Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is publishing the following call from the Abnaa el-Balad movement to demand the release of Raja Eghbarieh. A sample poster is included at the end of the call that you can download, print, post and carry at actions in your area!

Free Raja Eghbarieh!

Eghbarieh’s arbitrary administrative detention is a dangerous escalation of political oppression

The Israeli authorities bear full responsibility for the imminent danger to Eghbarieh’s health and life

Call for International Solidarity

Declaration by Abnaa el-Balad Movement

April 20, 2025

On April 9, Israeli police and Shabak forces stormed the home of Raja Eghbarieh in Umm el-Fahm, confiscated personal equipment, and took Eghbarieh to the Jalameh (Kishon) detention center.

As a leading figure in Abnaa el-Balad, the Left Palestinian movement, since the 1980s, Eghbarieh, now 73, is not new to political persecution. His family and comrades are very concerned that, considering his age and fragile health, he might not survive another period in the Israeli occupation’s prisons, where torture and abuse of all types are widely and indiscriminately used.

On April 15, Israel’s “Defense” minister, Israel Katz, signed an administrative detention order for 4 months against Eghbarieh. According to this order, Eghbarieh was transferred to the Megiddo prison, which is notorious for violent repression that caused the death of several imprisoned Palestinian detainees. On April 17, the head of the Haifa district court started a review (beyond closed doors) of the administrative detention order and postponed its confirmation to April 22.

The administrative detention against Eghbarieh comes in the context of the ongoing genocide that is carried by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza. Since October 7, 2023, Israel is conducting a relentless campaign of murder, ethnic cleansing, and terror against the Palestinian people. This terror campaign is not limited to Gaza and the West Bank, but is also directed against Palestinians in the areas that are occupied by Israel since 1948, aiming to silence any protest. Attempts to demonstrate against the genocide are brutally oppressed.  Many were persecuted for simple social media expressions of solidarity with the people of Gaza. Hundreds were arrested, tortured, sentenced to prison, and expelled from work and universities.

Administrative detention is an especially arbitrary tool of oppression, widely used by the Israeli occupation. It is a detention by military order, with no formal accusations, no trial, and no way for the detainee to refute the “secret evidence” that he and his lawyers are not even allowed to see. Currently there are about 3500 people from the West Bank under administrative detention. The usage of administrative detention is also expanding in ‘48 Palestine, and it is estimated that there are now about 30 such detainees. To emphasize the racist character of administrative detention in Israel, the same Katz abolished the few orders that were issued against Jewish settlers that carried out violent pogroms against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The administrative detention of Raja Eghbarieh is another dangerous step in the political oppression against ‘48 Palestinians, being used against a central political leader, to prevent him from exercising his public political activity. In the week of detention before the administrative order was issued, Eghbarieh was only interrogated about his public political activity. The last public campaign by Abnaa el-Balad, that Eghbarieh took part in, was collecting humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank during the holy month of Ramadan.

Who is Raja Eghbarieh?

Raja Eghbarieh, 73, is a central figure in the leadership of Abnaa el-Balad movement. In the eighties he played a central role in defining the political identity of the movement as a progressive leftist movement for national liberation.

As the first Palestinian intifada started in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on December 9, 1987, Abnaa el-Balad had an important role in the organizing of a general strike of ’48 Palestinians, naming it “Palestine Day”. As a direct response, Israel’s then “defense” minister Rabin issued administrative detention orders against three leading members of Abnaa el-Bald, including Eghbarieh.

When, in 1990, Abnaa el-Balad held its first national congress, Eghbarieh was elected to be its first secretary general.

From its establishment, Abnaa el-Balad emphasized the unity of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, with the Palestinians that survived the 1948 Nakba and were left under Israeli rule an indivisible part of the Palestinian people.

Abnaa el-Balad is known primarily for its position of boycotting the Israeli Knesset, in response to the racist nature of the Zionist colonialist project and the Apartheid regime in Israel.

The movement consistently struggles for the right of return of all Palestinian refugees and for the establishment of a secular democratic state in all historic Palestine.

For all this period Eghbarieh was not only a political leader within his movement but also represented it in different bodies that united the 1948 Palestinians in struggle against Israeli racism and oppression, most notable the “higher follow up committee”. In this role he had made important contributions as part of the united leadership of the Palestinian masses in many crucial struggles.

Call for International Solidarity

While all efforts should be concentrated to end the genocide in Gaza, defending the freedom of those who struggle against this genocide is an integral part of this vital world-wide struggle. Political repression in ’48 Palestine is designed to terrorize and paralyze an important part of the Palestinian people.

Solidarity with Raja Eghbarieh now is especially urgent to defend him against the imminent danger to his health and life in the Israeli slaughterhouse-prisons.

• Free Raja Eghbarieh!
• End All Administrative Detentions!
• Freedom to all Palestinians that are imprisoned due to their struggle for freedom!

Abnaa el-Balad Movement

To contact Abnaa el-Balad about this campaign, please email: [email protected]

Free Raja Eghbarieh poster (Download PDF):