Victory for Palestine in the Netherlands: Amin Abou Rashed walks free, acquitted in case targeting humanitarian aid

27 May 2026

On Wednesday, 27 May, 2026 — Eid al-Adha — Amin Abou Rashed, Palestinian community leader and humanitarian activist in the Netherlands, was acquitted in a Rotterdam court on charges of breaking sanctions by “funding Hamas,” as the court ruled that the allegations remained unproven, relying on Zionist assertions and media smear campaigns. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network congratulates Amin Abou Rashed, the Palestinian Community of the Netherlands (PGNL) and all activists for Palestine in the Netherlands in this victory over repression targeting the Palestine movement.

This achievement is especially important at this moment, when the United States continues to target charitable organizations, particularly Palestinian, Arab and Muslim organizations, as well as political and human rights movements supporting justice in Palestine, for sanctions and listing as “specially designated global terrorists.” Prosecutors in Italy and France, among others, have referred to this case in their own attempts to prosecute Palestinian and Arab community organizers for fundraising to support Palestinians, particularly marginalized and impoverished Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and the refugee camps in the West Bank and Lebanon.

The prosecution of charity organizers, the sanctioning of aid and charitable organizations, and the freezing of millions of Euro intended for Palestinians facing genocide, are all reflections of the full complicity and involvement of imperialist powers in the ongoing Zionist genocide targeting the Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip. They aim to deny Palestinians under genocide independent support and aid, seeking to force them into submission through starvation or conditional “aid” provided by official U.S., Zionist or European sources. Therefore, today’s acquittal of Amin Abou Rashed is not only a victory for Palestinians and all people of conscience in the Netherlands, but also for all who stand with Palestine and all who face repression elsewhere, particularly in Europe.

In June 2023, Amin Abou Rashed was arrested from his home and spent almost one year in pretrial detention before finally being released in 2024 due to his health situation and ongoing medical neglect in jail. Protests in the Netherlands, but also in the Gaza Strip and refugee camps in Lebanon — where orphans, widows and other marginalized people had benefitted from the work of the Israa Foundation and other organizations with which he worked — called for his freedom and an end to the unjust persecution. Both Abou Rashed and his daughter, as well as the Israa Foundation, are currently subject to U.S. sanctions, alongside dozens of other activists, organizers and community leaders (and a list of over 1,700 individuals and organizations.)

As the Rotterdam Front for Liberation stated, “We welcome this acquittal as a victory, yet not without reservation. Let no one mistake this moment for justice delivered by the system itself. At its core this is a victory wrenched from the teeth of the Dutch state’s repressive machinery by Amin’s steadfastness, the consistent mobilization of the community, and the truth that shines as a beacon on the Palestinian cause…The state, enabled by the court administration, dragged Amin through years of false accusations, baseless imprisonment, character assassination, and clear physical harm. This verdict, forced out of the judiciary by an unequivocal truth, does not alter the reality that it remains the same state that seeks to strangle Palestinian diasporic organizing, and with it the vital flow of humanitarian aid that is the lifeblood of the steadfast people of Gaza and the camps of the exiled.”

In its ruling, the court stated that there was no meaningful evidence that Abou Rashed “supported Hamas,” and rejected the attempts of Dutch prosecutors — based on “Israeli” assertions — to equate aid to the Gaza Strip with “funding Hamas.” According to Rijnmond, the court said: “The evidence about the [Mercy Association for Children] is based on the statement by Middle East expert Sandee. But that’s based on argument, he never observed it himself. He refers to websites, newspaper reports and reports from security services. Those reports are from Israel and the US in a situation where Israel and Hamas are killing each other. So that’s a problem. So you have to be very careful with those reports…We have nothing against newspapers, but we are not going to condemn people for what is stated in the newspaper.”

The prosecution relied on “Middle East expert” Ronald Sandee, who has lived in the United States for the past two decades and routinely engages in Islamophobic fearmongering on right-wing TV and blog interviews, relies almost solely on “Israeli” reports (well-known for their error-laden content) published publicly online for his “research,” and who has previously publicly spoken against Amin Abou Rashed. His credibility fell apart before the court, which noted that “We cannot rule out that the expert’s findings, or the authors on which he relies, are political or otherwise biased.”

This is only the latest anti-Palestinian prosecution to crumble in Europe after “Israeli” sources were exposed; recently, Italian courts ruled that the “Israeli intelligence documents” submitted unverified in the case of Mohammed Hannoun and his six colleagues must be excluded from the case, leading to the release of three of the seven Palestinian detainees. It is a particularly poignant rebuke to this type of smear campaign, coming as it does on 27 May, the 17th anniversary of the sentencing of the Holy Land 5 in the United States, in a travesty of justice that similarly relied on unsourced “Israeli” intelligence reports and biased, Zionist and Islamophobic “experts” to target the United States’ largest Muslim Palestinian charity. Today, Ghassan Elashi and Shukri Abu Baker remain imprisoned in U.S. federal prisons, serving 65-year sentences for their charitable work to support marginalized and impoverished Palestinians.

The court found Abou Rashed responsible for being involved with the Israa Foundation after the earlier charitable organization he worked with, the Al-Aqsa Foundation, had been sanctioned, between 2003 and 2011; however, he received a six-month suspended sentence and has already served a year of actual imprisonment during his pretrial detention. The judge ordered that “2011 has been so long since a prison sentence is no longer appropriate.” (Al-Aqsa Foundation dropped off the EU sanctions list over a decade ago.)

As Amin Abou Rashed walked free, acquitted of these unjust charges for which the prosecution had sought a four-year prison sentence only weeks ago, he was greeted by enthusiastic hugs, cheers and the support of Palestinian community and Palestine solidarity activists, who had gathered to support him in court. Reports indicate that both Abou Rashed and the public prosecution have the opportunity to appeal the results of the case; however, this strong repudiation of Zionist smear campaigns as pseudo-evidence marks a significant rebuke of the recent wave of sanctions, repression and arrest targeting independent Palestinian community and humanitarian organizations throughout the imperial core.

As we noted in the recent series of U.S. sanctions targeting Palestinian community and internationalist organizers Saif Abu Keshek, Jaldia Abubakra, Mohammed Khatib and Hisham Abu Mahfouz, “Thousands of Palestinians, Lebanese, Yemenis, Iranians, Cubans, and all who resist U.S. imperialism or who pursue an alternate path of development for their country are designated as terrorists and sanctioned; resistance organizations in Palestine, Lebanon and Yemen — and even the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — are designated as “terrorist entities” or proscribed. In recent years, these designations have escalated to include grassroots organizations in the imperial core, like Samidoun, the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, or Palestine Action in Britain, which has forced multiple “Israeli” arms factories to shut down. As the popular global rejection of Zionism and imperialism has swelled, the response has been the same internationally — repression, criminalization, sanctions, targeting, isolation and imprisonment….It is long past time for all Palestinian, Lebanese and regional resistance organizations — let alone charitable, community, activist and humanitarian initiatives — to be removed from so-called “terrorist lists” — in Italy, in Europe, in the U.S. and around the world. The Palestinian people, and all occupied peoples, have the right to resist their occupation, to defend themselves, to liberate their land, and to organize to achieve those goals.”

