On November 27 at 2 pm, we will demonstrate together with the Palestinian Coordination Group – Gothenburg and many others against the state of Israel’s “terror” desgination of Palestinian civil society organizations!
We demand that the Swedish government immediately condemn the “terror” designation and ensure that all financial support to the affected organizations arrives!
Protest with us against the Israeli occupation’s latest terrorist attack on the Palestinian people!
Confront the Israeli apartheid state and its terrorism against the Palestinian people!
Confront the criminal Swedish state that participates in the oppression of Palestinians, in Palestine and in Sweden!
27 november klockan 14 manifesterar vi tillsammans med Palestinska Samordningsgruppen – Göteborg och många andra mot staten Israels terrorstämpling av palestinska civilsamhällesorganisationer!
Vi kräver att Sveriges regering omedelbart fördömer terrorstämplingen och säkerställer att allt ekonomiskt stöd till de drabbade organisationerna kommer fram!
Protestera med oss mot ockupationsmakten Israels senaste terrorangrepp på det palestinska folket!
Motstånd mot den israeliska apartheidstaten och dess terrorisering av Palestinas folk!
Motstånd mot den medbrottsliga svenska staten som deltar i förtrycket av palestinier, i Palestina och i Sverige!
The following message was written by Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons on the death of Samah Idriss, Lebanese Arab revolutionary intellectual. The editor-in-chief of Al-Adab magazine, Samah Idriss was the co-founder of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon. In his speech to the Masar Badil (Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path) conference in Beirut on 30 October of this year, he declared, “If we abandon Palestine, we abandon ourselves.”
We republish in full the letter from Palestinian prisoners:
The prisoners’ message in memory of Samah Idriss
It is an unusual morning, when the news of your departure comes to sink its teeth into the delicateness of love and emotion, the morning turns into sunset and your soul sets there, Samah. We remain in its shade as it flutters and fills the space on this exceptional morning. The news of the tragedy of your departure replaces for now our thoughts of liberation and freedom. Your absence keeps us transfixed in time, we look around us and remember you, and we still need your words and your committed, principled positions. We are still in the middle of the road to freedom, Samah.
Your news has traveled and reached us as the dew drops fade from the prison fences and bars. With it, our feelings crept in, and we felt the wound of losing you publicly. We want you to hear our last cry, you, who always spoke with our voice and our screams, or perhaps we want to bid you farewell with a whisper of screaming.
Our words will certainly reach you. We are in the prisons of the Zionist colonizer, and we wanted to meet you. You can see and, as you taught us, the journey is still long, and our lamp still needs a lot of oil, so why have you left now?!
Samah, we know that you have not left the mountain. You are as a mountain in your stances, and your steps are engraved in the path of this long journey. You are our beloved comrade, a companion on the hard path of struggle, a friend on the long road. Your body has left us, but your spirit will remain an inspiration to us. Your words and your positions are a beacon that we raise, debate and discuss as we walk. We will keep walking, comrade, until we get there.
From behind bars, behind walls, behind fences, in the clutches of the Zionists, we salute your family, your loved ones, your comrades and your companions. We mourn you with pride and admiration, and the highest commitment to the struggle. We mourn you as a writer, an intellectual, a comrade, and a fighter for the freedom for which you died. Sleep with clear eyes, and know that the road to freedom will never be cut off for free people.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns the passing of comrade Samah Idriss this evening, 25 November, in Beirut. Samah Idriss was committed throughout his life, until his last moments, to the liberation of Palestine, the Arab people and the people of the world. He was a writer, publisher, editor, thinker, editor-in-chief of Al-Adab magazine and co-founder of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon.
He was committed to see the liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Lebanese struggler imprisoned in France for over 37 years, from colonial prisons, and the liberation of all Palestinian, Arab and international political prisoners. He constantly amplified the voices of Palestinian political prisoners in the pages of Al-Adab, and his work is known among the prisoners themselves. Both Georges Abdallah and Ahmad Sa’adat sent letters greeting him as he passed through weeks of difficult health struggle in recent days.
Whenever a Samidoun delegation, or one of our affiliate organizations, for example the delegation of Collectif Palestine Vaincra, came to Lebanon, Samah was a constant source of support, inspiration and continuing struggle – and deep education about the historical roots and the future of Palestinian and Arab liberation. He never hesitated to help and get involved in any just struggle or cause.
