Omar al-Khatib is a prominent anti-colonial activist, working as a research partner for the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). Al-Khatib is particularly outspoken against Israel's systematic oppression of the Palestinian people. 

Al-Khatib had notably been arrested and severely beaten by Israeli forces in May 2021, after having participated in protests in Sheikh Jarrah in solidarity with Palestinian families who faced forced displacement from their homes. These protests erupted after an Israeli court ordered to forcibly evict these families to make way for Israeli settlers.

On March 1, 2024, al-Khatib was apprehended by Israeli forces at Ben Gurion airport, as al-Khatib was returning home from personal travel. After waiting for about two hours at the airport, an Israeli officer took away al-Khatib's passport and informed al-Khatib they would be detained. Al-Khatib was not presented with any arrest warrant, nor informed of the reason for the arrest. Then, al-Khatib was taken to the al-Moscobiyeh prison in Jerusalem, placed in a cell and kept there for two days, on March 2 and 3.

On March 4, 2024, the Israeli forces transferred al-Khatib to Ramleh prison, where al-Khatib was beaten and repeatedly smacked on the face. After waiting for some time in Ramleh prison, al-Khatib was transferred to Ofer prison by Israeli forces and interrogated for 15 minutes, after being allowed to meet with a lawyer. The forces notably interrogated al-Khatib about their work and whether they had met with any political people when working abroad. The forces then made al-Khatib sign a document written in Hebrew, which al-Khatib could not understand. After a few hours in Ofer prison, the occupation forces took al-Khatib back to Ramleh prison, where al-Khatib was beaten again. Al-Khatib slept in Ramleh for a night, and then brought back to al-Moscobiyeh prison, before being transferred to Naqab prison, where al-Khatib remains detained ever since.

Before the arrest, al-Khatib had been invited by the Sexual Rights Initiative to Geneva to speak at the 55th session of the Human Rights Council. Set to take place a few days after the arrest, al-Khatib’s arrest and subsequent detention by Israeli forces deprived al-Khatib from attending the event.

Al-Khatib was told by the Israeli authorities that they would be held in administrative detention for four months, from March 2, 2024, to July 1, 2024. Al-Khatib currently remain held in Naqab prison.

On May 6, 2024, Addameer, Stop the Wall and MENA Rights Group submitted the case of al-Khatib alongside two other Palestinian human rights defenders, Baraa Odeh and Sumoud Mtair, to the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, requesting her urgent intervention.

The human rights abuses against these three human rights defenders are being committed in the context of Israeli authorities’ systemic oppression and incarceration of Palestinians, characterised by the UN as “ongoing policies of harassment, threats, intimidation and reprisals, detention and expulsion against human rights defenders, journalists, media workers and civil society actors who peacefully advocate for the rights of the Palestinian people.”