In Palestinian society, basic freedoms are systematically suppressed. Women do not have equal civil rights, LGBTQ+ people live under the constant threat of violence, and dissent is actively punished.

These are not isolated “edge cases.” These are prevailing norms, rooted deeply in the social fabric and enforced through tradition and power.

Supporting “Free Palestine” as a political entity means silencing minorities and condemning people to suffering and death. Using your freedom of speech to do so — while Palestine denies that very freedom to its own people — goes beyond anticolonial hype. It is willful blindness and an act of complicit hypocrisy.