Words: Chelsea Monique Daniel (she/they)
CW: Genocide
To archive is a resistant act to keep collective memory alive, and ensure that the history of oppressed groups is not purposefully forgotten.
‘Newspaper The Jewish Chronicle smeared University of Glasgow postgraduate student for paper published discussing Israeli state sponsoring of network of advocacy groups, alleging antisemitism.’
– 11th of December, 2020
Created by the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), the Index of Repression is a live database and documentation platform used to highlight the suppression of Palestine solidarity efforts. It logs occurrences of repression across the United Kingdom and Germany, recording over 700 incidents in Germany alone since 2019. It is a free to use, accessible resource that the general public can engage with and submit to from their laptops. The database’s unique status as a living, breathing archive allows it to serve as evidence for the fact that repression did not begin – nor end with – October 7th. The Index captures perfectly how solidarity with Palestine has long been punished, and how repression has increased exponentially.
Since the escalation of the genocide in 2023, the Index has acted as a people’s “Big Brother”, observing, collating, and preserving the wrongdoings of the British state. On October 9th 2023, an anonymous submission was made, highlighting the British media’s bias against pro-Palestinian students. ‘Media including GB News, newspaper The Times, and tabloid Daily Mail smeared University of Sussex student for speech in support of Palestinians’ right to resistance at Palestine solidarity demonstration, alleging antisemitism and support for proscribed organisation.’ This case is not unique, it is one of many in the database that shows how the mainstream media meddles in the affairs of students on campus.
The wealth of data the Index has gathered offers a unique opportunity for analysis. In 2026, the ELSC released its report On All Fronts: The Multi-Sited Repression of Palestine Solidarity in Britain, arguing that, based on its data, all ‘repression draws its force from Britain’s deeper structures of violence.’ The report also identified who bore the brunt of this repression: students, academics, and teachers ‘appear most frequently’ in the Index, with over 332 reports made about them. Our own university is no exception to this rule. On the 7th of April 2025, it ‘banned [a] student from campus for attending Palestine solidarity demonstration on divestment from Israeli arms companies, alleging [the] student posed “substantial risk”.’ Institutions like UofG can, and have, abused their power to dictate students’ future. Thanks to the Index of Repression, these abuses have been recorded forever.
Archiving and record keeping is a process of remembering history in action. As The Arab British Centre said, ‘Conflict does more than destroy physical spaces. It extinguishes lives, erases histories, and disrupts the collective memory of entire communities.’ To archive is a resistant act to keep collective memory alive, and ensure that the history of oppressed groups is not purposefully forgotten.
Palestinians know the importance of archiving all too well. In the 1970s, activists used film to create a visual record of Palestine, which was then distributed to the rest of the world as an act of both preservation, and resistance. Rona Sela’s film, Looted and Hidden, managed to document the 1982 Beirut siege, in which Israel destroyed the Palestinian Cinema Institute. Workers left with as many film reels as they could, but when they returned, all that remained of the institute’s archives was rubble. As Khelil Bouarraj writes, ‘given the Zionist narrative that has legitimised Israel’s founding in the Western views, it is no wonder that Israeli leaders have been overly zealous in tracking down and stealing Palestinian archives.’ Archives, indexes, and documents inform the dominant narrative, the narrative which holds the power to either legitimise, or completely undermine, Israel.
On the 8th of July 2025, several high-ranking UK universities attended a training webinar on implementing widespread campus protest bans for expressions of Palestine solidarity. This incidence was documented thanks to the Index Repression. Its existence is evidence that institutions plan on continuing to ban democratic acts that aim to express solidarity. While such a revelation is disheartening at best, we can take comfort in the fact that this repression is being recorded. Yes, one day everyone will have been against this, but, for now, we must remember who isn’t.
Archiving is a core of the Palestinian struggle, and according to this logic, it must be a focus of any acts of Palestinian solidarity. If the state and institutions wish to repress, it is a moral imperative for someone to write it down. We need to remember Palestine, and we need to remember those who tried to make us forget. What the Index of Repression is doing, by documenting each act of violence or silence, is making sure the institutions and Israel do not get to write the history, the people do.
