The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms launched a campaign on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, titled “Solidarity Is Not a Crime,” demanding that Egyptian authorities release all those detained in what it calls the “Palestine support cases,” coinciding with three years since security prosecutions of people expressing solidarity with Gaza began.
The commission documented the arrest of about 209 people in various governorates between October 2023 and September 2025 for peacefully expressing solidarity with Gaza. It said the arrests followed participation in protest stands, student activity or peaceful demonstrations; joining the “Sumud Flotilla” or expressing a wish to join it; writing supportive slogans on public banners; and posting supportive content on social media, in addition to random arrests of people whose case files and confessions, the commission says, show they took part in no demonstrations or protest stands for the Palestinian cause.
The commission said many of the detainees were subjected to enforced disappearance, and criticized the referral of all these cases to the Supreme State Security Prosecution, arguing that this weakens detainees’ ability to challenge their detention. The campaign also demands the acquittal of everyone referred to trial, an end to prolonging litigation, disclosure of the fate of the forcibly disappeared, and Egypt’s ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The campaign’s activities include a petition, a joint statement with local and international organizations, publication of profiles of the detainees, and a webinar.
Among these cases is Case No. 1644 of 2024, Supreme State Security, known in the media as the “Palestine support banner” case, in which labor leader Shady Mohamed and five others were arrested in late April 2024 over hanging a banner in solidarity with Gaza on a bridge in Alexandria. In June 2026, the Second Terrorism Circuit of the Cairo Criminal Court renewed their detention for 45 days, and lawyer Islam Salama said they had thereby exceeded the maximum period of pretrial detention set by law.
Photo: Mohamed Ouda via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
