Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network supports the call of the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine for a week of action commemorating the Second Intifada and the ongoing Intifada of the Palestinian people between 22 and 28 September, alongside the call for the Week of Action for Palestinian Refugees’ Return and Confronting Normalization, #Action4Return. There are many activities and online actions that are part of this call, and we encourage you to share the photos, images and maps below on your own social media pages, post them in your community or take a selfie or a video expressing your support for the Palestinian people and their resistance and your stand against normalization.
Action Call: An Intifada that Breaks Normalization
“Intifada” is a term that expresses the free Palestinian popular position towards the occupation and its incessant crimes against children, women, youth and the elderly, and in the face of the torrent of grave violations of human rights and dignity committed by the occupation against the Palestinian people.
The Intifada is an expression of the people’s aspiration for self-determination, independence, the restoration of rights, returning home to Palestine and building a just peace.
The Intifada is a practical response to the plans to liquidate the Palestinian cause, including the “deal of the century,” the agreements of humiliation and disgrace, and the processes of normalization with the usurping enemy, which constitute an outright betrayal of the sacrifices of the Palestinian people.
The first modern Palestinian uprising began in 1920, the Jerusalem revolt of Nabi Musa. With the 1987 uprising of the stones, the name “Intifada” entered the dictionaries of international languages.
This march of struggle continued with the Al-Aqsa Intifada of 2000 and the 2015 Al-Quds uprising, through the uprising in response to occupation plans to impose electronic gates on Al-Aqsa Mosque in 2017 and the Great March of Return in 2018.
The Intifada Week
This annual call was launched by the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine in 2017, with the aim of commemorating the ongoing uprisings of the Palestinian people.
It is marked between 22 September, the anniversary of the 2015 Al-Quds uprising, and 28 September, the anniversary of the 2000 Al-Aqsa Intifada.
Durin this week, the progressive and democraatic forces of the world express their position on the Palestinian cause, underlining the necessity of unified efforts and the importance of solidarity with the people on whom some of the greatest injustices of the modern era have fallen, and whose cause constitutes a landmark of justice on which the future of peace and security in the world depends.
This year, the Intifada week focuses on multiple goals:
1- Rejecting the agreements of humiliation and normalization that are taking place between some Arab countries and the Zionist entity,
2- Underlining that liberation is the only solution to the Palestinian issue.
3- Emphasizing the name of Palestine along with its borders that include its entire land.
4- Spreading the map of Palestine and transforming it into an icon and a symbol associated with the presence of the Palestinians, wherever they exist, and with the spread of those who love Palestine and express their solidarity with its cause all over the world.
5- Commemorating the memory of the Palestinian uprisings’ martyrs in addition to appreciating the Palestinians’ sacrifices in those intifadas.
6- Emphasizing adherence to the Palestinian people’s rights, foremost of which being the right of return, and the status of Al-Quds as the unified capital of Palestine.
Take action: Sign this map of Palestine and affirm your commitment to the liberation of the entire land of Palestine. Post your selfie or video with the hashtag #NormalizationIsTreason:
Take action: Post and distribute these images of support for Palestine on your social media and in your community!
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is an endorser of the following call, initially issued by the Unified Campaign to Free Georges Abdallah in Ile-de-France. The call urges a month of action leading up to the mass demonstration at Lannemezan prison on 24 October 2020. Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is a Lebanese Communist struggler for Palestine who has been imprisoned in France for nearly 36 years and is one of Europe’s longest-held political prisoners. If your organization would like to endorse the call, please contact campagne.unitaire.gabdallah@gmail.com
CALL FOR AN INTERNATIONAL MONTH OF ACTION FOR THE RELEASE OF GEORGES ABDALLAH
Since the arrest of Georges Abdallah, many groups and support committees have been created over time to fiercely defend our comrade and demand his releasee. We have always recognized and proclaimed this fact as the founding heritage of our struggle. In 2015, however, for the fifth anniversary of the demonstrations organized in Lannemezan by these long-standing activists, a desire was also expressed to intensify the struggle and to coordinate existing forces to amplify the mobilization and achieve a real change in the balance of power. Hence, the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah has been formed on the basis of the following statement, written at the time:
“We, the participants in the Lannemezan support meeting that took place after the demonstration of October 24, 2015 for Georges Abdallah, call for the intensification of the mobilization campaign for the release of our comrade Georges Abdallah. We recognize ourselves in the political identity of Georges Abdallah, Arab fighter and resistant, Lebanese communist, today’s symbol of the fight against imperialism, Zionism, capitalism and reactionary Arab states. Georges Abdallah has been a political prisoner of the French state for more than three decades, to the applause of the United States and the Zionist entity. His fight is ours. We want a free and victorious Palestine. We want the end of colonialism throughout the world and in all its forms, the end of capitalism and exploitation, and we support the struggle of the peoples against all oppressions. We recognize ourselves in Georges Abdallah’s fight against the war of invasion of Lebanon by the Zionists and for the liberation of Palestine that he engaged in before being arrested in 1984 by the French police. We recognize ourselves in his unfailing revolutionary commitment during his 3 decades of incarceration and his fierce fighting determination in the face of class injustice. And we will be by his side on the day of his release to continue to fight with him.
We are internationalists and we are fully aware that it is the French state that keeps Georges Abdallah in prison. It is this French state and its successive governments on the right and on the left, claiming to be republican or claiming to be socialist, that conditions the release of this uncompromising militant on his disavowal of his commitments. For more than 30 years, Georges Abdallah has been standing in front of his jailers and, like thousands of Palestinian prisoners, he does not give up. He resists and fights for freedom.
The decision not to release Georges Abdallah is a political decision and that is why our fighting is based on a political ground.
We call on all activist and struggling forces, support committees, associations, parties, unions to express their solidarity and to multiply initiatives to make the cause of Georges Abdallah known and to raise the demand for his release.
We call for a national campaign for the release of Georges Abdallah, carried out in accordance with his commitments and his path. We also call for the multiplication of international initiatives; as Leila Khaled of the PFLP so rightfully declared: “Georges Abdallah is a symbol for revolutionaries around the world.”
We call for this campaign to be carried out on two main axes:
1. support for the Palestinian people and their fight for victory; solidarity with the struggle of Palestinian prisoners and the defense of the right of return and self-determination of Palestinians.
