Initial election results show the landslide victory of MAS candidate Luis (Lucho) Arce, 18 October 2020
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network extends our deepest congratulations to the working class and the Indigenous people of Bolivia, on the front lines defending their people, all of Latin America and indeed all of humanity from the most vicious forces of imperialism and their collaborators, defeating the coup and refusing to give up their project of sovereignty, self-determination and socialist development.
The victory of President-Elect Luis (Lucho) Arce and the MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) in the Bolivian elections on 18 October 2020 is a victory for Palestine, a victory for Indigenous resistance to colonialism, and a victory for all who seek a better future free of the ravages of capitalism, exploitation, colonialism and imperialist domination. It is a smashing rebuke to all of those forces that were complicit in the violent, imperialist-backed, anti-Indigenous coup against legitimate Bolivian President Evo Morales in November 2019.
This momentous occasion makes clear that all of the money, power and weapons of U.S. imperialism and its puppets were unable to suppress the will of the people. On this occasion, we underline our support and solidarity with the resistance movements of indigenous peoples continuing to fight back against colonialism and put forward a clear vision for a just society and a just world, despite centuries of genocidal colonialism.
We pledge to stand by the Bolivian people, just as the Bolivian people have stood consistently with Palestine. We are confident that the people of Bolivia, alongside the Palestinian people and all of the struggling peoples of the world who continue to resist the attacks of imperialism, Zionism and reaction, will continue to march forward towards a just and liberated future.
From Bolivia to Palestine, long live indigenous resistance and the global struggle to defeat imperialism!
On Friday, 16 October, Joe Catron, US Coordinator of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, joins By Any Means Necessary, hosted by Sputnik Radio. Hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman discuss the ongoing hunger strike by Palestinian political prisoner Maher Al-Akhras, how a broad Israeli policy inherited from British colonization allows for the criminalization of virtually any act of resistance to the occupation, and the growing Palestinian and international movements standing in solidarity with Al-Akhras.
The Samidoun Network in occupied Palestine, along with fellow youth and student activists, called for a protest at Manara Square in Ramallah on Monday, 12 October to urge the immediate liberation of Maher al-Akhras, Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike for 79 days. Al-Akhras, a father of six, is jailed without charge or trial under Israeli “administrative detention.” He launched his hunger strike as soon as the arbitrary detention order was imposed upon him following his arrest by Israeli occupation military forces in July.
Demonstrators carried signs and chanted for the liberation of al-Akhras, currently held in the Israeli Kaplan medical center, where he continues to reject medical examinations or the use of supplements. His health is further endangered due to the presence of COVID-19 patients in nearby beds. Maher al-Akhras’ mother joined the demonstration to urge greater support for her son.
She was joined by Widad Barghouthi, Palestinian scholar and the mother of Palestinian prisoner Qassem Barghouthi, whose home was demolished by Israeli occupation forces in May of this year. Former prisoners, including long-term hunger striker Sheikh Khader Adnan and Rula Abu Duhou, also joined the demonstration.
Protesters highlighted the struggle to free all Palestinian prisoners, joining the call for an end to isolation for Palestinian leader Wael Jaghoub and urging the liberation of Georges Abdallah, who this month marks 36 years in French prisons.
Samidoun organizers pledged to continue organizing and mobilizing inside and outside Palestine to support al-Akhras’ strike for dignity and freedom, to free all Palestinian prisoners and to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea..
We Will Not Be Silenced: Against the Criminalization and Censorship Of Campus Political Speech
As you may know, on September 23rd, corporate tech giants Zoom, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube acted in lockstep with San Francisco State University (SFSU) to shut down an open classroom webinar entitled “Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice, & Resistance: A Conversation with Leila Khaled,” co-sponsored by the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program and the Department of Women and Gender Studies at San Francisco State University.
After intense, coordinated outside pressure from Zionist and right-wing factions, both the university and Zoom refused to allow the webinar to be aired. When organizers changed virtual venues and began live-streaming on YouTube, the same Zionists and right-wing agitators mobbed the comments section and used the reporting function to flag the video to YouTube, which shut it down twenty minutes into this open classroom event because it “violated” the company’s “Terms of Service.” At the same time, all previous references and invitations to the webinar were removed from hundreds of people’s Facebook pages and Instagram accounts.
