Editor's note: Abu Naser Al Farabi, a special commentator for CGTN, is a Dhaka-based analyst focusing on international politics, especially Asian affairs. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

The West, namely the United States, often calls itself a "beacon of free speech." The Western countries, seemingly ignorant of their own faults and perennially in the grip of self-righteous obsession, are long used to flaunting the so-called universal values like the freedom of speech and assembly. The true goal, however, is more about exerting Western superiority and control over the rest than about advancing those.

In his remarks at the opening session of the first "Summit for Democracy" in December 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden loftily lectured the attendees, saying "As a global community for democracy, we have to stand up for the values that unite us." Among the range of democratic values, what he identified as unifying elements for the "global community" and urged others to uphold, were free speech, free assembly, a free press and freedom of religion. He reiterated a similar message during his virtual speech at the second summit in March this year.

However, the latest flare-up of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has flagrantly laid bare this hypocritical Western tendency – emphasizing the public rights to free speech and assembly at a time when they suit their state policies but standing silent on their infringements, or even suppressing those same rights when it happens otherwise.

In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent escalation of the Israeli vengeance on Palestine, a number of Western countries, including the U.S., have rushed to put gags on even mildly dissenting public views in solidarity with Gaza and Palestinian people. This contrasted with their supposed commitment to freedom of speech and assembly, thereby exposing the hollowness of their hypocritical claim.

Recently, more than 30 student groups from Harvard University signed a letter condemning Israel for the Hamas attacks. However, this resulted in heavy backlash as the students associated with the letter were labeled as "Harvard's leading anti-Semites" for issuing statements critical of Israel. They even faced extensive public retaliatory denigration campaigns, including a truck driving through the streets surrounding Harvard's campus featuring a billboard displaying the names and faces of students involved in signing the statement critical of Israel.

The unfortunate saga of the ill-fated students did not end with just that. Several Wall Street executives demanded that Harvard University reveal the names of all students who were members of the groups that signed the statement so that the firms could avoid hiring them. Additionally, a prestigious law firm has withdrawn job offers from three law students at Columbia University and Harvard University over statements on the conflict in the Middle East critical of Israel.

These events bear a resemblance to what happened earlier in June this year, when the longtime head of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, was barred by a Harvard University dean from taking up a fellowship at the school over Roth's criticism of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Pro-Palestinian views are being suppressed across multiple dimensions in the United States. Earlier this week, the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce forced the Hilton Hotels' authority into canceling the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights event in Houston. Palestinian American activists have also accused major television networks, such as BBC, NPR, MSNBC, CNN, and CBS News, of censoring, excising, or canceling their interviews, which prevents them from providing the broader context of the Israeli regime's decades-long occupation and oppression, causing the recurrences of the crisis in the region.

Dylan Saba, a staff attorney for Palestine Legal and a contributing editor at Jewish Currents, recently complained that The Guardian's American subsidiary had refused to publish his piece for which he was commissioned earlier by the newspaper. The article was supposed to "write about the wave of retaliation and censorship of political expression in solidarity with Palestinians" since the Hamas attack on October 7.

The act of targeting individuals who stand up for Palestinian rights has also become a widespread phenomenon in the U.S., including increasing demands from Pro-Israeli organizations for the dismissal of workers who express support for Palestinians. Recently, Ilhan Omar, a Muslim Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, expressed concern for the safety of her family after receiving a barrage of Islamophobic remarks and threats for criticizing Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

The U.S. and the Western world often pride themselves on their citizens' right to assemble and protest, but the reality is far from ideal. Recently, hundreds of peaceful protesters who demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians were arrested in the U.S. Meanwhile, France and Germany have already implemented a nationwide ban on all protests supporting Palestine, with the UK intending to follow suit.

The aforementioned instances of flagrant violation of individuals' fundamental right to free expression, which the West frequently boasts about defending and employs as a pointed tool to vilify its adversaries, represent merely the tip of the iceberg, with numerous other cases, both reported and unreported, crying out of our sight. At least regarding the Palestine-Israel conflict, the decades-long Western policy on the issue is blindly one-sided, characterized by disregard for the Palestinian desire for statehood, resulting in the region remaining under a perpetual state of tensions and instability.

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