His commitment to the Arabic language, not only in its formal aspects, but as a part of a living political struggle for liberation, lives on in the pages of his writing and in the legacy of his work.
We salute you, comrade Samah Idriss. Rest in power — your ideas and commitment march on towards victory.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has joined with the Canadian BDS Coalition, Canada Palestine Association, Just Peace Advocates, Oakville Palestine Rights Association and Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) for the following action alert. Demand the Canadian government take action for Palestinian prisoners!
Take a minute to write to Prime Minister Trudeau, Global Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly with copy to all members of parliament to let them know you demand Canada hold Israel accountable under domestic and international law.
As our parliament is back in session in Ottawa, let elected officials know that you are concerned about ongoing war crimes committed by Israel, including specifically against Palestinian prisoners.
Several Palestinian prisoners are facing an increasingly urgent health crisis as they continue their hunger strike to end administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. These prisoners have been forced to go without food or nutrition in order to seek justice or bring an end to their time behind bars.
It is important we make Canadian politicians aware of the current situation. Certainly, they will not hear about it in the media.
Realizing there are new members of parliament, it is especially important to remind all of our elected officials that Canada, as a high signatory of the Fourth Geneva Convention, is responsible under Article 1 for ensuring the Convention is upheld in all cases.
Regarding prisoners, this means Canada needs to take action to hold Israel accountable when there are no safeguards for proper trial and defence, when prisoners are removed from the occupied territory, when prisoners are not treated humanely and with respect, and when prisoners are treated violently. Regrettably, these are the norm for Palestinian prisoners, and so Canada is responsible under international law to hold Israel accountable for these violations of international law.
Under the Special Economics Measures Act, Canada is also responsible domestically for ensuring sanctions are in place when there are systemic and gross violation of human rights. Call on Canada to put sanctions on Israel until it complies with international law and human rights.
Student Prisoners
Earlier this year, over 350 organizations world-wide including many in Canada endorsed the call #FreePalestinianStudents. One Palestinian prisoner who just ended his hunger strike, Miqdad Qawasmeh, is a student jailed without charge or trial, who went without food for 111 days in order to bring his detention to an end. Meanwhile, students continue to be arrested and imprisoned on a daily basis for their participation in student activities on their campuses. Even events like book fairs and food sales have been criminalized by the Israeli occupation.
Palestine’s Children and Military Law
On June 18, 2021, Liberal Member of Parliament for Scarborough Center presented a parliamentary petition signed by almost 5,000 people calling for an urgent study by the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development to review Israel’s treatment of children in Israeli occupied Palestine and compliance with its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The government did not respond prior to the election so a new parliamentary petition petition E-3608 has been put in place and is available to sign HERE.
What is administrative detention?
Administrative detention was first used in Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist regime; it is now used routinely to target Palestinians, especially community leaders, activists, and influential people in their towns, camps and villages.
There are currently approximately 520 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of 4,650 Palestinian political prisoners. These orders are issued by the military and approved by military courts on the basis of “secret evidence”, denied to both Palestinian detainees and their attorneys. Issued for up to six months at a time, they are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians — including minor children — can spend years jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention.
Who are the prisoners on strike?
1. Hisham Ismail Abu Hawash, 39, from Dura, al-Khalil, has been on hunger strike for 98 days. He has been jailed without charge or trial since October 2020 under Israeli administrative detention. Over multiple arrests, he has spent eight years in Israeli prisons. He is married and the father of four children; his youngest child suffers from kidney failure.
2. Louay Al-Ashqar, 45, from Saida near Tulkarem, is held in the Jalameh detention center without charge or trial. He has been on hunger strike for 31 days under very harsh conditions after being detained by the Israeli occupation on 5 October 2021. He has previously been jailed for eight years by the Israeli occupation, between administrative detention orders and sentences. He is paralyzed in his left leg after being tortured and beaten by occupation soldiers in 2005 while under interrogation, and his brother, Mohammed al-Ashqar, was murdered by Israeli occupation forces in 2007 in the Negev desert prison.
Israeli occupation soldiers violently attacked prisoners with a purported training exercise inside the prison. When prisoners resisted the violent attack upon them, Israeli repressive units shot Mohammed Ashqar in the head. Later, Israeli commanders and soldiers celebrated the murderous attack as an example of “raising morale,” later posing for photos while joking and laughing.
