As the people of Gaza continues to confront a genocide, Palestinian refugees from Gaza in Belgium are facing a nearly unprecedented attack on their right to asylum — and on their very lives and freedoms. Following a string of arrests, at least six Palestinians from Gaza have been abducted and taken to closed detention centers, with a seventh – Mahmoud Farag Allah, deciding to take his life from the control of the Belgian state. The targeting of these Gazawis is not accidental, but follows their role in the heart of Belgium’s solidarity movement, leading daily protests for over two years in the center of Brussels outside its landmark Bourse.
On October 7th, 2025, Mahmoud Ezzat Farag Allah, decided to use his life as last weapon to protest the injustice; he took his own life inside one of the “closed centers” for immigration detainees. Mahmoud had been arrested 3 months ago; at the same time, he received the heartbreaking news of his mother passing away amid the ongoing Zionist genocide in his home, Gaza, Palestine. Samidoun mourns Mahmoud, honors his martyrdom and his act of resistance, and denounces the state violence, colonialism and white supremacy inflicted on him, his comrades, and all oppressed people.
Still imprisoned in the closed centers are many leading Palestinian youth organizers from Gaza, veterans of the daily protests, including:
- Anas Seyam, currently on hunger strike
- Fathi Al-Hamss
- Hamouda Albayyouk
- Hussameddine Al-Ras, currently on hunger strike
- Ali Abu Taha
- Mahmoud Abu Hudayed
The Bourse protests have become, in addition to outraged cries against the genocide and for the liberation of Palestine, spaces to call for the liberation of these imprisoned comrades and brothers, and to mourn the loss of Mahmoud; the Bourse protest on the evening of 8 October served as a memorial for Mahmoud and the martyrs of Palestine.
In response to the deteriorating conditions in the detention centres and to the martyrdom of Mahmoud, two of the detained youth, Anas and Hussam, have begun a hunger strike. Anas writes: “I have been detained for 34 days because I am defending my Palestinian cause.” They are also protesting the arrests of even more Palestinians in Belgium during the last days; reports indicate that in the hours after Mahmoud’s passing, police seized at least three Palestinian youth from Gaza from the streets of Brussels. In Anas’ last message before he launched his hunger strike, he said: “I am going on a hunger strike because we are really going through difficult times, me and all my friends, knowing that the police will take my phone because I will go on a hunger strike. I hope you do not forget us in your support.”
As Mahmoud paid with his life, as Anas and Hussam put their body and health on the line for the liberation of Palestine and their comrades, it is up to us to echo their call and amplify their voices, to resist repression, free the prisoners, and struggle against racist repression from Belgium to Palestine.
The increased repression and anti-Palestinian violence, follows the rise of the fascist “Arizona” government coalition, which proudly flouts its Islamophobia, racism and Zionism.
In fact, this government conducted an election campaign based in part on its eagerness to aid and abet genocide in Palestine by repressing Palestinian and Palestine solidarity organizations in Belgium. This includes the introduction of a new law through which the executive branch of the Belgian government would be able to dissolve ‘radical’ organizations without a legal process — a law that has primarily targeted Samidoun Belgium because of its active grassroots political work and its support for the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to resistance on the path to liberation. The adoption of such a bill would open the door to arbitrary decisions dependent on the will of the executive, setting a dangerous precedent that undermines the fundamental rights Belgium claims to follow.
Far from new, the targeted repression of Samidoun also includes the Belgian state attempting to revoke the refugee status and residency of Samidoun’s European coordinator, Mohammed Khatib. This process began with the former government and has been escalated by the current ‘Arizona’ coalition.
All of these attacks are part of one comprehensive assault by the imperialist Belgian government, accelerating the repression of the movement for the liberation of Palestine. This acceleration can be observed in different ways: politically motivated administrative decisions, including the revocation of asylum status; government action in drafting a new law facilitating the ban of organisations; arrests and charges of student activists; constant attacks by politicians, media figures and others against people and organisations advocating for Palestine. Now, and for the past weeks, Palestinian youth, particularly in Brussels, have been targeted by police, stopped and searched, arrested and sent to detention. Most of these youth have been targeted for playing an active role in the Brussels movement for Palestine since October 2023.