Today, one of these repressive attacks — targeting a dedicated Palestinian who raised over 11 million Euro for the most marginalized and impoverished of his people — has crumbled in the face of truth and steadfastness. On this Eid day, Samidoun congratulates Amin Abou Rashed, his family, legal team, community, organizations, and supporters, on this important achievement in court, for Palestine and for justice everywhere. We urge all free people of the world to stand together against repression and for the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners and prisoners for Palestine both in Zionist jails and in imperialist prisons, toward the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.

Solidarity with Mohammed Khatib and Jaldia Abubakra: Resisting imperialist sanctions

19 May 2026

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemns in the strongest terms the latest U.S. sanctions imposed on Palestinian organizers, activists and leaders. Alongside the billions of dollars in bombs and weaponry, these sanctions illustrate the full U.S. partnership in the ongoing imperialist-Zionist genocide agains the Palestinian people. On Tuesday, 19 May, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on our comrades Mohammed Khatib and Jaldia Abubakra, targeting them for their ongoing mobilization and action organizing Palestinians in exile and diaspora, for their role in mobilizing the solidarity movement, and for their defense of Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails.

The designations of our comrades came alongside sanctions on Saif Abu Keshek — one of the leadership of the Global Sumud Flotilla — and Hisham Abu Mahfouz of the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, Palestinian community leaders and organizers targeted in the same context of the attempted criminalization of Palestinian organizing in the shatat and Palestine solidarity mobilization. The U.S. Treasury Department once again targeted Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid the genocide, sanctioning Marwan Abu Ras and the Palestinian Scholars Association, as well as Palestinians and Egyptians in Egypt, allegedly seeking to break the siege on Gaza.

These are the latest in a series of U.S. sanctions and designations targeting active Palestinians in Europe, North America and internationally, including in occupied Palestine. Samidoun was sanctioned as a “specially designated global terrorist” in October 2024, and the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad was similarly attacked in January 2026. Over just this period, dozens of Palestinian organizations and individuals — including a large number of Palestinians in Europe working to break the siege on Gaza with charitable aid and independent support — have faced U.S. sanctions, as well as charities in Gaza — part of a sustained effort to attack Palestinian community organizations and to destroy Palestinian society in Gaza, hand in hand with U.S. sponsored Zionist bombs and assassinations. Reflecting the dominance of the United States over global banking and financial sectors, people subjected to U.S. sanctions outside the country — who number in the thousands — are deprived of access to banking services and other critical financial needs.

Mohammed Khatib, the European coordinator of Samidoun, targeted in today’s sanctions, is a Palestinian refugee born in Ein el-Helweh camp in Lebanon. He has spoken and written widely on the Palestinian cause, and has been severely targeted for repression due to the power of his expression. The Belgian government is attempting to withdraw his political asylum, while he has been banned from Switzerland, Greece and the Netherlands, because of his voice of support for the resistance and the prisoners, and his role as a leading revolutionary voice of Palestinians in exile and diaspora, as part of the executive committee of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement.

Jaldia Abubakra, coordinator of Samidoun in Spain and founder of Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization, is also a member of the executive committee of the Masar Badil. A Palestinian from Gaza, she has widely spoken at hundreds of events and actions across Spain and internationally; she sailed on the Women’s Boat to Gaza as well as the Global Sumud Flotilla in 2025. The far right and Zionists in Spain attempted, and failed, to prosecute her for her statements about Palestinian resistance when she was invited to address the Spanish parliament. Both she and Mohammed Khatib spoke together two weeks ago at the Resistance Festival in Brussels, Belgium.

Like the initial designation of Samidoun, as well as attempts to criminalize our work in Western imperialist countries, this is not only an attack on our organization, our leaders and our comrades, but on the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. It is meant to impose fear and terror and weaken the movement to support and liberate the over 9600 Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails — as well as the Lebanese and Arab prisoners held there, and the Palestinian prisoners and prisoners for Palestine in international jails. This comes particularly as the Zionist regime has adopted two new laws for the execution of Palestinian prisoners, sparking global outrage, and as its systematic policies of torture, sexual assault and rape against imprisoned Palestinians have been increasingly exposed before the world. It is clearly part of the U.S.-Zionist strategy to deprive the Palestinian prisoners of global support and solidarity as they resist a regime of assassination, abuse and torture.

Further, today’s sanctions are a deliberate assault on Palestinians organizing in exile and diaspora to reclaim the role of Palestinian refugees and exiles in the struggle for liberation. Coming only days following the 78th anniversary of the Nakba — the Day of Palestinian Struggle — they target organizations and individuals that are specifically dedicated to renewing Palestinian engagement, mobilization and involvement everywhere in exile and diaspora. Mohammed, Jaldia, Saif and Hisham are all known as leaders of organizations dedicated to reclaiming the rightful place of the Palestinian shatat in the liberation struggle. It is clear that these sanctions are intended to divide Palestinians from the flotilla campaign and the broader solidarity movement, as well as to divide Palestinians across national borders and to impose fear and silence upon the community.

The sanctions today also appear to be fully coordinated with the Zionist regime to intersect with their violent attack against the Freedom Flotilla and the Global Sumud Flotilla, the piracy of dozens of vessels, and the abduction of hundreds of international activists (including numerous Palestinians and Arabs) at sea. Previous flotilla detainees have been subjected to torture and sexual assault and threatened with lengthy arbitrary detention — and the Zionist attack on the flotilla is fundamentally illegal and illegitimate. Targeting activists who have participated in the Flotilla — or who are simply described as having done so — on the same day that the Zionist navy engaged in piracy and abduction on the high seas demonstrates once again that the U.S. is a full partner in the murderous blockade of Palestinians facing genocide in Gaza.

Samidoun strongly condemns the latest attack on the Flotilla and the abduction of hundreds of international activists, as well as the theft of valuable ships and cargo by the Zionist entity. We demand the immediate release of all detainees and the return of their ships and property, which are intended for one purpose — to reach the besieged Palestinian people of Gaza. We urge people around the world to join the demonstrations and calls to action for the release of the imprisoned Flotilla activists, many of whom are directly involved in prisoner solidarity and direct action in their neighborhoods, cities and communities, as well as to escalate international pressure to liberate all of the Palestinian, Lebanese and Arab prisoners held captive in the Zionist torture dungeons.

The sanctions targeting our comrades Jaldia and Mohammed are an example of the terror and tyranny imposed upon states, peoples, organizations and individuals around the world by U.S. imperialism. U.S. economic coercive measures are responsible for attempted genocide from Cuba to the Islamic Republic of Iran; they target all who refuse U.S. control and domination over their resources, lives and futures. In fact, only hours from the issuance of these sanctions targeting Palestinian organizers, the U.S. Treasury Department issued a new series of sanctions against Iran, seeking to carried on their failed aggression by other means, and making clear their efforts to impoverish the Iranian people and destroy their achievements, labeling them “Economic Fury.”