Join us in taking action to contact the Canadian members of Parliament and demand accountability and Canadian sanctions on Israel.
Letters will be sent to Prime Minister Trudeau and all members of parliament, as well as Canadian diplomats in Tel Aviv and Ramallah.
The ask is for Canada to take steps economically and diplomatically to stop Israel’s violations of international law. This would include a call for the end of administrative detention, and the strict adherence to international humanitarian law including in regard to prisoners. Also, for the Human Rights Subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Committee to immediately launch a review related to Israel treatment of Palestine’s children under military law.
Thanks to our partners on this campaign, Canadian BDS Coalition, Canada Palestine Association, Palestinian and Jewish Unity, Oakville Palestinian Rights Association and Just Peace Advocates.
The Zionist state of Israel operates with complete impunity, from its embedded legal framework to the massive military and diplomatic support it receives from Western governments, particularly, the US and Canada.
Its decades-long colonization of Palestine, home demolitions and ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, ongoing building of settlements, the imprisonment of over 4500 Palestinians in its jails with 520+ under illegal administrative detention orders, its endless attacks and blockade on Gaza, and recently, the designation of 6 civil society organizations as terrorist groups; all are steps in a process to not only silence Palestinians but to control, dominate and eliminate the Palestinian presence on their own land in a process explicitly designed to making the occupation and colonization of Palestine permanent.
Israel continues to colonize and kill Palestinians using its fraudulent claim of “self-defense,” but we are not deceived! The world is not deceived!
It’s time to put a stop to Israel’s exceptionalism, time to hold the Zionist state accountable for its crimes.
It’s time for sanctions.
It’s time for Palestine to be free from the river to the sea.
Join Actions4Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Independent Jewish Voices, Students for Justice in Palestine, the Association of Palestinian Students UTM, Samidoun and Faculty4Palestine to honour the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on Saturday November 27@ 2 PM EST, and to affirm that every day is a day of solidarity with the Palestinian people until they return to a liberated Palestine.
On Monday, 22 November, Kayed Fasfous and Ayyad Hraimi, two Palestinian prisoners on long-term hunger strike against their administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial — suspended their strikes with agreements for their freedom. Kayed al-Fasfous, 32, from Dura near al-Khalil, suspended his strike after 131 days, as doctors had warned increasingly urgently about his fragile health. His family has reported that he will be released in 23 days, having defeated the jailers and bringing his detention to an end.
Fasfous, whose brothers Akram, Mahmoud and Hafez are also imprisoned — with Akram and Mahmoud earlier joining the hunger strike and Mahmoud being forced to end his strike due to a severe health crisis — previously launched a 12-day hunger strike in 2019. He has been detained without charge or trial since July 2020. A fitness enthusiast, he is married and the father of a daughter, Joanne. He works for the Dura municipality, and he recently resumed his studies of computer science at Hebron University, which had been interrupted by multiple arrests and periods of detention.
Only hours earlier, Ayyad Hraimi, 28, from Bethlehem, suspended his hunger strike after 60 days, reaching an agreement for his release from detention without charge or trial on 4 March 2022. He had been jailed without charge or trial since April 2021. Over the years, he has been repeatedly detained by the Israeli occupation; in 2016, he also conducted a 45-day hunger strike to win his freedom.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Kayed Fasfous, Ayyad Hraimi and all of the hunger strikers and Palestinian prisoners, who embody resistance and steadfastness, on the front lines of struggle and confrontation against the colonial jailers. We look forward to their liberation and to celebrating with their friends, family and the entire Palestinian people upon their release. At the same time, it remains urgent to act to demand the liberation of their fellow long-term hunger strikers and all Palestinian prisoners in the jails of the occupation, imperialism and reactionary regimes.
Meanwhile, on 18 November, Alaa al-Araj suspended his hunger strike following the cancellation of his administrative detention without charge or trial, after 103 days without nourishment. However, he is now facing a new injustice at the hands of the Israeli occupation regime; during his hunger strike he was subjected to interrogation and his case moved to the Israeli military courts, where indictments have been filed against him. Israeli military courts are another form of a mockery of justice and a colonial weapon against the Palestinian people; they are a fundamentally illegitimate system that exists solely to enforce an unjust and unlawful occupation.