Most of these Palestinian youth are from Gaza; some are recognized refugees, while others are amid an asylum process, fleeing genocide, siege, and the relentless assaults of the Zionist entity targeting Gaza throughout their lives. Rather than provide protection, as is Belgium’s legal responsibility, for young people fleeing genocide, the state is ramping up the deportation machine with this series of arrests. These arrests and detentions are obviously politically motivated, and Palestinian youth, like their fellow migrant detainees, are suffering in difficult and often cruel conditions of detention.
The Belgian State, through its police, justice and migration policies apparatus, is directly responsible for denying the freedom, rights and dignity of young Palestinians in Belgium. For years, Belgium has cultivated an image of providing safety to Palestinians fleeing for their lives from the onslaught of the occupation. However, the government and its immigration agencies have used this image to impose odious political conditions and narratives that seek to blame Palestinians and their resistance, rather than the occupation, for the suffering and oppression in Gaza. The live-streamed genocide conducted in full view of the world by the Zionist entity, with Belgian complicity, has made it impossible to maintain this charade. The attacks on Palestinian youth, Palestinian and solidarity organizations, and the growing popular movement, are part and parcel of ongoing Belgian complicity in the genocide.
Belgium has developed both very restrictive migration policies (as elsewhere in Europe) and is escalating repression against social movements. Migration laws and their dehumanizing potential have been increasingly instrumentalised as a political means of repressing and silencing Palestinian voices.
As the Belgian state and its police seek to imprison the heart of the Palestinian movement in Belgium and elsewhere, a collective response is urgently needed. We must make clear that no matter how they try to intimidate us, how many they arrest, how many they force to give up their lives, we will never give up on Palestine.
On October 7, 2025, a young Palestinian student, Ruaa Khatib, proudly affirmed support to the Resistance during her graduation ceremony in the center of Brussels.
For 2 years now, people continue gathering daily at Bourse in the Brussels city center, despite the growing risk for Palestinians and undocumented people. The police attacks and arrests seem to be a calculated attempt to destroy the protest movement and impose terror on the community; yet people are responding with solidarity, rather than silence.
The student movement is still alive, despite the repression it faced and continues to face, as it prepares for a massive strike on all campuses on 23 October. Gatherings are organised in every city in Belgium in support of the Global Sumud Flotilla and the Thousand Madleens, sailing to break the siege and end the genocide. And people everywhere are collectively organising against the danger of the new proposed laws and escalating repression — yet we must escalate our work to bring an end to these repressive attacks and free our comrades from the unjust imprisonment of the Belgian state.
As the solidarity movement grows in strength within the imperial core, so does state repression; this means a growing number of prisoners who refuse this subjugation. Anas, Mahmoud, Hussam and their comrades stand among the prisoners of Palestine in the diaspora and in the internationalist movement, imprisoned in imperialist jails, including T. Hoxha and the Filton 24, Casey Goonan, Tarek Bazrouk, Anan Yaeesh, Ghassan Elashi and Shukri Abu Baker, and, of course, the nearly 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails, the heart of the resistance and the conscience of our movement.
In their unrelenting support for the Palestinian struggle of liberation, in their denial of imperialist and zionist states’ attempts to suppress the voice of the people, in their steadfast resistance, the prisoners remain our compass. We urge all supporters of Palestine to speak up for the imprisoned Palestinian youth in Belgium, to call for their liberation, to join the daily protests at 7 pm (19h) at the Bourse in Brussels, and to demand that the Belgian government end its attacks on the Palestinian youth and its complicity in genocide. Belgian officials must not only cease their violations of Palestinians’ rights, but must be held accountable for their support for apartheid, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Discover more from Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
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