The West’s crackdown on the pro-Palestinian movement: A case of punitive torture?

Introduction: In response to the growing pro-Palestine solidarity movement following October 7, Western State authorities have adopted a strategy of political warfare to suppress dissent. Methods: Utilising a multidisciplinary approach, the paper analyses legal documents, media reports, and firsthand accounts to identify patterns of repression. Results: State authorities have used smear campaigns, political policing, and lawfare to punish those who express solidarity with Palestinian rights, stifling and chilling the rights to free speech and assembly – a stepping stone toward the erosion of civil liberties and democratic values. Discussion: Our analysis suggests that using intimidation, administrative harassment, and State coercion to stigmatise, censor, and criminalise dissenters, Western States may have institutionalised punitive torture. The suppression of pro-Palestinian voices in liberal democracies can be hypothesised as a reflection of the colonial hierarchy embedded in the creation and maintenance of the structural oppression against Palestinians across historic Palestine and beyond, merely replicated to suppress solidarity.