2. support for popular neighborhoods and their struggles for emancipation; solidarity with victims of repression; support for revolts against police violence; fight against state racism.
We are calling for strong moments of mobilization: gatherings and demonstrations in Lannemezan, Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Lille, Bordeaux, Brussels, Beirut … For meetings in different cities of France, Europe and the Arab world. The involvement of the Lebanese and Palestinian forces who put forward the cause of Georges Abdallah (PFLP, LCP); we call for support from political parties that support Georges Abdallah’s request for release (PCF, NPA, CNT, FA, PIR, etc.); for the organization of events on common mobilization dates (Land Day, International Day of Political Prisoners, First of May etc.) and for the multiplication of awareness-raising efforts and information campaigns for the mass-media (L’Humanité, Politis, Le monde diplo, activist radios and press).
We are now designating the common targets to be challenged: the French and Lebanese authorities. Several actions have already taken place in different cities of France (against Valls, Taubira, F. Hollande) and we must multiply these actions. The United States, civil party in the lawsuit and still active in blocking the release of Georges Abdallah, must also be confronted, and the Lebanese authorities must position themselves firmly for the release of Georges Abdallah.
One, two, three, a thousand initiatives for the release of Georges Abdallah!
He is part of our struggles; we are part of his fight!
Palestine shall live, Palestine shall triumph! It is victory or victory! Lannemezan, October 24, 2015»
The line of defense of our comrade on this political basis is still ours today: Georges Abdallah, on a daily basis, is part of our struggles and action or demonstration is carried out without our reaffirming that we are part of his fight. For five years, this battle on the political ground, effectively conducted in compliance with the commitments of our comrade and his life of struggle, has been waged everywhere and by all of us, along the lines mentioned in the 2015 declaration but also more broadly within all social and political struggles, through demonstrations, rallies, meetings, solidarity meals, calls for signatures, letters addressed to the French and Lebanese authorities and weeks of coordinated action between all the forces engaged in this fight for the release of Georges Abdallah. This commitment in Paris, in the regions, at the national level and now also widely at the international level – because of the investment of all the supporters in Georges Abdallah, in the diversity of our expressions – increases every day a little more the pressure exerted; and the multiple reactions – read in the press, also perceptible through the responses of the Keepers of the Seals and the Ministers of the Interior, who followed one another, to the letters of elected officials or even reflected in the exceptional visits carried out to our comrade by high-ranking political and religious representatives or by the response launched by the French President, during his visit to Beirut, to Lebanese activists demanding the release of Georges Abdallah – all these reactions are as many signs to be grasped of the justice of the struggle waged and that we must continue on the same dynamic and energy by seeking to challenge the representatives of the French State even more directly when possible or even by mobilizing all together to act as one.
Georges Abdallah continues to give us the keys to this line of approach, as when on several occasions in his statements, he highlights the strength of this united and coordinated solidarity. So, let us simply recall here again some of his messages where he encourages us to continue in this direction:
“Let us encourage, ever more comrades, 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” (Georges Abdallah – statement of October 20, 2018)
“This change in the balance of power requires above all the inclusion of this united approach in the overall dynamic of the ongoing struggle by increasingly assuming the ground of the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist struggle” because “it is not a question of pretending tht we do not know that the said justice is always a class justice in the service of a class policy inscribed in the global dynamics of a class war on a national and international scale.” (Georges Abdallah – declaration of June 23, 2018).
It is in this sense, and always faithful to this line and to the principles of political action recalled here, that we are calling today for not only an international week of action but a full month of actions so that all of us, the supporters of our comrade, we do not leave an open political space at the local, regional, national and international level without putting the demand for the release of our comrade Georges Abdallah on the agenda.
In Albertville, Amiens, Annecy, Aubagne, Aubervilliers, Besançon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Gennevilliers, Grenay, Grenoble, Lannemezan, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montauban, Montpellier, Morlaix, Nanterre, Nîmes, Paris, Pau, Saint-Denis, Saint-Etienne, Tarbes, Thionville, Toulouse, Troyes; in the Alpes-Maritimes, in Corsica, in Finistère, Gers, in Gironde, in Haute-Marne, in Hautes-Pyrénées, Hérault, Ile de France, Lot-et-Garonne, in the North and Pas de Calais, in the Pays de Cornouaille, in Poitou-Charentes, in Puy-de-Dôme, in the Rhône-Alpes region, in Seine-Maritime and in the Tarn-etGaronne. ; in Algeria, Germany, England, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Spain, Greece, India, Italy, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Morocco, occupied Palestine, Peru, Poland, Romania, Tunisia, Turkey – everywhere in France and throughout the world where the struggle of of Georges Abdallah is relayed and the demand for his release is carried, wherever we are, in active solidarity and support for our comrade, let us increase the mobilization actions and intensify the pressure on the representatives and places of power of the French State so that the current Minister of the Interior may finally sign the expulsion notice on which the release of our comrade has been conditioned and put this inquitous reality to an end.
All of us – anarchists, autonomists, anti-fascists, anti-imperialists, anti-Zionists, communists, democrats, environmentalists, internationalists, libertarians, Marxist-Leninists, Marxist-Leninist-Maoists, rebellious republicans, revolutionaries, Trotskyists; involved in parties, unions, fronts, campaigns, associations, collectives, committees, movements and multiple networks; engaged alongside our comrade in the political struggles for Palestine, in support of the Intifada and against normalization; in the defense of peoples’ struggles and their resistance; in defense of political prisoners and revolutionary prisoners; against imprisonment; against police violence; for the defense of immigrants and working-class neighborhoods; against racism; for the defense of workers, their achievements and their rights; in defense of the yellow vests of France; for the emancipation of women; against torture and the death penalty – let us mobilize once again, all together where we are, in this diversity that is ours, from 22 September 2020 to 24 October 2020 so that on this date, the tenth demonstration in Lannemezan may be the last one and that we can finally materialize this deep desire that we have all carried within us for so many years: “we will be at his side on the day of his release to continue to fight with him!.”
One, two, three, a thousand initiatives for the release of Georges Abdallah!
He is part of our struggles; we are part of his fight!
Palestine shall live, Palestine shall triumph!
Onward to victory!
