Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine imprisoned in French jails for over 37 years, sent the following message to people participating in the international week of solidarity to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners. We invite all supporters of justice in Palestine to endorse the week of action and participate in the events scheduled around the world. To send us your event, email samidoun@samidoun.net.
Comrades and friends participating in the International Week of Solidarity with our comrade, the imprisoned leader Ahmed Sa’adat
Dear ones,
Twenty years have passed since the arrest of our leader, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Twenty years have passed since the deal of shame between the Palestinian Authority and the Zionist occupation authorities, under the auspices of the United States and Britain, which referred our comrade, the leader Ahmed Sa’adat, before a military court and imprisoned him in the Palestinian Authority prison of Jericho after a mock trial, with the responsibility of guarding this prison entrusted to an American-British force.
Twenty years have passed since the decision, deemed unconstitutional by the “Palestinian Supreme Court,” which, despite its powerlessness, ordered the immediate release of the captive leader, but the Palestinian Authority flouted the decision of the “Supreme Court” and was instead content with implementing the humiliating deal with the Zionist occupation authorities. And when the American-British force decided to give up the responsibility of guarding Jericho prison and withdrew in early March 2006, Mahmoud Abbas’ authority did not move a finger, nor did it release the Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and his fellow prisoners, leaving them to the occupation forces. On 14 March, the occupation forces stormed the prison, killing two martyrs and wounding twenty after an unequal confrontation between the Palestinian prisoners and guards on one side and the occupation forces on the other.
Twenty years, comrades, and the captive leader, Ahmed Saadat, and his fellow male and female prisoners, face all mechanisms of repression inside the prisons of the Zionists. Nevertheless, they act without a moment’s hesitation to take the appropriate decisions to push the movement of struggle forward. They strive to keep the flame of resistance going, despite all the obstacles, and serve as a beacon to the unity of the “social bloc” with a historical interest in revolution and liberation.
Twenty years of the most wonderful embodiment of the will to steadfastness! This represents the truest expression of adherence to the historical postulates of the masses of our committed people, to activate all energies for the sake of national unity, the necessary condition for accumulating initiatives of struggle in order to change the balance of power between the paths of the revolution and the miserable labyrinths of abject submersion in and around the treacherous negotiations, their “security coordination,” and the betrayal of the resistance fighters and the righteous martyrs.
Comrades, comrades!
Perhaps we can say that “security coordination” is the labyrinth of the path of “negotiations” with the occupier. Perhaps the arrest of our comrade, the captive leader, Ahmed Saadat, by the Palestinian Authority was the greatest of the achievements of “security coordination” between this sector that monopolizes the official Palestinian decision and the authorities of the Zionist entity. And now the importance of this “security coordination” is no longer a secret to anyone, not only for the Zionist entity, but even for all the reactionary bourgeois forces in Palestine and all over the Arab region.
In the end, the main goal of “security coordination” became, apart from the active role in suppressing all forms of resistance, especially armed ones in Palestine, to spread the “culture” of coordination, making it so that dealing with the enemy is no longer viewed as criminal and official normalization with the usurper and colonizer is simply one viewpoint among many. And within this approach, the “Palestinian Authority” and even some other Palestinian organizations condone the ongoing normalization processes between some Arab countries and “Israel.” Also, along this path we see the response of the “Palestinian Authority” to U.S. and Israeli pressures regarding support funds for the prisoners and the families of martyrs, and the measures taken against Gaza and its heroic population.
Within this framework, we also see the escalating repressive measures inside the Zionist prisons and the attacks upon the resisting people of Jenin, the assaults on the institutions working to defend the prisoners of the Palestinian revolution, and the children holding on to hot coals in the castles of dignity, our steadfast and heroic prisoners. The issue of their liberation, and not only solidarity with them despite its importance, must be placed at the top of any list of urgent tasks.
In this context, it is necessary to seriously consider how international solidarity can play its role in acting to liberate our fellow prisoners. Undoubtedly, the task of liberating the prisoners of the Palestinian revolution remains more than ever the gateway to building a comprehensive Arab resistance front to confront the crisis-ridden bourgeois regimes and imperialist propaganda.
Greetings and appreciation to the leaders of the Palestinian revolution, our steadfast and heroic prisoners, at the forefront of which is our comrade and leader Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Yes to building a comprehensive Arab resistance front to confront normalization in all forms!
Glory and eternity to the martyrs! Victory to the masses and the struggling peoples.
Down with imperialism and its agents, the Zionists and Arab reactionaries!
Best regards to all of you.
Your friend,
Georges Abdallah
