Authorities in Greece have delivered a rare moment of clarity in Europe’s muddled debate over asylum, security and free speech.
By revoking the refugee status of Mohanad Alkhatib, a Palestinian from Gaza who publicly celebrated the Hamas atrocities of October 7th, Athens has drawn a line that too many capitals have been reluctant to mark.
The decision, taken by Greece’s Ministry of Migration and Asylum under Athanasios Plevris, followed material submitted by the Israeli embassy in Athens. It concluded that Mr Alkhatib posed a threat to public order and, more pointedly, to the Jewish community. His asylum status, granted less than a year earlier in March 2025, was duly withdrawn.
This was not a case built on inference or guilt by association. The evidence is plain and troubling. Videos circulating online show Mr Alkhatib in the border area between Israel and Gaza on October 7th, openly rejoicing as Hamas fighters carried out the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. In those recordings he praises the massacre without equivocation, presenting mass murder as a cause for celebration.
His social media footprint deepens the concern. Photographs show him posing alongside senior Hamas figures, including the group’s former leader Ismail Haniyeh, before Haniyeh’s assassination. In the weeks and months following October 7th, Mr Alkhatib’s online activity did not cool. On the contrary, it hardened into something resembling full-time propaganda.
He paid tribute to Hassan Eslaieh, a confirmed Hamas member, calling him a close friend and a “companion since the beginning of the war”. Eslaieh, far from being an innocent bystander, worked for Hamas-affiliated Al Quds TV and was closely linked to Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the October 7th attacks. These are not casual connections, nor are they the comments of a man seeking distance from extremism.
Even arrival in Europe did not bring moderation. On June 23rd last year, Mr Alkhatib published a message praising an Iranian strike aimed at the American Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. “May God protect our people in Qatar and may God guide Iran’s aim towards the American base,” he wrote — a sentiment that sits uncomfortably with the obligations of a guest seeking refuge in the West.
For the European Jewish Association (EJA), which welcomed the Greek decision, the case illustrates a wider failure of nerve across the continent. Ruth Daskalopoulou-Isaac, the organisation’s director for EU relations, praised not only Mr Plevris but also the governor of the asylum service, Marios Kaleas, and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Their message, she said, was one of “zero tolerance towards incitement” and a willingness to take Jewish concerns seriously.
Greece’s action matters precisely because it is still the exception rather than the rule. Europe has long struggled to reconcile its humanitarian instincts with the reality that some who exploit asylum systems do so not to escape violence, but to continue advocating it from a safer distance. The right to free expression does not extend to the glorification of terrorism, nor does refugee protection come with a licence to incite hatred or violence.
The story does not end in Athens. Mr Alkhatib is currently in Belgium, where he has been questioned by authorities and has seen his subsequent asylum application rejected. He has appealed that decision, buying time while officials assess what to do next.
The EJA has been forthright in its view. Investigation alone, it argues, is insufficient when an individual has been found to pose a genuine threat to public order and community safety. Belgium, it says, should now proceed with removal in accordance with the law.
That raises an uncomfortable but unavoidable question for European governments. If asylum is to retain any moral authority, it must be anchored to basic expectations of conduct. Protection is offered to those fleeing persecution, not to those who cheer on the slaughter of civilians, praise militant proxies of hostile states, or embed themselves in extremist networks.
Greece has shown that it is possible to uphold the rule of law without succumbing to either naïveté or prejudice. The revocation of Mr Alkhatib’s status was not an attack on free speech, nor a slight against legitimate Palestinian suffering. It was a sober recognition that there can be no sanctuary for those who celebrate terror.
Other European capitals would do well to take note.
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