Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network calls on Palestinian communities in exile and diaspora, organizers and activists in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, anti-imperialist movements, and all people of conscience to join us this October 19-21, 2023 in Toulouse and Lannemezan, France, to mobilize for the liberation of Georges Abdallah and all Palestinian prisoners. For those unable to attend in France, we urge you to organize actions and demonstrations in your communities, to raise high the banners of the Palestinian prisoners, of Georges Abdallah, and of the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.
On 21 October 2023, the annual mass march will take place at Lannemezan Prison in Lannemezan, France, marching from the train station to the gates of the prison where Georges Abdallah is held. Georges Abdallah is a Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine, imprisoned in France for the past 39 years. Join the unified, collective march of many organizations, movements, unions and collectives to express our common goal for the liberation of Georges and the liberation of Palestine.
In advance of the march, on 19-20 October 2023, the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement will hold two days of internal planning and strategy sessions for the next steps of the Palestinian revolutionary movement, hosted by our comrades in the Collectif Palestine Vaincra in Toulouse, France.
On the evening of Friday, 20 October — the eve of the march — the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, together with Samidoun and the Masar Badil, will hold a mass public mobilizing meeting and event in Toulouse, at the Bourse du Travail.
We encourage all to join us for these events.
- For the MASS MARCH in Lannemezan (21 October), buses will be leaving from Toulouse, Paris, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Marseille and elsewhere. To register for the TOULOUSE bus, email collectifpalestinevaincra@gmail.com. To register for the PARIS bus, email campagne.unitaire.gabdallah@gmail.com. More information coming soon!
- For the MASAR BADIL strategy and planning meeting in Toulouse, register HERE: https://forms.gle/v9vCodovLrt56F6AA If you have questions, email info@masarbadil.org. Location will be provided to approved registrants.
- For the FRIDAY EVENING event, join us at 7 pm on Friday, 20 October in Toulouse, France, at the Bourse du Travail, 19 Place Saint-Sernin. More info here: https://palestinevaincra.com/2023/10/vendredi-20-octobre-a-toulouse-meeting-debat-palestine-vaincra-liberons-georges-abdallah/
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all of our supporters, members and friends to join us in a collective bloc at the Lannemezan demonstration under the slogan: Free Georges Abdallah! Free all Palestinian Prisoners! Free Palestine, from the River to the Sea!
Who is Georges Abdallah?
A Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine, Georges Abdallah has been imprisoned in French prisons since 1984, convicted on charges of participation in armed actions by the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction, working to fight off colonialist and Zionist invasions in Lebanon.
From his youth, Georges Abdallah was an activist and engaged in the struggles of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. With the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), he resisted and was injured by Israeli forces invading Lebanon in 1978. A committed Communist and internationalist, he views the Arab struggle for liberation from Zionism and imperialism as part and parcel of the international workers’ struggle for liberation from capitalism.
He has been eligible for release since 1999 yet continues to be denied parole, despite having parole requests approved several times by French judges. The Lebanese government has officially asked for his release, and he is asking to be deported to Lebanon. Yet the French state has intervened at the highest levels, alongside the U.S and Israeli regimes, to deny Georges Abdallah’s parole requests. He has filed a new appeal for his immediate release, accompanied by a call to build the movement for his liberation.
The Palestinian prisoners’ movement considers Georges Abdallah to be part of the movement from inside French prisons, where he has participated in collective hunger strikes by returning meals.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement
There are currently 5,200 Palestinian political prisoners in Zionist jails, including over 1319 jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, 170 children and 36 Palestinian women. Since 1948, over one million Palestinians have been imprisoned by the occupation. Palestinian prisoners are mothers and fathers, workers and farmers, teachers and students; they represent all sectors of the Palestinian people and primarily reflect the Palestinian popular classes in the refugee camps, villages and cities.
The prisoners behind bars are not merely victims of the occupation; they are leaders of the Palestinian resistance movement and of the Palestinian revolution. They represent a unifying symbol of the Palestinian people and a leadership that is not compromised by the Oslo Accords and the so-called “peace process.” Fundamentally, they represent Palestinian resistance, in all means and forms, and its legitimacy; outside and inside the prisons. Palestinian prisoners organize, read, study and act together, turning the dungeons of the occupier into revolutionary schools.
