Janna Jihad calls to join action on 1 July to confront annexation

9 June 2020

At the Tala’at protest today in Ramallah, occupied Palestine, Janna Jihad, the Palestinian youth activist and journalist from the village of Nabi Saleh – urged people to participate in the actions on 1 July to confront Israeli annexation plans and ongoing colonization of Palestine.

Janna is known for chronicling the struggle of her village against Israel’s occupation and confiscation of Palestinian land and resources, reaching a global audience through social media. A cousin of Ahed Tamimi, Janna began reporting on the occupation when she was seven years old after two of her family members were murdered by Israel. She is one of the youngest recognized journalists in the world.

Watch Janna’s video:

She says: “Greetings, We are now with Tala’at march in Ramallah, because we want to oppose the actions committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people.

I would like to invite you to the march on 1 July organized by the Samidoun Network, to express our rejection to annexation plans against the Palestinian land of the Jordan Valley.”

Confronting Israel’s annexation plans – fully backed by U.S. imperialism and inspired by Zionist racism – also comes as part of the global fightback against racism, colonialism and imperialism. Israel’s crimes are backed by $3.8 million in military aid from the U.S. each year as well as unlimited diplomatic, political and “security” support from Canada, the European Union, Britain, Australia and other imperialist powers.

Join us on 1 July to stand with the Palestinian people against Israeli annexation and for justice, return and liberation in Palestine. If you are organizing an event, a contingent or an action of any kind, please let us know – email us at samidoun@samidoun.net or message us on Facebook to ensure we publicize it!

Read the call to action from Palestine here: https://samidoun.net/2020/06/1-july-call-to-action-to-confront-israeli-annexation-struggle-for-a-free-palestine/

Marches throughout Palestine demand justice for the martyrs, end to colonization

9 June 2020

*Tala’at demonstration today in Ramallah, Palestine*

On Tuesday, 9 June, Palestinian activists in cities throughout Palestine took to the streets as part of the call from Tala’at, the Palestinian women’s movement. Demonstrations took place in Rafah, Haifa, Yafa, Nazareth, Jerusalem and Ramallah to demand justice for the Palestinian martyrs whose lives were taken by Israeli occupation forces and stand against colonization, occupation and annexation. Many participants in the demonstrations also carried posters of George Floyd, the Black martyr killed by U.S. police and signs and slogans affirming that Black Lives Matter.

The call for the 9 June protest highlighted a number of Palestinian martyrs, including Iyad al-Hallaq, Fadi Samara, Mustafa Younes, Bahaa al-Awawda, Salama Abu Kaf, Rami Ghalban and Zaid Qaisiya. Protesters in Jerusalem and Yafa faced attacks by Israeli occupation police forces. In Jerusalem, three young women were seized from the demonstration by occupation forces; their release was secured hours later. In Yafa, a protest denouncing the destruction of the Muslim Tasso cemetery to build a real estate development< was brutally attacked by Israeli occupation police, who stormed the demonstration, firing tear gas and sound grenades at the protest, which had also joined with the Tala’at protest held simultaneously.

In Nazareth, Palestinian poet and former political prisoner Dareen Tatour was among those who joined the demonstrations. In every city, participants highlighted the prisoners’ struggle for freedom as essential to the liberation of Palestine.

Samidoun organizers in occupied Palestine spread the call for the Tala’at demonstrations and participated in them, highlighting the struggle of the prisoners and distributing hundreds of cards and leaflets urging people to participate on the demonstration being organized in Ramallah on 1 July to confront Israeli threats of annexation and liquidation and to uphold Palestinian rights. Demonstrations are being organized inside and outside Palestine on the same date to join the call to confront annexation plans and affirm Palestinians’ rights to return, self-determination and national liberation.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes these important demonstrations that took place throughout Palestine, affirming the unity of the Palestinian cause from the river to the sea in occupied Palestine and the leadership of Palestinian women in organizing and mobilizing their communities to confront the crimes of the occupation. We urge all around the world to join us in 1 July in organizing and mobilizing to confront racism, colonialism and imperialism, demand the defeat of the Israeli annexation threats, and uphold Palestinian rights.

Photos and videos from the demonstrations:

Haifa demonstration:

Photos:

*Demonstrators in Rafah, Gaza, Palestine*

*Demonstrators attacked by Israeli occupation police in Jerusalem, Palestine*

*The detained demonstrators later secured their freedom*

*Demonstrators attacked by Israeli occupation police in Jerusalem*

Khatib: Jordanian regime must stop attempts to criminalize the resistance

8 June 2020

*Historical Palestinian poster, via Palestine Poster Project*

Read the original statement in Arabic.

After a Jordanian State Security Court criminally convicted five young men, accusing them of attempting to carry out a Palestinian resistance action against Zionist forces in occupied Jerusalem and sentencing them to five years in prison, Mohammed Khatib, Europe coordinator of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, harshly condemned the trial and the system responsible for it. He said that this conviction is a “stab in the side of the Palestinian and Jordanian people who have fallen in the struggle to defend Palestine.”

The five were accused of a felony “threat of violence” and brought before military judges, with charges pursued against them by the State Security Prosecutor. State security courts and “terrorism” charges have been used on multiple occasions to criminalize Jordanians and Palestinians for alleged involvement with the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance. Such “anti-terror” policies have nothing to do with protecting the interests or security of Jordanians or Palestinians, but only serve the interests of U.S. imperialism – a powerful backer of the Jordanian regime – and its strategic partner, the Israeli occupation.

In his statement, Khatib emphasized that this step clarifies the “functional role of this reactionary regime in protecting the occupation, its ‘borders’ and its interests from the struggle for the liberation of Palestine. There is no hope for this reactionary system except to dismantle it.” He noted the role of the Jordanian regime and its security apparatus in thwarting any joint Jordanian-Palestinian action to confront the occupation, inside and outside Jordan, which shares the longest border with occupied Palestine.

“The Jordanian people are bound together with the Palestinian people through history, land and blood. The struggle for the liberation of Palestine deserves a principled Jordanian national position that stands with the Arab people to confront Zionism, the Israeli state and U.S. imperialism,” Khatib affirmed.

He also denounced the projects of security collaboration between the Israeli occupation, the Jordanian regime and the Palestinian Authority, noting that these take place with the blessing of the king and of PA officialdom, under the auspices of the owners of banks and the big bourgeoisie on both sides of the Jordan river. “This dangerous project that threatens the future of both Palestine and Jordan must be defeated,” Khatib affirmed.

Khatib urged Jordanian organizers and youth activists to take a stand and reject all attempts to criminalize the resistance in various forms, urging that the Jordanian regime “should not be allowed to continue targeting the resistance without real mass popular pressure to bring an end to the Wadi’ Araba agreement and all associated deaals based on trading the rights of the Palestinian and the Jordanian people to colonization, Zionism and imperialism.”

1 July: Call to action to confront Israeli annexation, struggle for a free Palestine

8 June 2020

Samidoun Network in occupied Palestine and in the diaspora has issued the following call, originally in Arabic. As an international network, we fully join in this call and urge all supporters and friends of Palestine to take action on 1 July in support of the mobilization taking place in Ramallah, occupied Palestine, to confront Israel’s declared plans for the annexation of much of the occupied West Bank of Palestine.

We know that many Palestinians in exile and supporters of Palestine are, like Samidoun’s members, engaged in the uprisings and mass mobilizations taking to the streets to confront anti-Black racism and demand the defunding and dismantling of police and other structures of oppression. Confronting Israel’s annexation plans – fully backed by U.S. imperialism and inspired by Zionist racism – also comes as part of the global fightback against racism, colonialism and imperialism. Israel’s crimes are backed by $3.8 billion in military aid from the U.S. each year as well as unlimited diplomatic, political and “security” support from Canada, the European Union, Britain, Australia and other imperialist powers.

Join us on 1 July to stand with the Palestinian people against Israeli annexation and for justice, return and liberation in Palestine. If you are organizing an event, a contingent or an action of any kind, please let us know – email us at samidoun@samidoun.net or message us on Facebook to ensure we publicize it!

Read the full statement and call to action below:

A call to the struggling Palestinian people throughout occupied Palestine and to the masses of our people struggling in exile and diaspora…

A call to Palestinians, Arabs and the people of the world….

Israel, the Zionist project fully supported by the United States of America and the reactionary forces in the region, is continuing upon the path of attempting to liquidate the Palestinian cause and Palestinian rights. It aims to impose its racist colonial regime through armed force, through repressive systems, prisons and detention center, and by spreading systematic destruction targeting the Palestinian people. Israel not only denies the national rights of the Palestinian people but also violates the most basic and natural rights of people and the land.

