Samidoun Coordinator Under Attack: Launch of the International Campaign Against Anti-Palestinian Repression in Germany

Zaid Abdulnasser, the coordinator of Samidoun Network’s chapter in Germany, and member of the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, is currently being threatened by the German state that his residency as a Palestinian refugee born in Syria will be revoked due to his political engagement in Samidoun and Masar Badil.

In the face of this attack, more than 130 international organisations, unions, and political parties, have expressed their absolute refusal of Germany’s ever increasing repressive measures against Palestinian refugees and their fundamental right to struggle for their liberation and return.

Collectif Palestine Vaincra in Toulouse stands with Zaid!
Collectif Palestine Vaincra in Toulouse stands with Zaid!

We call for organisations to join us by signing the statement under the following link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSffcsikMQR1lwvPqukzYCQpCzSZwLy28RXY8tYdGNxzlgugOA/viewform

To financially support the legal defence of Zaid and other Palestinians in Germany bearing the brunt of the state’s repressive measures against Palestine, you can make a donation to the following account:

Name: Rote Hilfe e.V.
IBAN: DE55 4306 0967 4007 2383 17
BIC: GENODEM1GLS
Note: Palaestina gegen Repression

We, in Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, declare that all attacks against us by the zionist occupation, its organisations abroad, and by Western imperialist countries and right-wing, racist media, have not and will not change our absolute commitment to defending and supporting the Palestinian prisoners movement, and to struggle for the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Following is the statement signed by more than 130 organisations worldwide (to be updated with new signatories):

International Campaign Against Anti-Palestinian Repression in Germany

We, the undersigned organisations, declare our rejection and outrage at the German state’s consistent repression against Palestinians and Palestine organising in Germany, from the ban of Nakba day demonstrations in 2022 and 2023, the ban of International Palestinian Prisoners Day demonstrations in 2023, the persecution of journalists, youth, and students for their pro-Palestine views and activism, to the recent attempt at revoking the residency of Samidoun Germany coordinator, Zaid Abdulnasser, a Palestinian refugee born in Syria.

This aggression is aimed at all Palestinian refugees in an attempt to strip them of their right to struggle for their liberation by manoeuvring around the legal system and exploiting their precarious situation to pressure them into silence. It’s an attack not only on the Palestinian and Arab community and supporters of Palestine in Germany, but also on our collective right to political organising. This is also an attack on the Palestinian prisoners’ movement by targeting global solidarity with prisoners.

By sponsoring intense state-wide smear campaigns against Palestinians and pro-Palestine organising and using these to justify the repeated bans on events and to demonise Palestinians and Arabs in Germany in general, and in Berlin in particular – home to the largest Palestinian and Arab community in Europe, the German state is desperate in its attempts to hinder Palestinians from organising themselves and preventing them from taking to the streets struggling for their rights. 

The state declared that Zaid’s engagement in Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement is grounds for revoking his residency in “protection of the public interest”. This puts in clear view Germany’s outrageous attempts at repressing the rising support for Palestine in Germany, where increasingly more and more people are aware of and appalled by the crimes of the Israeli occupation as we saw in the popular demonstrations in May 2021, where hundreds of thousands in Germany took to the streets expressing their clear support for Palestine.

We view this as an attack first and foremost on the Palestinian community in Germany and an expression of state-sponsored anti-Palestinian rhetoric and full identification with Israeli colonisation of occupied Palestine. This is particularly important as the vast majority of the Palestinian community in Berlin are refugees denied their right to return to their cities and villages since 1948. Their engagement in the liberation of their land and return to their homes is their natural right and the state’s attempt at repressing them will fail as they have failed for the past 100 years of unyielding Palestinian struggle.

We reject these attacks and declare that our voices will not be silenced. We stand firmly behind the Palestinian refugees in Germany and their right to organise and struggle and declare our support of all Palestinian prisoners behind Israeli bars, and for the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. And we declare, clearly and firmly, that this form of state repression will not succeed in silencing our support for the Palestinian people, their resistance and their prisoners’ movement struggle to end colonialism. 

Free all Palestinian prisoners!

Down with state repression!

Long live international solidarity!