Thousands of Palestinians, Lebanese, Yemenis, Iranians, Cubans, and all who resist U.S. imperialism or who pursue an alternate path of development for their country are designated as terrorists and sanctioned; resistance organizations in Palestine, Lebanon and Yemen — and even the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — are designated as “terrorist entities” or proscribed. In recent years, these designations have escalated to include grassroots organizations in the imperial core, like Samidoun, the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, or Palestine Action in Britain, which has forced multiple “Israeli” arms factories to shut down. As the popular global rejection of Zionism and imperialism has swelled, the response has been the same internationally — repression, criminalization, sanctions, targeting, isolation and imprisonment.

As we noted at the time of Samidoun’s designation:

“Like the Zionist entity fears the Palestinian resistance, so do the imperialist powers fear the Palestinian diaspora and their supporters that have been rising up again and again, especially since the start of operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the Zionist genocide. They fear a strong, popular movement that threatens their economic and political interests in Palestine and the region.”

Once again, the imperialist powers are making clear that they are more than willing to carry out intense repression, criminalization and imprisonment in order to aid and abet genocide. We urge the movement for Palestine everywhere to rally around all of the targeted individuals and organizations, and to not allow the tactics of state terror and fear to divide us.

Further, it is long past time for all Palestinian, Lebanese and regional resistance organizations — let alone charitable, community, activist and humanitarian initiatives — to be removed from so-called “terrorist lists” — in Italy, in Europe, in the U.S. and around the world. The Palestinian people, and all occupied peoples, have the right to resist their occupation, to defend themselves, to liberate their land, and to organize to achieve those goals.

For the solidarity movement’s work to be meaningful and effective, it must act to support the Palestinian Resistance organizations — and, indeed, to coordinate with them on the broadest possible level. We must redouble our efforts to escalate our resistance and globalize the intifada in the streets of the cities of the world, for the freedom of all of our prisoners in Zionist and imperialist jails, and for the freedom of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Show your solidarity with comrades Jaldia Abubakra and Mohammed Khatib — invite them to speak, share their stories, and demand an end to all of the sanctions on Palestinian organizations and activists.

Join in the protests, actions and mobilizations for the Flotilla, against Zionist piracy, and to free all Palestinian, Lebanese, Arab and international prisoners from Zionist jails, everywhere.

Share the zine, “What to do when you, too, become a terrorist,” developed by Samidoun activists.

The purpose of sanctions and designations is not only to cut off our comrades from payments, work and finances — it is also to divide our movement, to impose fear and terror, and to push activists into imposing U.S. repressive legislation in their own organizations, around the world, beyond its jurisdiction. We must meet sanctions and silencing with loud voices of deepened and escalated resistance, action and mobilization, and truly globalize the intifada — most centrally for the people of Palestine, Lebanon and the resistance of the entire region on the front lines confronting genocide, Zionism and imperialism.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

Day of Palestinian Struggle 1948 – 2026: 78 years of Nakba, 78 years of resistance!

15 May 2026

On 15 May 2026, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins the Palestinian people, the Arab nation, and all of the free people of the world in marking the Day of Palestinian Struggle — a day that commemorates not only 78 years of the ongoing Nakba imposed upon the Palestinian people and the peoples of the region by Zionism and imperialism, but also 78 years of resistance, steadfastness, revolutionary struggle and sacrifice on the road to liberation and return.

Through 78 years of occupation, the “Israeli” entity has gained no legitimacy or sovereignty anywhere in occupied Palestine. There is no place for Zionism in Palestine or the region.

As we mark the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, during which more than 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and lands and over 530 Palestinian villages and towns were destroyed by Zionist militias and colonial forces, we salute all of the martyrs of the Palestinian revolution who have carried the struggle across generations. We pay tribute to the resistance fighters, prisoners, refugees, activists, workers, farmers, fishermen, students, artists, organizers, women, youth and revolutionary leaders who have continuously upheld the banner of a free Palestine from the river to the sea, free from Zionism, colonialism and imperialism.

Zionist Genocide and Ongoing Nakba

Zionism has always been a genocidal project, based on colonial land-grabs, blatant racism, and a settler project designed to erase the Palestinian people. The Nakba of 1947-48 was the manifestation of that genocidal project, just as the ongoing assaults on the Gaza Strip, the settler hordes invading villages as occupation soldiers attack refugee camps in the West Bank, the thousands of armed settlers targeting Al-Aqsa Mosque for destruction, are manifestations of that project. The parades of settlers invading Al-Aqsa waving Zionist flags are engaged not in religious worship but a colonial rampage of hatred that aims to erase Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and Christian identity on the land of Palestine.

The genocidal aggression against Gaza that continues to this day despite the one-sided “ceasefire,” the starvation siege, the destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and refugee camps, the mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians, and the relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank all expose the true nature of the Zionist project as one of elimination, extermination and colonial conquest.

In 1947-48, the Zionist forces established a bulkhead for Western imperialism and sought to destroy Palestinian society. Today, the daily assassinations targeting Palestinian police and security forces in Gaza serve the same end, alongside the ongoing targeting of journalists, doctors and health care workers for assassination and imprisonment.

The Ongoing Nakba as an Imperialist Project

The Nakba was born through British colonialism and sustained through imperialist power, led today by the United States and its allies, including France, Germany, Canada, Australia, and other European powers, who arm, fund and politically shield the Zionist entity while waging war across the region. The ongoing Nakba involves the theft of land and extraction of resources, including natural gas, water, and agricultural products, from Palestinian land, alongside an overt attempt to destroy the Palestinian people.

The imperialist powers not only act in Palestine to direct and sustain Zionist colonialism, they also act within their own borders to aid and abet genocide. This is why they criminalize the Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemeni, Iraqi and Iranian resistance organizations, labeling them “terrorists” or declaring them “proscribed.” This has extended beyond the targeting of the resistance to targeting organizations supporting the Palestinian prisoners — such as Samidoun; those taking direct action against the war machine — like Palestine Action; as well as Palestinian community organizations organizing Palestinians in exile and diaspora and charity institutions providing unconditional support to Palestinians in need as an alternative to imperialist-controlled institutions. There are prisoners in United States, German, Italian, French, British, and even Brazilian jails for their actions for the liberation of Palestine — or even their mere expression of Palestinian identity and rights.

At the same time, Zionist settlers openly organize illegal land theft exhibitions and colonial settlement “real-estate sales” events in Western capitals under the protection of armed police, barricades and “buffer zones” while imperialist states provide arms, intelligence cooperation and unlimited political and diplomatic support to the occupation regime.

The Regional Resistance Confronts “Greater Israel”

From Palestine to Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran, the forces of resistance confronting Zionism and imperialism stand on the front lines of a regional and international battle against colonial domination and fascist aggression. Today, it is clear to all that the Nakba does not end at the borders of occupied Palestine. The term “Nakba”, when coined by Syrian writer Constantin Zureiq, always referred to an Arab catastrophe, and not solely a Palestinian one. Today, as the occupation bombs, attacks and destroys in its attempt to occupy southern Lebanon — confronted powerfully by the might of Hezbollah’s resistance and the steadfastness of the people of the South — as it repeatedly invades and confiscates Syrian land while abducting Syrian citizens, and as it openly declares its intentions for a “Greater Israel,” the path to defeating the imperialist-Zionist assault and bringing an end to the ongoing Nakba lies in unity, mobilization and resistance.

