Afrasianet - The United Nations Special Rapporteur  on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression accused the United States, Canada, France, Germany and Belgium of suppressing the right to demonstrate for the Palestinian cause, and accused Israel of launching serious attacks on media in the Palestinian territories condemning its assassination of journalists.

In a report to  the UN General Assembly and the press on Friday, Special Rapporteur Irene Khan,  an "independent" UN expert since 2020, accused "a number of European countries of imposing measures to restrict freedom of expression, suppress protests against the massacre in Gaza and ban pro-Palestinian demonstrations."

Khan, a Bangladeshi human rights lawyer, spoke of "demonstrations at universities in the United States that were harshly suppressed," referring to the intervention of riot police in New York at the end of April to expel dozens of pro-Palestinian activists who occupied part of Columbia University.

As for European countries, Khan singled out "Germany, which has imposed a total ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations since October last year, and restrictions since then on such protests in various German regions," adding that these restrictions have never been imposed "on demonstrations for Israel, but always on those that support Palestinians."

"France tried to take the same measures, but the courts rejected them and the assessment is now made on a case-by-case basis," she said, noting that "Belgium and Canada have adopted similar positions."

At the start of Israel's offensive on Gaza a year ago, France's interior ministry called for a ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations for fear of public unrest. But the Council of State, the highest administrative court, called on the French government to take decisions on a case-by-case basis.

Khan also criticized Israel for "serious attacks on the media in the occupied Palestinian territories – Gaza,the West Bank andEast Jerusalem – targeted assassinations of journalists, arbitrary arrests, dozens of cases of destruction of press infrastructure and equipment in Gaza, and refusal to allow the international press to enter."

"The tightening of censorship in Israel and the occupied territories indicates that the Israeli authorities have a strategy to silence critical journalism," the independent rapporteur concluded.