Before, during, and since this massive, coordinated, electronic de-platforming by these tech giants, SFSU has refused to support the webinar’s organizers, Profs. Rabab Abdulhadi (AMED) and Tomomi Kinukawa (WGS), defend their academic freedom, or provide them with an alternative platform.
This is an astonishing and, hitherto, unprecedented act of Big Tech compliance with public-private silencing of speech: academic speech, Palestinian speech, and political and social justice speech. It recalls the egregious silencing, and firings, of tenured Palestinian-American Professors Steven Salaita and Sami Al-Arian, from their academic positions, acts of censorship and repression with profound material and political consequences. It is emblematic of the corporate takeover of our universities and the influence of Zionist and right-wing organizations and individuals, along with the power of information capital, to set the agenda for what can and cannot be said or taught in a public university.
We cannot allow this surveillance and censorship to go uncontested. We must protect academic freedom, defend Palestinians’ right to free speech, and forestall further corporate encroachment on our campuses.
We therefore call on anyone with access to a university Zoom account to hold a webinar of your own on October 23, 2020, a National Day of Action Against the Criminalization and Censorship of Campus Speech.
We think it is important that this day of action take place on Zoom itself, if possible with livestreaming on YouTube, along with announcements on Facebook and Instagram, so as to challenge these corporations and force our universities to stand in support of students and faculty, our right to academic freedom, and struggles for justice and liberation, from the US to Palestine.
You do not need to be an expert to put on this webinar. USACBI will provide you with all the resources you need to put together a thoughtful, informed, content-rich 1-hour webinar. There will be a menu of options in our sample curriculum to choose from. And you should create an event that is doable and tailored to needs of your particular campus, timeframe, and political situation and needs.
Palestinians in Gaza protest to demand Maher al-Akhras’ liberation
Maher al-Akhras, Palestinian prisoner jailed without charge or trial, is currently on his 77th day of hunger strike. He launched his strike to demand an end to his administrative detention by the Israeli occupation, declaring that “I either live freely with my children, or I am killed in the name of false justice.”
His health condition is particularly precarious after 77 days without food or other forms of nutrition. Al-Akras is married and the father of six children; his wife, Taghreed, launched her own hunger strike alongside her husband four days ago to demand his freedom.
Maher al-Akhras in Kaplan hospital on hunger strike. Photo credit: Oren Ziv/Activestills
He is held in the Kaplan medical center, where he suffers from severe weakness, emaciation, massive weight loss, difficulty moving and frequent loss of consciousness, and he is refusing medical examinations or supplements of any kind. He has emphasized that his message is “freedom or death.”
Taghreed al-Akhras raised serious concerns about her husband’s health in the Kaplan medical center, especially after he was transferred to another room following the discovery of a COVID-19 case in a patient in a neighboring room, with medical personnel commonly going back and forth between al-Akhras and the other patient.
Israeli occupation forces claimed to have “suspended” his administrative detention; however, this is not the same thing as cancelling his detention. Al-Akhras’ lawyer submitted a new appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court demanding his release; earlier, an appeals court used the “suspension” of his detention – even though he is not free – to deny review of the case.
If he ends his hunger strike and returns to health, his administrative detention could be re-imposed immediately. Al-Akhras has denounced this “suspension” as a mere trick, an attempt to disrupt and undermine support for his hunger strike for dignity. He is demanding his complete freedom from detention without charge or trial and launched his strike immediately after the administrative detention order was imposed upon him in July 2020.
There are currently approximately 350 Palestinians held in administrative detention, out of around 4,700 Palestinian political prisoners overall. Administrative detention was first introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist state, where it is routinely used to imprison Palestinian community leaders and organizers without charge or trial. Detention orders are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians have spent years at a time jailed under arbitrary administrative detention.
Israel’s routine and systematic use of administrative detention against Palestinian civilians constitutes a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Articles 9, 10 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Since 1967, at least 50,000 administrative detention orders have been issued by Israeli military officials and courts.
