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10 December, Vancouver: Fight State Terror, Defend People’s Rights! demonstration

Friday, 10 December
5:00 pm
Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain Station
Vancouver, BC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/320647343216054

On the International Day for Human Rights, join local organizers from the International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS) for a solidarity rally and hear reports from peoples struggles for justice and liberation across Turtle Island, Philippines, Palestine, Chile, India, and beyond. Come out to denounce state violence and UNITE for People’s Rights & Justice!

On a global scale there has been a rise in state sanctioned violence against human rights and land defenders. This violence is being perpetrated in order to maintain oppressive systems of labour exploitation, resource extraction, and corporate profits. Those who resist are violently repressed through red-tagging, militarization, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.

While the violent suppression of people’s rights continues, unified peoples’ resistance is also intensifying! Join us in our common struggle against imperialist aggression, capitalist plunder, land theft, and state terror! Defend People’s Rights! Long Live International Solidarity!

2 December, Vancouver: “Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight” Film Screening

POSTPONED: https://samidoun.net/2021/12/university-of-british-columbia-postpones-fedayin-film-screening-due-to-zionist-pressure/

Thursday, 2 December
7:00 pm
University of British Columbia
Room ANGU098
2053 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/4648781165215313
Register online for free tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/fedayin-georges-abdallah-film-screening-tickets-218193882777

VANCOUVER: Join the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights UBC, and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, for a public screening of the new and acclaimed film, “Fedayin,” which chronicles the course of a Lebanese communist, imprisoned in 1984 for his involvement in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine — and Lebanon — from Zionist occupation.

From the Palestinian refugee camps that forged his conscience, to the international mobilization for his release, we will discover the man who has become one of the longest-held political prisoners in Europe.

Afterwards, we’ll have a short panel featuring two organizers from the film, Palestinian Khaled Barakat, and Charlotte Kates of Samidoun, to discuss the film and actions that have demanded freedom for Abdallah, such as the global campaign in October.

The film will be screened at UBC in the Sauder building, at ANGU098.

Registration link is included. Masks are required, and light refreshments and snacks will be provided.

Save the Date: 1 December Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners

SAVE THE DATE: DEC 1ST DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINIAN PRISONERS!

As Palestinian political prisoners continue their hunger strikes in defiance of their illegitimate imprisonment by the Zionist occupation, National Students for Justice in Palestine, The Palestinian Youth Movement, IDOC Watch and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network call on all individuals and institutions committed to Palestinian liberation affirm their solidarity with the striking prisoners and demand an end to the colonial systems of administrative detention and military courts! 

Share with your local groups, and stay tuned for our upcoming toolkit! 

Samidoun in the Paris Region mobilizes to support Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike

On Saturday, 19 November, Samidoun Paris Region held a Palestine stand during the Aubervilliers market in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike. While three prisoners held without charge or trial under administrative detention recently suspended their hunger strikes with arrangements for their release or the end of their imprisonment without charge or trial, Hisham Abu Hawash and Louay al-Ashqar have continued to strike for 102 days and 47 days, respectively. These Palestinian prisoners have put their bodies and lives on the line to fight injustice and confront the Israeli occupation.

Passersby expressed significant support for these freedom fighters and joined in displaying posters to #FreeThemAll. Many visited the Samidoun stand to learn more about the situation of the 4,650 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. They learned about the systematic Israeli practice of torture, imprisonment of Palestinian children, and the mass use of administrative detention (imprisonment without charge or trial on the basis of “secret evidence” for up to 6 months, indefinitely renewable).

In addition, the stand organizers distributed hundreds of flyers to people attending the market. These flyers called for the boycott of Israel to isolate the occupation state and called for the immediate release of Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France since 1984.

Samidoun Région Parisienne plans to organize stalls regularly at the Aubervilliers market. Do not hesitate to contact us by email or on our various social networks (Facebook , Twitter and Instagram) if you wish to participate!

 

27 November, Gothenburg: Manifestation! # StandWithThe6

Saturday, 27 November
2 pm
Gustaf Adolfs Torg
Gothenburg, Sweden
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/297400355580535

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!

Resistance until liberation and return!

Location: Gustaf Adolfs torg, Gothenburg

Date: Saturday 27 November

Time: 14 o’clock

Follow the Facebook event for ongoing updates: https://www.facebook.com/events/297400355580535

 

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!

Motstånd till befrielse och återvändo!

Plats: Gustaf Adolfs torg, Göteborg

Datum: Lördag 27 november

Tid: Klockan 14

Följ Facebook-eventet för löpande uppdateringar: https://www.facebook.com/events/297400355580535

 

Palestinian prisoners’ message to Samah Idriss: You are our comrade on the road to freedom

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.

Your comrades in the occupation prisons

26 November 2021

Samidoun mourns the passing of comrade Samah Idriss, Lebanese Arab revolutionary intellectual

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.

He was one of the initiators of the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement and his speech at the Beirut conference was recently published by Al-Akhbar.  His last speech contained his hope for the revolutionary future of Palestinian and Arab liberation.

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.

Canada — Take Action: Justice for Palestinian Prisoners!

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.

Write:

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/write-letter-to-canadian-government-regarding-palestinian-prisoners/

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.

Read more

Kayed Fasfous and Ayyad Hraimi suspend hunger strikes; support Palestinian prisoners’ liberation struggle! – Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

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.

Take Action:

Write a letter:

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/write-letter-to-canadian-government-regarding-palestinian-prisoners/

27 November, Toronto: Resistance And Solidarity Until Liberation

Saturday, 27 November
2 pm
2 Bloor St E
Toronto, ON
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/405277304417689

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.

Kayed Fasfous and Ayyad Hraimi suspend hunger strikes; support Palestinian prisoners’ liberation struggle!

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!