Palestinian American Journalist Deported from Switzerland After Three-Day Detention

Palestinian American journalist Ali Abunimah, executive director of the Electronic Intifada publication, has been released and deported from Switzerland after being detained for three days, Al Jazeera reports.

Abunimah, who was arrested in Zurich on Saturday prior to a scheduled speech, suggested that his detention was linked to his advocacy for Palestinian rights.

The arrest sparked outrage amongst Palestinian rights advocates, with UN experts decrying the detention as an assault on free speech.

According to Abunimah, Swiss police accused him of “offending against Swiss law” without providing specific charges. He said he was held incommunicado, “cut off from communication with the outside world, in a cell 24 hours a day”, and was unable to contact his family. He added that his phone was only returned to him at the gate of his flight to Istanbul.

Reuters reported that Swiss police cited an entry ban and other measures under the country’s immigration law as the reason for Abunimah’s arrest. The Swiss embassy in Washington, DC, has not yet responded to requests for comment.

Abunimah contrasted his treatment, being taken to prison “like a dangerous criminal,” with the concurrent visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Herzog has faced controversy for his statements on Israel’s war in Gaza, where over 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, including his previous assertion that there are no “uninvolved civilians” in Gaza.

Abunimah’s detention comes amid an increased clampdown on pro-Palestine voices in Europe since the start of the Gaza conflict, a conflict that UN experts have described as potentially genocidal.

Other recent incidents include Germany’s shutdown of a conference for Palestinian rights advocates and the denial of entry to British doctor Ghassan Abu Sittah, who had worked in Gaza. Activists have also accused German authorities of cracking down on pro-Palestine protests.

Further highlighting the targeting of journalists, in October 2024 British counterterrorism police raided the home of Abunimah’s Electronic Intifada colleague, Asa Winstanley, a move described by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as part of a “disturbing pattern of weaponizing counter-terrorism laws against reporters.” Months earlier, British authorities held journalist Richard Medhurst, a vocal critic of Israeli policies, for 24 hours upon his arrival in London. Medhurst confirmed on Saturday that the “terrorism” investigation against him has been extended until May.

The ongoing conflict in Gaza has seen the death of 205 journalists since October 2023, according to local authorities, further emphasizing the dangers faced by reporters covering the conflict and highlighting concerns over press freedoms within the region and beyond.