Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is honored to join and endorse the hunger strikers and the Yemeni Liberation Movement on the 10th day of their strike to demand the US end ALL support to the Saudi-led blockade on Yemen. The blockade, now in its fourth month, has prevented all fuel and food from entering the country, leading to mass starvation, electricity shortages, and death. All this while the Yemeni people have endured six years of onslaught from the Saudi-led coalition:
The people of Yemen are being starved due to a war tactics blockade that has been imposed by Saudi-led, US-supported forces. 24 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 16 million are at risk of famine. As a result, Yemeni activists have been on hunger strike since March 29, calling on the US and Biden Administration to withdraw support of the Saudi-led blockade on Yemen. This video recaps the first week of the hunger strike.
Participate in the national day of fasting on Thursday, April 8 in support of the hunger strike and demand @Potus withdraw support of the Saudi-led blockade on Yemen. Post a photo of yourself with the line I am #Fasting4Yemen because __. And include #BidenEndtheBlockade #HungerStrike4Yemen #YemenCantWait in the caption.
The Biden administration is currently supporting (yet denying) a new 3-month-long fuel blockade that has resulted in mass starvation and death. All food and other necessities are unable to be transported into the country, with the ports lined up with rotted food. Hospitals are forced to shut down as they are unable to keep their generators running. According to a 2021 WHO report, nearly 51% of hospitals that were operating before the war are currently either closed or operate at reduced capacity. Yemenis can’t afford to transport themselves to the hospital, with one Yemeni mother expressing in a March 2021 CNN investigation that she had to cut out food and water in order to afford sending her child to receive critical care.
The famine in Yemen is man-made, and we ask that you take action to help alleviate the crisis. Support the Hunger Strike. End the blockade!
Building on the collective statement of many groups in Canada – including the BC Civil Liberties Association, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Independent Jewish Voices Canada, Palestinian Youth Movement, Canadian BDS Coalition, U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers – the Canada Palestine Association and Just Peace Advocates have launched a letter-writing campaign to Canadian Minister of Public Security Bill Blair against attacks on Samidoun and Palestine organizing by Israel lobby groups in Canada.
As noted in the campaign, “On February 3, 2021, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Advocacy CIJA called for Samidoun to be placed on Canada’s terror list. This was included in their statement responding to the announcement by Bill Blair, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, that Canada was adding 13 groups to Canada’s list of Terrorist Entities. Then, on February 28, 2021, the same day Israel stated they were designating Samidoun as “terrorist”, CIJA tweeted to Bill Blair saying that Canada should now follow Israel’s lead and do the same…
This criminalization of Palestinian advocacy is unacceptable and unfounded; Palestinian-Canadians and their supporters have no intention of allowing biased officials to suppress their democratic rights and their voices. We will continue to work for justice and equality for Palestinians, be it through prisoner support or boycott campaigns; we will not allow our guaranteed rights to free expression and association to be threatened or curtailed.”
Please join these important events for Israeli Apartheid Week at the University of Toronto, beginning today, 5 April, with the keynote speech by Dr. Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is proud to join as an endorser of IAW 2021
First launched in Toronto in 2005, IsraeliApartheidWeek (IAW) has become one of the most important global events in the Palestine solidarity calendar. IAW is an international series of events that aims to raise awareness of Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people and build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Join us at UofT as we come together under this year’s theme, United Against Racism, and continue building the Palestine solidarity movement
Mon., April 5 @ 6pm EST: Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi keynote, Anything but Random: Defeating Zionist and Corporatized Systemic Erasure of Palestine
– RSVP Fb: https://fb.me/e/8FGHWTQwG/ Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/146173937181
– Arabic and Spanish interpretation available
– Hosted by the UofT’s Students Against Israeli Apartheid, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3902 BDS Committee & CUPE Ontario
Thurs., April 8 @ 6pm EST: Palestine Through Chilean Eyes, panel with Dr. Rodrigo Karmy, Dr. Emilio Dabed, Pamela Arancibia and Paz Jurado
IAW 2021 is hosted, sponsored and endorsed by: Samidoun Palestnian Prisoner Solidarity Network, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario, Independent Jewish Voices (IJV)-Toronto, Upping the Anti, Apoyamos Chile, Mayworks Festival of Working People & the Arts, Actions4Palestine, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) – Canada, Women’s Committee for a Free Wallmapu, Palestine Solidarity Collective at York University, the Caribbean Solidarity Network, CUPE Local 3902 BDS Political Action Committee, Abolition Convergence – Toronto, UofT’s Equity Studies Student Union, No one Is Illegal – Toronto, UofT’s Leap, UofT’s Students Against Israeli Apartheid & more!
Join Samidoun for a webinar bringing together organizers from France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Canada to discuss efforts to repress the Palestinian and Palestine solidarity movements – and the fightback against repression and for liberation!
It’s Georges Abdallah’s 70th birthday. This Lebanese Arab communist struggler for Palestine is marking this birthday in Lannemezan Prison, after being jailed by France for over 36 years. Join us today to take action online to demand his immediate liberation.
First, join the Twitterstorm! #MacronLibérezAbdallah Twitter Storm Friday, 2 April 2021 10 am Pacific – 1 pm Eastern – 7 pm central Europe – 8 pm Palestine Use the hashtag: #MacronLibérezAbdallah Sample Tweets: https://bit.ly/freeabdallah Tag: @EmmanuelMacron @GDarmanin to direct your demand to French officials.
Sign our collective birthday card to call for freedom for Georges Abdallah and express your solidarity!
On Friday, April 2, 2021, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the longest-held political prisoner in Europe, will mark his 70th birthday.
Sign this card to greet his birthday and demand the immediate release of this Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine jailed in France for over 36 years.
Throughout his time in prison, Georges Abdallah has remained on the forefront of struggle, even participating in collective hunger strikes with Palestinian prisoners. His return to Lebanon has been repeatedly blocked by French officials, acting in concert with the United States and Israel.
To write to Georges or send him a card of your own, write to:
Monsieur Georges Ibrahim ABDALLAH
2388/A221 CP de Lannemezan
204 rue des Saligues
BP 70166
65307 LANNEMEZAN
France
Who Is Georges Ibrahim Abdallah?
A Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine, he has been imprisoned in French prisons since 1984, convicted on charges of participation in armed actions by the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction, working to fight off colonialist and Zionist invasions in Lebanon.
From his youth, Georges Abdallah was an activist, working first with the Syrian Social Nationalist party and then with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). With the PFLP, he resisted and was injured by Israeli forces invading Lebanon in 1978. A committed Communist and internationalist, he views the Arab struggle for liberation from Zionism and imperialism as part and parcel of the international workers’ struggle for liberation from capitalism.
The Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Faction (LARF) was formed to fight off and resist U.S., Israeli and other imperialist attacks on Lebanon. Georges Abdallah was accused of participating in attacks on U.S. and Israeli military officials in France.
He has been eligible for release since 1999 yet continues to be denied parole, despite having parole requests approved several times by French judges. The Lebanese government has officially asked for his release, and he is asking to be deported to Lebanon. Yet the French state has intervened at the highest levels, alongside the U.S and Israeli regimes, to deny Georges Abdallah’s parole requests.
In fact, in 1985, the French government agreed to a prisoner exchange – to release Abdallah in exchange for a captured French diplomat. Instead, the diplomat was released – and Abdallah remained in prison. His own original lawyer was in fact a spy working for the French state and reporting on him to the highest levels of French intelligence; all of which was used against him in court.
People throughout France and around the world have campaigned for his freedom for decades. His brothers and loved ones in Lebanon lead the International Campaign to Free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. He is considered to be part of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
His case represents also the coherence of U.S., Israeli and European colonialist interests in the imprisonment of Palestinian and Arab strugglers for liberation and the attack on the Palestinian people.
Freed Palestinian prisoner Majd Barbar issued a video message to his supporters and friends in Palestine around the world who have amplified the call for his freedom and shared his reunion with his family. Barbar was released from Israeli jails after 20 years of imprisonment on Monday, 29 March, and the images of his and his family’s celebration was shared broadly. Palestinians and friends of Palestine joined in the joy of Majd, his wife Fatima, their son Montasser and their daughter Zeina upon his release.
On 30 March, Israeli occupation forces once again invaded his home, attacking his family and friends with tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets — injuring 12 — and abducting Majd Barbar once again to the al-Moskobiyeh interrogation center. As he was taken away, he declared: “We will not be defeated.” Barbar was again freed on Wednesday, 31 March, having rejected Israeli conditions that he be subjected to house arrest or exiled from his home in Jerusalem for five days.
