In Belgium, a leader of a pro-Palestine association has been deprived of his residence permit

For months, the international Palestinian prisoner solidarity network Samidoun had been in the Belgian government's crosshairs. And it was during the summer that the government decided to strike. Its goal: to neutralize this association, which, according to Bart De Wever, the Flemish nationalist prime minister (NVA), "glorifies terrorist organizations and their atrocities."

To achieve their goals, the Belgian authorities were rather helpless. Bart De Wever himself acknowledged that this type of organization did not commit "punishable offenses." On July 25, the Minister of the Interior, Bernard Quintin, a liberal from the Reform Movement (MR), therefore drew up, in the Council of Ministers, a preliminary draft law intended to dissolve "extremist organizations or groups that threaten national security or the rule of law."

On August 6, the newspaper Le Soir revealed that the General Commission for Refugees and Stateless Persons, referred to the case by the former Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Nicole de Moor, had withdrawn the Palestinian refugee status of Samidoun's European coordinator, Mohamed Khatib. He is criticized for his conciliatory remarks toward Hamas, which he considered, until recently, worthy of "respect," even though he is primarily known for being close to the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. His association, Samidoun, is listed as a "terrorist entity" in Canada and the United States, and is banned in Germany. A video in which he says he "celebrates" the October 7 attacks, considered an "act of resistance," is receiving increased attention.

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