The role of the reactionary Arab regimes and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah stand exposed before our people and the world. These regimes and forces have aligned themselves with imperialism and Zionism, criminalized resistance, collaborated in siege and normalization, and attempted to bury the Palestinian cause beneath the framework of surrender and dependency. Their betrayal has made increasingly clear the dividing line between the camp of resistance and liberation and the camp of imperialism, normalization and capitulation.

The Resistance Confronts the Nakba

Armed resistance remains at the center of this confrontation, and is the primary means of confronting the ongoing Nakba and of fighting for liberation and return. On this Day of Palestinian Struggle, we particularly warn against all efforts to disarm the resistance, in Palestine, in Lebanon, and throughout the region. Demands to disarm the resistance are nothing more than an attempt to render the Palestinian people defenseless in the face of a genocidal enemy and serve only the interests of imperialism and Zionism. The only road to security for Palestine and the people of the region and, indeed the world, is resistance and revolutionary struggle until the defeat of Zionism and imperialism.

As we noted one year ago:

October 7, the great Al-Aqsa Flood, changed the world, irreversibly. This day made clear before the world that it is entirely within our grasp to envision a Palestine free of Zionism and a region free of imperialism, and that this resistance camp is capable of achieving that goal with its own hands.

This was utterly unacceptable to the Zionist project and to the imperialist powers. They aim to make such a revolutionary action – indeed, the date of the beginning of the new Palestinian, Arab, and international revolution – unimaginable due to the river and ocean of blood and rubble they seek to create atop that heroic memory.

At the same time, all of their bombs and billions of dollars in technological equipment unleashed upon the Palestinian people, the Arab people and the people of the region are unable to create their desired results, are unable to defeat the Palestinian people and their unshakeable bond to their land, whether in the homeland or in exile. The decaying nature of the Zionist project and the failure of US imperialism are clearer than ever…It is revealed before the world as a genocidal entity devoid of legitimacy, its mythologies and rhetoric exposed as a machinery of lies…

Despite the assassinations of great leaders, from Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hashem Safieddine to Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Saleh al-Arouri, despite the martyrdom of every precious Palestinian and Arab life taken by the occupier, the resistance renews itself, grows and refuses surrender and compromise, turning the completion of the Nakba into an impossibility, a solid rock on which the Zionist-imperialist genocide will break and shatter.

Palestinian Prisoners Confront Genocide Behind Bars

The ongoing Nakba is inseparable from the attack on the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. Palestinian prisoners today confront systematic torture, starvation, medical neglect, sexual violence, isolation, humiliation and deliberate killing inside Zionist prisons and military camps. The execution laws and fascist legislation advanced by the Zionist regime against Palestinian prisoners are part of the genocidal campaign targeting the Palestinian people as a whole.

From Abdullah Barghouti to Ahmad Sa’adat, Marwan Barghouti, Muammar Shahrour, Hassan Salameh, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Mohammed al-Natsheh, Ibrahim Hamed, Muhannad Shreim, Mohammed Arman, and Jamal Abu al-Haija, the leaders of the prisoners’ movement are being targeted for death through torture and medical negligence, while the “Execution Law” is an attempt to legitimize and escalate the already-existing policy of assassination and genocide behind bars.

The prisons have always been a center of repression, violence and also of resistance and revolutionary struggle and organizing. The history of the imprisonment of Palestinians is that of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement — of escapes, revolts, hunger strikes and exchanges achieved by the Resistance. This is a history that has given hundreds of martyrs amid the imprisonment of over 1 million Palestinians since 1948 and that has developed hundreds and thousands of revolutionary leaders.

The prisoners remain at the forefront of the struggle, standing as leaders and symbols of resistance for the Palestinian cause and for all of the free people of the world. Confronting the ongoing Nakba means fighting for the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners and intensifying the struggle against the prison regime that stands at the heart of Zionist colonial domination.

The Right to Return: Undoing the Nakba

On this Day of Palestinian Struggle, the Palestinian refugees and the right of return continue to hold the keys of liberation in their hands and their hearts. The refugee camps remain living centers of resistance and revolutionary possibility despite decades of siege, impoverishment, displacement and assault. The repeated targeting of refugee camps in Palestine, Lebanon and throughout the diaspora, the deliberate starvation and defunding of Palestinian refugees, and the attacks on UNRWA and refugee institutions are all attempts to erase Palestinian identity and eliminate the right of return.

It is the responsibility of UNRWA and international institutions to reject all attempts by imperialist powers to turn them into frameworks of repression in the camps in Lebanon and elsewhere and to instead defend Palestinian organizing, identity, and expression. Despite all attempts to impose forced migration, starvation through denial of employment rights, siege and targeting, the camps continue to produce generations committed to liberation and return, and the Palestinian people will never surrender their homeland. It is the responsibility of not only the Palestinian people but of all who stand with Palestine to support the refugees and sustain their steadfastness on the road of return, from the impoverished Palestinians in the camps of Lebanon to the over 70% of Palestinians in Gaza who are themselves refugees.

International Movement and The Responsibility to Act

On the Day of Palestinian Struggle, an international day for action and mobilization, this is a moment that demands action and escalation. Around the world, our movements, political parties, unions and organizations have a responsibility to become the international popular arms of the resistance through organizing, political education, direct action, mobilization, boycott campaigns, labor struggle and confrontation with the institutions that sustain Zionism and imperialism, including escalated confrontation of the war machine. The growing global uprising in solidarity with Palestine has exposed the Zionist entity before the eyes of the world and shattered decades of colonial propaganda. The task now is to escalate, deepen and globalize the Intifada, particularly in the heart of the imperial core.

The Day of Palestinian Struggle is not merely a day of remembrance: it is a day to resist, organize, escalate and fight. There is only one solution: a liberated Palestine from the river to the sea. There is no future for the Zionist entity in Palestine. Return and liberation are on the horizon, carried forward by the steadfastness of the prisoners, the resistance of the fighters, the determination of the refugees, and the mobilization of the free people of the world.

Glory to the martyrs.
Freedom for the prisoners.
Victory to the resistance.
Long live the international struggle for the liberation of Palestine.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

They Cannot Execute Palestinian Resistance: Samidoun denounces new Zionist law targeting Al-Aqsa Flood prisoners

14 May 2026

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemns in the strongest possible terms the newest genocidal execution law adopted by the Zionist Knesset on 12 May 2026, targeting the imprisoned fighters of Al-Aqsa Flood. Passed by a margin of 93 votes — an even larger majority than the so-called “Prisoners’ Execution Law” adopted on 30 March 2026 — this latest racist and colonial law is yet another escalation in the Zionist regime’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, including the genocide being carried out behind bars against Palestinian prisoners.

The law specifically targets approximately 250 imprisoned Palestinian alleged resistance fighters from Gaza, labeled by the occupation as the “Nukhba” prisoners, many of whom are held in the notorious Rakevet section of Ramle prison under conditions of systematic torture, starvation, isolation and abuse. At the same time, this legislation is part of a broader campaign targeting over 1,400 Palestinians from Gaza abducted and imprisoned since October 2023, many of whom have disappeared into torture camps such as Sde Teiman and secret detention facilities where the occupation has attempted to conceal its crimes from the world.