He issued a video message to his supporters and friends:
“Salutes to all of you from the Arab homeland, Palestine. My beloved family, friends, people, I thank you for your brave stand with me, which, if it reflects anything, it only reflects your genuine commitment, to this beloved homeland, Palestine, to its land, to its sky, to its water, its soli, and its air.
Yes, our Palestine will remain ours, as it has been for thousands of years. We are remaining on this land, like the roots of the olive trees.
Also, I want to say, in simple words, that the conditions the occupation attempted to impose upon me in relation to the house arrest have fallen for the second time. I will not accept any conditions upon my movement.
I am willing to remain in prison, I prefer prison than to be in my house and my movement is chained.
Thank you again and we are inevitably victorious.”
No matter what the Israeli occupation forces do, they cannot and will not suppress the deep Palestinian and human love, joy, and commitment to liberation embodied by Majd Barbar, his family, and all Palestinians yearning for and struggling for freedom.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins in the celebration of the release of Majd Barbar and demands the release of all Palestinian prisoners. Once again, it is clear that steadfastness can win victories.
The outrageous attack on a freed Palestinian prisoner one day after his release was an act of official colonial state revenge for the joy, love and celebration of his family, friends and comrades, must inspire all who support the rights of the Palestinian people to action. Boycott Israel and the complicit corporations that continue to sustain such attacks, and stand with the Palestinian people and their resistance until return and liberation, from the river to the sea.
Whatever they do — Palestine will not be defeated; Palestine will be victorious!
#MacronLibérezAbdallah Twitter Storm Friday, 2 April 2021 10 am Pacific – 1 pm Eastern – 7 pm central Europe – 8 pm Palestine Use the hashtags: #MacronLibérezAbdallah https://bit.ly/freeabdallah
Tag: @EmmanuelMacron @GDarmanin to direct your demand to French officials!
On the occasion of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah’s 70th birthday, join the twitterstorm#MacronLibérezAbdallah (Macron, Free Abdallah!) to free this imprisoned Lebanese communist and struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France since 1984 and eligible for release since 1999!
Friday, 2 April 2021 – 10 am Pacific – 1 pm Eastern – 7 pm central Europe – 8 pm Palestine/Lebanon
Participez au twitterstorm #MacronLibérezAbdallah à l’occasion du 70e anniversaire de Georges Abdallah, communiste libanais et militant de la cause palestinienne emprisonné en France depuis 1984 et libérable depuis 1999 !
Vendredi 2 avril à 19h (France)/20h (Liban)
On Friday, April 2, 2021, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the longest-held political prisoner in Europe, will mark his 70th birthday. Join us in a Twitter storm to greet his birthday and demand the immediate release of this Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine jailed in France for over 36 years. Throughout his time in prison, Georges Abdallah has remained on the forefront of struggle, even participating in collective hunger strikes with Palestinian prisoners. His return to Lebanon has been repeatedly blocked by French officials, acting in concert with the United States and Israel. Join us to say: #MacronLibérezAbdallah
We will not be defeated! Join the Twitter Storm: Wednesday, 31 March 10 am Pacific – 1 pm Eastern – 7 pm central Europe – 8 pm Palestine Sample Tweets: https://bit.ly/notbedefeated Use the hashtags: #WeWillNotBeDefeated لن_نهزم#
Freed Palestinian prisoner Majd Barbar once again proved the truth of his words — “We will not be defeated” — as he was released once again by Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday, 31 March. Barbar had refused a proposal by Israeli occupation forces to either deport him from the city of occupied Jerusalem, his home, or impose house arrest upon him, for five days. He was released once again to his home in the Ras al-Amud neighbourhood of Jerusalem, where he had been received two days earlier, on Monday, 29 March, with scenes of great joy and celebration upon his release after 20 years in Israeli prison.
Barbar’s home was invaded on 30 March as his family celebrated his release, an attack on the scenes of Palestinian love, celebration and joy that had ben viewed millions of times by people around the world as his wife, Fatima, son Montaser and daughter Zeina welcomed him home. Zeina was only 15 days old when her father was first abducted by Israeli occupation forces on 29 March 2001.
After Israeli occupation forces invaded his home on 30 March, he was taken to the notorious al-Moskobiyeh interrogation center in occupied Jerusalem; his father and brothers were also summoned for interrogation and threatened if any public celebrations were held for Barbar’s release in Jerusalem. When occupation forces attacked the family home with tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets, 12 people were injured, reported The Palestinian Red Crescent.
