On October 8, 2024, Yannis Arab was violently arrested at his parents home in MOIRANS (38). The French gendarmerie broke down the door of his family’s home at dawn and arrested him, handcuffing part of his family in the process, including his 16-year-old younger brother.

Yannis Arab is the author of two books on the history of Palestine (Un pas vers la paix, 2015 and Palestine: Pour une paix juste, 2017). Hestudied history at the Université de Grenoble before continuing his studies at the Université de Montréal, where he is currently writing a PhD on Algerian immigration to Palestine in the 19th and 20th centuries. He collected a wealth of fiedwork and archival data in France, the UK, Algeria, and the Middle East. In particular, he has demonstrated that many Palestinians descend from the thousands of Algerians who fled their country to take refuge in Palestine during the French conquest.

Yannis Arab was held in police custody for a few hours, as the courts had nothing to charge him with other than ‘apology for terrorism’, which in reality was based solely on his support for the national rights of the Palestinian people. Yet the police seized his computer equipment and all his thesis data. Ignoring his requests, the police now refuse to return them to him, claiming that they would need several months to make copies. This is a clear violation of Yannis Arab’s basic rights and academic freedom, which protects not only researchers but also the data they have collected.

We are calling for an end to the administrative harassment of Yannis Arab, (including the previous unjustified banning of one of his lectures on dec 23 2023 in Chambéry) .who has the right to pursue his research on Palestine in complete serenity. We call for full right of expression and moreover returning  his computer equipment and files, so that he can complete his doctorate.