Solidarity with Mohammed Khatib! 

On Wednesday 6 August 2025, Mohammed Khatib, coordinator for Samidoun in Europe, was notified of the revocation of his refugee status by the Belgian asylum authorities. This is the latest development in a comprehensive attack upon the Palestinian population in Belgium and upon the growing movement in solidarity with Palestine, following on the heels of the right-wing government’s announcement that it is seeking to ban organizations engaging in advocacy it wishes to silence, including Samidoun. This dangerous development threatens not only Mohammed, but all Palestinians in Belgium who are active and involved in the struggle to end the ongoing Zionist-imperialist genocide in the Gaza Strip and throughout occupied Palestine and aims to silence the growing movement at the same time as the “Israeli” regime is engaging in daily massacres and engineered starvation in Gaza.

This decision concludes a one and a half year-long procedure which started in April 2024 when the then Secretary of State for Migration announced her intention to revoke Mohammed Khatib’s refugee status, based on the arbitrary designation by OCAM of Mohammed as a ‘hate preacher’. This designation is clearly made on racist grounds – the term is almost always used for people racialised as Muslim, and never for right-wingers such as Bart de Wever, Theo Franken and the Vlaams Belang, not to mention the Zionist ‘ambassador’ who has engaged in ‘diplomacy’ based on threats and lies throughout her tenure. Mohammed is appealing the decision and will be continuing the legal struggle.

This decision illustrates and is a result of:

• The growing repression orchestrated by Belgian authorities against Palestinian people and activists, and more broadly the solidarity movement for Palestine and other social movements.
• The anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and Islamophobic campaign used by Belgian politicians, some journalists, academics and public figures, as well as by representative of the Zionist entity to defame Samidoun and the Palestinian movement.
• The power and political influence of the Zionist state on Belgian politics
• The attempt to stifle all support to liberation and resistance. Imperialists, in Belgium as everywhere else, cannot tolerate the voice of the people, when this voice rejects and combat colonialism, racism, genocide and exploitation.
• The denial of fundamental liberties as freedom of speech and association for Palestinian refugees, a project that operates hand in hand with aiding and abetting genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine. 

Mohammed Khatib is targeted because he is Palestinian. He is targeted because he supports the resistance on the path to the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, because he advocates for liberation of all Palestinian prisoners, and because he honours the lives and legacy of the martyrs of the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Meanwhile, the Belgian citizens who went to Gaza to commit genocide as part of the israeli occupation forces are not prosecuted at all and no investigation is carried out.
Meanwhile, those who make statements lauding genocide and praising war crimes as ‘genius’ are allowed continued impunity.

Instead of repressing Palestinian voices, the Belgian state should turn its attention to the long-list of actual threats to human rights and justice that threaten the fabric of Belgian society. The right-wing politicians that advocate for genocide in Palestine, the open displays of fascism and racism that occupy the majority of government seats, the Arizona regime that wants to strip the rights and protections of the working classes and migrants in order to cosy up to warmongerers, the multiple condemnations of Belgium by the UN /WHO for its failure to comply with many international conventions to which it is a signatory, the grotesque violence of the Belgian police violently assaulting protestors and running over children on scooters, the Zionist organisations supporting genocide in Belgium, and the continued normalization with a colonial and genocidal entity.

The “Arizona” regime should know better. Refugee status is not something the state can give and take as a reward or punishment. Mohammed has a right to this status and to international protection, as a Palestinian refugee born in Lebanon, stateless, a consequence of the zionist colonisation of Palestine. This obligation for Belgium to protect Mohammed and other refugees is rooted in international laws and conventions of which Belgium is a signatory. Furthermore, the decision itself makes a mockery of international law, referring to support for Palestinian resistance as “contrary to the United Nations.” On the contrary, the Palestinian right to armed resistance — and not merely advocacy for the right to resist — is explicitly enshrined in international law and United Nations resolutions. No Palestinian resistance organizations are classified as “terrorist” by the United Nations. To the contrary, the “Israeli” entity is currently violating hundreds of United Nations resolutions.

The Arizona regime’s abuse of state power is further underline because Mohammed has not been convicted nor even accused of any crime. There has been no substantive or meaningful due process through the courts to date. The regime fears the movement that has grown across Belgium in protest at settler colonialism and genocide, it fears the support that daily protests have from locals, transplants, and tourists alike, and it fears that its vocal support for this genocide will be remembered when justice is dealt to the perpetrators. The regime seeks to make an example of a visible figure in the movement, with a clear political line.

This is a move that should give pause to all in Belgium who would advocate for a better world. This gross overreach will be used as a precedent to silence dissenting voices not just on Palestine, but on all issues where the people are not in lockstep with the Arizona regime.

As the cases of Congo, Algeria or Vietnam illustrate, the attempt to repress the voice of the oppressed will not succeed. Liberation is on the horizon, and neither the Palestinian people nor the solidarity movement will give up, no matter how egregious the repression.

Samidoun strongly condemns this attack on Mohammed Khatib, on the Palestinian solidarity movement, and on the right of refugees. Samidoun expresses its support to all Palestinian activists and solidarity activists in Belgium and around the world to stand with Mohammed and with all Palestinians persecuted for standing up against the genocide and for the liberation of Palestine. Samidoun reaffirms our core principles, reflected in Mohammed’s advocacy and work, and for which he has been targeted: the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, support for all forms of Palestinian resistance, the liberation of all the prisoners and the right of return of all Palestinian refugees.