Noha Al-Khalqi

I’m free! I wrote this on the plane and I’m posting it just after landing at Istanbul. On Monday evening I was brought to Zurich airport in handcuffs, in a small metal cage inside a windowless prison van and led all the way to the plane by police. This is after three days and two nights in a Swiss prison cut off from communication with the outside world, in a cell 24 hours a day with one cell mate, not even permitted to contact my family. On Saturday in a police interview in the presence of my lawyer they accused me of “offending against Swiss law” without ever telling me what crime I had committed in Switzerland or listing any charges. As far as I know I have not been charged with any crime whatsoever and I was held in “administrative detention.” On Sunday morning, they took me from my cell for questioning by Swiss defense ministry intelligence agents without the presence of my lawyer, and they again refused to allow me to contact her or my family. I refused to talk to them without my lawyer and told them take me back to my cell. During my imprisonment I refused every meal and every cup of coffee or tea they offered me except the last meal, after I knew I would be going home. I accepted only water, which is the right of every human being. All of this was after I was abducted off the street around 1:30pm on Saturday while on my way to the Palestine teach-in by undercover agents, handcuffed, forced into an unmarked car and sped straight to the prison. My “crime”? Being a journalist who speaks up for Palestine and against Israel’s genocide and settler-colonial savagery and those who aid and abet it. I came to Switzerland at the invitation of Swiss citizens to talk about justice for Palestine, to talk about accountability for a genocide in which Switzerland too is complicit. But while I was hauled off to prison like a dangerous criminal before I even had a chance to say a word, the Israeli president Isaac Herzog, who declared at the start of the genocide that there are no civilians in Gaza, no innocents, received a red carpet welcome in Davos, a carpet soaked in the blood of the more than 47,000 known victims of the genocide and the thousands more still under the rubble, or who died of deliberately inflicted starvation and denial of medical care. And on this very day Netanyahu freely travels to Poland to make a mockery of the Auschwitz commemoration despite an outstanding ICC arrest warrant. That is the perverse, unjust world we live in. This ordeal lasted three days but that taste of prison was more than enough to leave me in even greater awe of the Palestinian heroes who endure months and years in the prisons of the genocidal oppressor. More than ever I know that the debt we owe them is one we can never repay and all of them must be free and they must remain our focus. The police gave me my phone back only at the gate of the plane so I’m only seeing now the extent of the overwhelming support and solidarity from all over the world. I’m deeply grateful to each and every person who stood up for me. I’m especially grateful to my lawyer Dina Raewel and her team, to our friends in Zurich who I learned afterwards demonstrated outside the prison, to my family and my colleagues at EI and so many others. I honestly had no idea what was happening outside that concrete room! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I want to tell the whole story of what happened, perhaps in an @intifada livestream in the next day or two, because I think it’s important for people to know the depths to which their Western so-called “democracies” have sunk in the abject service of genocidal Zionism. Right now I’m glad to be on my way home. I’m looking forward to hugging my mom and dad, taking a shower and sleeping in my own bed. Journalism is not a crime! Speaking out for Palestine is not a crime! Standing against racist genocidal Zionism is not a crime! Say it with me: From the River to the Sea Palestine Will Be Free! ❤️🇵🇸✌️

God do something Stop this

We thought the first days were the worst, then we thought the starvation was the worst, but this bombing is like nothing we've seen. Today alone, Jabalia refugee camp was bombed at least 100 times.

No one asks how Palestinian students are supposed to "feel safe" at institutions who invest in and profit off of the murder of their relatives.

Hope comes from the "Watermelon Revolution" (if its brave souls allow me to call it such). Recently: @Columbia arrested students for protesting against Israel’s #GenocideinGaza and the university’s investments in Israeli apartheid. Universities in Europe are increasing their securitization and repression against students expressing solidarity with Palestine. Simultaneously, support from states, corporations and institutions for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza has continued. The #Ontario Legislature has banned keffiyehs; police in #Europe have arrested and punished individuals simply for exercising their right to peaceful protest and for asking for the consistent application of int'l law. What lessons are Western universities and governments imparting to their young citizens and students when they attack the very values and rights that are said to be foundational to Western societies? This sustained, global Palestinian-driven mobilization is a bold new phase in an ongoing wave of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against Israel's decades-old system of occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism and for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to justice, freedom, dignity. Those under occupation, those with a second class citizenship in Israel or elsewhere, the refugees and the rest of the diaspora; they are all "orphans of a homeland" (in the words of #EdwardSaid), and all they demand is justice, rights, freedom and non-discrimination. This is viscerally understood and profoundly felt across generations, and the YOUTH is taking the lead in voicing the humanity which would otherwise be lost. Mass intersectional consciousness today, including Jewish communities worldwide, has placed Palestinian emancipation at the center of the global struggle for justice, including climate justice, and for human rights and dignity for all, not just a privileged few. The United Nations Charter speaks of "We, the Peoples". And We, the Peoples, People from all paths of life, must stand united against all oppression, regardless of the perpetrator and the victim, and for equal rights for all. #UnitedPeople #WatermelonRevolution #ceasefireInGazaNOW #AntiPalestinianRacism #APR

