On Thursday, 7 August, 35-year-old Mohammed Khatib learned that his refugee status in Belgium was being revoked, allegedly over his verbal support for Palestinian armed resistance and alleged links with international terrorism.
Khatib is the Europe coordinator of the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Samidoun. A Palestinian himself, he co-founded the organisation in 2011 after fleeing to Belgium from Lebanon in 2010, where he had grown up in the Ain El Hilweh refugee camp.
The decision to revoke his refugee status follows a campaign denouncing him as a “hate preacher,” initiated by the Belgian far-right on social media and taken up by former State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole De Moor, who announced a procedure against him in October 2024.
The case, overseen by the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRA), was based on information collected by the Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis (CUTA), which classifies Khatib a “serious” security threat.
However, the evidence to support this claim is not publicly available, nor is it accessible to Khatib.
“If they had something against me, I would be in prison,” Khatib told The New Arab, denying all counts of hate speech.
He says he will appeal the decision before the Council for Immigration Litigation (CCE). If rejected, he will either be deported (tricky considering that Palestinians may not return to Israel, but as a Palestinian born in Lebanon, he does not possess Lebanese citizenship) or remain in Belgium without basic rights.
“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,” Samidoun said in a statement. “Refugee status is not something the State can give and take as a reward or punishment.”
Asylum and Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt declined to comment on the case but confirmed her support for it.
Migration lawyer Selma Ben Khelifa called the development “anti-democratic” and a sign of the CGRA’s lack of independence, given the politicised nature of the file.
“If they had evidence against him, they could prosecute him and he could defend himself in court,” she told The New Arab.
The CGRA does not comment on individual cases. The Migration and Asylum Minister has the right to initiate the process of stripping someone of international protection, but may not intervene in the investigation. Refugee status may only be revoked if there is proof of a serious crime.
Kurdish parallel
Ben Khelifa previously represented a Kurdish national who was granted international protection in Belgium in 2013.
In 2021, his refugee status was revoked over his support for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organisation by the EU.
However, the CCE overturned the decision in February, concluding that support for the PKK alone is “insufficient evidence to consider the applicant a danger to national security.”
According to Ben Khelifa, Khatib’s circumstances are similar, and the government knows its case is unfounded.
“This is a form of administrative harassment designed to block his political activity. They have seen the case law, and they know they can’t win, but there will be a chilling effect on activism nonetheless,” she explained.
The decision about Khatib’s status coincides with Belgium’s intention to ban Samidoun. Days before, a draft law to ban “extremist” organisations was tabled in Parliament.
Any group that poses a “serious and persistent threat that cannot be neutralised” faces dissolution in what Interior Minister Bernard Quintin calls a “zero tolerance” approach to radicalism. The official government coalition agreement, dated February, explicitly labels Samidoun as a target of the bill.
The US and Canada classed Samidoun as a “terrorist” organisation in October 2024 and accused it of being a “sham charity” for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Germany banned Samidoun in October 2023 for “glorifying” the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. Samidoun has denied the first allegation, but Khatib did not deny the second because he considers the attacks “justified resistance.”
Khatib was arrested for unclear reasons after attending a protest in Brussels city centre in April. At the time, refugee and immigration lawyer Benoit Dhondt said his targeting was a “propaganda tool” designed to make people fearful of speaking up against the genocide in Gaza, where over 61,000 people have been killed by Israel’s offensive since October 2023.
An Amnesty International report published in July warned that administrative arrest “is increasingly used to prevent people from participating in protests” in Belgium.
Other instances of repression include the interrogation of 70 people who participated in or sympathised with an ULB campus occupation calling for the university to cut ties with Israel. They were questioned last September for “inciting segregation and racism.”
CUTA has also listed Anuna De Wever – known as “Belgium’s Greta Thunberg” – as a threat to national security after the 24-year-old climate activist spraypainted the words ‘Stop Genocide’ on a building belonging to OIP Sensor Systems, a daughter company of Israel’s largest arms supplier Elbit Systems.
“The daily stream of images of massacres is the only story,” said De Wever, referring to footage coming out of Gaza. “Everything else is just a distraction.”
An attack on all refugees
Khatib says the campaign against him is an attack on all refugees, not just Palestinians.
The Belgian Government is currently implementing the “strictest migration policy Europe has seen,” according to Prime Minister Bart De Wever.
There are over 12,000 rulings from Belgian and European courts condemning the State for its failure to welcome international protection applicants adequately. A labour court imposed a daily penalty fee for non-compliance with its rulings in June 2023, but it remains unpaid.
The Council of Europe, Europe’s largest human rights body, has repeatedly condemned Belgium for its “clear refusal” to comply with international law.
“If this rule is applied to me, the government would be able to revoke the refugee status of any refugee with a political opinion it doesn’t like,” says Khatib. “It’s an attack on all migrants, and especially refugees in Belgium, at a time when thousands are undocumented, without shelter and without rights.”
Another Jewish Voice, a Flemish-Jewish organisation advocating peace in Israel-Palestine, called the decision to revoke Khatib’s refugee status a “politically motivated decision” in an open letter.
“A recognised refugee is someone who undergoes a strict procedure to prove that their life or dignity is at risk,” it stated. “Revoking such recognition on political grounds jeopardises the safety and well-being of all refugees.”
Ciara Carolan is a Brussels-based journalist reporting primarily on human rights. She has written for Al Jazeera, the Irish Independent, and The Brussels Times
Follow her on X: @ccarolan01
