My imprisonment in Switzerland, with Ali Abunimah

The Electronic Intifada

Watch entire broadcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGsMNLIteXw 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. I had come to Switzerland at the invitation of Swiss citizens to talk about justice in Palestine and accountability for the genocide. But shortly before my first scheduled speaking event, I was grabbed off the street by undercover cops, and taken into custody. I’m thrilled now to be back in Amman with my family. I’ve received so many messages of love and support from far more people than I can individually thank. I want to take this opportunity to express how much these messages of solidarity mean to me and to all of us at The Electronic Intifada. Can speaking about Palestine really be deemed such a threat that those so-called democracies are resorting to naked police-state tactics of this kind? How far will they sink in the service of a genocidal regime? On a special Electronic Intifada Livestream today, I’ll talk about what I experienced and we’ll discuss the unprecedented levels of repression faced by independent journalism and the Palestine solidarity movement, and what I learned from this experience. We’ll also talk about the historic scenes as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians defied Israel’s effort to ethnically cleanse them, and joined a joyous procession of return to their homes in the north of Gaza.