2021 Samidoun Year in Review: Help us organize a new year of Palestinian liberation struggle!

2021 has been a year of struggle for Palestine – towards return and liberation. This year, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has taken to the streets, organized new chapters, marched for justice, and fought to free Palestinian prisoners.

 We’re now preparing for 2022.  From New York to Vancouver, from Germany to occupied Palestine, from Toulouse to Madrid to Sao Paolo, from Beirut to Amsterdam, we are growing, building and organizing to support Palestinian liberation from the river to the sea.  

 In order to achieve our goals, we need your support and contributions. When you make a donation to Samidoun today, you are supporting our active work to achieve justice and liberation for over 4,500 Palestinian prisoners and for the land and people of Palestine.  

Your support is critical for this international, Arab and Palestinian movement to continue to grow through 2022 and beyond – toward liberation and return. 

Samidoun is funded by the movement. As a grassroots organization without foundation funding or full-time staff, your generosity is absolutely critical to continuing to build our work to support Palestinian liberation.  Make your US tax-deductible donation today, and donate safely and securely from around the world. 

As an international, Arab and Palestinian movement are working to build the movement to boycott Israel and confront complicit corporations profiteering from colonization. We stand with the Palestinian prisoners and the entire Palestinian people’s resistance and liberation movement for liberation – and with all of those around the world confronting imperialism, capitalism, Zionism and reactionary repression. 

As we prepare to march forward into 2022, we ask you to consider donating to Samidoun today and supporting us as we grow bigger, stronger, broader and bolder in advancing the voices and demands of the Palestinian prisoners and building the movement for Palestine. 

Click here to support Samidoun’s work as we mark a year of struggle and look forward to a new year of growth and liberation. 

Alternately, checks and money orders may be written and mailed to:

AFGJ/Samidoun
225 E. 26th St., Ste. 1
Tucson, A.Z. 85713-2925
U.S.A.

If you would like to make a donation in another form, such as through a corporate program, matching program, a gift of stock or a gift in kind, or to send us a wire transfer, please contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Below is a brief overview of just some of our work during 2021: 

#FreePalestinianStudents: Fighting for Palestinian freedom

In March 2021, Samidoun launched the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign, with the support of over 350 international organizations, including trade unions, student associations, political parties and supporters of justice around the world. The campaign has drawn widespread support and action, raising awareness and fighting for the freedom of Palestinian students held in Israeli prisons.

Hundreds of Palestinian students remain behind bars. In 2022, we’ll keep building the campaign to free imprisoned students — and all Palestinian prisoners!  

“Terrorist” Designation and the Global Fightback

In February of 2021, Israeli “Defense” Minister and war criminal, Benny Gantz, designated Samidoun as a “terrorist” organization, the same tactic that he would later apply to Palestinian non-governmental organizations. Even NGO Monitor, the infamous smear-campaign organization that aims to target Palestine solidarity and Palestinian organizing on behalf of the Israeli regime, admits that “Samidoun is a main advocate for the release of Palestinian prisoners.” 

They want to stop people from standing up for freedom for imprisoned Palestinians, but the response of organizations in Palestine and around the world has made it clear: we’re bigger and stronger than ever, organizing to uphold Palestinian rights and support Palestinian liberation. In 2022, we’ll show Gantz and the Israeli regime that repression only makes our movement stronger! 

 

Global Coordination: The Unity Uprising

From Berlin to Toulouse, Madrid to Vancouver, Amsterdam to Ramallah, Samidoun chapters and activists were in the streets, organizing demonstrations where thousands marched as part and parcel of the Unity Uprising taking place in Palestine in May-June 2021. We played a key role in global coordination, with even CNN taking note of the Global Calendar of Palestinian Resistance. And everywhere, we worked hand in hand with our partner organizations and comrades in struggle to build larger, mass actions to mobilize to stand with the Palestinian resistance. 

In 2022, we’ll be working even harder to coordinate, organize and build the movement towards liberation and return, with a firm foundation of struggle and unity forged through these actions. 

Free Georges Abdallah! The call to action sweeps the world

2021 was a banner year for the campaign to free Georges Abdallah, with unprecedented global action and support to free this Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for over 37 years. There were over 100 screenings of “Fedayin” organized in global cities, while over 1,000 marched to the gates of Lannemezan prison in October, the culmination of a month of action in which our comrades in Collectif Palestine Vaincra played a leading role. 