Paris, 19 September 2020
Initial signatories:
Unitary campaign for the liberation of Georges Abdallah – International campaign for the liberation of Georges Abdallah – Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network – Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat – Collective for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – Le CRI Rouge for the defense of revolutionary prisoners – CAPJPO-EuroPalestine – Committee of action to support the struggles of the Moroccan people – PIR – ANC – UJFP – Collectif Palestine Vaincra – Secours Rouge International – Tunisian Committee for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah – FUIQP – Belgian appeal for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – International Prisoners’ News – Palestinian Association in Ile-de-France – AFPS34 – AFPS63 – Couserans-Palestine – Action Antifasciste 79 – ISM-France – Collectif Investig’Action – Compagnie Jolie Môme – Unité Communiste – Comité de défense des Internés des Camps du Sud (Algérie) – Association Car t’y es libre – Conseil syndical 09(Ariège) de solidaires – PRCF
19 September 2020 – “They ride for the Tour de France/We cycle for Palestine!” Participation in the bike ride for Palestine in the streets of Paris (an initiative organized by many organizations supporting Palestine) in parallel to the arrival of the Tour de France in the Paris region, to denounce the participation of a Zionist propaganda team in this sporting event.
26 September 2020 · Stand Palestine, 11 am to 1 pm, metro Capitole, Toulouse
26 September 2020 – Participation in the “evening of international solidarity” organized in Nanterre with Arene and AFPS.
30 September 2020 – Support for one of our comrades who is on trial at the High Court for his involvement in the demonstrations against COP21.
1 October 2020: Attendance at the conference with Pierre Stambul entitled “Middle East: Is Peace Still Possible?”
7 October 2020: Participation in the rally to demand the release of Mumia Abu Jamal.
10 October 2020: Participation in the national meeting and the Ile de France meeting of the ANC in Saint-Denis, on the theme: “A demand: withdrawal of all French soldiers from Africa!”
11 October 2020 – Aprem’Palestine, Sport afternoon + workshops (more info to come)
17 October 2020 – Evening of solidarity for Shatila camp, 3 pm at Terre Blanque, Toulouse
17 October 2020: Participation in the reception of the solidarity march of undocumented migrants in Paris and also in the rally at the Saint-Michel Bridge in honor of the victims of 17 October 1961.
23 October 2020: departure of the bus from Paris to Lannemezan
24 October 2020: 10th demonstration in Lannemezan, 2 pm at the train station, march to the prison. For the bus from Toulouse, email: collectifpalestinevaincra@gmail.com
LLAMADODE ACCIÓN INTERNACIONAL PARA LA LIBERACIÓN DE GEORGES ABDALLAH
Desde la arrestación de Georges Abdallah, numerosos han sido los collectivos y comites de apoyo que poco a poco han ido surguiendo para defender con tenacidad a nuestro compañero y exigir su liberación. Esta herencia fundacional de esta lucha, siempre lo hemos reconocido y proclamado. No obstante, en el 2015 con motivo del quinto aniversario de la manifestación organizada en Lannemezan por estos activistas de larga data, también se expresó el deseo de intensificar este combate y coordinar las fuerzas existentes para amplificar la movilización y lograr un real cambio en la relación de fuerzas exigido por nuestro propio camarada. De ahí, el certificado de nacimiento de la Campaña unitaria para la liberación de Georges Abdallah sobre la base de la siguiente declaración, redactada en ese momento:
“Nosotros, los participantes a la reunión de apoyo de Lannemezan que tuvo lugar después de la manifestación del 24 Octubre de 2015 en apoyo a Georges Abdallah, hacemos un llamado a la intensificación de la campaña de movilización para la liberación de nuestro camarada Georges Abdallah.
Nos reconocemos en la identidad política de Georges Abdallah, luchador árabe y luchador de la resistencia comunista libanés, hoy símbolo de la lucha contra el imperialismo, el sionismo, el capitalismo y los reaccionarios estados árabes. Georges Abdallah ha sido prisionero político del estado francés durante más de tres décadas, con el aplauso de Estados Unidos y la entidad sionista. Su lucha es nuestra. Queremos una Palestina libre y victoriosa. Queremos el fin del colonialismo en todo el mundo y en todas sus formas, el fin del capitalismo y la explotación y apoyamos la lucha de los pueblos contra todas las opresiones. Nos reconocemos en la lucha de Georges Abdallah contra la guerra de invasión del Líbano por los sionistas y por la liberación de Palestina que el libró antes de ser arrestado en 1984 por la policía francesa. Nos reconocemos en su compromiso revolucionario sin falla durante sus 3 décadas de encarcelamiento y su fiera determinación de lucha frente a una injusticia de clase y, estaremos a su lado el día de su liberación para seguir luchando con él.
Somos internacionalistas y somos plenamente conscientes que es el Estado francés el que mantiene Georges Abdallah en prisión. Es este estado francés y sus sucesivos gobiernos de derecha e izquierda, que se dicen republicano o socialista, que pone como condición a su liberación, que él reniege de su condición militante. Durante más de 30 años, Georges Abdallah ha estado frente a sus carceleros y como los miles de prisioneros palestinos, no se rinde. Él resiste y lucha por la libertad.
La decisión de no liberar a Georges Abdallah es una decisión política y es por eso que nosotros luchamos en el terreno político.
Hacemos un llamado a todas las fuerzas militantes, comités de apoyo, asociaciones, partidos, sindicatos para expresar su solidaridad y multiplicar iniciativas para dar a conocer la causa de Georges Abdallah y, para que se eleve la exigencia de su liberación.
Llamamos a una campaña nacional por la liberación de Georges Abdallah, llevada a cabo en el respeto de sus compromisos y de su trajectoria. También llamamos a la multiplicación de iniciativas internacionales. Leila Khaled del PFLP lo declara tan acertadamente: “Georges Abdallah es un símbolo para revolucionarios de todo el mundo”.
Hacemos un llamado a que esta campaña se lleve a cabo en dos ejes principales:
Apoyo al pueblo palestino y su lucha por la victoria; solidaridad con la lucha de los prisioneros palestinos y la defensa del derecho palestino al retorno y la autodeterminación.
