In June 2024, the International Women’s Alliance hosted its third international assembly in Penang, Malaysia, drawing hundreds of women involved in grassroots, anti-imperialist and national liberation movements around the world, including a delegation from Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network that included women from multiple chapters, including occupied Palestine. The convening brought together organizations and activists for panels, cultural events and presentations, as well as planning for the Alliance’s next steps.
As part of the Assembly, four awards were presented to Women of Valor, to women whose contributions advance liberation struggles around the world. This year, the awards were presented to: Evelyn Calugay, advocate for the labor rights of Filipino migrant women; Wilma Tiamzon, a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, brutally killed under Marcos Jr. regime in 2022; the late Anuradha Ghandi, revolutionary leader, writer and founder of the Communist Party of India; and Etaf Alayan, Palestinian former prisoner, lifelong struggler and revolutionary, whose involvement in Palestinian resistance and organizing at all levels has in many ways mirrored the trajectory of the Palestinian cause itself.
As Etaf Alayan has been subjected for years to a travel ban, a Palestinian woman from Samidoun spoke about her contributions, the situation of Palestinian women and prisoners today, and presented a video greeting from Etaf to the IWA assembly. Watch Etaf’s video below:
Text of Etaf Alayan’s comments:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,
“Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought because they were wronged, and indeed, Allah is able to grant them victory.”
Allah the Almighty has spoken the truth.
To the esteemed sisters and brothers present, to the dear and hospitable country of Malaysia, my greetings to you.
Greetings to you, and Um Yusuf is still searching for her curly-haired son.
Greetings to you, and the girl is still searching for her mother, whom she recognizes by her hair among the martyrs.
Greetings to you, and the fighters are still defending their land.
Greetings to you, and a mother in Jenin buries her four martyred sons and is shy in her mourning in front of the catastrophe in Gaza.
Greetings to you, and the nails of the people of the West Bank have been clipped under Oslo, in protection of the settler herds that roam and corrupt our land.
Greetings to you, and the free women of Palestine are still being tortured in prisons but remain unsilenced.
Greetings to you, and the doors of Al-Aqsa are closed to its lovers and devotees, but open to the herds of settlers who desecrate it
Greetings to you, and the rulers of the so-called super powers bury their heads like ostriches, deaf to the truth and seeing only what the occupying entity shows them, repeating its claim of “Israel’s right to defend itself.”
Greetings to you, and the Arab rulers were castrated, with their voice nowhere to be heard.
Greetings to you, and the Islamic countries still do not see their duty towards the land that Allah has blessed and claimed to himself those who defend it, as He said: “We sent against you servants of Ours of great might.”
Greetings to you, and to the living consciences that refused to be like a herd behind their rulers, those shouting no to injustice, and demanding freedom for Palestine. These consciences will be the safety valve to their countries,
for those who cry out against injustice.. are alive.
Greetings to the unity of the fields, the happy Yemen with its decision, the proud Iraq, Iran the supporter, and the great Hezbollah, victorious by the will of Allah.
Greetings to the resistance fighters from all backgrounds in Gaza the proud, Jenin the steadfast, Tulkarem the dignified, Qabatiya the heroic, Nablus the mountain of fire, and to everyone who broke their silence to defend their land and protect their honor.
Despite all the pain and wounds that have afflicted the entire Palestinian body, our cause is not just a humanitarian issue; it is a matter of an occupied homeland, a lost right.
“And Allah is predominant over His affair, but most of the people do not know.”
We trust in Allah’s victory.
Greetings to the wounded Sudan, the injured Syria, and to the Philippines to Vietnam, greetings to all the oppressed peoples from the north to the south of the earth, and from east to west.
Greetings to you, and peace be upon the people of Gaza for their patience. They have indeed been afflicted as Allah said: “And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives
and livelihood, but give good tidings to the patient.”
So rejoice, O patient ones, in Allah’s victory.
Greetings to you, and peace be upon you.
Text of Samidoun’s speech at the IWA assembly in honour of Etaf Alayan:
Thank you, International Women’s Alliance, for this invitation. There are no words to express how proud I am to be here among you comrades. I’m thankful for your trust and for the chance to speak to you today.
