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Samidoun Delegation to Lebanon Day 2: Political and cultural discussions at Mar Elias camp

On 23 July, the second day of the Samidoun international delegation to Lebanon, the delegates participated in several political meetings and cultural activities. Delegates began their activities of the day by meeting in Beirut with Jamal Wakim, a professor at the Lebanese University. Jamal Wakim is also a leading member in the People’s Movement of Lebanon (Harakat al-Shaab), a political party formed in 2000, with a progressive and anti-imperialist agenda.


The delegation discussed the situation for the Palestinian Left and its political organizations, and how we can collectively move forward to advance Palestinian liberation. Also on the agenda were differing views on Arab nationalism and visions of the path of national liberation for the region as a whole. The delegation also discussed the relationships of various anti-colonial movements around the world and their relationships to each other, with Wakim drawing parallels to Cuba, Brazil and the rest of Latin America as examples to learn from, including the pitfalls of reformist movements and the necessity of revolutionary change.


We also had a discussion on how US imperialism, with Israel as its spearhead, actively works to fragment Lebanon and the rest of the Arab region in order to further establish its hegemony, and how important it is to counter these attacks. One part of this fragmentation was reflected in the Lebanese Civil War, in which Lebanese society was restructured in favor of imperialist interests, mainly through violence against the poor and marginalized minorities.


In the evening, the Samidoun delegation visited Mar Elias refugee camp, where they met with comrades of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in its office in the camp, hearing from veteran strugglers for Palestine about their experiences and visions for the future of Palestinian liberation.

The delegation then visited the Palestinian Cultural Club in Mar Elias refugee camp. The Club is a social, cultural and political platform in the camps of Lebanon, serving mainly children and youth. It organizes cultural activities and Palestinian history and geography events for younger children and political workshops for older youth. One of the Club’s purposes is to raise political awareness among the Palestinian youth.The Palestinian Cultural Club welcomes all independent youth organizations which wish to organize together. The Club was launched by students at Beirut Arab University in 1993, after the Lebanese Civil War and the signing of the Oslo agreements, when they saw an absence of political organizations for the inhabitants of the refugee camps, to advance Palestinian liberation and protect the right to return. Samidoun and the Club has a long discussion where we shared our experiences of organizing for Palestine and how we can build our cooperation to further the cause of national liberation.


The delegation received a history lesson on the culture of the camps, including the founding of Palestinian music group Jafra, which was the start of several generations of dabke dancing in the camps. At the end of the evening, the Samidoun delegates were treated to music and poetry from Jaafar al-Toufar.

Our hosts Cirine Nabulsi and Mahmoud al-Badawia concluded the meeting by presenting Samidoun Network with a portrait of an imprisoned Palestinian looking towards freedom and a message of solidarity, struggle and hope for the future liberation of Palestine.

The delegation will proceed throughout the coming days, with ongoing reports of the delegation’s meetings and work throughout Lebanon. You can also follow the progress of the delegation on Samidoun Stockholm’s social media (@samidoun08), Collectif Palestine Vaincra (@collectifpalestinevaincra) and Samidoun Spain (@samidoun.esp).

23 July and 30 July, Online Events: Educational Events on Anti-Zionism and Settler Colonialism in Palestine

Friday, 23 July
2:00 Pacific time (5 pm Eastern time)
Register on Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/98484693291?pwd=am5BMmtVK1F6b09jTVNzdUJCSEM1Zz09

Anti-Semitism – What it Is and Isn’t, Understanding the Difference between Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism

Friday, 30 July
2:00 Pacific time (5 pm Eastern time)
Register on Zoom: https://sfu.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Ikcuqqrj4pH9MH74_emp6ddMP5vb52T03y

Settler Colonialism in Palestine: History and Investigation of Colonial Aggression.

More info: https://www.facebook.com/RISE.SFU/posts/2975027269481431

These events have been organized by supporters of IJV – Youth Bloc, RISE SFU, Students For Justice in Palestine SFU, and The Caucus. Please reach out to the organizers if you have any accessibility requirements.

25 July, Online Event: Open Forum – The Current Palestinian Uprising and the Path Forward to Liberation.

Sunday, July 25
11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern.
Register to join online: https://bit.ly/masarforum1

With the recent surge in mobilizations across historic Palestine and the diaspora, we invite you to join us in an open discussion concerning the current political moment facing the Palestinian struggle following recent confrontations with the Zionist entity and against the Palestinian Authority. Through this forum, we hope to exchange experiences concerning mobilizations within the North American scene, discuss what is needed to build a path forward for our work, and explore the necessary conditions for an alternative path to that of Oslo. We welcome participation from all!

Organized by the Masar Badil – Alternative Palestinian Path

Samidoun delegation to Lebanon begins: Visit to Shatila camp, meeting with boycott campaign

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network’s delegation to Lebanon, the “Ghassan Kanafani Brigade,” officially kicked off its first day of activities on 22 July 2021, meeting with organizations in Shatila refugee camp and visiting with the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon. The delegation is comprised of Samidoun activists and members based in Sweden, France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Before entering Shatila camp, the delegation visited Shatila’s Martyrs Cemetery to pay their respects to those who dedicated their lives to the Palestinian liberation struggle. Shatila today is home to 27,000 people, including 14,000 Palestinian refugees struggling for their right to return home, denied them for 73 years.

The camp, established in 1948 by Palestinian refugees forcibly displaced from their homes and lands inside occupied Palestine by Zionist occupation forces during the Nakba, was also the site of the infamous massacre of 1982 carried out by the Israeli occupation and local reactionary forces.

At the Martyrs’ Cemetery, the delegation visited the graves of the great Palestinian revolutionary leader martyrs Ghassan Kanafani (1936-1972), and Maher al-Yamani (1949-2019), and the internationalist martyrs of the Japanese Red Army Tsuyoshi Okudaira (1945-1972), Yasuyuki Yasuda (1945-1972), Bakawa Hiomori (1947-2002), Owasamu Maruoka (1950-2011).

In Shatila Camp, the delegation met with the Palestinian Chess Club, which provides both cultural and after school education for more than seventy children in the camp. The Club also provides a safe and progressive environment for the children in the camp, which is stricken with extreme poverty.

This poverty is firstly caused by Israel’s expulsion of the Palestinian people, but is reinforced by the Lebanese state’s discriminatory laws. For example, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are not allowed to work, causing widespread unemployment and pushing them to illegal work.

The delegation met with dozens of members of the Club to get to know each other and exchange views and experiences, as well as playing some games of chess.

The Club, which was established in 2013, is actually run by the children themselves, who form the general assembly, with support of their coordinator Mahmoud Al-Hanoun. The Chess Club provides not only education about chess, but a grounding in Palestine and politics – a poster calling for the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed for 37 years in France, hangs over the club’s main hall.

Samidoun thanks the Chess Club for the warm welcome and committed to continue to support the Club and its work politically and materially.

In the evening, the delegation met with the Lebanese Campaign for the Boycott of Supporters of “Israel”. This campaign started in 2002, during the Second Intifada. One important focus point of their campaign is the cultural and academic boycott of “Israel” and confronting creeping normalization and attempts to break the Lebanese boycott.

Samah Idriss, one of the co-founders of the Campaign, discussed the Lebanese economic and political crisis and the relations between the Lebanese left and the Palestinian people in Lebanon with the delegation.

The delegation will proceed throughout the coming days, with ongoing reports of the delegation’s meetings and work throughout Lebanon. You can also follow the progress of the delegation on Samidoun Stockholm’s social media (@samidoun08), Collectif Palestine Vaincra (@collectifpalestinevaincra) and Samidoun Spain (@samidoun.esp).

 

23 July, Toulouse: Palestine Stand – “Boycott Israel, Boycott Puma”

Friday, 23 July
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Metro Bagatelle
Toulouse, France
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/138751731724784

On Friday July 23 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Collectif Palestine Vaincra is organizing a Palestine Stand at the exit of the Bagatelle metro in Toulouse. While an initial step has been taken by the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand, which has partially withdrawn from occupied Palestine, many international companies are profiting from the Israeli apartheid economy. This is the case of the sports equipment supplier PUMA, official sponsor of the Israel Football Federation. A broad international campaign calls for a boycott of PUMA so long as it remains complicit with this colonial and racist state. Join us at this booth to promote the #BoycottPuma campaign in support of the Palestinian people.

This gathering is registered at the prefecture and complies with the required health measures (masks, sanitizer, etc.).