Two more Palestinian prisoners jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention orders are continuing their hunger strikes for liberation. Hisham Abu Hawash has been on hunger strike for 98 days, while Louay al-Ashqar has been on hunger strike for 43 days. Abu Hawash, 39 and from Dura in al-Khalil, has been frequently transferred to and from civilian hospitals, exacerbating his serious health condition after a lengthy hunger strike. He has been jailed without charge or trial since October 2020, and during his strike, a new six-month detention order was issued against him, later reduced to four months yet confirmed that it may be extended further. He is married and the father of five children.
Al-Ashqar, 45, from Saida near Tulkarem, is held in the Jalameh detention center without charge or trial. He has been on hunger strike for 31 days under very harsh conditions after being detained by the Israeli occupation on 5 October 2021. He has previously been jailed for eight years by the Israeli occupation, between administrative detention orders and sentences. He is paralyzed in his left leg after being tortured and beaten by occupation soldiers in 2005 while under interrogation, and his brother, Mohammed al-Ashqar, was murdered by Israeli occupation forces in 2007 in the Negev desert prison.
Israeli occupation soldiers violently attacked prisoners with as a purported training exercise inside the prison. When prisoners resisted the violent attack upon them, Israeli repressive units shot Mohammed Ashqar in the head. Later, Israeli commanders and soldiers celebrated the murderous attack as an example of “raising morale,” later posing for photos while joking and laughing.
Meanwhile, Palestinian prisoner Rateb Hreibat has also continued a solidarity hunger strike in support of the administrative detainees for 44 days. Fikri Mansour, from the village of Jat in occupied Palestine ’48, has been on hunger strike for 8 days against the repression of the prison authority. He is being held in solitary confinement, denied family visits and access to the “canteen,” or prison store. Jailed since 2005, he is serving a 17-year prison sentence.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network congratulates Kayed al-Fasfous and Ayyad Hraimi on their victories over the jailer. Once again, the steadfast resistance of Palestinian prisoners has broken down the colonial jailers. We urge all supporters of Palestine to take action to support the hunger strikers continuing their strikes and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom, for their own lives and for the Palestinian people.
They are confronting the system of Israeli oppression on the front lines, with their bodies and their lives, to bring the system of administrative detention to an end. Take these actions below to stand with the hunger strikers and the struggle for liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea!
Independent grassroots international activists have launched a petition in support of the hunger strikers and to end administrative detention. Show your support by signing on – in addition to taking action in person! Sign here: change.org/NoChargeNoTrialNoJail
Join the Social Media Campaign!
There is a growing social media campaign to #FreeThemAll. Use this hashtag to post on Twitter and Instagram. Post in all languages! Many people have been conducting online hunger strikes in solidarity with the prisoners. Take action and join the social media outrage and break the isolation imposed upon them by the Israeli occupation!
Take to the streets: Organize a protest in solidarity with Palestine!
Take to the streets and join the actions on our full list of events, which is constantly being updated as new actions are announced! Organize your own if there is none in your area, and send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net.
Boycott Israel!
The international, Arab and Palestinian campaign to boycott Israel can play an important role at this critical time. Local boycott groups can protest and label Israeli produce and groceries, while many complicit corporations – including HP, G4S, Puma, Teva and others, profit from their role in support Zionist colonialism throughout occupied Palestine. By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism.
Demand Your Government Sanction Israel!
The racist, settler colonial state of Israel and its war crimes against the Palestinian people are enabled and backed extensively by the over $3.8 billion each year given to Israel by the United States — targeted directly to support the Israeli occupation military killing children, women, men and elders throughout occupied Palestine. From Canada to Australia to the European Union, Western governments and imperialist powers provide ongoing diplomatic, political and economic support to Israel as well as selling billions of dollars of weaponry to the settler-colonial state. Meanwhile, they also purchase billions of dollars in weaponry from the Israeli state. Governments in league with imperialist powers, such as in the Philippines, Brazil, India and elsewhere, also buy weapons and “security” services — all “battle-tested” on the Palestinian population. Call your representatives, MPs, political officials and demand your government sanction Israel now, cut off all aid, expel its ambassadors, and stop buying and selling weapons!
The following presentation was delivered on Saturday, 20 November in Copenhagen, Denmark, by the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member organization of the Samidoun Network based in Toulouse, France. The presentation was delivered as part of the 50th anniversary conference and celebration of the Internationalt Forum, a long-time anti-imperialist organization based in Denmark. The Collectif attended the event alongside Samidoun members based in the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium, as well as delegates from the Philippines, the Spanish State, Greenland and England. Below is the full text of the Collectif’s presentation on the occasion in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and liberation struggle, as translated from the original French.
