We will not be defeated! Join the Twitter Storm: Wednesday, 31 March 10 am Pacific – 1 pm Eastern – 7 pm central Europe – 8 pm Palestine Sample Tweets: https://bit.ly/notbedefeated Use the hashtags: #WeWillNotBeDefeated لن_نهزم#
Freed Palestinian prisoner Majd Barbar once again proved the truth of his words — “We will not be defeated” — as he was released once again by Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday, 31 March. Barbar had refused a proposal by Israeli occupation forces to either deport him from the city of occupied Jerusalem, his home, or impose house arrest upon him, for five days. He was released once again to his home in the Ras al-Amud neighbourhood of Jerusalem, where he had been received two days earlier, on Monday, 29 March, with scenes of great joy and celebration upon his release after 20 years in Israeli prison.
Barbar’s home was invaded on 30 March as his family celebrated his release, an attack on the scenes of Palestinian love, celebration and joy that had ben viewed millions of times by people around the world as his wife, Fatima, son Montaser and daughter Zeina welcomed him home. Zeina was only 15 days old when her father was first abducted by Israeli occupation forces on 29 March 2001.
After Israeli occupation forces invaded his home on 30 March, he was taken to the notorious al-Moskobiyeh interrogation center in occupied Jerusalem; his father and brothers were also summoned for interrogation and threatened if any public celebrations were held for Barbar’s release in Jerusalem. When occupation forces attacked the family home with tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets, 12 people were injured, reported The Palestinian Red Crescent.
Israeli occupation forces also raided the Qasr al-Hamra hall in Eizariya, Jerusalem, to prevent a reception being held to welcome Barbar home by his friends and family.
These types of attacks on former prisoners and ongoing harassment, threats and physical assaults against them and their families are intended to suppress Palestinian expressions of love and joy and suppress the natural celebration of the Palestinian people in welcoming home their freed prisoners.
On Monday, after reuniting with his family and wife…Barbar said: “For a person who believes in the justice of the Palestinian cause, a prison cannot break him, no matter how long it lasts, and I was reconciled with this idea of the length of my prison sentence and with all its oppression and my exclusion from my family, my wife and my children.”
“The Palestinian people cannot think of an option other than to hold fast in their land, and to stand in it like the olive tree. We will not leave this land no matter what [Israelis] did, from killings to demolishing homes,” Barbar added.
Barbar told media that his wife Fatmeh “means the world to me. She is my home. She was able to give our children for 20 years. This is the greatness of the Palestinian woman.”
No matter what the Israeli occupation forces do, they cannot and will not suppress the deep Palestinian and human love, joy, and commitment to liberation embodied by Majd Barbar, his family, and all Palestinians yearning for and struggling for freedom.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins in the celebration of the release of Majd Barbar and demands the release of all Palestinian prisoners.
The outrageous attack on a freed Palestinian prisoner one day after his release, an act of official colonial state revenge for the joy, love and celebration of his family, friends and comrades, must inspire all who support the rights of the Palestinian people to action. Boycott Israel and the complicit corporations that continue to sustain the attack on Majd and his family, and stand with the Palestinian people and their resistance until return and liberation, from the river to the sea.
Whatever they do — Palestine will not be defeated; Palestine will be victorious!
“Kul al-turab al-watani” — the entire national land of Palestine, meaning “all of Palestine”
30 March 2021 marks the 45th Palestinian Land Day, a day of struggle and commitment to resisting colonization, occupation and apartheid, and to achieving victory and liberation for the land and people of Palestine.
Land Day commemorates the anniversary of the mass rising in occupied Palestine ’48 in 1976 in response to Israeli land confiscation targeting 20,000 dunums of Palestinian land in the Galilee. Palestinians inside occupied Palestine ’48, who remained on their land after 80% of their people were expelled in the Nakba, confronted these new Zionist attacks with a general strike and mass popular protests, where six Palestinians were killed by occupation forces — Kheir Mohammad Salim Yasin, Khadija Qasem Shawahneh, Raja Hussein Abu Rayya, Khader Eid Mahmoud Khalayleh, Muhsin Hasan Said Taha and Raafat Ali Al-Zheir — as they defended their land.