The families of the fighters of 7 October 2023 do not know if their sons are prisoners or martyrs; their fate has been hidden from the world. It also must be noted that it is likely that among those imprisoned as resistance fighters are Palestinian civilians from Gaza who entered occupied Palestine ’48 when the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, carried out by the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades and fellow Palestinian resistance organizations, breached the colonially imposed borders and opened the fences and gates to occupied Palestine.

This law establishes public Zionist military courts in occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem), designed not to pursue justice, but to stage colonial show trials intended to criminalize the Palestinian resistance before international public opinion. It discards basic rules of procedure and evidence, legitimizes testimony and “confessions” extracted under torture, and openly enshrines torture as a legal foundation of conviction and execution. These courts are not courts of law; they are instruments of colonial terror and genocide, created to manufacture death sentences against Palestinian freedom fighters. Of course, this is nothing new. Imprisoned Palestinians daily face Zionist military tribunals — including at least 700 Palestinian children each year — which routinely rely on torture and act openly as a weapon in the hands of the genocidal occupation forces. However, now the military tribunals are being taken from the darkness of colonial prisons to market a fictitious narrative before the international and Zionist public.

The Zionist regime seeks to invert reality and distort the image of the resistance. In one of the most outrageous colonial inversions, the genocidal Zionist entity plans to charge the Palestinian resistance fighters with “genocide,” among other crimes, when they are instead the victims of genocide, moved to resist by over 78 years of occupation and colonization. The imprisoned fighters of Al-Aqsa Flood are resistance fighters engaged in the legitimate struggle of an occupied people confronting settler-colonialism, apartheid, occupation and genocide. Under international law, occupied peoples have the right to resist colonial domination and foreign occupation by all available means — and the International Criminal Court and all other international bodies and courts have the responsibility to hold the occupation’s political leaders and officials accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity — first and foremost, genocide.

No racist colonial court, no genocidal law, and no imperialist power can erase this fundamental reality: the fighters who took up the great crossing on 7 October 2023 are heroes to the Palestinian people and to all people of the world who stand for justice and human dignity against Zionism and imperialism. With their deep faith, their love for their people and Palestine, they undertook their mission, prepared for martyrdom in order to open a new stage of struggle.

The breathtaking tactical offensive of Al-Aqsa Flood stunned the Zionist military and exhibited before the world that its vaunted intelligence network could indeed be defeated by the resistance; it responded with confusion and incompetence, then carried out the “Hannibal directive,” bombing resistance fighters and groups of “Israelis” alike in order to prevent prisoners from being captured by the resistance for exchange. The Zionist military fired tank shells and missiles from Apache helicopters at the kibbutzes and music festival attendees. It exhibited its failure from beginning to end, while the Palestinian resistance carried out a planned military operation targeting key military bases, destroying intelligence resources and capturing soldiers and settlers for prisoner exchanges. 7 October, Al-Aqsa Flood, showed the world that it was indeed possible for Palestine to be liberated from Zionism and for the entire region to be liberated from imperialism, led by the United States along with its partners in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, and other EU countries.

The Zionist entity and the imperialist powers not only unleashed an openly genocidal assault on the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza, avowing their commitment to erase Palestinian existence, but also launched an extensive, expensive propaganda campaign that has included Hollywood films, museum exhibitions, backed up by their bombs and weaponry, to distort the image of the resistance and cover up the crimes and failure of the entity. This has included the repeated, baseless and debunked accusations of mass rape and sexual assault against the Palestinian resistance, while in reality, imprisoned Palestinians are subjected to systematic, state-sponsored sexual violence and rape, including with implements and animals. Any attempt to hold occupation soldiers accountable for this sexual violence has been met with both the infamous “right-to-rape riots” as well as the open welcoming back to the military of the accused by Zionist war minister Israel Katz. The show trials created by this law are an attempt to once again market before the world this failed smear campaign against the Palestinian resistance, while evading the Zionist public’s own questions about the failure of the military and intelligence agencies to detect or stop Al-Aqsa Flood.

In reality, this legislation is part and parcel of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine. As the occupation massacres tens of thousands, destroys hospitals, schools and refugee camps, imposes starvation and siege, and assassinates Palestinian leaders, journalists, doctors and children, it now seeks to formalize judicial executions against imprisoned resistance fighters. The occupation has long pursued the assassination and martyrdom of prisoners through torture, medical neglect, starvation and abuse. This law aims to normalize and institutionalize those crimes under the cover of colonial legality.

The conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners from Gaza in Rakevet, Sde Teiman and other torture facilities expose the reality of the Zionist prison regime. Survivors and released detainees have testified to horrific torture, beatings, sexual violence, electrocution, starvation, denial of medical care, shackling for prolonged periods, humiliation and psychological abuse. Numerous Palestinian prisoners abducted from Gaza have already been martyred in occupation prisons and camps since October 2023, while the occupation continues to conceal the names and conditions of many detainees from their families and the broader Palestinian people. There are approximately 1,400 Palestinians from Gaza amid 9,600 Palestinian prisoners held in horrific conditions inside Zionist jails.

These crimes are not carried out by the Zionist entity alone. The United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France and other colonial powers arm, finance, defend and politically shield the occupation regime, and these imperialist powers bear direct responsibility for its crimes. Imperialist powers not only sanction and criminalize resistance organizations, but also imprison, arrest and pursue their own citizens and residents for expressing support for the Palestinian resistance, seeking to undermine the resistance by criminalizing any expression of solidarity — part of the same material and narrative war..

This law, like the parallel Prisoners’ Execution Law, also reflects the occupation’s deep fear of prisoner exchange agreements and the central role of Palestinian prisoners in the liberation struggle. Once again, it seeks to declare that these “Nukhba prisoners” will never be released by a prisoner exchange conducted by the Palestinian resistance. However, prisoner exchanges have never been a matter of law, but instead exist outside the la as urgent questions of security. Palestinian prisoners have always stood at the forefront of resistance, and prisoner exchanges imposed through resistance have repeatedly broken the occupation’s attempts to bury Palestinian fighters alive in its prisons — and this law will not undermine the commitment of the resistance to the imprisoned strugglers.

The heroic Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian and Arab prisoners, women and men, in the prisons of the Zionist enemy will remain a symbol of dignity, honor and pride for the Palestinian people and all the free people of the world. They remain the spearhead of the resistance and of Palestine in every confrontation. The enemy, its sadistic leaders and its illegitimate colonial courts will never strip them of their status as freedom fighters and leaders of the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network emphasizes that this law is an illegitimate declaration by an illegitimate entity. We call upon all people of conscience, movements, organizations and forces struggling for liberation worldwide to escalate action — to globalize the intifada — in defense of Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian people.

We call for:

* The complete international isolation of the Zionist entity and all of its institutions, including the “Knesset” and the courts and legal system, mechanisms of colonial occupation;

* Escalated direct action, mass mobilization and popular confrontation with Zionism and imperialism worldwide;

* The prosecution and trial of Zionist occupation leaders and soldiers, and all complicit imperialist officials for genocide, torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the escalation of all official and popular legal efforts to impose that accountability in national and international courts;

* The defense of the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation and colonialism;

* The immediate closure of torture camps and prisons including Sde Teiman and Rakevet;

* The liberation of all Palestinian prisoners from Zionist, imperialist and reactionary prisons.

