Police impound Gaza activist's vehicle for six months after repeated night-time drives through Jewish neighbourhood

Antwerp police administratively detained four men overnight from Thursday to Friday after they repeatedly drove through the Jewish neighbourhood in a motorhome covered in pro-Palestinian messages, Belga reports via La DH. According to police spokeswoman Kim Bastiaens, an intervention team stopped the vehicle at around 2 am near the Belgiëlei, she told VRT NWS. The driver is Omar Almaani, a Palestinian activist who lives in Norway and has been travelling around Europe for months with his motorhome and his dog. The vehicle displays figures on Palestinian deaths and injuries in Gaza. He spent a night in a cell together with three cousins.

Police describe the driving as provocative and base the arrest on the Police Function Act, which allows officers to intervene to restore public order. The motorhome has been administratively impounded for up to six months. Almaani denies any provocation: he says he was following his GPS and did not know it was a Jewish neighbourhood. He told local broadcaster ATM, according to Belga, that driving through the area is not prohibited anywhere.

According to Almaani, who says he has more than a hundred relatives in Gaza, he is now homeless because all his belongings are in the vehicle. He intends to contact the Norwegian embassy; the Norwegian foreign ministry has already asked the embassy to follow up the case, VRT NWS reports. Constitutional law expert Koen Lemmens (KU Leuven) declined to comment on this case, but says in general that freedom of expression may not be used to incite riots and that intervening to prevent violence is legitimate, provided the threshold stays high and the action is proportionate.