Comrades of Collectif Palestine Vaincra, Samidoun Nederland, Samidoun Gothenburg and more at the Internationalt Forum 50th anniversary event in Copenhagen
Thank you to the Internationalt Forum for the invitation to this meeting. We immediately accepted, as we appreciate your important work in support of Palestine and the boycott of the Zionist occupation for all these many years. Thank you also to the invited speakers, notably Palestine Action, to whom we reiterate our full solidarity in the face of repression.
I speak on behalf of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra (“Palestine Will Win” Collective), a Palestinian resistance support organization based in Toulouse, France that is a member of the international Samidoun Network and a participating organization in the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement. Our collective was founded in March 2019 following a decade of work in support of the Palestinian people and their resistance. We have the great pleasure to have as honorary members Georges Abdallah, Arab communist imprisoned in France for over 37 years, and Leila Khaled, icon of the Palestinian resistance.
Supporting Palestine: an anti-imperialist struggle
The founding of the Collectif was motivated by a simple observation. In France, the solidarity movement with the Palestinian people is largely dominated by a humanitarian approach, which in effect recognizes the “legitimacy” of the Zionist state and follows the capitulationist path of the Oslo so-called “peace” process.
Our organization has broken with this majority trend in the solidarity movement by adopting an anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist approach to the Palestinian cause. Israel is not a state like any other, it is the outpost of the imperialist powers in this region of the world, built upon on colonial settlement and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. Joe Biden, the current President of the United States of America, has stated this with great clarity when he said: “If there were no Israel, the United States would have to invent an Israel to protect its interests in the region.”
This is obviously the case for all the imperialist powers of the world that see in the Zionist state a reliable and faithful ally. In particular, French imperialism has played and continues to play a key role in the colonization of Palestine: from the Sykes-Picot agreements in 1916, which provided for the imperialist division of the region between France and Great Britain, to the vote on the partition plan at the UN in 1947, to the provision of nuclear power to the Israeli occupation in the 1960s, and on to the present day through numerous economic and military agreements.
To understand this is to understand that to support Palestine is not only to support the Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle for justice, dignity and liberation, but also to support ourselves and our communities and class in our struggle against our countries’ imperialism. For it is in the name of the defense of imperialist interests in this region, first British interests and then Western interests in general and those of the US in particular, that the Palestinian people have been the target of brutal colonization for 104 years now.
To understand this is also to understand that the Palestinian people are not only confronting the Zionist state but also the imperialist powers, and the reactionary Arab regimes in their employ, such as Egypt and Jordan. The movement for the liberation of Palestine has therefore a Palestinian, Arab and international dimension through which we each have responsibilities, not in humanitarian support, but in helping each other in our common struggle, an anti-imperialist struggle. The liberation of Palestine is an important lever for the Arab revolution and the struggle against the Western imperialist powers. This is why the defense of the Palestinian cause is a central issue.
Asserting a clear line for the liberation of Palestine
Within this framework and with this approach, our Collectif Palestine Vaincra was formed around the affirmation of the principles set out by the Palestinian revolution in the 1960s, in particular the defense of the vision of a free and democratic Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and the inalienable right of return for all Palestinian refugees expelled from their land.
One of our principles is therefore to affirm forcefully and unambiguously the illegitimacy of the Zionist state and the need for its dismantling. As the Palestinian revolutionary George Habash pointed out in 1974: “One day the truth will be clear to all, that there is no peace in the region with the existence of a fascist and racist state based on a reactionary doctrine and with the aim of serving imperialist interests. The slogan of a democratic society in Palestine, launched by the Palestinian revolution, is the only path to freedom and progress for all the peoples of the region, including the Jews, and it is the path to a permanent and lasting peace.” This demand requires the explanation of the real nature of the Zionist movement as a colonial and racist movement, and the real nature of this state, which is none other than one of the last colonial settlements on the planet. The whole of our practice and our political line is thus directed towards this objective.
