The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees issued a statement, condemning the arrest of the president of the UPWC, Khitam Saafin and Palestinian leftist leader and parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar:
The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees strongly denounces the attack of occupation forces at dawn on Sunday, July 2, to arrest the Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council Khalida Jarrar and the President of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, Member of the Secretariat of the General Union of Palestinian Women, and feminist activst Khitam Saafin, after storming and ransacking their homes.
The Union views this ongoing campaign of arrests as part of the continuing crimes of the occupation against the resistance to the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people.
The Union further confirmed that the political detention of the leaders of the women’s movement is part of many attempts to silence the free Palestinian voice that confrnts the occupation and its attacks on the Palestinian people. It calls on all Arab and international human rights organizatins to act to stop these attacks and demand the immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners.
2 July 2017
The Progressive Labor Union Front in Palestine also issued a statement on the seizure of Jarrar and Saafin by Israeli occupation forces:
The Progressive Labor Union Front in Palestine condemns the attack of occupation forces who arrested the struggler Khalida Jarrar, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and the struggler Khitam Saafin, president of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, along with the continuing extensive detention campaigns that affect all of our people and their strugglers. These arrests are racist, fascist actions aimed at silencing the voices of truth.
The occupation is carrying out a desperate attempt to silence and subjugate the Palestinian people, taking advantage of the prevailing political situation and the humiliating actions of Arab regimes to normalize relations with the Zionist entity alongside the silence of the official Palestinian leadership and identification with the U.S. “requirements” and conditions for American satisfaction with the region.
The Progressive Labor Union Front confirmed that both Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin represent a model of leadership that prioritizes the issues and concerns of the Palestinian people, confronting all forms of political and social oppression.
The Palestinian people have experienced over 100 years of colonization and has confronted and resisted through struggle. Our people are capable of continuing the struggle and will respond to all attempts to undermine their will and steadfastness to seek their legitimate rights.
The Progressive Labor Union Front called on labor and trade union organizations of the world to advocate for freedom, social justice and people’s issues and stand together to demand an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people and the occupation’s racist and fascist attacks on the people and their leaders and strugglers.
2 July 2017
