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Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat and Irish republicans on hunger strike in prison: organize solidarity and demand freedom!

As Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network we stand full solidarity with Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat and the Irish Republican prisoners, who have started a hunger strike on 16 September as protest against the isolation of Dr. Hijjawi Bassalat by the prison authorities. Dr. Hijjawi Bassalat, who is a prominent Palestinian community leader in Scotland, was arrested together with nine Irish republicans by the British MI5, the Irish Gardaí, Police Scotland, London’s Metropolitan Police, and over 500 officers of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in the so-called “Operation Arbacia.” We demand the freedom of all political prisoners in Palestine and Ireland, and call upon their supporters to organize solidarity actions.

Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat, who is 62 years old, started his hunger strike on 16 September, as he was again forced into isolation in the filthy and unsafe Foyle House, a wing of Maghaberry prison in the north of Ireland. Irish Republican prisoners immediately engaged in a solidarity hunger strike to support Issam. Earlier that day, Issam’s bail was denied by the magistrate court. He will now proceed to the high court in order to await his trial in freedom.

Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat has multiple health conditions and has undergone an MRI scan this week. It is clear that for any person, let alone those who have health conditions, Foyle House is an unsafe prison. As the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association (IRPWA) noted, “It is widely known that recently an O.D.C. prisoner who was on Foyle House had tested positive for Covid-19. To punitively isolate Issam in Foyle House that is not fit for a human being for a day never mind two weeks is proof yet again of the attitude and mindset of the regime in Maghaberry.”

There is a long history of collective, shared struggle between the Irish and Palestinian national liberation movements. The Irish republican movement confronts British colonialism, which was also the force – through its notorious Balfour declaration as well as the arming of Zionist forces to repress Palestinian uprisings – that nurtured and officially developed Zionist colonization inside occupied Palestine. Similarly, both movements face harsh repression and infiltration attempts, such as the entrapment scheme in this case. Today, Irish republicans and others arrested on political charges by the British state are routinely remanded before trial rather than released and held in isolation, despite the weakness of the charges against them. In some cases, Irish republican detainees are remanded based on the word of a British police officer alone.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network supports the hunger strike of Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat and the Irish Republican prisoners. We call for their immediate release and demand that they are able to await their court case in freedom, and we call for the dropping of these unjust charges resulting from an entrapment scheme. We urge all supporters of Palestine to join us and organize solidarity actions.

Take action:

  1. Organize a protest in front of the British embassy in your country. Not only is the British Mi5 heavily involved in this case, they are still occupying the north of Ireland. Support the political prisoners and demand an end to British rule in Ireland. Please share your action with us through Facebook or by sending us an email on samidoun@samidoun.net, so we can share and promote it.
  2. Organize an online event or webinar about the situation of Palestinian and Irish prisoners. If you have questions or want information regarding the case of Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat and Irish Republican prisoners, or Palestinian political prisoners in general, we are happy to provide it. You can contact us through Facebook or samidoun@samidoun.net
  3. Take a picture or record a video in solidarity with Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat and Irish Republican prisoners. You can print out the images below or create an image yourself. Please send your pictures or video to us through Facebook or samidoun@samidoun.net, so we can spread it and show that Issam and the Irish Republicans are supported internationally.
  4. Write a letter to Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat and Irish Republican prisoners. You can write from any country in the world – all letters are deeply appreciated by the steadfast hunger strikers. We can send you more information about this through Facebook or samidoun@samidoun.net, or get into contact with the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association.

Read our original statement on the repression and arrests targeting Irish and Palestinian activists (28 August): in English and in Spanish

Below, we are republishing two statements by the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association (IRPWA), issued on 16 and 17 September.

16 September statement:

“The Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association are glad to report that Dr Issam Hijjawi has finally been taken to an outside hospital for his long awaited MRI scan.

This was first highlighted by the IRPWA on the 13th of September; a scenario that was not called for if the Maghaberry regime had of acted with the due care that it officially holds.

However, the IRPWA are gravely concerned as to the medieval behaviour of the Maghaberry regime towards Issam on his return.

They have forcefully and punitvely isolated Issam for another two weeks on the filthy and dilapidated conditions that exist on Foyle House.

Issam, who has multiple health conditions, has insisted that if this happened he will embark on a hungerstrike. We feel that to put Issam in isolation is being vindictive and a continuation of the concerted, petty targeting that he has endured since entering Maghaberry.

The Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry Roe House and Portlaoise E3/E4 will support Issam in this stance by engaging in a solidarity hungerstrike alongside him.

It is the prisoners and the IRPWA’s belief that this could and should have be averted if the Maghaberry regime applied logic and common sense. There is room on Roe House to safely isolate Issam until the results of a Covid-19 test is complete.

It is widely known that recently an O. D. C prisoner who was on Foyle House had tested positive for Covid-19. To punitively isolate Issam in Foyle House that is not fit for a human being for a day never mind two weeks is proof yet again of the attitude and mindset of the regime in Maghaberry.

The IRPWA urgently call on the Maghaberry regime to step back from confrontation and apply common sense by transferring Issam to Roe House where his needs can be safely and humanely cared for.”

17 September statement:

“The Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association wish to expose the deviousness of the Maghaberry regime today as they hatefully and intentionally sent the prisoners tuck shop on to the landing in the full knowledge that all Republican Prisoners in Roe House are currently on hungerstrike.

This was immediately refused by the prisoners and was sent back.

Despite this sinister act, the prisoners in Roe House are in good spirits and are clear that this latest confrontation instigated by the MI5 run Maghaberry administration is easily rectified.

Following the release of a statement announcing the beginning of the current hungerstrike, no media outlet which had been contacted by IRPWA representatives carried this.

The fact that Irish men are hungering for dignity in a British gaol is not newsworthy makes a clear case that there is a complete blanket media ban locally and nationally.

The media would rather publish bile; the Republican family are not fooled.

Victory to the Republican Prisoners!”

We also republish below a collective statement in support of the Saoradh 9 and Issam Hijjawi Bassalat. Add your signature at: https://bit.ly/saoradhsolidarity

As anti-imperialist and anti-colonial activists, organizers, and as committed internationalists, we condemn “Operation Arbacia,” the British Crown’s recent campaign of intimidation and repression against Irish Republicans and their Palestinian comrade and their rightful political work against the imperialist occupations of both Ireland and Palestine. We furthermore reject the campaign’s clear attempt to threaten international solidarity activism, in particular the well established historic bonds between the Irish and Palestinian people.

Last week, the British MI5, the Irish Gardaí, Police Scotland, London’s Metropolitan Police, and over 500 officers of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) carried out a series of raids and searches in the North of Ireland, the 26 County Republic of Ireland, and Scotland. Their primary target was the republican political party Saoradh, whose offices were raided in Belfast, Dungannon, Newry, and Derry. Since then, ten people have been detained and charged, including members of Saoradh and a Palestinian man, Dr. Issam Hijjawi.

A few details of this case stand out. First, PSNI coordination with the MI5 shows as clearly as ever that the PSNI serves as a proxy of the British Crown in the North of Ireland. Second, the Irish government is playing a neocolonial role on behalf of British imperialism by assisting with its repression against those committed to an independent and united Ireland. And third, the targeting of Dr. Hijjawi highlights the importance and effectiveness of Irish-Palestinian solidarity as mutual support by two peoples then and now subject to the violence of British imperialism. Hijjawi is after all a native of Palestine in Scotland and an overall outspoken supporter of the Palestinian cause.

In fact, Dr. Hijjawi’s speeches at Saoradh’s meetings, on which the British base their dubious “terrorism”-related charges, brought attention to the very parallels between the Irish and Palestinian causes that his arrest brings now brings to the fore. In one of those talks, Hijjawi spoke of earlier occasions when he’d been visited by MI5, noting that the intelligence officers mentioned “what they called my Irish connection, ironically admitting the parallel between the Palestinian and Irish causes.” He added: “Comrades, be assured that we are on the right side of history, whether in Palestine or Ireland, the nearly century-long struggle for freedom, self-determination, dignity and social justice will prevail, and the imperialist, colonialist powers sooner or later will be defeated, it’s just a matter of time.”

We would also like to note the similarities between the British justification for the detainment of Saoradh members, called “internment by remand,” and the systematic Israeli policy of arbitrary imprisonment of Palestinians known as administrative detention.

A court was told that one of the detainees, David Jordan, stands accused of attempting to develop a relationship with a government “hostile to the UK.” We insist that this accusation, much like the campaign of surveillance and arrests that produced it, is fundamentally illegitimate. As supporters of Irish unity and independence, we insist that the British crown does not have a right to rule in Ireland and thus has no right to determine Irish activists’ choices of political alliance.

We call for the release of all Irish Republicans currently being held in prison, as well as an end to all house raids, stops and searches, “internment by remand”, and any further attempts to criminalize Irish Republican political movements for Irish unity and independence. We also call for all charges to be dropped against Dr Issam Hijjawi.

Free Ireland. Free Palestine.

Signed on to by the following:

  • Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
  • Global Campaign to Return to Palestine
  • Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization
  • Internationalt Forum – Middle East Group
  • Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC)
  • All African People’s Revolutionary Party – New Mexico
  • Committee for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of Romania (Maoist)
  • UCFR Madrid
  • Izquierda Unida (IU) Extremadura
  • Network for Democratic Palestine- USA
  • Movimiento Wiphala España
  • Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
  • New York City Jericho Amnesty Movement
  • Berkeley Women in Black
  • Center for Communist Studies
  • Samidoun Stockholm
  • Yayoflautas Madrid
  • People for Justice
  • Hilton Head for Peace
  • Voices for Justice in Palestine
  • Trawunche Madrid (Coordinación de Apoyo al Pueblo Mapuche)
  • Maoist Communist Party- Organizing Committee
  • Social Environmental Alliance, Victoria BC Canada
  • Voices for Justice in Palestine
  • Unadikum Association
  • Anti Imperialist Action Ireland
  • Oakland Jericho
  • Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
  • Movimiento Wiphala (Internacional)
  • GMB Union England
  • Victoria Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
  • Irish-Australian Workers Group
  • Libyan One Nation Movement (International)
  • Revolutionary Communist Group / Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!
  • International League of Peoples’ Struggle-US
  • Comité Oscar Romero de Murcia
  • Revolutionaire Eenheid

 

 

National Coalition Demands No Normalization with Occupation and Colonization

Samidoun is among the over 50 organizations launching this call. This statement is still open for organizational signatures at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSefnn_rzwedr_KgZQ1fDREmSi-o7_szo8F14F8GpfrVN-qNuQ/viewform?fbclid=IwAR1cJi7z0yCbGk_WqEEuWXUOIwZmnPU4r7KB3UMsVBiGrLp4gm4HYeUOhoY

On Tuesday September 15th, 2020, the United States will host a ceremony to consummate the normalization agreements between the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Israel. Absent from this debacle of White House theatrics will be any Palestinians to represent the indigenous people of the land upon which Israel has created and violently maintains its colonial state. Euphemistically coined the “Abraham Accord,” the details of the plan unveil little more than a calculated semantics ploy to represent the anti-colonial struggle of the indigenous Palestinians as a religious and fratricidal fight between “the children of Abraham.”