#DefundRacism: Palestinian organizations call for action to defund U.S.-registered Zionist settler “charities”

Over 150 Palestinian organizations, activists and municipalities launched the Campaign to Defund Racism, demanding that New York Attorney General Letitia James revoke the charitable licenses of multiple U.S.-based settler organizations headquartered in the state, all of which fundraise for and support illegal Israeli colonization in Jerusalem and the West Bank of occupied Palestine. Specifically, the campaign targets the Israel Land Fund, the Hebron Fund, Ateret Cohanim, Friends of Ir David (Elad), and Regavim.

These settler-funding organizations are propelling, among other colonial efforts, the colonization of Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and al-Khalil (Hebron.) The Defund Racism campaign, which is endorsed by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network among many fellow supporters, is organizing a petition for people around the world to express their position on these organizations to NY AG James. Sign the petition at the Defund Racism website: https://defundracism.org/

“Israeli settler organizations have funneled US charitable money into a political campaign of displacement. Right now, over 100 homes and some 1,500 Palestinians in Silwan are facing displacement in favor of a theme park run on Palestinian lands by the settler organization Elad,” said Sami Huraini, a Palestinian activist with Youth of Sumud, a grassroots organization based in Atuwani, Palestine. From 1999 to 2020, just six of the US-based charities funding Israeli settler organizations targeted by the campaign tallied $392,083,641.00 in gross receipts on their tax forms.

On Tuesday, 27 July, the NY4Palestine Coalition, including Samidoun, Al-Awda New York, Within Our Lifetime and American Muslims for Palestine – NJ Chapter, will protest in Brooklyn outside AG James’ office, demanding an end to the recognition of these Zionist colonial fundraisers as New York charities. Protesters will gather at 4:30 pm at 55 Hanson Place in Brooklyn, and all supporters of Palestine and this campaign are invited to join.

To learn more about the campaign and find out how your group can get involved, the #DefundRacism campaign will hold a webinar with the Good Shepherd Collective on Wednesday, 28 July at 12 pm Eastern time (9 am Pacific, 7 pm Palestine time). Register on Zoom to join the webinar and become part of the campaign.

27 July, NYC: Protest to defund Zionist settler groups

Tuesday, 27 July
4:30 pm
55 Hanson Place – NYC Attorney General’s Office
Brooklyn, NY
Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/531616891374603/

Demand New York Attorney General Tish James revoke the charitable status of Zionist settler organizations abusing nonprofit law to fund Israel’s war crimes of ethnic cleansing and illegal settlement.

25 July, New Jersey/NYC: #BlockTheBoat – Mass Picket to Stop Apartheid Israel Zim Ship

Sunday, 25 July
6 am (updates TBA – subscribe for text alerts!)
Maher Terminal
1210 Corbin St
Elizabeth, NJ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/500776417869221/

Alert: Ship schedules can change at the last minute. Please sign up for text updates. To sign up for SMS updates, text your name to 833-320-1973

The #BlockTheBoat NY-NJ Coalition is returning to Maher Terminal after leading the first ever Palestine protest at the Port of New York and New Jersey last month.

Join us as we mobilize for another community picket line to let ZIM – apartheid Israel’s largest shipping company – know that they are NOT welcome in New York and New Jersey.

In the spirit of honoring this show of militant solidarity and building upon the rich ties of internationalism that have long existed at the core of the global struggle for Palestine, our #BlockTheBoat picket line on 7/25 will also be one of the kick off events for Globalize The Intifada-NYC.

Vancouver “Boycott Tour” protest marches for justice and liberation in Palestine

Photo: Patrick Schreck
Demonstrators gathered in Vancouver, on the unceded lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples, on Sunday, 18 July for a “Boycott Tour” march for Palestine throughout the city’s downtown. The protest began outside the offices of ZIM Shipping, the oldest and largest Israeli shipping company that transports weapons to and from occupied Palestine while profiteering from colonized Palestinian land and labor.

The company has been targeted in a series of #BlockTheBoat actions, including a June protest in Vancouver as well as a blockade in Oakland that has kept ZIM out of their port for years, led by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC).

Workers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) refused to cross the community picket line to unload the ship in Oakland, and the same ship was later delayed for days in Prince Rupert, northern BC, as workers also declined to cross a community picket line despite threats of on-the-job sanctions.

Protests have taken place in New York/New Jersey, Houston, Seattle and Los Angeles against ZIM shipping, while dockworkers in South Africa and Italy have refused to unload Israeli cargo. This protest highlighted once again ZIM’s active role in Israeli colonization, occupation and apartheid.

