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Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah: The martyrdom of a great international revolutionary leader of our era

“I assure all of you: to the enemy, to the friend, to the whole world: You cannot eliminate Hezbollah, nor will you be able to eliminate the honourable resistance movements in Palestine. You will never be able to do so, because the resistance is not a conventional army, and because the resistance is, first and foremost, the people. A people who possess faith, willpower, confidence in victory, who love martyrdom, and who reject humiliation and disgrace. This is a people that no one can defeat. You may kill its men, women, children and elderly. You may destroy their buildings and homes over their heads. But you cannot defeat them. And with us as well, I assure, the resistance will not break. And the resistance will not be defeated.” – Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns with the deepest respect and salutes with the highest honour the great Arab, Islamic and international leader, the lifelong struggler, the brilliant revolutionary strategist, the anti-imperialist, anti-colonial icon, the beloved of the oppressed, the military and political commander, the tireless and victorious mujahid on the road to al-Quds and the liberation of Palestine, His Eminence, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. 

We extend our condolences and congratulations to the Lebanese people, the Palestinian people, Hezbollah and its leadership, members and supporters, the resistance fighters on the front lines, all of the forces of resistance in the region, the revolutionary movements of the world, and his family and loved ones on the martyrdom of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, assassinated by the Zionist regime in a murderous attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut, on Friday, 27 September 2024. At the moment of his martyrdom, as he did throughout his life, he was deeply engaged and devoted to the liberation of Palestine, loyal in all circumstances, continuing to fight and advance for Palestine and Lebanon, confronting to the end the Zionist entity, its U.S. imperialist directors and all of their agents in the region.

Continuous building for liberation

In 2000 and 2006 and continually until this moment, Sayyed Nasrallah and the revolutionary movement he dedicated his life to building and leading struck blow after blow against Zionism and imperialism, as the Lebanese Resistance, led by Hezbollah, liberated the south of Lebanon from Zionist occupation after nearly 20 years of struggle and victoriously confronted the Zionist assault once again in 2006. Sayyed Nasrallah was the architect of a historic liberation that ushered in a new era of Palestinian, Arab, Islamic and international struggle and broke the back of Zionism, exposing its pretenses of military superiority and eternal domination over the region. He was renowned always for his wisdom, honesty and precision, with a clear vision of the enemy’s capacities, exposing its lies and manipulations, and planning for a strategic victory.

Sayyed Nasrallah’s leadership and struggle was also directly connected to the prisoners’ movement and the liberation of the prisoners of the Zionist regime. From the liberation of Khiam prison by the victorious Lebanese resistance in 2000, liberating the torture dens of the occupiers and their collaborators and turning it into a museum of honour for those who struggled and sacrificed there, to the repeated prisoner exchanges achieved by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Resistance, including the 2004 prisoner exchange, which liberated 400 Palestinian prisoners as well as 23 Lebanese, five Syrians, three Moroccans, three Sudanese, one Libyan and one German-British prisoner jailed by the Zionist regime. These exchanges, in which Sayyed Nasrallah himself played a major role, illustrated once again that the only viable mechanism available to liberate the prisoners in occupation jails is to liberate the land and to achieve an exchange.  

Anti-imperialist vision targeted by a US/Zionist aggression

He always led, spoke and analyzed with the highest clarity about the forces of the enemy faced by the Lebanese and Palestinian people, recognizing and exposing the alliance between Zionism and US imperialism, saying: “America itself is the decision maker. In America, you have the major corporations; you have a trinity of the oil corporations, the weapons manufacturers and the so-called ‘Christian Zionism.’ The decision making is in the hands of this alliance. ‘Israel’ used to be a tool in the hands of the British, and now it is a tool in the hands of America.” In April of 2024, he reiterated this statement, affirming: “The claim that the Americans cannot force Israel to do something is nonsense. According to some theories, Israel controls America. No sir. It is America that controls Israel.” He did not hesitate to confront Arab and Islamic reactionary forces working as agents and allies of imperialism and Zionism, working tirelessly instead to build a revolutionary resistance alliance and deepen even further the unbreakable bonds of blood, commitment and struggle between Lebanon and Palestine. 

We must be clear: this assassination attack was also a genocidal assault on the Lebanese people, particularly the people of al-Dahiyeh, the popular cradle of the resistance. The Zionist regime dropped 83 one-ton U.S.-made bombs on residential buildings in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in the aggression. However, this was not simply an attack using U.S. weaponry. It is clear that the U.S. and its fellow imperialist powers, including Germany, France, Canada, Britain, Australia, and Italy, are full partners in the ongoing genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine and in the ongoing brutal Zionist aggression against Lebanon, including the assassination of Sayyed Nasrallah. 

Indeed, US president, war criminal and genocidaire Joe Biden praised the assassination of Sayyed Nasrallah, calling it a “measure of justice for a…reign of terror.” Of course, it was Sayyed Nasrallah, his comrades in Hezbollah, in the Palestinian Resistance, in all of the resistance forces of the region who were responsible for bringing down the reign of terror of Zionism and imperialism in Lebanon and confronting it everywhere in the region. Biden further confirmed that the assassination, and indeed, the entire aggression on Lebanon, were meant to break the unshakeable alliance with the Palestinian people and their resistance, saying that “Nasrallah…made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a ‘northern front’ against Israel.” As Sayyed Nasrallah affirmed in his last speech, he met these demands with defiance and unshakeable commitment: “We will never abandon Palestine.”

Lebanon and Palestine: The Unbreakable Alliance

Indeed, Hezbollah and the Lebanese people and their Resistance joined hands with Hamas and all of the forces of the Resistance, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and all of the resistance factions and the Palestinian people as a whole, to create a major support front in the battle of Al-Aqsa Flood. And they have consistently fought to decolonize the north of Palestine, emptying it of its settlers and soldiers, in order to defend Gaza and demand an end to the genocide. It is Hezbollah, alongside the people, armed forces, and AnsarAllah movement of Yemen, and their fellow resistance forces in the regional resistance alliance, who have taken their responsibilities to prevent genocide seriously, while the imperialist powers arm, fund and indeed direct the genocidal warplanes of the Zionist entity. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah refused to allow the alliance of the support fronts to be broken, committed deeply to the liberation of al-Quds and all of Palestine, from the river to the sea, knowing that his martyrdom was possible and even likely, as was that of his son, Hadi, in the battle to liberate Lebanon in 1997.

The imperialist powers, led by the United States, continue to list Hezbollah on their so-called lists of “terrorist organizations” or “terrorist entities,” despite the fact that Hezbollah is a mass movement and political party in Lebanon, the force that achieved the liberation of Lebanese land from Zionist colonization and terror. This listing is used in an attempt to isolate, sanction and besiege the resistance, as well as to legitimize the assassination and imprisonment of its leaders and members. Listing Hezbollah and the Palestinian Resistance organizations on “terror lists” and under anti-terror laws runs entirely in contradiction with international law and the rights of people to liberate themselves from colonialism and occupation. While this has failed, of course, to crush the resistance or to isolate it from its popular cradle in Lebanon and Palestine, it continues to serve as a mechanism of repression and targeting, much like the sanctions and coercive economic measures targeting nations and states that resist U.S. imperialist domination. In fact, time and time again, the great resistance leaders targeted for assassination by the Zionist regime using US weaponry and intelligence – for example, the martyrs Ibrahim Aqil, Fouad Shukr, Saleh al-Arouri, and Ismail Haniyeh – all appear as “specially designated global terrorists” or even “most wanted” by the United States.

They Can Never Assassinate Resistance

The assassination campaign is nothing new, and it has failed miserably in an attempt to destroy the resistance. The deep faith and commitment of the resistance’s leadership has prepared them for martyrdom, and Sayyed Nasrallah, alongside every fighter for Palestine and Lebanon, carried with him the deepest willingness to sacrifice and struggle despite any price extracted. He said: “We will continue to walk this path, even if we are all killed, even if we are all martyred, even if our homes are destroyed over our heads, we will not abandon the option of Islamic resistance.”

