Mohammed Khatib, a Brussels-based Palestinian activist and European coordinator of the terror-designated Samidoun, who was due to give a speech at the Radboud University in Nijmegen in the Netherlands this week, has been banned from entering the country by Dutch authorities.In a joint statement issued by Justice and Security Minister David van Weel and Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber, Khatib’s presence in the Netherlands was declared “highly undesirable,” with the two officials adding that Khatib “legitimizes, condones and glorifies violence… including violence by organizations on the European Union’s terrorist list… [and] also actively expresses his support for terrorist organizations,” warning from the radicalizing effects of his rhetoric.This ban comes only a couple of weeks after both the US and Canada designated his organization Samidoun as a terror group, and follows a motion passed by the Dutch parliament to ban the group as well, which must pass in the government in order to come into effect.
In their designation, the US and Canada described Samidoun as fundraising on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization that took part in the murders and taking of hostages during the October 7 massacre, and stood behind the assassination of Rina Shnerb in 2019 and Israeli minister Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001, among others.Khatib is the European coordinator of Samidoun, a group designated by the US, Canada, and Israel as a sham charity group that raised funds for the PFLP and was banned in Germany over its support for violence and jeopardizing of public safety. He was also mentioned as a member of the PFLP himself in several Palestinian and Arabic-speaking outlets.This is not the first time Khatib has been denied entry into a country. In 2017, he was reportedly denied a visa to the US for similar reasons. In this context, it was reported this past year that Khatib was at risk of having his asylum status in Belgium revoked over his activities.Khatib is also known for his ties to terrorist leaders: In 2024, he led and hosted two webinars with Hamas leaders Basem Naim and Husam Badran in his capacity as a leading figure in “Masar Badil,” another proxy of the PFLP, and Samidoun, which endorses violence and terror and is active across Europe and beyond, showing an extensive relation to these figures.
Exposing violent rhetoric
Khatib’s violent rhetoric was exposed in several instances, including during a 2022 rally where he stood beside operatives dressed as militants from the Lions’ Den terror organization in front of the European Parliament in his asylum city of Brussels, calling to bring down the European Union and defeat “this colonial entity” alongside Israel, Canada, and the US.
Here is Mohammed Khatib, European coordinator of Samidoun - a group designated by US and Canada as a terrorist organization.His asylum seeker status in Belgium is reportedly about to be revoked.Countries are finally lowering their tolerance for terrorism within their borders. pic.twitter.com/xCChaFQXYL
— The Mossad: Satirical and Awesome (@TheMossadIL) October 27, 2024
In another instance in 2023, also in Brussels, he led a protest calling “Long live the rifle! Long live the Lions’ Den!” and lauding the “resistance in Gaza” as the “only representative of the Palestinian people,” and rejecting what he deemed the “bull***t, racist, two-state solution.”Samidoun denounced on its website the decision to ban Khatib from entering the Netherlands:“This repression is another form of support for the genocide and an attempt to shut down every voice of opposition to Dutch complicity with the occupation. Furthermore, the ban is a racist and colonial tool used to limit the freedom of movement of a Palestinian refugee who already cannot enter his homeland. It is also intended as an attack on the Palestinian liberation movement as a whole and specifically on the thousands of Palestinian prisoners struggling and organizing under torture and severe abuse from the Zionist regime inside its colonial jails.”According to a report launched this month by the European Leadership Network (ELNET), the Netherlands is a hotbed for Hamas-related fundraising activity, led by one of its main operators on the continent, Lebanese-born Dutch national Amin Abu Rashed, who was arrested in June last year over suspicions of transferring millions of dollars to Hamas through sham charity groups.