It is an honor to stand here with you, to meet all of you and to learn from fellow fighters from all around the world. My heart aches for my people, for the children, youth, and women who are suffering immensely. The world cannot contain the rage I hold within me for the resilient Gaza, the wounded Sudan, the fighting Philippines, the joyful Yemen, South Lebanon, who answered the call, and of the rest of the free world, confronting death, colonialism, and imperialism and resisting them with a bravery and heroism that must compel us all to action.
Dear comrades and friends, my greetings come from the occupied land, a land steeped in the struggle of the Palestinian people, who prove to the world every day that Palestine, from its sea to its river, is the cause for which we live and die. My greetings also emanate from the hearts of the people who stand against imperialism, who confront capitalist and neoliberal governments that plunder our resources and our land. We are here today united in the struggle of all peoples. Calling out loud for joint struggle. My salutations go to the courageous women everywhere, raising the flags of freedom and struggle, standing for the revolutionary rebirth of their people.
Our wounds run deep today. Genocide has ravaged our people in Gaza, and the rest of the country faces a systematic silencing of its voice. They attempt to end our struggle, to eradicate our resistance, and impose an even greater siege on our prisoners, our first line of defense in the Zionist prisons. All of this under the patronage of the United States, Western imperialist governments, and complicit, reactionary Arab regimes.
We are not deterred by these crimes. We are the inheritors of a legacy of resilience, of a history etched with the blood of martyrs who have paved the way for our liberation. We are the torchbearers of hope, the embodiment of the unwavering spirit and practice of resistance. The Palestinian people will not be silenced. Our voices will echo through the corridors of power, demanding justice and accountability. We will continue to fight for our freedom, for the liberation of all oppressed people, and for a world free from imperialism, colonialism, and exploitation.
Palestine has always been central to the global struggle against imperialism, because of the political depth of the Palestinian cause, and what it represents. The Zionist movement, a product of imperialist ideology that has been supported by Western powers from its inception, a movement that adopted the tool of settler colonialism to oppress and seize Palestine, was able to transform Palestine into the central imperialist base in the heart of the Arab nation. It seeks to erase Palestinian existence, expel Palestinians from their land, and expand its economic and political relations to dominate the region, which aligns completely with western imperialist interests.
Since the establishment of their colonial state. the colonial project of erasing Palestinian existence has been ongoing, their systematic expulsion, followed by the theft of Palestinian Arab heritage and culture, all while maintaining a controlled presence of Palestinians on the land to exploit them and boast at the same time in front of the world a blood-stained, false democracy. Palestinians in occupied Palestine live today in what cannot be described as anything but ghettos, a system well-known to imperialism: unwanted people must be completely controlled, policed, and isolated.
Starting with the resilient Gaza, its people, and its heroic resistance that has proven to the world that our right to our land will not be lost, Gaza today has changed the world. It has contributed to redefining the concept of solidarity and has exposed the depth of the crime of the Zionist project funded by the United States and the West. It has restored the balance of the struggle to its natural state, affirming the right of peoples to freedom from the clutches of colonialism and imperialism.
In Gaza today, the number of known martyrs has approached 38,000, including more than 10,000 women. Over two million people are displaced and living in tents, and more than 2,500 are prisoners: to those we only know of their estimate number, we have no names or knowledge of their situation, prison conditions, locations or the prisons they are held in. In Gaza, schools and universities have been wiped out, hospitals bombed, people buried under the rubble, and lately it was revealed that the barbaric Zionist enemy has been burying people in mass graves after subjecting them to brutal torture. For more than nine months, the sounds of bombs and destruction have been continuous. For nine months, no one in Gaza has been able to sleep, and women are suffering indescribable conditions, from displacement in tents to a lack of basic health supplies, and a complete absence of healthcare for 60,000 pregnant women. Diseases are spreading uncontrollably due to the targeting of the health sector and placing it under constant fire. All of this is happening amidst killing, torture, bombing, and destruction.
