Samidoun Network in occupied Palestine, working in collaboration with Asra Voice, the Voice of the Prisoners radio network, organized a broadcast of messages of solidarity to Palestinian prisoner Ibrahim Hamed. His mother, Zainab Hamed, from the town of Silwad east of Ramallah, occupied Palestine, died on 2 April 2020, after being separated from her son for 15 years.
Samidoun collected audio messages with words of strength, support and condolences to Ibrahim Hamed, noting that he received the news of his mother’s death inside Israeli occupation prisons and was unable to be with her or even attend her funeral, kept behind bars. Even her family were denied a traditional funeral due to the global COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic.
Many individuals and organizations sent messages of solidarity. Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun, sent a message, noting that Ibrahim Hamed and 5,000 Palestinian prisoners are kept from their families even at the most devastating moments due to Israeli imprisonment and that their lives face an even greater risk now due to COVID-19, which has already entered the prisons through infected jailers interrogators. Khaled Barakat, international coordinator of the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and Palestinian writer, emphasized that the popular and progressive movements of the world stand with the steadfast Palestinian prisoners and the prisoners’ movement behind Israeli bars.
Leila, an Algerian member of Collectif Palestine Vaincra in Toulouse, France – a member organization of the Samidoun Network – spoke on behalf of the collective, expressing condolences on the loss of Hamed’s mother. She noted that the struggle of the Palestinian prisoners also includes that of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed for over 35 years in French prisons and ending with a call for a liberated Palestine.
The organizers invited participants to send their messages with a call: “Let us break through the walls of Nafha Prison with our voices and messages and support the strength and steadfastness of the prisoners.” The audio was broadcast over FM radio – where it can be heard on radios inside Israeli prisons – on Saturday morning, 11 April. The audio was also aired live on Facebook on the page of Samidoun Network in Occupied Palestine and Asra Voice radio.
Listen to the messages here: