“Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s fight” retraces the course of an indefatigable Arab communist and fighter for Palestine. 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.
Wednesday November 17, 2021 at 8 p.m. / L’Epee de bois cinema – 100 rue Mouffetard, Paris 5
Organized by ACTA, a member organization of the Samidoun Network
Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, appeared on Press TV on 7 November to discuss the hunger strikes of Palestinian prisoners held without charge or trial. She appeared alongside Mick Napier of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign on the Spotlight show hosted by Marzieh Hashemi.
As of Sunday, 14 November, five Palestinian prisoners are continuing their hunger strikes, including Kayed al-Fasfous, now on his 123rd day of strike. Doctors have warned that he is at risk of sudden death at any time as symptoms of blood clots have become apparent in his body; a fitness enthusiast and bodybuilder, he is now emaciated, and he is experiencing intermittent loss of consciousness, low blood pressure, irregular heartbeat and severe pains throughout his body.
Fasfous is on hunger strike to demand an end to his administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial on the basis of so-called “secret evidence.” Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians are routinely jailed for years at a time under these orders. There are approximately 500 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial out of 4,650 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
He is joined by four more hunger strikers, all demanding an end to their administrative detention: Alaa al-Araj, on strike for 98 days; Hisham Abu Hawash, on strike for 89 days; Ayyad Hraimi, on hunger strike for 52 days; and Louay al-Ashqar, on strike for 34 days.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine to take action to support these Palestinian hunger strikers 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!
Multiple Toulouse organizations are calling for mobilization around this common call:
On 18 October, Israel announced the revocation of the Jerusalem residency status of French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri, who works with the NGO Addameer, which defends Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
On 19 October, six Palestinian NGOs – Addameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center, Defense International for Children – Palestine, Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees – were illegally designated by the Israeli colonial regime as “terrorist organizations”.
This is a gross lie. These organizations are targeted for the quality of their documentation and advocacy work to hold Israel accountable for crimes committed in Palestine or for their mobilization for women and agricultural workers in colonized lands.
Israel has infected Palestinian NGO workers’ phones with PEGASUS spyware and it is now rumored that it is spreading facial recognition to bolster its racist control over the entire Palestinian population.
Despite this policy much worse than that of other states targeted, the French government and most parties maintain a cowardly or complicit silence. It is high time to implement boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, an apartheid state.
STOP THE REPRESSION OF PALESTINIAN CIVIL SOCIETY SUPPORT FOR SALAH HAMOURI STOP THE IMPUNITY OF THE ISRAELI STATE
First signatories: ATTAC Toulouse, BDS France Toulouse, Collectif Palestine Vaincra, NPA 31, CGT Educ’Action 31, POI 31, Révolution Permanente 31, UNEF Toulouse, etc.
As the film “Fedayin,” focusing on Georges Abdallah’s struggle for liberation from 37 years of French imprisonment, debuts in Lebanon, the imprisoned Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine sent a message of solidarity to Dr. Samah Idriss, the Arab revolutionary intellectual struggling with illness in Beirut. Samah Idriss is one of the founders of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon and the editor-in-chief of Al-Adab magazine.
Below is the text of the letter (originally in Arabic):
Dear comrade Samah,
Greetings of steadfastness and continuous struggle, and warm greetings filled with hope to meet you in complete health. All of the beloved ones and dear comrades around you strengthen your solid will with their love, appreciation and affection for you.
Dr. Samah, the echo of the setbacks in your health weighs heavily in our detention cells, but our confidence is great in your recovery. Stay safe, stubborn comrade, and remain a beacon for the path to liberate Palestine and the masses of our Arab nation.
With sincere solidarity and appreciation to you and all of your loved ones, for continuous struggle and revolution
Your friend,
Georges Abdallah
Lannemezan Prison
“Georges Abdallah is our high example, and no matter how insufficient our efforts have so far been to obtain his liberation, Georges remains a trust in our soul until the last moment…and beyond the last moment,” Samah Idriss said, responding to the solidarity message and expressing his commitment to see the liberation of Abdallah and his return to his homeland, Lebanon.
The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil) launched amid a series of conferences in Madrid, Spain; Beirut, Lebanon; and Sao Paulo, Brazil, between 30 October and 2 November 2021. The Masar Badil is a popular, mass movement of Palestinians, Arabs and internationalists struggling for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, in complete rejection of the so-called “peace process” of the Madrid Conference and the Oslo Accords, which have led to nothing but destruction for Palestinian rights and the Palestinian national liberation movement.
Organizations and activists based in many countries participated in the conferences. In Madrid, approximately 100 people gathered for the conference, held in Rivas-Vaciamadrid, including Samidoun members and affiliates based in Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, Belgium, and elsewhere. Participants also included members of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra (a Samidoun Network member organization), Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization, Al-Yudur Palestinian Youth Mobilization, Stuttgart Palestine Committee, the International League of People’s Struggles, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Palestinian Youth Movement, Revolutionary Youth Zurich, Secours Rouge, PARTIZAN, Hirak Haifa, the International Women’s Alliance, Al-Awda the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, Palestinian Social Fund and many other organizations, including student organizations advocating for Palestine and leftist and revolutionary political parties.
In Lebanon, the Beirut conference was led by a number of Palestinian and Lebanese community and political organizations, including the Palestinian Cultural Club, the Arab Palestinian Cultural Club, the Palestinian Chess Club, the Lebanese Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon, Harakat al-Shaab (People’s Movement), Democratic Popular Party, Al-Naqab Center for Youth Activities, Al-Aqsa Martyrrs Club and Aidoun Palestinian Refugee Rights Center, while Al-Akhbar newspaper was a media sponsor. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, Al Janiah cultural center hosted the conference along with Samidoun Brasil and Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization.
The Madrid conference was packed with an electrifying atmosphere, with Palestinian youth leading chants throughout the day and incisive discussions focusing on critical questions facing the movement today, including the need to build the international boycott and isolation of Israel and the Zionist project and the necessity of confronting the Palestinian Authority and the path of compromise and defeat that has led to the current Palestinian situation.
Conference participants were clear on the role of imperialism, Zionism and reactionary Arab regimes in attacking the Palestinian cause. The conference, held on the 30th anniversary of the Madrid so-called “Peace Conference,” highlighted the necessity of reviving Palestinian struggle and uniting the resistance to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea. The conference also emphasized that Palestinian prisoners and the prisoners’ movement as the leadership of the Palestinian struggle inside occupied Palestine and “the revolutionary school from which we derive all of the determination and will to continue on our path until freedom and a decisive victory are achieved.”
The conference not only discussed the politics of Palestinian organizing and resistance but also developed a five-year plan and numerous policy proposals that lay out a distinct plan for upcoming activities. Committees focusing on organizing Palestinian students, protecting and implementing the Palestinian right to return and advancing the boycott of Israel were launched, while the conference planned to develop a network of Palestine centers in cities around the world, focusing on the needs of Palestinian refugees alongside political organizing and education.
Participants were also encouraged to organize to liberate Palestinian prisoners and to build the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, as well as to advance Palestinian women’s organizing in their communities through the Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization.
Following the conference, the Masar Badil organized a cultural event in the Pilar Bardem auditorium in Rivas-Vaciamadrid, with performances including Gazelleband, Jafra Dabkeh, Rojo Cancionero, La O.N.U. and acrobatics and comedy by Pallasos en Rebeldia (Clowns in Rebellion), which has organized a number of solidarity activities with Palestine over the years.
On Sunday, 31 October, hundreds of people marched through central Madrid in the march for Palestine, celebrating the launch of the Masar Badil movement as well as the anniversary of the Algerian revolution while denouncing the Balfour Declaration and the alliance of imperialism and Zionism on its 104th anniversary. Palestinian flags and the banners of organizations like Samidoun Network and the Collectif Palestine Vaincra waved high above the marchers, while large banners demanded the release of Ahmad Sa’adat, Georges Abdallah and all Palestinian prisoners, calling for a free Palestine from the river to the sea.
The enthusiastic demonstration erupted in chants and cheers throughout Madrid, receiving support from many passers-by and city residents who emerged from their windows and balconies to show support for the mobilization and for Palestinian liberation.
The conference received messages of solidarity, including from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the International League of Peoples’ Struggles, while the Communist Party of Spain and Izquierda Unida (United Left) provided logistical support for the self-organized conference, for which all participants funded their own travel and accommodations.
During the days leading up to the conference in Madrid, multiple events brought people together for Palestine. Samidoun Spain, along with the conference preparatory committee, organized a screening of “Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight” in a sold-out theater on 26 October, while Samidoun internationally kicked off its celebration of 10 years of struggle on 28 October, with an event bringing together Samidoun activists and friends from Spain and internationally.
