Dutch ban Palestinian prisoner activist from entry

A controversial Palestinian activist who had been invited to give a lecture at Radboud University in Nijmegen next week has been banned from entering the Netherlands.

Mohammed Khatib, who had been asked to talk about Palestinian prisoners and the Israeli prison system for an informal course, will not be allowed to enter the country, justice minister David van Weel and immigration minister Marjolein Faber said in a statement on Friday morning.

Van Weel said earlier this week he was looking into the option of a ban.

Khatib “legitimises, condones and glorifies violence against the state of Israel, including violence by organisations on the European Union’s terrorism list,” Van Weel and Faber said in a statement. “He also actively expresses support for terrorist organisations. These statements may have a radicalising effect.”

Ministers said that while freedom of speech is a “great good” that may lead to disagreement, this had to take place within the “democratic values that we have agreed on together.”

Germany has already banned Samidoun for “anti-Semitic statements” and “open support for terror organisation Hamas”. The Belgian government is also trying to revoke Khatib’s refugee status on the grounds that he may pose a danger to society. He has had refugee status in Belgium since 2010.

Radboud University, which said earlier it had no problem with the invitation, said it will wait for official confirmation that Khatib has been banned before commenting.

Meanwhile, the two lecturers who invited him to speak at their Situating Palestine course have described the way Khatib has been “framed” as a “hate preacher” to be Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian racism. 

Samidoun plans to take legal action against the plan. “This will not hold up in court because no criminal acts have been committed,” board member Thomas Hofland told the AD.

Earlier this week a number of Radboud students and workers had called on the university not to give a platform to Khatib, saying his presence had nothing to do with academic freedom.

According to university news platform VoxWeb, Khatib was invited by pro-Palestine demonstrators to deliver a lecture at the protest tent camp last spring, and the event went ahead.