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

Signatories:

  • 100 idee per la pace Siena – Italy
  • 718 Coalition
  • Advisory Board National Jericho Movement
  • Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition
  • Alkarama Palestinian women’s movement)
  • Alliance for Global Justice
  • Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
  • AlYudur Palestinian Youth Mobilization
  • ANC (Association Nationale des Communistes)
  • Arab Left Forum
  • Asociación Casa de la Memoria
  • Asociación Unadikum
  • Assoc France Palestine Solidarité Paris 14-6
  • Australia Solidarity with Latin America
  • Avrupa Dev-Genc
  • Basler Frauenvereinigung für Frieden und Fortschritt ( BFFF)
  • Bathurst United Church
  • BDS Vancouver/Coast Salish Territories
  • Behind Enemy Lines
  • Berlin Migrant Strikers
  • Biblicism Institute
  • Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) Solidarity Network
  • Boykot Israel Denmark
  • Bronx Antiwar Coalition
  • Bruxelles Panthères
  • Campagne unitaire pour la libération de Georges Abdallah
  • Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon
  • Canada Palestine Association
  • Canada-Philippine Solidarity for Human Rights (CPSHR)
  • Canadian BDS Coalition
  • Catford Against Social Cleansing
  • CCMW Montreal
  • Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies
  • Charente Palestine Solidarité
  • Christian-Jewish Allies For a Just Peace
  • Collectif Palestine Vaincra
  • Committee of Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran
  • Couserans Palestine
  • CUP-Alternativa per Llagostera
  • Dar al Janub – Union for Antiracism and Peace Policy
  • جمعية درب الوفاء للمعوقين الاجتماعية Darb Al-Wafa Social Association for the Disabled
  • Degrowth Belgium
  • DIE LINKE KV Region Hannover
  • East Berkshire PSC
  • France Palestine Mental Health Network
  • Freedom Road Socialist Organization
  • Frente Antiimperialista Internacionaista
  • Front Uni des Immigrations et des Quartiers Populaires – FUIQP
  • Gorillas Workers Collective
  • Groupe Non-Violent LOUIS LECOIN
  • Human Rights for Palestine
  • IDWC
  • INSAF UOttawa
  • International Action Center
  • International Association of Democratic Lawyers
  • International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
  • International Women’s Alliance
  • Internationalt Forum
  • Ireland Palestine Mental Health Network
  • IU-PCE Marx Madera
  • IWW Montreal
  • Jewish Bund
  • Jewish Network for Palestine
  • Jews against the Occupation
  • Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
  • Jüdisch-Palästinensische Dialoggruppe München
  • Kairos Sabeel Nederland
  • Kämpfende Jugend Bremen
  • KOE – Communist Organization of Greece
  • Kommunistische Organisation (kommunistische-organisation.de)
  • Kommunistische Organisation [kommunistische.org]
  • La Guillotine, les éditions qui tranchent
  • Le CRI Rouge pour la défense des prisonniers révolutionnaires
  • Lebanese campaign to Free Georges Abdallah
  • Liberate Palestine
  • Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
  • Masar Badil (Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement)
  • Media Review Network
  • Mouvement Citoyen Palestine
  • Münchner Friedensbündnis
  • National Lawyers Guild International Committee
  • National Students for Justice in Palestine
  • National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (Philippines)
  • Netzwerk Freiheit für alle politischen Gefangen Magdeburg
  • Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
  • OCML Voie Prolétarienne
  • Offenes Treffen gegen Krieg und Militarisierung Stuttgart (OTKM)
  • Olive Press
  • ONGD AFRICANDO
  • Ontario Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines
  • Palästina Antikolonial
  • Palästina Initiative Tirol
  • Palästina Komitee Basel
  • Palästina Solidarität Duisburg
  • Palästina Spricht
  • Palestine Solidarity Committee Stuttgart
  • Palestine-Global Mental Health Network
  • Party of Communists USA
  • Philippines Australia Union Link
  • Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine
  • Public Intellectuals for Social and Spare Change
  • Racine Coalition for Peace and Justice
  • Resistance Festival – Athens, Greece
  • Resistance News Network
  • Revolutionaire Eenheid
  • Revolutionärer Jugendbund
  • RIO – Revolutionär Internationalistische Organisation
  • Rojavakommittéerna Göteborg
  • Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
  • SE London Friends of Palestine
  • Secours Rouge Genève
  • SELFOP
  • Sheffield Labour Friends of Palestine
  • Sheffield PSC
  • Sinistra Italiana Pesaro Urbino
  • Solidaridad Antirrepresiva Berlin
  • Solidaritätsnetzwerk Berlin
  • Stop the War Machine
  • Students Allied for Freedom and Equality
  • Students United for Palestinian Equality & Return – University of Washington
  • TADAMON (International Solidarity with Prisoners)
  • The USA-Palestine Mental Health Network
  • U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)
  • UK-Palestine Mental Health Network
  • Union Syndicale Solidaires Haute Garonne
  • US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
  • USA-Palestine Mental Health Network
  • Venceremos, Partido de Trabajadorxs
  • V-SB
  • Weekly newspaper DROMOS
  • Winnipeg Police Cause Harm
  • Women in Black Vienna
  • Workers Voice Socialist Movement (Louisiana)
  • Workers World Party – Bay Area
  • WorldBeyondWar