Switzerland Releases Palestinian Journalist Ali Abunimah After Unwarranted Detention

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Palestinian-American Ali Abunimah says Swiss authorities have released and deported him after detaining him for three days without any clear reason.

As reported by Al Jazeera on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, Abunimah, the executive director of the Electronic Intifada media outlet, said in a social media post on Monday that Switzerland detained him for his advocacy of Palestinian rights.

“My ‘crime’? Being a journalist defending Palestine and opposing the Israeli genocide and settler colonial barbarity and those who aid and abet it,” he wrote.

Abunimah was arrested in Zurich on Saturday before he was scheduled to deliver a speech in the city, drawing anger from Palestinian rights advocates.

The Swiss embassy in Washington, DC, did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Reuters news agency reported on Sunday that Swiss police cited an entry ban and other measures under the country’s immigration laws as the reason for Abunimah’s arrest.

The Palestinian-American journalist said that when he was interrogated by police, they accused him of “violating Swiss law” without giving any specific charges.

He said he was “cut off from communication with the outside world, in a cell 24 hours a day,” adding that he was unable to contact his family. He added that he was only given his mobile phone back at the gate of the plane that flew him to Istanbul.

Abunimah noted that at the time he was being held in prison like a “dangerous criminal,” Switzerland was welcoming Israeli President Isaac Herzog to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Herzog has sparked controversy over his stance on Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians. Herzog has previously said that there are no “uninvolved civilians” in Gaza.

“This ordeal lasted three days, but it felt like being in prison was more than enough to make me even more in awe of the Palestinian heroes who endure months and years in the prisons of genocidal oppressors,” Abunimah said.

“More than ever, I know that our debt to them is one we can never repay and that all must be free and must remain our focus.”

UN experts have condemned Abunimah’s detention as an attack on free speech.

Irene Khan, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, described Abunimah’s arrest as “shocking news” on Saturday and called for her release.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, also called for an investigation into the incident.

“The climate around free speech in Europe is becoming increasingly toxic, and we should all be concerned,” Albanese wrote in a social media post.

Abunimah’s detention comes amid an escalating crackdown on pro-Palestinian voices in Europe amid the war in Gaza, which UN experts have likened to genocide.

In April, Germany shut down a conference for Palestinian rights advocates and denied entry to British doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah, who had worked in Gaza.

Activists have also accused the German government of cracking down on pro-Palestinian protests during Israel’s genocide.

In October 2024, British counterterrorism police raided the home of Abunimah’s Electronic Intifada colleague Asa Winstanley — an incident the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said was part of a “disturbing pattern of weaponizing counterterrorism laws against journalists.”

A few months earlier, British authorities detained journalist Richard Medhurst, who has been highly critical of Israeli policies, for 24 hours when he arrived in London.

Medhurst said Saturday that the “terrorism” investigation against him had been extended into May.

In Gaza, Israel has killed 205 since the start of the war in October 2023, according to local authorities.

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