Over 90% of Palestinian prisoners are tortured physically and/or psychologically under interrogation, and Palestinian prisoners are routinely denied medical care or subjected to systemic medical neglect or negligence. The occupation continues to detain over 200 Palestinian martyrs, including the bodies of 12 Palestinian prisoners who lost their lives behind bars.
Despite these circumstances, the Palestinian prisoners continue to fight back, to resist, to lead and to move towards liberation. They carry out hunger strikes, they create art and literature, and they participate directly in the resistance, confronting the jailers on a daily basis and at a strategic level. The prisoners’ battle is part and parcel of the unity of all fronts!
Palestinian prisoners are not only held in the prisons of the occupation. There are Palestinian prisoners in U.S. jails – Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu Baker and Mufid Abdulqader, the Holy Land Foundation Humanitarians, imprisoned for up to 65 years for serving their people. In Britain, 100 Palestine Action activists are fighting charges where they face jail time for confronting the Israeli war machine with direct action. In the Netherlands, Amin Abu Rashed is imprisoned for his charitable work to support Palestinian refugees and their right to return. And of course, in France, Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine, imprisoned for the past 39 years. This form of repression also includes the attack on Palestinian organizing in Germany, the attempt to strip the residency and refugee status from Samidoun coordinator Zaid Abdulnasser and the deportation of Palestinian figures like Khaled Barakat and Rasmea Odeh.
In reactionary Arab regime prisons, Palestinians are jailed for supporting their resistance and liberation. Of course, the prisoners’ battle also includes the prisoners of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, jailed under “security cooperation” with the Israeli occupation, the reason for the PA’s creation and existence.
This reflects the Palestinian cause: the struggle against Zionism, imperialism and reactionary regimes. The struggle of the Palestinian prisoners is an internationalist struggle, aligned with the struggle of the revolutionary prisoners of the world confronting the same forces in common cause – toward national and global liberation.
Join our actions and our march for Georges Abdallah and for the liberation of Palestinian prisoners!
About the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil)
Our popular movement was launched in late October 2021 in Madrid, Beirut and Sao Paulo as a Palestinian, Arab and international movement to confront the path of liquidation and surrender, in order to straighten the Palestinian national compass and mobilize the energies and resources of the Palestinian people in the diaspora. The Masar Badil firmly rejects the path of the Oslo process and is committed to Palestinian resistance until total liberation and return.
The Masar Badil is a Palestinian revolutionary path with Arab and international dimensions, whose features were drawn by thousands of Palestinian, Arab and international martyrs over decades of struggle, a path of radical change that interprets reality in order to change it, understands the challenges and national and local specificities in every Palestinian community and sees them as a source of strength and pluralism. We adhere to our rights and roots while looking to the future and keeping pace with the times. This revolutionary approach is rising today to walk confidently and with steady steps toward liberated Palestine, from the river to the sea…towards a new Arab and human dawn.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is part of the Masar Badil Movement!
If you can’t come to Lannemezan:
We urge all supporters of Palestine to join activities in your city or organize initiatives to highlight the case of Georges Abdallah and demand his liberation. Here are some examples:
- Print, distribute and post these posters (images below and downloadable here) calling for the liberation of Georges Abdallah in your community.
- Organize a screening of the new film, Fedayin, the Struggle of Georges Abdallah in your community. The film is fully subtitled and available in English, French, Arabic, German, Italian, Spanish, Catalan and Turkish. To organize a screening, please contact vacarmesfilms@gmail.com
- Protest or deliver a letter demanding Georges Abdallah’s release at the French consulate or embassy in your city.
- Include Georges Abdallah’s liberation – and the liberation of Palestinian prisoners – in demonstrations, actions and vigils for Palestine in your city
- Write Georges Abdallah and send him solidarity messages (individually or as a collective action of your group). Send letters to:
Monsieur Georges Ibrahim ABDALLAH
2388/A221 CP de Lannemezan
204 rue des Saligues
BP 70166
65307 LANNEMEZAN
France
Contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net for more information or to let us know about your action or send us a message on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