“Kul al-turab al-watani” — the entire national land of Palestine, meaning “all of Palestine”
The Day of the Land has become a national commemoration of the entire Palestinian people, inside and outside occupied Palestine. It marks the unity of the Palestinian people in confronting Zionism, colonization and occupation and in celebrating the continuing and unbreakable ties to the land of Palestine that cannot be erased by military might. It is a day for the Palestinian refugees struggling for return and every fighter against colonialism.
In 2018, the Day of the Land once again bore witness to the popular organizing of the people, as thousands upon thousands gathered in Gaza for the Great March of Return, and occupation forces again shot down Palestinians defending their land and upholding their rights. 42 years after the first Land Day massacre, Israeli occupation forces killed 16 martyrs of the land and return, with over 200 more shot down in the marches over the months and days to come.
On Land Day, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network affirms that this day continues to reflect the commitment of the Palestinian people to liberate their land from the river to the sea and to resist all forms of colonization. We join with the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine for the #AllLandPalestine campaign, raising the Palestinian flag and the map of Palestine around the world.
Just as Palestinians in ’48 face state violence, land confiscation, and the racist policies of Zionism from Umm al-Fahm to al-Naqab, they also confront imprisonment, arrests and repression. Behind bars in Israeli jails, Palestinians continue to confront the occupier on a daily basis. 70 of those political prisoners — of approximately 4,400 in total — are those of occupied Palestine ’48, housed with fellow Palestinians and facing the same restrictions and denial of rights. Karim Younis, one of the longest-imprisoned Palestinian prisoners, is from Occupied Palestine ’48 as is his cousin Maher; indeed, six of the seven Palestinian prisoners imprisoned over 30 years for their role in the Palestinian resistance are from Occupied Palestine ’48: Karim and Maher Younis, Walid Daqqa, Rushdi Abu Mukh, Ibrahim Abu Mukh and Ibrahim Bayadseh.
“Kul al-turab al-watani” — the entire national land of Palestine, meaning “all of Palestine”
They have been consistently denied release in both prisoner exchanges with the Palestinian resistance and in Oslo-negotiations-based prisoner releases, as the Israeli state attempts to separate them as “Israeli citizens” from their fellow Palestinian prisoners in releases and labels them a “domestic matter“. At the same time, they are housed with fellow Palestinian prisoners, denied family visits, forced to see family only through glass, and held in solitary confinement while Israeli “criminal” prisoners – and even the rare Israeli Jewish prisoner held as a “security” prisoner for extreme-right violence – are granted temporary releases, their sentences limited and lowered, and allowed lengthy family visits, furloughs, and conjugal visits.
Today, from Umm al-Fahm to al-Naqab to Sheikh Jarrah, Palestinians are fighting to stand steadfast against displacement, defend their land and resist colonization in all forms on Land Day. Palestinian refugees in Gaza, in the West Bank, in the camps and in exile and diaspora around the world are fighting to return home.
On Land Day, we stand with the Palestinian people, we stand with the Palestinian resistance, and we look forward together toward a liberated future for the land and people of Palestine.
Read our statement below — first delivered in Arabic (read the original Arabic here) in Berlin by Samidoun Deutschland at a demonstration — and join in the actions to organize for return and liberation for #AllLandPalestine on the 45th Land Day and beyond:
**
On the immortal occasion of Land Day, from the heart of the capitals of the Palestinian diaspora, from the refugee camps, from across the occupied Arab land of Palestine, our cries resound to the skies and we declare on this occasion: “We will not concede.” We remain, generation after generation, carrying the memory of Palestine from the river to the sea, carrying al-Lyd, Haifa, Ramleh, Yafa and Jerusalem in our hearts.