The following articles highlight the views and experiences of various participants in the conference:
Below are the first documents released by the movement, with further documents to come in the coming days. For more information, please see the Movement’s website at https://masarbadil.org
Madrid – Beirut – Sao Paulo Declaration and Resolutions
Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Conference
October 30 – November 2
Madrid – Spain
We, the participants in the Alternative Palestinian Path (Masar Badil) Conference, held under the auspices of the Palestinian people and their national flag in Beirut, Madrid and Sao Paulo, between 30 October and 2 November, 2021, and after saluting the souls of the martyrs, the sacrifices of the wounded and the struggles of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, we announce the following decisions and positions:
First: The conference announces the launch of the Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement, a radical popular political movement established by Palestinian, Arab and international will on 1 November 2021 to be a framework and a popular resistance movement confronting Zionist colonialism and the project of liquidation and surrender.
It is a movement to defend the legitimate rights of the Palestinian Arab people against the forces of imperialism, Zionism and reactionary regimes, and to participate alongside the sons and daughters of our people in the process of the national and social liberation struggle for return and liberation.
Second: Acting to develop Palestinian student work and supporting it politically, socially, intellectually and financially. Accordingly, it was decided to organize the Palestinian student conference in 2022 in order to awaken the Palestinian student movement.
In this context, we call on the students of Palestine to cooperate and unite in order to liberate themselves from the influence of intellectual domination and material extortion, and we also call upon them to struggle to achieve the unity of our struggling student movement and to develop its central and leading role as one of the pillars of the Palestinian revolutionary struggle for liberation and an advanced popular base of the Palestinian, Arab and international liberation movement.
Third: Organizing annual youth camps dealing with struggle, educational, scientific and sports programs, and working to develop a new revolutionary discourse that stimulates the minds and addresses the issues of young people. In this context, we will also work to promote joint action between youth and student movements and the women’s movement throughout the diaspora. These annual summer camps will serve as nuclei for dialogue and a school for the revolutionary youth cadre.
Fourth: Organizing a national and popular campaign to bring down the so-called “Palestinian Authority” and work to liberate the institutions of our Palestinian people from the grip of the minority class sector that dominates Palestinian political decision-making.
Our conference considers the Palestine Liberation Organization to be a confiscated and hijacked Palestinian institution, whose decisions and institutions are dominated by a corrupt class sector, an agent of Zionist colonialism, and a weak leadership that lacks revolutionary, popular and legal legitimacy. On this basis, we consider that the PLO and its leadership, in their current form, do not represent us and cannot represent the struggles and rights of our people.
Accordingly, the conference calls on all forces, associations and popular organizations participating in the Palestinian Revolutionary Path movement to escalate the pace of mass struggle inside and outside occupied Palestine and work to confront the liquidationist project of “self-rule administration” on the road toward isolating and toppling it.
Fifth: Supporting independent national institutions and enabling them to combat conditional and suspicious funding, and establishing a network of Palestine Centers in a number of Arab and international cities, camps and capitals, specifically in regions and countries where there are no centers and clubs for participants within the framework of the Masar Badil.
These new centers will be announced successively, and their achievement will be done gradually within the period of the first five-year plan (2022-2027) approved by our conference. The “Palestine Center” in each country shall be a headquarters for popular action and democratic revolutionary unions and organizations, and a legal umbrella for institutions and associations affiliated with the Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement.
Sixth: Considering 15 May of each year as a day to escalate the national, Arab and international struggle for return and liberation. The establishment of the Zionist entity in Palestine is a major crime involving international colonial powers that have not yet paid the price for their crime. Britain refuses until this moment to even apologize to our people for the ominous Balfour Declaration, whose anniversary falls today, 2 November 2021, and still refuses to assume its historical, political and moral responsibility or recognize the documented and bloody crimes it committed that began in 1917 and established the ongoing catastrophe of our Palestinian people since 1948.
15 May is a day of Palestinian, Arab and international struggle to mobilize global solidarity with the legitimate and inalienable rights of our people and with our continuing revolution to achieve our people’s project of liberation and return.
Seventh: Considering 1 November of each year as a day to renew the launch of our alternative revolutionary path, an annual occasion for evaluation, criticism, development and correction, and an opportunity to draw lessons gained through practical experience and militant practice on the streets.
The launch of the Alternative Revolutionary Path movement coincides with the anniversary of the launch of the Algerian liberation revolution that defeated French colonialism after 132 years of fighting and steadfastness. This glorious, immortal revolution that started on 1 November 1954 is for us a model and a guide in confronting the Zionist colonial project until the achievement of all of the goals and national aspirations of our people.