Photo: Patrick Schreck
Speakers representing the Canada Palestine Association, Palestinian Youth Movement, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish Territories, BAYAN Canada and Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Vancouver demanded that ZIM no longer be welcome in the Port of Vancouver.

The rally was emceed by Dalya al-Masri of the Palestinian Youth Movement, who urged participants to get involved and stay involved in building the movement for Palestinian liberation, not only at protest actions but through ongoing organization. Hanna Kawas of the Canada Palestine Association underlined the responsibility of the Canadian government for the ongoing war crimes in Palestine, emphasizing that people will take action at the ballot box to hold complicit officials accountable.

Nelli of BAYAN Canada emphasized the commonality of the struggles for liberation in Palestine and the Philippines, linking anti-imperialist movements, and Amal of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Vancouver spoke about Palestine as an intersectional issue, highlighting the involvement of youth of colour in standing with Palestine and resisting Canadian settler colonialism.

Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, spoke about the case of Khalida Jarrar, Palestinian feminist, leader and imprisoned justice activist, who was denied attending her daughter Suha’s funeral just last week by the Israeli occupation, urging freedom for Jarrar and all Palestinian prisoners. She also highlighted the case of Eyad Hraibat, Palestinian prisoner in a coma who has been subjected to severe medical neglect and mistreatment, calling for an end to medical oppression and injustice in occupied Palestine and urging boycott action to free Palestinian prisoners.

After rallying outside the ZIM offices and covering the stairs in chalked slogans demanding justice for Palestine and calling for a boycott of ZIM, demonstrators continued the Boycott Tour by marching to a BC Liquor Store, the government-owned and -operated liquor stores that sell, among other products, Israeli wines made in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the West Bank of occupied Palestine in illegal colonial settlements.

Aiyanas Ormond of BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish and ILPS Canada emphasized, “This liquor store is the site of an ongoing war crime!” Speakers distributed information to passers-by, urging people to contact the BC government and specifically Finance Minister Selina Robinson to end the BC Liquor Stores’ complicity in Israeli war crimes.

The protest then proceeded through the center of downtown Vancouver, chanting enthusiastically and marching down the busy shopping streets of Robson and Granville before arriving at the London Drugs, a major drug and department store that sells, among other products of apartheid, Teva pharmaceuticals, SodaStream devices and HP technology.

Hanna Kawas returned to highlight these complicit companies, including Teva, Israel’s largest pharmaceutical corporation, which pours millions into Israeli government tax coffers each year; SodaStream, which manufactures its devices on occupied Palestinian Bedouin land in the Naqab; and HP, which has multiple contracts with the Israeli occupation to help it administer apartheid, including its ID card system and prison system databases.

The protest concluded with enthusiastic calls to action and to keep organizing for justice and liberation in Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Photo: Patrick Schreck

18 July, Vancouver: BOYCOTT TOUR: Come out for Palestine – Boycott ZIM Shipping, Israeli Wine, HP and more!

Sunday, 18 July
2:00 pm
Gather at ZIM Shipping Office Vancouver
1130 W Pender St (near Pender and Thurlow)
Vancouver, BC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/4765266150154912

Come out on Sunday, July 18 for a BOYCOTT TOUR for Palestine in downtown Vancouver! We will gather first at the ZIM Shipping offices in Vancouver to protest ZIM, apartheid Israel’s oldest and largest shipping company. ZIM is the target of the global #BlockTheBoat campaign and this protest is in solidarity with workers around the world (and in Prince Rupert) who have respected community pickets and/or themselves refused to handle ZIM’s cargo profiteering from Israeli occupation.

We will then go to the BC Liquor Store to protest the sale of Israeli wines, made on stolen and illegally occupied Palestinian and Syrian land in the West Bank and Golan Heights. The Boycott Tour will proceed to highlight other corporations complicit in Israeli war crimes and colonialism, from HP to Teva to SodaStream.

Bring your banners, chalk, signs and creative love for Palestine!

This event is taking place on the unceded and occupied territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples. The organizers stand in full solidarity and support of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination and with the ongoing movements to defend land, water and Indigenous peoples from plunder and settler colonialism.

Event organized by the Vancouver #BlockTheBoat organizers
BAYAN Canada
BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish
Canada Palestine Association
Independent Jewish Voices Vancouver
ILPS Canada
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid Vancouver
Palestinian Youth Movement
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Youth for Palestine Canada

This event is in support of the global #BlockTheBoat movement organized by AROC – Arab Resource and Organizing Center.
https://blocktheboat.org/