Swiss authorities have arrested and deported prominent Palestinian American journalist Ali Abunimah, executive director of online publication The Electronic Intifada, ahead of a speech he was slated to give in Zurich over the weekend, the publication has reported.
The Electronic Intifada said that Abunimah was questioned by police for an hour at the Zurich airport on Friday before being allowed to enter the country. He was then arrested by three plainclothes officers, who forced him into an unmarked vehicle, the publication reported.
On Monday, The Electronic Intifada said that authorities deported Abunimah after he spent two nights in jail.
In a post on X after his release, Abunimah said that Swiss authorities had not allowed him to contact his lawyer while he was jailed, and transferred him from prison to the Zurich airport in a “small metal cage in a windowless prison van” while he was handcuffed on Monday night. They confiscated his phone while he was in jail, despite not having been charged with any offenses.
“My ‘crime’? Being a journalist who speaks up for Palestine and against Israel’s genocide and settler-colonial savagery and those who aid and abet it. I came to Switzerland at the invitation of Swiss citizens to talk about justice for Palestine, to talk about accountability for a genocide in which Switzerland too is complicit,” said Abunimah.
“This ordeal lasted three days but that taste of prison was more than enough to leave me in even greater awe of the Palestinian heroes who endure months and years in the prisons of the genocidal oppressor,” Abunimah continued. “More than ever I know that the debt we owe them is one we can never repay and all of them must be free and they must remain our focus.”
“Abunimah’s arrest appears to be part of a growing backlash from Western governments against expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people,” The Electronic Intifada wrote. “The Electronic Intifada team stands in solidarity with Ali Abunimah. Speaking out against injustice in Palestine is not a crime. Journalism is not a crime.”
On Monday, The Electronic Intifada said that authorities deported Abunimah after he spent two nights in jail.
The publication noted that Abunimah’s arrest is part of a general crackdown by Western governments on pro-Palestinian speech. It cited an incident last October when British police raided the home of The Electronic Intifada’s associate editor Ada Winstanley and confiscated his electronics.
Last year, Abunimah also reported being threatened with prison by German authorities for an online talk delivered to a German audience on Israel’s genocide in Gaza. “As I spoke from the United States, Germany can claim no jurisdiction over me, but I have been given to understand that German authorities may still open a criminal case against me for violating the order. So be it,” he wrote at the time.
A petition started by Swiss Action for Human Rights calling for Abunimah’s release from Swiss detention has racked up thousands of signatures as of Monday. According to the group, Abunimah was being held without charges.
“This follows a defamatory article published in a local newspaper, baselessly accusing him of radical islamism and antisemitism, accompanied by a request by cantonal police to prohibit him from entering the territory, supposedly based on the media accusations,” Swiss Action for Human Rights said. “No valid legal basis exists given for his violent abduction, arbitrary detention and planned deportation.”
UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese called for a “prompt investigation” into Abunimah’s arrest and expressed “shock.”
“The climate surrounding freedom of speech in Europe is becoming increasingly toxic, and we should all be concerned,” Albanese said.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor also condemned Swiss authorities over the arrest.
“[Abunimah’s] arrest is a concerning and dangerous development that reflects a growing trend in Western governments to censor free speech and target journalists and activists who document the suffering of victims and stand up for Palestinian rights, all in blatant defiance of pressure and incitement,” the group said. “This arbitrary arrest gives the false impression that showing solidarity with the victims of the Israeli occupation peacefully is now illegal.”
Note: This story has been updated with new comments by Abunimah following his release.
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