We, the children of the land, the refugees, we learned Palestine in the squares of the camps, and we realized the idea of Palestine at the checkpoints. We grew up with our dreams under siege, and we greeted our Palestinian people on the other side of the wall as we raised the hammer of promise for future liberation.
From Berlin and Malmö, to Beddawi camp and al-Wihdat, to al-Arroub and Jabalia, and to our Palestinian people everywhere, we are here today, continuing in direct confrontation and struggling for land and liberation in the heart of the states that provide support for the Zionist regime. We affirm that our return is inevitable and our message is clear: We hold fast to return and liberation and emphasize that we will claim our right to life and expose the crimes of the Zionist occupation.
On this Land Day, we honor our immortal martyrs and salute the brave prisoners inside Israeli prisons and those of the reactionary Arab regimes, and particularly salute Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed in the prisons of the French state. We stand with the democratic and revolutionary forces everywhere in the world and by the side of our comrades in the Palestine solidarity movement in France, Germany, Canada and everywhere, those who are today facing persecution, repression and “lawfare” attacks for defending the just cause of the Palestinian people.
Despite the ongoing colonial settlements invading Palestinian land, the series of normalization deals with reactionary regimes, the complicity of the imperialist powers; despite the siege and poverty and our second exile and displacement; despite the betrayal of Palestinian Authority “security coordination” and the policies of submission and concession; and despite the false promises of the so-called “peace process”, we are confident: Palestine and its people will be victorious.
On Land Day, on this immortal commemoration, we call on the Palestinian and Arab communities to participate, defend their rights and intensify participation in all activities for Palestine, especially the campaigns of solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, Palestinian women prisoners and the imprisoned students in occupation jails. We must intensify the boycott campaigns against Israel alongside our role in confronting Western imperial racism, the growing right-wing extreme attacks and Islamophobia, together with all targeted communities. This is part and parcel of our quest for liberation and return.
Together, we must work for an alternative revolutionary path and a new movement of organizing, struggle and resistance, in which the Palestinian diaspora will regain its role and its right to defend Palestine, all of Palestine, as an integral part of the project of liberation and return. From Berlin, Amsterdam and Malmö, to Mar Elias, Baqaa and Yarmouk, to all of Palestine.
We win together, and we win only together. From the Naqab to the Galilee, until return and liberation.
***
Take Action on Land Day and Moving Forward:
1. Join the #AllLandPalestine social media campaign of the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine. Raise the Palestinian flag and post with the hashtag #AllLandPalestine.
2. Boycott Israel! Join the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Highlight the complicity of corporations like Hewlett-Packard and the continuing involvement of G4S in Israeli policing and prisons. Boycott Teva, the Israeli pharmaceutical corporation that provides millions to the Israeli occupation and its military, and join the campaigns — like those of Palestine Action in the UK — confronting Israeli warmongers like Elbit Systems. Build a campaign to boycott Israeli goods, impose a military embargo on Israel, or organize around the academic and cultural boycott of Israel.
3. Support Palestinian Prisoners: Join the campaign to free Palestinian students and all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Adopt a prisoner, write a letter, share their stories and build global solidarity to break down prison walls!
4. Organize for Palestinian freedom! The Alternative Palestinian Path (Masar Badil) is organizing a series of events, actions and Palestinian movement-building activities to break clearly with the false path of Madrid and Oslo and develop the movement for Palestinian liberation and return. The conference will take place in late October-early November in Madrid. Visit the Masar Badil website and get involved.
The Barbar family reunited on 29 March 2021, one day before Majd was again kidnapped by occupation forces
On Tuesday, 30 March, Israeli occupation forces stormed the home of Majd Barbar, former Palestinian political prisoner released after 20 years of detention one day earlier, kidnapping him and attacking people in his home in the Ras al-Amud neighbourhood of occupied Jerusalem.