In international arenas this farce has been touted as a “peace initiative,” even though the countries were not previously in conflict with one another. In Arab countries, there are official campaigns aiming to sell the agreements to the public as an advancement for Palestinians, in complete disregard of the position and agency of the Palestinian people. While governments and corporations talk of business opportunity, tourism, and energy deals, the sidelined Palestinians continue to exist in apartheid conditions, under brutal Israeli military occupation where home demolitions, night raids, arbitrary arrests, and unspeakable harassment, humiliation and violence against them are daily realities.

This month the UAE welcomed to its capital, Bank Hapoalim and Bank Leumi–two of nine Israeli banks listed by the United Nations Human Rights Council as financiers of illegal settlements–making the UAE now complicit in Israel’s ongoing theft, colonization, and annexation of Palestinian land. Rather than benefit Palestinians, these deals put an Arab seal of approval on what is one of the world’s worst, most enduring and well-documented records of human rights abuses and grave breaches of international law. In doing so, they reward lawlessness, theft and impunity, in addition to violating all relevant resolutions of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Far from advancing peace, the plan reveals arms deals and cyber-spying contracts that promote militarism, endanger civilians, threaten human rights activists, and delay the potential for true peace in the region–peace based on ideals of justice and universal human dignity.

While we condemn the actions of the UAE and Bahrain governments, we know that the Arab people of the UAE and Bahrain remain firm in their support for Palestine. Likewise, while we condemn the long role of the US government in pushing normalization while underwriting Israel’s violent occupation and settler-colonial project, we know that our fellow Americans want the US government to promote justice. The American people want their tax dollars spent on our crumbling education system, compromised infrastructure, and healthcare, not to prop up human rights abusers nor to fatten the bank accounts of weapons contractors.

As a coalition of over 50 US-based religious, political, cultural and human rights organizations, representing tens of thousands of Americans, we stand firmly with the Palestinian people in their fight for freedom, self-determination and demand that Israel be held accountable. We stand united in our rejection of any and all efforts to normalize with Israel at the expense of Palestine and the Palestinian people. We declare that Palestinian self-determination and human rights are non-negotiable and not for sale; and finally and most importantly we demand an end to Zionist Colonization of Arab/Palestinian land.

National Coalition
Arab America Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC)
Arab America Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC) – Georgia Chapter
Al-Awda NY
Al-Awda Palestinian Right to Return Coalition
American Palestinian Club- VA
American Muslims for Palestine
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Coalition of Palestinian American Organizations
CODEPINK
Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine
Daarna
Dallas Palestine Coalition
Eyewitness Palestine
Free Democratic Palestine Movement
Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF)
International Solidarity Movement
Internationalism WG (Metro DC DSA)
Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church, USA
Jerusalem Center
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP)
Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) – NYC
Labor for Palestine
Metroplex Palestine Coalition
National Arab American Professionals (NAAP)
National Lawyers Guild, Palestine Subcommittee
National Union Of Palestinian Youth Representative/ Boston
Network for Democratic Palestine
New Generation for Palestine (NGP)
NY4Palestine
Our Revolution Northern VA (ORNOVA)
Palestinain American Council – Chicago
Palestine Aid Society – Detroit
Palestine American League
Palestinian American Center
Palestinian American Club- Chicago
Palestinian American Council – Dallas
Palestinian American Council – Louisiana
Palestinian American Community Center NJ (PACC)
Palestinian American Women’s Association
Palestinian American Youth League
Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace
Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)
Sacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian Rights
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – Chicago
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – GW Law School
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – Tufts
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USPCR)
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI)
US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)
US Palestinian Council (USPC)
USA-Palestine Mental Health Network
Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR)

Solidarity with the Al-Naqab Center in Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut

Republished from the original French at Collectif Palestine Vaincra: https://palestinevaincra.com/2020/09/solidarite-avec-le-centre-al-naqab-du-camp-de-refugies-palestiniens-de-burj-al-barajneh-de-beyrouth/

Following the explosion at the port of Beirut, Lebanon, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member organization of the Samidoun Network in Toulouse, France, organized a solidarity fundraiser to support the Al Naqab Center, a cultural center for youth in the Palestinian refugee camp of Bourj al-Barajneh in the south of Beirut. In a few days, the collective raised € 500 to support their work, which is more necessary than ever. We publish below the message they sent highlighting that solidarity is, first and foremost, mutual aid in common struggle. You can donate online to support Al Naqab Center here: https://www.givingloop.org/alnaqabcenterforyouthactivities

The Al Naqab Center’s letter is below:

To our comrades in Toulouse, we send you our heartfelt greetings from Bourj Al Barajneh Camp in Lebanon. We send you this letter as Macron was only recently parading through the streets of Beirut and being received as a saviour by some, others protested his presence, shouting “Free George Abdallah” at him. Like them, we are not fooled by Macron’s antics. For we know all too well France’s role as an oppressor—from the colonization of Algeria, the Levant, West Africa, and Southeast Asia, to the neocolonial policies of “Françafrique”, which continue to exploit the people of Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and beyond. We have also seen how French cops act like an occupying force in the banlieue—beating, killing, and imprisoning our Black and Arab brothers and sisters. We also know of the vicious neoliberal policies the Macron government and its predecessors have enacted, and we have witnessed his cops beating striking workers and students who have stood up to resist them.

In Lebanon, our people continue to face the injustice of forced exile from our homeland. As refugees for the past 72 years, we have been deprived of our basic human rights throughout the world, but in Lebanon the discrimination and racism we face is as stark as it is blatant. As Palestinians, we are barred from many jobs, owning property, and access to social security. Our people are forced to live in overcrowded refugee camps, which lack basic infrastructure and are besieged by physical barriers and military checkpoints. The ongoing financial and economic collapse in Lebanon has continued to decimate our people, whose financial and economic position was precarious to begin with. The situation has only worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent Beirut port explosion.

At Al-Naqab center, we continue to struggle for the survival of our people. Our main activity is in education. To counter the disparity in educational opportunities and quality of schools available to our people, we offer school support and tutoring to Palestinian students in Bourj al Barajneh free of charge. We also teach the history and geography of Palestine and our struggle. In addition to this we have a youth football team because we believe sports can be an educational tool that builds leadership, self-esteem, self-confidence, and cooperation. We also organize campaigns and events in support of the Palestinian struggle. Most recently, and due to the economic situation Al-Naqab has joined forces with other groups and individuals in the camp to organize food distributions.

In all our work we have relied on an independent funding model by only accepting unconditional donations and membership dues. This is part of our aim of building an organisation using an alternative model to the depoliticised NGO model that has come to dominate and police our camps and spaces. With continued principled support from our community and supporters throughout the world, we can demonstrate that another way is possible. Despite the state of utter collapse and freefall into the abyss, we refuse to surrender to the hopeless reality and we live by comrade George’s words “No remorse, no compromise, I will forever resist!”

لن اندم ولن اساوم سأبقى اقاوم

Samidoun supports global day of action to #StopTheKillingsPH

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins in the global day of action on 14 September to stop the killings in the Philippines and build the international struggle for justice. Organized by Karapatan, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, 350.org Pilipinas, the Ecumenical Voice for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines, Civicus, ESCR-Net, AWID, IADL, APWLD, the Asia Pacific Network of Environment Defenders, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, PCFS, and OMCT, the day of action marked the opening of the 45th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

The global day of action, which included in-person, online and Twitter calls to action, focused on extrajudicial killings targeting activists and human rights defenders, which have multiplied alongside the imprisonment of political prisoners in the Philippines. Karapatan reported, “In Quezon City, human rights activists unfurled a big “Stop the Killings” banner in Liwasang Diokno at the Commission on Human Rights compound. The hashtags #StopTheKillingsPH #HRC45 were used by individual advocates on Facebook and Twitter. Prior to September 14, human rights lawyers in Turkey conducted protest actions in several cities in their country to support the call, while rights advocates in Switzerland held a protest action in Bern.”

Samidoun U.S. coordinator Joe Catron

A statement signed by over 700 global organizations and advocates, including Samidoun, was submitted to the UNHRC, “citing the signing and enactment of the Anti-Terrorism Act which is “seen as a measure that will aggravate the attacks and vilification of human rights defenders and civil society” as well as the killings of peasant leader Randall Echanis and health activist Zara Alvarez in August, following the killings of relief worker Jory Porquia, peasant leader Nora Apique and urban poor leader Carlito Badion amid the imposition of lockdowns to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing killings linked to the government’s bloody campaign against illegal drugs.”

As noted previously, “While the so-called “Anti-Terror Law” in the Philippines imposes yet another threat upon people’s rights defenders and activists struggling to defend the land, workers and people from imperialism and exploitation, these same human rights defenders are subjected to a vicious campaign of state terror. Duterte has aligned himself with all of the most extreme right, fascist forces in the world, from the military might of U.S. imperialism to the Israeli occupation regime.

Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat

Indeed, Duterte carried out the first visit of a president of the Philippines to Israel, deepening the economic, agricultural and scientific relationship between the Israeli occupation regime and the Philippines, and thanking Israel for its ‘critical assistance’ in the so-called ‘war on terror.’ In reality, the “war on terror” in the Philippines consists of violent repression of workers, peasants and human rights defenders. There have been thousands of extrajudicial killings in just the past three years, including over 50 lawyers gunned down, with no justice or accountability.

Duterte even initiated joint “counter-terrorist training” programs for the Armed Forces of the Philippines under the direction of the Israeli Occupation Forces, enhancing the oppression of people in the Philippines through tactics learned and tested through war crimes, crimes against humanity and creeping genocide targeting the Palestinian people. This includes the false labeling of resistance organizations, people’s movements and strugglers against colonialism as ‘terrorists,’ in Palestine, the Philippines, the United States and elsewhere. As the Israeli occupier stands with its fellow war criminal Duterte, the people’s movements of Palestine stand with the people’s movements of the Philippines in a collective struggle for justice.”

Samidoun international coordinator Charlotte Kates

We stand with the people’s movement in the Philippines and around the world in calling for justice, accountability and an end to the targeting of activists and human rights defenders for political imprisonment and extrajudicial killings, and add our voice to thousands of others raised on this day.

Republished below is the international statement from Karapatan: https://www.karapatan.org/stop+the+killings+un+human+rights+council+investigate+the+human+rights+situation+in+the+philippines

Stop the killings! UN Human Rights Council, investigate the human rights situation in the Philippines!

During the 44th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) in June 2020, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet reported the widespread and systematic human rights violations in the Philippines. The High Commissioner found that domestic mechanisms have failed to ensure accountability, and that there is persistent impunity for human rights violations. She also cited that authorities’ harmful rhetoric inciting hatred and violence against women, human rights defenders, political opposition, civil society, indigenous peoples, drug users and peddlers, and relief workers, which continued during the COVID-19 period, could amount to a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Weeks after the release of Bachelet’s comprehensive report, the human rights situation in the Philippines took a turn for the worse. In the first week of July, the President signed the Anti-Terror Act that is seen as a measure that will aggravate the attacks and vilification of human rights defenders and civil society. The exercise of fundamental freedoms and rights has been compromised, with numerous challenges to press freedom and activists and protesters arrested and detained on flimsy charges. In August, only days apart, peasant leader Randall Echanis and health activist Zara Alvarez were summarily executed in separate incidents, following the killings of relief worker Jory Porquia, peasant leader Nora Apique and urban poor leader Carlito Badion during the COVID-19 lockdown. The lawyer and paralegal volunteer assisting the family of Echanis are now facing police complaints for allegedly obstructing its investigation. Threats of violence, including death threats, against activists and human rights defenders have continued unabated.

We must put a stop to these unrelenting attacks now. And this worsening situation would not end as long as those who perpetrate them run free and unscathed. These perpetrators must be brought to justice before any court, tribunal or body that will act independently, with impartiality, and effectively, having allegiance to human rights and justice instead of powers that be. We need true accountability and genuine transparency in the inquiry into these human rights violations, removing the possibility that investigations would only shield and even absolve the persons liable for the crimes.

We cannot rely on the promise of a government that has shown great disdain and disrespect of human rights to exact accountability and operate with transparency. This government has shown nothing but contempt for individuals and experts, including those in the UN and the International Criminal Court, who independently and impartially seek investigation into the relentless human rights violations in the Philippines.

The Philippine Justice Secretary, during the 44th UNHRC Session, denied the existence of impunity in the Philippines, promising the creation of an inter-agency panel to review the 5,655 killings during the police’s anti-illegal drug operations. He denied allegations of widespread and systematic killings as well as other human rights violations. He stressed that the Government has respected human rights and other fundamental freedoms, reiterating the existence of accountability measures, such as an inter-agency committee on extralegal killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and other grave violations of the right to life, liberty and security of persons.

We have witnessed a long history of domestic inter-agency task forces and fact-finding commissions promising to act without fear or favor. But we repeatedly have been frustrated and even enraged by the fruitlessness and ineffectiveness of these so-called domestic accountability measures. Rather than help, these government bodies have even contributed to the infrastructure of impunity and miscarriage of justice against the victims of human rights violations.

With the 45th session of the Human Rights Council beginning today, we call on the UN Human Rights Council to exercise its mandate and urgently create an independent and impartial investigative mechanism on the rampant extrajudicial killings and human rights violations in the Philippines. The Human Rights Council’s action may contribute significantly to deter further human rights violations in the Philippines. Likewise, we also support other initiatives in urging States all over the world to send the message that such level of impunity in the Philippines is unacceptable.

This must happen now before we lose another Zara Alvarez, another Randall Echanis, another Jory Porquia, another Kian delos Santos, and another Filipino to these cruel, widespread and systematic violations. ###

SIGNED BY THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS:

Karapatan Alliance Philippines
National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL)
Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan)
350.org Pilipinas
Ecumenical Voice for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (EcuVoice)
Civicus World Alliance for Citizen Participation
International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net)
Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID)
International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL)
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD)
Asia Pacific Network of Environmental Defenders (APNED)
International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP)
People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS)
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)
Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR)
International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED)
MADRE
Protection International
JASS (Just Associates) Southeast Asia
Public Services International – Asia Pacific
Education International – Asia Pacific
Pesticide Action Network – Asia Pacific
Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos (IM-Defensores)
Pesticide Action Network – North America
Asia Pacific Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines
Confederation of Lawyers of Asia and the Pacific (COLAP)
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants
Indigenous Peoples’ Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL)
IBON International
Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales (ProDESC), Mexico
Odhikar, Bangladesh
Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law
Common Room, Indonesia
PERETAS (Women Across Borders), Indonesia
Democratic Lawyers Association of Bangladesh
LGBT+ Welfare Alliance, US
V-Artivist, Hong Kong
International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) – US Chapter
Canada-Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights
Centre for Human Rights & Development (CHRD), Mongolia
Indian Association of Lawyers
Malaya Movement, US
Giuristi Democratici, Italy
Progressive Lawyers Association, Turkey
PROGRESS, Indonesia
Asociación Americana de Juristas, Puerto Rico
Migrante International-Canada
Asociación Libre de Abogadas y Abogados, Spain
Action des Chrétiens Activistes des Droits de l’Homme à Shabunda (ACADHOSHA), Congo
Centre Action Sociale Réhabilitation et Réadaptation pour les Victimes de la Torture, de la guerre et de la violence (SOHRAM-CASRA), Turkey
Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), India
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan – USA
People’s Watch, India
All India Lawyers Union
Filipino Domestic Workers Association, United Kingdom
Gabriela-Canada
Migrante Como Milano, Italy
New South Wales Teachers Union, Australia
Rights Watch AP, India
Migrante International – France
Uyirootal Trust, India
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, India
PROHAM, Malaysia
Survivors of Torture and Trauma Assistance and Rehabilitation Service (SSTARS), Australia
African Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims
Centre for Social Education and Development (CSED), India
People’s Action for Rural Awakening, India
International Longshore & Warehouse Union, US
People’s Choice, India
KUNCI Study Forum & Collective, Indonesia
Contre la Torture en Tunisie, Tunisia
Vox Populi Initiative, Congo
Associacio Catalana per la Pau, Spain
Hong Kong-Filipino Friends
Ugnayan ng mga Pilipino sa Belgium
Intal, Belgium
Viva Salud, Belgium
International Longshore & Warehouse Union-Local Union 5, US
Migrante International – Europe
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Human Rights and Consumer Production Society, India
Society for Integrated Rural Development, India
Citizen for Human Rights Movement, India
Filipino CARES, United Kingdom
Dalit Human Rights Defenders Network, India
CIC Concern Group, Hong Kong
Migrant Solidarity Committee, Hong Kong
Justice and Peace Netherlands
Pusat Kajian Etnografi Komunitas Adat, Indonesia
NawaSLITU, Sri Lanka
Gabriela – New York, USA
Asian Center for the Progress of Peoples, Hong Kong
Moving Artists International
Fridays for Future Brazil
Human Rights Center of the National Council of Churches in Korea, South Korea
Çağdaş Hukukçular Derneği, Turkey
KASAMMAKo, South Korea
Migrante International – Netherlands
Union of Turkish Bars, Turkey
International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) – Canada
New York – Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP)
Kalimantan Women’s Alliance, Indonesia
Korea Women’s Association United (KWAU), South Korea
Lawyers for a Democratic Society (MINBYUN), South Korea
Korean House for International Solidarity (KHIS), South Korea
Pax Christi Victoria, Australia
Hak Inisiyatifi Derneği, Turkey
Fridays for Future, Germany
Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC)
Asociación Libre de Abogadas y Abogados (ALA), Spain
Stop the Wall Campaign, Palestine
Netherlands Philippine Solidarity Association
PROGRESS Lawyers Network, Belgium
Migrante International – Austria
Support for Women in Agriculture and Environment (SWAGEN), Uganda
Centre for Philippine Concerns, Canada
Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT) Germany
Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT) Belgium
Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre
Mandacarù Onlus, Italy
Les Corner Empowerment Association, Hong Kong
Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, South Korea
Migrante International – Australia
Sciopero per il clima Svizzera, Switzerland
Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, United Kingdom
Quinoa ASBL, Belgium
Revolutionary Socialist League, Kenya
Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform (MONLAR), Kenya
Zambia Social Forum
Instituto Politécnico Tomás Katari, Bolivia
Solidagro, Belgium
Fridays For Future Rosario, Argentina
Eskubideak (Basque Democrat Lawyers)
National Ecumenical-Interfaith Forum for Filipino Concerns- Northern California, USA
Ponlok Khmer, Cambodia
VIKALPANI (National Women’s Federation), Sri Lanka
Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community (CCFC)
Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation
National Women Farmers and Workers Association (NWFA), Bangladesh
Cambodia Youth Network
SERUNI, Indonesia
Project South, USA
Coalition for the Safety and Protection of Human Rights Defenders, PANA, Kazakhstan
Public Association “Dignity”, Kazakhstan
AwazCDS-Pakistan
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
Aliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria (AGRA), Indonesia
Institute for National Democracy Studies (INDIES), Indonesia
Asian Migrant Coordinating Body- Hong Kong
Reel Women – Hong Kong
Women Festival- Hong Kong
International Migrants Alliance – Hong Kong & Macau
ILPS Hong Kong & Macau
The Association for the Advancement of Feminism- Hongkong
Abra Tinguian Ilocano Society – Hong Kong
Abra Migrant Workers Welfare Association, Hong Kong
Annak ti Maeng Tubo-Hong Kong
Association of Concerned Filipinos, Hong Kong
Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers, Hong Kong
Baggak Cultural Group, Hong Kong
Bangued Migrants Workers Association, Hon Kong
Bayan Hong Kong and Macau
Bucay Migrants Workers, Hong Kong
Bucloc Overseas Workers Association, Hong Kong
Cuyapo OFW Association Hong Kong
Divine Word Migrants Association, Hong Kong
Dolores Migrants Association, Hong Kong
Filipino Friends, Hong Kong
Filipino Lesbian Organization, Hong Kong
Filipino Migrant Domestic Workers Union, Hong Kong
Filipino Migrant Workers Union, Hong Kong
Filipino Migrant Workers Union – Chater Garden, Hong Kong
Filipino Migrant Workers Union- Bus 13, Hong Kong
Filipino Migrants Association, Hong Kong
Filipino Women Migrant Association, Hong Kong
Friends of Bethune House, Hong Kong
Gabriela Hong Kong
Gabriela Hong Kong Bank
Ganagan San Juan Association
HK Campaign for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines, Hong Kong
Iglesia Filipina Independiente -HK Fellowship Officers, Hong Kong
Indonesian Migrant Workers Union
Kalinga Province Hong Kong Workers Association, Hong Kong
Lacub Migrants Association, Hong Kong
Lagangilang Overseas Association, Hong Kong
Langiden Migrants Organization, Hong Kong
Lapaz Migrants Association, Hong Kong
Licuan-Baay HK Association, Hong Kong
Likha Filipino Migrants Cultural Organization, Hong Kong
Luzviminda Migrante, Hong Kong
Maeng Tribe of Abra Luba-Hong Kong
Malibcong Migrants Association, Hong Kong
Migrante Pangasinan, Hong Kong
Migrante Pier, Hong Kong
Migrante Shatin, Hong kong
Migrante Tamar, Hong Kong
Migrante Tsing Ti, Hong Kong
Migrante Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong
Migrante Visayas, Hong Kong
Migrante Yuen Long, Hong Kong
Migranteng Artista ng Bayan, Hong Kong
Migrants Association of San Isidro, Hong Kong
Mission Volunteers (MOVERS), Hong Kong
Organic Cultural and Environmental Organization, Hong Kong
Overseas Nepali Workers Association
Pangasinan Organization for Welfare Empowerment and Rights, Hong Kong
Philippine Independent Church- Choir, Hong Kong
Promotion of Church Peoples’ Response, Hong Kong
Samahang Migrante, Hong Kong
Sta. Maria Migrants Association, Hong Kong
Timpuyog Ti Tayum, Hong Kong
United Manabonians Hong Kong
United Pangasinan in Hong Kong
WOPIC Antique, Hong Kong
Thai Regional Alliance, Hong Kong
International Association of Women in Radio and Television – Philippines
Artist Alliance for Genuine Land Reform and Rural Development (SAKA), Philippines
National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP)
Amnesty International – Pilipinas
Desaparecidos
Hustisya
Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA)
Tanggol Bayi
Concerned Artists of the Philippines
Karapatan Negros
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Negros
Save Palawan Movement
ANNVIK Save Nueva Vizcaya Movement
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas – Bicol
Resbak – Philippines
Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA)
Sining Na Naglilingkod sa Bayan (Art for the People)
Ibon Foundation
Kabataan Partylist
National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) – Cebu Law Students
Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines
Katribu-Youth
National Union of Students of the Philippines
People’s Forum on Peace for Life Inc.
Karapatan Bicol
Center for Environmental Concerns – Philippines
Migrante International
NNARA-Youth UP Diliman
Anakpawis -Western Mindanao
Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao

 

SIGNED BY THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS:

Marc Botenga, Member of European Parliament
Verónica Vidal Degiorgis, Mexico
Ali Hines, United Kingdom
Karshiga Kushkinov, Kazakhstan
Yevgeniy Zhovtis, Kazakhstan
Anand Singh, Malaysia
Marikit Lagunzad, Philippines,
Cheryl Mae Mirasol, Philippines
Gustaff Harriman Iskandar, Indonesia
Christian Kempendorff, Germany
Judith Basco, Philippines
Mizuhito Kuroda, Japan,
Naomi Srikandi, Indonesia
Macoto Satoh, Japan Theatre Company
Romina Manalang, Philippines
Marko Brumen, Slovenia
Maja Friedrich, Germany
Gab Bates, Australia
Aien Lemence, Philippines
Ana Fajardo, Philippines
Helia Hamedani, Iran
Brigitte Dang-ay, United States
Tiny Diapana, Philippines
Jethro Pioquinto, Philippines
Genevieve Inumerable, Philippines
Adv. Hasan Tarique Chowdhury, Bangladesh
Fred IO Rebadulla, United States
Drew Elizarde-Miller, United States
Donna Miranda, Philippines
Nonoy Espina, Philippines
Bjan Bernabe, Philippines
Andre’u Buena, Philippines
Melo Mar Cabello, Philippines
Chris Sorio, Canada
Monet Pura, Philippines
Rico Villanueva, Philippines
Tetet Nera-Lauron, Philippines
Karen Piewig, Germany
Alyana Cabral, Philippines
Antares Bartolome, Philippines
Nick Poblacion, Philippines
Nica Castillo, Philippines
Beth Dollaga, Canada
Andrew Tiver, Australia
Clarisa Ramos, Belgium
Rev. Joram Calimutan, Hong Kong
Barbara Spinelli, Italy
Mandkhaitsetsen, Mongolia
Rosanna Lopez, Philippines
Hemy Mandap, Philippines
Niloufer Bhagwat, Indian Association of Lawyers
Enzo Camacho, Philippines
Malaya Arevalo, United States
Jude Holland, United Kingdom
Iris Ferrer, Philippines
Paolo Solimeno, Italy
Don Calderon, Philippines
Serife Ceren Uysal, Turkey Progressive Lawyers Association
Kartika Sari, Indonesia
José Luis Galán Martín, Spain
Cwylle Alcain, Philippines
Vanessa Ramos, Puerto Rico
Juluis Dagatan, Philippines
Claudia Pretto, Italy
Reyna de Mesa, Canada
Daisy Mules, Ireland
Farideh Karamloui, Italy
Arvee Salazar, Philippines
John Carlo Butil, Philippines
Lance Yngwie Alon, Philippines
Alberto Laconsay, Hong Kong,
Fe Duldulao, Philippines
María Galán López, Spain Asociación Libre de Abogadas y Abogados
Lief Jezreel Reyes, Philippines
Augustin Putshu Mundjolo, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Yavuz Binbay, Turkey
Kirity Roy, India
Maria Sol Pajadura, Canada
Lorena Russi, United States
Jessica Antonio, United States
Henri Tiphagne, India
Priyanka Shukla, India
Abdul Hameed, India
Phoebe Dimacali, United Kingdom
Luisito Queano, Canada
Rafunzel Korngut, Canada
Franklin Irabon, Italy
Gordon Mutch, United States
Shannon Vassou, India
Paul Robson, Australia
Balu Akkisa, India
Mohamed Haroon, India,
Norberto Autor, Philippines
Roel Hoang Manipon, Philippines
Sampath Kumar, India
Peru Sarithiran, India
Ivy Josiah, Malaysia
Alon Segarra, Philippines
Boni Macaranas, United States
McDonald Rhett, Australia
Prabahar Vedamanickam, India
Lucy May, Australia
Esther Nabwire Waswa, Uganda
Nambi Chelliah, India
Brian Turner, New Zealand
Carlos Ocampo, Australia
Noimi Sanlose, Philippines
Venkatasiva Reddy Vattigunta, India
Brian Skiffington, United States
Rajesh Kumar, India
Syafiatudina Syafiatudina, Indonesia
Mondher Cherni, Tunisia
Rajamani Angatha Ramachandiran, India
Ajeetha Bharathy, India
Fidel Rillo, Philippines
Jean Mukulumania Amundala, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Dandy Miguel, Philippines
Xavier Cutillas, Spain
Lhene Danzalan, Hong Kong
Millet Antonio, Philippines
Bon Henryk Corachea, Philippines
Fretzie Bulaclac, Belgium
Laura Baeyens, Belgium
Manikumar Ayyamperumal, India
Michael Whalen, United States
Tyler Rasmussen, United States
Lorraine Mordaunt, Netherlands
Rhod Pasion, Italy
Marieke Debusschere, Belgium
Ilanchezhian Joints Secretary, India
Ann Aspacio, Philippines
Gandimathi Alagar, India
Dr. N. Paul Sunder Singh, India
Jeeva Nantham, India
Carl Anderson, United States
Hayath Basha, India
Yahaya Badamassi, Nigeria
Canon Barry Naylor, United Kingdom
Bryan Marco Infortuno, Philippines
Yvonne Gil, Australia,
Donna Morrison, Australia
Danah Resgonia, United States
John Michael Tonares, Philippines
Emeritus Professor Joseph A. Camilleri, Australia
Donna Sensi, Australia
Romina Beitseen, Australia
Therese Torres, Philippines
Selena Liang, Hong Kong
Vida Sison, Philippines,
Priyanka Sen, Hong Kong
Luis Tutaan, United States
Vasudev Charupa, India
William Elvin Manzano, Hong Kong
Hazel Fok, Hong Kong
Amy Lan, Hong Kong
Leslie Jacinto, United States
Sathiaseelan S, India
Rakshika Raj, India
NC Kwong, Hong Kong
Ka Man IP, Hong Kong
Ken Tsui, Hong Kong
Hoi Ching Kwok, Hong Kong
Sheryl Aylward, Australia
Gino Orticio, Australia
Benedict Wachira, Kenya
Setunga Philip, United States
Norman Ediger, United States
Lydia Catedral, Hong Kong
Ana Bibal, Philippines
Mirinda Boon-Kuo, Australia
Yando Zakaria, Indonesia
Ariane Carandang, Philippines
Karuna Nawa, Sri Lanka
Candice Sering, United States
James Tan, Hong Kong
Paloma Polo, Netherlands
Disha Ravi, India
Valentina Ruas, Brazil
Garima Thakur, India
Connie Bragas-Regalado, Philippines
Naim Eminoğlu, Turkey
Nazlı Açıcı, Turkey
Leyla Stengl, United States
Nergiz Tuba Aslan, Turkey
Sinem Coşkun, Turkey
Çiğdem Akbulut, Turkey
Erkan Konukcu, Turkey
Ethem Akay, Turkey
Ugur Esat Keskus, Turkey
Aynur Besli, Turkey
Ilgın Bekdemir, Turkey
Ayşegül Çağatay, Turkey
Neslihan Piliç, Turkey
Av.Hakan Bozyurt, Turkey
Ahmet Turan Dörtdemir, Turkey
Tünay Cengiz, Turkey
Sefa Aydogan, Turkey
Alihan Pilaf, Turkey
Hacer Karaman, Turkey
Deniz Konuklu, United States
Evin Konuk, Turkey
Mehmet Altuntaş, Turkey
Hüseyin Olçum, Turkey
Luisa Pires, Brazil
Marta Santos, Portugal
Sebahat Gençtarih, Turkey
Ceren Yılmaz, Turkey
Seda Şaraldı, Turkey
Mell Garcia, Brazil
Renata Praseres, Brazil
Gökmen Yeşil, Turkey
Sergen Nisanoglu, Turkey
Tuğçe Nazli Akin, Turkey
Maria Seara, Portugal
Fatih Gökçe, Turkey
Sharmaine Gunaratne, United Kingdom
Ozan Doğan, Turkey
Nerissa Balce, United States
Yaprak Türkmen,,Turkey,ÇHD
Gopeshwar Singh, India
Murat Demir, Germany
Siddha Murada, India
Vedika Shah, India
Andrea Ragragio, Philippines
Doğa İncesu, Turkey
Fatih Aydın, Turkey
Roşna Arjen İşbilen, Turkey
