France moves to deport activist Ramy Shaath, citing pro-Palestinian protests as public-order threat

The Nanterre prefecture has ordered Palestinian-Egyptian activist Ramy Shaath to appear before a deportation committee on 21 May, citing his role in pro-Palestinian protests and statements describing "Israel's criminal occupation of Gaza" as evidence he poses a "serious threat to public order". A notice from the prefecture, seen by AFP, points to Shaath's participation in demonstrations calling for "an immediate ceasefire, an end to the genocide, sanctions, arms embargoes and international action" and his role as coordinator of Egypt's chapter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

After the hearing, the local prefecture "may immediately issue a deportation order that can be enforced at any time", his lawyer Damia Taharraoui said. Taharraoui argued that Shaath cannot be returned to Egypt — where he no longer holds citizenship — nor to the Palestinian territories because of the ongoing war. Supporters said that if the deportation effort fails, authorities are considering additional restrictions including house arrest, confiscation of his passport and mandatory daily reporting to police.

Shaath, a key figure in the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, was released from Egyptian arbitrary detention in January 2022 following pressure from French President Emmanuel Macron, after roughly two and a half years held as a political prisoner from 2019. "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," Shaath told AFP. The prefecture cited specific statements he had made, including references to Israeli "terrorists" who bomb houses and hospitals.

Family members, friends and supporters announced on Sunday that they had launched a campaign — #FreeRamyShaath2, named in reference to his 2019-2022 Egyptian imprisonment — to oppose the deportation. "When he arrived in France, Ramy Shaath was welcomed as a prisoner of conscience, finally freed. President Macron himself publicly welcomed his release and his reunification with his French wife," the campaign said in a statement. "Today, that same State is turning against him with scandalous brutality by trying to portray him as a threat to public order. After claiming to denounce Egyptian arbitrariness, it is reproducing its logic: turning a Palestinian political voice into a security file."

The move arrives amid wider tightening on pro-Palestinian speech in France. A bill introduced in the French parliament last month would apply penalties for criticism of Israel, including for denying Israel's existence and for comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, and would expand terrorism-related offences to include what the text describes as "implicit" provocation. Students, teachers and unions have warned since October 2023 that demonstrations, public speeches and building occupations supporting Palestinians are being criminalised through disciplinary hearings, administrative sanctions, legal proceedings and, in some cases, criminal records.

The destination question turns on conditions in Egypt itself. Egypt ranks 18 out of 100 in Freedom House's Freedom in the World index, where higher scores indicate more freedom, and human rights groups estimate more than 60,000 political prisoners are held in Egyptian prisons; Human Rights Watch has described the Egyptian government as engaged in "wholesale repression, systematically detaining and punishing peaceful critics and activists and effectively criminalising peaceful dissent". The French interior ministry did not respond to a Middle East Eye request for comment on where Shaath could be deported.