The Palestinian journalist Mustafa Ayash (33) will be stuck in the detention center of Schiphol for the time being. That is what his lawyer Frederieke Dölle tells NRC. Ayash was arrested by the Marechaussee last Friday when he arrived at Schiphol. According to activists On social media he came to visit a brother living in the Netherlands. Since then, the journalist has been detained in the judicial complex on the edge of the airport. The arrest followed after Austria had issued a European arrest against the Palestinian for alleged involvement in Hamas.
Ayash is the founder of the Palestinian news medium Gaza Now. That platform reports in particular on social media on the war in Gaza. Ayash himself keeps hundreds of thousands of people informed through his telegram page.
Israel tries to silence journalists in this way
Gaza Now is not without controversy: in 2022 the account was finished X Removed, after the death of four Israeli citizens was hailed. “The unclean blood of settlers, today on the birthday of the occupation of Palestine,” wrote Gaza Now with a photo of pee blood. “Photo of the year 2022,” he said.
Gaza Now is also linked to the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, which has the authority in the Gaza Strip, although (public) evidence of those tires are scarce. Already last year Ayash was placed on sanction lists by the United States and the United Kingdom because of alleged financing of Hamas. According to a press release that was distributed at the time, Gaza Now would have raised money for humanitarian aid and that has been channeled to Hamas. The British then spoke of a “medium that promotes terrorism.”
Terrorism
Shortly thereafter, Ayash’s house in the Austrian city of Linz was searched by the judiciary. The Public Prosecution Service there then told Austrian media that she was investigating the alleged financing of Hamas by Ayash. During the search, telephones and laptops were included. His lawyer states that Ayash was later interrogated, but he was not arrested – contrary to what Ayash’s own medium reported.
The Austrian OM was not available on Monday afternoon for questions about the arrest and underlying suspicions.
Dölle does not dare to say how strong the suspicions of Ayash are now. “We don’t have the whole story yet.” She confirms that he raised money for “humanitarian care” in Gaza. “Unfortunately, we see more often among Palestinian activists and journalists that this is linked by Israel to financing terrorism. In this way Israel tries to silence journalists.”
Whether the underlying information also comes from Israel is still unclear, according to Dölle. For the time being, the Netherlands only has a German -language arrest warrant; Austria received twenty days from the examining magistrate on Monday morning to have that order translated. An underlying file is missing. “But that is common in such things.”
Whether Ayash is actually delivered to Austria, becomes clear within two months, according to Dölle.
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