Israeli occupation forces also raided the Qasr al-Hamra hall in Eizariya, Jerusalem, to prevent a reception being held to welcome Barbar home by his friends and family.
These types of attacks on former prisoners and ongoing harassment, threats and physical assaults against them and their families are intended to suppress Palestinian expressions of love and joy and suppress the natural celebration of the Palestinian people in welcoming home their freed prisoners.
On Monday, after reuniting with his family and wife…Barbar said: “For a person who believes in the justice of the Palestinian cause, a prison cannot break him, no matter how long it lasts, and I was reconciled with this idea of the length of my prison sentence and with all its oppression and my exclusion from my family, my wife and my children.”
“The Palestinian people cannot think of an option other than to hold fast in their land, and to stand in it like the olive tree. We will not leave this land no matter what [Israelis] did, from killings to demolishing homes,” Barbar added.
Barbar told media that his wife Fatmeh “means the world to me. She is my home. She was able to give our children for 20 years. This is the greatness of the Palestinian woman.”
No matter what the Israeli occupation forces do, they cannot and will not suppress the deep Palestinian and human love, joy, and commitment to liberation embodied by Majd Barbar, his family, and all Palestinians yearning for and struggling for freedom.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins in the celebration of the release of Majd Barbar and demands the release of all Palestinian prisoners.
The outrageous attack on a freed Palestinian prisoner one day after his release, an act of official colonial state revenge for the joy, love and celebration of his family, friends and comrades, must inspire all who support the rights of the Palestinian people to action. Boycott Israel and the complicit corporations that continue to sustain the attack on Majd and his family, and stand with the Palestinian people and their resistance until return and liberation, from the river to the sea.
Whatever they do — Palestine will not be defeated; Palestine will be victorious!
“Kul al-turab al-watani” — the entire national land of Palestine, meaning “all of Palestine”
30 March 2021 marks the 45th Palestinian Land Day, a day of struggle and commitment to resisting colonization, occupation and apartheid, and to achieving victory and liberation for the land and people of Palestine.
Land Day commemorates the anniversary of the mass rising in occupied Palestine ’48 in 1976 in response to Israeli land confiscation targeting 20,000 dunums of Palestinian land in the Galilee. Palestinians inside occupied Palestine ’48, who remained on their land after 80% of their people were expelled in the Nakba, confronted these new Zionist attacks with a general strike and mass popular protests, where six Palestinians were killed by occupation forces — Kheir Mohammad Salim Yasin, Khadija Qasem Shawahneh, Raja Hussein Abu Rayya, Khader Eid Mahmoud Khalayleh, Muhsin Hasan Said Taha and Raafat Ali Al-Zheir — as they defended their land.
“Kul al-turab al-watani” — the entire national land of Palestine, meaning “all of Palestine”
The Day of the Land has become a national commemoration of the entire Palestinian people, inside and outside occupied Palestine. It marks the unity of the Palestinian people in confronting Zionism, colonization and occupation and in celebrating the continuing and unbreakable ties to the land of Palestine that cannot be erased by military might. It is a day for the Palestinian refugees struggling for return and every fighter against colonialism.
In 2018, the Day of the Land once again bore witness to the popular organizing of the people, as thousands upon thousands gathered in Gaza for the Great March of Return, and occupation forces again shot down Palestinians defending their land and upholding their rights. 42 years after the first Land Day massacre, Israeli occupation forces killed 16 martyrs of the land and return, with over 200 more shot down in the marches over the months and days to come.
On Land Day, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network affirms that this day continues to reflect the commitment of the Palestinian people to liberate their land from the river to the sea and to resist all forms of colonization. We join with the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine for the #AllLandPalestine campaign, raising the Palestinian flag and the map of Palestine around the world.
Just as Palestinians in ’48 face state violence, land confiscation, and the racist policies of Zionism from Umm al-Fahm to al-Naqab, they also confront imprisonment, arrests and repression. Behind bars in Israeli jails, Palestinians continue to confront the occupier on a daily basis. 70 of those political prisoners — of approximately 4,400 in total — are those of occupied Palestine ’48, housed with fellow Palestinians and facing the same restrictions and denial of rights. Karim Younis, one of the longest-imprisoned Palestinian prisoners, is from Occupied Palestine ’48 as is his cousin Maher; indeed, six of the seven Palestinian prisoners imprisoned over 30 years for their role in the Palestinian resistance are from Occupied Palestine ’48: Karim and Maher Younis, Walid Daqqa, Rushdi Abu Mukh, Ibrahim Abu Mukh and Ibrahim Bayadseh.