The martyrs of the leadership ranks and the builders of Hezbollah

Sayyed Nasrallah himself was elected as the General Secretary of Hezbollah in 1992, following the Zionist assassination of Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi. The assassination of al-Musawi failed, despite the predictions of the day, to destroy Hezbollah and the Lebanese resistance; on the contrary, the resistance rose to greater strength and power, ridding the land of Lebanon of the colonial zionist forces occupying the South since 1982. 

From Ibrahim Aqil to Fouad Shukr to Abbas al-Musawi, from Ismail Haniyeh to Saleh al-Arouri to  Fathi Shiqaqi, Abu Ali Mustafa, Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Imad Mughniyyeh, Yahya Ayyash, Abu Jihad, Kamal ‘Udwan, Mohammed al-Najjar, Basil al-Kubaisi, Kamal Nasser, Wadie Haddad, Ghassan Kanafani, Mohammed Boudia, Basil al-Araj, Tariq Izzedine to Samir Kuntar; the Zionist regime relies on the assassination weapon against the liberation movement. However, despite these assassinations, the forces of resistance are stronger than they have ever been and the Zionist regime continues to crumble. Assassinations have little effect on the capabilities of the Resistance, for they cannot kill the ideology of resistance as it is not embodied in individual men but in the popular consciousness of the broad masses.

The martyrs, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Ismail Haniyeh, Saleh al-Arouri

As Tareq Izzedine said, “Whenever a leader ascends, ten will emerge to replace them. When a martyr ascends, 100 martyrs will emerge to replace them. The march continues, and it does not stop until the defeat of the occupation.” And as Saleh al-Arouri said, “We are martyred like our people, we are arrested as they are arrested, our homes are demolished and we are being chased and pursued. We fight because we must.”

On the road to Al-Quds, on the road to victory and liberation

The pain of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s assassination is felt in the heart of every free human who cherishes liberation, justice and a future of dignity for all. His revolutionary honesty and clarity, brilliant strategic wisdom,  and deep commitment is cherished everywhere, from the villages, cities and refugee camps of Palestine, where spontaneous marches burst into the streets at the news of his martyrdom, to the popular cradle of south Lebanon and among the Lebanese people as a whole, to those who march for Palestine and against the genocide in the centre of Johannesburg, South Africa, to a commune in Venezuela working to build popular solidarity and confront U.S. imperialism, to even the streets and campuses of the imperial core, where mass movements confront genocide, imperialism and Zionism. He represents not only himself, but the true promise of the resistance, for victory, return and liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, for the defeat of Zionism, imperialism and their reactionary agents and partners. Committed always to uplifting the oppressed, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah lived his life as a mujahid on the road to al-Quds, and a true international revolutionary leader of our time.

The Zionist and imperialist forces seek to declare an illusory “victory” or “achievement” over the Resistance through the assassination of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and the mass targeting of the Lebanese and Palestinian people. However, despite their genocidal campaigns of aerial bombing, they have been utterly unable to uproot or destroy the Resistance and its deep commitment among the people. Al-Aqsa Flood has exposed before the world the true nature of Zionism and imperialism and has made it clear that a liberated Palestine and indeed, a liberated Arab nation and a liberated region are fully possible and achievable. Despite their genocidal attempts to erase the revolution and the resistance in a sea of blood, they will never kill the resistance nor the Palestinian, Arab, Islamic and international revolution against Zionism and imperialism. 

We hold the deepest confidence that the unified Resistance will ensure that the occupation is held accountable for its genocidal aggression and its cowardly assassinations. For those of us in the imperial core, this is a moment to escalate our struggle, to organize more actively, to take direct action, to fill the streets, and to make it impossible for imperialist business as usual to continue. 

As the martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in his last speech, “The end of this battle will be a historic victory.” Our collective movement must, with full confidence and commitment, do everything in our power to ensure the correctness and inevitability of this statement.  

This great crime will only inspire even more resistance and struggle along the path set out and exemplified by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the great leader and the great martyr, until the defeat of the Zionist regime and its imperialist partners and sponsors, until victory:  the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, and the liberation of the Arab people and the region from Zionism, imperialism and their agents and collaborators. 

A salute to Suzanne Le Manceau: A life in struggle for liberation, for Georges Abdallah and for Palestine

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the life in struggle of Suzanne Le Manceau, co-founder of the Collective for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and lifelong struggler for Palestinian liberation. Suzanne passed away on Saturday, 14 September after years of struggle with cancer. Despite her illness, she remained deeply committed to the struggle for Georges Abdallah’s — and Palestine’s — liberation. We extend our deepest condolences to all of her comrades and friends, her partner Bernard, her family and loved ones, including Georges Abdallah, who, with her passing, loses a consistent and beloved source of support and comradeship.

Suzanne attended nearly every demonstration and action, for Palestine and for social justice causes — against racism, for workers and labour rights, against police repression — carrying a red banner bearing the image and the name of Georges Abdallah, the imprisoned Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine jailed in France for 40 years. She co-founded the Collective for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah in 2004, visited Georges Abdallah consistently behind prison bars and traveled to Lebanon on multiple occasions in order to visit with his family and the national campaign for his liberation there. As a committed struggler for the liberation of political prisoners, she was also a veteran of the campaign to release the prisoners of Action Directe.

She consistently supported organizers and activists in the struggle and was dedicated to a united approach to build the strongest level of support for Georges Abdallah in France and throughout Europe, confronting the unified aggression of the French state, the United States and the Zionist regime. Samidoun first met Suzanne in person in 2014, when we sent a delegation to participate in the annual march to Lannemezan Prison, where Georges Abdallah is held. This delegation was organized and coordinated by Coup Pour Coup 31, whose members, together with others, later created the Collectif Palestine Vaincra.

Every year, this demonstration draws hundreds to thousands of people from across France and Europe to demand Georges Abdallah’s immediate liberation and to advance the struggle for Palestine. Since the first Lannemezan demonstration in 2010, Suzanne read out Georges’ special statements to these actions to the crowds gathered there to support his liberation. She read out the last of these statements on 6 April at a mass demonstration outside the Lannemezan prison, with the participation of thousands:

Samidoun had the honour of hosting Suzanne during one of her visits to Lebanon, in an educational event at Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp focusing on Georges Abdallah’s liberation and his connection to the continuing Palestinian struggle in Lebanon — a message that is perhaps more relevant than ever today, as Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance, confronts Zionist colonialism as a strong support front against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and faces Zionist massacres and terror campaigns targeting the Lebanese people and their heroic Resistance.

She was known for her famous phrase: “We are part of his struggle. He is part of our fight!” a slogan that came to epitomize the broad participation of the call for Georges Abdallah’s liberation in all struggles for justice and liberation, in France, in Palestine, and internationally. Suzanne is one of the speakers in Fedayin, the film covering the life and struggle of Georges Abdallah, speaking eloquently about her involvement and the necessity of defending Georges and securing his liberation.

Suzanne lived her life with a dedication to unity and liberation, with love and joy despite the horrors of capitalism, Zionism and imperialism, and with a firm and unfailing dedication to the cause of justice.

Samidoun pledges to continue to march along her path of struggle. For all of us, we can best advance her legacy by advancing the struggle for the liberation of Georges Abdallah and for victory for Palestine. On 7 October 2024, Georges Abdallah will once again have a hearing at a sentencing court in Lannemezan, to take up his lawyer’s 10th request for his release; he has been eligible for release since 1999, and several previous judicial victories have been blocked due to direct government and political involvement. There is currently a month of actions for his release, and a mass demonstration in Lannemezan on the 40th anniversary of his arrest, at 2 pm on 26 October 2024.

Let Suzanne’s passing be a catalyst for all of us to dedicate ourselves even more strongly to the liberation of Georges Abdallah and all of his fellow political prisoners for Palestine, held in Zionist, imperialist and reactionary/PA prisons — and for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea!

Etaf Alayan: Woman of Valor for Palestine

In June 2024, the International Women’s Alliance hosted its third international assembly in Penang, Malaysia, drawing hundreds of women involved in grassroots, anti-imperialist and national liberation movements around the world, including a delegation from Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network that included women from multiple chapters, including occupied Palestine. The convening brought together organizations and activists for panels, cultural events and presentations, as well as planning for the Alliance’s next steps.

