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28-01-2025
UNITED NATIONS: United Nations human rights experts and activists have condemned the arrest of a prominent Palestinian journalist in the Swiss city of Zurich, saying it raised concerns about freedom of speech.
Ali Abunimah, the executive director of online publication Electronic Intifada which calls itself “Palestine’s weapon of mass instruction” was arrested by Swiss police on Saturday before his speech in Zurich, the website said in a statement.
Swiss police confirmed that the 53-year-old American citizen had been arrested. They cited an entry ban and said further measures under its immigration law were being considered.
The UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, called the arrest “shocking news” and urged Switzerland to investigate and release him in a post on the X social media platform on Sunday.
“The climate surrounding freedom of speech in Europe is becoming increasingly toxic, and we should all be concerned,” said Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied territories.
Pro-Palestinian advocacy group Swiss Action for Human Rights launched a petition to release Abunimah on Sunday.
A spokesperson for the United States embassy in Bern said it was providing appropriate consular assistance after seeing reports of the arrest of a US citizen, declining further comment.
Abunimah’s arrest came a day after he arrived in Zurich for a speaking tour, Electronic Intifada said in a statement.
“He is currently being detained and has had access to legal counsel,” it said on Saturday. “When he arrived at Zurich airport on Friday, Abunimah was questioned by police for an hour before being allowed to enter the country.”
Describing the arrest as a “growing backlash from Western governments against expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people”, the website noted that several activists and journalists were arrested, raided or charged using “counterterror” powers in the United Kingdom last year.
They included Asa Winstanley, an associate editor with Electronic Intifada, whose home was raided and computers and phones seized, it said, adding that Winstanley has not been charged with any crime.
“Speaking out against injustice in Palestine is not a crime. Journalism is not a crime,” the website said.
During a solidarity protest for Palestine on Saturday in Geneva, demonstrators said Abunimah’s arrest “had no legal basis”.
“He is defamed by Zurich media,” one of the speakers said. “We have free speech in Switzerland. It is a constitutional right,” she said, calling the arrest “unacceptable”.
“We support Ali Abunimah, all the Palestinian activists and activists for human rights,” she said.
Meanwhile, as the conflict in Gaza enters its 15th month, more than 45,400 people have been killed and 108,000 injured. The war has been particularly marked by the challenges of reporting from a warzone in effect sealed off to reporters from outside Gaza, where reporting has been impossible at times and far too often, deadly.
Despite these challenges, Palestinian journalists have continued to report the horrors of the war, serving as the world’s eyes and ears during one of the deadliest conflicts of the 21st century.
From October 7, 2023, to December 25, 2024, at least 217 journalists and media workers had been killed in Gaza. Five more were killed on December 26 when an Israeli air strike targeted a news van near al-Awda Hospital. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
