Facebook Instagram Mail RSS Telegram Twitter Youtube
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Home Blog Page 137

Joint Statement by Palestinians in North America: Nakba 73 – Ongoing Nakba, Ongoing Resistance

As we mark the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba, we, the undersigned, join together to reaffirm our commitment to the Palestinian people’s struggle for justice, return, and liberation. We commemorate the loss experienced by Palestinians in 1948 when hundreds of thousands of our people were forced into exile and saw their homes and villages stolen or destroyed by Zionist militias. To this day, colonization and dispossession remain ongoing processes, where Palestinians continue to endure land theft and encroachments on their basic rights. Despite the multiple decades of Zionist brutality, our resilient people remain committed to resisting Zionist settler-colonialism and to the liberation of Palestine.

We continue to witness the bravery of the Palestinian people as they resist attacks on our neighborhoods and holy sites. We have witnessed the courageous families of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan continue to organize against the theft of their homes by Zionist colonist organizations who march through the streets of Jerusalem chanting “Death to Arabs.” We have further witnessed the occupation’s continued encroachment on our people’s holy sites, including the imposition of restrictions on Muslim worshipers at Al-Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan as well as the attacks on Christian worshipers as they make their way to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for Orthodox Easter celebrations. We salute the heroic resistance of our people all over Palestine, from Jerusalem to Umm al-Fahm, who have taken to the streets to protect Palestinian homes, rights, and our cultural and religious sites.

As Palestinians have experienced first-hand for decades, Zionist settler-colonialism is predicated on the destruction of Palestinian political, economic, and social life. It is a project that requires the complete domination of Palestinians through policies of collective punishment and siege. Palestinian workers, activists, students, civil society actors, political leaders, youth and children are subject to policies exploitation, arbitrary imprisonment, and political violence, which are meant to break the spirit of future generations and force them to accept the permanence of Zionist supremacy over every aspect of their lives. The Palestinian prisoners, today numbering nearly 4,500, are now and have always remained on the front lines of resistance and confrontation of Zionism. As we march for return and liberation, we march for the freedom of all imprisoned strugglers for Palestine.

For too long, Western governments have played an active role in the perpetuation of military occupation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. The U.S. government provides more than $3.8 billion annually in direct military aid to the Occupation forces. The US and Canadian governments have skirted their responsibility for Zionist crimes by posing as purported arbiters in a conflict they sponsor. Both governments continue to provide diplomatic cover for Zionist crimes, and actively work to clamp down on proponents of Palestinian rights through government repression, anti-BDS measures, and the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism. We demand an end to this complicity. We demand an end to aid to the Israeli occupation forces and an end of the repressive measures against proponents of Palestinian rights. We demand the immediate removal of the US embassy from Jerusalem and reversal of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Finally, we call on Palestinian communities in the diaspora and supporters of our just cause to join the actions and events hosted by the various organizations delineated below. It is the obligation of Palestinians worldwide to raise our banner and confront Zionism, and it is time for the Palestinian diaspora to reclaim our integral role in the struggle for liberation. We must unequivocally reject the path of Oslo, negotiations, and security coordination with the Zionist occupation forces by the Palestinian Authority. We must renew our commitment to our rights: the right to a free and united Palestine from the river to the sea, the right of return, and the right to live in dignity under a just and lasting peace.

Join us in this call.

Palestinian Youth Movement
Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Free Democratic Palestine Movement
United States Palestinian Community Network
Al-Masar Al-Badil – Alternative Palestinian Path Conference
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Palestinian American Women’s Association
Arab Resource and Organizing Center
Canada Palestine Association
Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine
National Students for Justice in Palestine
Labour for Palestine – Canada
Labor for Palestine – United States
Karama – San Diego
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
New Generation for Palestine
Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
The Canadian Palestinian Foundation of Quebec
Oakville Palestinian Rights Association (OPRA)
Niagara Movement for Justice in Palestine-Israel (NMJPI)
Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice – Canada
Canadian BDS Coalition
Yemeni Liberation Movement
Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO) Vancouver, Canada
Yemeni Canadian Community Association of Canada
Palestine Solidarity Committee – Austin, TX
Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance
University of Maryland – Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Massachusetts – Students for Justice in Palestine
University of California, Davis – Students for Justice in Palestine
Tufts University – Students for Justice in Palestine
Carleton University – Students for Justice in Palestine
Rhode Island School of Design – Students for Justice in Palestine
San Diego State University – Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Delaware – Students for Justice in Palestine
University of British Columbia – Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights
Columbia University – Students for Justice in Palestine
Columbia Apartheid Divest
Mount Holyoke College – Palestinian Solidarity Group
Ryerson University – Students for Justice in Palestine
University of California, Santa Barbara – Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Houston – Students for Justice in Palestine
Rutgers-New Brunswick – Students for Justice in Palestine
Macalester College – Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights
University of Southern California – Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Texas at Dallas – Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor – Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE)
Wayne State University – Students for Justice in Palestine
Palestine Solidarity Alliance of Hunter College CUNY
University of California, Irvine – Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Chicago – Students for Justice in Palestine
Justice For Palestinians – Calgary
University of Michigan Dearborn – Students for Justice in Palestine

#NakbaDay #SaveSheikhJarrah #FreePalestine #Nakba73 #ResistanceUntilReturn #OngoingNakba #DefendJerusalem #فلسطين #Palestine #SaveSheikhJarrah #انقذوا_حي_الشيخ_جراح #Nakba73 #القدس_تنتفض #DefendPalestine #القدس

Atlanta: Nakba 73: Ongoing Nakba, Ongoing Resistance; Saturday 15 May, 1:00 p.m.; National Center for Civil and Human Rights.

Austin: Saturday, 15 May, 12 pm, 1100 Congress Ave, Austin, TX

Brooklyn/NY: Nakba 73 – Defend Palestine from the River to the Sea Rally; Saturday, 15 May, 4:30 pm; Gather at 7114 5th Avenue; Brooklyn, NY; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/934431837104538

Dallas: Rally for Palestine and in Defense of Sheikh Jarrah!; Saturday, 15 May, 1:00 pm; The Grassy Knoll 411 Elm St, Dallas, TX 75202-3301; Facebook: https://fb.me/e/3F0kVUHum

Detroit: Nakba 73: Resistance Until Liberation; Saturday, 15 May; 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm; National Arab American Museum, Southwest Detroit.

Dearborn: March for Jerusalem; Sunday 16 May; 1:00 p.m.; Ford Community and Performing Arts Center, 15801 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, MI.

DC: Tuesday, 11 May 2021 at 13:00 PDT Intersection of 22nd St. and C St. NW, Washington, DC https://www.facebook.com/events/1733963580122820/?ref=newsfeed

DC/Maryland/Virginia: Nakba 73 – We Will Return; Saturday, 15 May; 3:00 p.m.; Washington Monument, Washington, DC; Facebook: https://fb.me/e/4lFZ9s240

Houston: Nakba 73 – We Will Return; Saturday, 15 May; 3:00 p.m; Discovery Green, 1500 McKinney Avenue, Houston, TX; Facebook: https://fb.me/e/LIeePFXV

Las Vegas: Rally to Defend Palestine; Saturday, 15 May 5:00 pm Venetian Resort 3355 S Las Vegas Blvd Las Vegas, NV, USA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/s/rally-to-defend-palestine/1161077187721746/

Los Angeles: Nakba 73 – Resistance Until Liberation Rally and Protest; Saturday, 15 May; 12:00 pm; Federal Building, 11000 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/371476687562290/

Minneapolis: Nakba 73 Rally and Car Caravan; Saturday, 15 May; 2:00 pm; Filfillah, 4301 Central Ave NE, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/162055159148897/

Montreal: Nakba 73 – Car Caravan; Saturday, 15 May, 11 am, gather at Pavillon Lafontaine,1301 Sherbrooke East, Montreal, Quebec, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1846771005496820/

Paterson, NJ: Nakba 73 – Defend Palestine from the River to the Sea; Sunday, 16 May, 1 pm, Main St and Gould Avenue, Paterson, NJ; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/510383643319503/

Phoenix: Rally & March for Palestine 73 Years; Saturday, May 15th 12 – 2 PM ;Arizona State Capitol 1700 W Washington St Phoenix, AZ 85007; https://fb.me/e/dzcMKU0mO

Portland: Nakba Day; Saturday, 15 May; 2:00 pm; Terry Schrunk Plaza; 431 SW Madison Street, Portland, OR

San Antonio: Emergency Solidarity Rally for Palestine, Tuesday 11 May, 6:00 pm, 300 Alamo Plaza San Antonio, TX 78205

San Diego: Nakba 73 Rally & Protest; Saturday, 15 May, 1pm pst; 6th Ave and Laurel St, San Diego, CA; Facebook: https://fb.me/e/12xoKEGG1

San Francisco Bay Area: Nakba 73 – We Will Return; Saturday, 15 May; 1 pm – 3 pm Community Art Event; 3 pm Community Rally to commemorate the Nakbal; Valencia and Liberty; San Francisco, California, US; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/294729132357416/

St. Louis: Nakba 73: Rally for Palestine; Friday, 14 May; 5:00 p.m.; Corner of Market and 7th Street; St. Louis, Missouri

Tempe, AZ: Protest to Support Al-Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah, Sunday, 16 May; 7pm; Downtown Tempe, Mill Avenue and University

Toronto: Nakba 73 – Ongoing Nakba, Ongoing Resistance; Saturday, 15 May; 7:00 p.m.; Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, ON; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/373473747339352

Vancouver: Flash Picket for Palestine on Nakba 73; Saturday, 15 May; 2 pm; CBC Vancouver, 700 Hamilton St, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/511558669861511/

Washington, DC: Tuesday, 11 May 2021 at 13:00 PDT Intersection of 22nd St. and C St. NW, Washington, DC https://www.facebook.com/events/1733963580122820/?ref=newsfeed

Video: Samidoun’s Hadeel Shatara interviewed on Sheikh Jarrah, Al-Aqsa and the Palestinian Struggle

Rania Khalek is joined by Ramallah-based activist Hadeel Shatara, coordinator in Palestine of the Palestinian prisoner rights group Samidoun, to discuss Israeli violence in Sheikh Jarrah and Al Aqsa mosque, what’s driving Palestinian resistance, internal Palestinian political divisions, western media bias and how those outside of Palestine can help. In recent weeks Israeli settlers and police have escalated their violence in occupied east Jerusalem,. violently storming the al Aqsa mosque during Ramadan and attacking the neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah where Palestinian families are fighting efforts by Israeli settler groups backed by the courts to evict and replace them with Jewish settlers.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested, injured and hospitalized as they resist increasing Israeli brutality in Sheikh Jarrah and in and around al Aqsa. All of this is ahead of the Jerusalem day March, when far right Israeli Mobs are set to march through the streets of occupied East Jerusalem chanting hateful anti-palestinian slogans to celebrate Israel’s illegal capture of the city in 1967. These Israeli provocations have spurred worldwide condemnation and horror, with Israel’s allies expressing deep concerns about the mounting violence. Hadeel explains that this is what Zionism and ethnic cleansing look like.

 

From Gaza to Jerusalem: Confront massacres and ethnic cleansing, support Palestinian resistance!

–Participate and join an action! See below for events and resources. Since this post was first written, there are now 23 martyrs, including 9 children, in Gaza.– 

As violent colonial settlers march through occupied Palestinian Jerusalem and to the Al-Aqsa Mosque – after Israeli occupation forces injured hundreds of Palestinians in their attacks on worshippers, Israeli drone warplanes just murdered nine Palestinians in Gaza, including three children, in Beit Hanoun. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all Palestinian, Arab and international supporters of Palestine to escalate their organizing and struggle to confront massacres and ethnic cleansing and support Palestinian resistance! 

For over 73 years of ongoing Nakba, Palestinians have resisted Israeli massacres, ethnic cleansing and colonialism. The latest crimes of Zionism against the Palestinian people, from Sheikh Jarrah to Gaza, the nine martyrs, the murdered children, the hundreds of wounded, and the thousands of Palestinian prisoners resisting behind bars, must inspire all people of conscience to act and organize. 

In this moment, it is particularly important to highlight our unconditional support for the Palestinian people and their right to resist. It is now and has always been the resistance of the Palestinian people, through all forms of struggle, that defends Palestine from colonialism and will lead the march to victory and liberation, from the river to the sea. The Palestinian armed resistance are freedom fighters, not only for Palestine confronting Zionism, but on the front lines of the international battle to fight imperialism and colonialism, the greatest threat to the peoples of the world. These Palestinian fighters confront the Israeli military machine, which does not stand alone but is backed by over $3.8 billion in U.S. military aid annually. Our solidarity must affirm Palestinian resistance, Palestinian return, and Palestinian liberation, throughout the entire land of occupied Palestine. 

Each Palestinian life, though it is far too often censored, suppressed or unmentioned in Western media, is precious. The nine Palestinians massacred in Gaza by the Israeli occupation forces lived, loved, worked, struggled and built their lives under siege, nourished and nurtured their children. The three children had their entire lives ahead of them, with every potential to shine, develop and blossom, cut off because of the racist ideology of Zionism and the racist state of Israel, backed to the hilt by imperialist powers from the U.S. to Canada to the UK to the European states. We must not let their lives and memory pass by or let their blood be shed idly or in vain. 

Join us in action in Stockholm, in London, in Madrid, in Berlin, in New York, in Vancouver, in Frankfurt, in Los Angeles, in Toronto, in Toulouse, in Gothenburg, in Athens, and so many other cities in the coming days. (See the list below and at our global calendar!) Your action to support the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance, for return to Palestine and liberation from the river to the sea is more important than ever — to honor the martyrs, to stop ethnic cleansing, and to stand with Palestine in 73 years of struggle. 

**

Palestinians continue to resist and to prove that the Palestinian struggle continues and that organizing and resistance is the road to liberation. We know that it is this resistance that will defeat the attacks of Zionism and imperialism, and our actions and organizing around the world can work to build support for the Palestinian people and their resistance in Jerusalem, Gaza, throughout occupied Palestine and in exile and diaspora.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all friends of Palestine around the world to join the campaign to #SaveSheikhJarrah and to support Gaza — and all of Palestine. Boycott Israel, take the streets and take action, organize direct actions and speak out to defend Jerusalem, defend Palestine and support the Palestinian resistance and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea!

Join us in the Week of Palestinian Struggle from 15-22 May — and right now, urgently, before the week officially begins — to escalate our organizing, resistance and action to support the Palestinians struggling, resisting, fighting and facing the most severe, brutal and deadly colonial violence on the front lines of liberation struggle.

READ THE FULL CALL TO ACTION in English — Arabic — German — French — Swedish

Here are some ways that you can take action:

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. During Ramadan, Israeli dates from stolen Palestinian land are marketed around the world while Israel attempts to force Palestinians from Jerusalem, demolish homes, and imprisons thousands more. By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism. Download our Boycott Flyer to distribute at supermarkets, stores and other venues in your community!

Take the Streets

On the Week of Palestinian Struggle, join us to defend Jerusalem, #SaveSheikhJarrah and continue on their path of resistance, steadfastness and solidarity. Actions are being organized every day to build for Palestine. It’s time to make our voices heard loudly and clearly for justice for Palestine. Take to the streets and join these actions below — and see our full list of events, which is constantly being updated as new actions are announced! Send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Our comrades at Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine developed a useful toolkit that you can use when planning your own event! Check it out here: https://wolpalestine.com/resources/rally-toolkit/

Direct Action

Organizations like Palestine Action are taking direct action to challenge Israeli arms manufacturers, specifically Elbit Systems. This company manufactures and markets drone weaponry around the world that is built on “battle-tested” technologies used against Palestinians, especially in Gaza. Check out Palestine Action’s work and upcoming public demonstrations – on 11 May, 17 May and 28 May challenging Elbit Systems in the UK!

Speak Out

If you can’t participate in a street action, there are still so many ways that you can raise your voice for justice for Palestine. If you are in Canada, take action by signing these statements:

If you are in the United States, sign Al-Awda’s letter to members of Congress:

Keep sharing information with your friends and family on social media, and call your government officials to demand action.

Samidoun condemns Berlin police repression, arrests at mass protest for Palestine

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemns the arrest of at least four Palestinian youth in Germany by the Berlin police at the #SaveSheikhJarrah demonstration on Sunday, 9 May. Hundreds of Palestinians in the community and supporters of justice in Palestine poured into the streets of Berlin marching from Rathaus Neukölln to Hermannplatz for demonstrations in protest of the ongoing Nakba in Palestine and Israeli ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem, including the targeting of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and Israeli police violent invasions of Al-Aqsa Mosque. These demonstrations were organized by a number of community groups and organizations.

Shortly after the mass demonstration arrived in Hermannplatz, a major public square in the heart of a large Arab and Palestinian community, Berlin police attacked the demonstration and seized four Palestinian youth, who remain detained. The wide participation of the community in the demonstration reflects their commitment to Palestine despite the high levels of repression, censorship and racism in Germany targeting the Palestinian community and movements in support of Palestine. It also indicates how important it is that the voice of Palestinians and friends of Palestine in Germany grows louder, stronger and clearer to demand justice and liberation.

Samidoun urges all Palestinians, Arabs and supporters of justice in Palestine to join us next Saturday, 15 May for the March for Return and Liberation, marking the 73rd anniversary of al-Nakba and the Week of Palestinian Struggle. Join us in Hermannplatz at 3:00 pm for a march to #SaveSheikhJarrah, #DefendJerusalem and for a free Palestine, from the river to the sea!

Support the People’s Ambulance for Beddawi Palestinian Refugee Camp in Lebanon!

Samidoun is partnering with the Palestinian Arab Cultural Club in Beddawi refugee camp in Lebanon to support their work to provide a “people’s ambulance” for the people of the camp, who have limited access to health services, especially ambulance transportation. We need to raise $5000 to make this ambulance a reality for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon! 

Click here to donate now and share widely! 

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon face institutional discrimination, lack of access to necessary services, and significant levels of poverty. At the core of this, of course, is the fact that they have been and continued to be denied their fundamental right to return to their homes and lands in occupied Palestine. Expelled from Palestine by Zionist forces during the Nakba, Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been upholding their right to return for 73 years. Help support their steadfastness and their struggle for return and liberation by providing the medical services they need to live and thrive. 

The Palestinian Arab Cultural Club responded to the increasingly dire needs of the population after Al-Hilal Hospital ceased services to transport those who had passed away in the hospital. In addition, Al-Hilal Hospital and the Civil Defense do not have the capacity to provide urgent medical transportation for people needing immediate assistance.

Powered by FundRazr

The Club began by renting ambulances or vehicles, but eventually purchased a minibus for a total of $1000 USD, adding emergency lighting and medical signage to the refitted bus. They have already transferred several deaths and provided transportation for medical emergencies after borrowing a stretcher. 

However, the interior is not equipped to provide the medical and ambulance services needed. The Arab Palestinian Cultural Club needs to:

  • Refurbish the interior of the ambulance for health equipment and medical personnel, including the floor and ceiling
  • Stock and provide a medicine cabinet
  • Provide necessary medical equipment for transportation and treatment
  • Provide oxygen cylinders for immediate health needs
  • Sanitizers and cleaning equipment to ensure the ambulance is safe and sanitary.

These items will cost a total of $5000 USD. Your contribution can make the People’s Ambulance of Beddawi Refugee Camp a reality. 

All contributions from people in the U.S. are tax-deductible and will be processed by the Alliance for Global Justice, Samidoun’s fiscal sponsor and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations from around the world are welcome and needed! 

Donations to this campaign are zakat-eligible.

Click here to donate now and share widely! 

Powered by FundRazr

About The Palestinian Arab Cultural Club

The Palestinian Arab Cultural Club was founded on October the 15th 1996 by a group of independent university youth at the Lebanese University in the North.

The founding committee of the club launched cultural work starting within the university before spreading outside the University just months after the club was founded, following the election of the first administrative body of the Club’s General Assembly, which was held in early 1997.

The club started running to fill the void that has been left by absence of an active Palestinian presence, particularly at the university level, and in terms of the Student cultural work in camps in general, especially after years of stagnation and decline in student work in all camps in Lebanon, all forms of student organization in camps and universities have faded, more so after 1990 and especially after the Oslo Agreement in 1993.

During the first months of formation, the club included most of the Palestinian students in the third branch of the Lebanese University and some Arab students ( Lebanese and Syrians) and it became the largest and most active university student force in the college to this day.

The club was the first to establish a national cultural activity in the Lebanese University in Qubba, after its members prepared a hall at the university on their own, and that finally happened after the long absence of cultural activity in the university for many years.

Add to that the Palestinian flag was raised for the first time in the 1990s in the Lebanese University, after its long absence.

Twenty-five years following its founding, the club’s work expanded to include within it the sectors of graduates, teachers, university sectors and the student department.

It expanded into various committees such as cultural, media, technical, sports, women’s affairs, counselling and guidance.

The Committee for Services and Social Work was established when the conflict broke out in Nahr al-Bared camp, the club focused on supporting the displaced from the camp and those who were returning to it – whether with aid in-kind or actions and activities-, it worked too for the return of normal life and insisted on maintaining the Palestinian character of Nahr al-Bared camp.

As the needs increased in the refugee camps, the club sought to strengthen the relief and social work, in the belief that it would link it to national work, and the importance of enabling the Palestinian refugees to be able to fight and continue the struggle, so the club set up dozens of relief campaigns in the camps in Lebanon- which the club works in- and organised campaigns to support some families in Gaza, in addition the club tried to strengthen the meaning of symbiotic work so as not to turn into a service provider but to be a partner in struggle and resilience, and so its activities varied and we mention some in the following:

1- The TV charity cultural programs, where people can directly donate to people like the TV program “who will donate the million”

2- The Ramadan kitchen, which includes more than 60 volunteers, who prepare hot food and whole meals on a daily basis for the whole month, the meals arrive at people’s homes under the title “la Bab al-Dar” which means (till the House door), in an attempt to support the poor families without them being forced to come and grovel to anyone.

3- Medical work: in the last period of the Corona Crisis, the club worked on securing the basic needs of the quarantined families, it also provided sterilization tools for some Medical working teams within the available means,

It helped and contributed to the transfer of many patients and those who had passed away as well, additionally the club supported many families with medicine and hospital admission expenses, plus providing 3 oxygen machines and 5 cylinders, all of these services were actualized through donations made by the residents of the camp and the expatriates.

Click here to donate now and share widely! 