“Kul al-turab al-watani” — the entire national land of Palestine, meaning “all of Palestine”
They have been consistently denied release in both prisoner exchanges with the Palestinian resistance and in Oslo-negotiations-based prisoner releases, as the Israeli state attempts to separate them as “Israeli citizens” from their fellow Palestinian prisoners in releases and labels them a “domestic matter“. At the same time, they are housed with fellow Palestinian prisoners, denied family visits, forced to see family only through glass, and held in solitary confinement while Israeli “criminal” prisoners – and even the rare Israeli Jewish prisoner held as a “security” prisoner for extreme-right violence – are granted temporary releases, their sentences limited and lowered, and allowed lengthy family visits, furloughs, and conjugal visits.
Today, from Umm al-Fahm to al-Naqab to Sheikh Jarrah, Palestinians are fighting to stand steadfast against displacement, defend their land and resist colonization in all forms on Land Day. Palestinian refugees in Gaza, in the West Bank, in the camps and in exile and diaspora around the world are fighting to return home.
On Land Day, we stand with the Palestinian people, we stand with the Palestinian resistance, and we look forward together toward a liberated future for the land and people of Palestine.
Read our statement below — first delivered in Arabic (read the original Arabic here) in Berlin by Samidoun Deutschland at a demonstration — and join in the actions to organize for return and liberation for #AllLandPalestine on the 45th Land Day and beyond:
**
On the immortal occasion of Land Day, from the heart of the capitals of the Palestinian diaspora, from the refugee camps, from across the occupied Arab land of Palestine, our cries resound to the skies and we declare on this occasion: “We will not concede.” We remain, generation after generation, carrying the memory of Palestine from the river to the sea, carrying al-Lyd, Haifa, Ramleh, Yafa and Jerusalem in our hearts.
We, the children of the land, the refugees, we learned Palestine in the squares of the camps, and we realized the idea of Palestine at the checkpoints. We grew up with our dreams under siege, and we greeted our Palestinian people on the other side of the wall as we raised the hammer of promise for future liberation.
From Berlin and Malmö, to Beddawi camp and al-Wihdat, to al-Arroub and Jabalia, and to our Palestinian people everywhere, we are here today, continuing in direct confrontation and struggling for land and liberation in the heart of the states that provide support for the Zionist regime. We affirm that our return is inevitable and our message is clear: We hold fast to return and liberation and emphasize that we will claim our right to life and expose the crimes of the Zionist occupation.
On this Land Day, we honor our immortal martyrs and salute the brave prisoners inside Israeli prisons and those of the reactionary Arab regimes, and particularly salute Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed in the prisons of the French state. We stand with the democratic and revolutionary forces everywhere in the world and by the side of our comrades in the Palestine solidarity movement in France, Germany, Canada and everywhere, those who are today facing persecution, repression and “lawfare” attacks for defending the just cause of the Palestinian people.
Despite the ongoing colonial settlements invading Palestinian land, the series of normalization deals with reactionary regimes, the complicity of the imperialist powers; despite the siege and poverty and our second exile and displacement; despite the betrayal of Palestinian Authority “security coordination” and the policies of submission and concession; and despite the false promises of the so-called “peace process”, we are confident: Palestine and its people will be victorious.
On Land Day, on this immortal commemoration, we call on the Palestinian and Arab communities to participate, defend their rights and intensify participation in all activities for Palestine, especially the campaigns of solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, Palestinian women prisoners and the imprisoned students in occupation jails. We must intensify the boycott campaigns against Israel alongside our role in confronting Western imperial racism, the growing right-wing extreme attacks and Islamophobia, together with all targeted communities. This is part and parcel of our quest for liberation and return.
Together, we must work for an alternative revolutionary path and a new movement of organizing, struggle and resistance, in which the Palestinian diaspora will regain its role and its right to defend Palestine, all of Palestine, as an integral part of the project of liberation and return. From Berlin, Amsterdam and Malmö, to Mar Elias, Baqaa and Yarmouk, to all of Palestine.