The photos and videos of Barbar, who had been imprisoned by the Israeli occupation since 30 March 2001, reuniting with his wife, Fatima, his son, Montasser and his daughter, Zeina, were widely distributed online, as Palestinians shared in the exuberant joy, love and resilience of the family that came through so clearly in these images and videos.
Our eyes have teared for their incomparable happiness | Majd Barbar, a veteran #Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails, was released yesterday after 20 years in prison. He's warmly welcomed by his wife, family and friends in his hometown of occupied #Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/C3yoZWOhUx
Zeina, a young writer whose work has been published in Arabic on the Samidoun website, was only 15 days old when her father was seized by the Israeli occupation 20 years ago.
Upon his initial release on Monday, 29 March, Majd Barbar was taken to the infamous al-Moskobiyeh detention and interrogation center in Jerusalem as occupation forces further delayed his release before he was finally freed to return to his family. During his arrest in 2001, he and his comrades were interrogated and subjected to torture at al-Moskobiyeh, where they engaged in hunger strikes lasting 300 days.
The joyous, emotional scenes of his reunion with his wife, children and extended family were shared widely across social media platforms, as Palestinians and friends of Palestine rejoiced with the Barbar family.
Israeli forces released Palestinian presoner Majd Barbar, after spending 20 years in Israeli prisons. pic.twitter.com/rb98glvAOK
The images of Majd Barbar’s release depicted Palestinian love, joy, togetherness, celebration and commitment to freedom, the irrepressible spirit and will of the people that could not be crushed through 20 years of imprisonment or 72 years of occupation, colonization and apartheid.
Majd Barbar, and his wife Fatima, after 20 years of separation.
It was precisely this reason – an attempt to stamp out the celebration of a family and the internationally magnified reflections of their love for each other and for Palestine – that Israeli occupation forces stormed the Barbar family home on 30 March, seizing Majd once again from his loved ones and firing tear gas inside and outside his home.
As he was kidnapped by armed occupation forces invading his home, only one day after his release following 20 years of imprisonment, he declared: “Whatever they do, we will not be defeated.”
No matter what the Israeli occupation forces do, they cannot and will not suppress the deep Palestinian and human love, joy, and commitment to liberation embodied by Majd Barbar, his family, and all Palestinians yearning for and struggling for freedom.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Majd Barbar and all Palestinian prisoners. This outrageous attack on a freed Palestinian prisoner one day after his release, an act of official colonial state revenge for the joy, love and celebration of his family, friends and comrades, must inspire all who support the rights of the Palestinian people to action. Boycott Israel and the complicit corporations that continue to sustain the attack on Majd and his family, and stand with the Palestinian people and their resistance until return and liberation, from the river to the sea.
Whatever they do — Palestine will not be defeated; Palestine will be victorious!
Tuesday, 30 March 2021 7:00 pm Alfonso X El Sabio Pedestrian Street to Cardinal Beluga Square Murcia, Spain
Join this march to commemorate Land Day on 30 March, with a demonstration through Murcia followed by a gathering with the reading of statements and a speak-out.
COVID protocols will be followed with face masks and social distancing.
Organized by Samidoun Espana – Region de Murcia, Palestina Libre and the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine
The Unified Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah organized a rally in Paris, France, on Saturday, 27 March demanding freedom for Abdallah, jailed for over 36 years in French prisons. The demonstration came one week after Georges Abdallah received a visit in Lannemezan prison from the Lebanese Ambassador to France, this time accompanied by the Lebanese Minister of Justice.
At the time, the Unified Campaign welcomed this meeting but denounced the silence of the French authorities, emphasizing that France continues to imprison this Arab struggler for Palestine as he nears his 70th birthday.