The story of Gaza did not begin in October. Gaza has been under siege for over 17 years, enduring continuous wars in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021. It has been economically and socially besieged, with its people imprisoned in their own land, deprived of life and dreams. The dream of the martyr journalist Yaser Murtaja was to capture an aerial picture of Gaza. The paramedic Razan al-Najjar, a flower who loved flowers, was martyred while treating injuries, shot down by a sniper’s bullet. Thousands of faces and names each have their own stories, lives, and dreams. Today, in just nine months, more than 38,000 stories have been buried, each with dreams, names, and lives that could not withstand the Zionist killing machine, while human rights organizations and the international community stand by as spectators. And we will not forgive.
In the West Bank, there has been 544 martyrs since October, preceded by hundreds in recent years, along with a suffocating economic blockade. This is in addition to the targeting of the refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarm, Aqabat Jabr, and the siege of the old city in Nablus, and the repeated military aggressions against Tubas, mirroring the same scenes of total destruction of homes and streets, the erasure of neighborhoods, and the pursuit and assassination of resistance fighters. Settlers are armed and roam the streets, killing everything that is alive. Meanwhile, settlement activity, which has plundered the West Bank, has increased undeterred at an unprecedented rate.
At the same time, the Palestinian Authority acts as a partner to the occupation and a diligent worker for it, suppressing and killing protesters, filling its prisons with political prisoners, performing its duties in service to Zionist and imperialist domination in the best possible way, and dedicating all its capabilities to ending any form of resistance against the occupation in exchange for financial interests obtained from the occupation for its services.
In the territories occupied in 1948, since the start of the war on Gaza, the occupation has instilled terror, disrupting the lives of Palestinians through widespread prosecutions and mass arrests, with several years long prison sentences for anyone who tries to speak up against the war and death in Gaza. This is in addition to pursuing them at their workplaces, expelling students from universities, and threatening and inciting against the Palestinian population.
As for the prison battle, it is unprecedented. Today, the number of prisoners exceeds 9,500 from the West Bank and the occupied territories, while only 2,500 prisoners from Gaza are known. Since October 7, the occupation has hidden their status, numbers, names, and locations, and we know only a little from the horrifying testimonies of released prisoners. They recounted barbaric torture, abuse, and murder, with mass graves discovered containing the bodies of martyrs returned from detention, handcuffed, with no part of their bodies free from torture marks. Some survived by a miracle after having their limbs amputated due to the chains that bound them. Testimonies of prisoners who were forced to choose between their right or left feet for amputation. Others witnessed the killing of their families in front of them. In secret prisons, some images were leaked showing the atrocities committed by the Zionist enemy against Palestinian prisoners from Gaza, including multiple daily headcounts, chaining them day and night in desert rooms devoid of any basic necessities, some half-naked and others wearing the same clothes since their arrest months ago. Moreover, diseases are rampant among them, and they are deprived of food and water, causing some to emerge as skeletal figures covered in bruises.
What does it mean to be in Zionist prisons today? It means no food, no medicine, no water, no blankets, no clothes, and no books. The occupation has stripped the prisoner movement of all its possessions and isolated them completely from the outside world. There are no radios in most prisons, no family visits in any prisons, and they are also deprived of lawyer visits for many months. Families do not know what is happening with their sons and daughters, and the prisoners do not know what is happening with their families except through new prisoners being brought in. Those who are released emerge in a state barely recognizable to their families. They describe repeated raids on their rooms, with smoke and sound bombs thrown at them, and being beaten up by hundreds of soldiers in their closed, cramped rooms. They are piled on top of each other in cells, unable to sleep on the floor because the occupation has taken away their mattresses and blankets. Today, the number of administrative detainees has reached approximately 3,500 under the pretext of having secret files against them. And despite all of this, they are not broken; it has only increased their determination to resist and revolt.
The Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the heroic armed resistance of Palestine, together with the forces of resistance throughout the region, stretching from Yemen to Lebanon to Syria, Iraq, Iran and beyond, are exposing, humiliating and bringing down Zionism and imperialism. Despite the torture and the genocide, they remain charting a dignified path of victory.