Apoyo a los barrios populares y sus luchas de emancipación; solidaridad con los acusados por la represión; apoyo a las revueltas contra la violencia policial; luchar contra el racismo
Desde ahora solicitamos una fuerte movilización: reuniones y manifestaciones en Lannemezan, París, Marsella, Toulouse, Lille, Burdeos, Bruselas, Beirut… Mitines en diferentes ciudades de Francia, Europa o el mundo árabe. La participación de las fuerzas libanesas y palestinas que defienden la causa de Georges Abdallah (PFLP, PCL); un llamado al apoyo de los partidos políticos y sindicatos que apoyan la solicitud de liberación de Georges Abdallah (PCF, NPA, CNT, FA, PIR, etc.). La organización de eventos durante las fechas de movilización común (Día de la Tierra, Día Internacional de los Presos Políticos, 1 de mayo, etc.). Un aumento de los esfuerzos de sensibilización e información entre los medios de comunicación de larga difusión (L’Humanité, Politis, Le monde diplomatique, radios y prensa militantes).
Desde ahora designamos los objetivos comunes que debemos interpelar: las autoridades francesas y libanesas. Se han producido varias interpelaciones en distintas localidades de Francia (Valls, Taubira, F. Hollande) y estas interpelaciones deben multiplicarse. Los Estados Unidos, parte civil en la demanda y siempre activo en el bloqueo de la liberación de Georges Abdallah, también deben ser cuestionados y, las autoridades libanesas deben posicionarse firmemente para la liberación de Georges Abdallah.
¡Una, dos, tres, mil iniciativas para la liberación de Georges Abdallah!
¡Él es parte de nuestras luchas, nosotros somos parte de su combate!
¡Palestina vivirá, Palestina ganará!
¡Victoria o victoria!
Lannemezan, 24 de octubre de 2015»
Esta línea de defensa de nuestro compañero sigue siendo, hasta hoy, la misma: Georges Abdallah, en el día a día, es parte de nuestras luchas y no se lleva a cabo ningún acto militante sin que reafirmemos que somos parte de su lucha. Desde hace cinco años, esta batalla en el terreno político, efectivamente conducida en el respeto de los compromisos de nuestro compañero y de su trajectoria, se ha librado en todas partes y por todos nosotros, en la línea mencionada en la declaración del 2015 pero también y, de manera más amplia dentro de todas las luchas sociales y políticas, a través de manifestaciones, mítines, reuniones, comidas solidarias, convocatorias de firmas, cartas dirigidas a las autoridades francesas y libanesas y, semanas de acción coordinada entre todas las fuerzas comprometidas en la lucha por la liberación de Georges Abdallah. Este compromiso en París, en las regiones, a nivel nacional y ahora también ampliamente a nivel internacional -contando para ello con todos los apoyos a Georges Abdallah, en la diversidad de nuestras expresiones- aumenta cada día un poco más la presión ejercida; y las múltiples reacciones leídas en la prensa, también perceptibles a través de las respuestas de los Ministros de Justicia y de los Ministros del Interior que se han sucedido, o las cartas de los funcionarios electos, o incluso reflejadas en las excepcionales visitas realizadas a nuestro compañero por representantes políticos y religiosos de las altas esferas, o por la respuesta lanzada por el presidente francés, durante su visita a Beirut a los activistas libaneses que exigen la liberación de Georges Abdallah. Todas estas reacciones son signos de la justeza de la lucha librada y que debemos continuar con la misma dinámica y energía buscando desafiar a los representantes del Estado francés, incluso más directamente cuando sea posible o incluso movilizándonos todos juntos para golpear como un solo puño.
En esta línea de conducta, Georges Abdallah sigue dándonos las claves cuando en varias ocasiones, en sus declaraciones, destaca la fuerza de esta solidaridad unitaria y coordinada.
Recordemos, simplemente aquí, algunos de sus mensajes donde nos anima a continuar en esta dirección:
“Alentemos, cada vez más camaradas, los diversos procesos de convergencia de luchas tanto a nivel local como regional y más aún a nivel internacional” (Georges Abdallah – declaración del 20 de octubre de 2018)
“Este cambio en la relación de fuerzas pasa ante todo por la inclusión de este movimiento solidario en la dinámica general de la lucha en curso, asumiendo cada vez más el terreno de la lucha anticapitalista y antiimperialista” porque “no se trata de hacer como si no supiéramos que dicha justicia es siempre una justicia de clase al servicio de una política de clase inscrita en la dinámica global de una guerra de clases a escala nacional e internacional ”(Georges Abdallah – declaración de 23 Junio de 2018).
Es en este sentido y siempre fiel a esta línea y a los principios de acción política aquí recordados que hoy pedimos, ya no unasemanade acción internacional sino un mes completo de acción para que todos, los que apoyamos a nuestro camarada, nodejamos un espacio político libre a nivel local, regional, nacional e internacional sin poner en la agenda la exigencia de laliberación de nuestro compañero Georges Abdallah.
En Albertville, Amiens, Annecy, Aubagne, Aubervilliers, Besançon, Burdeos, Clermont-Ferrand, Gennevilliers, Grenay, Grenoble, Lannemezan, Lille, Lyon, Marsella, Montauban, Montpellier, Morlaix, Nanterre, Nimes, París, Pau, Saint-Denis , Saint-Etienne, Tarbes, Thionville, Toulouse, Troyes; en los Alpes Marítimos, en Córcega, en Finisterre, Gers, en Gironde, en Haute-Marne, en Hautes-Pyrénées, Hérault, Ile de France, Lot-et-Garonne, en el norte y el Pas de Calais, en el Pays de Cornouaille, en Poitou- Charentes, en Puy-de-Dôme, en la región de Rhône-Alpes, en Seine-Maritime y en Tarn-et-Garonne ; en Argelia, Alemania, Inglaterra, Argentina, Bélgica, Brasil, Canadá, España, Grecia, India, Italia, Kurdistán, Líbano, Luxemburgo, Marruecos, Palestina ocupada, Perú, Polonia, Rumania, Túnez, Turquía -en todas partes de Francia y del mundo donde se difunde y se porta la lucha por la liberación de Georges Abdallah : dondequiera que estemos, apoyo solidario activo para nuestro compañero -, incrementar las acciones de movilización e intensificar la presión sobre los representantes y los lugares de poder del Estado francés para que el actual Ministro del Interior firme, finalmente, el aviso de expulsión que condiciona la liberación de nuestro camarada y que se gane esta lucha para anular esta inicua pena de perpetuidad real.
