Palestinians arrested while performing Umrah

Mahmoud Kalm, a Palestinian writer, did not know that his travel to Makkah to perform Umrah in September 2019 would lead him to enforced disappearance. 4 years since his disappearance so far with no information about him or his place of detention. Reportedly, his arrest was because of opinion articles in which he criticized Saudi policies towards neighbouring countries.

Mahmoud Kalm is not the only Palestinian who was arrested in the sacred city, as he was preceded by many Palestinians who were arrested, as the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that it observed number of Palestinians arrested during their performing of Hajj. Among those cases is case of a Palestinian family, with Jordanian nationality, they left for Hajj but the father did not return to Jordan despite the return of his wife. She said that the authorities in Saudi Arabia summoned her husband, but he has not returned after that investigation and she has no information about him since then.