Reports Emerge on Arrests and Deportations of Online Gaza Supporters in the UAE
Testimonies from UAE residents of various Arab nationalities have revealed that they faced arrest, torture, and fines, with some ultimately deported from the country, due to their online expressions of solidarity with Palestinians who have been enduring an Israeli aggression in Gaza for ten consecutive months.
According to reports by the Palestinian News Agency (Safa), UAE security forces recently conducted a series of arrest and deportation campaigns targeting dozens, potentially hundreds, of individuals. These actions were taken not for any criminal activity or breach of public order but as retribution for their digital solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
The testimonies indicate that detainees, particularly those of Palestinian, Egyptian, Tunisian, Moroccan, and Algerian descent, were subjected to what can be described as abduction. They faced interrogation, as well as physical and psychological torture in facilities such as Al-Awir, Al-Razeen, Al-Sadr, and Dubai Central prisons. Many were then compelled to pay substantial fines, up to $250,000, before being deported from the UAE.
The Palestinian resident “S. B.” (who chose to remain anonymous for safety reasons) never imagined that merely liking a friend’s Facebook post, which featured images of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, would be enough to upend his life. The young man recalls, “Three days after I liked the post, I was summoned and interrogated by the State Security Service. I was then placed in an extremely small solitary confinement cell, no larger than 1 square meter, with bright lights shining on me the entire time.” The investigators asked me about the Palestinian organizations, and cursed them and their leaders with the worst curses, and they almost did not exclude any Palestinian organization, except for one organization related to the state.”
After several days of investigation, torture, and humiliation, the Emirati authorities fined the resident “S. B.” nearly a quarter of a million dollars—roughly the equivalent of his earnings from his work in the state over the past years—before deporting him. He also mentioned that during his imprisonment, he encountered many residents of Arab nationalities who were arrested and mistreated merely for commenting on or sharing social media posts expressing solidarity with Gaza.
As for “T. M.,” a Tunisian in his forties who had been working in the UAE for seven years, he recounts that he was arrested about two weeks after posting a tweet expressing solidarity with Gaza. In his tweet, he condemned the Arab and international inaction and called for an end to the genocide.
“T. M.” told Safa Agency: “I was summoned to the State Security Service, and I did not expect that my charge was writing about what my Palestinian brothers in Gaza are being subjected to.” “I was confined to a very narrow cell with the air conditioning turned up high despite the extremely hot weather, and bright lights constantly shining on me.”
He adds, “The investigators focused their questions on how the scenes in Gaza affected me, whether I sympathized with them, why I sympathized, and what my stance was on the Palestinian resistance.”
After a period of investigation and detention, some parties intervened to secure the release of “T.M.,” but the authorities ultimately decided to deport him, requiring him to pay for his plane ticket and an insurance fee of about two thousand dollars.
As for the young Egyptian “F.H.,” his situation was quite similar to the others; his “offense” was sharing videos about Gaza and the resistance on his Instagram account. “I was shocked when I was summoned by the State Security Service about two months ago; I hadn’t broken any laws or rules since arriving three years ago,” he says.
“The investigator greeted me with a barrage of verbal insults before even saying anything else, then they placed me in a room where the air was first unbearably hot and then freezing cold, with intense lighting directed at my body,” he continues.
“I wasn’t allowed to raise my head in the cell and had to keep it down at all times. We were only given a small loaf of bread in the morning and another in the afternoon.”
But the Egyptian “F. H.” was luckier than his predecessors, as he paid a fine of about three thousand dollars, signed a pledge not to commit any “electronic violations,” and was able to get out of detention without being deported to his country.
According to some testimonies, there are cases of “forced disappearance” that some residents of Arab nationalities were subjected to due to their solidarity with Gaza, and their fate is still unknown to this day.
A PhD student at New York University Abu Dhabi was detained for a week and subsequently deported in May, according to the American Association of University Professors. The student was arrested after wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh and shouting “Free Palestine” while walking across the stage to receive his degree. Prior to the graduation ceremony, the university administration had sent an email informing students that all “cultural attire,” including scarves, would be prohibited during the event.
