Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemns in the strongest terms the announced plans of the French state to “dissolve” — that is, effectively ban — Urgence Palestine, the large national coalition and collective for Palestine that has risen to the forefront of the movement in France over the past 18 months of resistance to Zionist-imperialist genocide. On the evening of 29 April, Urgence Palestine revealed that the French state had delivered a notice of dissolution, stating that the organization would be dissolved effectively on 7 May if the attack is not blocked by legal action. This is, of course, only the latest action of the French state against the Palestine liberation movement and a further expression of its complicity in and responsibility for the ongoing genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine, as well as its vicious repression of the Palestinian liberation movement and Palestine solidarity within France itself.
We urge all in France and around the world to stand with Urgence Palestine.
- Sign on to the Urgence Palestine collective statement against dissolutions: https://tiny.cc/stopdissolution
- Demonstrate at a French embassy, consulate, or Alliance Française (official government representative of French cultural activities) in your area against the dissolution and repression — and against France’s ongoing complicity with Zionist genocide throughout occupied Palestine. Use the signs below!
This attack on Urgence Palestine also aims to target the Palestinian diaspora and its organizing in France around principles that challenge imperialist involvement in and support for the genocide in Palestine, confront the complicity of the Palestinian Authority, and affirm the legitimacy of the resistance. This attack also comes alongside another dissolution attempt — announced by French Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau in the National Assembly, also on 29 April — on Jeunes Gardes, a youth antifascist organization. As the world commemorates the defeat of fascism in World War II and the execution of Mussolini, the French state is banning antifascist movements.
Of course, this latest attack, while outrageous, comes as no surprise. It comes mere weeks after the French Conseil d’État upheld the 2022 dissolution of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, issued by then-Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. Today, it is Retailleau issuing the dissolution order — but it is the same policy of repression, silencing and criminalization imposed upon the Palestinian people. It also comes as France continues to imprison Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine jailed in French prisons for the past 40 years and awaiting yet another hearing on his case in June, despite being eligible for release since 1999. The French state has repeatedly used the weapon of dissolution to target Palestinian and Palestine solidarity organizations, anti-fascist organizations, Muslim organizations, campaigns against Islamophobia, and even local mosques. This comes after the French state was required by the European Court of Human Rights to cease its attempts to repeatedly criminally prosecute activists for organizing for the boycott of the Zionist regime and “Israeli” products in multiple cities throughout the country.
It also comes as France is arresting, imprisoning, prosecuting and interrogating hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals, writers and activists across the country for expressing their solidarity with Palestine and affirming the legitimacy, heroism and leadership of the Palestinian resistance and the forces of resistance in the region. Jean-Paul Delescaut, secretary-general of the labor union federation CGT du Nord, was sentenced to one year in prison with a suspended sentence for “apology for terrorism,” the catch-all charge being used by the state in these cases, for distributing a leaflet in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the Zionist-imperialist genocide. François Burgat, the 75-year-old research director emeritus at the French National Center for Scientific Research, is on trial this month for “apology for terrorism” for tweeting, “I have more respect and appreciation for the leaders of Hamas than the leaders of the state of Israel. I don’t think I am the only one, quite the opposite.”
Elias d’Imzalène, a prominent community activist, was convicted and sentenced by a French court to a five-month suspended prison sentence for delivering a speech about Palestine, racism and repression in France and using the term intifada. Alex, a youth activist in Lyon, has been suspended from his job and will be put on trial on 15 May for “apology for terrorism” for delivering a speech in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and for the liberation of Georges Abdallah. French-Palestinian Member of European Parliament Rima Hassan was interrogated by police for over 11 hours over her public advocacy for Palestine, again under the guise of investigating “apology for terrorism” and following an extended online smear campaign demanding the revocation of her citizenship.
Nurse Imane Maarifi, who volunteered in Gaza, was arrested by the police and her home searched in front of her children; an activist who has consistently documented the massacres and abuses of the Zionist genocidal army, as well as the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people for nearly a year was arrested and his home searched; the president of the Pessac mosque, Abdourahman Ridouane, was ordered deported to Niger and held in administrative detention. Just last week, the home of French-Iranian journalist Shahin Hazamy was raided by a squad of 10 masked security agents, arresting him for days and releasing him with charges of “apology for terrorism” for writing and speaking about Palestine.
Mahdieh Esfandiari, an Iranian linguist and French language graduate who lives in Lyon, where she works at Lumière University as a professor and interpreter, has been imprisoned at Fresnes Prison since 28 February for her public posts and statements about Palestine, the imperialist-Zionist genocide and the Palestinian resistance, again for allegations of “apology for terrorism.”
On 18 June, Anasse Kazib, labor organizer and spokesperson for Révolution Permanente, will go on trial with a comrade for his tweets in support of Palestine, a case that recently inspired a solidarity statement of over 1,000 intellectuals, political figures and academics.