Mina Kucuk, Germany
Barzan Demirhan, Turkey
Hazal Turan, Turkey
Günay Dağ, Greece
Koc Cafer, United States
Onur Can Dalkılıç, Turkey
ilhami Gülbitti, Turkey
Muharrem Erdoğan, Turkey
Pınar Yılmaz, Turkey
Volkan Sahin, Turkey
Nurgül Tosun, Germany
Yalçın Doğru, Turkey
Hüseyin Cici, Switzerland
Deniz Yılmaz, United States
Marco Latini, Italy
Güçlü Sevimli, Turkey
Hüseyin Yüksel Biçen, Turkey
Nurhan Kirac, Germany
Hasan Kocaman, Turkey
Mahir Özgür Ergüç, Turkey
Filiz Ozçelik, Turkey
Nurcan Özer, United States
Gönül Gören, Turkey
Ozgur Ozel, United Kingdom
Gülser Sarıgül, Turkey
Derya Çiçek, Turkey
Duran Cem Guney, Turkey
Ayşe Şehriban Demirel, Turkey
Ahmet Ergin Sözen, Turkey
Mihriban Çelik, Turkey
Aytekin Aktaş, Turkey
Vedat Tosun, Turkey
Antonio de Jesus, Canada
Erdoğan Akdoğdu, Turkey
Özlem Araal Arpat, Turkey
Teddy Espela, Philippines
Ibrahim Arzuk, Turkey
Nilgul Çakmak, Turkey
Minel Ekmekçiler, Turkey
Dilan Bilge, Turkey
Leyla Erkis, Germany
Dogan Emrah Ziraman, Turkey
Leyla Kacar, France
Oğuzhan Topalkara, Turkey
Nihat Kocyigit, Turkey
Özcan Çine, Turkey
Erol Aslan, Germany
Aydın Ali, United States
Elif Karlıdağ, Turkey
Erol Özbolat, Germany
Kamil Burgazli, Turkey
Gülbin Çakmak, Turkey
Baran Karslıoğlu, Turkey
Şerife Bay, Turkey
Mehmet Mahir Kurtoğlu, Turkey
Alper Tunga Aslan, Turkey
Pınar Ağyüzlü Aslan, Turkey
Ikbal Yildirim, Turkey
Rob Watts, Australia
Sevilay Özkurt, Turkey
Cennet Zuğurli, Turkey
Hasan Hüseyin Cevik, Turkey
Ebru Büyük Akın, Turkey
Cogie Sabado, Philippines
Karlyn Koh, United States
Francesca Spedalieri, United States
April Gramsci, United States
Hasan Yesil, Turkey
Hayrettin Akbas, Turkey
Agnieszka Sunga, Philippines
Nilgun Tortop, Turkey
Halil Beran, Germany
Louie Sawi, United States
Azizah Camille Salazar, Philippines
Ace Tolentino, Philippines
Ahmet Düzgün Yüksel, Germany
Süleyman Sensoy, Turkey
Sungwook Cha, South Korea
Stephen de Tarczynski, Australia
Beyza Gülmen, Turkey
Hasan Cosgun, Germany
Larissa Bison, Switzerland
Dianne Pogosa, Philippines
Naruaki Cann, Australia
Yaprak Ürek, Turkey
Kyungjin Oh, South Korea
Jophet Domingo, Philippines
Isabel Friemann, Germany
Ümit Büyükdağ, Turkey
Coleen Joyce Biore, Philippines
Max Castle, Australia
Mariel Balayo, Philippines
Suat Yilmaz, Australia
Ali Rıza Yüksel, Turkey
Kyla Cleo, Philippines
Nyl Darwin Mangunay, Philippines
Bungon Tamasorn, Thailand
Eylem Kocaman Üsgüdar, Turkey
Hakan Urun, Turkey
Harry Kerr, Australia
Ercan Kutlu, Turkey
Magalie Schotte, Belgium
Onur Öztanrıverdi, Turkey
Huw Jones, United Kingdom
Eren Odabaş, Turkey
Mehmet Arif Koçer, Turkey
Lisa Ito, Philippines
Sevil Aracı Bek, Turkey
Birsen Ayışık, Turkey
Lina Gobbelé, Germany
Lerzan Caner, Turkey
Nancy Cardoso, Brazil
E Schmitz, Netherlands
Yagmur Kavak, Turkey
Dane Justiniano, Philippines
Ali Safak, Turkey
Esther Milberg, Netherlands
Chantheang Tong, Cambodia
Rev. Dionito Cabillas, Philippines
Yavuz Aydin, Belgium
Seyit sonmez, Turkey
Dilsa Ritsa Esli, Turkey
Ayten Biggart, Turkey
Melane Manalo, Philippines
Ángeles Chinarro, United States
Liesbeth Viaene, Belgium
Dinçer Çalım, Turkey
Kemal Toraman, Turkey
Clara Handler, Austria
Naz Tuğçe Ceylan, Turkey
Hatice Aslan Atabay, Turkey
Amil Sanday, Philippines
Rodrigo Moreira, Brazil
Ida Estioko, United Kingdom
Uğur Canlı, Turkey
Clemens Huber, Austria
Hasan Oral, Turkey
Ayse Bingöl Demir, United States
Kiraz Kevser Naneci, Turkey
Tiffany Simon, United States
Ali Bozan, Turkey
Aruna Shantha Nonis, Sri Lanka
Dasarathi GV, India
Devrim Cem Erturan, Turkey,
Grace Valdez, Philippines
Hazal Aydın, Turkey
Lies Michielsen, Belgium
Chelsea Mae Manuel, Philippines
Aysegul Kiris, Turkey
Hendrik Staarink, Netherlands
Gamze Yentür, Turkey
Johnson Demin, Philippines
Sibel Uludağ, Turkey
Katrien Redeke, Netherlands
Servet Tepe, Turkey
Beste Salman, Turkey
Treenee Lopez, Canada
Hanneke Koppejan, Netherlands
Ahmey Bilal, United States
Gertrude Kenyangi, Uganda
Nevroz Bozkuş Karagöz, Turkey
Hind Riad, Belgium
Elvan Olkun, Turkey
Marie Boti, Canada
Mariz Tumambing, Philippines
Beatrice De Blasi, Italy
Faith Cuenca, Philippines
Songul Ates, Canada
Büyük yiğit Suat,,Turkey
Акмарал Жумагулова, Kazakhstan
Ron Shamelle Javier, Philippines
Jaswinder Singh Sidhu, India
Kennis Kwan, Hong Kong
Alianah Jehan Sumndad, Philippines
Leny Simbre, Canada
Lily Flordelis, Philippines
Marina Sofi, United States
Josh Dubnau,United States
Brenda Wymeersch, Belgium
Dawn Maxine Quiambao, Philippines
Melchor Garcia, Australia
Hasan Tarique Chowdhury, Bangladesh
Agatha Canape, Philippines
Münip Ermiş, Turkey
Tahsin Bilğay, Turkey
Laura Foglia, Switzerland
Sıla Abalay, Turkey
Ersin Aygül, Turkey
Joel Bermudez, Philippines,
Nurdan Kılıç, Turkey
Katrina Jackson, Philippines,
Federico Didonè, Belgium
Lilac Fameronag, Philippines
Norma Binas, Philippines
Lewis Maghanga, Kenya
Kilian Steinberg, Germany
Shamila Rathnasooriya, Sri Lanka
Gershom Kabaso, Zambia
Shiphrah Belonguel, Philippines
Gabriemle Holazo, Philippines
Alejandro Barrios, Bolivia
Turgay Karataş, Germany
Kyung Uk Jang, South Korea
Gözde Ekici, Turkey
Tim De Roeck, Belgium
Suna Aras, Turkey
Kim Hee Jin, South Korea
Reber Mazlum Safran, Turkey
María Cecilia Quaglino, Argentina
Ceyhun Yıldız, Turkey
İbrahim Korhan, Turkey
Coşkun Uysal, United States
Ümran Aykut, Turkey
Ng Wai Chiu, Hong Kong
LJ Rebadolla, Philippines
Janry Salcedo, Philippines
Muharrem Ata, Turkey
Ilknur Inanlı, Turkey
Carl Catedral, United States
Urko Aiartza, United States
Jesús Guarneros Díaz, Mexico
Ton Selbach, Netherlands
Viory Schellekens, Netherlands
Jeannette Schoone, Netherlands
Annie Kerkhove, Belgium
Josefina Forcadilla, Canada
Murat Rohat Özbay, Turkey
Tatiana Lukman, Netherlands
Eda Doğan, Turkey
Inti Paredes, Canada
Fügen Turhan, Germany
Kaeziel Santillan, Philippines
Era Rey, Philippines
Gregory Reynolds, Australia
Thabita Manga, United States
Ip David, United States
Kyaw Marma, Bangladesh
Prof. George Andreopoulos, US
Rev. Ray Sison, Methodist International Church- Hong Kong
Vida Sison, Methodist International Church- Hong Kong
Bruce Van Voorhis, Hong Kong
Legislative Councilor Fernando Chueng, Hong Kong
Rev. Dwight Dela Torre- Iglesia Filipina Indepiendente, Hong Kong

