One year after the launch of the intensified new phase of genocide against the Palestinian people, we see how people of conscience within the Spanish State continue to stand up against injustice and barbarism. The escalating violence and oppression by the Zionist entity towards the Palestinian people and other peoples in the region runs parallel to the alarming escalation of repressive measures against the international solidarity movement with Palestine, in which Spain is no exception.
Toa dvance and protect its colonial project in Palestine, the Israeli entity not only seeks to exterminate the Palestinian people in Gaza and throughout Palestine, but also to silence the voices of millions everywhere who continue to believe in and fight for a free Palestine. To that end, the occupation regime has, through Zionist lobbying organizations and its alliances with reactionary governments and political forces, deployed all available resources to silence, demobilize, marginalize, and eradicate the voices of the people’s movement.
Alongside many Palestinian and pro-Palestinian collectives and individuals worldwide who have been subjected to some or all of these repressive tactics, Samidoun is currently a direct target of the Zionist-reactionary alliance. On 15 October, Canada and the United States launched a coordinated campaign to sanction Samidoun, following the example of Germany or the French Ministry of the Interior’s attempt in 2022 to dissolve the Collectif Palestine Vaincra. In all cases, these bans have stemmed from political decisions that have not bothered to substantiate their accusations through legal processes that require meaningful evidence.
It is ironic that the imperialist countries and reactionary forces most supportive of Israel’s genocidal military machinery would list grassroots Palestinian groups like Samidoun, which oppose Israeli terror and that of its allies, as “terrorists.” This is part of a strategy to criminalize political opposition and weaken the growing social movements that not only oppose Israel’s genocidal project in Palestine and across the Arab Levant but also the Atlantic imperialist axis’s project to impose a new world order, whose first victims will be the peoples of the region.
This repressive context has already reached Spain, where state institutions, together with reactionary movements, have taken a further step by targeting Samidoun activists. In collaboration with reactionary political forces and the Israeli lobby, they seek to prosecute us simply for explaining to society why anticolonial resistance is legitimate, even under current international law, and for defending the rights of all Palestinian political prisoners. Alongside these investigations, other repressive strategies we have seen in international settings are also being implemented, such as:
- Using legal frameworks and opening procedures to restrict freedom of expression and political action in the name of counterterrorism, public security risks, or combating antisemitism.
- Instrumentalizing bureaucratic repression and economic violence to stifle activists, imposing administrative sanctions during protests to demobilize and financially exhaust them.
- Smearing activists and media pressure as a form of collective and individual targeting and creating false narratives, through massive dissemination and distortion by the Zionist lobby and the far right.
- Monitoring and tracking activists in their political activities and private lives as a form of psychological pressure and intimidation.
- Censoring the organization’s communication channels and the closure of Samidoun’s social media accounts.
In the face of this unprecedented offensive in the recent history of the Palestine solidarity movement, we reiterate that Samidoun is an independent, self-managed collective rooted in social movements and based on building grassroots solidarity with Palestine. Samidoun receives no public funding of any kind and is not part of the structure of any Palestinian or international party or faction. From this position, we speak of the Palestinian people’s cause, their political prisoners, and the right to defend, resist, and liberate themselves from occupation and colonialism.
Now more than ever, we call for solidarity and unity among social movements, specifically Palestinian and pro-Palestinian organizations, against repression.
The attacks on any group working for the liberation of Palestine should be a concern for all those engaged in emancipatory political work. Beyond slogans, history has forcefully shown us that, indeed, when they come for one of us, they come for all of us. Therefore, we encourage all friendly and supportive organizations of the Palestinian cause to endorse this statement, to express their rejection of this wave of repression aimed at silencing anti-Zionist political action.
In Arabic, the word Samidoun means “those who stand steadfast.” We use this idea to refer to Palestinian political prisoners, who are fighting for freedom from behind bars. Today we affirm that we must stand firm and committed to the Palestinian people until victory, return, and liberation.
Long live Free Palestine!
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