The struggle for the liberation of Palestinian prisoners is inseparable from the struggle to liberate Palestine itself, from the river to the sea. No execution law, no prison, no torture camp and no colonial court will defeat the resistance or extinguish the Palestinian people’s struggle for return and liberation.

Freedom for all Palestinian prisoners.

Glory to the martyrs.

Victory to the resistance.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Palestinian prisoner Riyad Albustanji denied medical care in Italian prison

11 May 2026

Palestinian prisoner Riyad Albustanji — imprisoned in Italy in pretrial detention since 27 December 2025, alongside fellow Palestinian community leaders Mohammed Hannoun, Raed Dawoud, and Yaser Elasaly — is currently suffering from serious health problems. However, Albustanji, 60, a Palestinian sheikh, held in the high-security section of Rossano prison in Calabria, is being systematically denied medical care and treatment, despite the requests of his lawyers for medical visits for diabetes, prostate problems, and other serious physical conditions.

Albustanji’s lawyers, Marian Prosperi and Fausto Gianelli, have reported the health emergency to the regional Italian ombudsman for prisoners and requested an immediate hospital visit; they have filed direct petitions with the prosecutor’s office to receive treatment and a medical examination outside prison. In a video conference where Albustanji appeared, he was losing vision in one of his eyes; nonetheless, he continues to be denied medical care as the appeals of his lawyers have gone ignored, with no response for two months despite the urgency of the situation. Member of European Parliament Mimmo Lucano also visited Albustanji in Rossano prison, urging he receive immediate medical care; when leaving the prison, he said: “Their only crime is that they are Palestinians and they want to show solidarity with their people, who for three years now have been victims of a criminal genocide at the hands of Israel. Their detention is absurd and inconceivable, when I too am guilty of the crime of Palestine.”

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of justice to act to put pressure on the Italian legal and carceral system to immediately provide medical care for Sheikh Riyad Albustanji and all other prisoners. This form of medical mistreatment and neglect is a dangerous indication that Italy is mirroring the practices of the Zionist entity towards imprisoned Palestinians jailed because of their support for Gaza against genocide and Palestinian liberation — systematic medical neglect and mistreatment that has caused the martyrdom of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails.

Albustanji, Hannoun (the president of the Association of Palestinians in Italy), Dawoud and Elasaly have been imprisoned since 27 December 2025, when Italian special police carried out a series of raids on their homes and offices, accompanied by high-profile media releases and promotions of the arrests. The seven Palestinians arrested, all prominent leaders of the Palestinian community in Italy and well-known for their involvement in both providing direct aid and support to Palestinians under occupation and in the refugee camps, as well as in the mass movement against U.S.-Zionist genocide and Italian imperialist complicity, were accused of funding the Palestinian resistance.

The government’s case has already begun to fall apart. Three of the arrested Palestinians, Adel Abu Rawwa, Khalil Abu Deiah and Raed Salahat, have been released after courts excluded the “evidence” against them, that relied primarily on dubious intelligence information and alleged stolen documents from Gaza by the Zionist occupation regime. The ABSPP (Beneficial Association in Support of the Palestinian People) in Milan reopened its offices two weeks ago after another higher court found that the arrest of Hannoun was based on the same illegitimate basis — the dubious Zionist documents; nevertheless, Hannoun, Dawoud, Elasaly and Albustanji remain imprisoned, often in maximum-security facilities, while being denied medical care.

This video features Falastin, Raed Dawoud’s daughter, at the reopening of the ABSPP office:

The Zionist entity, Zionist organizations, and the United States, have long been engaged in a campaign of defamation and intimidation against the ABSPP, seeking to cut off a successful, popular stream of independent aid and support to Palestinians, especially those confronting genocide in Gaza. This included U.S. sanctions, with the label of “Specially Designated Global Terrorist,” imposed on Hannoun and the ABSPP. By denying Palestinians independent aid from their own community, the U.S. and “Israel” maintain the ability to control access to money, food, and basic necessities.

Hannoun, Dawoud, Elasaly and Albustanji are not the only Palestinian prisoners in Italy. Anan Yaeesh, from Tulkarem, was sentenced to five years and six months in Italian prison in January 2026. Accused of supporting Palestinian resistance in the West Bank through the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Yaeesh turned his trial into a platform to defend the Palestinian right to resist. Meanwhile, Ahmad Salem, a Palestinian refugee born in Baddawi camp in Lebanon, was sentenced to four years in prison on 19 April 2026, accused of “training himself” by having publicly widely circulated resistance videos on his phone, and recording himself calling for Arabs to take action against the imperialist-Zionist genocide. He was arrested when his phone was searched after he applied for asylum in Italy. Both Yaeesh and Salem are appealing these injustices.

Italy is not alone in this regard; imperialist states, including the United States, Germany, Britain, France, and Belgium, continue to imprison Palestinians and activists for Palestine for their action to end the genocide or even for their identity alone. This is part and parcel of the imperialist participation and direction of the Zionist genocide of the Palestinian people, meant to suppress the Palestinian people’s movement outside Palestine in exile and diaspora as well as the burgeoning international solidarity movement. It is part of the same framework of imprisonment under which 9600 Palestinians are held in Zionist jails, facing extreme forms of torture, abuse and starvation as well as the new “Prisoners’ Execution Law,” and their circumstances — and their resistance — require all of our action.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges immediate medical treatment and independent care for Riyad Albustanji, as well as the immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners in Zionist and imperialist jails. We urge the broadest mobilization to drop all of the charges against Albustanji, Hannoun, Dawoud, Elasaly and their fellow Palestinians and to secure their immediate liberation, as well as the escalation of the global movement, including and especially direct action, to confront the Zionist-imperialist genocide and aggression in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran and throughout the region, and to liberate all Palestinian, Lebanese and Arab prisoners in Zionist jails.

The release of Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Ávila: Resistance breaking the silence and continuing to confront the siege on Gaza

10 May 2026

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network congratulates Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Ávila upon their release following their illegal abduction by Zionist forces in international waters while participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla heading to Gaza to challenge the criminal blockade imposed on the Palestinian people.

Their release was the direct result of international popular mobilization, protests organized in numerous countries, and the resistance maintained by the activists themselves during their detention, including an ongoing hunger strike until their liberation. This victory once again demonstrates that popular pressure and international solidarity have an impact, and that organized struggle can win victories even against one of the most violent colonial regimes in the world and its imperialist sponsors.

During their captivity, Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Ávila denounced conditions of isolation, abuse and mistreatment. In Saif’s case, his response was to launch a hunger and water strike, taking up once again one of the most important historic tools developed by the Palestinian prisoners’ movement inside Zionist prisons to defend their dignity and secure their most basic rights.

For decades, the hunger strike has been a central form of Palestinian resistance behind bars, used in the face of torture, isolation, administrative detention and the systematic denial of fundamental rights. Through his decision, Saif once again placed at the center the struggle of Palestinian prisoners and the historic role they have played as an essential part of the Palestinian liberation movement.

In his first statements after regaining his freedom, Saif reminded the world that there remain thousands of Palestinian prisoners — girls, boys, women and men — subjected daily to conditions of torture, hunger, medical neglect and systematic violence in Zionist prisons. He further emphasized that the conditions he and Thiago experienced are far less severe than those faced every day by Palestinian prisoners.

