Deplatforming and Lawfare, Resistance Campaign

[Media Statement] In an assault on everyone’s right to Free Speech, members of Republican leadership attempt to silence AFGJ and seven other non-profits that oppose Israel’s genocidal attack on Palestine

For immediate release
Thursday, October 10, 2024

Contact: media@afgj.org

Congressman Jason Smith, Chair of the Ways & Means Committee, Speaker of the House of Representative Mike Johnson, and others within Republican leadership attempt to silence the Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ) and other organizations that oppose Israel’s genocidal attack on Palestine
This attack is an assault on everyone’s right to free speech

Recent comments on social media by Republican Representative Jason Smith and Speaker Mike Johnson represent an escalation in the strategy to criminalize voices opposing Israel’s ongoing occupation and the killing of over 40 thousand Palestinians in their occupied land. Abusing his office, without any evidence or previous investigation, Representative Smith illegitimately used his position as chair of the Ways and Means Committee to demand that the IRS revoke the non-profit status of AFGJ and seven other organizations, solely for exercising their constitutional right to freedom of speech. Social media reactions from Speaker Johnson and other figures within the Republican leadership are part of a broader strategy to employ disinformation and utilize political attacks to suppress dissent and prop up U.S. government support—and provide continued impunity—for Israel’s  genocidal actions.

“The repression of movements in solidarity with Palestine is part of a broader attack on fundamental human rights across all popular movements. It expands the repressive reach of the state, bringing us back to the worst days of McCarthyism. We have seen this before: from the immigrant rights movements to those organizing to end the carceral state, the repression of the few is a precursor to the oppression of the many. Now is the time to stand together,” declared Camille Landry, Alliance for Global Justice’s national co-coordinator.

The attack against AFGJ and the other organizations occurs within a web of similar repressive tactics in the U.S. and worldwide. It is tied to the firings of professors and suspensions of students protesting the genocidal war in Gaza, the arrests of thousands of protestors taking direct actions against this illegal war, politically-motivated hate crimes, the financial deplatforming of solidarity organizations like AFGJ, and other attacks on the right to free speech.

In addition to Representative Smith and Speaker Johnson’s attacks, for over two years AFGJ has been facing a disinformation campaign by Israeli-affiliated press and Israeli-financed non-governmental organizations disguised as human rights monitors. The attack on AFGJ’s ability to receive online donations and the latest spate of distortions against our work is designed to incapacitate the organization financially and stop the work of AFGJ and the grassroots human rights defender organizations it fiscally sponsors.

The Alliance for Global Justice tirelessly and daily defends human rights, and promotes a socially, ecologically, and economically just world to achieve peace.

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