Palestinians in Rafah protest in support of Maher al-Akhras
Al-Akhras’ fellow Palestinian prisoners have launched collective calls for his release as well as the end of isolation for Palestinian prisoners Wael Jaghoub, Omar Kharwat and Hatem Qawasmeh. Prisoners in the Negev desert prison announced that they were renouncing their representation in the prison and any form of negotiations with the prison administration until Al-Akhras is freed from administrative detention and Jaghoub and Kharwat ar returned to the general prison population.
Palestinians in Gaza City and Rafah organized demonstrations to demand Akhras’ immediate release.
In Jenin, a group of former prisoners and activists announced a solidarity strike in the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross, including former long-term hunger striker Sheikh Khader Adnan:
On Monday, 12 October, Samidoun Network in Occupied Palestine will join with student organizers to protest at Manara Square in occupied Ramallah to support Maher al-Akhras and his fellow Palestinian prisoners struggling for liberation.
Protest in Ramallah on Monday, 12 October
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands with Maher al-Akhras, his family and loved ones and the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in demanding his immediate release and an end to Israeli administrative detention. Administrative detention and the political imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians are colonial weapons used against the Palestinian people that have affected nearly every Palestinian family.
At the same time, the U.S., Canada, Britain, the European Union and other imperialist powers – as well as the reactionary Arab regimes normalizing with Israel, such as the UAE and Bahrain – are deeply complicit in these crimes against the Palestinian people, including the ongoing detention of Maher al-Akhras. These powers’ military, diplomatic, political and economic support of the Israeli occupation regime, and their attacks on Palestinian rights inside and outside Palestine, continue to enable the ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Israeli Zionist regime against the Palestinian people.
We urge all supporters of Palestine to join the campaign to free Maher al-Akhras and all Palestinian prisoners, including boycotting and internationally isolating Israel and its complicit academic and cultural institutions and corporate profiteers reaping benefits from the occupation and colonization of Palestine.
Freedom for Maher al-Akhras and all Palestinian prisoners!
Throughout October, the campaign has organized a series of events and actions to build the movement to demand Abdallah’s release. On 9 October, the campaign organized its second rally in the district of Ménilmontant in Paris, carrying sign, banners and Palestinian flags. The demonstrators were warmly received by people in the neighborhood and distributed information about the campaign.
On 2 October, the campaign rallied again at the Place de Ménilmontant, distributing leaflets to people in the community, delivering speeches and chanting slogans for the liberation of Georges Abdallah and the liberation of Palestine.
Organizers also posted signs and materials at various university campuses, including the University of Nanterre Paris 10 and the University of Saint-Denis Paris 8.
These posters urged Abdallah’s liberation and encouraged students to join the Paris bus to the Lannemezan demonstration. Posters also expressed solidarity with Issam Hijjawi, the Palestinian community organizer jailed as a political prisoner alongside the Saoradh 9 by the British occupation in the north of Ireland, urging his immediate liberation.
Buses to the demonstration are being organized throughout France. The Paris bus will leave on Friday, 23 October at 9:30 pm and return on Sunday, 25 October in the morning. Tickets are 50 EUR, and a donation campaign is being organized to support greater participation on the bus from Paris.
Other buses are being organized throughout France, including:
Toulouse – Bus departs on Saturday, 24 October at 11:30 am at Basso Cambo metro. Tickets are free – register with the Collectif Palestine Vaincra at collectifpalestinevaincra@gmail.com.
Marseille – Bus departs at 5:45 am at Saint-Charles station (to be confirmed). Stops along the way in Martigues, Istres, Montpellier, with likely return around midnight. To register: Soraya 07 68 50 21 65 and Adil 06 13 20 51 51
Bordeaux – Bus meeting point at 8:30 am, place Ravezies, return around 10 pm. 10 EUR minimum for tickets. To register, email liberonsgeorges33@riseup.net.
Palestine fights back! Anti-Palestinian repression in the United States and Europe is escalating – but Palestinian resistance is growing and continuing, from Palestine to everywhere in exile and diaspora. Join Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network to discuss ongoing oppression – and Palestinian Resistance!
