1 year of Gaza genocide: Activists face digital hate storm in pro-Israel Czech Republic

By Ebad Ahmed

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AA) – Over the past year, pro-Palestinian activists in the Czech Republic have increasingly found themselves being targets of online hate.

Many who have stood against Israel’s assault on Gaza have come forward to share their experiences, revealing an unsettling trend of hate speech, cyberbullying, and explicit Islamophobia.

Yasar Abu Ghosh, an academic known for his pro-Palestinian activism, was targeted by a pro-Israel Czech restaurateur with a lewd reference on a photo of Ghosh and his daughter.

The same individual had pasted a genocidal “Finish Them” message on the door of his restaurant in Prague.

“The act of informing people about the ongoing war crimes in Palestine often triggers responses from the pro-Israel camp here,” Ghosh told Anadolu.

He pointed out that students from Arab countries in the Czech Republic are more at risk than activists who have the nationality.

That was backed up by an Arab student in the capital Prague, who said many have not reported online harassment to the authorities because they fear repercussions in regards to their visa status.

“International students do not consider their legal status as secure as a Czech student, so there is this reluctance to put authorities into the equation … The fear is losing the visa or not getting an extension,” the student said, requesting anonymity.

Yara Abu Aataya, a Czech-Palestinian artist and activist, has been facing digital vitriol since the very beginning of Israel’s genocidal war, including abuse toward her family, Islamophobia and anti-Arab bigotry, and vile threats.

“The hate was long term … I was keeping it to myself because I thought that it will stop, but it gradually became bigger and bigger … They were threats, not just hate messages,” she told Anadolu.

This has been the reality for all Arabs in Czech society, she said, who are “experiencing different kinds of threats, hate messages or bullying.”

“It is something very common but for me it became quite intense because I have been more vocal,” Abu Aataya said, adding that she gets “really strong hate messages almost every week.”

- Indifferent to Islamophobia

Both activists believe the surge in Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry is due to the Czech state’s indifference to the issue.

“In the Czech Republic, in public or at the level of politics, while antisemitism is rightly receiving attention and there are programs and agendas to address it, there is nothing like that in regards to Arabs, Muslim or Czechs of Muslim origin,” said Ghosh.

“This has never been raised by a single politician,” he said, adding that calls for action have been ignored or dismissed.

Abu Aataya said the discrepancy between policies on antisemitism and Islamophobia is an example of “Czech double standards.”

“When it comes to Islamophobia, they are actually being indifferent to the situation,” she said, emphasizing that the Czech state’s attitude toward people of color, Muslims and Arabs has pervaded other institutions in the country, including the media.

- Czech ‘state appears to have taken a side’

While Ghosh has ruled out taking any legal action against the online hate, Abu Aataya wants to make sure that such actions are not normalized through silence.

“I was not acting initially because I was thinking that might make the problem bigger,” she said.

“Not just the police, I might take the issue to those who have the capacity … It is not okay to let it be. They should not act this way and we should not let them act this way, and make it normal.”

Jarda Tunkova, a human rights lawyer and pro-Palestine activist in Prague, pointed out the irony in the Czech government’s actions at a time when people like Ghosh and Abu Aataya are dealing with such hate.

Activists, she said, are coming forward to speak up but Czech authorities are actually monitoring them and their activism, including summoning them for “visits.”

“The state appears to have taken a side on this issue – and clearly it is not the side of the good,” she said.