Todos nosotros: anarquistas, autonomistas, antifascistas, antiimperialistas, antisionistas, comunistas, demócratas,ambientalistas,internacionalistas, libertarios, marxista-leninistas, marxista-leninistas-maoístas, republicanos rebeldes,revolucionarios, trotskistas; involucrado en partidos, sindicatos, frentes, campañas, asociaciones, colectivos, comités,movimientos y múltiples redes; comprometidos junto a nuestro compañero en las luchas políticas por Palestina, en apoyo dela Intifada y contra la Normalización; por la defensa de las luchas de los pueblos y su resistencia; por la defensa de los presospolíticos y revolucionarios; contra el encarcelamiento; contra la violencia policial; por la defensa de la inmigración y losbarrios obreros; contra el racismo ; por la defensa de los trabajadores, sus logros y sus derechos; por el de los chalecosamarillos; por la lucha por la emancipación de la mujer; contra la tortura y la pena de muerte – movilicémonos una vez más,todos juntos donde estemos, en esta diversidad que es nuestra, del 22 de septiembre de 2020 al 24 de octubre de 2020 paraque en esta fecha, la décima manifestación de Lannemezan sea la última y que por fin podemos materializar este profundodeseo que todos llevamos dentro desde hace tantos años: “¡Nosotros estaremos a su lado el día de su liberación para seguirluchando con él!”.
¡Una, dos, tres, mil iniciativas para la liberación de Georges Abdallah!
¡Él es parte de nuestras luchas, nosotros somos parte de su lucha!
Primeros signatarios: Campagne unitaire pour la libération de Georges Abdallah – Campagne internationale pour la libérationde Georges Abdallah – Samidoun Palestinien Prisoner Solidarity Network – Campagne internationale pour la libérationd’Ahmad Sa ‘âdat et ses camarades – CLGIA – Le CRI Rouge pour la défense des prisonniers révolutionnaires – Jeunes révolutionnaires – CAPJPO-EuroPalestine – Comité d’action et de soutien aux luttes du peuple Marocain – PIR – ANC – UJFP – Collectif Palestine Vaincra – Secours Rouge International – FUIQP – Appelbelgepour la libération de Georges IbrahimAbdallah – International Prisonners’News – AFPS34 – AFPS 63 – Couserans-Palestine – Action Antifasciste 79 – ISM-France
– CollectifInvestig’Action – Compagnie Jolie Môme – Unité Communiste – Comité de défense des Internés des Camps du Sud(Algérie)– Association Car t’y es libre – Conseil syndical 09(Ariège) de solidaires – PRCF
Agendano exhaustiva de acciones programadas en París y su región durante el mes internacional de acciones
Desde el 22 de septiembre al 24 de octubre, las siguientes iniciativas ya están programadas en París y su región:
19 de septiembre de 2020: “¡Pedalean por el Tour de Francia, nosotros pedaleamos por Palestina!»: Participación en el paseo en bicicleta por Palestina en las calles de París (iniciativa organizada por muchas organizaciones en apoyo de Palestina) en paralelo con la llegada del Tour de Francia a la región de París, para denunciar la participación del Entidad sionista en este evento
26 de septiembre de 2020: participación en la “velada de solidaridad internacional”, organizada en Nanterre junto con la Arena y las AFPS locales
30 de septiembre de 2020: apoyo a uno de nuestros compañeros que se encuentra en juicio en el tribunal de grande instance por su participación en las manifestaciones contra la COP21
1 de octubre de 2020: presencia en la conferencia con Pierre Stambul titulada “Oriente Medio: ¿la paz todavía es posible? “
7 de octubre de 2020: participación en el mitin para exigir la liberación de Mumia Abu Jamal
10 de octubre de 2020: participación en la reunión nacional del ANC y la reunión de Ile de France en Saint-Denis, sobre el tema: Una demanda: ¡Retirada de todos los soldados franceses de África! “
17 de octubre de 2020: participación en la recepción de la marcha solidaria de inmigrantes indocumentados en París y también en el mitin en el puente de Saint-Michel en homenaje a las víctimas del 17 de octubre de 1961
23 de octubre de 2020: salida del autocar de París a Lannemezan
24 de octubre de 2020: décimo evento en Lannemezan
También a planificar: un mitin frente al Ministerio del Interior y un encuentro semanal durante 4 semanas en el popular barrio de Ménilmontant en París.
Por favor, comunique a la dirección de la Campaña de Unidad las iniciativas planificadas como parte de este mes internacional de acciones para ayudar a difundirlas.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses our strongest solidarity with Nerdeen Kiswani, a Palestinian organizer and the chair of Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine. Nerdeen has been subjected to a slew of racist, Zionist attacks, not only on social media but directly through demands for her university to expel her, because she clearly upholds Palestinian rights and rejects occupation, oppression and settler-colonialism, including the symbols of the Israeli occupation forces, such as the logo of the Israeli army.
The racist campaign targeting Nerdeen has focused on a social media protest performance video shared in bad faith by a Zionist organization aiming to incite harassment against the second-year law student at CUNY Law. The protest performance in question features the specific logo of the Israeli military: the same force involved in the murder, extrajudicial execution, siege, ethnic cleansing and creeping genocide of the Palestinian people on a daily basis, and the same force involved in excluding Nerdeen from her homeland.
In response to this racist campaign against their student, rather than protect a law student and community leader, the CUNY Law administration chose to make two public posts on their social media profiles, first declaring that “CUNY Law stands against hate and anti-Semitism,” then replacing that with “CUNY Law stands against hate and harassment,” before deleting both of the posts, although leaving another “CUNY Law stands against hate” image up on Facebook.. In both posts, university administration expressed concern for the “pain caused by a social media video,” yet showed no concern at all for their student targeted in a series of vicious social media attacks and threats to “have her expelled” from her university.
In other words, the law school administration was concerned about the feelings of those who were allegedly “hurt” by a protest performance implying that “Israeli Defense Force” sweatshirts and merchandise could be burned, although it is difficult to understand any form of “hurt” caused by a protest against the symbols of an occupying, invading military force. The well-being of Nerdeen and fellow Palestinian students – not to mention the countless thousands of Palestinians slaughtered and wounded by the Israeli military and the over one million imprisoned in its occupation prisons – rated nary a mention, although the university now claims that it will be issuing a future statement.
The comparison to anti-Semitism in this case is so absurd as to be truly offensive. As noted by CUNY’s Jewish Law Students Association, “Conflating symbols of Israel — a settler-colonial nation-state with one of the most powerful militaries in the world, and a record of well-documented human rights abuses — with symbols of Jewish people silences the free speech that CUNY Law purports to hold so dear.”
