Anan Yaeesh, Palestinian political prisoner held in Italian prisons, has launched a hunger strike amid his sudden transfer to an isolated prison, seemingly sparked by the growing Italian popular movement in support of the Palestinian cause and against the genocide in Gaza, in which over two million Italians marched to end the genocide following a widespread national general strike sparked by the Zionist attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla.
While the imperialist Italian government under right-wing Georgia Meloni has repeatedly proclaimed its dedication to the Zionist colonial project in occupied Palestine, the Italian people have demonstrated their outrage against Zionist-imperialist war crimes, including demanding the release of Anan and dropping all charges against him and his co-defendants, Ali Arar and Mansour Doghmosh. (While Ali and Mansour are facing the same trial, they have been released pending the verdict, while Anan has remained imprisoned.)
The Free Anan campaign released the following statement:
On Saturday, October 4, 2025, Palestinian political prisoner Anan Yaeesh began a hunger strike. This decision follows the demonstrations for Palestine that have swept across Italy in recent weeks, notably in Rome, where, during the large national demonstration, more than one million people took to the streets to protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people and the collaboration and complicity of the Italian government with the Zionist occupation.
Through his hunger strike, Anan Yaeesh also intends to reaffirm his violated rights. Recently, in retaliation for the solidarity demonstrations organized in front of the Terni prison, he was transferred to the Melfi prison in Basilicata. This arbitrary and punitive decision has further worsened his situation: the distance from the L’Aquila court, where his trials take place, and from Rome, where his lawyers are located, seriously compromises his right to a full and fair defense.
In the new prison, meetings with lawyers have become increasingly difficult and rare, making any agreement on a defense strategy almost impossible. This transfer, without objective justification, constitutes an act of retaliation against solidarity and an attempt at political and human isolation.
Anan Yaeesh’s hunger strike is an act of resistance and dignity, calling for the mobilization and vigilance of all those who care about justice, freedom, and the rights of the Palestinian people. We demand respect for Anan Yaeesh’s rights, an end to punitive measures, and his immediate transfer to a prison guaranteeing the full exercise of his right to defense.
We also reaffirm that a transfer will neither weaken nor diminish the solidarity that the Italian people have expressed towards Anan over the past two years. We therefore clarify, to those responsible for these decisions, that wherever Anan is transferred, he will continue to receive broad support and mobilization in favor of his cause.
The resistance cannot be arrested! The resistance cannot be prosecuted!
Anan is a 37-year-old Palestinian activist and a former prisoner in Zionist jails from Tulkarem in the West Bank of occupied Palestine. Active in the liberation movement during the Second, or Al-Aqsa, Intifada, he was imprisoned for 4 years in Zionist prisons and seriously injured after an ambush by colonial special forces in 2006. In 2013, he left Palestine for Norway before settling in Italy in 2017 and obtaining a residence permit there in 2019. At the end of January 2024, he was arrested by the Italian police in the city of L’Aquila, where he resides, then transferred to detention in the high-security prison of Terni — and now to Melfi — for alleged collaboration with the Tulkarem Brigades, an organization linked to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (one of the armed groups of Fateh, that continue to uphold Palestinian liberation rather than “security coordination” with the occupier.)
While the L’Aquila court rejected the initial attempt to extradite him to the Zionist regime in occupied Palestine on 12 March 2024, noting that he would be subjected to torture, Italian prosecutors arrested two more Palestinians one day before, on 11 March 2024 — Ali Irar and Mansour Doghmosh — accusing all of them of supporting the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Tulkarem. In September 2024, the court ordered Ali and Mansour’s provisional release, while the charges remained in place, but Anan has been continually imprisoned in a high-security facility.
On Wednesday, 26 February, Anan Yaeesh addressed the court, emphasizing the legitimacy of Palestinian resistance under international law and the necessity of confronting genocide. (Read his full statement here.) He noted:
“You want me to defend myself against the accusations against me, but I am ashamed to seek acquittal on charges that, for me, represent a source of honor. I do not want to defend myself against the accusation of having rights and having claimed them, or of having tried to liberate my people and my country from colonial oppression. I swear that I have no intention of being acquitted of the legitimate resistance against the Zionist occupation. The Palestinian resistance is one of the noblest phenomena known to history. On the contrary, I am ashamed to find myself in a warm room, even in prison, while children in Gaza die of cold, hunger, and thirst. I am ashamed of the humane treatment received from the prison authorities here, while my fellow prisoners in Israeli jails suffer the worst torture, oppression, and abuse.”
Anan’s trial has been repeatedly delayed, especially as the movement in solidarity with Palestine has grown; his supporters believe that these delays are a deliberate attempt to forestall a verdict due to the potential for popular outrage and action if Anan is convicted or, even worse, extradited to Palestine. The final hearings in the case were scheduled initially on 19 and 26 September, but due to the transfer of the associate judge, they have been rescheduled without applying the mandatory procedures to avoid interruption of the proceedings and the constitutional right to a trial without undue delays. The conclusion of the preliminary investigation is now scheduled for 31 October, with the prosecution’s closing arguments on 21 November and final closing arguments, including for the defense, on 28 November.
During the trial, the Free Anan campaign writes, “the prosecution failed to prove any involvement of the three in violent actions against either civilians or Israeli settlers. No breach of the limits imposed by international law regarding the right to resistance was shown. In fact, the prosecution failed to even prove that such events ever occurred. This confirms the political nature of a trial that increasingly appears an attempt to criminalize Palestinian solidarity and resistance.”
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all Palestinian, Arab and international activists and organizations for Palestinian liberation to stand with Anan Yaeesh, Ali Arar, Mansour Doghmosh and all Palestinian prisoners in exile and diaspora, and the international prisoners of the Palestinian cause in imperialist jails. Support Anan’s legal defense, protest or deliver letters to Italian embassies to demand that the trial of the three Palestinians ends with all charges dropped, and publicize his struggle for liberation as part and parcel of the struggle to liberate Palestine, from the river to the sea.
We have a sample poster in solidarity with Anan Yaeesh that you can download and use:
Discover more from Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
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