Making this demand affirms the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance in all its forms in order to confront Zionist colonialism. This principle is upheld in international law, in particular the UN resolution 37/43 adopted in 1982, but it is above all an anti-colonialist political principle. Yes, the Palestinian people have the right to resist colonization, occupation and apartheid! There is a vast international operation to delegitimize the Palestinian resistance and its organizations by labeling them as “terrorists”. In this perspective and in the face of the repression of the Palestinian people, we believe that support for Palestinian prisoners and their immediate release is a central issue. The Palestinian prisoners represent the front line of resistance against the Zionist occupation and they are subjected to a vast campaign of criminalization in order to isolate them from their people and from international support. Supporting Palestinian prisoners is therefore not simply supporting a demand for justice, although that is part of it, but it is first and foremost support for freedom fighters and the legitimacy of their struggle. Georges Abdallah, Ahmad Sa’adat, Khitam Saafin, Naël Barghouthi, Walid Daqqa and all the 4650 Palestinian prisoners are not “terrorists”, they are resistance fighters!
As we aim for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, we defend the inalienable right of return of Palestinian refugees to their land. Today, defending the right of return for the refugees in the camp of Ein el Helweh in Lebanon, and for the Palestinian communities in exile in Europe, is to fight the founding crime, the creation of the Zionist state. It is to resist the Nakba that continues to this day, from the expulsion of 800,000 Palestinians from their land in 1948 to the ethnic cleansing in the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods of Al Quds today.
And this is also why we promote a total boycott of the Zionist state, its institutions and its supporters. This boycott campaign does not intend to substitute itself for Palestinian resistance or to lock itself into the framework of so-called “international law” that recognizes the legitimacy of the Zionist occupation of the majority of Palestinian land, but to utilize boycott as a tool to isolate and delegitimize Israeli apartheid. This is, therefore, a boycott in the service of Palestinian resistance, in the tradition of the Palestinian, Arab and international boycott that has existed for nearly a century: from the boycott of the products of the first Zionist settlers in the 1920s to the boycott of the occupation economy during the Great Intifada of 1987.
A practice geared towards these goals
As we said at the beginning, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra is the result of 10 years of work in support of Palestine. The elaboration of this political line is therefore first and foremost the result of many meetings, first and foremost with Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. A Lebanese Communist and resistance fighter, he has been imprisoned for 37 years in a prison not far from Toulouse. It has been first of all through our commitment to his liberation that we have developed a new approach to support for Palestine, in a profound break with the currents that dominate the French activist scene. During our monthly meetings for many years, we have been attending his political and militant school. It is first of all at his side that we discovered and learned about the lengthy history and the immense heritage of the Palestinian resistance in general and of the Palestinian left in particular.
But the elaboration of this line was also done through a militant practice in contact with today’s reality. Indeed, to carry these slogans would have no meaning if they were not embodied in a coherent and consistent practice. This is the practice we are attempting to implement with the Collectif Palestine Vaincra. Our objective is to normalize these demands in the political space, in particular in the left-wing movements, and to bring them to the daily life of the inhabitants of Toulouse. The situation is difficult but we have developed our influence in a significant way and organized new people little by little, in particular young people.
Every month, we hold at least one information and mobilization stand in the heart of the city center and in a popular neighborhood. These spaces become meeting points, training sessions and discussions with hundreds of people. It is an opportunity to raise the flag of Palestine and to reaffirm the legitimacy and relevance of the Palestinian cause in public space. But it is also a space of confrontation as our mere presence arouses strong hostilities from the various organizations supporting the Zionist extreme right.
A secondary but nevertheless important aspect of our work is the development of media campaigns, agitation and propaganda through communication tools such as video, graphics or social media. The aim here is to combine fieldwork with online information and propaganda and to create a broad spectrum of visibility for the Collectif and its campaigns.
One of the central activities of our collective is, of course, the campaign for the release of Georges Abdallah. We support his release not only as an individual, but first of all because Georges Abdallah embodies a resolutely anti-imperialist alternative for the Palestinian and Lebanese people. Every October, we carry out a large-scale awareness-raising campaign by distributing tens of thousands of flyers and organizing a large delegation to the annual demonstration in front of the Lannemezan prison where he is jailed. This year, this campaign has reached an important qualitative and quantitative threshold, notably by gathering more than 1000 people during this dynamic and militant march.