Zionism is a racist ideology built on the dispossession of Palestinian land and the destruction of Palestinian lives. It is anti-racist to oppose Zionism, and anti-Zionism is essential to fighting racism, especially when the occupation of Palestine is so central to the U.S. imperialist project globally. Further, we emphasize not only that we stand in solidarity with Nerdeen Kiswani, her freedom of expression and her commitment to Palestinian liberation, but that resistance to war criminals, colonizers and occupiers is in fact a duty.
The logo and symbol of the Israeli occupation forces should be reviled and viewed as a hate symbol. The sword at the center of that logo is a killing sword that has been aimed at the throat of Palestinians for over 72 years, the millions of Palestinians dispossessed and exiled from their homeland and the millions inside Palestine who confront occupation on the ground on a daily basis. The symbols of the occupation army – and the occupation army itself – must be boycotted, protested and resisted by all means. To condemn those who stand against a racist, occupation army is to stand on the side of racism, injustice and oppression. CUNY must not only end its anti-Palestinian approach to its students, it has a responsibility to act and comply with the Palestinian and global call for an academic boycott of Israel and Israeli institutions.
Palestinians’ expressive and artistic resistance is repeatedly subjected to criminalization, harassment and suppression, from the imprisonment of Palestinian poets like Tawfiq Zayyad and Dareen Tatour to the systematic marginalization of Palestinian artists and filmmakers to the Mossad assassination of Palestinian writers like Ghassan Kanafani and Wael Zuayter. We stand with Nerdeen Kiswani, and we stand with the Palestinian people.
Please join us and numerous organizations, students and alumni at CUNY to take action and say that #WeStandWithNerdeen:
Post your statements, photos and solidarity actions online and use the #WeStandWithNerdeen hashtag. Push back against the flood of racist abuse on social media!
Email Mary Lu Bilek, the Dean of CUNY Law, with a brief message expressing your support for Nerdeen. The Dean’s email address is: bilek@law.cuny.edu.Sample Message:Dear Dean Bilek,I am appalled to see CUNY Law’s response to the racist, anti-Palestinian harassment targeting one of its students, Nerdeen Kiswani. Rather than defend a student under attack and subjected to hundreds of threats on social media, CUNY School of Law created statements and social media posts that further encouraged this racist harassment campaign.I am further shocked to see that CUNY School of Law conflated Zionism with Judaism and anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Further, CUNY Law’s statement appears to imply that the Israeli military, known for war crimes and crimes against humanity, is in some way deserving of protection from revulsion directed against its logos and symbols. In reality, it is the Palestinian people who require protection and support against an occupying military force responsible for extrajudicial killings, mass incarceration, home demolitions, land confiscations, ethnic cleansing and creeping genocide.
CUNY School of Law has a responsibility to its students, particularly Palestinian students, and the community as a whole, to retract its prior statements on this matter, address its deceptive and damaging misrepresentation of anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism, and take meaningful action to protect the targeted student. I expect to see swift action taken to rectify the wrongs committed by the CUNY administration against its own student.
Leila Khaled expresses solidarity with Georges Abdallah at the European Parliament
Today, 23 September, a series of major Silicon Valley corporations – Zoom, Facebook and YouTube (Google) – joined hands with racist, right-wing, Zionist campaigns in an attempt to silence an academic event, “Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice, & Resistance: A conversation with Leila Khaled,” organized by Prof. Rabab Abdulhadi and Prof. Tomomi Kinukawa at San Francisco State University. The event featured Palestinian resistance icon Leila Khaled along with Rula Abu Dahou, Ronnie Kasrils, Sekou Odinga and Laura Whitehorn, all former political prisoners.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joined numerous social justice and Palestine support organizations in endorsing and co-sponsoring the event, organized by AMED Studies at SFSU and supported by the students of GUPS. The silencing campaign by Zionist, racist and right-wing forces is part and parcel of an attempt to block any and all communication by a distinguished, widely esteemed symbol of Palestinian resistance. Despite the attacks by some of the biggest global corporations, the full event was recorded by the organizers and will be made available to all. Palestinian women and Palestinian resistance will not be suppressed!
We will be sharing actions and alerts in the coming days to hold accountable all of those responsible for these attacks.
In the context of this event, we are sharing some existing videos of Leila Khaled as we look forward to seeing the full panel, to hear her voice of resistance and liberation and emphasize that the Palestinian struggle cannot and will not be silenced, despite apartheid, imperialism, reaction and corporate complicity. We encourage you to watch, share, re-upload and propagate these videos – and others- as widely as possible to make it clear that Leila will be heard!
Leila Khaled in the Philippines (2015):
Leila Khaled speaks at Israeli Apartheid Week in NYC:
Leila supports four accused BDS activists in Toulouse:
Leila Khaled speaks at NYC event against imprisonment:
Leila’s call to the Greek movement to protest Netanyahu:
Leila on the Palestinian revolutionary left:
Leila’s message for Denmark event on Jerusalem and the Palestinian struggle:
Zoom’s cancellation of the event in response to Zionist pressure and dubious legal threats raises very serious concerns about the corporatization of the university, academic freedom and any and all expression, especially as thousands of universities and academic institutions have outsourced remote learning and classrooms to the Silicon Valley corporation.
This effort was led by an array of repressive legal organizations like the “Lawfare Project,” so named for their efforts to engage in “legal warfare” against the Palestinian people and cause. These entities demand corporations like Zoom silenced Palestinians based on scare tactics based on U.S. “anti-terror” laws and unilateral coercive measures (sanctions), themselves an unjust foundation for dubious threats.
Following the Zoom cancellation, the event was livestreamed on YouTube by the organizers – which rapidly shut down two streams despite a proliferation of content featuring Leila Khaled on the site, as she is an internationally renowned Palestinian leader and resistance icon.
While the university, its students and scholars were under attack by racist forces, SFSU’s response has been weak at best, placing the burden of these attacks, which attempt a massive infringement of academic freedom, on the back of Prof. Abdulhadi and Palestinian students at the university. In response to the attacks on the event, SFSU President Lynn Mahoney authored an extremely problematic op-ed in Jweekly, a publication known for running numerous Zionist attacks on Palestinian faculty and students at the university and for campaigning against this event featuring Leila Khaled.
