On 29 October, 2024, pro-Palestinian activists and Samidoun organizers, Jaldía Abubakra and Miriam Ojeda, were summoned to testify before the National Court in Spain after being denounced in a complaint filed by the right-wing political party VOX on charges of “glorifying terrorism.” After their intial statements, the legal teams of both activists requested the dismissal of the case, arguing the need to protect freedom of expression and appealing to international frameworks that recognize the legitimate right to resistance of the Palestinian people in the face of the serious human rights violations of the occupation and the colonizing practices of the Zionist entity.
As has been reported on numerous occasions, the aim of these legal repressive actions in various imperialist states — “lawfare” — is to demobilise activism and solidarity with the Palestinian people through tools such as media persecution, social targeting, economic strangulation and the opening of criminal proceedings that seek to establish a culture of fear and censorship. These strategies are evident in the cases of Jaldía and Miriam.
Although one of the cases has been dismissed by the National Court, the investigating judge refused to dismiss the case against the prominent Palestinian activist Jaldía Abubakra. The dismissal of the case against Miriam Ojeda demonstrates the lack of legal basis and the weakness of the accusations, which shows that the real purpose of these complaints is to politically discipline and censor Palestinian voices and international solidarity voices that defend the liberation of the Palestinian people. It is unacceptable that the Zionist-fascist alliance, represented in Spain by VOX and the Zionist lobby, enjoys institutional protection while spreading messages of hate and supporting the ongoing genocide, while those who oppose these atrocities are persecuted and criminalized.
The same agents and governments that have for decades armed the genocidal entity of Israel are now seeking to establish a judicial precedent to criminally prosecute support for the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves, an internationally recognized right. The historical shame of prosecuting an activist like Jaldía, who, exercising her political rights, raises her voice to defend her people’s right to exist, is part and parcel of their support for the Israeli colonial genocidal regime and their complicity with the occupation.
We must not be silent in rejecting the attempts to impose political disciplining and silencing, reflected in the case against Jaldía Abubakra. The colonial and racist power of the Spanish State is manifested through repressive frameworks, such as gag laws or prosecutions of “glorification of terrorism.” This is a clear-cut attempt to stigmatize Palestinian, Arab and internationalist organizers as “international terrorists,” a racist narrative that aims to censor and delegitimize their struggles for political freedoms.
Many voices have been raised against the political use of these laws, which limit freedom of expression and persecute emancipatory discourse, especially when the aim of their usage is to silence demands for justice after decades of genocide, violence, occupation and complicity by the “international community.”
The persecution of Jaldía — a Palestinian woman from Gaza — and other activists is not only an attack upon freedom of expression, but also upon the political agency and mobilization of those who fight for the liberation of the Palestinian people, both in their homeland and in the diaspora. It also seeks to silence those who denounce the oppressions of the capitalist, patriarchal and colonial system around the world. It is an ethical and political obligation to stand up against this persecution, demand the acquittal of those who have been repressed, and fight for the repeal of the legal frameworks that facilitate this repression, as well as for the dismantling of the imperialist and colonial system that sustains Zionism.
Because the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea, is also the path to the liberation of all peoples.
Drop the charges against Jaldía Abubakra! Drop all charges against those facing prosecution for their solidarity with Palestine in the Spanish State! Freedom for Palestinian political prisoners held in imperialist and colonial Zionist prisons!
