On Thursday, 24 April, organizers hosted a panel, “Twisted Laws: Mumia, Universities and Palestine,” part of the commemorations of the 71st birthday of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther, journalist and current political prisoner in U.S. prisons. The event, featuring activists, law students and community organizers — including Mohammed Khatib, the Europe coordinator of Samidoun — highlighted the situation of political prisoners in U.S. jails, repression of the Black liberation movement, and its connection to U.S. imperialism and genocide in Palestine and internationally.
The event began with a phone call from prison from Mumia Abu-Jamal himself, who focused in his talk on the Palestinian struggle and the student movement in the United States, particularly amid the ongoing state and administrative repression (including the arrest and attempts to deport Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, Leqaa Kordia, Yunseo Chung, Rumeysa Ozturk, Badar Khan Suri, Momodou Taal and other students advocating for their universities to cease complicity in genocide).
His participation from behind prison bars further reinforced imprisoned Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa’adat’s comments: “The political prisoner is not weak and is not broken, despite all of their best efforts. The responsibility of the political prisoner is to safeguard the flame. This is not a role that we have sought out or worked for. But now that we are in this position we must hold our position to set an example, not to our people, who are rooted and steadfast, but to the enemy, to show that imprisonment will not work to defeat us or our people. We carry a cause, not simply an individual search for freedom. Israel or France or the U.S. would free us, or Georges Abdallah, or Mumia Abu-Jamal, if we were willing to become tools of the system or betray our people….It is not an individual experience but a collective one; the heroism of a prisoner is not simply to be in prison but to understand that they carry with them the leadership of a movement and a continuing struggle in a new location that continues to have international reverberations. Georges Ibrahim Abdallah today is struggling in Lannemezan prison just as Mumia Abu-Jamal is struggling in Mahanoy. The heroism also does not come simply in that one has spent years in prison and now has been released; but in being a veteran of struggle who continues to carry the message of liberation for those who remain.”
Watch the full video: https://www.youtube.com/live/LD7OL8X9PMM
Discover more from Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