In the op-ed, Mahoney notes that the event is a matter of academic freedom, but also conflates Zionism with Judaism, dismisses the concerns of Palestinian students and calls panelists’ speech “abhorrent” and “deeply offensive.” Following the forced silencing of an academic event by an array of huge tech corporations in league with Zionist pressure groups, Mahoney was cited as attending an anti-Palestinian “vigil” organized by the same groups involved in the repression campaign.
YouTube silenced this event as well – however, it was recorded and will be made available to all. Palestinian women and Palestinian resistance will not be suppressed!
Today’s online event, “Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice and Resistance: A conversation with Leila Khaled,” is starting now despite censorship by Zoom:
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of justice in Palestine to urgently support the online event, “Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice and Resistance: A conversation with Leila Khaled,” featuring Palestinian resistance icon Leila Khaled along with Rula Abu Dahou, Ronnie Kasrils, Sekou Odinga and Laura Whitehorn, all former political prisoners. This Open Classroom event at San Francisco State University, hosted by Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi of AMED Studies and Dr. Tomoni Kimukawa of Women and Gender Studies, has found widespread community support.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has joined numerous social justice and Palestine support organizations in endorsing and co-sponsoring the event, which has come under severe attack by Zionist, racist and right-wing forces attempting to block any and all communication by a distinguished, widely esteemed symbol of Palestinian resistance.
Zoom is fully complicit in this attempt to silence Palestine – but people have made clear that Leila Khaled will be heard despite all attempts at repression. Unsurprisingly, massive tech companies line up on the side of imperialism and reaction – pointing to the danger in the Zoomification and corporatization of education and expression.
3. Join the Support Leila Khaled picture/video campaign – post a 30-second video in any language of yourself supporting the webinar. Answer the question “What Does Leila Khaled mean to you?” or simply state that you support Academic freedom on Palestine with a picture and a sign. Tag AMED Studies on Twitter at @AmedStudies, Instagram at @amedstudies or Facebook at @AMEDStudies and use the hashtags #LeilaKhaled and #TeachingPalestine.
The attack on this online event is organized by an array of right-wing, Zionist and racist forces who have repeatedly tried to silence Leila Khaled when she speaks everywhere in the world, and have attempted continually to shut down Prof. Abdulhadi’s work at SFSU and in the broader academic community, including undermining the AMED Studies program. It has included multiple baseless lawsuits designed to stop and silence Palestinian scholarship through the weight and expense of repeated bogus legal claims designed to harass.
However, the response of SFSU has been weak at best, placing the burden of these attacks, which attempt a massive infringement of academic freedom, on the back of Prof. Abdulhadi and Palestinian students at the university. Indeed, Prof. Abdulhadi launched a discrimination lawsuit against the university for its failure to follow through on multiple contractual commitments to the program and her scholarship. In response to the attacks on the event, SFSU President Lynn Mahoney authored an extremely problematic op-ed in Jweekly, a publication known for running numerous Zionist attacks on Palestinian faculty and students at the university and for campaigning against this event featuring Leila Khaled. In the op-ed, Mahoney notes that the event is a matter of academic freedom, but also conflates Zionism with Judaism, dismisses the concerns of Palestinian students and calls panelists’ speech “abhorrent” and “deeply offensive.”
Participants in the panel, including Laura Whitehorn and Ronnie Kasrils, both Jewish former political prisoners in the U.S. and South Africa respectively and long term fighters for justice and liberation, have spoken out against the attacks from all corners, as well as SFSU’s weak defense and even abandonment of its Palestinian and justice-oriented faculty and students. Palestinian faculty and students and their supporters have spoken up about the university’s complicity in attacks on their history, identity and existence.
The attempt to shut down this event is part of the ongoing attack to wipe out Palestinian resistance, silence Palestinian speakers – especially those who reflect a history and present of struggle – and tailor Palestinian politics and expression into the most narrow acceptable form, involving normalization with Israeli occupation. It is an attempt to use all means, legal and extralegal, to label Palestinian resistance as “terrorism,” and, by using that label, to criminalize, silence and suppress all who stand with, affirm or represent that current and historic resistance.
Thus, we see not only attempts to exclude Leila Khaled from the European Parliament, shut down even a Zoom event featuring her, deport Rasmea Odeh from Berlin, but also to force the renaming of Palestinian women’s centers and organizations, to strip them of the names of Palestinian women in struggle like Dalal al-Mughrabi or Shadia Abu Ghazaleh.
However, Palestinian women continue to struggle for liberation in all forms, and no Zionist campaigns nor university complicity will silence their movement. It is more critical than ever to stand with Palestinian women, political prisoners in occupied Palestine and around the world, and to uphold the Palestinian resistance in all of its forms. We demand the right to hear from the Palestinian resistance and from those who have made history for the Palestinian people and for the world.
We can and must show that Leila Khaled and those who join her on this panel as distinguished veteran political prisoners are the heroes of all those around the world who stand for social justice and liberation, in Palestine and everywhere around the world.
There is a reason why the image of Leila Khaled is featured in graffiti, t-shirts, art, literature and protest music in Palestine and around the world. It is not simply an aesthetic choice or revolutionary nostalgia – it is because the history and present of Leila Khaled reflect a future of hope for real change and a liberated society. Today, we urge all supporters of Palestine: Stand with Prof. Abdulhadi and the Palestinian students at SFSU. Stand with academic freedom for Palestine. Stand with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance. Stand with Leila Khaled!
3. Join the Support Leila Khaled picture/video campaign – post a 30-second video in any language of yourself supporting the webinar. Answer the question “What Does Leila Khaled mean to you?” or simply state that you support Academic freedom on Palestine with a picture and a sign. Tag AMED Studies on Twitter at @AmedStudies, Instagram at @amedstudies or Facebook at @AMEDStudies and use the hashtags #LeilaKhaled and #TeachingPalestine.
UPDATE: We have become aware that the Zoom registration page is now showing an error message. Please send your error messages to samidoun@samidoun.net. In the meantime, please join the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/754000115385200/ and attend the Facebook Live event, streamed at https://facebook.com/AMEDStudies/
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of justice in Palestine to urgently support the online event, “Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice and Resistance: A conversation with Leila Khaled,” featuring Palestinian resistance icon Leila Khaled along with Rula Abu Dahou, Ronnie Kasrils, Sekou Odinga and Laura Whitehorn, all former political prisoners. This Open Classroom event at San Francisco State University, hosted by Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi of AMED Studies and Dr. Tomoni Kimukawa of Women and Gender Studies, has found widespread community support.
