Since October 7, the Israeli government has accompanied its war on Gaza with an assault on its own citizens’ right to free speech and dissent, primarily targeting Palestinian citizens of Israel. Aiding the government are far-right vigilante mobs and bottom-up snitching campaigns, encouraged from above. Many who have spoken out have been arrested, protests have been broken up, university students have been expelled, a left-wing parliamentarian has been suspended, and indoor meetings of activists have been forbidden.

While US media and politicians often herald Israel as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, the ongoing clampdown illuminates the fundamentally undemocratic nature of the Israeli state. It was founded upon and is maintained through the subjugation and dispossession of Palestinians — whether in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or Israel itself.

Since October 7, Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition has ramped up repression of Palestinian citizens within Israel’s 1948 borders, using its war on Gaza as pretext to revoke civil liberties in the interest of “security.” While this has primarily affected Palestinian Israelis, their Jewish Israeli allies are starting to feel the grip tighten as well.