As part of the Assembly, four awards were presented to Women of Valor, to women whose contributions advance liberation struggles around the world. This year, the awards were presented to: Evelyn Calugay, advocate for the labor rights of Filipino migrant women; Wilma Tiamzon, a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, brutally killed under Marcos Jr. regime in 2022; the late Anuradha Ghandi, revolutionary leader, writer and founder of the Communist Party of India; and Etaf Alayan, Palestinian former prisoner, lifelong struggler and revolutionary, whose involvement in Palestinian resistance and organizing at all levels has in many ways mirrored the trajectory of the Palestinian cause itself.

As Etaf Alayan has been subjected for years to a travel ban, a Palestinian woman from Samidoun spoke about her contributions, the situation of Palestinian women and prisoners today, and presented a video greeting from Etaf to the IWA assembly. Watch Etaf’s video below:

Text of Etaf Alayan’s comments:

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

“Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought because they were wronged, and indeed, Allah is able to grant them victory.”

Allah the Almighty has spoken the truth.
To the esteemed sisters and brothers present, to the dear and hospitable country of Malaysia, my greetings to you.

Greetings to you, and Um Yusuf is still searching for her curly-haired son.

Greetings to you, and the girl is still searching for her mother, whom she recognizes by her hair among the martyrs.

Greetings to you, and the fighters are still defending their land.

Greetings to you, and a mother in Jenin buries her four martyred sons and is shy in her mourning in front of the catastrophe in Gaza.

Greetings to you, and the nails of the people of the West Bank have been clipped under Oslo, in protection of the settler herds that roam and corrupt our land.

Greetings to you, and the free women of Palestine are still being tortured in prisons but remain unsilenced.

Greetings to you, and the doors of Al-Aqsa are closed to its lovers and devotees, but open to the herds of settlers who desecrate it

Greetings to you, and the rulers of the so-called super powers bury their heads like ostriches, deaf to the truth and seeing only what the occupying entity shows them, repeating its claim of “Israel’s right to defend itself.”

Greetings to you, and the Arab rulers were castrated, with their voice nowhere to be heard.

Greetings to you, and the Islamic countries still do not see their duty towards the land that Allah has blessed and claimed to himself those who defend it, as He said: “We sent against you servants of Ours of great might.”

Greetings to you, and to the living consciences that refused to be like a herd behind their rulers, those shouting no to injustice, and demanding freedom for Palestine. These consciences will be the safety valve to their countries,
for those who cry out against injustice.. are alive.

Greetings to the unity of the fields, the happy Yemen with its decision, the proud Iraq, Iran the supporter, and the great Hezbollah, victorious by the will of Allah.

Greetings to the resistance fighters from all backgrounds in Gaza the proud, Jenin the steadfast, Tulkarem the dignified, Qabatiya the heroic, Nablus the mountain of fire, and to everyone who broke their silence to defend their land and protect their honor.

Despite all the pain and wounds that have afflicted the entire Palestinian body, our cause is not just a humanitarian issue; it is a matter of an occupied homeland, a lost right.

“And Allah is predominant over His affair, but most of the people do not know.”

We trust in Allah’s victory.

Greetings to the wounded Sudan, the injured Syria, and to the Philippines to Vietnam, greetings to all the oppressed peoples from the north to the south of the earth, and from east to west.

Greetings to you, and peace be upon the people of Gaza for their patience. They have indeed been afflicted as Allah said: “And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives
and livelihood, but give good tidings to the patient.”

So rejoice, O patient ones, in Allah’s victory.

Greetings to you, and peace be upon you.

Text of Samidoun’s speech at the IWA assembly in honour of Etaf Alayan:

Thank you, International Women’s Alliance, for this invitation. There are no words to express how proud I am to be here among you comrades. I’m thankful for your trust and for the chance to speak to you today.

It is an honor to stand here with you, to meet all of you and to learn from fellow fighters from all around the world. My heart aches for my people, for the children, youth, and women who are suffering immensely. The world cannot contain the rage I hold within me for the resilient Gaza, the wounded Sudan, the fighting Philippines, the joyful Yemen, South Lebanon, who answered the call, and of the rest of the free world, confronting death, colonialism, and imperialism and resisting them with a bravery and heroism that must compel us all to action.

Dear comrades and friends, my greetings come from the occupied land, a land steeped in the struggle of the Palestinian people, who prove to the world every day that Palestine, from its sea to its river, is the cause for which we live and die. My greetings also emanate from the hearts of the people who stand against imperialism, who confront capitalist and neoliberal governments that plunder our resources and our land. We are here today united in the struggle of all peoples. Calling out loud for joint struggle. My salutations go to the courageous women everywhere, raising the flags of freedom and struggle, standing for the revolutionary rebirth of their people.

Our wounds run deep today. Genocide has ravaged our people in Gaza, and the rest of the country faces a systematic silencing of its voice. They attempt to end our struggle, to eradicate our resistance, and impose an even greater siege on our prisoners, our first line of defense in the Zionist prisons. All of this under the patronage of the United States, Western imperialist governments, and complicit, reactionary Arab regimes.

We are not deterred by these crimes. We are the inheritors of a legacy of resilience, of a history etched with the blood of martyrs who have paved the way for our liberation. We are the torchbearers of hope, the embodiment of the unwavering spirit and practice of resistance. The Palestinian people will not be silenced. Our voices will echo through the corridors of power, demanding justice and accountability. We will continue to fight for our freedom, for the liberation of all oppressed people, and for a world free from imperialism, colonialism, and exploitation.

Palestine has always been central to the global struggle against imperialism, because of the political depth of the Palestinian cause, and what it represents. The Zionist movement, a product of imperialist ideology that has been supported by Western powers from its inception, a movement that adopted the tool of settler colonialism to oppress and seize Palestine, was able to transform Palestine into the central imperialist base in the heart of the Arab nation. It seeks to erase Palestinian existence, expel Palestinians from their land, and expand its economic and political relations to dominate the region, which aligns completely with western imperialist interests.

Since the establishment of their colonial state. the colonial project of erasing Palestinian existence has been ongoing, their systematic expulsion, followed by the theft of Palestinian Arab heritage and culture, all while maintaining a controlled presence of Palestinians on the land to exploit them and boast at the same time in front of the world a blood-stained, false democracy. Palestinians in occupied Palestine live today in what cannot be described as anything but ghettos, a system well-known to imperialism: unwanted people must be completely controlled, policed, and isolated.

Starting with the resilient Gaza, its people, and its heroic resistance that has proven to the world that our right to our land will not be lost, Gaza today has changed the world. It has contributed to redefining the concept of solidarity and has exposed the depth of the crime of the Zionist project funded by the United States and the West. It has restored the balance of the struggle to its natural state, affirming the right of peoples to freedom from the clutches of colonialism and imperialism.

In Gaza today, the number of known martyrs has approached 38,000, including more than 10,000 women. Over two million people are displaced and living in tents, and more than 2,500 are prisoners: to those we only know of their estimate number, we have no names or knowledge of their situation, prison conditions, locations or the prisons they are held in. In Gaza, schools and universities have been wiped out, hospitals bombed, people buried under the rubble, and lately it was revealed that the barbaric Zionist enemy has been burying people in mass graves after subjecting them to brutal torture. For more than nine months, the sounds of bombs and destruction have been continuous. For nine months, no one in Gaza has been able to sleep, and women are suffering indescribable conditions, from displacement in tents to a lack of basic health supplies, and a complete absence of healthcare for 60,000 pregnant women. Diseases are spreading uncontrollably due to the targeting of the health sector and placing it under constant fire. All of this is happening amidst killing, torture, bombing, and destruction.

The story of Gaza did not begin in October. Gaza has been under siege for over 17 years, enduring continuous wars in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021. It has been economically and socially besieged, with its people imprisoned in their own land, deprived of life and dreams. The dream of the martyr journalist Yaser Murtaja was to capture an aerial picture of Gaza. The paramedic Razan al-Najjar, a flower who loved flowers, was martyred while treating injuries, shot down by a sniper’s bullet. Thousands of faces and names each have their own stories, lives, and dreams. Today, in just nine months, more than 38,000 stories have been buried, each with dreams, names, and lives that could not withstand the Zionist killing machine, while human rights organizations and the international community stand by as spectators. And we will not forgive.