Let’s make 2022 the year when Georges Abdallah is free! 

Return and Liberation: The Ghassan Kanafani Samidoun Brigade to Lebanon

In July 2021, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organized a delegation to Lebanon. Delegates based in Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium and France traveled to Lebanon to meet with Palestinian organizations in the refugee camps, Lebanese campaigners to free Georges Abdallah, former Lebanese prisoners during the Zionist occupation, political parties, and more. This was not only a delegation, but a brigade committed to continuing the work and deepening the relationships — toward victory and liberation. 

In 2022, we’ll continue forging connections through delegations and brigades that connect movements and focus on the struggles of Palestinian popular classes. 

 

Material Solidarity: Supporting Palestinian Initiatives for Justice

In 2021, Samidoun ensured that our political solidarity was also material solidarity. We raised the funds needed to refurbish the People’s Ambulance in Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp, providing necessary medical transportation not offered in the camp. We closed out the year with a successful campaign to support the Palestinian Chess Club in Shatila camp, and we’re working with our comrades and partners to support the Hakoura organic farm run by Palestinian refugees in Greece.

In 2022, we’ll continue to build that material solidarity and support popular, unconditional funding of Palestinian institution-building and liberation projects.

Marching towards Liberation: The Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path

The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil) launched amid a series of conferences in Madrid, Spain; Beirut, Lebanon; and Sao Paulo, Brazil, between 30 October and 2 November 2021. The Masar Badil is a popular, mass movement of Palestinians, Arabs and internationalists struggling for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, in complete rejection of the so-called “peace process” of the Madrid Conference and the Oslo Accords, which have led to nothing but destruction for Palestinian rights and the Palestinian national liberation movement. Samidoun organizers played a leading role in organizing the conference and now, building the movement and ongoing follow-up work.

In 2022, we’re committed to building together for a revolutionary, liberated future for Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Free Ahmad Sa’adat: The Global Call to Action

From 15 to 23 January 2021, activists and organizations around the world joined Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in the Week of Action to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners. The week of online events, media actions, demonstrations and street stands highlighted the case of Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation, and the 4,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. The week also highlighted the complicity of the Palestinian Authority with the imprisonment of Sa’adat, part of the Oslo project and its “security coordination” with Israel, as well as the direct responsibility of the United States, UK, Canada and other imperialist powers for Sa’adat’s imprisonment and the ongoing dispossession and colonization of the land and people of Palestine.

In 2022, get ready to join us on 15-22 January for the Week of Action to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners!

 

Speaking Out for Justice: Media and Events for Palestine

In 2021, Samidoun activists and chapters organized street actions, protests, educational events, film screenings, webinars and conferences for Palestine, everywhere around the world. Even more, Samidoun remained a resource for media coverage of Palestine and Palestinian political prisoners, with Samidoun speakers appearing on programs in English, Arabic, French, Spanish and Portuguese to discuss Palestine and the struggle to liberate Palestinian prisoners. With dozens of media appearances and public events, Samidoun is speaking up and being heard — amplifying the voices of Palestinian prisoners marching towards freedom. 

In 2021, we were loud — in 2022, we’ll be even louder in defense of Palestine!

Building the Movement: The Samidoun Network is growing!

2021 was a year of growth and building for the global Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network! We welcomed new chapters — Samidoun Paris Region, Samidoun Iran, Samidoun Malmo, and Samidoun Toronto. We also welcomed new affiliate organizations to the network — the Center for Study and Preservation of Palestine in Portland, the Anti-Imperialist Alliance of Ottawa, ACTA in Paris, and Palestina Libre Murcia

Samidoun organizes with an anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist vision of justice and liberation, confronting imperialism, Zionism and reactionary forces. This means that we cannot struggle for justice for Palestine alone, but that it is critical to support the Black Liberation movement, Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination movements, and anti-imperialist movements around the world. We organize to free political prisoners in the U.S., UK, Canada, France and elsewhere, and work in solidarity with prisoners’ struggles from Morocco to Turkey to the Philippines. 

In 2022, we’re building even more chapters, welcoming more affiliate organizations and building the movement to liberate all Palestinian prisoners, stand with the Palestinian resistance, and realize a free Palestine from the river to the sea. We invite you to join us! 

Click here to support Samidoun’s work as we organize for 2022 and beyond – toward return and liberation.