We win together, and we win only together. From the Naqab to the Galilee, until return and liberation.
***
Take Action on Land Day and Moving Forward:
1. Join the #AllLandPalestine social media campaign of the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine. Raise the Palestinian flag and post with the hashtag #AllLandPalestine.
2. Boycott Israel! Join the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Highlight the complicity of corporations like Hewlett-Packard and the continuing involvement of G4S in Israeli policing and prisons. Boycott Teva, the Israeli pharmaceutical corporation that provides millions to the Israeli occupation and its military, and join the campaigns — like those of Palestine Action in the UK — confronting Israeli warmongers like Elbit Systems. Build a campaign to boycott Israeli goods, impose a military embargo on Israel, or organize around the academic and cultural boycott of Israel.
3. Support Palestinian Prisoners: Join the campaign to free Palestinian students and all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Adopt a prisoner, write a letter, share their stories and build global solidarity to break down prison walls!
4. Organize for Palestinian freedom! The Alternative Palestinian Path (Masar Badil) is organizing a series of events, actions and Palestinian movement-building activities to break clearly with the false path of Madrid and Oslo and develop the movement for Palestinian liberation and return. The conference will take place in late October-early November in Madrid. Visit the Masar Badil website and get involved.
The Barbar family reunited on 29 March 2021, one day before Majd was again kidnapped by occupation forces
On Tuesday, 30 March, Israeli occupation forces stormed the home of Majd Barbar, former Palestinian political prisoner released after 20 years of detention one day earlier, kidnapping him and attacking people in his home in the Ras al-Amud neighbourhood of occupied Jerusalem.
The photos and videos of Barbar, who had been imprisoned by the Israeli occupation since 30 March 2001, reuniting with his wife, Fatima, his son, Montasser and his daughter, Zeina, were widely distributed online, as Palestinians shared in the exuberant joy, love and resilience of the family that came through so clearly in these images and videos.
Our eyes have teared for their incomparable happiness | Majd Barbar, a veteran #Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails, was released yesterday after 20 years in prison. He's warmly welcomed by his wife, family and friends in his hometown of occupied #Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/C3yoZWOhUx
Zeina, a young writer whose work has been published in Arabic on the Samidoun website, was only 15 days old when her father was seized by the Israeli occupation 20 years ago.
Upon his initial release on Monday, 29 March, Majd Barbar was taken to the infamous al-Moskobiyeh detention and interrogation center in Jerusalem as occupation forces further delayed his release before he was finally freed to return to his family. During his arrest in 2001, he and his comrades were interrogated and subjected to torture at al-Moskobiyeh, where they engaged in hunger strikes lasting 300 days.
The joyous, emotional scenes of his reunion with his wife, children and extended family were shared widely across social media platforms, as Palestinians and friends of Palestine rejoiced with the Barbar family.
Israeli forces released Palestinian presoner Majd Barbar, after spending 20 years in Israeli prisons. pic.twitter.com/rb98glvAOK
The images of Majd Barbar’s release depicted Palestinian love, joy, togetherness, celebration and commitment to freedom, the irrepressible spirit and will of the people that could not be crushed through 20 years of imprisonment or 72 years of occupation, colonization and apartheid.
Majd Barbar, and his wife Fatima, after 20 years of separation.
It was precisely this reason – an attempt to stamp out the celebration of a family and the internationally magnified reflections of their love for each other and for Palestine – that Israeli occupation forces stormed the Barbar family home on 30 March, seizing Majd once again from his loved ones and firing tear gas inside and outside his home.
As he was kidnapped by armed occupation forces invading his home, only one day after his release following 20 years of imprisonment, he declared: “Whatever they do, we will not be defeated.”
No matter what the Israeli occupation forces do, they cannot and will not suppress the deep Palestinian and human love, joy, and commitment to liberation embodied by Majd Barbar, his family, and all Palestinians yearning for and struggling for freedom.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Majd Barbar and all Palestinian prisoners. This outrageous attack on a freed Palestinian prisoner one day after his release, an act of official colonial state revenge for the joy, love and celebration of his family, friends and comrades, must inspire all who support the rights of the Palestinian people to action. Boycott Israel and the complicit corporations that continue to sustain the attack on Majd and his family, and stand with the Palestinian people and their resistance until return and liberation, from the river to the sea.
Whatever they do — Palestine will not be defeated; Palestine will be victorious!