Eighth: The immediate launch of organizing open and continuous tours for direct communication with all the sites and locations of our people throughout the homeland and in the five continents through national visits and events that enhance the strength of the Palestinian presence at the Arab and international levels.
Ninth: Developing the political, social, economic and cultural boycott of the Zionist entity, combatting normalization and those calling for it, and exercising all forms of popular pressure on the embassies of complicit regimes and countries around the world.
We call for a comprehensive boycott and are committed to confronting the approach of normalization with the institutions and entity of the enemy, and at the same time seek to strengthen our relationships of struggle and our human bonds with various anti-Zionist, anti-racist and anti-colonial forces and personalities of all ethnic and religious and affiliations, that support the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, first and foremost the right of return and the right to self-determination over the entire Palestinian national territory, in order to establish a just and democratic society free of Zionism, racism and class exploitation.
Tenth: The permanent affirmation of the right of return for Palestinian refugees as the core of our people’s cause and the right of the Palestinian people, and working to establish it as a priority of struggle in the program of the Arab and international boycott movements and the forces of solidarity with the Palestinian people. In this context, we also call for putting pressure on UNRWA to not respond or adapt to the policies and positions of funders that contradict or undermine the fundamental national rights of the Palestinian people.
On the day of our launch, we salute the whole struggle of our Palestinian people in all their places of residence, and all the resistance forces in Palestine. We also salute the struggle of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, the leadership of our people’s struggle in the occupied land, and the revolutionary school from which we derive all the determination and will to continue on the path until freedom and decisive victory are reached.
Long live the struggle of our Palestinian people everywhere!
No voice is louder than the voice of the Palestinian people!
Glory to the martyrs, freedom to the prisoners!
We shall return and be victorious!
The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement
November 2, 2021
***
Madrid Declaration
Issued by the Conference on the Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path in Madrid, Spain
Over the course of four days, the Alternative Palestinian Path Conference (Masar Badil Conference) was convened in the Spanish capital, Madrid. This coincided with the 30th anniversary of the infamous Madrid liquidation conference in 1991 and as a practical and popular response to the catastrophic path of Oslo and its consequences, in order to confront the policies of Zionist colonialism and regimes of surrender and normalization.
The participants in the conference adopted the following political positions:
Our Palestinian people, who have been fighting the national liberation battle for 104 years confronting Zionist settler colonialism, are aware, through their long experience of struggle of the importance of Palestinian popular unity in the fields of struggle, fighting, and resistance, and the need for consensus on direct goals and general strategy that protects its struggle, preserves its achievements, and preserves its identity, unity, dignity, and national rights.
On the basis of this firm understanding, we call upon the Palestinian resistance forces, the various national and popular bodies, the youth, student and feminist movements, the boycott and anti-normalization committees and all the masses of our struggling people in the occupied homeland and throughout the Diaspora to unite nationally to establish a united Palestinian national front to resist racist Zionist settler colonialism in all of Palestine, to confront the Zionist movement and its allies in the world, and to work to break all the cycles of siege by developing the ability of our Palestinian people to restore and liberate their institutions, and to strengthen the position and role of the Palestinian liberation movement and its active presence in the Arab and international arenas.
Our conference considers the Palestine Liberation Organization to be a confiscated and hijacked institution, whose decision-making is dominated by a corrupt class sector, acting as agents of Zionist colonialism, and a weak leadership lacking revolutionary, popular or legal legitimacy. On this basis, we consider that the Organization and its leadership, in their current form, do not represent us and cannot represent the struggles and rights of our people.
The conference therefore calls on all popular forces, associations and organizations affiliated with the Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement to escalate the pace of mass struggle inside and outside occupied Palestine and to confront the “self-rule administration” liquidation project on the road to isolating and overthrowing it.
The Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement is committed to working to escalate the political and public struggle, and the struggle in the fields of confrontation, against the approach of liquidation and surrender, which began with and was embodied in the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978 between the Sadat regime and the Zionist entity under American auspices, and to confront the results of the Madrid-Oslo stage, the 1994 Wadi Araba agreement, and all the economic and security agreements signed between reactionary poles in the official Arab regimes with the Zionist entity, the latest of which is the so-called “Abraham Agreements”. We consider them invalid and illegitimate agreements and treaties.
The Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path Movement emphasizes the need to strengthen the unity of the resistance camp in Palestine, the Arab region, and the world, which includes multiple political and intellectual movements and embraces the various colors of the Arab and Islamic spectrum from the ocean to the Gulf. Only this popular camp is capable of confronting the forces of colonialism, imperialism, racism and exploitation, accomplishing the project of return, liberating the Palestinian and Arab lands, and overthrowing the approach of surrender and normalization led by the United States and the reactionary regimes and their agents in the region.