Our struggling Palestinian people, along with the Arab nation, the peoples of the region, and the progressive forces and liberation movements around the world, are aware of the true face of the racist, Zionist colonial entity and its expansionist nature and aims, now more than ever. They also see with full clarity how the occupation continues to implement its ongoing crimes and daily attacks against the Palestinian people. These crimes and violations do not subside for one hour, from killing, siege, mass arrests, home demolitions and the confiscation of Palestinian land through annexation and displacement projects. These daily crimes committed by the occupation forces take place in full sight and sound of the world, with no accountability, meaningful response or even a minimal international legal response.

The policies of the Zionist state and of the Trump administration standing together with Netanyahu and Gantz are the natural continuation of the ongoing history of each successive Israeli government and leadership from before the establishment of the Zionist state on our Palestinian homeland in 1948 until the present day. This right-wing alliance and the deeply, fundamentally racist structures propping it up are convinced that it may impose its will by force upon the Palestinian people because of the state of disintegration, weakness and disorganization on the Palestinian and Arab internal fronts. They target the homes and the very existence of the Palestinian people with impunity, from demolishing our homes in the Negev, Qalansuwa, Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank, to continuing the devastating siege upon our people in the struggling Gaza Strip, to denying our right to return and self-determination throughout the entire land of Palestine.

Today, the Zionist right-wing alliance prepares to plunder all of the Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, creating a system of ghettos, cantons, strangulation and impoverishment, what it calls “facts on the ground” that target, first and foremost, the rights and interests of the Palestinian popular classes throughout all of occupied Palestine.

On the other hand, these Israeli policies are also acting to accelerate the resounding fall of all of the projects of surrender and illusion, the path of negotiations that began with the 1991 Madrid conference and the disastrous and devastating Oslo accords that destroyed the Palestinian people’s institutions and organizations. This current dragged the Palestinian national movement into a state of defeat, internal conflict and disintegration, confiscating the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization and emptying it of its popular and democratic role.

Today, the peoples of the world, and friendly and hostile forces alike, look toward the Palestinian response, not only to this latest Zionist crime but to this entire stage of destruction. Their eyes point to the critical importance of a popular Palestinian and Arab response to the annexation project and the imposition of the so-called “Israeli laws and sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.”

Accordingly, we call upon all national and Islamic forces, popular organizations inside Palestine and in exile and diaspora, as well as our labor unions, women’s organizations and student movement to participate widely and lead the popular march that will begin on 1 July 2020 in the city of Ramallah, as we march on the path of a unified Palestinian people and a unified Palestinian struggle, standing for the rights and dignity of our people – always and only, the rights and dignity of the Palestinian people.

We call upon the Palestinian people throughout occupied Palestine, everywhere in exile and diaspora, and all those who stand for justice in Palestine – all of the national forces, youth groups, civil society institutions and popular movements – to organize direct actions and popular mobilizations in the refugee camps, cities and villages and to formulate plans for joint action and mass organization. Together, we can mobilize the power and potential of the Palestinian people, the Arab people and the international movement for justice to confront the schemes of the occupier and its collaborators. The time has come to take a qualitative step to protect the Palestinian people and rebuild the foundations of the national liberation movement.

Our Palestinian people everywhere and the national liberation movement march on the path to liberation and return.

With loyalty to the martyrs and the struggling prisoners’ movement, the leadership of the Palestinian struggle.

Down with the occupation! The annexation, colonization and settlement projects will be defeated. Victory is with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause!

6 June 2020

15 June to 22 June 2020: International week of action to demand the release of Georges Abdallah, Ahmad Sa’adat and all revolutionary prisoners

8 June 2020

See this call in: Arabic | French | Spanish | Turkish | Swedish

June 19 is the International Day of Revolutionary Prisoners. This date is an important milestone in the struggle that is taken up each year by the unitary campaign to demand the release of Georges Abdallah, an Arab communist fighter for the national liberation struggle in Palestine, who has been imprisoned in the jails of the French state for 36 years, although he has been eligible for release since 1999.

Georges Abdallah is a revolutionary prisoner who has no regrets or remorse for the struggle he has always led alongside the Palestinian resistance, against imperialism, capitalism, Zionism, colonialism and the Arab reactionary states and all forms of oppression. This struggle, which he continues today, on a daily basis, for justice, freedom and the emancipation of oppressed peoples, is fully inscribed in the breeding ground of current struggles. It is that of the just and legitimate revolts of those who oppose the capitalist offensive and its wars of plunder. It is that of all those who face the repressive violence of the state, who descend upon them in an attempt to gag them. It is that of all those who reject all reformism and compromise with this system and fully engage in this class struggle against class alongside the masses and popular quarters. This struggle of a lifetime is ours!

