Statement on the Acquittal of Hajj Amin Abu Rashed
Against the Continued Persecution of Palestinian Organizing in the Netherlands
Today, on the holy day of Eid al-Adha, we receive the long-awaited news of the acquittal of Hajj Amin Abu Rashed.
After nearly three years of legal persecution - over a year of imprisonment, deliberate medical neglect behind bars, and subsequent restrictions on personal freedoms after release - the attempts of both the prosecutor and the court itself were answered with a slap in the face. Ultimately, they were forced to concede, and admit what we have always known: the charges were baseless, the persecution was political, and Amin’s only “crime” was dedicating his life to sustaining his beloved Palestinian people in their homes. We welcome this acquittal as a victory, yet not without reservation. Let no one mistake this moment for justice delivered by the system itself. At its core this is a victory wrenched from the teeth of the Dutch state’s repressive machinery; by Amin’s steadfastness; the consistent mobilization of the community; and the truth that shines as a beacon on the Palestinian cause. The state, enabled by the court administration, dragged Amin through years of false accusations, baseless imprisonment, character assassination, and clear physical harm. This verdict, forced out of the judiciary by an unequivocal truth, does not alter the reality that it remains the same state that seeks to strangle Palestinian diasporic organizing, and with it the vital flow of humanitarian aid that is the lifeblood of the steadfast people of Gaza and the camps of the exiled.
We insist on understanding this case on two fronts: firstly, through the now-vindicated persecution of Hajj Amin Abu Rashed; and secondly, through the ongoing blacklisting and terror-tagging of Indigenous Palestinian political organization, inside and outside of Palestine.
Regarding the first, we resolutely denounce and reject the ongoing categorization of Hajj Amin Abu Rashed as a “terrorist” or “terrorist financier” - a categorization now legally refuted as well. Amin’s decades of dedicated work have always revolved around raising funds for essential medical care, food, education, and shelter. These efforts form a critical line of defense against the relentless dispossession of the Palestinian people from their means of life and social reproduction by the Zionist entity, its American patron, and their imperialist companions. The fact that this prosecution was allowed to drag on for nearly three years, resulting in untold damage on Amin, his family, and his organizing efforts - is itself an indictment of the Dutch state. This acquittal therefore, however welcome, does not erase the state violence inflicted upon him, nor does it undo the long-lasting coordinated campaign of character assassination waged by fascist, Zionist, and liberal state-aligned media in lockstep with the legal track. All these forms of legal, political, and rhetorical repression must never be separated from the Dutch state’s wider effort to isolate the Palestinian movement domestically - a de facto extension of the Zionist-American plot to enact the same policies worldwide and assassinate the Palestinian cause as a whole.
This brings us to the second front: the terror-tagging and blacklisting of Indigenous Palestinian organizing efforts. Led by the “Western” camp, and tailed by groveling Arab comprador states, this years-long campaign is waged in support of their imperialist outpost squatting on Occupied Palestine. It is well known that this joint colonial project has been in the making for nearly two centuries - a project inherently designed to tear out the beating heart of the Arab homeland, poison the West Asian region, and lock it into a vicious cycle of de-development, civil war, militarism, destruction, displacement, and genocide. All of these are deliberate policies enacted to guarantee the imperialist camp a steady flow of cheap energy, financial and political backing for their hegemonic pursuits, and control over global trade routes. Meanwhile, the Occupation functions as a rabid gendarme, locking in the ugly face of Western colonialism in the 21st century. To secure this domination and retain their undisputed position, every legitimate form of Palestinian, Arab, and other resistant political expression is treated as terrorism. Even though this classification is in violation of all moral and international norms, and legal frameworks definitively affirm the right to resist colonialism, narrative hegemony - underpinned by the deeply rooted dominance of imperialist powers in the media and academic fields - provide the ideological backing for the continuation of this morbid project. With the exception of pliant collaborationist actors like the Palestinian Authority, Arab monarchies, takfirist groups, and traitorous criminal gangs on the enemy’s payroll, every Indigenous political organization struggling for liberation and genuine regional self-determination is blacklisted, sanctioned, isolated, and targeted for eradication. Afterwards, these designations are laundered en masse and fashioned into a vapid and hollow justification to exterminate the steadfast Palestinian people, and all freedom-loving peoples of the region alongside their resisters.
We firmly oppose the hypocritical terror-listing of any Palestinian liberation organization, regardless of their political creed or affiliation. Likewise, we denounce the policy of fabricated accusations of “collaboration” with these organizations as a transparent pretext to persecute Palestinian humanitarian work - a practice exposed and discredited by Amin’s acquittal against the will of the judicial institution, yet still ongoing and deepening as the horizon of liberation inches closer.
Our central demands to the Netherlands are:
Sever all institutional ties with the Zionist entity.
Delink from U.S.-led imperialism.
De-list Palestinian and other liberation organizations from the list of banned foreign entities.
Drop all remaining charges against Palestinian and internationalist organizers opposing Zionism.
Issue a formal clearance and apology to Hajj Amin Abu Rashed for the years of state-inflicted harm and defamation.
Acknowledge the legitimate right - enshrined in international law - of Palestinians to resist the subjugation and eradication of their people by any means necessary.
Engage in efforts to facilitate the unconditional Reparations, Return, and Restoration of the Palestinian homeland.
In conclusion, the acquittal of Amin Abu Rashed on this blessed day of Eid is a crack in the wall of repression. Our task is to widen it until it crumbles and falls, and our struggle continues until the liberation and redemption of all Palestinian prisoners is achieved.
Long Live Palestine
Glory to the Martyrs
Freedom to the Prisoners
Healing to the Wounded
May 27, 2026 – Rotterdam Front for Liberation