At the same time, we affirm that the task of developing the capacity of the resistance camp and the cohesion of our internal front requires frank internal dialogue between its various national and social currents and poles in a way that serves the liberation of our peoples from the tyranny of external domination and from regimes of oppression and tyranny at home, and to achieve complete national independence. This enhances the ability of peoples to protect their national wealth and capabilities and to safeguard civil peace in our great Arab homeland, from the ocean to the Gulf.
We reaffirm our firm and fundamental position on the necessity of respecting the struggle of Palestinian women and the active participation of Palestinian women, and respecting their central leadership role in the Palestinian struggle and in the Palestinian national movement, on the path to achieving full participation and equality within the framework of our national and social liberation project.
The holding of our popular conference in Beirut, Madrid and Sao Paulo, under the banner of Palestine and under the auspices of our struggling people, 30 years after the 1991 Madrid liquidation conference and 28 years after the disastrous, treacherous Oslo Agreement of 1993, and the organization of our popular and international march that was launched under the slogan “All Palestine from the river to the sea,” our documented, declared positions, and the culture of self-reliance, are all evidences that confirm the correctness of the clear compass of struggle of our new revolutionary path in confronting the forces of Zionist colonialism and the project of surrender.
We are committed to confronting the approach of normalization with the institutions and the enemy entity. At the same time, we affirm the strengthening of relations of struggle with the various militant Jewish forces and personalities, anti-Zionist and anti-racist, and supportive of the rights of our people and their valiant resistance to liberate all of Palestine and the establishment of a democratic society in all of Palestine based on justice and equality: A society free from class exploitation, racism and Zionism.
The Palestinian revolutionary approach with Arab and international dimensions, whose features were drawn by thousands of Palestinian, Arab and international martyrs over decades of struggle, is the path of radical change that interprets reality in order to change it, understands the challenges and national and local specificities in every Palestinian community and sees them as a source of strength and pluralism. We adhere to our rights and roots while looking to the future and keeping pace with the times. This revolutionary approach is rising today to walk confidently and with steady steps toward liberated Palestine…towards a new Arab and human dawn.
On the day of our launch, we salute the whole struggle of our Palestinian people in all their places of residence, and all the resistance forces in Palestine. We also salute the struggle of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, the leadership of our people’s struggle in the occupied land, and the revolutionary school from which we derive all the determination and will to continue on the path until we obtain our freedom and reach our decisive victory.
Long live the struggle of our Palestinian people everywhere!
No voice is louder than the voice of the Palestinian people!
Glory to the martyrs, freedom to the prisoners!
We shall return and be victorious!
The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement
The following article by Collectif Palestine Vaincra (a member organization of the Samidoun Network) was published in Al-Akhbar, the Lebanese newspaper, as part of a series of articles on the case of Georges Abdallah. The special file on the Lebanese Communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for 37 years was published to accompany the Lebanese tour of the documentary film, “Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight.” Screenings are taking place in Beirut, Saida, Tripoli and Palestinian refugee camps Bourj al-Barajneh, Ain el-Helweh and Shatila.
“Certainly comrades, it is not by seeking legal loopholes here and there that one manages to confront the criminal harassment of the ‘authorized representatives of capital’ to which the imprisoned resistance fighters are subjected, but rather by affirming unwavering determination in the struggle against their criminal, moribund system.” – Georges Abdallah, 23 June 2018
Since its foundation, Collectif Palestine Vaincra has been leading a large campaign of mobilization for the release of Georges Abdallah, who is an honorary member. His continued detention in France reveals the role of French imperialism in this region of the world, especially in Lebanon and Palestine. Each month, several members of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra visit him at Lannemezan prison, where he is detained. And every month, we meet a relentless Arab struggler, determined and enthusiastic in facing the developments in the ongoing struggles. For us, supporting Georges Abdallah is supporting the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples against imperialism.
Georges Abdallah, prisoner of the Palestinian revolution
The Collectif Palestine Vaincra is an organization supporting the Palestinian people and their resistance. We support the struggle for the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea, and we mobilize for the immediate release of 4,650 Palestinian prisoners. Alongside those imprisoned in Zionist jails, Georges Abdallah is an important figure imprisoned in the heart of the center of imperialism. Supporting the cause of Georges Abdallah and the Palestinian prisoners is not only a human rights concern. It is, first and foremost, political support for those at the forefront of resistance against imperialism and Zionism, and who embody the only path for the liberation of the Palestinian people — that of resistance.
