How data on the crackdown on Gaza protests reflects the increasing repression of activist movements in the U.S.

Protests over the unfolding genocide in Gaza erupted across the U.S. in 2023, quickly becoming the largest mass demonstration since Black Lives Matter a few years earlier. In both cases, the protest movements took aim at state violence and oppression against marginalized groups.  

Deeper scrutiny of the protests and law enforcement response reveals how the U.S. government at all levels has escalated its repressive tactics during the last five years. One telling statistic shows how a strong majority of cases filed against Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020 were dropped or dismissed, but the crackdown on Gaza demonstrators has grown even more draconian and resulted in harsher punishments.  

Why is this?

While the protest movements’ contexts preclude a direct apples-to-apples comparison, around 100 legal observers and attorneys who discussed the issue with Mondoweiss say the escalation reflects pro-Israel bias in the political system, a strengthening of anti-protest tactics, and a conservative shift in the nation’s attitude about law enforcement. 

The shift is part of a broader pattern of political opponents to social justice movements building upon anti-protest strategies across Standing Rock, Black Lives Matter, Cop City, and Gaza protests, said Stefanie Fox, executive director of Jewish Voice For Peace. 

The goal, civil rights advocates say, is to silence dissent. 

“It is clear evidence of an escalating war on protest that the right wing has been waging for the past few decades,” said Fox, who protested at Standing Rock. She sees “vestiges of lawfare to take down water protectors at Standing Rock directly being used against anti-genocide protesters.”

“And the Gaza protests will be used by the right to sharpen new tools that will then be used against all of our communities and all social movements,” Fox added. The theory is supported by the escalation of tactics against ICE protesters currently being witnessed in Minneapolis and elsewhere. 

Examining the escalation

The idea that the crackdowns are escalating is supported by a Mondoweiss review of law enforcement figures in 15 major cities. About 14% of approximately 19,400 Black Lives Matter charges, summons, or citations were successfully prosecuted, compared with about 40% of around 6,800 Gaza cases through late 2024.

One possible explanation for the shift lies in the changing politics since 2020 and in the politics toward Palestine more generally.   

The Gaza cases often represent “political prosecutions” in a frequently pro-Israel legal and political system, and highlight a divide in the Democratic Party, said Xavier de Janon, Director of Mass Defense for the National Lawyers Guild.

In the wake of high-profile police killings of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, Democrats were largely supportive of Black Lives Matter protests, and “picking sides was simple,” de Janon said. Several years later, Democrats were bitterly divided over Gaza protests, and many in party leadership opposed them, he added. 

“With the genocide in Palestine, there is no mainstream alignment on supporting Palestinians, and the mainstream is almost unconditional support for Israel,” de Janon said. 

Some parts of the nation were also more conservative on law enforcement than they were four years ago, said Chesa Boudin, a San Francisco prosecutor during the Floyd era who was recalled in 2022 over allegations that he was not tough enough on crime. 

“It’s a different, more conservative political moment,” Boudin said, noting that politicians once generally supportive of the Floyd movement by 2024 were “bending over backwards to seem more pro-police.” 

Meanwhile, some charges that were misdemeanors a few years ago have now been made felonies, Fox said, and anti-terrorism laws are being wielded against often peaceful protesters.   

Still, in some cities, like Los Angeles, the vast majority of cases against Gaza protesters were dropped, which attorneys say points to the use of mass arrest as crowd control and flimsy charges. For example, about 88% of 457 Los Angeles cases reviewed by Mondoweiss were dropped by late 2024. 

The analysis also does not include universities’ internal punishments of student protesters, which have added another layer unique to the Gaza protests. Many Los Angeles protesters faced campus discipline, such as expulsion or loss of housing, even when they weren’t prosecuted. 

“The schools have been much more aggressive than local prosecutors in going after students,” said Colleen Flynn, a Los Angeles attorney representing many of the protesters.  

Regardless of why or how law enforcement is cracking down, the strategies have a negligible impact on public safety and instead aim to prevent protests from happening, said Ria Thompson-Washington, president of the National Lawyers Guild. 

“It’s more explicitly to create a culture of fear where people are afraid to stand in dissent, and afraid to stand up collectively,” they said.

Pro-Israel law enforcement

Two localities, San Francisco and Ann Arbor, demonstrate how a post-2020 backlash against protest movements, combined with anti-Palestinian politics, combined to put a target on Gaza protesters.   

In San Francisco, defense attorneys say pro-Israel bias is partly behind prosecutor Brooke Jenkins’s “unprecedented” crackdown on anti-genocide protesters. 

Defense attorney Rachel Lederman said there’s a history of demonstrators blocking bridges, including for anti-war, AIDS, and BLM protests. Jenkins is developing “creative legal theories” to try to deliver tougher punishments for anti-genocide protesters, Lederman said. 

Among novel charges Jenkins’ office filed were felony false imprisonment and conspiracy, while, in a social media post, the office urged people financially harmed by the bridge closure to submit claims for restitution. Her office claimed some individuals are owed up to $400,000 for a day of lost work. 