In recent months, many voices and forces, despite the particular context of the pandemic and the imposed confinement, have once again responded to our comrade’s call for “a thousand solidarity initiatives to flourish”. Many are now the voices and forces that are determined to make the representatives of French imperialism understand that “his imprisonment is really beginning to outweigh the possible threats inherent in his release”. Many people are now mobilizing locally, nationally and internationally to secure his release by establishing a real balance of power through militant actions everywhere and on all fronts.

It is in this sense that we call on all those who, like us, recognize themselves in Georges Abdallah’s struggle and affirm its topicality and urgency, to act, in the diversity of our expressions, during the international week of actions that will take place from June 15 to June 22, 2020, to demand the release of Georges Abdallah.

This week of actions will also be an opportunity to mobilize for the release of Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front, fighter for the liberation of Palestine, leader of the Palestinian national liberation movement and symbol of the international revolutionary movement, arrested for 18 years by the Palestinian Authority in the framework of the “security cooperation” with the Zionist occupier and imprisoned since 2006 in the jails of the Zionist entity.

His struggle and that of all the Palestinian prisoners is also that of Georges Abdallah – the struggle of an unwavering commitment to the just cause of the oppressed peoples of Palestine, Lebanon, and the whole world. This struggle alongside the peoples in struggle is also that of all the revolutionary prisoners of the world: that of all those women and men from India, Peru, the Philippines, Turkey, Italy, Spain, the Basque Country and elsewhere – true spearheads of the struggle and advanced trenches of the revolutionary struggle, who fought for the advent of a better world – who are now detained and whom we must also honour and defend especially on this 19 June 2020 but also during this international week of action.

It is together and only together in the diversity of our expressions that we will win! Immediate freedom for Georges Abdallah!

Immediate freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat Freedom for all revolutionary prisoners!

Paris, 02 June 2020 Campagne.unitaire.gabdallah@gmail.com

Campagne unitaire pour la libération de Georges Abdallah – Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Network – Campagne internationale pour la libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – Campagne internationale pour la libération d’Ahmad Sa’adat – Collectif pour la libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – Le Collectif Rouge Internationaliste pour la défense des prisonniers révolutionnaires – Comité d’action et de soutien aux luttes du peuple Marocain

15 Haziran 2020-22 Haziran 2020 : Corç Abdallah, Ahmet Saadet ve tüm devrimci tutsakların özgürlüğü talebiyle eylem haftası

8 June 2020

19 Haziran, uluslararası devrimci tutsaklarla dayanışma günüdür. Bu tarih, aynı zamanda, Filistin’in ulusal kurtuluşu için savaşan ve 1999’dan beri serbest bırakılabilir durumda olmasına rağmen 36 yıldır Fransız devletinin zindanlarında olan Arap komünisti Corç Abdallah’ın özgürlüğü için verilen mücadelede de önemli bir parça.

Corç Abdallah, Filistin direnişi saflarında, emperyalizme, kapitalizme, Siyonizm’e, sömürgeciliğe, gerici Arap devletlerine ve her türden ezilme ilişkisine karşı yürüttüğü kavgaya dair hiçbir pişmanlığı olmayan bir devrimci tutsaktır. Bugün de gündelik olarak, adalet, hürriyet ve ezilen halkların kurtuluşu için yürüttüğü mücadele, güncel mücadelelerle tam bir uyum içindedir. Bu kavga, kapitalist taarruza ve kapitalistlerin yağma savaşlarına karşı çıkanların yürüttüğü haklı ve meşru kavgadır. Bu kavga, devlet şiddetiyle karşı karşıya olanların kavgasıdır. Bu kavga, reformizmi ve bu sisteme karşı her türlü tavizi reddedenlerin, kitlelerin ve yoksul mahallelerin yanında sınıf mücadelesine katılanların kavgasıdır. Tüm bir ömre yayılan bu kavga, bizim de kavgamızdır!

Son aylarda, pandemi ve eve kapanma şartlarından doğan özel duruma rağmen, yoldaşımızın «bin inisiyatif çiçek açsın» çağrısına çok sayıda kişi ve güç ses verdi. Fransız emperyalizminin temsilcileri, «yoldaşımızın tutsak kalmasının kendileri için sonuçlarının, özgür bırakılması ile kendileri için doğacak sakıncalardan dahi daha ağır olacağını» anlasın diye kararlı bir mücadele yürütenler çok sayıdadır. Her yerde ve her cephede, militan eylemler yoluyla ve güç dengesini bizim lehimizde değiştirerek yoldaşımızın özgürlüğünü kazanmak için yerel, ulusal ve uluslararası ölçekte mücadele edenler çok sayıdadır.