Many collectives and campaigns working for Abdallah’s liberation emphasized that French officials must immediately sign the order for his deportation necessary for his release and return to Lebanon. While French courts authorized his release in 2012, the Interior Minister at the time, Manuel Valls, refused to sign the deportation order necessary, ensuring that Georges Abdallah has remained imprisoned as Europe’s longest-held political prisoner.
Over 50 activists joined the Paris demonstration organized by the Unified Campaign, gathering in front of the French Interior Ministry to demand Georges Abdallah’s immediate release. This crowd gathered despite the fact that multiple demonstrations for just causes were scheduled on the same date in Paris. In a statement, the Campaign thanked participating organizations, including ANC, CAPJPO-EuroPalestine, DIP, Partizan, Rete Comunisti, AFPS Paris Sud and Collectif Ni guerre ni état de guerre.
Throughout the protest, demonstrators chanted, many of their slogans addressing French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin: “Darmanin, we will not give up!” “Darmanin, Darmanin, you must sign!” “Down with, down with state vengeance!” “Life imprisonment is barbarism!” “37 years in prison is a lifetime of struggle! Free Georges Abdallah!”
Throughout the month of March, the exhibition “Inspiring women, Remarkable women,” mounted by the city in Toulouse, France, presents over 600 portraits of women throughout the city center. The exhibition is part of the events marking March, Women’s Month.
Collectif Palestine Vaincra completed this exhibition with the images of Palestinian feminists imprisoned by the Israeli occupation, Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin. Their faces drew the attention of many passers-by curious to learn more about the lives of Palestinian women under Israeli occupation.
Khalida Jarrar is a Palestinian parliamentarian, feminist, leftist and national leader. She was sentenced to two years in Israeli prison on 1 March 2021 on the basis of her public political activities, after being imprisoned by the Israeli occupation since 31 October 2019. Jarrar was arrested in 2019 only eight months after her release from 20 months in Israeli administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – after her last arrest by occupation forces in 2017.
Khitam Saafin is the President of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees. Saafin is a leading Palestinian feminist and women’s organizer and a well-known international advocate for Palestinian women and freedom and justice for the Palestinian people. She has spoken around the world about the struggle of Palestinian women, including at the World Social Forum, and served as chair of the World March of Women Palestine. She is imprisoned without charge or trial under admiistrative detention; the military order imprisoning her was renewed on 25 February 2021.
Friday, 26 March 10 am Pacific – 1 pm Eastern – 6 pm central Europe – 7 pm Palestine Register to join: https://tinyurl.com/plwsocal
Organized by Students for Justice in Palestine SoCal as part of Palestine Liberation Week
A presentation and panel discussion about the impact of abolition and political prisoners on the national movement.
With Mohammed Khatib of Samidoun and Lara Kiswani of Critical Resistance and AROC.
Please note — you must register to be approved to join the event!
The following text is translated from the original French at Collectif Palestine Vaincra. The entire Samidoun Network extends its strongest and most vigorous solidarity and support to our comrades in the Collectif. We are certain that this malicious attack on Palestinian rights will be defeated.:
On Tuesday, 23 March Patrice Perrot, a French National Assembly deputy representing La République En Marche! (LREM), the party of Emmanuel Macron, addressed a parliamentary question to Gérald Darmanin, French Minister of the Interior, calling for the government to dissolve Collectif Palestine Vaincra.
The fundamentally slanderous and false text is based on the recent designation of the Samidoun Network, of which the collective is a member organization, as a “terrorist” organization by Israel, in order to demand a ban on our collective. The request is a cut-and-paste of a press release from the far-right Israeli organization NGO Monitor, which aims to suppress the Palestine solidarity movement around the world.
Obviously, this request is unfounded and the activities of our collective are public and have not been the target of any ban. Along with the international Samidoun Network, we are carrying out awareness-raising, information and agitation campaigns in support of the Palestinian cause, an anti-colonialist, anti-racist cause. The only terrorists here are the State of Israel and its supporters. Moreover, the International Criminal Court has just opened an investigation of Israel for war crimes during its military assault on Gaza in 2014.
