Published On 5/17/2026
Palestinian political activist Rami Shaath said that the French authorities informed him of their intention to deport him from the country after considering him a “dangerous threat to public security,” in a new development in his case, which is subject to ongoing administrative and judicial procedures in France.
Shaath explained, in a video clip he posted on social media yesterday, Saturday, that the security directorate of the city of Nanterre in the capital, Paris, informed him of its intention to deport him out of France.
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He pointed out that the decision targets “activists supporting the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian community in France,” and comes in the context of what he described as “the escalation of the racist campaign against Palestinians and the movement in solidarity with Palestine.”
Damia Tahrawi, Shaath’s lawyer, had previously told Agence France-Presse that the authorities in the Nanterre department had begun deportation procedures after he was classified as a “serious threat to public order,” noting that a session before a specialized committee had been scheduled for the 21st of this month to hear his statements, despite the possibility of issuing a deportation order and implementing it at any time.
According to Tahrawi, the security assessment is based on Shaath’s relations with figures and groups supportive of the Palestinian cause inside France, including the “Orgence Palestine” organization (Palestine Emergency), which he co-founded after the attack of October 7, 2023 and the outbreak of the Gaza war. The authorities also criticized him for statements that were described as “extremist” and “controversial,” including a speech during a demonstration in Paris on November 4, 2023, in which he denounced the “criminal Israeli occupation of Gaza” and accused Israel of committing grave violations against the Palestinians, in addition to positions including opposition to the ceasefire, and expressing a desire to continue the war between Hamas and the Israeli army in the hope that it will expand regionally.
Rami Shaath (54 years old) is a prominent political activist, and he is the son of Palestinian leader Nabil Shaath, one of the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Egyptian authorities had arrested him in 2019 in the case known in the media as the “Hope Cell,” before releasing him in early 2022 after he renounced his Egyptian citizenship, allowing him to travel to France to join his French wife and daughter, in a move welcomed at the time by French President Emmanuel Macron.
In the video clip, Shaath said: “Two and a half years since the genocide, and two and a half years of official French collusion with the Israeli army, through supplying weapons, exchanging information, and providing political, legal, and media cover to ensure the continuation of the war on Gaza.”
He added, “The recent period witnessed an escalation of harassment against French parties, unions, movements, and individuals involved in the movement in support of Palestine and demanding an end to the war and holding those responsible for it accountable.”
Shaath spoke about “the Palestinian community in France being subjected to systematic racist targeting, through cases, trials, deportations, and expulsion from work and education, with the aim of silencing the Palestinian voice demanding rights and justice.”
Legal procedures
Shaath explained that he was subjected to an attempt to fabricate a case under the name of “justifying terrorism,” before the Public Prosecutor closed it without trial, describing this as revealing “the malicious nature and the absence of any legal basis for these allegations.”
He continued: “After attempts to target me legally failed, they began targeting me administratively by disrupting the renewal of the residency papers owed to me as a husband and father of two French women, and using illegal measures to prevent me from traveling and working, in an attempt to silence me and prevent me from expressing the suffering of my people.”
Shaath pointed out that the French authorities “closed my bank account without warning or legal justification, and then suspended my health insurance card under the pretext of not renewing my residency,” pointing out that this “put his life in danger,” especially after he recently underwent two surgeries.
Shaath announced that he would appeal the decision to deport him before the French and European courts, saying: “My family and I will face all attempts at repression, intimidation and family separation,” adding that “Palestine cannot be denied or its identity erased, and it will always prove that the power of truth and conscience is stronger than the power of weapons and power.”
