ELECTRONIC INTAFADA
6 January 2026
People in Zurich, Switzerland, demonstrate against the Israeli genocide in Gaza, 29 July 2025. (kritisches fotografiekollektiv)
I’m delighted that the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zurich ruled on 19 December 2025 that my arrest and detention by Zurich police last year was unlawful and violated the Swiss constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
This decision, received on 5 January, totally vindicates my position that there was no legal basis whatsoever for me to be abducted off the street by plainclothes officers on 25 January 2025, while I was on my way to speak at an event focused on the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
I was thrown in a cell for three days, without being allowed to contact my family or communicate with the outside world, and then forcibly deported.
These illegal actions ensured that I was unable to participate in public or media events aimed at informing people in Switzerland about the genocide in Gaza and the complicity of Swiss institutions in these ongoing crimes.
The court confirmed that Zurich police violated Swiss law and fundamental constitutional guarantees as well as Article 5, Paragraph 2, of the European Convention on Human Rights – because there was no lawful basis for my detention, no lawful order was ever issued for my detention and I was never provided with valid reasons for my imprisonment or information on how long it would last.
The court has ordered the Canton of Zurich to pay my legal costs for this appeal, and in line with Swiss procedure, I intend to apply for compensation for my unlawful and unconstitutional detention. I will donate any compensation I receive to the direct benefit of survivors and victims of the Israeli genocide.
This clear legal victory concerns only one of the appeals I have filed seeking accountability for these unlawful acts – whose wider purpose, I believe, is silencing and deterring any public discussion of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.
I currently have two more appeals pending before Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court – one against the entry ban imposed after I arrived in the country legally and another against the expulsion order which was subsequently issued.
I have also filed criminal complaints in connection with this matter.
In November, a Swiss parliamentary committee concluded that there was a series of irregularities surrounding my arrest, and evidence of improper interference by Nicoletta della Valle, a senior federal police official with close ties to Israel.
I thank my lawyers for their diligent pursuit of accountability on my behalf. I thank countless people in Switzerland and all over the world for their support, especially all my colleagues at The Electronic Intifada.
Up to this point, my pursuit of accountability has been supported entirely by donations from the public through a crowdfunding campaign, so I want to thank each and every person who contributed to make this important initial victory possible.
In these days of cowardice and complicity by governments in the face of shocking and monstrous crimes, it is more important than ever that citizens everywhere speak out. It is therefore vital that we fight back fiercely when our right to speak is attacked by government repression.
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