Georges Abdallah, an imprisoned Arab struggler
In prison, Georges Abdallah has never ceased to be what he is: An anti-imperialist fighter, a revolutionary intellectual and an Arab communist. As such, in 1999, he joined a platform bringing together dozens of revolutionary political prisoners, including anarchists, communists, and anti-fascists. He never ceases to affirm his support for the struggles of the peoples against imperialism and Zionism, especially the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples. Through declarations and refusing his meals, he brings his resistance to the heart of the imperialist prisons system. He supported Bilal Kayed’s hunger strike, demands the release of Ahmad Sa’adat (who calls him, in turn, “leader of the prisoners of the PFLP”), and supports the Great Marches for Return. All of his solidarity is in service of the struggle. By virtue of his clear political position and his status as a leader, he plays an important role in the reconstruction of the Palestinian and Arab left.
A growing campaign for the release of Europe’s longest-held political prisoner
The mobilization in France was developed first to break the code of silence on the story of Georges Abdallah and brk his isolation. After over 15 years of relentless campaigning, this first step is a partial success. Georges Abdallah has not been forgotten and an increasing number of people discover this state crime every year. In Toulouse, we are developing important efforts for information and mobilization in order to build the solidarity movement. The release of the documentary film, “Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight” is also playing a key role in developing support for the Lebanese communist imprisoned in France.
Since 2010, a large annual mobilization has taken place in October outside the prison gates in Lannemezan, where he is held. On 23 October 2021, over 1,000 people from across France and elsewhere gathered in front of the prison gates where he is held hostage to demand his release. At the same time, international support is becoming more and more visible and important, in particular thanks to the essential work of the Lebanese Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah as well as the international Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and hundreds of committees around the world. Today, more than 400 political and cultural figures around the world have joined the campaign for his liberation, including Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Mumia Abu-Jamal and Marcel Khalife. Without a doubt, the campaign for the liberation of Georges Abdallah has become one of the most important global campaigns to release a political prisoner.
Supporting Georges Abdallah: Supporting the resistance, Building the future
Today, Georges Abdallah has become a symbol of uncompromising struggle against imperialism, Zionism and reactionary Arab regimes. As an Arab communist imprisoned in France, Georges Abdallah embodies this necessary and vital link between the anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist struggles in Lebanon, Palestine and France.
His assertion of his political identity and his unwavering support for ongoing resistance have made it possible to politicize a new generation of activists on both sides of the Mediterranean. In France, many people have become politicized through his case and his struggle. The support of the generation born in the ’80s during his arrest and those born in the 2000’s (since Georges became eligible for release) emphasizes that support for Georges Abdallah has not weakened but, on the contrary, is consistently renewed alongside him. The emergence of anti-imperialist youth movements is undoubtedly the greatest political victory of Georges Abdallah, in addition to his assertion of the legitimacy of his cause for over 37 years in the face of his jailers.
At the same time, his 37-year imprisonment presents an urgent clarion call for the responsibility of the entire anti-imperialist movement in France, Lebanon and Palestine. It is urgent that this movement be reconstructed, for Georges and for the resistance.
Collectif Palestine Vaincra, member of the international Samidoun Network
Palestinian prisoner Miqdad al-Qawasmeh suspended his hunger strike on Thursday, 11 November 2021 after 113 days, in an agreement that he will be released from Israeli occupation prisons in February 2022. The agreement came following ongoing dialogues inside the prisons with the Zionist prison administration by the leadership of Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails. Qawasmeh, 24 and a university student, is jailed without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the courage, leadership and resistance of Miqdad Qawasmeh and his fellow Palestinian prisoners, and congratulates him on his victory over the jailer. We look forward to his liberation and to the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners in the prisons of the occupation, imperialism and reactionary regimes. At this moment, it remains urgent to act to demand the liberation of Qawasmeh’s five fellow long-term hunger strikers, continuing their struggle for freedom with their bodies and lives on the line.
Kayed Fasfous, 32, from Dura near al-Khalil, married and the father of a daughter, Joanne, has been on hunger strike for 120 days, held in Barzilai hospital. His administrative detention has been “suspended” and reimposed several times. The “suspension” of administrative detention does not affact his freedom; instead, he remains jailed under the watchful eyes of hospital security. While he may receive family visitors, they may not transfer him to obtain treatment from Palestinian doctors. Therefore, he has refused to end his hunger strike despite various attempts to forcibly feed him with intravenous nutrition inside the Israeli hospitals. He is demanding his liberation from detention without charge or trial, under which he has been jailed since July 2020.