Powered by FundRazr

Take Action! #SaveSheikhJarrah and Defend Jerusalem: Boycott Israel, Support Palestinian Resistance

14 MAY 2021 UPDATED LIST OF EVENTS: https://samidoun.net/events

As we approach the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba, the Zionist colonization of Palestine and the forced expulsion of Palestinians, the Nakba is continuing. This is apparent everywhere in Palestine, but perhaps is most clear in the heart of Jerusalem, Palestine’s capital: in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, where Palestinian families are being threatened with imminent expulsion from their homes and lands by the Israeli regime and its colonial settlers, as they refuse to concede their lives to racist Zionist colonialism.

Palestinians in Jerusalem are under attack on multiple levels, defending their land, city and identity from erasure and colonialism for 73 years. They face the stripping of their identity and residence — even from their place of birth — severe repression, land confiscations, home demolitions and ongoing Zionist attempts to erase the Palestinian and Arab presence and nature of the city.

Right-wing settler mobs have rampaged through Sheikh Jarrah in the past days, screaming “Death to Arabs” and attacking Palestinians. Settlers attacked Palestinians breaking the Ramadan fast during Iftar, pepper spraying them and throwing rocks at them. Working hand in hand with these violent settlers, the Israeli military has attacked residents, sprayed skunk water and tear gas throughout the neighbourhood, invaded homes, assaulted women, children and elders and seized dozens of Palestinian youth defending their own homes.

In Silwan, Palestinians are being threatened with violent expulsion from their Jerusalem homes in order to make way for a “David-themed” tourist attraction to produce income for the Zionist settler colonial project, built atop the homes and lives of the indigenous Palestinian people.

Palestinians in Jerusalem — and throughout occupied Palestine and in exile — continue to resist and to prove that the Palestinian struggle continues and that organizing and resistance is the road to liberation. We know that it is this resistance that will defeat the attacks of Zionism and imperialism, and our actions and organizing around the world can work to build support for the Palestinian people and their resistance in Jerusalem, Gaza, throughout occupied Palestine and in exile and diaspora.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all friends of Palestine around the world to join the campaign to #SaveSheikhJarrah. Boycott Israel, take the streets and take action, organize direct actions and speak out to defend Jerusalem, defend Palestine and support the Palestinian resistance and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea!

Join us in the Week of Palestinian Struggle from 15-22 May — and before the week officially begins — to escalate our organizing, resistance and action to support the Palestinians struggling, resisting, fighting and facing the most severe, brutal and deadly colonial violence on the front lines of liberation struggle.

READ THE FULL CALL TO ACTION in English — Arabic — German — French — Swedish

Here are some ways that you can take action:

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. During Ramadan, Israeli dates from stolen Palestinian land are marketed around the world while Israel attempts to force Palestinians from Jerusalem, demolish homes, and imprisons thousands more. By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism. Download our Boycott Flyer to distribute at supermarkets, stores and other venues in your community!

Take the Streets

On the Week of Palestinian Struggle, join us to defend Jerusalem, #SaveSheikhJarrah and continue on their path of resistance, steadfastness and solidarity. There are more actions on 8 and 9 May to stand with Palestine in New York, London, Berlin, Columbus, Chicago, Milan and elsewhere. It’s time to make our voices heard loudly and clearly for justice for Palestine. Take to the streets and join these actions below — and see our full list of events! FIND UPDATED LIST OF EVENTS: https://samidoun.net/events

Our comrades at Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine developed a useful toolkit that you can use when planning your own event! Check it out here: https://wolpalestine.com/resources/rally-toolkit/

Take Direct Action

Organizations like Palestine Action are taking direct action to challenge Israeli arms manufacturers, specifically Elbit Systems. This company manufactures and markets drone weaponry around the world that is built on “battle-tested” technologies used against Palestinians, especially in Gaza. Check out Palestine Action’s work and upcoming public demonstration on 28 May challenging Elbit Systems in the UK!

Speak Out

If you can’t participate in a street action, there are still so many ways that you can raise your voice for justice for Palestine. If you are in Canada, take action by signing these statements:

If you are in the United States, sign Al-Awda’s letter to members of Congress:

Join today’s Twitterstorm to #SaveSheikhJarrah on Saturday, 8 May at 10 am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern, 7 pm central Europe and 8 pm Palestine time.

Keep sharing information with your friends and family on social media, and call your government officials to demand action.

Join the Twitter Storm to #SaveSheikhJarrah and End Canadian Complicity – Saturday May 8

#SaveSheikhJarrah
Demand Action and Accountability from the Canadian Government

Twitter Storm and Social Media Campaign

Saturday, 8 May
10 am Pacific – 1 pm Eastern – 7 pm central Europe – 8 pm Palestine

Sample Tweets and Images: bit.ly/sheikhjarrahtweets

In occupied Jerusalem, Palestinians from the neighbourhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan are threatened with imminent expulsion and violent forced eviction from their homes by the Israeli occupation regime. 

This is part of the ongoing Nakba in Palestine — the ongoing Israeli plan to dispossess Palestinians from their homes and land and perpetrate ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine. Instead, the Israeli regime seeks to replace Jerusalem’s Palestinian population with illegal Israeli right-wing extremist settlers. 

On May 2, the Israeli high court replied to the ongoing legal efforts of the people of Sheikh Jarrah. Rather than stopping this injustice, the court first ordered them to make a deal with the illegitimate, exclusivist Jewish settlers attempting to force them from their homes, and then postponed a further ruling until May 10. 

Right-wing settler mobs have rampaged through Sheikh Jarrah in the past days, screaming “Death to Arabs” and attacking Palestinians. Settlers attacked Palestinians breaking the Ramadan fast during Iftar, pepper spraying them and throwing rocks at them. Working hand in hand with these violent settlers, the Israeli military has attacked residents, sprayed skunk water and tear gas throughout the neighbourhood, invaded homes, assaulted women, children and elders and seized dozens of Palestinian youth defending their own homes. 

Meanwhile, the Canadian government has done nothing to uphold the human rights of Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem. Instead, it declared its commitment to protecting Israel from international scrutiny for its crimes, noting that it would boycott a United Nations anti-racism conference anniversary event because that event highlighted Israeli racism and apartheid. Today, Israel’s apartheid regime is even clearly recognized by Human Rights Watch, and Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity are under investigation by the International Criminal Court. It is time for this shameful silence to end. 

Join Canada Palestine Association, Canadian BDS Coalition, the Al Quds Day Committee, Just Peace Advocates, Palestine House, Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network for this Twitter storm:  

Saturday, 8 May
10 am Pacific – 1 pm Eastern – 7 pm central Europe – 8 pm Palestine

Sample Tweets and Images: bit.ly/sheikhjarrahtweets

Israel keeps Spanish citizen Juani Rishmawi imprisoned while using COVID as a biological weapon against Palestine

The following article, by Daniel Lobato, Liliana Córdova, and Jaldia Abubakra of
Samidoun España was published originally in Spanish on InfoLibre: 

The health worker Juana Ruiz, Juani Rishmawi, Spanish and Palestinian, has been imprisoned by Israel since April 13 along with two other colleagues from the Health Work Committees. After several weeks without charges, Israel has revealed the grotesque, and is going to accuse her of running a terrorist financial plot. Juani has obtained funds from NGOs and Spanish regional governments so that Palestinian primary care centers have been able to continue treating basic health in Palestine during these decades, and especially during the COVID pandemic.

The context that motivates this unjust judicial facade is the increasingly cornered position of Israel on different levels, although it may seem the opposite if we are guided by the infomercials that the Western media make of Tel Aviv. A progressive geopolitical cornering, despite its agreements and pictures with Gulf feudal monarchies, and a growing political and social cornering, despite the intrigues and pressures of its lobbies on western governments and courts.The accusation of being an apartheid regime has even come from an NGO like Human Rights Watch: and the crime of apartheid is a crime against humanity. A systemic apartheid that has manifested itself in all its sadism during the COVID pandemic, using the virus as a weapon against Palestine. This is State terrorism along with other Israeli crimes that are already in the International Criminal Court.

