‘Tracking repression’: New database maps criminalisation of Palestine solidarity in Britain

A new monitoring tool aimed at tracking restrictions on pro-Palestinian activism has been launched, mapping the patterns of institutional repression across Britain.

The Britain Index of Repression, established by the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) in collaboration with the research agency Forensic Architecture, marks the first comprehensive attempt to map anti-Palestinian repression across various sectors of British society, including education, healthcare, and the arts.

The main findings of the accompanying report confirm that these acts of silencing are part of a coordinated and multipolar system that uses state, institutional, and private power to marginalise dissenting voices.

The data, spanning from January 2019 to August 2025, details 964 verified incidents within the UK.

However, researchers emphasise that this figure represents only the "tip of the iceberg," as many internal or informal acts of repression go unreported. 

"What we are seeing is not the full picture, but it is a consistent and incredible pattern. The data shows that anti-Palestinian repression is systematic, multi-sited, and repetitive," says Tara Mariwany, Senior Monitoring Officer at the ELSC.

"The same actors, allegations, and mechanisms appear again and again across different sectors, in different parts of the country, and across time.”

"This database is reclamation for the Palestine Solidarity Movement and reveals a broader architecture of repression. It shows that repression intensifies when people resist and when repression intensifies, people persist," she adds.

The report outlines the distinct "architecture of repression" that moves through strategic stages: from discursive distortion and smearing to bureaucratic enforcement, and finally to material consequences like arrests or job terminations.

The report says the system operates through a broad network of state, institutional and private actors, allowing it to maintain “plausible deniability” as no single body bears full responsibility for silencing dissent. 

It adds that media narratives provide discursive cover, lawfare groups initiate investigations, and institutions ultimately enforce disciplinary measures.

Measuring the tip of the iceberg

To measure the scope of this phenomenon, the ELSC employed a rigorous research approach and collected data through four primary avenues: a public report form, continuous monitoring of social and mainstream media, direct fieldwork at protests, and private communications with affected individuals. 

Each incident underwent a verification process to ensure it was factually corroborated and traceable to credible sources.

What emerges from the report is a picture of repression that is widespread, layered, and, in many ways, self-perpetuating. 

“The fact that we've documented nearly a thousand verified incidents despite relying on media monitoring and voluntary reports tells us something significant,” Abir Kopty, Deputy Director of Communication at the ELSC, tells TRT World.

The repeated appearance of the same actors, allegations, and mechanisms across different sectors and regions suggests a broader, more systemic pattern rather than a series of isolated incidents, Kopty says.

“But the patterns we’ve identified, the coordination, repetition, the institutional capture are so consistent that they point to something structural,” she tells TRT World.

Police and security personnel show up most often in the index, accounting for 23 percent of documented cases, mostly through arrests and direct law enforcement action. 

But nearly as common are educational institutions, which constitute 20 percent of actors. Here, the method differs: instead of handcuffs, there are disciplinary hearings, formal complaints, and the silent threat of academic or professional consequences hanging over students and staff who speak out.

Then there are the Zionist lawfare and advocacy groups, documented in 141 incidents, which are organisations whose main role in many of these cases seems to be filing complaints designed to activate institutional machinery.

Perhaps the most insidious layer, however, is what the report calls the "pre-criminal space": the surveillance infrastructure embedded in daily professional life through the UK's anti-terrorism strategy, dubbed Prevent.

Teachers and doctors, people whose work is rooted in care and trust, are conscripted into a state-mandated watching brief. 

They're required to flag, report, and refer. And the threshold for what counts as suspicious has lowered so much that wearing a keffiyeh or a watermelon pin to work can trigger a safeguarding referral. 

“The repression evolves in phases: from smears to sanctions like dismissals, legal charges to repercussions such as legal and financial material enforcement,” Kopty says.  

“And the main two allegations used against the Palestine solidarity movement are antisemitism and support for terrorism.”

By categorising ethical dissent in this way, the report contends that the state and its allies reframe liberation politics as either a security threat or racial hatred, making Palestinian reality administratively unreadable.

"It is not our role to decide what is and what isn't antisemitism or support for terrorism. It is simply our role to document it and to show that it doesn't matter if you wear a watermelon sticker on your shirt,” Mariwany says.

"This repression is already rooted in structures of oppression and our database  is a living, ongoing, and defiant document," she adds.

The human cost

Behind every statistic is a person whose life has been upended. Sajia Ikbal, a teacher, understands this better than most. 

After participating in a peaceful boycott action, she found herself at the centre of a coordinated smear campaign. But Ikbal remained resilient. 

"I am breaking my silence to confront the challenges and the systematic oppression that workers like me endure every single day in workplaces,” she said at the launch of the report last week.

"This was an organised smear campaign to break my spirit and destroy my livelihood. Zionism may have the backing of politicians and billionaires, but you cannot simply eradicate the love, the passion everyday people have for Palestine," Ikbal said.

"I have been made to feel like a criminal and a non-law-abiding citizen, considering I have not committed any criminal offense but simply exercised my democratic right. I will not be silenced into believing that I am a criminal because I simply stood on the right side of history, and always will," she added.

Alongside documenting harm, the index records what it calls "victories and imperatives," the moments where the system was challenged.

It highlights landmark legal cases, including a ruling recognising anti-Zionist belief as a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act, as well as the recent High Court decision that the proscription of Palestine Action was unlawful.

According to the report, the ultimate aim of the index is to serve as an act of "counter-testimony". 

“We believe that repression aims at isolating advocates, groups and silencing them. When people report repression, they are taking an action and refusing to be silenced,” Kopty says.

“The database send a clear message that you are not alone, and acts of collective mobilisation were able to push back and secure victories.”

The ELSC says it intends to provide journalists, activists, and legal professionals with the evidence needed to challenge the narrative that these incidents are isolated. 

The report closes in the spirit of the late Palestinian writer Refaat Alareer, whose words carry a particular weight as he was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza in December 2023.  

"Telling stories is an act of life," Alareer wrote. "Telling stories is resistance. Telling stories shapes our memories."

“The Britain Index of Repression is offered in that spirit of steadfast and strategic struggle,” the ELSC added.