Meanwhile, Alaa al-Araj, 34, a civil engineer from Tulkarem, has been on hunger strike for 96 days against his administrative detention. He has been jailed without charge or trial since 30 June 2021 and has been detained by the Israeli occupation on multiple past occasions. His only child was born and his father died while he was imprisoned. He has been jailed since 30 June 2021. Rather than ending his detention and freeing him, the Israeli occupation military is now attempting to convert his imprisonment to the military courts, seeking to file an indictment against him. The Israeli military courts, which convict over 99% of the Palestinians brought before them, are an instrument of colonial repression that criminalize membership in Palestinian political organizations, student movements, and unions, as well as resistance in all forms.
The Salem military court “extended his detention” today, 11 November, in a hearing; he has been repeatedly taken for interrogation despite his severe physical weakness and deterioration in his health. He has been transferred back and forth from the notorious Ramle prison clinic to Israeli civilian hospitals, again imposing greater stress on his body in another attempt to force him to end his hunger strike.
Hisham Abu Hawash, on hunger strike for 86 days, is also held in the Ramle prison clinic. He is 39 and from Dura in al-Khalil, and like al-Araj, he is 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.
Ayyad Hraimi, 28, has been on hunger strike for 50 days, recently transferred to the Ramle prison clinic from Ofer prison. Jailed without charge or trial since April 2021, he has been repeatedly detained by the Israeli occupation. In 2016, he also engaged in a long-term hunger strike to win his freedom from administrative detention that lasted for 45 days.
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 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.
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.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine to take action to support these Palestinian hunger strikers 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 these hashtags and the social media action sheet 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!
“Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight,” the new film focusing on the life and struggle of Georges Abdallah, premiered in Lebanon on Tuesday, 9 November in the Al-Madina Theatre in Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanon is the home country of the imprisoned Arab Communist struggler for Palestine, who has been imprisoned in France for over 37 years.
The film, directed by Collectif Vacarme(s) Films, features historical footage and interviews with Abdallah’s brothers Robert and Maurice, fellow political prisoners like Jean-Marc Rouillan and Bertrand Sassoye, as well as with Samidoun’s international coordinator Charlotte Kates, Europe coordinator Mohammed Khatib, Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat, and many more advocates for his liberation.
On Wednesday, 10 November, the film will screen at 6 pm at the Martyr Maarouf Saad Center in Saida, while on Thursday, 11 November, it will be shown at the Cultural Association in Tripoli at 4 pm. On Friday, 12 November, the film will be screened in the Al-Qassam Kindergarten in Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp, while it will return to central Beirut on Saturday, 13 November with a 7:30 pm screening at Barzakh in the Hamra neighborhood.
The Lebanon screenings have also prompted additional Arab projections of the film. On Saturday, 13 November, Fedayin will premiere in Bahrain, with a 7:30 pm screening at Bait al Salmaniya, organied by the Bahraini Association to Resist Normalization with the Zionist Entity and the Bahraini Democratic Youth Association.
Al-Akhbar newspaper dedicated a special issue to Georges Abdallah’s case to accompany the screening of the film. Articles include an interview with the Collectif Vacarme(s) Films team and director Matthieu Jeuland as well as a piece by the Collectif Palestine Vaincra highlighting the global campaign to free Abdallah. Most recently, over 1,000 people marched in Lannemezan, France, on 23 October, the 37th anniversary of Abdallah’s arrest, to demand his release, gathering outside the prison gates to salute their imprisoned comrade and revolutionary leader.
The mass march capped an international month of action that included dozens of screenings of “Fedayin,” throughout France, across Europe, and internationally. The film, featured at the Boston Palestine Film Festival, Chicago Palestine Film Festival and Sunbird Festival in Ramallah, among others, has been seen by thousands of people around the world and sparked mobilizations to the demonstration. Dozens of additional screenings are scheduled in the months to come.
The film is available with appropriate subtitles in French, Arabic, English, German, Italian, Catalan and Castilian Spanish. If you want to show Fedayin in your area, email us at samidoun@samidoun.net and contact the directors at vacarmesfilms@gmail.com. We will help you to get your screening organized, and the directors are available to attend your events in person or to join your in-person events via video link.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges people and organizations around the world to organize screenings of “Fedayin” in the coming month and beyond. This film has an important role to play in highlighting Georges Abdallah’s case to international audiences and helping to break down the walls of injustice that continue to keep him imprisoned in France, away from his homeland Lebanon.
