Antwerp police arrest Palestinian activist driving ‘Free Palestine’ motorhome through Jewish neighbourhood

Omar Almaani is a Palestinian activist who, accompanied by his dog, has been travelling through Europe for several months in his ‘Free Palestine’ camper van. “I’m using the camper van to raise awareness of what’s happening in Gaza. People were starting to get used to the news, so I wanted to do more,” he explains.

“I wanted to take the images off people’s phone screens and bring them out onto the streets. That’s why I’ve put figures about Palestine on the camper van: how many people and children have been killed in Gaza, and how many have been injured.”

Almaani lives in Norway but still has a lot of family in Gaza. “I have more than 100 relatives living there. My younger brother was killed, as were my uncles and many other relatives.”

Travelling through Europe in a motorhome

He has already travelled through Montenegro, Albania, Serbia and Greece, amongst other places, in his motorhome. Last week he came to Belgium to visit family and take a short holiday. But things went amiss in Antwerp on Thursday night.

“That evening, I’d been invited to dinner in Liège, with a friend and a few cousins. We then drove back to Antwerp, as two cousins live in Antwerp and two in Sint-Niklaas,” Omar Almaani explains.

“First, I dropped one of my cousins off near Central Station. Then I set the sat-nav to continue on to Wilrijk.”

On the Belgiëlei, the police suddenly stopped him. “A response team had pulled over a motorhome displaying pro-Palestinian propaganda, because it had repeatedly driven through the Jewish neighbourhood,” Kim Bastiaens, spokesperson for Antwerp police says.

Almaani claims he was unaware of this. “I wasn’t familiar with the area and didn’t know it was a Jewish neighbourhood. What’s more, this happened at around 2 o’clock in the morning.”

“If my intention had been to provoke people or attract attention with the images on the vehicle, why would I have driven there in the middle of the night rather than during the day? I was simply following my sat-nav to reach my destination,” he explains.

A night in a cell

The police asked Almaani to drive to the police station. “When we got there, they took everything out of my trouser pockets and put it into bags. They also asked me questions about a book I had in my motorhome, about the life of a former political leader who had been murdered. I’d been given it as a present some time ago,” says Almaani.

“It seemed as though the police were looking for something incriminating. They wanted to portray me as a bad person straight away.”

In the end, he and his three cousins were placed under administrative detention and had to spend a night in a cell. “That was a huge shock. I thought they were just going to check my papers. That had happened before in other countries. Sometimes people don’t like seeing a Palestinian flag, so they call the police.”

“When the police arrive, they check my documents, see that everything is in order and let me go. But this time it went much further. I hadn’t expected that in Belgium.”

‘Disturbance of public order’

According to the police, Almaani drove through the Jewish quarter on several occasions, which constitutes provocation.

‘The driver of the motorhome has been placed under administrative arrest for disturbing public order. The motorhome has also been seized under administrative law. This seizure may last up to six months. It is the administrative authorities who will decide,’ says Bastiaens.

An administrative arrest is intended to stop provocative behaviour or to restore public order, Bastiaens explains.

According to the police, the arrest falls within the scope of the Police Act. “Broadly speaking, it boils down to the fact that the administrative arrest is intended to stop provocative behaviour or to restore public order.”

“It is a measure that takes into account how someone behaves in a particular place and at a particular time,” explains Bastiaens.