In the West Bank, there has been 544 martyrs since October, preceded by hundreds in recent years, along with a suffocating economic blockade. This is in addition to the targeting of the refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarm, Aqabat Jabr, and the siege of the old city in Nablus, and the repeated military aggressions against Tubas, mirroring the same scenes of total destruction of homes and streets, the erasure of neighborhoods, and the pursuit and assassination of resistance fighters. Settlers are armed and roam the streets, killing everything that is alive. Meanwhile, settlement activity, which has plundered the West Bank, has increased undeterred at an unprecedented rate.

At the same time, the Palestinian Authority acts as a partner to the occupation and a diligent worker for it, suppressing and killing protesters, filling its prisons with political prisoners, performing its duties in service to Zionist and imperialist domination in the best possible way, and dedicating all its capabilities to ending any form of resistance against the occupation in exchange for financial interests obtained from the occupation for its services.

In the territories occupied in 1948, since the start of the war on Gaza, the occupation has instilled terror, disrupting the lives of Palestinians through widespread prosecutions and mass arrests, with several years long prison sentences for anyone who tries to speak up against the war and death in Gaza. This is in addition to pursuing them at their workplaces, expelling students from universities, and threatening and inciting against the Palestinian population.

As for the prison battle, it is unprecedented. Today, the number of prisoners exceeds 9,500 from the West Bank and the occupied territories, while only 2,500 prisoners from Gaza are known. Since October 7, the occupation has hidden their status, numbers, names, and locations, and we know only a little from the horrifying testimonies of released prisoners. They recounted barbaric torture, abuse, and murder, with mass graves discovered containing the bodies of martyrs returned from detention, handcuffed, with no part of their bodies free from torture marks. Some survived by a miracle after having their limbs amputated due to the chains that bound them. Testimonies of prisoners who were forced to choose between their right or left feet for amputation. Others witnessed the killing of their families in front of them. In secret prisons, some images were leaked showing the atrocities committed by the Zionist enemy against Palestinian prisoners from Gaza, including multiple daily headcounts, chaining them day and night in desert rooms devoid of any basic necessities, some half-naked and others wearing the same clothes since their arrest months ago. Moreover, diseases are rampant among them, and they are deprived of food and water, causing some to emerge as skeletal figures covered in bruises.

What does it mean to be in Zionist prisons today? It means no food, no medicine, no water, no blankets, no clothes, and no books. The occupation has stripped the prisoner movement of all its possessions and isolated them completely from the outside world. There are no radios in most prisons, no family visits in any prisons, and they are also deprived of lawyer visits for many months. Families do not know what is happening with their sons and daughters, and the prisoners do not know what is happening with their families except through new prisoners being brought in. Those who are released emerge in a state barely recognizable to their families. They describe repeated raids on their rooms, with smoke and sound bombs thrown at them, and being beaten up by hundreds of soldiers in their closed, cramped rooms. They are piled on top of each other in cells, unable to sleep on the floor because the occupation has taken away their mattresses and blankets. Today, the number of administrative detainees has reached approximately 3,500 under the pretext of having secret files against them. And despite all of this, they are not broken; it has only increased their determination to resist and revolt.

The Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the heroic armed resistance of Palestine, together with the forces of resistance throughout the region, stretching from Yemen to Lebanon to Syria, Iraq, Iran and beyond, are exposing, humiliating and bringing down Zionism and imperialism. Despite the torture and the genocide, they remain charting a dignified path of victory.

From the struggles of the prisoner movement, the idea was born to establish Samidoun, Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, to be their voice in the world, to tell their stories of struggle and heroism. Their sacrifices for the Palestinian revolution and national liberation are the reason the Palestinian struggle is alive to this day. Because of their blood and sacrifices behind bars, we are now present in 14 countries with 20 branches around the world, united with the struggle of the prisoners movement to convey their message to the world. They, along with the Palestinian resistance, are the first line of defense for our just national cause, and our duty is to free them from captivity. This is not just our duty alone; it is a mission that falls on all the free people of the world. There is no freedom from imperialism without the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea and the return of the refugees.

Today, our friends are imprisoned in Damon Prison in the Carmel Mountains of Haifa, a city we dream of seeing its sea and breathing the fresh air of its mountains without restrictions. The occupation has taken from us Layan Kayed, Layan Nasser, Yara Abu Hashish, Diala Ayesh, Doha Maadi, Amal Shujaiya, Shahd Owaida, comrade Khalida Jarrar, and our mother Hanan Barghouti, among others — there are today over 74 female prisoners from the West Bank and the occupied land in 1948. We do not know how many women from Gaza are in the enemy’s prisons. Today, they are one of many stories of Palestinian women and heroines of the Palestinian prisoner movement. We salute them from here and promise them that imprisonment will end. Their resilience gives us the strength to continue, and the prison bars only increase their determination and longing for freedom.

We are here today to honor a liberated Palestinian prisoner whose history is a lesson in dignity, and whose life is a book from which we learn steadfastness and resilience: Etaf Alayan, a refugee from the village of Khulda in the Ramle district. Etaf joined the Palestinian revolution in her early youth and received military training in the use of weapons and explosives in the training camps in Beirut. She was active on national, social, and institutional levels, chairing the Al-Nuqaa Islamic Women’s Association between 1997 and 2020, where she opened a kindergarten and school in 2002, and a center for daily surgical operations during the second Intifada. She visited the families of martyrs and prisoners, was a member of the Association of Women Imprisoned for Freedom, and a member of the Jerusalem Center for Literature. Her life in struggle has mirrored the development of the Palestinian national liberation struggle, from her days in the Fateh movement to her role as one of the earliest fighters of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, through the prisoners’ movement and an unending commitment to the liberation of Palestine, its people and its land.

As for her life journey, she was arrested a week before the planned execution of her operation, and a few days after the arrest of the person responsible for preparing the car bomb in August 1987, which was intended to target the Zionist Prime Minister’s office in occupied Jerusalem. She underwent severe interrogation for over forty days at the Moskobiya interrogation center in occupied Jerusalem. She started her first hunger, thirst, and speech strike for 12 days to protest the mistreatment by Zionist interrogators and the threats she faced. The occupation courts sentenced her to five years in prison, with an additional ten years added for her involvement in confronting a Zionist prison guard in Ramla prison. She went on a hunger strike again to demand her transfer from Abu Kabir prison to Ramla prison. The Zionist Prison Authority isolated her for four years, during which she faced harassment related to family visits and the confiscation of her belongings. She went on a 34-day hunger strike to break her isolation, managed to return to the general sections, and joined the prisoner’s movement strike in 1992. She was released in February 1997.

The occupation re-arrested her in October 1997, placing her under administrative detention. She immediately went on a hunger strike in protest and won her freedom. She was re-arrested for her activities in the Al-Nuqaa Charitable Association for nine months in 2002 and again at the end of 2005 for opening a surgical operations center and providing services to those wanted by the occupation and injured during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. She remained in prison until 2008, spending one year in administrative detention. She declared a hunger strike to have her infant daughter admitted to her in 2006, managing to embrace her daughter inside the prison for a year and a half. The occupation has banned her from traveling since her very first arrest in 1987. Since her liberation, she has continued to struggle ceaselessly for the liberation of Palestine and of the prisoners, including for the liberation of the bodies of the martyrs, the hundreds held captive by the Zionist regime even after death.

This rich history teaches us that the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea is the inevitable end. This history gives us a glimpse into the lives and sacrifices of Palestinian women. We wish Etaf could be with us today, but the continuous pursuit by the Zionist enemy prevents her from leaving the country. Therefore, I leave you with some words and a special message from her.

 

 

Videos: “Prisoners of War” series highlights Palestinian political prisoners

Free Palestine TV has launched a series of interviews of liberated Palestinian prisoners, telling their stories with full English subtitles and translation. The “Prisoners of War” series has so far featured three Palestinian released prisoners: Baraa Odeh, Sumoud Mtair and Abdel Majeed Hasan. Palestinian journalist and former political prisoner Fairouz Salameh, released in the November 2023 prisoner exchange conducted by the Palestinian resistance, interviews each of the former prisoners about their experiences of detention, particularly at this moment when Palestinian prisoners are facing extreme abuse behind Zionist bars.

