Brussels, Belgium – The current arrest of a Palestinian activist in Belgium has raised alarm because the organisation he works for describes the incident as “a type of state harassment”.
Mohammed Khatib, the 35-year-old European coordinator for Samidoun, a worldwide Palestinian prisoner solidarity community, was arrested on April 21 after attending a day by day protest demanding an finish to Israel’s genocide towards Palestinians in Gaza.
Each night, dozens of individuals, some sporting keffiyehs, collect on the steps of the previous inventory alternate in Brussels to drape a Palestine flag down the steps and chant slogans of solidarity in English, Arabic and French.
A police presence is common, however Khatib felt uneasy when he observed an officer photographing him
He left about 7:30pm (17:30 GMT) and was stopped close by for what he known as a “spontaneous” ID examine by native police.
He was arrested and brought in a police van to a central station. About 30 supporters gathered exterior, chanting, “Free our comrade!” earlier than being dispersed by riot police about 10pm (20:00 GMT).
Khatib was then transferred to a close-by station. He was questioned and not using a lawyer and launched about 5am (03:00 GMT).
Khatib stated he spent hours ready in a cell earlier than being requested for a couple of minutes about an incident in April 2024 throughout which he was attacked with a knife. There was additionally a short journey to the hospital for nonurgent remedy.
“They have been doing something they might to maintain me,” Khatib instructed Al Jazeera.
The Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Workplace instructed Al Jazeera: “Mohammed Khatib was arrested as a part of an investigation into occasions that happened in April 2024. He was launched after questioning.”
Belgium’s tensions with pro-Palestine motion
A Palestinian refugee born within the Ein El Hilweh camp in Lebanon in 1990, Khatib fled to Belgium alone at age 19, claimed asylum and co-founded Samidoun one yr later in 2011. Campaigning for the rights of Palestinians incarcerated in Israel is his sole occupation.
Samidoun’s stance on Israel-Palestine has led to Khatib being designated as a “critical” safety menace by the Coordination Unit for Risk Evaluation (CUTA), an unbiased physique that experiences to Belgium’s justice and inside ministries.
Khatib stated officers on April 21 justified the arrest initially with the CUTA designation.
It marked the second time he has been arrested. In October 2023, he was arrested at an indication after refusing to cease waving a Palestine flag.
The newest detention was “nothing when it comes to what we face”, he stated, referring to efforts in some Western nations to curtail the pro-Palestine motion.
Samidoun known as the arrest “a type of state harassment focusing on a distinguished chief, not solely of Samidoun, however of the rising motion towards the continuing genocide in occupied Palestine”.
“It’s arduous to not see it in that gentle,” refugee and immigration lawyer Benoit Dhondt instructed Al Jazeera. “Lots of people live in a state of schizophrenia due to how invisible the genocide in Gaza is being made in Europe.”
In the meantime, “disproportionate policing of the pro-Palestine motion makes it very obscure what is definitely occurring,” he stated.
The creator and journalist David Cronin wrote in The Digital Intifada: “If the Belgian authorities take pleasure in any success in muzzling Mohammed Khatib and Samidoun, then we’ve got to ask: Who’s subsequent? All Palestine solidarity campaigners are in danger.”
In Could final yr, police used water cannon and tear fuel to disperse a peaceable protest exterior the Israeli embassy in Brussels underneath directions from Mayor Boris Dillies, who stated the demonstration was unauthorised. An open letter signed by Amnesty Worldwide described the measure as “opposite to worldwide legislation”.
Earlier that month, police had arrested about 40 protesters when an indication on the US embassy went extra time.
In a report on the state of the appropriate to protest revealed in July, Amnesty famous that administrative arrest “is more and more used to stop individuals from taking part in protests” in Belgium.
Human rights and immigration lawyer Helene Crokart instructed Al Jazeera that arrests “should not remoted incidents” and “typically quantity to outright intimidation”.
Samidoun, Khatib within the crosshairs
On October 15, then-State Secretary for Migration and Asylum Nicole De Moor, a Christian Democrat, introduced a process to strip Khatib, who she known as a “hate preacher”, of asylum.
“Even when somebody has already been recognised as a refugee however that particular person seems to be an extremist, recognition could be withdrawn,” she acknowledged.