But before detailing this collective Israeli punishment of the Palestinian population with the virus, of which Juani’s imprisonment is a part, we must know the repressive machinery that has been thrown on her.

Israel has followed the procedure applied to Palestinians: early morning detention by a military battalion, without charges, without trial, without legal assistance, without visits, with unexpected transfers between detention centers at any time and in terrible conditions, and on many occasions with physical or psychological torture. Until the military courts wish. Juani may be released tomorrow, or perhaps in six months or two years.

Because Juani, as five million Palestinian civilians in the ghettos of West Bank and Gaza, is subject to the arbitrary decisions of the Israeli military courts in those territories. With a 99.7% conviction rate in case of going to trial. To be precise, it is even worse for the Palestinians locked up in the Gaza ghetto against their will (and against international law): the entire population of Gaza, including girls and boys, can be considered “illegal combatants” by the courts and Even harsher laws are applied to them.

Misinformation or manipulation by most of the media, makes us think that West Bank and Gaza ghettos should be ruled by the indigenous administration subcontracted by Israel, EU and USA for these native reserves, called Palestinian Authority. The one who truly governs in those territories is the Israeli military governor appointed by Tel Aviv, and who is always in media anonymity. Those military governors have promulgated successive military orders for decades, which are aberrant under the magnifying glass of international law. They have erected the legal walls of the military dictatorship that is the Israeli colonial administration over the ghettos. At the same time, the illegal concrete wall that encloses the West Bank and Gaza was also being built. 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned or arrested in this way since 1967, and 80,000 in the last 20 years. An average of more than 10 people a day. There are always between 150 and 200 minors incarcerated, also by military courts.

Juani is Spanish and Palestinian, with 35 years working for health in primary care centers. As a Palestinian woman, she is suffering the oppressive treatment intended for any other Palestinian person. As a Spanish woman, she may be lucky, and diplomatic efforts will accelerate her freedom.

But Juani has a third identity: a health worker. What the case of Juani and her companions shows -spending a lifetime working for health in Palestine- is Israel’s use of the COVID pandemic as a biological weapon against the Palestinian ghettos.

While Israel is obscenely praised in the Western media for its successful vaccination campaign, the crimes it has perpetrated using the virus have been covered up.

Israel is the internationally recognized occupying power of the Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. Shortly after the pandemic began, Israel closed a Palestinian COVID testing clinic in Silwan, East Jerusalem, announcing its strategy of collective punishment with COVID to the Palestinian population, including the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

Faced with the Israeli sanitary abandonment to East Jerusalem, palestinian NGOs organized to get two hotels as field hospitals, to launch a COVID hotline in Arabic, and file a lawsuit to Israeli Supreme Court to force Tel Aviv to carry out PCR tests in East Jerusalem and in Palestinian populations within Israel, cities, or Bedouins of the Naqab/Negev desert.

But the Israeli strategy continued, and Palestinian disinfection teams in Jerusalem and West Bank were arrested. Precisely in the West Bank, the almost non-existence of COVID tests forced the Palestinian Authority to decree the confinement before Israel implemented it. At that time, 80% of the cases detected in the West Bank were Palestinian workers in the Israeli state, who every morning leave the ghetto and return every night, without Tel Aviv giving them the minimum health care, on the contrary, forcing those who they were ill to return to the ghetto without warning the indigenous Palestinian administration.

During this time of pandemic, Israel has multiplied the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure in its historic process of indigenous ghettoification and ethnic cleansing in slow motion, including a field clinic in the Jordan Valley, or COVID detection centers.Throughout this period, Netanyahu was busier in his electoral loop and in announcing that he was going to declare annexed almost the entire West Bank, which by the way is de facto annexed. The list of Israeli aggressions is huge against the precarious Palestinian health efforts in the fight against COVID.

But the worst was yet to come with the development of vaccines. The israeli denial of vaccines to Palestinian population in the ghettos of Gaza and West Bank is a very serious violation of international law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention by which the occupying power must provide health services to the occupied population. In addition to this new crime of apartheid, the Israeli regime prevented the entry of the first batch of Spunik V vaccines into Gaza, acquired by Palestinians through COVAX mechanism, which offers to the rest of the planet the leftover crumbs of the COVID vaccine rapine carried out by the powers of the global north. In this vaccine looting of the powerful, Israel accumulated a surplus of vaccines, once again denied to the Palestinians, and destined to reward the ruling elites of some countries that applaud Israeli violations of international law.

This is the context in which our friend Juana Ruiz, Juani Rishmawi, and her two colleagues from the Health Committees have been imprisoned. She has been one more piece in the Israeli machinery for the use of COVID as a biological weapon against the Palestinian population, in the midst of a systemic apartheid, which has been denounced for decades by Palestinians, a few years ago by the UN, and finally recently, by Israeli and international NGOs as HRW.

We demand their immediate release; we demand the immediate release of all Palestinian political prisoners; and we demand that this succession of crimes against the Palestinian population be added to the case that the International Criminal Court has launched against Israel; We also demand that the states of the world end their impunity, and that through sanctions and boycott they force Israel to abide international law.

Signed:

As members of the Samidoun Network in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners:

Daniel Lobato (Palestine solidarity activist), Liliana Córdova (Jewish anti-Zionist activist) and Jaldia Abubakra (Spanish-Palestinian activist)

 

#FreePalestinianStudents campaign update: Join a letter-writing action online; Israeli attacks on students continue

There are hundreds of Palestinian high school and university students among the approximately 4,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, in many cases specifically targeted for Israeli colonial imprisonment and repression for their student activism, organizing student events and participation in student elections and other political and social activities on campus. As Israeli settlers rampage through Jerusalem and Palestinians resist the threatened impending forced transfer and ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah, occupied Jerusalem, the attacks on Palestinian students — and their organizing and resistance — have continued.

A number of new organizations have joined the over 350 global social movements, political parties, Palestine solidarity groups and justice campaigns in the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign, including Academics for Peace North America, Women Against Military Madness, Basler Frauen für Frieden und Fortschritt, Baslerfreuenvereinigung für Frieden und Fortschritt, Palästina/Nahost-Intiative Heidelberg, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) Germany, Atelier Gaza, Solidarität International, KAIROS Palästina-Solidaritätsnetz Deutschland, and Dar al Janub – Union for Antiracism and Peace Policy.

On 7 May, at 1 pm New York time (10 am Pacific, 8 pm Palestine), FREE CUNY will host an online event in solidarity with Palestinian students, including a talk by Palestinian activist and Within Our Lifetime chair Nerdeen Kiswani. The event will include an online gathering to write letters to imprisoned Palestinian students. Join the event at: https://tinyurl.com/freecunypalestine

Students at the University of Nanterre in France with ARENE (Association des Résidents de Nanterre) showed their support for Palestinian students by taking solidarity photos with imprisoned Palestinian students.

In May, people at the market in Clermont-l’Herault in France showed their solidarity with imprisoned Palestinian students, joining the campaign to demand their liberation.

As the support campaign continues to grow, Palestinian students continue to face severe injustice and fight back against Israeli colonialism, occupation and oppression. Zuhdi al-Qawariq, an engineering student at An-Najah University in Nablus, was seized by occupation forces at the Huwarra checkpoint on 28 February 2021. On 20 April, after 40 days under interrogation, he was ordered to administrative detention for four months — imprisonment without charge or trial. Qawariq, 24, has been delayed repeatedly in graduating because he has been imprisoned by the Israeli occupation for nearly two years in multiple detentions, while also being arrested by Palestinian Authority “security” forces under “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation.