Statement from Georges Abdallah to Paris solidarity evening

The following statement from Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for over 35 years, was read in Paris on 12 September 2020 as part of the solidarity evening organized by the Unified Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah. Issued from Lannemezan prison, where Georges Abdallah remains jailed despite being eligible for release since 1999, the letter calls for greater mobilization to confront imperialism and reactionary regimes.

The event was organized and the letter issued in the lead-up to a month of action for the liberation of Georges Abdallah, including the 24 October mass rally and march from the Lannemezan train station to the prison, to demand his liberation.

The letter text follows below (original in French here):

Dear comrades, dear friends,

In these times of crises, catastrophes and great struggles, your gathering this evening fills me with strength and warms my heart as well.

Certainly, neither the great displays of compassion with neocolonial overtones, nor the strategy of tension with staggering catastrophes, nor the “civilized” repression with sting-ball grenades and even less the brutal repression and assassinations of demonstrators could put an end to the ongoing mobilization of the popular masses all over the world.

With or without a pandemic, blockade coupled with intermittent bombardments in Gaza, and almost daily roundups in the early mornings in the West Bank and elsewhere, the struggle continues in all its forms and asserts itself with ever more determination and self-sacrifice.

Despite media hype, disinformation and other manipulations, nothing changes, and the crisis of the system is of such magnitude that the popular masses from one country to another are pushed to burst onto the front of the political scene. Unable to remain indifferent to the worsening of their precarious conditions of existence, they come out of their torpor, as if by magic, and demand accountability from those who believed themselves untouchable. And suddenly a new era begins to form and take shape before our eyes and so many hopes are beginning to emerge on the horizon.

In the countries of the southern rim of the Mediterranean, the protest continues to spread and flourish in quasi-insurrectional uprisings of a particular type. However, the diversity of expressions of the current struggle, as well as the enthusiasm and the obvious determination of certain fractions of the popular masses, cannot make us forget the real contradictions within the movement. The stratification of the class and its structural weakness, the generalization of existential insecurity, and above all the extent of informal work on a global scale and especially in the countries of the South, mean that the petty bourgeoisie and its various proposals have a considerable weight at all levels and not only at the level of the political leadership of the movement. This gives quite a lot of space for the manipulation of the imperialist forces and their reactionary watchdogs.

Nevertheless, it is only together, and only together, that the proletarians and the various components of the popular masses will win.

Certainly, it is a long journey full of pitfalls and contradictions and, above all, ideological struggle. We know for a fact that the various social movements that are taking center stage these days can only win if they manage to get rid of the dross of the bourgeoisie. And it is then and only then that the “revolutionary social bloc” will fulfill its task as Subject of History.

It is in the process of the struggle that the identity of the class is constructed and that its political role becomes clearer. We must never lose sight of the fact that the historical bloc of workers is being built and structured in the global dynamics of the struggle in all its components.

This is why Comrades, we are called to always do what is necessary to promote the various processes of convergence of struggles, at the local level as well as at the regional level and even more so at the international level.

As you can see Comrades, the Arab bourgeoisie, for the most part, is now showing its unvarnished alignment with the enemy camp. This does not fail, on the one hand, to influence the struggle of the Palestinian popular masses and, on the other hand, to affirm the special place of the Palestinian cause as one of the main levers of the Arab revolution. And obviously, the struggle within the social bloc of the revolution should put an end to the procrastination and other compromises of the bourgeoisie in order to be able to confront all the “liquidationist” proposals. The Palestinian Resistance has and will have to confront the “reactionary Arab-Zionist bloc” led by the imperialist powers.

Quite naturally in Lebanon, the Resistance, this historic achievement, is the red line that we must imperatively keep as a marker of what is progressive and revolutionary and of what is not. Any claim that does not fit with the affirmation and and development of the Resistance can only be condemned. Gouraud’s Lebanon is dead. It remains to build ours, which is combined in its Arab horizon with the liberation of Palestine on the basis of the consolidation and the generalization of the Resistance that overcame the occupation and thwarted the Zionist aggression of 2006.

May a thousand solidarity initiatives flourish in favor of Palestine and its promising Resistance!
Solidarity, all solidarity with the resistance fighters in Zionist jails and in isolation cells in Morocco, Turkey, Greece, the Philippines and elsewhere around the world!
Solidarity, all solidarity with young proletarians from working-class neighborhoods!
Solidarity, all solidarity with the struggling proletarians!
Honor to the Yemeni popular masses in struggle against the imperialist forces!
Down with imperialism and its Zionist watchdogs and other Arab reactionaries!
Capitalism is nothing more than barbarism, honor to all those who oppose it in the diversity of their expressions!
Together Comrades, it is only together that we will win!

To all of you, Comrades and Friends, my warmest revolutionary greetings.

Your Comrade Georges Abdallah.

Paris solidarity evening gathers supporters of freedom for Georges Abdallah

The Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah brought together over 70 people in Paris on Saturday, 12 September for a solidarity meal and evening gathering to support Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. The Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine has been jailed in France for over 35 years, despite being eligible for release since 1999, and the movement for his release has been growing in both France and Lebanon. On both of his recent visits to Beirut, French president Emmanuel Macron has been greeted with demands for Abdallah’s release and return to Lebanon.

The event began with the reading of a new statement by Georges Abdallah, written for the occasion, followed by a statement of the Unitary Campaign, announcing an upcoming international month of actions to free Georges Abdallah between 22 September and 24 October. These actions aim to escalate the pressure and mobilize for the national demonstration on 24 October 2020 in Lannemezan, marching to the gates of Lannemezan prison, where Georges Abdallah is confined. Hundreds of people join this annual march to mark the anniversary of his arrest in 1984.

The discussion was followed by a collective meal including Lebanese, Moroccan, Turkish and Kurdish specialties, as organizers and participants planned for the next actions in struggle to continue the campaign to free Georges Abdallah.

Georges Abdallah regularly participates, from French prisons, in the struggles and collective hunger strikes of the Palestinian prisoners; he joined in the strikes of 2014, 2017 and 2019 from Lannemezan prison. He also refused meals for three days in 2016 in solidarity with the hunger strike of Palestinian prisoner Bilal Kayed, fighting against his imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention.

In a letter from Israeli prison in 2018, imprisoned Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat said: “For us, inside Israeli prisons, Georges Abdallah is a fellow struggler and a fellow Palestinian prisoner. We call him ‘the General of the prisoners of the PFLP.’ He is part of us – one with us in unity and common struggle. We feel his support and participation in our struggle across seas and through iron bars and prison walls. He returns meals with our hunger strikes, his heart beats for Palestine just as his politics centers its liberation, and he has spent decades imprisoned because of his commitment to the liberation of the Palestinian and Arab people.

Indeed, Georges Abdallah is an icon of resistance. With his clear analysis and involvement in all struggles for justice inside France and around the world, he refuses all attempts to isolate and silence him. His case also shows quite clearly just how strongly U.S. and French imperialism are tied to Zionism and the colonization of Palestine.”

Buses are being organized from many places in France to attend the 24 October rally at Lannemezan prison, including Toulouse, Paris, Marseille and elsewhere.

Copenhagen remembers Sabra and Shatila massacre with memorial event

Photo: Boykot Israel DK

On Saturday, 12 September, Boykot Israel – DK commemorated the Sabra and Shatila massacres with a memorial event that has been organized for 18 years in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. Convened under the slogan “We will never forget the Sabra and Shatila massacres!” the Boykot Israel event began in the Solidaritetshuset (Solidarity House) in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen.

Photo: Boykot Israel DK

The event started with a solidarity dinner of Palestinian food, accompanied by a short presentation on the massacres in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut in 1982, followed by a lively discussion.

After the presentation, activists proceeded through the streets of Nørrebro with torches, banners and signs, calling out “Boycott Israel – Free Palestine!” while distributing hundreds of flyers to passers-by and guests at cafes in the area. They received a strongly positive response from people on the streets.

Photo: Boykot Israel DK

Irene Clausen of Internationalt Forum and Boykot Israel noted that the event has been taking place annually in Copenhagen since 2002, recalling: “Boykot Israel was formed in April 2002. At that time, it was a big issue in the Palestine solidarity movement that the Belgian supreme court may hear a case against the former Israeli defense minister Ariel Sharon for war crimes because of his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacres, on behalf of Palestinian victims from those massacres living in Belgium.”

“The new Boykot Israel campaign, together with another group, Palestina Initiativet, invited the Belgian lawyer Luc Walleyn to a public meeting in Copenhagen on the case in Belgium against Ariel Sharon. This meeting raised widespread public interest,” she noted.