Bu bağlamda, bizler gibi, kendini Corç Abdallah’ın mücadelesinde ve bu mücadelenin güncelliğini ve aciliyetini kavrayan herkesi, kendilerini ifade etmeyi tercih ettikleri biçimde, 15-22 Haziran 2020 tarihleri arasında, Corç Abdallah’ın serbest bırakılması için uluslararası eylem haftası süresince eyleme geçmeye çağırıyoruz.

Bu hafta aynı zamanda, Filistin Halk Kurtuluş Cephesi Genel Sekreteri Ahmet Saadet’in serbest bırakılması için de harekete geçme vesilesi olacak. Filistin’in kurtuluşu için savaşan, Filistin ulusal kurtuluş hareketinin lideri ve aynı zamanda uluslararası devrimci hareketin de sembolü olan Ahmet Saadet, 18 yıl önce Filistin yönetimince tutuklandıktan sonra, Siyonist işgalci ile «güvenlik meselelerinde iş birliği» kapsamında, 2006 yılında beri Siyonistlerin zindanlarında tutuluyor.

Ahmet Saadet’in mücadelesi, tüm Filistinli tutsakların ve aynı zamanda Corç Abdallah’ın mücadelesidir. Corç Abdallah’ın yürüttüğü mücadele, Filistin’in, Lübnan’ın ve tüm dünyanın ezilen halklarının haklı davasına olan bitmek bilmez bir bağlılığı göstermektedir. Bu kavga, mücadele eden halkların ve tüm dünyadaki devrimci tutsakların kavgasıdır. Hindistan, Peru, Filipinler, Türkiye, İtalya, İspanya, Hollanda ve her yerde, bu tutsakların devrimci mücadelenin en ileri kesimidir ve daha iyi bir dünya mücadelesi vermektedir. Bu tutsakları özellikle 19 Haziran 2020’de ama aynı zamanda tüm eylem haftası boyunca onurlandırmamız ve savunmamız gerekmektedir.

Farklılıklarımıza rağmen birlikte mücadele ederek kazanacağız!

Corç Abdallah’a özgürlük!

Ahmet Saadet’e özgürlük!

Tüm devrimci tutsaklara özgürlük!

Paris, le 02 juin 2020 Campagne.unitaire.gabdallah@gmail.com

Campagne unitaire pour la libération de Georges Abdallah – Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Network – Campagne internationale pour la libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – Campagne internationale pour la libération d’Ahmad Sa’adat – Collectif pour la libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – Le Collectif Rouge Internationaliste pour la défense des prisonniers révolutionnaires – Comité d’action et de soutien aux luttes du peuple Marocain

15 de junio de 2020 al 22 de junio de 2020: Semana internacional de acciones para exigir la liberación de Georges Abdallah, de Ahmad Sa’adat y de todos los prisioneros revolucionarios

8 June 2020

El 19 de junio es el día internacional de los prisioneros revolucionarios. Esta fecha es un hito importante en la lucha por la campaña unitaria para exigir la liberación de Georges Abdallah, luchador comunista árabe por la lucha de liberación nacional de Palestina, prisionero en las cárceles del estado francés por más de 36 años a pesar que el es liberable desde 1999.

Georges Abdallah es un prisionero revolucionario sin remordimiento ni arrepentimiento de la lucha que siempre libró junto con la resistencia palestina, contra el imperialismo, el capitalismo, el sionismo, el colonialismo y los Estados árabes reaccionarios y todas formas de opresión. Esta lucha, que él la libra a diario, por la justicia, la libertad y la emancipación de los pueblos oprimidos, forma parte del terreno de las luchas actuales. Es la de las revueltas justas y legítimas de quienes se oponen a la ofensiva capitalista y sus guerras de saqueo. Es el de todos los que se enfrentan a la violencia represiva del estado, que se abate sobre ellos para intentar amordazarlos. Es la de todos aquellos que rechazan cualquier reformismo y compromiso con este sistema y se comprometen plenamente en esta lucha de clase contra la clase al lado de las masas y los barrios populares. ¡Esta lucha de toda la vida, es nuestra!