From the struggles of the prisoner movement, the idea was born to establish Samidoun, Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, to be their voice in the world, to tell their stories of struggle and heroism. Their sacrifices for the Palestinian revolution and national liberation are the reason the Palestinian struggle is alive to this day. Because of their blood and sacrifices behind bars, we are now present in 14 countries with 20 branches around the world, united with the struggle of the prisoners movement to convey their message to the world. They, along with the Palestinian resistance, are the first line of defense for our just national cause, and our duty is to free them from captivity. This is not just our duty alone; it is a mission that falls on all the free people of the world. There is no freedom from imperialism without the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea and the return of the refugees.
Today, our friends are imprisoned in Damon Prison in the Carmel Mountains of Haifa, a city we dream of seeing its sea and breathing the fresh air of its mountains without restrictions. The occupation has taken from us Layan Kayed, Layan Nasser, Yara Abu Hashish, Diala Ayesh, Doha Maadi, Amal Shujaiya, Shahd Owaida, comrade Khalida Jarrar, and our mother Hanan Barghouti, among others — there are today over 74 female prisoners from the West Bank and the occupied land in 1948. We do not know how many women from Gaza are in the enemy’s prisons. Today, they are one of many stories of Palestinian women and heroines of the Palestinian prisoner movement. We salute them from here and promise them that imprisonment will end. Their resilience gives us the strength to continue, and the prison bars only increase their determination and longing for freedom.
We are here today to honor a liberated Palestinian prisoner whose history is a lesson in dignity, and whose life is a book from which we learn steadfastness and resilience: Etaf Alayan, a refugee from the village of Khulda in the Ramle district. Etaf joined the Palestinian revolution in her early youth and received military training in the use of weapons and explosives in the training camps in Beirut. She was active on national, social, and institutional levels, chairing the Al-Nuqaa Islamic Women’s Association between 1997 and 2020, where she opened a kindergarten and school in 2002, and a center for daily surgical operations during the second Intifada. She visited the families of martyrs and prisoners, was a member of the Association of Women Imprisoned for Freedom, and a member of the Jerusalem Center for Literature. Her life in struggle has mirrored the development of the Palestinian national liberation struggle, from her days in the Fateh movement to her role as one of the earliest fighters of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, through the prisoners’ movement and an unending commitment to the liberation of Palestine, its people and its land.
As for her life journey, she was arrested a week before the planned execution of her operation, and a few days after the arrest of the person responsible for preparing the car bomb in August 1987, which was intended to target the Zionist Prime Minister’s office in occupied Jerusalem. She underwent severe interrogation for over forty days at the Moskobiya interrogation center in occupied Jerusalem. She started her first hunger, thirst, and speech strike for 12 days to protest the mistreatment by Zionist interrogators and the threats she faced. The occupation courts sentenced her to five years in prison, with an additional ten years added for her involvement in confronting a Zionist prison guard in Ramla prison. She went on a hunger strike again to demand her transfer from Abu Kabir prison to Ramla prison. The Zionist Prison Authority isolated her for four years, during which she faced harassment related to family visits and the confiscation of her belongings. She went on a 34-day hunger strike to break her isolation, managed to return to the general sections, and joined the prisoner’s movement strike in 1992. She was released in February 1997.
The occupation re-arrested her in October 1997, placing her under administrative detention. She immediately went on a hunger strike in protest and won her freedom. She was re-arrested for her activities in the Al-Nuqaa Charitable Association for nine months in 2002 and again at the end of 2005 for opening a surgical operations center and providing services to those wanted by the occupation and injured during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. She remained in prison until 2008, spending one year in administrative detention. She declared a hunger strike to have her infant daughter admitted to her in 2006, managing to embrace her daughter inside the prison for a year and a half. The occupation has banned her from traveling since her very first arrest in 1987. Since her liberation, she has continued to struggle ceaselessly for the liberation of Palestine and of the prisoners, including for the liberation of the bodies of the martyrs, the hundreds held captive by the Zionist regime even after death.
This rich history teaches us that the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea is the inevitable end. This history gives us a glimpse into the lives and sacrifices of Palestinian women. We wish Etaf could be with us today, but the continuous pursuit by the Zionist enemy prevents her from leaving the country. Therefore, I leave you with some words and a special message from her.
