Palestinian activist Ramy Shaath is facing deportation from France after authorities deemed his presence a “serious threat to public order”, his lawyer told AFP on Friday.
Shaath, 54, was a prominent figure of the 2011 uprising in Egypt and the coordinator of the country’s chapter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
He spent 900 days in detention in Egypt between 2019 and 2022 before he was released and allowed to leave for France, a decision French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed at the time.
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“The Nanterre prefecture has notified us that it intends to initiate deportation proceedings,” Shaath’s lawyer, Damia Taharraoui, said, referring to the western Paris suburb.
The prefecture’s notice, seen by AFP, cites his links to “figures of the Palestinian cause in France” and organisations including Urgence Palestine – which he co-founded after Hamas‘s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war – as grounds for opening deportation proceedings.
The notice also points to “repeated controversial actions and remarks” allegedly made during public appearances, including at a November 2023 protest in Paris, where he denounced what he called “Israel’s criminal occupation of Gaza” and referred to “Israeli ‘terrorists’ who bomb houses and hospitals”.
An investigation into the offence of “defending terrorism” opened over the remarks was closed in October 2024.
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He is to appear before a deportation committee on May 21 after which the prefecture “may immediately issue a deportation order that can be enforced at any time”, Taharraoui said.
“He cannot be deported to Egypt, because he no longer holds Egyptian nationality, nor to Palestine, because the country is at war,” the lawyer added.
For his part, Shaath said he had attended several demonstrations calling for “an immediate ceasefire, an end to the genocide, sanctions, arms embargoes and international action” against Israel.
“My stance has never changed since the time France worked to secure my release from Egyptian prisons where I was a political prisoner … but today, it seems they want to silence me,” he told AFP.
Contacted by AFP, the Nanterre prefecture and the Interior Ministry did not immediately respond.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