En los últimos meses, ha habido muchas voces y fuerzas que, a pesar del contexto particular de la pandemia y el encierro impuesto, han respondido una vez más al llamado de nuestro compañero para que “mil iniciativas de solidaridad florescan “. Muchas voces y fuerzas están ahora decididas a hacer que los representantes del imperialismo francés entiendan que “su encarcelamiento está comenzando a pesar más que las posibles amenazas inherentes a su liberación”. Muchos ahora se están movilizando, local, nacional e internacionalmente, a fin de arrancar su liberación estableciendo con sus acciones militantes en todas partes y en todos los frentes, una real confrontación des fuerzas contra el poder.

Es en este sentido que llamamos a todos aquellos que, como nosotros, se reconocen en la lucha de Georges Abdallah y afirman su actualidad y su urgencia, para actuar, en la diversidad de nuestras expresiones, durante la semana internacional de acciones que se extenderá del 15 al 22 de junio de 2020 para exigir la liberación de Georges Abdallah.

Esta semana de acción también será una oportunidad para movilizarse para la liberación de Ahmad Sa’adat, secretario general del Frente Popular, luchador por la liberación de Palestina, líder del movimiento de liberación nacional palestino y también un símbolo de movimiento revolucionario internacional, arrestado durante 18 años por la Autoridad Palestina en el marco de la “cooperación de seguridad” con el ocupante sionista y encarcelado desde 2006 en las cárceles de la entidad sionista.

Su lucha y la de todos los prisioneros palestinos es también la de Georges Abdallah: la lucha de un apego inquebrantable a la causa justa de los pueblos oprimidos de Palestina, Líbano y en todo el mundo. Esta lucha junto a los pueblos en lucha es también la de todos los prisioneros revolucionarios del mundo: la de todas esas mujeres y esos hombres de India, Perú, Filipinas, Turquía, Italia, España, el país Euskera y otros lugares. Puntas de lanza reales de la lucha y trincheras avanzadas del combate revolucionario, que lucharon por el advenimiento de un mundo mejor, hoy detenidos y a quienes también debemos honrar y defender particularmente el 19 de junio de 2020, pero también a lo largo de esta semana internacional de acciones.

¡Es unidos y solos unidos, en la diversidad de nuestras expresiones, que venceremos!

¡Libertad inmediata para Georges Abdallah! Libertad inmediata para Ahmad Sa’adat

¡Libertad para todos los prisioneros revolucionarios!

París, 02 de junio de 2020, Campagne.unitaire.gabdallah@gmail.com

Campagne unitaire pour la libération de Georges Abdallah – Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Network – Campagne internationale pour la libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – Campagne internationale pour la libération d’Ahmad Sa’adat – Collectif pour la libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – Le Collectif Rouge Internationaliste pour la défense des prisonniers révolutionnaires – Comité d’action et de soutien aux luttes du peuple Marocain

Samidoun: Israeli arrest campaign will not stop Palestinian student movement confronting annexation

8 June 2020

Please click here to read the statement in Arabic.

Israeli occupation forces abducted Palestinian student Layan Kayed, 22, as she traveled to Ramallah with her mother on Monday, 8 June 2020. They seized the Bir Zeit University student at the Zaatara roadblock in the central occupied West Bank.

As Samidoun Palestine noted,

“The goal of the extensive campaign of arrests by the Israeli occupation forces, especially in the occupied West Bank of Palestine and Jerusalem, is primarily targeting the activists and leaders among the Palestinian student movement and the Palestinian youth. The latest of these is the abduction of Bir Zeit University student Layan Kayed. The goal is to keep the Palestinian national liberation movement on the defensive and in order to push through the Zionist annexation project in the West Bank by creating an atmosphere of intimidation and repression.

Samidoun affirms that the escalation of the arrest campaign conducted by the occupation forces, including the widespread invasions last night in which around 30 young people in occupied Jerusalem were targeted, is a futile policy that will not break the will of the struggling Palestinian people and will not deter or stop the student movement.

Samidoun renews its call for united action and national steadfastness to confront the occupation’s attacks, emphasizing the need for broad popular participation in the national march on 1 July 2020 to reject the schemes of the Israeli occupation and confront its racist colonialist attacks.”

There are hundreds of Palestinian university students held in Israeli jails, including approximately 80 from Bir Zeit University, while over the years, thousands of Palestinian university students have been targeted for arrest and persecution. Palestinian universities have been frequently raided by Israeli occupation forces; student organizations’ offices have been ransacked, their belongings confiscated and destroyed.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network once again urges broad global solidarity with Layan Kayed and all Palestinian students facing repression, arrest and imprisonment at the hands of an Israeli occupation regime that wants to clear the road for its ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people through wide-scale abductions targeting the Palestinian student movement, youth organizers and leaders.