We also carry out campaigns focusing on immediate demands, in particular the various campaigns to boycott Israel. For example, we led a major campaign for the end of the twinning between Toulouse and Tel Aviv during the previous municipal elections. While this subject had been ignored for many years, we succeeded in making it a theme of the political debate of this term with the signing of a petition by more than 5000 inhabitants of the city, regular actions and activities, and the systematic questioning of the different candidates. Newly elected municipal opposition officials have publicly supported our campaign while the mayor of the city has multiplied the insults and allegations against us.
We also actively participate in the campaigns of the international Samidoun network, in particular in support of Ahmad Sa’adat and the imprisoned Palestinian students. Like our solidarity with Georges Abdallah, these solidarity campaigns are tools to build solidarity with Palestinians in occupied Palestine and to embody the path of resistance in the here and now. This Palestinian, Arab and international network includes multiple chapters and affiliated organizations, like our collective, in many countries, notably in Palestine, in several European countries, in North America, in Brazil and in Iran. It plays a significant role in supporting Palestinian prisoners and we invite you to join it.
Facing repression
However, such a line and such a practice obviously provoke strong reactions from the French authorities, and especially from Zionist organizations and supporters of Israel. Since its creation, our collective has faced a vast campaign of intimidation and pressure from the authorities and the Zionist lobby. This is obviously not an isolated case.
We have seen in recent years various charges, allegations and trials against activists who support the boycott of Israel in France, most recently with the legal case between the president of EuroPalestine, Olivia Zémor, and the Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva. The pro-Palestinian activist won the case at the trial level. These legal cases are taking place despite the condemnation of the French government by the European Court of Human Rights for hindering freedom of expression. Nevertheless, the French government persists in its attempts to criminalize the boycott of Israel, notably through a recent circular from the Minister of Justice.
Another tool of the policy of repression of the supporters of Palestine is the shameful political maneuver of falsely equating anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. This takes place in particular through the adoption of the new IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, which includes in its examples of expressions of anti-Semitism the questioning of the Zionist project and the recognition of Israel as a racist endeavor. Resolutions supporting this definition have been adopted in France by the National Assembly, the Senate and the city of Paris.
With the classification of Samidoun and the Collectif Palestine Vaincra as a “terrorist organization” by the Israeli occupation last February, we have reached a new stage. Obviously the main objective is to try to intimidate and isolate the organizations that are affected by this type of designation. This is even more obvious today when we see that 6 Palestinian NGOs have just suffered the same type of attack. In France, the consequences following this designation were quick, with the launch of a campaign by NGO Monitor for our dissolution, a campaign that was relayed by a member of the majority party of President Emmanuel Macron, who sent an official request for our dissolution to the Ministry of the Interior. Obviously, this is still minor, compared to the attacks on Palestine Action. Nevertheless, it is worrying to see how the criminalization of support for Palestine is intensifying in France, including against simple actions like anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist discourse and awareness campaigns.
In the face of this, we believe it is necessary to build a broad united front to confront repression. This is what we have managed to do in France following these threats, when all the main left-wing organizations and the trade union movement at the national level issued a statement of support for our collective. This shows that their strategy to isolate us is not only failing but is having the opposite effect.
But one thing is certain, we are more determined than ever to continue to support the Palestinian resistance, until return and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. And these meetings are of paramount importance in building and strengthening the anti-imperialist movement throughout the world.
Down with imperialism and Zionism!
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
Kampanj: Palestinska schackforumet || Support the Palestinian Chess Forum! || حملة دعم الملتقى الفلسطيني للشطرنج || Kampagne: Palästinensisches Schachforum ||Campagne: Het Palestijnse Schaakforum
Som den enda schackklubben i de palestinska flyktinglägren inom Libanon är det “Palestinska Schackforumet” i Shatilalägret inte bara en ungdomsklubb utan även ett centrum för allmänheten. Det lär ungdomar och barn att spela schack, anordnar bokcirklar, konstworkshops, poesikvällar, språkkurser, kompletterande skollektioner, föreläsningar och mycket mer. Genom att erkänna sitt ansvar och de palestinska ungdomarnas och barnens nödvändiga politiska roll i flyktinglägren utgör Palestinska schackforumet ett centrum för nationellt och politiskt arbete. Detta kan ses i allt från dess schackturnering som heter “Den palestinska revolutionen inledning” till dess kulturella tävling “Vem är Ghassan Kanafani?”