Jenkins also had the California Highway Patrol issue warrants rather than having her office issue them, a departure from past protocol that forced protesters to spend a night in jail. 

Lederman alleged pro-Israel bias in a motion that asked a judge to remove Jenkins’ office from Gaza cases. It detailed how on social media, Jenkins described a Gaza war protest as a “pro-Hamas rally.” 

Documents obtained via a FOIA request and shared with Mondoweiss show that Jenkins had a friendly relationship with pro-Israel lobbying organizations. A May 2024 email exchange between the the Jewish Community Resource Center (JCRC) and Jenkins’s office indicated the district attorney’s interest and excitement in joining a JCRC junket to Israel. One month later the JCRC later sent Jenkins’ office an intelligence brief on pro-Palestinian activities planned during San Francisco Pride events, and at least one protester associated with these protests was eventually charged by the DA.

Jenkins’ chief of staff, meanwhile, is a former political education director of AIPAC, another powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, and an assistant DA in her office has described Palestinians as “brutal Arab invaders,” “hate mongers,” and “Nazis” who need to be “sent back to their native homelands.” 

Jenkins has met at least twice with extremist Israeli officials, including a former Knesset member; accepted two bottles of wine as gifts from the Israeli consulate; and agreed to attend an Israeli consulate Independence Day party. 

“Defendants cannot receive a fair trial with a DA who believes protesters are supporters of terrorism because they criticize the government of Israel and its genocidal war in Gaza,” Lederman wrote in her motion. It was denied.  

Jenkins, in an August 2024 statement, said, “Charging decisions are made based on the facts, evidence and the law.” 

“We do not pursue political prosecutions under any circumstances at any time,” the statement said. 

Former prosecutor Boudin dropped all 127 misdemeanor Floyd protest cases sent to his office in 2020. Four years later, Jenkins, his replacement, prosecuted 91% of 297 Gaza protest cases by the end of 2024. 

In Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan allegedly bypassed local prosecutors and sent Gaza protest charges to state attorney general Dana Nessel, a political ally with extensive personal and financial connections to the school’s regents. She also received significant campaign contributions from pro-Israel donors. 

In April, Nessel, who positioned herself as a first line of defense against the Trump administration’s assault on the left and civil liberties, partnered with the FBI to raid pro-Palestinian advocates’ homes. 

An analysis of state data found Nessel’s office had charged about 85% of the protesters for whom arrest warrants were requested by that point. By comparison, Ann Arbor’s prosecutors only charged on 10% of arrest warrants, while all Gaza protest cases were dropped in nearby Detroit. 

Democrats partnering with Trump and the right to silence Gaza protesters is dangerous, Fox said. 

“This creates a unique opportunity to advance an anti-democratic agenda because there’s bipartisan agreement around suppressing this antiwar movement,” she said. 

Meanwhile, pro-Israel lobbying groups, like the Anti-Defamation League, have coordinated programs in which the Israeli military trains U.S. police.  

“There is strong institutional and financial support for Israel, and it’s like a monster that is way stronger than the police unions were in 2020,” de Janon added. 

Changing attitude on law enforcement

The San Francisco charges are also part of a broader shift in law enforcement, observers say – San Francisco’s mayor appointed Jenkins to replace the more progressive Boudin, and  “[Jenkins] is also posturing herself as being as tough on crime,” Lederman said. 

Similarly, in Portland’s Multnomah County, a progressive prosecutor was defeated in May 2024 by a more conservative prosecutor amid frustration over crime and homelessness – 80% of Gaza protesters were prosecuted compared to 18% of Black Lives Matter protests. 

In Chicago, only about 40% of approximately 500 Gaza charges were dismissed. The prosecutor’s office for Cook County, home to Chicago, in September 2023 promised to drop low level protest misdemeanors. But the much more conservative city of Chicago’s attorney’s office has been increasing prosecutions of low level municipal code violations, legal observers say. 

Similarly, in Philadelphia, police have been much more aggressive during the Gaza protests, said Aine Fox, an attorney representing some protesters. 

In many cases across the nation, prosecutors sent Gaza protesters through “diversion” programs in which charges were dismissed if the protesters stayed out of trouble during a probationary period of under one year, paid a small fine, or did community service. 

In Boston and Northampton, the latter home to the University of Massachusetts, no charges were dismissed, and almost all of more than 350 cases were sent through a diversion program. 

Diversion programs function as a “muzzle” because they “shift [protesters’] risk assessment about what they can and can’t do,” de Janon said. The programs criminalize everyone at a protest, even if they have done nothing wrong, and it is easier for a protester to accept a light punishment than fight a charge, leaving them less likely to continue protesting. 

“If 300 activists are facing these charges, then who else will be out there protesting? This is the goal, and it’s a successful tactic,” de Janon said. 

The escalations will likely continue, Ria-Washington said. The state does not want protests, and its goal of the tactics are “to scare people from participating in protests at all.” 

“The state will move the goalposts and make whatever necessary adjustments they need to so they will criminalize protests,” they said.