On 30 March, Birzeit University student activist Abdel-Majeed Majed Hassan was seized from his home in Ramallah by Israeli occupation forces. A student of business at Birzeit, he is the brother of imprisoned student Mohammed Hassan and of former student prisoner Shatha Hassan, both also Birzeit students.

Photo: Zaid Qaddoumi

Imprisoned Palestinian student Zaid Qaddoumi, 22, an economics student at Birzeit from Bethlehem, was brutally attacked by Israeli jailers in Megiddo prison. He was brought to the occupation Ofer military court on 11 April — only for his case to be postponed another 7 days. When his mother saw him, she was shocked to see her son covered in bruises with significant injury to his left eye. He was violently attacked on the morning of 6 April; he has been imprisoned since 31 December 2020.

Also on 11 April, Palestinian student Ahmed Kharouf was sentenced to 22 months in Israeli prison by an illegitimate Israeli military court for his student activity.

We cannot and must not remain silent about the persecution of the Palestinian student movement and of individual Palestinian students behind Israeli bars. We stand with Palestinian students! 

Visit the main #FreePalestinianStudents campaign page: https://freepalestinianstudents.org/

Add your organization’s name to the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign: http://bit.ly/palstudentsignon

We join together to call for action and support for Palestinian students behind bars, including: 

  • Boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, including Israeli academic institutions, which are fully complicit in the systematic deprivation of Palestinian rights.
  • Ending all military and economic aid, military transactions, joint projects and direct funding to the Israeli occupation regime by governments around the world.
  • Challenging “normalization” programs that aim to legitimize Israeli occupation — this is an attempt to legitimize the criminalization and targeting of Palestinian students.
  • Organizing to build direct links of solidarity with Palestinian students and the Palestinian student movement, to ensure that they will not be isolated from their global community of support despite all attempts by the Israeli occupation.

Download posters, flyers and an organizing toolkit at: https://freepalestinianstudents.org/