Med det förvärrade ekonomiska läget och den bredare finanskrisen i Libanon, särskilt de palestinska flyktinglägren, hotas Palestinska schackforumets kontinuerliga aktiviteter och den centrala roll det spelar i lägret. Eftersom det är vår plikt att stödja självständiga, folkliga gräsrotsinitiativ i de palestinska flyktinglägren, uppmanar vi dig att stödja det “Palestinska schackforumet” i Shatila och se till att dess funktioner och utrymmet det erbjuder barnen och lägret i allmänhet förblir aktiva och hållbara.
Hur kan du hjälpa till?
Vi kan alla stödja centret tillsammans med en enkel handling av stor betydelse och enorm inverkan. Vi kan trygga centrets fortlevnad genom att donera med länken:
Självständiga ungdomsklubbar i palestinska områden i vårt hemland, Palestina, och i diasporan, spelar en huvudsaklig roll i att förvalta det ansvar mot vårt folk som inte erbjuds av någon stat eller regering. Av denna anledning är det en viktig prioritet att stödja och stärka dessa initiativ som är nära sammanflätade med vårt folk och som erbjuder viktiga sociala program. Våra bidrag idag stärker orubbligheten hos vårt folk och banar en väg mot befrielse och återvändo.
Support the Palestinian Chess Forum! || حملة دعم الملتقى الفلسطيني للشطرنج || Kampagne: Palästinensisches Schachforum ||Kampanj: Palestinska schackforumet ||Campagne: Het Palestijnse Schaakforum
As the only chess club in all Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, the “Palestinian Chess Forum” in Shatila camp is not only a youth club, but also a community center. It teaches youth and children chess, hosts reading circles, art workshops, poetry evenings, language courses, supplementary school lessons, seminars and so much more.
Recognizing its responsibility and believing in the necessary political role of the Palestinian youth and children in refugee camps, the Palestinian Chess Forum is a hub for national and political work. This can be seen from its chess tournament, entitled “The launch of the Palestinian revolution,” to its cultural competition “Who is Ghassan Kanafani?”.
With the worsening economic conditions and financial crisis in Lebanon in general, and in the Palestinian refugee camps in particular, the continuing activities of the Palestinian Chess Forum in Shatila and the central role it plays in the camp is under threat. Because it is our duty to support independent, grassroots and popular initiatives in Palestinian refugee camps, we call upon you to support the “Palestinian Chess Forum” in Shatila and ensure that its functions and the space it provides for the children and for the camp in general remains active and sustainable.
How can you support?
All of us can support the center together with a simple act that carries a lot of weight and has a huge impact. We can ensure the continuation of the center by donating above or through the link: https://afgj.salsalabs.org/samidoun-lebanon-donation/index.html
Why do we support?
Independent youth clubs in Palestinian communities in our homeland, Palestine, and in the diaspora, play an essential role in carrying out the responsibilities for our people that are not provided by any state or government. Therefore, it is a major priority to support and empower these initiatives that are closely intertwined with our communities and carry out important social programs.
Our contributions today strengthen the steadfastness of our people and pave a path towards liberation and return.
On Friday, 19 November, the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel hosted a webinar on “Comparative Criminalization: Repression and Resistance Across Borders.” Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, participated in the event alongside a range of activists, scholars and advocates confronting repression.
From the Israeli designation of Palestinian civil society organizations as “terrorist,” to San Francisco State University’s repression of Palestine in the classroom, to the repression student activists and faculty face on campus, the Palestinian liberation movement and Palestinian narratives face criminalization across borders. The discussion also looked at how we can fight back and seek collective liberation.
Speakers:
Alum from Students for Justice in Palestine at Butler University Rabab Abdulhadi, SFSU/AMED Studies Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Defence for Children International – Palestine Charlotte Kates, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network/USACBI Tomomi Kinukawa, SFSU/WGS Nerdeen Kiswani, Within Our Lifetime David Miller, writer and scholar sacked from the University of Bristol
Moderated by Omar Zahzah, USACBI/PYM/Eyewitness Palestine
Co-Sponsoring Organizations:
Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine
Eyewitness Palestine
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
International Campaign to Defend Rabab Abdulhadi
National Students for Justice in Palestine
Adalah Justice Project
Saturday, 27 November
The following message was written by Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons on the death of 
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has joined with the Canadian BDS Coalition, Canada Palestine Association, Just Peace Advocates, Oakville Palestine Rights Association and Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) for the following action alert. Demand the Canadian government take action for Palestinian prisoners!