Watch the three episodes: Episode 1, with Baraa Odeh, of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. Ms Odeh worked as a human rights defender for the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) when she was abducted by the Zionist military on March 3rd, 2024, while crossing back into Palestine from Jordan’s King Hussein bridge, and held in captivity without trial or charges until her release on June 4th, 2024.

Episode 2, with Sumoud Mtair of Dura, al-Khalil, speaks about the martyrdom of her sister Ahed in January 2024, her detention in March, the conditions in the infamous Damon prison where she was detained, the situation of Gaza’s female prisoners she met, and more.

Episode 3, with Abdul-Majeed Hassan, former President of the Bir Zeit University Student Council, who was detained four times by the Zionist regime as well as once by the Palestinian Authority under its “security coordination,” on his experience and the targeting of the student movement.

Walaa Tanja ordered to 6 more months of arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial

Walaa Khaled Tanja grew up in Balata refugee camp (Nablus), in a family with a strong history of resistance for Palestinian liberation. At the age of 15, she received her mother, Latifa Abu Dara, on Al-Quds Street near the Huwarra checkpoint, when she was released as part of the Wafaa Al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011.

Her mother was later martyred due to cancer and her brother has also been repeatedly pursued, imprisoned and wounded by occupation soldiers.

Walaa was arrested on August 20th 2022, with Tahrir Abu Sariya and Maryam Arafat, and accused of attempting to carry out an armed operation in retaliation for the murder of Ibrahim Al Nabulsi. The occupation claimed that they opened fire on soldiers at the “Kedumim” illegal colonial settlement near the occupied Palestinian cities of Nablus and Qalqilya.

Walaa was released on November 24th 2023, as part of the first batch of the Al-Aqsa Flood prisoner exchange deal, in which 13 Israeli women and children were exchanged for 39 Palestinian women and children who were held hostage by the occupation.

This interrupted Walaa’s original 7-year sentence and she was welcomed home by her family. However, due to the heavy repression by the occupation, no big celebration was possible.

After her release, Walaa expressed her feelings about her liberation thanks to the Resistance in Gaza.

On March 12th 2024, while she was arriving to Tulkarem from Nablus together with her 16-year-old cousin, occupation special forces attacked the car with their guns pointed at them, and seized Walaa once again. She was taken to a military camp, then to Hasharon crossing and then to Damon prison.

Her abduction clearly broke the prisoner exchange agreement, which has now been done several times by the occupation.

Walaa was ordered to six months in “administrative detention” — arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial, indefinitely renewable. On 11 September 2024, her detention was extended for another six months. We urge immediate liberation for Walaa Khaled Tanja, together with the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners and all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Follow the Dismantle Damon campaign for more updates on Palestinian women prisoners.

Video: Samidoun’s Charlotte Kates speaks to “The Canada Files”

On 11 September, The Canada Files — an anti-imperialist media project focusing on Canada — published an interview with Charlotte Kates, Samidoun’s international coordinator, about her involvement in the Palestine movement, Samidoun’s work, and the series of attacks on Samidoun being carried out by imperialist governments and Zionist organizations.

Watch the full interview on YouTube and below:

Previous videos in the series have included interviews with Dimitri Lascaris, Laith Marouf, Camila Escalante and other anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist organizers.

Palestinian Women Prisoners: Femininity and Strength in the Face of Oppression — Israa Lafi and Batoul al-Ramahi

The following article, originally published in Arabic at Etar.info in February 2023, is here translated into English and republished. This article was written by Israa Lafi — Palestinian journalist currently detained without charge or trial in Zionist regime prisons — and Batoul al-Ramahi, a former prisoner released in 2019 after two and a half years imprisoned by the colonial regime. Translation by DZ. 

Palestinian Women Prisoners: Femininity and Strength in the Face of Oppression

Israa Lafi
Batoul Al-Ramahi

2023-02-21

As the confrontations between Palestinians and the occupation continue to escalate, the arena of prisoners held by the occupation remains constantly aflame. A few days ago, prisoners were violently repressed in several prisons, especially Negev and Ofer, under the pretext of celebrating the Nabi Yacoub operation carried out by the Jerusalemite martyr Khairy Alqam. Women prisoners in Damon-Haifa prison were also repressed.

This is not the first time Palestinian women prisoners have been repressed. The history of repression is long, both before and after the Wafa al-Ahrar deal in 2011, before and after the merging of women’s detention centers, and before and after separating “security prisoners” from “criminal prisoners.”

Often, the prison administration represses women prisoners for reasons related to their resistance activities or acts of defiance against the occupation. These can include disputes between prisoners and the prison administration, incidents where a guard assaults a prisoner, or prisoners refusing to stand for the count as a form of protest. Guards count prisoners twice daily, and prisoners are required to stand throughout the entire count! Sometimes a prisoner threatens to kill a female guard, for example. In this case, only the cell where the prisoner resides with her companions is repressed, without isolating or punishing the entire section. This is done in an attempt to sow discord among the prisoners. Sometimes the women prisoners are repressed after they take escalatory measures against detention policies in conjunction with men prisoners.

The most intense instances of repression against women prisoners in recent years were in 2017, 2021, and 2023. The repression included: cutting off electricity to the entire section, storming the rooms, assaulting prisoners with beatings and dragging, confiscating all electrical appliances such as the cooking plate, radio, water heater, and television, and locking them in their rooms for days. The repression is accompanied by additional trials for the prisoners, and punitive measures such as isolating some of them, depriving them of family visits, preventing them from commissary, and imposing hefty financial fines.

Damon prison

Repression of 2017

The repression in 2017 occurred after a prisoner refused to stand for the count. The prisoner had refused to stand on three separate occasions and on each occasion, she was punished with temporary solitary confinement. During the fourth time she refused to stand, another prisoner pushed a female guard. The guards then stormed the section, dragged and beat all the prisoners while subjecting some of them to solitary confinement. The prison administration confiscated all the prisoners’ food, their commissary goods, and locked down the section during the holiday.

Repression of 2020[1]

In 2020, the Damon prison administration decided to isolate a prisoner suffering from a difficult psychological condition. The prisoners stood against this decision and prevented the administration from isolating her. The suppression forces entered to forcibly take the prisoner to isolation. The prisoners formed a human shield around her to protect her and prevent her from being taken. Some prisoners were injured due to the guards beating them with batons in an attempt to retrieve the prisoner.  The suppression forces failed and withdrew without taking the prisoner to solitary. Afterwards, the prison administration imposed harsh punishments on the prisoners, including cutting off electricity, confiscating electrical appliances: cooking plates, water heaters, television, and radio, as well as closing the cells, preventing the prisoners from going out to the yard for 4 days, and preventing bathing (the bathing section is in an external room and not inside the cells.) The prison administration also threatened to isolate the prisoners’ representative at the time, Bayan Faraoun, and her deputy, Shurooq Dwayyat. The prisoners stood together, hand in hand, to face these punishments. They planned a series of protests against the punishments imposed by the administration. The prisoner movement continued to escalate pressure on the prison administration to lift the lockdown and punishments. They also demanded the right for women prisoners to make phone calls with men prisoners in the occupation prisons. Eventually, the prison administration yielded to their demands.

Repression of 2023

The latest repression occurred after guards found a blade inscribed with “Victory or martyrdom” during a cell search. The administration accused prisoner Yasmin Shaaban of possessing the blade and immediately isolated her. To further complicate matters, the prisoner was isolated outside the prison. In response, a prisoner tried to burn a cell. The prison administration closed the section and isolated a group of prisoners for a period ranging from five to seven days. It deprived them of family visits for a month and deprived the entire section of access to the public phones for a month as well. It’s worth noting that the search and subsequent repression were immediately after Khairy Alqam’s martyrdom operation in occupied Jerusalem.

Skirmishes Outside of Severe Repression

Severe repression is not a frequent occurrence, but there are daily conflicts between prisoners and the prison administration. For example, when merging Sharon prison with Damon, the prison administration deliberately tried to stir up discord among prisoners by spreading rumors and targeting specific rooms with repeated inspections. It also divided the yard time between cells by closing some and opening others, preventing prisoners from gathering.

