Photo by Palästina Komitee Zürich posted with the caption below on X:
"Freedom of the press in Switzerland was deported right now along with Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah. Free Palestine!"
What crime did Ali Abunimah, Director of the Electronic Intifada, allegedly commit?
I wrote this on the plane and I’m posting it just after landing at Istanbul.
On Monday evening I was brought to Zurich airport in handcuffs, in a small metal cage inside a windowless prison van and led all the way to the plane by police. This is after three days and two nights in a Swiss prison cut off from communication with the outside world, in a cell 24 hours a day with one cell mate, not even permitted to contact my family.
On Saturday in a police interview in the presence of my lawyer they accused me of “offending against Swiss law” without ever telling me what crime I had committed in Switzerland or listing any charges. As far as I know I have not been charged with any crime whatsoever and I was held in “administrative detention.”
On Sunday morning, they took me from my cell for questioning by Swiss defense ministry intelligence agents without the presence of my lawyer, and they again refused to allow me to contact her or my family. I refused to talk to them without my lawyer and told them take me back to my cell.
During my imprisonment I refused every meal and every cup of coffee or tea they offered me except the last meal, after I knew I would be going home. I accepted only water, which is the right of every human being.
All of this was after I was abducted off the street around 1:30pm on Saturday while on my way to the Palestine teach-in,by undercover agents, handcuffed, forced into an unmarked car and sped straight to the prison.
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. But while I was hauled off to prison like a dangerous criminal before I even had a chance to say a word, the Israeli president Isaac Herzog, who declared at the start of the genocide that there are no civilians in Gaza, no innocents, received a red carpet welcome in Davos, a carpet soaked in the blood of the more than 47,000 known victims of the genocide and the thousands more still under the rubble, or who died of deliberately inflicted starvation and denial of medical care.
And on this very day Netanyahu freely travels to Poland to make a mockery of the Auschwitz commemoration despite an outstanding ICC arrest warrant. That is the perverse, unjust world we live in.
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. 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.
The police gave me my phone back only at the gate of the plane so I’m only seeing now the extent of the overwhelming support and solidarity from all over the world.
I’m deeply grateful to each and every person who stood up for me. I’m especially grateful to my lawyer Dina Raewel and her team, to our friends in Zurich who I learned afterwards demonstrated outside the prison, to my family and my colleagues at EI and so many others. I honestly had no idea what was happening outside that concrete room!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I want to tell the whole story of what happened, perhaps in an @intifada livestream in the next day or two, because I think it’s important for people to know the depths to which their Western so-called “democracies” have sunk in the abject service of genocidal Zionism.
Right now I’m glad to be on my way home. I’m looking forward to hugging my mom and dad, taking a shower and sleeping in my own bed. Journalism is not a crime! Speaking out for Palestine is not a crime! Standing against racist genocidal Zionism is not a crime!
Say it with me: From the River to the Sea Palestine Will Be Free! ❤️🇵🇸✌️
Eyewitnesses said three plainclothes police officers violently arrested Abunimah on Saturday and forced him into an unmarked vehicle without disclosing where he was being taken.
Abunimah’s arrest appears to be part of a growing backlash from Western governments against expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Last year, several activists and journalists in Britain were arrested, raided or charged using “counter-terror” powers.
They included Asa Winstanley, an associate editor with The Electronic Intifada, whose home was raided and his computers and phones seized. Winstanley has not been charged with any crime and the raid was condemned by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Britain’s National Union of Journalists.
Switzerland’s arrest of Abunimah has been met with worldwide condemnation. A petition demanding his release launched on Saturday had been signed by more than 15,000 people at the time of writing.
“Dangerous development”
Two United Nations human rights experts have condemned the detention of Abunimah by Swiss authorities.
Irene Khan, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, called it “shocking news” and called on Switzerland “to urgently investigate and release” Abunimah.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, called for a “prompt investigation into this matter.” She said that “the climate surrounding freedom of speech in Europe is becoming increasingly toxic, and we should all be concerned.”
Amnesty International’s European office said that it was following Abunimah’s case.
“The global crackdown on those who are critical of Israel’s violations of Palestinians’ human rights is alarming and must be immediately stopped,” Amnesty added.
Euro-Med Monitor, a Geneva-based human rights group, condemned Abunimah’s arrest. They said it was a “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.”
Please note the image below which Lowkey posted on his Twitter account.
The Children are Our Future: “Keep fighting for what’s right” says 14 year old Zak at the weekly Palestine Protest in London.
Translated description and source on Twitter: ”A 14-year-old British boy shocks a broadcaster with his answer about the reason for his solidarity with Palestine and his participation in demonstrations rejecting the crimes of the occupation, by exposing the role of #بريطانيا and the West in supporting these crimes and their disregard for human and moral values. #شاهد#العرب_في_بريطانيا#AUK”
Thanks for posting this, Azra. I have been off the tweet scene since Monday eve, and had not received any follow ups on Ali situation. Wonderful news!