All of these cases are not aberrations but reflect the reality that France is an imperialist state with a lengthy and bloody history and present of colonialism and imperial plunder and exploitation in the Arab region — from Lebanon, Syria and Egypt to Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco — and across Asia and Africa, not to mention Haiti, whose great Revolution overthrew the system of French colonial slavery over two centuries ago. In Kanaky (called New Caledonia by the French), France retains its colonial rule (enforced through a settler project) and is currently imprisoning Kanak pro-independence leaders, including Christian Tein, in French mainland prisons over 17,000 kilometers from their homes.
Like its fellow imperialist powers, France fully supports the Zionist project in occupied Palestine as an outpost of Western imperialism in the region. Indeed, after aligning with Britain and the Zionist regime in 1956 — and being defeated by Egypt — France collaborated with “Israel” to develop its nuclear weapons program that it continues to use today to threaten the entire region. Today, this same alliance is reflected in the ongoing arms trade conducted by the French state with the Zionist regime amid the escalated genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine.
On the legal level, as well as the political and moral levels, the reality is quite clear: The Palestinian people have the right to resist occupation and colonization by all means necessary, including and centrally, the right to armed struggle and armed resistance. On the other hand, genocide, such as that being carried out by the Zionist regime, is the greatest crime in international law. France is fully complicit with that genocide, through its provision of arms, aid and support to the Zionist regime, but it is also aiding and abetting genocide by engaging in a concerted attack on the freedom of expression of all in order to suppress, criminalize and silence those working to bring an end to the genocide, epitomized by the latest attack on Urgence Palestine.
These attacks are carried out by the state in full alliance with an array of extreme-right, racist, Islamophobic and Zionist politicians, online smearmonger accounts, and associations, who routinely take to social media as well as the French airwaves to attack and slander those who speak out for Palestine. We are certainly aware that many of the same individuals and organizations that have repeatedly demanded the dissolution of Urgence Palestine have done the same for Samidoun Paris Banlieue, EuroPalestine, and attempted the dissolution of the Comité Action Palestine. These attacks intensified particularly following the joint demonstration of Urgence Palestine and Samidoun Paris Banlieue as part of International Women’s Day, which upheld the Palestinian resistance, urged the liberation of Palestinian prisoners and of Palestine, from the river to the sea, and defeated the attempts of racist and Zionist organizations to infiltrate and undermine the march.
It is in this context, while ordering the ban of one of the largest organizations active in the movement to defend Palestine, that French President Emmanuel Macron uttered his statements about seeking “recognition of a Palestinian state” — at nearly the same time that his government seemingly threatened a French military invasion of Gaza, ostensibly to assist with “aid,” but openly as part of a military effort to attack and disarm the Palestinian resistance. The objectives behind Macron’s proposed “recognition of the Palestinian state” (in reality, the recognition of the administration of the collaborationist Palestinian Authority over 22% of historic Palestine) are in fact aimed solely at imposing the surrender of the Palestinian resistance, guaranteeing the stability of the Zionist state, and deepening the presence of Western imperialism in the region.
The order of dissolution against Urgence Palestine and attacks on the movement for Palestinian liberation in France mirror the attacks in the other major imperialist powers, from the banning of Samidoun and multiple other organizations in Germany, accompanied by widescale police violence, arrests and persecution for merely saying, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free;” the U.S.’ series of arrests, detentions and deportations of student activists and the “terrorist” designation of Samidoun; the arrests and detentions of demonstrators in Belgium; the house raids on journalists and the persecution of the Filton 18 and other activists in Britain; and similar cases from Canada to the Netherlands and beyond. It is clear that the imperialist powers view the mass mobilization of the people against genocide in the imperial core, standing with the Palestinian people and the resistance forces of the region, as an intolerable threat to their continued ability to plunder and exploit the people of the region and the world.
We must all stand together with Urgence Palestine. In this moment, it is clearer than ever that it is critically important to build the broadest, strongest alliance for Palestine, insisting on full and clear support for the Palestinian resistance to occupation by all means, led by the armed resistance forces; the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea; and a firm commitment to anti-imperialist organizing and solidarity. These attacks must mobilize us to escalate our actions and build the international popular cradle of the Resistance. We must not back down or seek to comply with these illegitimate and indeed, illegal attacks, but only escalate our international solidarity to defend freedom of expression, defend Palestine, and defeat the repression — and, of course, to defeat imperialism and Zionism.
Stop the dissolution of Urgence Palestine!
End the genocide in Gaza and throughout Palestine!
Stop the aggression against Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and the people of the region!
Haiti won, Algeria won, Vietnam won, and Palestine will win!
Victory to the Resistance!
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
We urge all in France and around the world to stand with Urgence Palestine.
- Sign on to the Urgence Palestine collective statement against dissolutions: https://tiny.cc/stopdissolution
- Demonstrate at a French embassy, consulate, or Alliance Française (official government representative of French cultural activities) in your area against the dissolution and repression — and against France’s ongoing complicity with Zionist genocide throughout occupied Palestine. Use the signs below!
Download PDF Signs (English and French)
Discover more from Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
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