Photo: Boykot Israel DK

“Through this meeting in Copenhagen with the Belgian lawyer, where a Palestinian victim from Sabra and Shatila also participated, we learned about the atrocities of Israel against the Palestinians. And to us in Boykot Israel, the Sabra and Shatila massacres became a symbol of Israeli violence, colonization and apartheid, and our annual Meetings commemorating Sabra and Shatila also illustrate the continuity of our solidarity work through 18 years.”

“Unfortunately, the Belgian state came under heavy pressure ‘from outside’ and changed their legislation so that the case against Sharon was withdrawn. However, the boycott of Israel continues as long as there is Israeli occupation, colonization and apartheid,” she concluded.

Toulouse, France: Place Yitzhak Rabin sprayed with red paint on 27th anniversary of the Oslo Accords

The following report is republished from the French original at Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member of the Samidoun Network based in Toulouse, France:

On 13 September 1993, the Oslo Accords were signed between Yitzhak Rabin and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leadership. A betrayal of the historic demands of the Palestinian national movement, these agreements have resulted in even more Israeli crimes. On 13 September 2020, 27 years later, the plaque in tribute to the Israeli war criminal Yitzhak Rabin in the city center of Toulouse were found covered in red paint, a symbol of the blood of the Palestinian people spilled for the last 27 years.

https://twitter.com/CollectifPV/status/1305037902813057025

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network issued a statement on the 27th anniversary of the Oslo accords.

“The Palestinian people continue to resist colonization, occupation and oppression in all forms, and continue to stand on the front lines against imperialism, despite the devastating effects and the heavy weight of the Oslo project. On the 27th anniversary of the Oslo project, it remains the overarching framework for imperialist and Zionist division and control of Palestine and reactionary Arab regimes’ roadway to normalization. In order to march forward to the freedom of Palestinian prisoners, the return of Palestinian refugees and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, the Oslo project must be decisively overthrown and rejected.”

Read the full statement: https://samidoun.net/downwithoslo

On its 27th anniversary: Defeat Oslo, confront normalization, escalate the boycott

On the 27th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Principles – the Oslo Accords – in Washington, D.C., Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network emphasizes that the fight to bring a decisive end to the path of Oslo is perhaps more critical than ever. The agreement signed on the White House lawn and the famous handshake of Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat was falsely billed as a promise of peace and hope for Palestinians, denied both for decades upon decades, but was in reality a program for continued and intensified colonization and the suppression of the Palestinian liberation struggle. The entire project of Oslo was always intended to intensify the repression, division and fragmentation of the Palestinian people, while imposing a Palestinian “security” framework over the Palestinian people struggling for their rights, for return and liberation.

27 Years of Oslo Devastation

For 27 years, the devastation wrought by Oslo has included the dismemberment of the Palestinian national liberation movement, its unions and its institutions; the degradation of Palestinian refugees in the camps and in diaspora and exile and repeated attempts to confiscate their voice and decision; the creation of a Palestinian Authority subjected to U.S., European and Israeli demands while imprisoning and repressing the Palestinian resistance; massive expansion of colonial settlements and land theft throughout the occupied West Bank of Palestine; the subjugation of the Palestinian economy to the Israeli occupation. The number of illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian West Bank has quadrupled since the signing of the Oslo accords, while war after war have been waged against the undefeated and resisting Palestinian people in besieged Gaza. 

Thousands of Palestinian lives have been stolen on the path to Oslo, while the political frameworks of the Palestinian struggle have been distorted, hijacked and compromised. While Palestinians inside occupied Palestine ’48 continue to affirm their identity and existence and organize for liberation, the official Palestinian leadership of the P.A. instead “recognized” Israel, the creation of the Nakba and a Zionist settler colonial project on 78% of Palestine. 

Palestinian Refugees: Right of Return under Attack

Palestinian refugees in the camps and everywhere in exile in diaspora continue to hold their keys to return and their home villages in Palestine despite over 72 years of exile, while the PA-dominated official Palestinian leadership dismantled the unions and collective structures designed to represent the Palestinian refugees – as well as those representing women, workers, students, artists and many other sectors of Palestinian society. Palestinian refugees’ right of return was treated by the advocates of Oslo as a subject for “negotiation” rather than an unconditional right. 

Rather than providing a path to self-determination or sovereignty, Palestinians are left perhaps less sovereign than ever before, despite the existence of the Palestinian Authority. Indeed, the Authority perhaps best resembles the so-called “Palestinian entity” warned about on multiple occasions by the Palestinian revolutionaries that shaped the modern Palestinian liberation movement. 

In 1972, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine published the “Tasks of the New Stage,” addressing the potential threat of fake “Palestinian statehood:” 

“Connected intimately with all this is another political battle confronting the resistance movement, and which is a more serious problem now than it was before September, that is the “Palestinian State.”

The new situation and the weak state of the resistance have created conditions which are congenial to thoughts about a solution to the cause of the Palestinian people. Such a solution will erect a Palestinian political structure to put an end – historically speaking – to the whole Palestine problem and all that it created and continues to create in the way of difficulties for imperialism and its interests…. the American interest in this problem is the result…of fear that “extreme elements” may exploit the feelings of the Palestinian people with regard to the search for a homeland.

American policy acknowledged, then, the Palestinian people, not in order to solve their problem, but to abort their cause. It chose this time precisely not only because some of the traditional Palestinian leadership has begun to move openly towards suspect solutions… All these then constitute links in the chain of liquidating the Palestinian cause. This is to be carried out by creating a suspect entity to be dominated at the same time by Israel, reaction and imperialism. It is intended to form an instrument for enforcing foreign exploitative domination over the Arab area.”

Cutting off the Road to Freedom

The path to Oslo, a road pushed by the big Palestinian capitalists and their allies and agents in the Palestinian leadership, came to cut off the road of the Palestinian people’s struggle: the great Intifada, taking place inside occupied Palestine. Palestinians were organizing their communities, restructuring their economy and struggling for freedom. The Intifada was not restricted to the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza; indeed, the Intifada had even broken the siege on the camps in Lebanon. However, the large capitalists saw an opportunity to close the deal they had long sought with the United States and its client Zionist project in Palestine in an attempt to provide a space for banking, capital and mutual profit, confiscating the accomplishments of the people. 

Oslo in the International and Arab context

Of course, the international context cannot be left aside. 1993 and the years that preceded it, of the path of negotiations from Madrid, to Oslo, to Washington D.C., were also the years of the dismantlement and destruction of the Eastern bloc and the Soviet Union and triumphal proclamations of the “end of history” and eternal capitalist victory and U.S. hegemony over the world. 

In the Arab context, first the Iran-Iraq war and then the first Gulf War deepened and intensified imperialist attacks in the region and highlighted the role of reactionary Arab regimes operating in league with the United States to devastate Iran and then devastate and sanction Iraq. The sanctions project that continues to be used throughout the region – and the world – to clamp down on any meaningful resistance to imperialism was developed and sharpened in this period. While the Palestinian Intifada represented another path, the lopsided balance of international power pushed harder than ever for accommodation with and concessions to imperialism, Zionism and reaction. 

The creation of the Palestinian Authority represented not an accomplishment of the Palestinian national liberation struggle but instead, its betrayal, compromising the fundamental vision of Palestinian return and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea that had remained its guiding light from its inception. And, hand in hand with the Camp David regime in Egypt, the P.A. and the path of Oslo – from Madrid in 1991 and beyond – opened the doors wide open for normalization with the Israeli occupation, even as it continued and intensified its crimes.

In 1992, Israeli companies began operating in Cuba; Vietnam established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1993, not to mention the Jordanian regime’s Wadi Araba agreement of 1994. With the PLO’s “recognition of Israel” in hand, normalization with the settler colonial project not only appeared permissible but encouraged, despite its effects of further besieging the Palestinian people. 

Oslo: A failure for Palestinians, a success for Zionism and imperialism

27 years later, the failure of Oslo is widely recognized. While Oslo has been a failure for the Palestinian people, it has been in many ways a smashing success for the Israeli state, the Zionist movement and its U.S. imperialist sponsor, as well as their allies in the Arab reactionary regimes, in Europe and elsewhere. The so-called “deal of the century” is part and parcel of the path of Oslo, the constant squeezing and repression of the Palestinian people and confiscation of Palestinian rights with the narrowest of window dressing of officialdom to disguise it. 

The United Arab Emirates claimed to “benefit” Palestinians with their normalization agreement, despite the unified rejection of Palestinian people, the Palestinian resistance and even Palestinian officials. Bahrain, which previously hosted a widely rejected economic normalization conference, did not even bother to make such a claim. Of course, it must be noted that the ruling elites of these Gulf states do not represent their people, and that Bahrain in particular has a rich history of resistance, anti-imperialist struggle and struggle for Palestine – all of which have been brutally repressed by the very reactionary regime engaging in the normalization project.

Confronting normalization today

The road to confront normalization must begin with cutting off entirely the path of Oslo and the path of official Palestinian “recognition” of the settler-colonial Zionist project inside occupied Palestine, the Israeli state. In order to overcome “division” in the Palestinian movement and reassert the Palestinian project of self-determination, sovereignty, return and liberation from the river to the sea, the entire path of Oslo and all of the illusions that have accompanied it, of accommodation with imperialism and Zionism and enshrinement of capitalism, must be firmly and fundamentally rejected. 

Like the Palestinian people as a whole and especially Palestinian refugees, Palestinian prisoners have been betrayed and left behind by the path of Oslo. Once promoted as a road to the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, the Oslo accords instead enabled the use of Palestinian prisoners as bargaining chips in an attempt to extract even more concessions from Palestinian officials. 

Palestinian Prisoners: Betrayed by Oslo

Dozens of pre-Oslo Palestinian prisoners remain in Israeli jails, as occupation forces refused to recognize Palestinian prisoners from 1948 occupied Palestine and repeatedly rescinded agreements for their release. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority attempted to convert the prisoners’ struggle and the prisoners’ movement – a national leadership of the Palestinian people – into a file for a ministry, a social concern, and a matter for “final status negotiations” along with the fundamentals of the Palestinian people: the liberation of Jerusalem and refugees’ return to their homes and lands. 