During these alternating closures, the prisoners’ only option to make consensus decisions or make decisions was to communicate with each other through room windows overlooking the yard area. On rare occasions, written messages were used to briefly clarify the situation. In discussions, options are presented directly, and voting takes place among the prisoners who are authorized to make decisions, even if they are distributed across several cells. Their opinions are gathered in a short time, despite the presence of prison administration listening devices. In cases where prisoners have time and are allowed to communicate, they will meet to discuss and form consensus, meeting once or several times in one of the cells.

Despite the harsh realities of detention, the prisoners have developed a communal structure of organizing that is based on consultation, elections, and collective decision-making. When they decide to escalate against the prison authorities, they prepare meticulously. This preparation includes wearing protective clothing and sturdy shoes, carrying water, and safeguarding important documents like notebooks and papers. For instance, before a planned sit-in protest, anticipating that they might be locked out of their cells, the prisoners were instructed to complete their lunch preparations early and perform their religious ablutions.

HaSharon Prison

The Waiting

Life for women prisoners in detention is dominated by rigid routine. This routine controls every aspect of their existence, turning them into something akin to programmed machines. They are forced to follow fixed procedures, repeated monotonously each day at specific times imposed by the prison administration.

There’s the count during which prisoners are counted inside rooms. This begins at 5:30 AM and is repeated four times during the day at fixed times. There’s the inspection or what’s called (soragim), which is repeated twice a day, when beds and windows are searched, and the cell is fully inspected using a hammer for fear of tunnels or escape attempts. There’s to the break (opening cells with the possibility of moving between them and going out to the section yard) which does not exceed four and a half hours in total distributed over three periods during the day. As for meals, there are three meals brought at fixed times as well (8 AM, 11 AM, and 4 PM) to allow prisoners to prepare food afterwards. This is in addition to the continuous rounds of women guards at night and during cell closure periods, i.e., outside break times.

The life of women prisoners is defined by waiting and hope. These women endure long periods of waiting with anticipation, clinging to hope as they navigate their confinement. They wait for family visits, which vary in frequency: once a month for West Bank prisoners, twice a month for those from Jerusalem and the ’48 interior, and sometimes no visits at all for Gaza prisoners or those punitively denied family contact. Their days are filled with more waiting: for letters and photos from home, for meetings with lawyers, for news updates. They eagerly anticipate prisoner programs and family messages broadcast daily on Palestine Radio and Prisoners’ Radio, or weekly on Ajyal and Holy Quran radios. They wait for court dates, and ultimately, for freedom itself. Yet for some, this final wait ends not in liberation, but (in death) a shroud that extinguishes all their longing and bitter hopes for freedom.

The life of Palestinian women prisoners oscillates between welcoming new prisoners and bidding farewell to those released, between enduring repression and engaging in negotiation, between fighting for their rights and settling into daily routines. Underlying these dynamics is an administrative framework that governs the relationship between prisoners and the prison administration, known within the prison walls as the “internal law.”

The prison environment necessitates a certain degree of communication between prisoners and the prison administration. This is a result of the prisoner movement’s successful demand that the prison service not sidestep them in managing their detention conditions. This principle applies equally to women prisoners. Communication with the administration occurs solely through the section head and her deputy, who are periodically elected by the prisoners. Direct interaction between individual prisoners and the administration or guards within the section is strictly forbidden. The section head and deputy serve as the exclusive intermediaries. Prisoners are barred from visiting the clinic or the prison director’s office unaccompanied; they must be escorted by either the section head or deputy. Conversation during transport to court or hospital is prohibited. Internal regulations also dictate that prisoners refuse to engage with guards without the section head present. These measures aim to prevent the administration from recruiting informants or creating internal dissent through multiple channels of communication. This system became even more rigorous following the merger of Sharon and Damon prisons in late 2018.

The Cooperation Between Women Prisoners and Men Prisoners

Women prisoners actively engage with all struggles carried out by the men prisoners in men’s prisons. They coordinate protest actions through family radio messages, lawyers, and human rights organizations. These intermediaries also relay messages and consensus agreements from men prisoners, often following escalatory steps taken by the men.

In 2019, a groundbreaking event occurred in the history of the Palestinian prisoner movement. Lama Khater became the first woman prisoner elected to the Supreme Leadership Body of Hamas prisoners. This position granted her increased freedom of movement, expanded her ability to work, and allowed her to shape policies related to prisoner’s issues. Her role included communicating with other body members, exchanging messages, staying informed about general policies within the prisons, and sharing tasks and responsibilities.

Khater’s presence in the leadership had a significant impact on women prisoners’ conditions. She facilitated consensus-building among the women and helped formulate agreed-upon rules with representatives from other factions inside the prison. Under the supervision of the Supreme Leadership Body, new regulations were approved governing various organizational matters. These included procedures for electing women prisoner representatives and establishing an advisory council comprising all factions. [2]

The Catalyst

The women’s prison serves as a catalyst, capable of igniting unrest across all men’s prisons. The prison service administration is acutely aware of this dynamic. Any incident within the women’s prison reverberates through the men’s facilities, stirring feelings of chivalry, protectiveness, and fervor among men prisoners. It’s a powder keg – once lit, the consequences are unpredictable!

This was evident in 2021 when women prisoners in Damon were heavily repressed and assaulted. In response, the men prisoners across various facilities revolted, their anger erupting into widespread protests. In an act of solidarity, prisoner Yousef Al-Mabhouh stabbed a guard in Nafha prison, in retribution for the violence against women prisoners.

Unlike men’s prisons, women’s facilities are not sorted based on factional organization. Prisoners are assigned to cells based solely on available space. When Sharon and Damon prisons merged, prisoners were distributed according to mutual agreements. This doesn’t mean there’s a complete absence of organizational affiliations or security-related detentions. Women held on security charges who belong to specific organizations typically receive support from those groups, adhering to their directives without the need for sorting cells based on those organizations.

This situation requires organizations to carefully consider the circumstances of women prisoners when planning any actions or escalations. The prison service often retaliates against women prisoners based on their political affiliations, mirroring punishments in men’s prisons. For instance, in 2019, when Hamas prisoners were denied visits, the same punishment was applied to Hamas-affiliated women in Damon prison.

It was only through coordinated protest actions by women prisoners across various factions – including sit-ins in the prison yard, demanding compensation for those who missed visits, and insistence that men’s prison policies are not applied to women – that this decision was eventually overturned. Without these efforts, the visitation ban would have persisted throughout the duration it was enforced in men’s prisons.

At times, organizational interventions can complicate life for women prisoners. The reality is that the daily existence of women in these prisons doesn’t necessitate engaging in organizational activities, whether for recruitment or confrontation with the occupation.

Prisoner Yousef al-Mabhouh

The Women and Confrontation

One might assume that a woman entering prison is fragile and weak. But this overlooks the transformative power of the detention experience from its very first moments. The need for resilience, self-preservation, and stoic endurance in the face of fear and pain reshapes her.

This transformation goes beyond mere patience. It cultivates a deep-rooted endurance, composure, and the strength to react forcefully to individual provocations, preparing her for the broader confrontations of prison life. She may face the “Nachshon” forces during transport, endure invasive searches by guards, or navigate the challenges of family and lawyer visits.

The woman prisoner exists in a constant state of alertness, safeguarding her dignity, asserting her rights, and resisting physical assault by any means necessary – be it through screams or refusal. Take the case of Estabraq Al-Tamimi, who rejected a strip search before a court appearance. Though severely beaten, her brave stance not only deterred further abuse but inspired her fellow prisoners to collectively refuse naked searches and the degrading practice of double shackling of both hands and feet. The prisoners agreed on a policy that whoever is subjected to such treatment should return to the section and refuse to go out to court.

During times of repression, a profound unity emerges among the women, courage becoming their shared armor. Stripped of societal protections, the woman prisoner acts with the instinct of sacrifice and redemption – like a mother or sister shielding part of her very soul from harm. She may even retaliate against guards or use whatever means available for self-defense.

Yet in the long, cold nights of confinement, she allows herself moments of vulnerability. Tears fall, and prayers ascend. But even in these private moments, her inner strength continues to shine – through letters home that are lovingly crafted for family, in the quiet support offered to fellow prisoners, and in the dignified way she prepares to receive visitors, her voice brimming with hope and vitality despite harshness that she needed in specific situations and to a limited extent, and with what Allah grants her at the time.