We urge students and faculty around the world to join campaigns for the academic boycott of Israel and Israeli institutions and to organize in support of targeted Palestinian students. Despite these attacks, Palestinian students continue to organize, struggle and learn despite severe and systematic repression, and the Palestinian student movement continues to confront Israeli colonial schemes. We demand the immediate release of Layan Kayed and all imprisoned Palestinian students!

Take action: Clemency campaign for Jalil Muntaqim – Freedom now!

7 June 2020

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in full support of all efforts to free Black Liberation political prisoners from U.S. jails, including Jalil Muntaqim, currently suffering from COVID-19 due to his continuing imprisonment. Despite his vulnerability, New York State officials worked to block his release on medical grounds and keep him in prison despite an order for his release – and he contracted COVID-19 as a result.

We are sharing the campaign below for a commutation of Jalil Muntaqim’s sentence, issued by The Jericho Movement, and urge all supporters of justice in Palestine and around the world to join in these efforts to free imprisoned Black freedom fighters in the U.S.

Jalil Muntaqim Back in Sullivan Infirmary
Recuperating from Covid-19

For months, public health experts, faith leaders, Congress members, and hundreds of others have warned NYS officials that the prisons are potential death traps in the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognizing this, a New York State judge on April 27th ordered Jalil’s temporary release from Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, NY, based on his extreme vulnerability to the virus. Jalil is 68 years old and suffers from serious chronic health conditions that can make COVID-19 deadly.

However, NYS Attorney General Letitia James, acting on behalf of NYS DOCCS Commissioner Anthony Annucci, appealed the ruling, blocking Jalil’s release and forcing him to remain in prison. Just as we feared, Jalil, who was ordered released a month ago, eventually contracted COVID-19. Jalil became ill on May 22nd and was taken to Albany Medical Center on May 25th.

On May 28th, while Jalil was hospitalized, the Appellate Division, Third Dept. heard oral arguments from Jalil’s attorney Nora Carroll and DOCCS attorney Frank Brady. Watch the stream of the hearing from the Court’s website. Jericho encourages everyone to watch this hearing. Jalil’s attorney Nora Carroll was excellent!

Thanks to Jalil’s supporters, various articles about this case were written:

https://sfbayview.com/2020/05/jalil-muntaqim-tests-positive-for-covid-19-and-is-hospitalized-in-new-york/

https://www.essence.com/feature/jalil-muntaquim-black-panther-covid-19-letitia-james/

http://www.franknews.us/debates/402/402

http://www.franknews.us/interviews/403/addicted-to-punishing-people-of-color

https://theintercept.com/2020/05/27/coronavirus-elderly-prisoner-jalil-muntaqim/

https://www.colorlines.com/articles/hospitalized-covid-19-advocates-fight-jalil-muntaqims-release-prison

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/05/9841953/jalil-muntaqim-prison-release-appeal-covid-19

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/01/jalil-muntaqim-former-black-panther-covid-19-prison#maincontent

On June 4, 2020, the Appellate Division, Third Department issued a decision regarding Jalil’s habeas petition, originally granted by Judge Stephan Schick of the Sullivan County Supreme Court. The lower court’s decision was reversed and the petition dismissed. We are free, as the decision acknowledges, to file a new writ, but this sets a terrible precedent statewide and also ends this lawsuit.

That same evening, NYC Jericho received a call from our beloved brother Jalil. He is back at Sullivan C.F. in isolation in the infirmary. Jalil is still weakened by the virus and is slowly recovering. He reports that one of his lungs, his kidneys and his liver were affected by the virus, according to medical exams.

Jalil informed us that his request for medical parole was denied. He received notification of this on May 30th. He requests that we continue our campaign to Governor Cuomo for commutation of his sentence to time served.

Commutation Campaign to Governor Cuomo for Jalil Muntaqim

After the last parole hearing and denial, pursuant to NYS Constitutional Article IV, Section 4, Jalil filed an Application to Commute the Sentence to Time Served with NYS Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. Governor Cuomo has the authority to grant the Application and order Jalil’s immediate release from NYS DOCCS custody.

Since the Application’s submission it has been revealed that the NYS Board of Parole had a “secret deal” with the NYC Police Benevolent Association (PBA), permitting them to submit opposition letters directly to the Board of Parole from their website. These opposition letters negatively influenced the decision-making process, ensuring Jalil would not receive a fair and impartial parole hearing. During Jalil’s 2014 parole hearing, he was told that “current and former members of law enforcement” were parole commissioners, many of whom decided to deny his release.