On October 29, Jorge “Ka Oris” Madlos, leader of the New People’s Army of the Philippines was killed together with his comrade Ka Pika, in a cowardly ambush by the reactionary forces of the Philippines state army. Ka Oris was on his way to a medical check-up when he and Ka Pika were gunned down before reaching the hospital. Ka Oris was loved by many people and comrades in the Philippines and internationally.
As Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, we express our deepest condolences to the family and comrades of Ka Oris and Ka Pika. We strongly condemn the killing of these internationalist comrades and we are outraged by the fact that the reactionary Philippines state military decided to cremate Ka Oris’ body without giving his family a chance to see his body and bury it themselves. These actions, to not only kill our comrades but also withhold their bodies from their family and loved ones, a practice that is also employed by the Zionist military, proves the savage and reactionary nature of our enemies.
Ka Oris was not simply a leader of the Filipino people’s struggle; he also was a true internationalist who was deepening the cooperation between the Filipino revolutionary struggle and the Palestinian liberation movement. He was a determined and yet humble comrade, always serving the needs of the people he dedicated his life to. It was our privilege to have known Ka Oris, and we will let his spirit live on through our actions and organizing for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.
For Ka Oris, it was the youth who hold the true power to change the oppressive and exploitative system into a world of freedom, liberty, and equality. He said:
“To the youth of this generation, you have the advantage of knowing the world and our country. You are better exposed and more open to new ideas, energetic, receptive and sensitive to injustices, patriotic and ready to rise up to the need for revolutionary change not only for yourselves, for your country, but for the peoples of the world.
This is why Duterterrorist and his mafia – those who discourage you from ‘being involved’, those who say ‘activism is passe’, those who claim that ‘the revolution is a lost cause’, those who scare you that you might fall prey to ‘terrorist brainwashing and recruitment’ – are so afraid of you.
The reactionaries are aware that you are at an age when you are called upon to make a lifetime decision that can change not only your future but theirs as well. They fear that you would choose to follow the path that had toppled tyrants and emancipated slaves.
They are afraid of you, the Filipino youth.”
As Samidoun, we are a proud member of the Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle, the Friends of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, and we will keep struggling for the unity of the international people’s movements for liberation and justice. We will remember Ka Oris as a hero of the people, and we will share his memory with our comrades all over the world. Martyrs never die; they live on through the very people they fought alongside with.
Samidoun members at the Masar Badil (Alternative Palestinian Revolutionary Path) conference in Madrid salute Ka Oris:
Come together to mark Samidoun’s 10th anniversary and to look forward to more years of struggle together until the liberation of Palestine. With a presentation on Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Palestinian dabkeh by Jafra Group, DJ Falafel, Palestinian food, anti-colonial books and more!
Wednesday, 17 November 2021
Wednesday November 17, 2021 at 8 p.m. / L’Epee de bois cinema – 100 rue Mouffetard, Paris 5
The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil) launched amid a series of conferences in Madrid, Spain; Beirut, Lebanon; and Sao Paulo, Brazil, between 30 October and 2 November 2021. The Masar Badil is a popular, mass movement of Palestinians, Arabs and internationalists struggling for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, in complete rejection of the so-called “peace process” of the Madrid Conference and the Oslo Accords, which have led to nothing but destruction for Palestinian rights and the Palestinian national liberation movement.
Conference participants were clear on the role of imperialism, Zionism and reactionary Arab regimes in attacking the Palestinian cause. The conference, held on the 30th anniversary of the Madrid so-called “Peace Conference,” highlighted the necessity of reviving Palestinian struggle and uniting the resistance to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea. The conference also emphasized that Palestinian prisoners and the prisoners’ movement as the leadership of the Palestinian struggle inside occupied Palestine and “the revolutionary school from which we derive all of the determination and will to continue on our path until freedom and a decisive victory are achieved.”
The following articles highlight the views and experiences of various participants in the conference:
Palestinian prisoner Miqdad al-Qawasmeh suspended his hunger strike on Thursday, 11 November 2021 after 113 days, in an 
“Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight,” the new film focusing on the life and struggle of Georges Abdallah, premiered in Lebanon on Tuesday, 9 November in the Al-Madina Theatre in Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanon is the home country of the imprisoned Arab Communist struggler for Palestine, who has been imprisoned in France for over 37 years.
