplace and on social media by mobilizing grassroots support to defeat censorship attempts and exposing the repression for what it is: an effort to shield Israel from accountability.

Palestine Legal responded to 214 incidents of suppression of U.S.-based Palestine advocacy in 2022. Seventy percent of these incidents targeted students and scholars at 80 colleges, universities, schools, and school districts across the country. Additionally, we responded to 48 legal questions from activists who were concerned their rights were under threat.

In nine years, from January 1, 2014, through December 31, 2022, Palestine Legal responded to a total of 2,201 incidents. This data reflects only what was reported directly to Palestine Legal and is therefore not an exhaustive account of the suppression. The incidents shared here were reported directly to Palestine Legal or were publicly reported in the media and do not include confidential incidents.

State and federal lawmakers introduced at least 24 legislative measures in 2022 aimed at silencing, condemning, or punishing advocacy for Palestinian rights. These included bills targeting boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaigns as well as those adopting a distorted definition of antisemitism that justifies classifying virtually any criticism of Israel as antisemitism. A number of cities and counties also adopted this anti-Palestinian definition. Pushback from activists helped defeat anti-Palestinian bills in several states, including Georgia and Virginia.

This report illuminates trends that characterized organizing in 2022, as well as in the repression by Zionist groups and the resilience and resistance in the face of such repression efforts.