This call for dissolution comes against a background of increased repression of the movement in support of the Palestinian people, most notably in the attempt to criminalize the boycott of Israel. This comes despute the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights last June, condemning France for obstructing freedom of expression following its prosecution and conviction of activists who called for the boycott of Israel.
Moreover, the pro-Israel lobby seeks to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism in order to neutralize any challenge to its apartheid policies. In this context, the municipalities of Nice and Paris have adopted the “new definition of anti-Semitism” promoted by the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance), which includes numerous examples designed to consider anti-Semitic any questioning of the State of Israel as a colonial and racist state. On Monday, 22 March, this scandalous maneuver aimed at instrumentalizing the legitimate struggle against anti-Semitism was rejected by the municipality of Strasbourg, governed by the Green Party.
Since its foundation 2 years ago in Toulouse, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra has systematically been subjected to numerous attacks (intimidation, threats, false allegations, announcements of legal complaints) linked to its various activities in support of the Palestinian people and their legitimate resistance. These attacks are taking place because the pro-Israel far right does not accept the development of an anti-colonialist and anti-racist voice in support of the Palestinian people and their fundamental rights. By calling for the dissolution of the collective, Patrice Perrot and the supporters of Israel demonstrate once again that they are ardent defenders of Israeli apartheid.
But beyond the Collectif Palestine Vaincra and organizations defending the rights of Palestinians, the succession of demands for the dissolution of anti-racist organizations, Muslim associations, syndicates and unions poses a worrying threat for all people committed to freedom of expression, equality and justice. These various attacks are the symptoms of a reactionary and racist offensive which must inspire us to intensify our solidarity with the Palestinian people and build a strong, united and consistent response to these intimidations and threats.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network activists joined with the Canada Palestine Association and BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish Territories in a delegation to deliver a letter of protest to the French consulate in Vancouver, Canada, on 16 March 2021 in solidarity with Olivia Zémor. Zémor, president of CAPJPO-EuroPalestine, faced a trial in Lyon, France, on the same day over her publication of a call to boycott TEVA, the Israeli pharmaceutical company.
The delegation carried Palestinian flags, banners and signs reading “Boycott Teva! Boycott Israel!”, “Boycott Teva! Solidarity with Olivia Zémor!” and “Boycott Teva! Apartheid is Bad Medicine.”
They also carried signs calling for the liberation of Palestinian political prisoners, including Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed for over 36 years in France, along with their letter of protest.
Pro-Palestine activist Olivia Zemor is going on trial in France after leading a boycott campaign against Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva pic.twitter.com/ENtpjlLG2I
They delivered the letter (below) to the French consulate, along with the statement of the Canadian BDS Coalition in support of Zémor. All three organizations are members of the Coalition.
This action in Vancouver joined many mobilizations in France and around the world to support Zémor and expand the call to boycott TEVA, including the Palestine Stand organized by Collectif Palestine Vaincra in Toulouse, as well as mobilizations in Paris, Lille, Lyon and elsewhere.
Photo: Adelaide, Australia — photo via EuroPalestine
Activists in Australia delivered a letter to the French consulate in Adelaide in support of Zémor, while organizers in London — including the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and Football Against Apartheid — delivered a protest letter with global signatures to the French embassy to the United Kingdom.
EuroPalestine noted solidarity actions, videos and messages from Rome, Montreal, Tunisia, Denmark, Switzerland, Brazil and Palestine as well.
Letter from Samidoun, CPA and BDS Vancouver:
Dear Mr. Philippe Sutter, Consul General of France in Vancouver;
Dear Ms. Kareen Rispal, Ambassador of France to Canada,
We write today, appalled by the ongoing persecution and targeting of activists for Palestinian rights in France. Olivia Zémor, the president of CAPJPO-EuroPalestine association in France, is facing a trial in Lyon’s court today, 16 March. This case was brought by TEVA Pharmaceuticals in response to Ms. Zémor’s publication of a grassroots call to boycott its products on the europalestine.com website. It is an appalling example of a massive global multinational corporation, Israel’s largest by market value, attempting to use the costs and power of the court to shut down independent voices critical of corporate human rights violations.