Of course, this was not the only outcome of Oslo for the Palestinian prisoners. At the heart of these agreements, and uninterrupted despite declarations and promises, is the Palestinian Authority’s “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation. This “security coordination” has undermined the resilience and social solidarity of the Palestinian movement, chased after and repressed the Palestinian resistance and established a “revolving door” of imprisonment and political detention between P.A. and Israeli prisons. It has firmly established the P.A. as a security subcontractor of the Israeli occupation, trained by the United States with European and British support. 

The Case of Ahmad Sa’adat

Perhaps no case so notoriously represents the dangerous role of security coordination as that of Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Following the assassination of notoriously right-wing, racist Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi – a response to the assassination of PFLP General Secretary Abu Ali Mustafa by a U.S.-made, Israeli-fired helicopter missile – Sa’adat and his comrades were seized by Palestinian Authority forces in 2002 and held in Arafat’s Muqata’ (presidential palace), then under siege by Israeli forces. They were subjected to hasty military trials and imprisoned in the P.A.’s Jericho prison, held under U.S. and British guards (some of whom had also served as guards over Irish Republican prisoners in the north of Ireland).

Held as political prisoners in Jericho for four years, they were then held captive for the Israeli attack in 2006 that demolished much of the prison, seized Sa’adat and his comrades and killed two Palestinian guards; the U.S. and British guards had earlier moved aside to make way for the Israeli military. This attack came after elections for the Palestine Legislative Council, established as part of the P.A. under Oslo, found victories for candidates and blocs that supported the resistance and pledged to release political prisoners, a form of sovereignty and self-determination not permitted. Today, Sa’adat and his comrades remain in Israeli prisons, continuing their struggle for liberation. While the Palestinian people rejected collaboration, Oslo meant that collaboration became a guiding mandate of the very existence of the P.A.

Oslo and International Political and Economic Repression

The political repression of Palestinians outside Palestine is also intimately linked to Oslo; U.S. President Bill Clinton issued the executive order listing Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations that rejected Oslo as “terrorists” in January 1995, noting that they “threaten to disrupt the Middle East peace process.” This was shortly followed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which created the “material support” legislation used to persecute Palestinians in the U.S. This was only strengthened by the USA PATRIOT Act and post-September 11 repressive legislation and used in the persecution of Palestinian political prisoners like the Holy Land Foundation Five.

Those “terror lists,” designations and legislation have been marketed around the world after 2001 by the U.S. and adopted in various forms by Canada, the European Union, the U.K. and elsewhere. Of course, Palestinians were never free from persecution by imperialist powers, but the post-Oslo “anti-terror” legislation further institutionalized that persecution while specifically criminalizing and classifying as “terrorist” the rejection of the Oslo project.

In addition, the economic aspects of Oslo must also not be ignored; this agreement was accompanied by corollaries, such as the Paris Protocol, that bound the occupied Palestinian economy ever more tightly to Israeli colonization and control. Palestinians inside occupied Palestine have been forcibly tethered to the Israeli market, with heavy restrictions on independent economic development. At the same time, coercive and hegemonic aid projects were used to replace development, only to then come with ever-enlarging “conditions”, such as the EU’s latest “conditional funding” imposition on Palestinian NGOs, thereby controlling and subjugating Palestinian political expression and development. While the vast majority of Palestinians have suffered massively under Oslo, a thin layer of agents of the P.A. – and thus occupation and imperialism – have benefited as the “Oslo class or Oslo sector.”

End Oslo: Forward to Liberation! 

The Palestinian people continue to resist colonization, occupation and oppression in all forms, and continue to stand on the front lines against imperialism, despite the devastating effects and the heavy weight of the Oslo project. On the 27th anniversary of the Oslo project, it remains the overarching framework for imperialist and Zionist division and control of Palestine and reactionary Arab regimes’ roadway to normalization. In order to march forward to the freedom of Palestinian prisoners, the return of Palestinian refugees and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, the Oslo project must be decisively overthrown and rejected. 

This is a key task of the Palestinian liberation movement today, but the Palestinian people are not alone in this project. Everywhere around the world, it is critical to escalate the boycott campaign against Israeli products, cultural institutions, academic institutions and complicit corporations, and fight back against the recognition and normalization of a racist settler-colonial project in occupied Palestine. The boycott of Israel is antithetical to the Oslo process.

Further, this framework has been driven by imperialism. Resisting imperialism, including its sanctions on nations in the region that reject normalization, is essential to standing with Palestine and its people. 

The Palestinian prisoners, Palestinian refugees, the Palestinian popular classes – all are excluded in the framework of Oslo. On the contrary, these are the forces that have led and continue to lead the Palestinian liberation movement and that guide our organizing and struggle for the liberation of Palestine. We invite all to join us in the Days of Action for Palestinian Return and Refugee Rights on 18-26 September, and to struggle to confront normalization with activism and organizing for liberation. 

 

Palestinian academic Imad Barghouthi held in administrative detention: A letter from prison

Take Action | Read Prof. Barghouthi’s Letter | Resources

Scientists for Palestine released the latest letter from imprisoned Palestinian academic Imad Barghouthi, an astrophysicist at Al-Quds University, on 12 September 2020. Barghouthi, who has been targeted on multiple occasions by Israeli occupation forces, has been detained since July; he is held at the same Ofer prison where multiple cases of COVID-19 have been reported – alongside fellow detained Palestinian researcher Ubai Aboudi, director of the Bisan Center for Research and Development.

Prof. Barghouthi was seized from an Israeli military checkpoint in occupied Palestine on 16 July and held for two weeks before being charged as a Palestinian civilian in Israeli military courts for “incitement,” for posting on Facebook. As Scientists for Palestine noted, “after thousands of scholars worldwide demanded Prof. Barghouthi to be freed from prison, his lawyer successfully argued for his release on bail which was granted by the judge on his case on September 2nd.”

Instead of allowing Barghouthi to be released on bail, Israeli occupation forces imposed an unlawful administrative detention order against him until 15 November, forcing him to remain jailed – despite the fact that he is still facing dubious charges in the military courts. Israeli military courts convict over 99% of the Palestinians brought before them.

Administrative detention, initially introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Israeli state, is used to jail Palestinians without charge or trial. Detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable; Palestinians have been jailed for years at a time under these orders. In violation of international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention and Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, administrative detention orders are used routinely against Palestinians; Barghouthi is currently among approximately 400 Palestinians imprisoned under these arbitrary orders.

Speaking for Scientists for Palestine, Mario Martone, theoretical physicist, noted: “It is truly frightening that Israeli authorities can so arbitrarily harass a distinguished Palestinian colleague, using internationally recognized illegal practices. We need a strong response from the international scientific community!”

This is not the first time the scientist has been targeted. A former NASA employee who earned his Ph.D. at Utah State University, Barghouthi was previously held under administrative detention for two months in 2014 and was once again detained for six months in 2016. In both cases, his arrest sparked a strong response from the international scientific and academic community to demand his release.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Imad Barghouthi and all detained Palestinian scientists, academics, researchers and students. We urge supporters of justice in Palestine and the right to science everywhere to stand with Imad Barghouthi and join the call for his freedom.

Take Action:

1. Sign the petition organized by Scientists for Palestine to demand freedom for Prof. Imad Barghouthi, and share the petition on social media: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/demand-an-end-to-the-harassment-of-palestinian-scientists-and-academics-and-an-immediate-release-of-prof-imad-barghouthi/

2. Share this letter! You can share this post or the original Scientists for Palestine post here: http://www.scientists4palestine.com/on-my-administrative-detention-palestinian-astrophysicist-writes-from-jail/

2. Support the academic boycott of Israel! Palestinians are routinely denied academic freedom, and Palestinian scholars and hundreds of students are targeted for arrest and imprisonment. Israeli academic institutions are deeply complicit in the structures of colonialism that deny Palestinian rights at all levels, from engaging in military research and development to training government officials. Learn more about the academic boycott at USACBI, BACBI, AURDIP and more.

Read Prof. Imad Barghouthi’s Letter from Prison:

Ofer Israeli prison camp,
Saturday September 12th, 2020

On my current administrative detention

Dear colleagues,

I’m writing this letter as I await the Israeli military occupation court to review the Israeli military commander’s decision to put me under administrative detention for four months. This order overruled a court decision to release me on bail, while I await yet another trial for exercising my internationally protected right of expressing my opinion on my social media. And my next appearance before the military judge/court will be a closed session, showing that even Israeli authorities are ashamed of these proceedings.

For those of you who don’t know about administrative detention, it has been a central practice of the Israeli occupation since the early days of the British mandate, over seventy years ago; administrative detention allows for a military commander to order your arrest based on secret reports and without trial. The administrative detention can last up to six months, but can be renewed indefinitely.* This practice systematically abuses Palestinian human rights and is designed to subjugate the Palestinian people and deny their freedom.

In the israeli military courts it doesn’t matter that I’m a professor of space physics, (e.g. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Uevcf_gAAAAJ&hl=), nor it matters that I’m 50 years old, father of five and grandfather of one lovely boy, nor that no Israeli professor would ever be convicted for expressing her/his public opinion on facebook! The only thing that matters in front of their courts is that I’m a Palestinian and I’m thus labeled, dehumanized, and stripped of my basic human rights. And with no fear by the israeli military apparatus of real persecution for what they are doing to me.

Dear colleagues, I ask you to take a few minutes of your time to act in support of Palestinians and against the illegal procedure of administrative detention with a post demanding the abolition of this practice, or a discussion with your students and colleagues on the fact that in today’s 21st century world, Palestinians professors are being held without trial.

I know justice will never be served as long as Palestinians remain under occupation, but I take courage and inspiration from the words of Desmond Tutu, “in a situation of injustice, if you remain neutral then you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

With respect,
Prof. Imad Ahmad Barghouthi
Department of physics, AQU
Occupied Palestine
Currently in the Ofer Israeli prison camp.

* : there are cases of Palestinians who spent over 5 years in a continuous administrative detention and some who have experienced over 20 years of on and off of administrative detention in the israeli military occupation prisons.

Resources on Imad Barghouthi and international support (from 2014 and 2016 cases)

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