The soft-spoken woman may seem to disappear behind the label of ‘prisoner,’ like the setting sun. But she reemerges, radiant as the dawn of freedom. She becomes a beacon of love, hope, and optimism – for her fellow prisoners, for her waiting family, and for the promise of a life reclaimed.

Conclusion

The prisons are like pressure cookers, housing spirits too free to ever truly accept captivity. These women’s hearts dangle precariously on threads of hope, yearning for freedom. Yet even in confinement, their proud voices still sing the melodies of revolution, and their minds remain fertile grounds for resistance. For those committed to the struggle, they will always find ways to resist!

May Allah release their wings, break their chains, and return them to their families and loved ones.

 

[1]  Bayan Faraoun, former prisoner, prisoners’ representative, witness to the repression.

[2]  Lama Khater, former prisoner, leadership body member.

 

 

Brothers in Arms: Martyrs of Resistance and Oslo’s Betrayal

The following article, by Resistance News Network, is republished here from RNN (Read the original) and tells the story of resistance leaders and fighters, brothers Adel and Imad Awadallah, whose bodies were held captive by the occupation for 16 years after their martyrdom. The ongoing practice of kidnapping and holding the bodies of the martyrs is used as a form of collective punishment and attack against the Palestinian people as a whole. Click here to endorse and support the campaign for the liberation of the bodies of the martyrs. Read the call to action in English, French, Arabic, Spanish, German, Swedish.

Today’s story of resistance concerns two brothers, a changing landscape, and lessons from the past.

The brothers, commanders Adel and Imad Awadallah, were each other’s right arm. They led the Al-Qassam Brigades, inflicting fear upon the enemy for years, especially in 1996 when 49 zionists were killed in one week in the “Sacred Revenge” series of operations avenging Yahya Ayyash.

On this day in 1998, they were martyred on a farm, besieged by special forces in Al-Khalil. After hours of armed clashes, they ascended gloriously.

No one knew their fate for 16 years.
This is their story.

From Al-Bireh, Adel and Imad joined the Al-Qassam Brigades in their youth, quickly advancing in the ranks and becoming leaders in Ramallah. When the mastermind engineer Yahya Ayyash was martyred at the hands of zionists in January 1996, they sought to avenge his death in a series of painful anti-colonial operations.

Adel and Imad were the #1 most wanted in the West Bank, not only by the occupation but also by its lapdog, the Palestinian Authority. For three years, Adel and Imad hid from them both. All who visited their home were arrested, and the PA launched a massive arrest campaign of Hamas cadre.

In August 1998, Imad was kidnapped by the PA and tortured in Areeha prison. In a heroic escape, he liberated himself from prison despite solitary confinement, but was tracked by the PA, who planted an electronic device on him.

Adel, on the other hand, was still a fugitive. Clinging to his aspirations of his people’s imminent liberation, he continued to orchestrate resistance operations. During one of them, forces of the Palestinian Authority opened fire on a Renault 9 car, believing him to be inside with his family, unconcerned with the casualties. The PA Forces ended up killing an unrelated Palestinian woman instead, in a move reminiscent of the PA’s thuggish behavior today, like their assassination of martyrs Nizar Banat, Mohammed Al-Banna, and Abdel Qader Zaqdah.

Three years, and all the forces of the PA and occupation could not catch them. In a video, Adel stated that he does not want revenge against those who kill him, but only revenge against the zionist entity. This sentiment is repeated by the resistance today, who understands that bloodshed with brothers serves the enemy, even in light of the atrocities committed by the PA. “Our guns do not see except the minarets of Al-Quds;” Dr. Ramadan Shallah‘s eminent quote is repeated in various forms by the factions today.

On this day in 1998, the IOF claimed to have assassinated both Adel and Imad, right after the PA tracked Imad after his prison escape. Their fate was unknown, whether they were arrested or martyred. Despite torture being used on them both, they refused to confess and refused to provide information about their fellow resistance fighters.

In 2014, the IOF released their bodies, received by a crowd of thousands who never forgot the legacy of the heroic brothers. Adel was wearing the same shirt, 16 years after his martyrdom.

When they were martyred, the Oslo Accords were just five years old. Today, one year beyond the 30th anniversary of the ill-fated Accords, the PA’s position on liberation has not changed; rather, it has more deeply entrenched itself in normalization and betrayal.

In the year of Adel and Imad’s martyrdom, the so-called separation wall did not exist. The geography of the land was markedly different; Palestinians were connected to their land, and colonial checkpoints were a ghost of what they are now. Watchtowers were smaller. Pegasus and Blue Wolf were non-existent. The surveillance state was not as present.

In 2023, mobility is not so easy. Thus, the strategies of the resistance had to change to reflect this. A new strategy has been adopted, in Jenin, in Nablus, in Tulkarem, Al-Khalil, and Areeha, quickly spreading to all parts of Palestine: there is no free entry, and if you enter, we will burn you. While some resistance fighters venture into the interior to send their message, this cohesive strategy has proven to be effective in the last two years.

Today, we not only approach the 31st anniversary of Oslo, but also the anniversary of the kidnapping by the PA of Musab Shtayyeh, who, like Adel and Imad, was also the most wanted man in the West Bank. Shtayyeh, the link between the West Bank and Gaza, is a member of the Lions’ Den and Al-Qassam Brigades. He has been subjected to torture, under the guise of kidnapping him “for protection,” a bold-faced and recurring PA lie.

Despite the setback of his continued abduction orchestrated by the US and zionists, resistance persists. Today’s youth face both the PA and the occupation, avenging martyr after martyr in their operations. They understand that we face two enemies: the zionist entity and the Authority that “participates in our annihilation,” in the words of Basil.

This story provides one lesson: The PA is a collaborating arm of the occupation, and it too must be refused. Basil taught us, “Every Palestinian must understand that any confrontation with the Authority is not a confrontation with a Palestinian, but a confrontation with a tool of the occupation,” a quote that rings clear considering the context of Musab’s arrest: PA repression led to clashes, and he raised his gun to defend himself without knowing if the aggressor was the IOF or PA. This simple ambiguity paradoxically creates clarity to understand the reality of the Palestinian situation.

Down with Oslo and the PA! Down with the zionist entity!
Resistance persists, united and advancing, until the dismantling of all oppressors.

24 Palestinian women held in administrative detention; 95 women prisoners in Zionist jails

At present, 24 Palestinian women — out of approximately 95 Palestinian women prisoners, of 9,900 Palestinians in Zionist jails, in addition to thousands more from Gaza held in colonial torture camps like that at Sde Teiman — are being imprisoned under “administrative detention” by the occupation forces in the colonial Damon prison. They include students from various Palestinian universities, journalists, activists, a lawyer, employees of Birzeit University and re-arrested former prisoners. “Administrative detention” is a detention regime inherited from the British colonial mandate over Palestine which allows the Zionist occupation to imprison Palestinians without charge or trial for a period of 3 to 6 months, renewable indefinitely.

Diala Nader Ibrahim Eideh (Diala Ayesh) is a lawyer from Al-Bireh, arrested on 17 January 2024 at a checkpoint on her way back to Ramallah. On 24 January, the Zionist occupation military commander in the West Bank issued an administrative detention order against her for four months. On 23 May 2024, the Ofer military court renewed her administrative detention for a further four months. Diala is a lawyer and human rights defender. She actively monitors and documents the living conditions of Palestinian political prisoners in the colonial military prison system and in the Palestinian Authority prisons.

Three well-known Palestinian women journalists are also held in administrative detention: Asma Hraish, from Beitunia, Ramallah, held since April 3. She was ordered to administrative detention for 3 months — renewed once again on June 27.

Israa Lafi was abducted by occupation forces on 17 July 2024, then ordered to administrative detention for 6 months. This is her second incarceration; in 2018 she spent 10 months in colonial prisons.

Bushra Al-Taweel, imprisoned for the 7th time by the colonial occupation. She was seized by occupation forces on 7 March 2024, during an invasion of Ramallah and ordered to administrative detention for 6 months, which was again renewed on August 19.

