Amnesty International warned A report on Wednesday said there had been a “chilling effect” on freedom of expression in Austria due to authorities’ responses to activism by protesters and civil rights organizations expressing “solidarity” with Palestinians. The report claims that undue restrictions on expression and “fear caused by widespread allegations of anti-Semitism against a backdrop of racism” contributed to this effect.
To support its findings, Amnesty International interviewed a group of activists, journalists and NGO representatives who warned that activists “risked being branded ‘anti-Semitic’ if they criticized Israel’s violations of international law.” The managing director of Amnesty International Austria, Shoura Hashemi, also points out that there is a risk that “anti-Semitism will be instrumentalized and politicized.”
The report criticizes the widespread use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA WDA) working definition of anti-Semitism. The IHRA WDA lists examples of anti-Semitism including “denying the Jewish people’s right to self-determination” and “applying double standards by requiring (Israel) to conduct behavior that is not expected or required of any other democratic nation.” Amnesty International argues that the IHRA WDA contradicts international human rights law.
Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, explains that the IHRA WDA “has been repeatedly exploited to suppress legitimate criticism of the Israeli government’s policies by falsely labeling them as anti-Semitic,” adding that the definition “undermines the fight against real anti-Semitism.”
Consequently, the report states that the fear of being labeled anti-Semitic has a chilling effect on the freedom of expression of activists supporting the BDS movement, deterred by lawsuits, smear campaigns and the loss of government funding. Amnesty International highlighted several cases in which politicians publicly questioned the eligibility of non-governmental organizations as a direct result of their positions on the Palestinian cause.
Amnesty International previously joined 103 other organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Al-Haq and the Jewish Network for Palestine appeal to the UN not to support a working definition of anti-Semitism that would promote policies that undermine human rights. The human rights groups recommended alternative definitions of anti-Semitism, including the Jerusalem Declaration on Anti-Semitismwhich provides examples of behavior that it says are not prima facie anti-Semitic, including: “supporting the Palestinian demand for justice” and “(c)ritizing or rejecting Zionism as a form of nationalism,” as well as boycott, divestment and sanctions protest tactics against Israel.
The report comes at a time when the freedom of expression and protest rights of pro-Palestine demonstrators in the UK and Germany have reportedly been restricted. In January 2026, Human Rights Watch reported that British authorities were attempting to expand anti-protest legislation in the United States Crime and Policing Act. In October 2025, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, along with other UN experts, warned that German policing of Palestinian solidarity activism had undermined the right to peaceful assembly.
The European Convention on Human Rights protects freedom of expression in the European Union. Article 10 ensures that freedom of expression includes “the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and influence information and ideas without interference by public authority,” and that restrictions are justified only when “required by law and necessary in a democratic society.”