We insist that the global mobilization for the release of Saif and Thiago must not stop but must instead grow for the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners jailed by the Zionist regime, as well as Lebanese and Arab prisoners detained in its prisons, as well as the Palestinian prisoners and the prisoners for Palestine held in imperialist prisons around the world.

Meanwhile, the Global Sumud Flotilla has resumed its voyage, accompanied by the land-based Sumud Caravan crossing North Africa toward Gaza in order to break the illegal and genocidal blockade and challenge the attempt to isolate the Palestinian people.

The words of Saif Abu Keshek following his release summarize the profound meaning of this struggle: international solidarity must continue to grow until the siege on Gaza is broken, the prisoners are freed, and complete liberation of Palestine is achieved, from the river to the sea.

Samidoun warns against the occupation’s attempts to use “Red Cross visits” to silence Palestinian prisoners’ voices

9 May 2026

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network warned of the dangers of the Zionist occupation’s announcement purporting to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to enter the prisons and detention centers where Palestinian prisoners are held captive, without allowing it to conduct direct, face-to-face meetings with them. This purported announcement of ICRC visits is nothing but a sham; it does not represent the restoration of the Red Cross’s humanitarian role in relation to the Palestinian prisoners, but rather an attempt to restrict it and transform it into a witness of only what the jailer wishes to be seen.

The issue of the denial of Red Cross visits to the Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners is not merely whether an international institution can enter prison buildings, but whether it can access the truth from its primary source, the prisoners themselves, who constitute the most important party in any humanitarian or human rights monitoring process. The network added that excluding them from the visit means that the occupation seeks to manage the scene rather than expose reality.

The network stated that the occupation is attempting, at this stage, to produce a political and media outlet that reduces the growing pressure against it amid wide-scale international condemnation and rejection, despite the ongoing support and cover provided by the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Britain and other imperialist powers, without paying any real price or making any serious commitment to stop the assaults and violations taking place inside the prisons. On the contrary, the occupation boasts about its crimes against the prisoners, with notorious fascist Itamar Ben-Gvir marking his birthday with a cake featuring a noose, as war minister Israel Katz openly celebrates occupation soldiers who raped Palestinian prisoners.

The announced step includes neither clear guarantees nor independent oversight, nor does it genuinely enable international bodies to know what is happening to imprisoned Palestinians — it is only the prisoners themselves who can accurately convey their experiences and reveal the truth of their suffering.

Any purported role for the ICRC that lacks independence, confidentiality, and the ability to listen to prisoners becomes a role stripped of impact, not merely unhelpful but actively harmful. In practice, this serves the occupation’s desire to manage the crisis instead of ending it, and containing international outrage while actively continuing and escalating the very genocidal actions that are the spark for that outrage.

The network added that treating prisoners as invisible people, unheard by anyone and unable to have their testimonies reach the world, is a direct extension of the occupation’s policy of isolation imposed upon them, a policy that extends beyond walls and prisons to silencing their voices and preventing their families and international institutions from learning the truth about their conditions.

Accepting any incomplete or restricted visits for the ICRC constitutes a dangerous precedent, allowing the occupation to impose new rules on international humanitarian work, whereby it determines who the Red Cross may see and who it may not see, what may be documented and what must be concealed. This represents a direct assault on the very concept of humanitarian oversight itself as represented by the ICRC.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges the International Committee of the Red Cross to reject any arrangement that does not guarantee its full right to meet Palestinian prisoners directly and confidentially. This issue is a fundamental test of the credibility of its humanitarian role, rather than merely an administrative procedure or a protocol visit.

We also call upon all human rights forces, solidarity movements, and international institutions not to give the occupation an opportunity to use this step as a false message of reassurance. It stressed that what is required is real pressure to force the opening of the prisons to genuine oversight, expose the fate of the prisoners and the conditions of their detention, and put an end to policies of abuse, isolation, and deprivation – on the road to the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners, and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

The freedom and dignity of prisoners cannot be reduced to arrangements determined by the occupation according to its own interests, and that any international action that does not begin with the voice of the prisoner and end with protecting them and holding their torturers accountable will remain incapable of fulfilling even the bare minimum of its humanitarian and human rights obligations.

Wa’ed Association: The occupation is attempting to use the ICRC to cover up the reality of the prisoners’ suffering

9 May 2026

In a statement released on Saturday, 9 May 2026, the Wa’ed Association stated that the Israeli occupation’s announcement that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) would be allowed to enter the prisons where Palestinian prisoners are held captive, without permitting direct meetings with the prisoners themselves, does not represent a genuine response to humanitarian and human rights demands. Rather, it is an attempt to circumvent the scale of the crimes and violations being committed inside the prisons.

Wa’ed affirmed that the essence of the ICRC’s role lies in reaching the prisoner as the holder of his or her testimony, story and rights, not merely relying on the narratives selectively presented and directed by the prison administration. The association stressed that silencing the voices of the prisoners means concealing the fundamental truth about the repression, torture, starvation, medical neglect, and physical and psychological abuse they are subjected to.

The association added that the occupation is seeking through this step to absorb growing international pressure and present a fabricated image of prison conditions, at a time when testimonies and evidence concerning the crimes committed against imprisoned Palestinian men and women, through unprecedented retaliatory policies, continue to escalate.

Waed stressed that any entry by the Red Cross into the prisons that does not guarantee private and confidential meetings with prisoners, and listening to their testimonies away from the supervision of the jailer, will remain incapable of fulfilling its humanitarian and monitoring role, and may instead become a tool in the hands of the occupation to reduce its exposure before the eyes of the world and shield it from condemnation.

The Wa’ed Association called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to reject this deceptive step and not allow the occupation to turn it into a tool in the hands of Netanyahu and his government to reduce their isolation and polish their image before the world. The association emphasized that any visit that does not guarantee direct meetings with prisoners and the ability to hear their testimonies freely will become a free service to the occupation at the expense of the prisoners’ blood, suffering, and the crimes committed against them.

Wa’ed questioned how any partial or incomplete visit could be presented as a humanitarian development while the traces of the prisoners’ blood, torture, and humiliation still bear witness to what has taken place inside the prisons. The association stressed that such measures cannot erase the crime or grant its perpetrators an opportunity to escape accountability.

Wa’ed affirmed that what is required from the Red Cross today is to restore its real and effective role, not only in the prisoners’ file, but in restoring meaning to humanity itself, through a clear position rejecting the manipulation of its role, insisting on the right of direct access to prisoners, documenting their suffering, protecting their dignity, and conveying their voices to the world.

The association called on human rights and international institutions not to treat the occupation’s announcement as a genuine transformation in the prisoners’ file, emphasizing that the real test lies in enabling international institutions to hear the voice of the prisoner himself, expose the reality of what is taking place inside the detention centers, and hold the occupation accountable for its systematic violations.

Wa’ed concluded by affirming that Palestinian prisoners do not need propaganda scenes serving the jailer’s narrative, but rather real international oversight, clear guarantees, and serious action to stop the crimes committed against them and restore their rights to protection, dignity, and justice.

