Toulouse demonstration demands end to siege on Gaza, freedom for Palestinian prisoners

Photo: Coup Pour Coup 31

Report translated from the original French at Coup Pour Coup 31

In Toulouse, France, on Saturday, 8 July 2017, a rally in solidarity with Gaza was organized by several organizations, parties and collectives. The gathering brought together more than 50 people in a city square.

Lebanese, Moroccan and Palestinian activists and representatives of Toulouse organizations and collectives were present. Hundreds of leaflets were distributed demanding the lifting of the siege, receiving much support and solidarity from passers-by. Organizers also emphasized the call for the immediate release of Palestinian leaders Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin.

The PFLP in the Gaza Strip welcomed the event with a statement.

Photo: Coup Pour Coup 31

Coup Pour Coup 31, the anti-imperialist collective, spoke at the rally:

In Gaza, 2 million Palestinians, many of them children, live confined between land and sea, encircled by the Zionist occupation. Every day, the Palestinian population suffers humiliation and persecution with the constant fear of a military bombing or raid.

As of the beginning of July 2017, it has been three years since Israeli forces launched a new attack, known as Protective Edge, which lasted for two months and killed thousands. Today, with the electricity cuts in the Gaza Strip, the barbarity of the colonial power continues. But the assassins know that they can act with impunity: the United Nations still has not implemented the slightest sanction against Israel, despite its trampling on all resolutions passed by the Security Council since 1948.

The various international powers support the war of terror waged by Israel, and the new Macron government will follow its predecessor in unconditional support for Israel.

The Palestinians can only rely on their extraordinary resistance and the international solidarity among peoples.

Our responsibility here and now is to denounce Zionist barbarism and to support the Palestinian Resistance and in particular the progressive Resistance. In this regard, we denounce the imprisonment of Palestinian leaders, including Palestinian parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin, a feminist activist, since last Sunday.

To support the resistance here is to clearly denounce the offender: Zionism. Since 1948, in the name of this colonialist and racist ideology, wars have come after yet more wars, massacres upon massacres. This region will only experience peace through the dismantling of colonialism.

As supporters of the Palestinian people, we must also denounce our own imperialism, French imperialism. France has long been an unconditional ally of Israel. And for one simple reason: Israel is one of the advanced bases of the imperialists in the Middle East and that is the reason for its existence. Let us recall once more that France holds in its prisons a struggler in the Palestinian resistance since 1984, Georges Abdallah. Supporting the Palestinian Resistance must include the struggle for his liberation!

Long live the struggle of the Palestinian people against colonialism!
Freedom for Georges Abdallah, Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin!
Freedom for all Palestinian Prisoners!
Gaza, we will not forget you!

Photo: Coup Pour Coup 31