On the identical day, the USA and Canada blacklisted Samidoun, deeming it a “sham charity” and accusing it of elevating funds for the Standard Entrance for the Liberation of Palestine, a delegated “terrorist” organisation.
Samidoun denied the allegation.
Germany banned Samidoun in 2023, alleging it celebrated the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led assaults in southern Israel. Khatib stated, “Some Palestinians have been distributing baklava on the street. And we have been there with the Samidoun flag.”
Khatib has additionally been banned from coming into Switzerland for 10 years, which happens solely when a person poses what is taken into account a “concrete” menace to nationwide safety, in accordance with a Swiss authorities spokesperson. He was not permitted to enter the Netherlands for a college discuss in October.
Throughout the October 2023 assaults, 1,139 individuals have been killed and greater than 200 have been taken captive into Gaza. Since then, Israel’s newest warfare on Gaza has killed greater than 52,000 individuals, together with greater than 17,000 youngsters, within the besieged enclave. Israel has justified the onslaught as an try and crush Hamas.
In response to a CUTA spokesperson, Samidoun is classed as an “extremist” organisation, which “is just not a legal offence”.
“We’re extra fascinated with maintaining a tally of the management, the members, what they do and say, how they disrupt public order and what group they’re doubtlessly focusing on,” the spokesperson stated.
Belgium’s right-wing authorities, appointed in February, is markedly extra sympathetic to Israel than its predecessor.
Prime Minister Bart De Wever of the New Flemish Alliance celebration stated Belgium wouldn’t arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regardless of an Worldwide Prison Courtroom (ICC) warrant for his arrest on costs of crimes towards humanity. 4 months earlier, then-Liberal Premier Alexander De Croo acknowledged the alternative.
The coalition headed by De Wever intends to “ban harmful radical organisations equivalent to Samidoun attributable to their ties to terrorism or for spreading antisemitism”, in accordance with official paperwork.
However a ban would possible take a very long time to implement as a result of Belgian positions rely on European Union and United Nations Safety Council choices.
De Moor’s successor, Anneleen Van Bossuyt, helps the initiative to revoke Khatib’s refugee standing. Such a call is made independently by the commissioner normal for refugees and stateless individuals and should depend on proof of a critical crime.
A call to strip somebody’s standing could also be appealed, however as soon as finalised, the immigration workplace might subject an order for an individual to depart the nation.
The case is determined by materials that authorities stated they aren’t sharing, even with Khatib.
Dhondt warned of a “chilling impact” on freedom of expression.
The federal government is utilizing Khatib’s case as a “propaganda device” to reveal robust insurance policies on “extremism”, he stated, though it “can’t actually say why [Khatib poses any threat]”.
Khatib denies all allegations of hate speech.
“If they’d one thing they might use towards me, I might not be sitting right here. I might be in jail.
“The aim of this intimidation is to silence the motion, to make an instance of us and say, ‘In case you do the identical, that is your future’. We are going to struggle this.”
‘Smear marketing campaign’
Khatib has beforehand known as for Israel to be “dismantled” and stated, “We don’t name Hamas’s assault in Israel a terror assault. We name it justified resistance.”
Seen as hardline positions by some, mainstream activists have distanced themselves from Samidoun however urged Brussels to uphold freedom of expression.
The Human Rights League, a nonprofit organisation that has criticised Belgian authorities for permitting the transit of arms to Israel, doesn’t wholly endorse Khatib’s views however “reiterates the necessity to defend freedom of expression, together with for statements that ‘offend, shock or disturb’, in accordance with the European Courtroom of Human Rights”.
“Whereas the positions defended by Mohammed Khatib and Samidoun can undeniably be described as radical, … to our information they’ve by no means been prosecuted for any legal offence (together with for anti-Semitic statements) nor have they brought about any public dysfunction,” the rights group stated in a 2024 report.
The group linked Khatib’s case to different measures, equivalent to native bans on keffiyehs and different pro-Palestine symbols and the non permanent suspension of choices on Palestinian asylum purposes. The report concluded that the dearth of a call on revoking Khatib’s refugee standing suggests inadequate proof towards him.
The Union of Progressive Jews in Belgium final yr denounced a “smear marketing campaign” towards Khatib.
“No matter political variations we might have, this menace is insupportable and shakes the very foundations of our democracy.”