Endorsers of the Campaign

  • 100 Idee per la Pace Siena – Italy
  • Action Antifasciste Paris Banlieue
  • ADDICTED To WAR
  • AFPS 0726 (Association France Palestine Solidarité Groupe local Ardèche Drôme)
  • AFPS 63 (France)
  • AFPS Douai
  • AFPS Nord- Pas de Calais
  • AFPS Paris 14-6
  • AFPS PARIS-SUD
  • Africa4Palestine
  • Al Quds Day Committee of New York
  • Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
  • Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
  • Alkarama Palestinian women’s movement)
  • All Nepal Peasants’ Federation (ANPFa)
  • All Nepal Peasants’ Federation (Revolutionary Centre)
  • Alliance for Global Justice
  • Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
  • Allt åt Alla Kvinnofront
  • القطب الطلابي الديمقراطي التقدمي Al Qutob – Progressive Democratic Student Pole at Bir Zeit University
  • Al-Yudur Juventud Palestina | Al-Juzour Palestinian Youth
  • Amis des Arts et de al Culture de Palestine
  • AMP-NJ
  • Anakbayan-USA
  • Anti Imperialist Action Ireland
  • Anti-Imperialist Alliance – Ottawa
  • Anti-Imperialist Alliance Youth (AIA Youth – Ottawa)
  • Anti-Imperialist Front – France (AIF)
  • Antirasistiska Akademin
  • Arbetarmakt (Workers Power) – Swedish Section of The League for the Fifth International
  • ARENE (Association des ResidEnts de NanterrE)
  • Asamblea Plaza de los Pueblos Madrid
  • Asociación Brasileña Maloka
  • Asociación Estudiantil Madrid
  • Asociación Palestina Biladi
  • Asociación Punto Feminista Alcorcón
  • Asociación Teatro de la Tierra
  • Asociación Unadikum
  • Associación Americana de Juristas
  • Association Car t’y es libre
  • Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP)
  • Association Eunomia
  • Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees
  • Association France Palestine Solidarité d’Albertville
  • Association France Palestine Solidarité Loire
  • Association France Palestine Solidarité Nîmes
  • Association Najdeh
  • Association Nationale des Communistes – ANC
  • Association of Palestinian Students – University of Toronto Mississauga
  • Association of Student Activism for Palestine (A.S.A.P))
  • Associazione Amicizia Sardegna Palestina
  • Associazione Senza Paura Genova
  • AssoPacePalestina
  • Atelier Gaza
  • Australia Solidarity with Latin America
  • Bahraini society against normalization with Zionist enemy
  • Bahraini Society to Resist Normalization with Zionism
  • Basler Frauen für Frieden und Fortschritt
  • Baslerfreuenvereinigung für Frieden und Fortschritt
  • Bathurst Street United Church
  • BAYAN Canada
  • BAYAN Canada
  • BAYAN USA
  • BDS France Marseille
  • BDS France Montpellier
  • BDS Genova
  • BDS Maroc – BDS المغرب
  • BDS Mexico
  • BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish Territories
  • Belgian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BACBI)
  • Bloque Nacionalista Galego (BNG)
  • Boycott, Divest, Sanction, on CATerpillar
  • Bündnis gegen Krieg / Hände weg von Syrien
  • California Scholars for Academic Freedom
  • Campagne Unitaire pour la Libération de Georges Abdallah
  • Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament (CICD)
  • Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
  • Canada Palestine Association
  • Canada Palestine Support Network (CanPalNet)
  • Canada-Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights (CPSHR)
  • Canadian BDS Coalition
  • Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3902 BDS Committee
  • Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
  • CAPJPO-EuroPalestine
  • Catholics for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land (Canada)
  • Center for Study and Preservation of Palestine
  • Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies
  • Centro Culturale Handala Ali – مركز حنظله علي الثقافي
  • Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
  • Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine
  • Col·lectiu Intifada
  • Coletivo Feminista Classista ANA MONTENEGRO
  • Coletivo pelos direitos no Brasil
  • Collectif 65 pour la liberation de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah
  • Collectif 69 de soutien au peuple palestinien
  • Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine
  • Collectif Palestine Vaincra
  • Collectif stéphanois de soutien au peuple palestinien
  • Collettivo Palestina Rossa
  • Comité Antifa Saint Etienne
  • Comité d’actions et de soutien aux luttes du peuple marocain
  • Comité de Défense des Internés des Camps du Sud (Algérie)
  • Comite de Liberté pour Musa Aşoğlu!
  • Comité de solidarité avec le peuple palestinien/Casablanca
  • Comité de solidarité tunisien pour la libération de Georges Abdallah
  • Comité justice et vérité 31
  • Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche Orient (CPJPO)
  • Committee of Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran (CASI)
  • Communist Organization of Greece (KOE)
  • Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninst) Liberation
  • Communist Workers League
  • Comunidad Palestina de Chile
  • Confederación Intersindical Galega (CIG)
  • Confederation of Workers from Turkey in Europe – ATIK
  • Cordillera Peoples Alliance
  • Couserans-Palestine
  • CRED-GIGI
  • Cultura è Libertà, una campagna per la Palestina
  • Dallas Palestine Coalition
  • Dar al Janub – Union for Antiracism and Peace Policy
  • Deutsch-Palästinensischer Frauenverein e.V.
  • Dirección de DDHH y Pluralismo Cultural. FHyAr
  • Droit Solidarite
  • DSA BDS & Palestine Solidarity Working Group Steering Committee
  • East Los Angeles Revolutionary Action Party
  • Éirígí- for A New Republic
  • End the Deadly Exchange Seattle
  • Europal Forum – London
  • Eye On Palestine Arts and Film Festival
  • Fédération Syndicale Étudiante (FSE)
  • Femmes de diverses origines/Women of Diverse Origins
  • Festiclown
  • Finnish-Arab Friendship Society, FAFS
  • FIRMES: Federación Internacional de Resistencia Migrante en España
  • Fordham SJP
  • Framåt kamrater
  • Free CUNY!
  • Free Palestine Movement
  • Freedom Road Socialist Organization
  • French Friends of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin (ATL Jénine)
  • Frente Antiimperialista Internacionalista
  • Friends of Palestine Against Imperialism and Zionism (Filistin Dostlari)
  • Friends of Sabeel North America
  • Front Populaire France (Turquie)
  • Front Uni des Immigrations et des Quartiers Populaires de Grenoble (FUIQP 38)
  • GABRIELA Alliance of Filipino Women
  • GABRIELA BC
  • Galizan People’s Union-UPG
  • GATS
  • Gazainfo
  • Giovani palestinesi d’Italia
  • Giuristi Democratici
  • GMB union z60 branch Lincoln
  • Green Mountain Solidarity With Palestine
  • Groupe Non-Violent LOUIS LECOIN
  • GUPS Aix-Marseille
  • Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
  • Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War
  • HRA:PI/CD3-IP (Human Rights Awareness: Palestine Israel/CD3 Israel Palestine
  • Human Rights March, Denmark
  • Humanity For Palestine
  • ILPS Commission on Children
  • Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
  • Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL)
  • Inminds Human Rights Group
  • International Action Center
  • International Association of Democratic Lawyers
  • International Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG)
  • International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)
  • International League of Peoples’ Struggle – Australia Chapter
  • International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) – Commission 10
  • International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) – US Northeast
  • International League of Peoples’ Struggle-US
  • International Movement for a Just World (JUST)
  • International Prisoners’ Network IPN
  • International Solidarity Movement
  • International Solidarity Movement France
  • Internationalist Socialist League in Israel(occupied Palestine)
  • Internationalt Forum – Denmark
  • Int’l Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity
  • IPNOTGlobal
  • Ireland Information Group of Sweden
  • ISM Northern California
  • Israel Palestine Task Force
  • Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) Germany
  • IU-Marx Madera
  • IWA – Europe
  • Jailhouse Lawyers Speak
  • Jeune Garde Lyon
  • Jeunes Communistes de la Loire (JC42)
  • Jeunes Communistes du Bas-Rhin (France)
  • Jeunesse Patriote Communiste – PCQ
  • Jeunesse solidaire
  • Jewish Voice for Peace – Bay Area
  • Jewish Voice for Peace – Los Angeles
  • Jewish Voice For Peace Central Ohio
  • Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
  • Jóvenes Izquierda Unida
  • Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
  • Justice for Palestinians, Calgary
  • Justice pour la Palestine
  • KAIROS Palästina-Solidaritätsnetz Deutschland
  • KAMARAD-مجموعة عمل نشريّة كاماراد/تونس
  • Kia Ora Gaza (Aotearoa New Zealand)
  • La Coalition Marocaine des Instances des Droits Humains
  • Labor for Palestine
  • Landless Workers Movement – MST
  • Le Collectif Rouge Internationalistes pour la libération des prisonniers révolutionnaire (Le CRI Rouge – Paris)
  • Le Collectif Solidarité Palestine Ouest Étang de Berre
  • Le Poing Levé Mirail
  • Le poing levé Paris 8
  • League of Filipino Students
  • League of Filipino Students – Cavite State University
  • League of Filipino Students PUP
  • Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
  • Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
  • Letters for Palestine – Aotearoa New Zealand
  • Lynne Stewart Organization
  • Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights
  • Mar de Lumes – Comité Galego de Solidariedade Internacionalista
  • Massachusetts Peace Action
  • Melbourne Unitarian Peace Memorial Church (MUPMC)
  • Mesa Migración y Antirracismo SBC
  • MOVIMIENTO WIPHALA España
  • Muslim Action Committee
  • الحملة الوطنية لتحرير الأسير جورج عبدالله National Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah
  • National Jericho Movement
  • National Lawyers Guild
  • National Lawyers Guild International Committee
  • National Lawyers Guild, Loyola Chicago Chapter
  • National Students for a Democratic Society
  • National Students for Justice in Palestine
  • Netherlands Palestine Committee
  • Netzwerk Freiheit für alle politischen Gefangenen Magdeburg
  • Niagara Movement for Justice in Palestine-Israel (NMJPI)
  • Noi Restiamo
  • NorCal Sabeel
  • North America Nakba Tour
  • Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste (NPA, France)
  • NPA Jeunes
  • NWRG-onlus
  • NY Boricua Resistance
  • NY4Palestine Coalition
  • Oakland Jericho
  • Ongd AFRICANDO
  • Opera con Grazia
  • Opposizione Studentesca d’Alternativa (OSA)
  • OPRA (Oakville Palestinian Rights Association)
  • Palästina Antikolonial
  • Palästina/Nahost-Intiative Heidelberg
  • Palestina Libre Murcia España
  • Palestinalibre.org
  • Palestine Advocacy Project
  • Palestine Foundation
  • Palestine Network Shining Waters Region, United Church of Canada
  • Palestine Solidarity Alliance of Hunter College CUNY
  • Palestine Solidarity Committee Stuttgart, Germany
  • Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
  • Palestine Speaks Palästina Spricht ( Coalition for Palestinian Rights and Against Racism)
  • Palestine13
  • Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU)
  • Palestinian Cultural Club at the American University of Beirut
  • Palestinian Youth Movement
  • Pallasos en Rebeldia
  • Parti des Indigènes de la République
  • Peace Alliance Winnipeg
  • Peoples Power Assemblies NYC
  • Peoples Power Assembly
  • Peoria No Ban No Wall
  • Philippines ‐ Palestine Friendship Association
  • Philippines Australia Union Link
  • PISTON
  • Plataforma Bolivariana de Solidaridad con Venezuela de Madrid
  • Plataforma Solidaria con Palestina de Valladolid
  • Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine
  • Popular Resistance
  • Principles NOT Parties
  • Prisoners Solidarity Committee
  • Prisoners Solidarity Committee of Workers World Party
  • Progressive Lawyers Association, CHD
  • Project South
  • Rattvise och frihet center
  • Red Banner Anti-Imperialist Collective
  • Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP
  • Resistance Festival – Athens, Greece
  • Resistencia Saharaui
  • Rete della Conoscenza
  • Rete Romana di Solidarietà cin il Popolo Palestinese
  • Revolutionaire Eenheid
  • Revolutionary Communist Group
  • Rojavakommittéerna Göteborg
  • SABIR
  • Sacramento Area Peace Action
  • Sacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian Rights
  • Sada Movement
  • Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns
  • Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
  • Santa Feans for Justice in Palestine
  • سير وصيرورة Sayr wa Sayroura
  • SDS (Students for a Democratic Society)
  • SDSU SJP
  • Secours Rouge de Belgique
  • Secours Rouge Genève
  • Secours Rouge International / International Red Help
  • Secours Rouge Montréal
  • Secours Rouge Toulouse
  • Secrétariat International de la CNT-France
  • Ship to Gaza – Gothenburg
  • جمعية شموع للمساواة / المغرب Shumu’a Association for Equality/Morocco
  • Sikhay-Marikina
  • SJP Chicago
  • SJP DePaul
  • SOAS Palestine Society
  • Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste
  • SODePAZ BALAMIL
  • Solidaires 09
  • Solidarität International
  • Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights UBC
  • SPHR Queen’s
  • Stand with Kashmir
  • Studenten voor Rechtvaardigheid in Palestina
  • Students Against Israeli Apartheid, University of Toronto
  • Students Against the Occupation DK
  • Students for a Democratic Society – Georgia Tech
  • Students For Justice in Palestine – San Diego State University
  • Students for Justice in Palestine at Arizona State University
  • Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA
  • Students for Justice in Palestine at UMass Amherst
  • Students for Justice in Palestine, University of California Irvine
  • Students for Justice in Palestine, University of South Carolina
  • Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill University (SPHR McGill)
  • Students Not Consumers
  • SUD Education 31-65
  • Sulong UBC
  • Temple Students for Justice in Palestine
  • The Global Campaign to Return to Palestine
  • The Palestine Committee of Norway
  • The Palestine Solidarity Committee – Austin, Tx
  • The Rachel Corrie Foundation
  • Theorie und Praxis Verlag
  • Trawunche Madrid (Coordinación de Apoyo al Pueblo Mapuche)
  • Trueque de Ley por Derecho
  • Tunisian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (TACBI)
  • UBC Social Justice Centre
  • UCL (union communiste libertaire)
  • UJFP
  • UMass Amherst SJP
  • Unión de Juventudes Comunistas de España – Communist Youth Union of Spain (UJCE)
  • Union Départementale des Syndicats CNT de Haute-Garonne
  • Union départementale des syndicats CNT des Pyrénées Orientales
  • Union des Étudiant·e·s de Toulouse – UET
  • Union Générale des Etudiants de Palestine – GUPS France
  • Union syndicale Solidaires
  • Unione degli Studenti
  • Unione Democratica Arabo Palestinese
  • Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East
  • Unité Communiste
  • United Methodists’ Holy Land Task Force
  • United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
  • Unity of Child Rights Advocates Against Inhumane Treatment and Neglect of Children (UNCHAIN Children)
  • University of Leicester Palestine Society
  • US Boats to Gaza
  • US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
  • US Palestinian Community Network
  • UW United Students Against Sweatshops
  • Vänsterpartiet Göteborg
  • Victoria Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
  • V-SB (Vlaams Socialistische Beweging)
  • Wisconsin Bail Out The People Movement
  • Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine
  • Women Against Military Madness
  • Women for Filipino Women and Children (WoW)
  • Women in Black, Vienna, Austria
  • Workers Assembly Against Racism
  • Workers Voice Socialist Movement, Louisiana
  • Workers World Party
  • Yeni Demokratik Gençlik – YDG
  • Youth Against War & Racism
  • Youth and Students Section of the Lebanese Communist Party