Wa’ed Association:

The occupation’s announcement allowing the Red Cross to enter prisons without meeting the prisoners is an attempt to circumvent and cover up the crimes and violations committed against them.
Excluding the voices of prisoners from any Red Cross visit means concealing the fundamental truth about the torture, starvation, and medical neglect they are subjected to.
The occupation is attempting to absorb international pressure by presenting a fabricated image of prison conditions amid growing testimonies regarding its retaliatory policies.
Any entry by the Red Cross into the prisons without private and confidential meetings with prisoners will remain incapable of fulfilling its humanitarian and monitoring role.
We call on the Red Cross to reject this deceptive step and not allow the occupation to turn it into a tool in the hands of Netanyahu and his government to polish its image.
Any visit that does not guarantee direct and free listening to prisoners’ testimonies will become a free service to the occupation at the expense of the prisoners’ blood and suffering.
Prisoners do not need propaganda scenes serving the jailer’s narrative, but rather real international oversight and serious action to stop the crimes committed against them.

Brussels: Fourth edition of Resistance Festival opens this weekend to mark 78 years of Palestinian Resistance

8 May 2026

The Resistance Festival in Brussels, Belgium, will open its doors for its fourth edition today, Friday, 8 May, for a series of performances, discussions, sports activities and demonstrations stretching through Saturday, 10 May. The annual festival celebrates the resistance of the Palestinian people while commemorating 78 years of ongoing Nakba, marking the Day of Palestinian Struggle with cultural and political struggle in the European capital.

Dozens of organizations participate in the annual festival, which includes children’s activities, t-shirt printing, a political village with tabling, materials and merchandise, and Palestinian and other cultural food, as well as panels, a football tournament, workshops, and a boxing training. The festival has faced repeated attacks by Zionist organizations attempting to ban the annual event. This year, the Festival’s central home is LaVallée at Rue Adolphe Lavallée 39 in Molenbeek, Brussels. The program begins at 3 pm on Friday, 8 May, with poetry performances, followed at 6 pm by a major panel: Anti-Imperialism, Anti-Colonialism and Internationalism Today, with speakers Momodou Taal, Al Fedai Media Network, Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization, Collectif Memoire Coloniale et Lutte Contre les Discriminations and Brigade Panafricaine Palestine, from 6 pm to 8 pm. This will be followed, from 8:30 pm to 10 pm, by a special discussion on rising resistance today, with Mohammed Khatib, Europe coordinator of Samidoun, and Dyab Abou Jahjah, founder and president of the Hind Rajab Foundation. The evening will close with a Palestinian musical performance by Dima Muqbel.

The Resistance Festival events will continue at LaVallée on Saturday, 9 May, beginning at 12 pm with a special student panel, discussion and strategy session on The Student Intifada: Two Years On, with Momodou Taal, UPB, Jabalia Hall, Refaat Al-Areer Encampment, CGU Leeds and Tariq el-Tahrir. This session is accompanied, at 2 pm, by a workshop run by ZIN TV on the need for cultural boycott of the Zionist entity. At 4 pm, the program continues with a panel discussion on Palestinian prisoners and prisoners for Palestine, with Samidoun, the Liberez Ali campaign, the Free Lebanese Prisoners campaign and the Dismantle Damon campaign. Starting at 5 pm and running through 2 am, the evening program will include musical and dane performances by Yallah Dabke, Salma Al-Hakim and Alejandro, Achille and Tmoin, Issa Murad and Osloob, Trab Terapy, Sidi Wacho, Hishek Bishek, Stranger Souma, and more.

The final day of the Festival is Sunday, 10 May. Events begin at 12 noon with outdoor activities: a football tournament co-hosted with Gaza Stars at Parc Beco, and popular boxing with L’OUPSI Boxing Club. At 3 pm, events begin again at LaVallée, with a workshop on the responsibility of the diaspora for the liberation of Palestine, and followed by a theatre excerpt of “Ravage tout court” by Adeline Rosenstein, a film screening of R21 AKA Restoring Solidarity by Muhannad Yaqubi, and concluding with a final panel on the responsibility of artists and cultural institutions in the struggle against colonialism, with Adeline Rosenstein, Muhannad Yaqubi, Esperanzah, Exile et Creation and Hala from Palettes of Palestine.

The festival expressed its full solidarity with Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Avila, the Freedom Flotilla activists and leaders from the Global Sumud Flotilla abducted and imprisoned in Zionist prisons. Saif Abu Keshek had been scheduled as one of the featured speakers at the Festival prior to his abduction.

The festival is free and open to all — come to La Vallee to join in the events and the weekend of anti-imperialist and anti-colonial solidarity and resistance for Palestinian liberation!

Media campaign demands freedom for Lebanese prisoners in Zionist jails

7 May 2026

In support of Lebanese prisoners held captive in Zionist prisons, and in solidarity with their steadfastness and confrontation of the jailers, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, in collaboration with the International Campaign to Free Lebanese Prisoners, launched a media campaign to highlight the prisoners and their stories with large billboards on the Old Airport Road (Imam Khomeini Boulevard) in Beirut, Lebanon.

This initiative is part of a number of popular efforts aimed at highlighting the situation of Lebanese prisoners in “Israeli” prisons and exposing the ongoing violations against them, amidst continued international silence regarding their suffering. The Zionist entity has refused to acknowledge it is holding these abducted Lebanese in multiple cases, continues to deny them access to lawyers and even the International Committee of the Red Cross, and has imprisoned many of the at least 29 Lebanese captives in the infamous underground “Rakevet” wing of Ayalon prison. They are held alongside over 9600 Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails — subject to torture, abuse, medical neglect and mistreatment and starvation, at the hands of an illegitimate occupying entity.

The imprisonment of these Lebanese prisoners is part and parcel of the ongoing Zionist attacks and overt violations of the “ceasefire” in Lebanon, accompanied by ongoing bombings, assassinations, and attempts to occupy and erase the villages and population of South Lebanon, which has already displaced over a million Lebanese. Hezbollah, the Lebanese Resistance, continues its battle to defend Lebanon, its people, and the South from these genocidal Zionist forces. It continues this Resistance as the United States is attempting to coerce Lebanon into “direct negotiations” with the same Zionist enemy daily murdering and imprisoning Lebanese citizens and occupying Lebanese land, while the U.S. provides intelligence information, military aid and support, and direct weaponry for the Zionist war against Lebanon and its people.

The Resistance has clearly enumerated five points for a real ceasefire, including the liberation of the prisoners from Zionist jails, as well as a permanent end to the aggression in all of Lebanon, by air, land, and sea; withdrawal of the “israeli” enemy from the occupied territories up to the border; the return of all displaced people and families to their villages and towns up to the border; and reconstruction with international and Arab support and national responsibility.

This media campaign aims to express an ongoing and intensified public commitment to the prisoners’ cause and the steadfastness of their honorable and patient families, as a matter of liberation and human dignity. The revolutionary struggle for their freedom will remain present in the field, on the streets, and at all levels, until their liberation.

The media initiative is part of a broader campaign of popular and media activities at both the national and international levels, aimed at keeping the issue of the Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners alive in the public consciousness and strengthening popular solidarity with their steadfastness inside the occupation’s prisons.

Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network