Palestinian flags and a flag from the Samidoun organization at a demonstration in Berlin on May 1, 2023. (Credit: AFP)
Palestinian activist Mohammed Khatib, a member of a pro-Palestinian organization, has been banned from entering the Netherlands, where he was due to speak at a university next week, the Dutch government said on Friday. “There is absolutely no place in the Netherlands for sowing hatred and glorifying violence,” two Dutch ministers said in a joint statement.
Khatib is a member of the Samidoun organization, considered close to Palestinian Islamists, and his activities are highly controversial in Europe. Khatib “legitimizes and glorifies violence against Israel, including violence perpetrated by organizations on the European Union's terrorism list,” said David van Weel (Justice) and Marjolein Faber (Asylum and Migration). “He also actively expresses support for terrorist organizations. These statements can have a radicalizing effect,” they added.
The Dutch government also expressed its support for a German proposal to put Samidoun on the European sanctions list. “This allows us to impose sanctions at European level, such as freezing assets,” he said.
Samidoun's activities were banned in Germany in November 2023. Samidoun had organized a pastry distribution in Berlin to celebrate “the victory of resistance” after the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, which the German authorities compared to a form of support for “the barbaric terror of Hamas.”
In April, the Belgian government announced its intention to withdraw the refugee status of Khatib, describing him as an “extremist hate preacher.” Khatib was due to speak on Monday at the University of Nijmegen, in the eastern Netherlands. This week, the university had declared that the speaker's opinions “are not those of the university,” but had kept his speech on the agenda.