Add your organization’s name to the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign: http://bit.ly/palstudentsignon

From Colombia to Palestine, resist imperialist crimes! Samidoun solidarity statement with the people of Colombia

Photo: Redfish

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its strongest solidarity with the people’s movement and political prisoners of Colombia, facing the U.S.-backed right-wing regime of Ivan Duque, police murder and targeted assassinations, and harsh repression of mass protests.

Thousands of people in Colombia have been marching for the past eight days against the tax policy of the right-wing Duque administration, supported by the United States and also involved in U.S.-directed regime change operations targeting Venezuela, Bolivia, and other progressive governments throughout Latin America.

This movement has faced brutal repression, with often U.S.-provided weaponry directed against these popular marches. Even after the Duque government claimed to withdraw the reforms, it has continued to escalate the repression. This national strike is a rebellion against neoliberalism and the brutality of capitalism against workers, students, Indigenous people and the masses of Colombia. As noted by the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, “The people’s rejection of the Duque government’s policies led to the National Strike last April 28 and their public anger has escalated to a national outcry over intensifying poverty, unemployment, and class inequality exposed by the pandemic last year.”

Photo: Redfish

Between 6am on April 28 and 10am on May 4, 2021, ESMAD (the “Mobile Anti-Disturbances Squad”) and Colombian Armed Forces killed at least 26 protesters, committed 1181 cases of police violence, sexually violated nine women, shot 17 people in the eyes, committed 988 arbitrary detentions, and over 80 persons have been reported missing. Samidoun joins the ILPS, of which it is a member organization, in strongly condemning the political repression and fascist attacks against the people by Duque’s regime which is supported by his oligarch cohorts, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and U.S. imperialism. Just like the other fascist regimes across the globe, the Colombian state has weaponized the COVID-19 pandemic to terrorize the people to further consolidate political and economic power.

These crimes in Colombia have been armed and funded by the United States. As noted by the Alliance for Global Justice, ESMAD itself was an initiative created by Plan Colombia, launched by U.S. president Bill Clinton. While popular and mass movement leaders in Colombia, including trade unionists, Indigenous activists, and student organizers, are being assassinated at a rate of more than one victim per day, the U.S. imperialist presence has escalated and intensified the violence, with both Democratic and Republican support for increased military and police funding to these Colombian forces, involved in vicious repression at home and in alliance with U.S. regime-change schemes targeting progressive governments elsewhere in Latin America.

There are thousands of political prisoners in Colombia, the highest number in the Americas. Since the peace accords of 2016, in which the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) disbanded, the agreements have gone unfulfilled while at least 137 former fighters have been assassinated and at least 738 civilian activists. Political prisoners from social movements throughout the country have been targeted for incarceration, including protesters challenging a Canadian oil company, Frontera Energy, causing significant environmental damage.

The responsibility of U.S., Canadian and other Western corporations and governments for the ongoing crimes in Colombia is apparent. Indeed, the U.S. also holds Colombian political prisoners — notably Simon Trinidad, a former spokesperson for the FARC. Mark Burton, Trinidad’s lawyer, highlighted the harsh conditions to which he is subjected as a U.S. political prisoner: “Prisoners who are considered enemies of the state are often sent to the penitentiary Florence ADX, popularly known as Supermax, as the prisoner’s ability to communicate with the outside world is tightly controlled. In general, prisoners are cut off from contacts outside the prison. Simon was sent there after his conviction in Washington D.C., where it took the government four trials to convict him of one count of conspiracy. The rightist forces were unable to silence Simon through assassination, but the Colombian and American governments have been able to silence him by imprisonment in Supermax.”

Amid all of this, the right-wing Colombian regime has also openly allied itself with the Zionist settler-colonial project in Palestine. Duque pledged to open a new trade office to promote commerce with the Israeli regime and Israeli corporations, amid a growing Palestinian, Arab and global movement to boycott Israel. This is nothing new — Hugo Chavez, late Venezuelan president, Bolivarian leader and notable supporter of justice for Palestine, called Colombia the “Israel of Latin America.” However, Duque has intensified the close relationship with trade and “security” deals with the Israeli occupation. Building the movement to boycott Israel on an international level can work to strengthen our alliances of mutual solidarity to fight the far-right and imperialist forces that threaten lives from Colombia to Palestine.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network highlights the shared struggle of the people of Colombia and Palestine, and the deadly role that U.S. imperialism plays around the world in suppressing popular movements for justice and liberation. We urge the immediate release of all political prisoners in Colombian and U.S. jails. In Palestine, there are nearly 4,500 Palestinian political prisoners whose ongoing incarceration is funded and backed by $3.8 billion annually in U.S. military aid.

Right now, over 500 Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, occupied Jerusalem, are being threatened with forced eviction from their homes in order for their property to be granted to Israeli Jewish colonial settlers. The ongoing Nakba targeting the Palestinian people is carried out by the Zionist state with the full support of U.S. imperialism and its allies in Canada, Europe, the UK and elsewhere.

From Colombia to Palestine, U.S. imperialism has brought terror, destruction, plunder and repression to the peoples of the world. Resistance is necessary in order to defend the people’s rights, win freedom for the prisoners, and break the chains of oppression, imperialism, colonialism, Zionism, capitalism and reaction in all forms.

Long live international solidarity! Freedom for all political prisoners! Victory to the people of Colombia! Victory for Palestine!

1...136137138...691Page 137 of 691

Follow us on Instagram @samidounnetwork

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Contact us: samidoun@samidoun.net
Facebook Instagram Mail RSS Telegram Twitter Youtube
Unless otherwise stated, all content by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them.