TEVA Pharmaceuticals is a manufacturer of generic drugs. It is the largest such manufacturer in the world. As a massive Israeli corporation, TEVA is one of Israel’s largest contributors to its tax base, its military occupation of the land and people of Palestine. Now, TEVA is trying to silence justice advocates in France through the use of the courts to intimidate people and organizations and suppress calls for boycott of the company due to its links to and complicity with consistent Israeli violations of fundamental Palestinian rights.
The case against Ms. Zémor is clearly a corporate effort to silence popular dissent. It is outrageous and appalling. However, the French state itself is not innocent in this suppression of voices for justice in Palestine.
Despite the decision of the European Court of Human Rights upholding the right to boycott Israel and invalidating French official prosecutions of boycott activists for their work to support Palestinian rights, requiring France to pay compensation to the prosecuted activists, the French government has continued to encourage public prosecutions of people for calling for a boycott of Israel.
This comes in direct defiance of the ECHR ruling, violating the human rights of people in France at the same time that it evinces clear complicity with Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights.
Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti, in blatant violation of the decision of the ECHR, has distributed a circular to prosecutors throughout the country, urging them to prosecute activists for boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns and attempt to win convictions for their expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people.
TEVA’s pursuit of Olivia Zémor comes directly in line with this circular by Minister Dupond-Moretti. It represents a dangerous alliance of Israeli multinational corporations and the French state to silence and suppress Palestinian rights advocacy through the use of both public prosecutions and private lawsuits. The call for the boycott of Israel is backed by a broad consensus in Palestinian civil society and public discourse, inside occupied Palestine and in exile.
Palestinians face extrajudicial killings, land confiscation, mass imprisonment, home demolitions, the ongoing siege on Gaza and the incessant presence of military occupation, colonialism and apartheid throughout occupied Palestine. Palestinians in exile and diaspora have been denied their right to return home for over 72 years. In response, France is not acting to sanction the perpetrator — Israel — but rather to suppress all calls for a grassroots, popular boycott of Israel and demands for the implementation of Palestinian rights.
We urge France to immediately end its violation of the ECHR decision and withdraw the Dupond-Moretti circular. Further, we urge France to uphold its own responsibilities under international law, not only to stop the persecution and silencing of Palestinian rights activists and the boycott movement, but to end its ongoing complicity with and support for Israel’s attacks on Palestinian rights.
With regards,
BDS Vancouver — Coast Salish
Canada Palestine Association
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
On 18 March 2021, the international day for revolutionary political prisoners, Samidoun Deutschland co-organized three demonstrations in Berlin, Frankfurt and Münster, demanding freedom for all Palestinian prisoners and political prisoners around the world in imperialist and reactionary regime prisons.
The signs, banners and speeches of Samidoun Deutschland highlighted the various mechanisms of oppression used by the Zionist occupation to target the Palestinian people, including the threatened ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, colonialist policing and violence in Umm al-Fahm, occupied Palestine ’48, to the imprisonment and repression of children and students and the jailing of political leaders. These combine with many other mechanisms that affect every detail of Palestinian life inside occupied Palestine and in exile and diaspora.
From Germany, we greet our struggling prisoners!
Freedom for our jailed Palestinian students in the occupation prisons!
Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat, Khalida Jarrar, Khitam Saafin, Walid Daqqa and Abdullah al-Barghouthi!
Freedom for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah!
Freedom for all political prisoners!
Long live Sheikh Jarrah and long live Umm al-Fahm!
Long live free Palestine, from the river to the sea!