Saturday, 17 October – 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern/7 pm central Europe/8 pm Palestine
With speakers: Jaldia Abubakra
(Founder, Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization) Khaled Barakat
(Palestinian writer and activist) Nerdeen Kiswani
(Chair, Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine)
On Saturday, 10 October 2020, members and supporters of Collectif Palestine Vaincra organized a stand for Palestine near the exit of the Capitole metro station in Toulouse, France. Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member organization of the Samidoun Network, held the stand in support of the campaign to free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, as part of the international month of action for his liberation and in preparation for the national march in Lannemezan, where he is jailed, on 24 October.
A Lebanese Communist committed to the Palestinian resistance, he has been imprisoned in France for 36 years and eligible for release for the past 21 years. For over 2 hours, participants distributed hundreds of flyers and discussed widely with dozens of passers-by. Many people were already aware of the case of Georges Abdallah and were outraged by the political intransigence of the French government. Dozens of people took photos with the posters and signs at the stand to show their support for Georges Abdallah and for Palestine.
The information table also drew significant interest, despite the rainy weather. Many mini-guides for the boycott of Israel, as well as leaflets about the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, were distributed to people in support of Palestinian liberation. Two large banners explained the history of the colonization of Palestine and of Georges Abdallah’s struggle for freedom.
The event also promoted the preview screening of the documentary “Fedayin: The Struggle of Georges Abdallah,” in the presence of the director and film crew on Thursday, 22 October at 8:30 pm at the American Cosmograph cinema in Toulouse, as well as the 24 October demonstration in Lannemezan.
A bus will depart at 11:30 am from Basso Cambo metro in Toulouse; to register for a place on the bus, email collectifpalestinevaincra@gmail.com.
Collectif Palestine Vaincra has also been postering throughout Toulouse to highlight the case of Georges Abdallah, posting images and calls to join these actions in neighborhoods like Mazades, Lalande, Izards and Bonnefoy, joining the day market in Reynerie and Bagatelle, and distributing flyers outside Jean-Jaures metro.
As part of the campaign to free Georges Abdallah, Collectif Palestine Vaincra is organizing a Palestine stand on Saturday, 10 October from 11 am to 1 pm at the exit to Capitole metro in Toulouse. Join us to come and meet us, join the stand for some time or just talk. The stand will include solidarity photos, T-shirt sales, and materials on the situation in Palestine, the boycott of Israel, support for Palestinian prisoners and freedom for Georges Abdallah, and more.
This gathering has been registered with the prefecture and will respect the required health measures (masks, sanitizer, etc.)
Dans le cadre de la campagne pour la libération de Georges Abdallah, nous organisons un Stand Palestine le samedi 10 octobre de 11H à 13H à la sortie du métro Capitole à Toulouse. L’occasion de venir nous rencontrer, participer au stand un petit moment ou juste échanger avec nous.
Au programme : photos solidaires ; vente de T-shirts, drapeaux, tote-bags ; table de presse sur la situation en Palestine mais aussi le boycott d’Israël, le soutien aux prisonniers palestiniens et Georges Abdallah etc.
Ce rassemblement est déposé en préfecture et respectera les mesures sanitaires requises (masques, gel etc.).
Vacarme(s) Films announced the premiere of their new documentary film, Fedayin: le combat de Georges Abdallah (Fedayeen, the struggle of Georges Abdallah), forthcoming on 22 October in Toulouse.
The documentary traces the life of Georges Abdallah, Lebanese Arab Communist and struggler for Palestine and one of the longest-held political prisoners in Europe. It moves from the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon where his political consciousness was forged to the international movement to demand his liberation from French prisons.
Watch the new trailer here:
The film includes a number of interviews, including with Palestinian leftist writer and activist Khaled Barakat; Samidoun international coordinator Charlotte Kates; Samidoun Europe coordinator Mohammed Khatib; former political prisoners Jean-Marc Rouillan and Bertrand Sassoye; lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset; Georges Abdallah’s brothers Robert and Maurice Abdallah; and advocate for Georges Abdallah’s liberation Suzanne Le Manceau, among others.
The film is available with French, English, Arabic and Spanish subtitles. If you would like to organize a screening in your community, please email vacarmesfilms@gmail.com.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is an endorser of the following call, initiated by the 