On December 4th & 5th, 2016, The New York Times published an extensive exposé entitled “The Scourge of Racial Bias in New York State’s Prisons” that informed: “The racism can be felt from the moment a black inmate enters New York’s upstate prisons.” This implacable racism has been institutionalized in the entire parole system, permitting subjective biases of parole commissioners to influence parole decisions.

Since the submission of the Application to Commute the Sentence to Time Served, Governor Cuomo has received many letters and communications urging him to grant Jalil’s Application. However, the governor has refused to do so, despite the heightened danger to all prisoners during the current pandemic.

Jalil exceeds all requirements for release. His release on parole has been supported by activists, academics and community leaders from across the country and around the world, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the family of one of the victims. The political nature of his conviction has prevented parole commissioners from giving fair and impartial consideration to his release, despite the overwhelming community support.

During the 48+ years of his imprisonment, Jalil has accomplished the following: Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, Certificate of Architectural Drafting, Certificate of Computer Literacy.

He has established many programs, such as the first Men’s Group for therapeutic training in the NY State prison system, an African/Black Studies program, a computer literacy class, a Sociology class and a poetry class. He has received two commendations for preventing prison riots. He has raised money for the children’s fund, was office manager of the computer lab and a teacher’s aide for GED classes.

Jalil is also the recipient of several certificates for rehabilitation programming, and is a published author, poet, educator and blogger.

As a human rights advocate, he had the first U.S. prisoners national petition heard and recorded by a Special Committee at the United Nations on U.S. prisons and the existence of U.S. political prisoners. He has litigated several civil rights complaints on behalf of prisoners. In 2000, Essence magazine featured an article on father-daughter relationships. The article, entitled “Daddy Says,” quoted Jalil stressing the importance of maintaining these relations even during incarceration.

We request that people do the following for Jalil:

We are requesting that Friends and Supporters call, tweet, email and write NYS Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s office and appeal to him to grant Jalil’s Application to Commute the Sentence to Time Served.

We also request that this Initiative be widely posted on social media platforms, encouraging freedom loving people around the world to join in this initiative.

Since this will be ongoing, we propose that people tweet and/or email Governor Cuomo every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and call and write the Governor every Tuesday and Thursday.

Communications to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s office must refer to Jalil as: ANTHONY JALIL BOTTOM, 77A4283, Sullivan Correctional Facility, P.O. Box 116, Fallsburg, New York 12733-0115.

Write the Governor:

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of the State of New York
Executive Chamber
State Capital Building
Albany, New York 12224

Call the Governor: 1-518-474-8390

Tweet the Governor: @NYGovCuomo

Use hashtags #FreeJalil #FreeThemAll

Email the Governor: https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form

For more information concerning Jalil’s case, check https://thejerichomovement.com/

Click here to download a pamphlet to distribute to your family, friends, neighbors, faith group, etc.

Click here to download a sample letter to Governor Cuomo

Read the article: Gov. Cuomo’s Program for More Clemency Applications Appears to Stall, As Prisoners Wait and Hope for a Second Chance

Samidoun joins letter demanding NY address racist state violence of police, courts, jails and prisons

7 June 2020

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joined over 175 organizations to demand that New York State address its racist state violence of policing, courts, jails and prisons. We support the multiple efforts taking place in the U.S. and internationally to defund, dismantle and abolish police and prison structures built upon settler colonialism, racism and capitalist oppression.

The letter, addressed to New York Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, notes:

“People across the world are witnessing the pain of hundreds of years of Black subjugation,abuse, and murder at the hands of the state. We’ve seen the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade and countless others taken by law enforcement. But the deaths and violence don’t stop at police interactions. They are perpetrated against Black people in jails and prisons across New York and have taken the lives of Layleen Polanco, Benjamin Smalls, Kalief Browder, and too many others. The system that purports to “protect” and uphold “public safety” has instead subjugated, dehumanized, and murdered Black people for centuries.

We need bold and immediate change that will pull power away from the system that has made clear that Black lives, Black pain, Black existence, and Black humanity do not matter. To that end, we are calling on you to do what is right and address racist state violence from policing to courts to jails and prisons.”

Read the full letter below or at the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) website: http://bit.ly/state-violence

https://samidoun.net/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/JUNE-5-Letter-to-NY-State-Legislature_-Address-Racist-State-Violence.pdf

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