I've been thinking about two things today. First, that UNICEF is reporting that the speed and severity of the decline in people in Gaza's access to sufficient and safe food is "unprecedented globally."

The Old City of Sanaa in Yemen is one of the oldest cities in the world, continuously inhabited for more than 2500 years. Meaning 'fortified palace', the city is a work of art in itself, & remains one of the greatest treasures of Arabia A thread on the Old City of Sanaa…

The images from Gaza of the Rafah massacre by Israel last night look like a horror movie. Children dangling with limbs blown off, or crawling screaming with their dying breaths. Parents picking up the heads of their babies that are barely recognizable. The hundreds stacked like bodies in a slaughterhouse. The fact that their stories will be erased in mainstream media while videos are being suppressed on social media tells you all you need to know. Any semblance of international law or standard for humanity is dead. Palestinian life under occupation never mattered to you before, so our deaths under genocide don’t matter to you now. Don’t ever lecture us on morality again. Your hearts are dead. #SuperBowlMassacre

No matter your politics, it should appall you that the media outlets which claim to care the most about "misinformation" suppressed coverage of South Africa's case against the Gaza genocide, but fully covered Israel's defense the next day—intentionally denying you the full story.

اليمن على قلب رجل واحد أمام الحوثيين اليوم فرصة تاريخية لردم الصدع! بادِروا وفكّوا الحصار عن أهلكم في تعز. اسحبوا التحشدات من على حدود مأرب. هؤلاء إخوتكم! تجاوزوا الخلافات وتقبّلوا بقية الأطياف. اقتنصوها فُرصة للعودة لمخرجات الحوار الوطني التي اتفقنا وأنتم عليها جميعًا. افعلوها!

People march in support of Palestine in Tamale, Ghana.

@Lowkey0nline Yes but please also know that Yemen is NOT poor. It's a rich country that is also EXPLOITED for it's natural resources and strategic location. May God liberate Palestine and Yemen from their oppressors 🇵🇸🔗🇾🇪

It is telling that Yemen, the poorest country in the region, is giving so much for the people of Gaza.

Evil.

@mohammedlubba20 @amnesty

🚨 URGENT APPEAL 🚨 Our house in Beit Lahia has become a target of unimaginable aggression by the IDF Zionists. Today, they unleashed a wave of destruction, theft, and kidnapping, leaving our lives shattered. 😢💔 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Our family, innocent civilians with no military affiliations, have fallen victim to this ruthless attack. Our home, a sanctuary, is now a scene of devastation and heartbreak. 💔 The IDF's actions are inhumane, deplorable, and beyond comprehension. Our loved ones, who have never been involved in any military activities, are now subjected to the brutality of this assault. We implore the international community to stand witness to this gross violation of human rights. Our family, like countless others, deserves justice and a life free from fear. 🕊️ Let the world hear our plea for peace, justice, and an end to this cycle of violence. #GazaHoloucast #Gaza #Gaza_Genocide #GazaUnderAttack_Genocide

When we as Palestinians speak about this ongoing and ignored ethnic cleansing—which is inherent to Zionist ideology, by the way—we are at best passionate and at worst angry and hateful. But in reality, we are just reliable narrators. thenation.com/article/world/…

State Dept & Pentagon spokespersons (& the US President) who officially & knowingly pushed the “Hamas Command center” lie to facilitate the war crime of targeting Al Shifa hospital must be held accountable in #WarCrimes investigations for the crime of #complicity. #Gaza

The Government of Palestine 🇵🇸 In 1933 Jews came to Palestine as refugees with these permits. linkedin.com/feed/update/ur…

Never to Forgive! Never to Forget! Israel -- and the Biden administration -- justified the suffocation of infants in al-Shifa incubators by asserting that a ramified Hamas command-and-control center was located beneath the hospital (see Israel's image below).

To @piersmorgan & an entire class of journos still eager to apologize 4 Israel. Piers said “Israel, could if they wanted, kill everyone in #Gaza, they decided not to do that,” suggesting this undermines claims of genocide. According to law & jurisprudence, youre wrong #Thread