Shaima Rawajba, a student at An Najah University, was arrested during a raid by the colonial army on her home in Nablus on April 18, then ordered to administrative detention for 3 months. Her arbitrary detention without charge or trial was renewed for a further 4 months on July 24. This is her second detention; in 2022, the occupying forces had first arrested her alongside 3 of her friends at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Seven students or recent graduates from Al Khalil are in administrative detention. These include Baraa Jamal Karama, Angham Asafra, Shahad Asafra and Jenin Amr. All four were arrested on December 3, then ordered to arbitrary administrative detention without charge or trial for a period of 4 months, renewed on April 1 and July 17 for a period of 4 months each time.

On September 1, 2024, the occupation forces arrested Jenin’s cousin, Raghad Amr, alongside Raghad Mubarak and Al Yamama Harinat. Raghad Amr & Al-Yamama are students, and Raghad Mubarak a recent engineering graduate, of Palestine Polytechnic University in Al Khalil. All three were ordered to administrative detention for a period of 4 months.

Hadeel Shatara, an employee of Birzeit University and a dedicated advocate for Palestinian prisoners’ liberation, was seized by the occupation on June 30 upon her return to Palestine and ordered to administrative detention for 5 months.

Khalida Jarrar, an academic at Birzeit University and feminist activist, was arrested on December 26 and ordered to administrative detention for 6 months, renewed on June 24.

Three students from Birzeit University are also in administrative detention: Layan Kayed, detained since April 7, and whose detention was renewed on July 5 for an additional 4 months.

Mona Abu Hussein, arrested on 12 March 2024 and whose administrative detention was renewed twice, on June 4 and September 3 for three months each time.

Dania Hanatsheh, arrested on August 19 and transferred to administrative detention for 4 months. Dania is one of the prisoners re-abducted after her release in November during the prisoner exchange achieved by the Palestinian Resistance.

In addition to Dania Hanatsheh, two other prisoners released in the November exchange were re-arrested and ordered to administrative detention by the occupation forces:

Hanan Barghouti, 60 years old, from Kobar, Ramallah, arrested on 5 March 2023 and ordered to administrative detention for a period of 3 months. Hanan’s husband and three of her children are also imprisoned. Her detention order was renewed twice, on June 4 and September 3, for three months each time.

Walaa Tanja, from Balata refugee camp in Nablus, was arrested at the Deir Sharaf checkpoint alongside Youssef Abu Dhraa, then transferred to administrative detention for a period of 6 months.

Two graduates of Birzeit University are also detained under this regime. Layan Nasir, detained since April 7, whose detention was renewed on July 30 for an additional 4 months. Layan Nasir was previously arrested in 2021 and spent 50 days in detention. And Saja Muadi, originally from Ramallah, arrested on April 18 and ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial for 6 months.

Yasmine Abu Sorour, from the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, was abducted by the Zionist occupation forces on 26 December 2023 and ordered to six months in colonial administrative detention. She has been imprisoned at least three times before, in 2015, when she was a minor girl, and twice in 2018.

Fatima Youssef al-Farakhna, from Deir Jarir in the Ramallah area, was abducted by occupation forces on 10 May 2024 and then ordered jailed without charge or trial for 6 months under administrative detention.

Sumoud Welad Muhammad, from Ramallah, has been held in detention without charge or trial since 12 March 2024, when she was abducted by occupation forces.

Freedom for all Palestinians held in Zionist, imperialist and reactionary prisons; freedom for Palestine!

Follow Dismantle Damon for more campaign updates and news on the struggle of Palestinian women prisoners.

Honouring the sacrifice and commitment of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi: Internationalist struggle for Palestinian liberation

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network raises its salutes to the martyr, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a US citizen who went to Palestine to join ISM and the Faz3a campaign defending Palestinian land, villages and agriculture from the rapacious settlers seeking to steal them. She was shot by a Zionist sniper in Beita on Friday, September 6th as she confronted the land-thieving settler mobs as part of the weekly demonstrations to defend the land of Palestine.

Aysenur committed her life to the Palestinian cause and for the liberation of Palestine from US imperialism and world Zionism. She was martyred using weaponry provided to the Zionists by the American imperialists, the same weaponry whose sale and transfer she and others vehemently opposed. The US government that has provided endless military, economic, and propaganda aid to the Zionist regime, has the blood of Aysenur on its hands, as well as the tens of thousands of martyrs in Gaza and the West Bank.

During her life, Aysenur was involved in fighting against the same institutions that bought the bullets that killed her. She participated in the student intifada, organizing at the encampment at the University of Washington, demanding the University divest from “Israel” and to cut ties with Boeing. Boeing, the 3rd largest weapons corporation in the world, is responsible for sending billions of dollars of munitions to the occupation forces. These include Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), which were used in multiple horrific  massacres in Gaza, killing hundreds of Palestinians. Another US weapons company, General Dynamics, produces the MK-8 bombs, used by the Zionist forces on Monday, September 9, in the horrific massacre in the al-Mawasi camp in which the IOF bombed displaced Palestinians residing in tents, creating 27-foot-deep craters in the sand. As we honour Aysenur, we must also commit ourselves to building and developing the student Intifada and confronting the war machine at all US and Western universities.

Aysenur is one of the many martyrs who have given their lives for the Palestinian liberation struggle, and she is one of the many internationals who have made major sacrifices in solidarity with Palestine, including fellow internationalist martyrs for Palestine Rachel Corrie, Tom Hurndall, and the martyrs of the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Furkan Doğan, Cengiz Akyüz, Ali Haydar Bengi, İbrahim Bilgen, Cevdet Kılıçlar, Cengiz Songür, Çetin Topçuoğlu, Fahri Yaldız, Necdet Yıldırım and, Ugur Süleyman Söylemez. As a Palestinian, Arab and international struggle, the cause has always been taken up by internationalists willing to dedicate themselves to ending the ongoing colonial genocide in Palestine; Aysenur and her forerunners engaged in popular organizing and struggle build upon a long line of courage and dedication. For example, in the 1970s, the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon — the heart of the Palestinian revolution — attracted people from around the world to join the struggle, through arts, health work, educational work, organizing, and through the armed resistance.

Many internationalists have also been imprisoned by Zionist, imperialist, or reactionary regimes globally for participating in the Palestinian liberation struggle through various forms, throughout the years.

Fusako Shigenobu, an internationalist prisoner of the Palestinian liberation struggle, was jailed in Japan for over 21 years as a political prisoner for her, and her comrades, collaboration and involvement in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s armed struggle. Inside Palestine, the prisoners of Palestine held by the Zionist regime over the years have included Terre Fleener, Brigit Schultz, Ludvina Jansen, Thomas Reuter, and Kozo Okamoto, who have spent years inside “Israeli” jails and participated as part of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.

This is not to mention the numerous Arab liberation strugglers who have given their lives and freedom for the liberation of Palestine, as we see daily in the Arab support fronts for Gaza stretching from Yemen to Lebanon to Iraq, Syria and beyond. Arab strugglers for Palestine, from Georges Abdallah, a Lebanese internationalist struggler, who fought against French imperialism and has been imprisoned in French prisons for over 40 years, to Mohammed Boudia, Mohamed Zouari and Mohammed Salah, are among countless Arab martyrs for Palestine who have viewed Palestine as the central cause of Arab liberation. Most recently, Arab popular commitment and sacrifice for Palestine, despite official normalization and complicity, has been represented by the martyr Maher Dyab Hussein al-Jazi al-Howeitat, the Jordanian truck driver who on Sunday, September 8 carried out the Karameh operation on the Jordanian border with occupied Palestine, widely honoured as a “hero of Al-Aqsa Flood.”

Through different eras of the Palestinian revolution and various forms of struggle, the ongoing legacy of internationalist commitment to Palestinian liberation comes in confrontation with the full imperialist partnership in Zionist genocide. Aysenur lives on as part of this legacy of struggle, a call to action and an appeal to people of conscience everywhere. We uplift and honor the sacrifices made by international strugglers, alongside Palestinian and Arab strugglers, who have given their lives and faced imprisonment to further the struggle for Palestinian liberation. 

Glory to Aysenur! Victory to Palestine, glory to the martyrs, defeat to Zionism and imperialism, liberation for Palestine from the river to the sea!

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