Thirty activists occupied the Franco-American Institute of Rennes, the cultural center of the United States Consulate in Bretagne (Brittany), on Wednesday, 17 December, in solidarity with Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Arab political prisoner for Palestine in French jails. The activists also urged all to join a demonstration on 18 December against the visit of Manuel Valls to Rennes.
See original French text: http://www.bretagne-info.org/2014/12/17/occupation-de-linstitut-franco-americain-de-rennes/
Valls, the Prime Minister of France, was formerly the Interior Minister who refused to sign the deportation order to allow Abdallah to be paroled to Lebanon, after his parole was approved by the courts. He has been eligible for parole since 1999 and yet has remained in French jails.
The activists distributed the leaflet below at the event (translation from French):
“In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon. The organization of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction (FARL), decided to lead the fight against the aggressor and its supporters in Europe: the assistant military attaché at the Embassy of the United States of America in Paris and the head of Mossad in France were executed. Accused of these acts, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 after many politico-judicial manipulations and with the approval of the US government of Reagan.
While Georges Ibrahim Abdallah has been releasable for years and was approved for parole first in 2007, he has remained detained solely because he has not repented his loyalty to his communist views or his commitment to resisting the Zionist occupation and Palestine, and because, according to the prosecutor, his release would be seen as a victory by the anti-imperialist resistance in this region. On November 6, a new request for parole was deemed “inadmissible”. The appeal hearing on his request for parole was to be held tomorrow in Paris, and has just been postponed to a later date.
When we stand with Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, it is not only that it is “high time to release him,” but that we can not claim to support the Palestinian people without denouncing the endless vengeance to which they are subjected by those who support the Israeli state, namely Hollande, Valls and PS.
Represented by its ambassador, the United States stood as a plaintiff at Abdallah’s trial and continues today to pressure against the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. We see clearly the solidarity of the U.S. in oppression. When at this time, and sometimes in very different contexts, the struggles against various forms of repression are strengthening in Palestine, the United States, and France, we recall that the Israeli, American, and French governments have a common desire to neutralize those considered “enemies within.”
The fact that Ferguson police department that killed Michael Brown was trained by the Israeli army is one of the signs of the continuity of these policing structures, and the Palestinians who used twitter to support protesters in different cities in the United States, advising on how to protect themselves from tear gas recognize this connection.
We demand that Georges Ibrahim Abdallah’s application for parole be granted, and that his release is effectuated without delay. In support of the Palestinian resistance, we also demand the release of the 7000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Tomorrow, Thursday, 18 December, the demonstration against the arrival of Manuel Valls in Rennes, starting at 18:30 in the Town Hall Square will be an opportunity for us to oppose police and judicial repression by the French state. We call on all people of Rennes to attend and participate in the demonstration, as well as other initiatives against the visit of Valls to Rennes.”