Most recently, Zoom has threatened to cancel the event in response to Zionist pressure and dubious legal threats by an array of repressive legal organizations like the “Lawfare Project,” so named for their efforts to engage in “legal warfare” against the Palestinian people and cause. Such threats rely on scare tactics based on U.S. “anti-terror” laws and unilateral coercive measures (sanctions), themselves an unjust foundation for dubious threats.
However, such threats to cancel the event are an attack on Palestinian rights and expression but also a fundamental attack on academic freedom, especially when thousands of academic institutions have moved their classes and programs to Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such threats seem to place Zoom as the arbiter of university content, despite the massive contracts these institutions have with the company.
In response to such threats, the organizers of the event and the professors moderating and leading the open classroom have emphasized the importance of registering for, attending and sharing the event, which remains in place with all registration forms active, and making clear that such attempts at censorship will fail and must not pass.
4. Join the Support Leila Khaled picture/video campaign – post a 30-second video in any language of yourself supporting the webinar. Answer the question “What Does Leila Khaled mean to you?” or simply state that you support Academic freedom on Palestine with a picture and a sign. Tag AMED Studies on Twitter at @AmedStudies, Instagram at @amedstudies or Facebook at @AMEDStudies and use the hashtags #LeilaKhaled and #TeachingPalestine.
The attack on this online event is organized by an array of right-wing, Zionist and racist forces who have repeatedly tried to silence Leila Khaled when she speaks everywhere in the world, and have attempted continually to shut down Prof. Abdulhadi’s work at SFSU and in the broader academic community, including undermining the AMED Studies program. It has included multiple baseless lawsuits designed to stop and silence Palestinian scholarship through the weight and expense of repeated bogus legal claims designed to harass.
However, the response of SFSU has been weak at best, placing the burden of these attacks, which attempt a massive infringement of academic freedom, on the back of Prof. Abdulhadi and Palestinian students at the university. Indeed, Prof. Abdulhadi launched a discrimination lawsuit against the university for its failure to follow through on multiple contractual commitments to the program and her scholarship. In response to the attacks on the event, SFSU President Lynn Mahoney authored an extremely problematic op-ed in Jweekly, a publication known for running numerous Zionist attacks on Palestinian faculty and students at the university and for campaigning against this event featuring Leila Khaled. In the op-ed, Mahoney notes that the event is a matter of academic freedom, but also conflates Zionism with Judaism, dismisses the concerns of Palestinian students and calls panelists’ speech “abhorrent” and “deeply offensive.”
Participants in the panel, including Laura Whitehorn and Ronnie Kasrils, both Jewish former political prisoners in the U.S. and South Africa respectively and long term fighters for justice and liberation, have spoken out against the attacks from all corners, as well as SFSU’s weak defense and even abandonment of its Palestinian and justice-oriented faculty and students. Palestinian faculty and students and their supporters have spoken up about the university’s complicity in attacks on their history, identity and existence.
The attempt to shut down this event is part of the ongoing attack to wipe out Palestinian resistance, silence Palestinian speakers – especially those who reflect a history and present of struggle – and tailor Palestinian politics and expression into the most narrow acceptable form, involving normalization with Israeli occupation. It is an attempt to use all means, legal and extralegal, to label Palestinian resistance as “terrorism,” and, by using that label, to criminalize, silence and suppress all who stand with, affirm or represent that current and historic resistance.
Thus, we see not only attempts to exclude Leila Khaled from the European Parliament, shut down even a Zoom event featuring her, deport Rasmea Odeh from Berlin, but also to force the renaming of Palestinian women’s centers and organizations, to strip them of the names of Palestinian women in struggle like Dalal al-Mughrabi or Shadia Abu Ghazaleh.
However, Palestinian women continue to struggle for liberation in all forms, and no Zionist campaigns nor university complicity will silence their movement. It is more critical than ever to stand with Palestinian women, political prisoners in occupied Palestine and around the world, and to uphold the Palestinian resistance in all of its forms. We demand the right to hear from the Palestinian resistance and from those who have made history for the Palestinian people and for the world.
Once again, we urge all to take the actions above to attend the event on Zoom, share the Facebook event and live video of the event as it happens, join the support campaign for this event. We can and must show that Leila Khaled and those who join her on this panel as distinguished veteran political prisoners are the heroes of all those around the world who stand for social justice and liberation, in Palestine and everywhere around the world.
There is a reason why the image of Leila Khaled is featured in graffiti, t-shirts, art, literature and protest music in Palestine and around the world. It is not simply an aesthetic choice or revolutionary nostalgia – it is because the history and present of Leila Khaled reflect a future of hope for real change and a liberated society. Today, we urge all supporters of Palestine: Stand with Prof. Abdulhadi and the Palestinian students at SFSU. Stand with academic freedom for Palestine. Stand with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance. Stand with Leila Khaled!
4. Join the Support Leila Khaled picture/video campaign – post a 30-second video in any language of yourself supporting the webinar. Answer the question “What Does Leila Khaled mean to you?” or simply state that you support Academic freedom on Palestine with a picture and a sign. Tag AMED Studies on Twitter at @AmedStudies, Instagram at @amedstudies or Facebook at @AMEDStudies and use the hashtags #LeilaKhaled and #TeachingPalestine.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has joined with over 230 organizations in Palestine and around the world to sign on to this appeal for accountability and international action on Israeli apartheid, as the UN General Assembly meets:
Apartheid is a crime against humanity, giving rise to individual criminal responsibility and State responsibility to bring the illegal situation to an end. In May 2020, a large number of Palestinian civil society organisations called on all States to adopt “effective countermeasures, including sanctions, to end Israel’s unlawful acquisition of Palestinian territory through use of force, its regime of apartheid, and its denial of our inalienable right to self-determination.”
In June 2020, 47 independent human rights experts within the United Nations (UN) stated that the Israeli government plans to illegally annex large parts of the occupied West Bank would constitute “a vision of a 21st-century apartheid.” Also in June, 114 Palestinian, regional, and international civil society organisations sent a strong message to UN Member States that now is the time to recognise and confront Israel’s establishment and maintenance of an apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole, including Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line and Palestinian refugees and exiles abroad.
We further recall that, in December 2019, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) urged Israel to give full effect to Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which pertains to the prevention, prohibition, and eradication of all policies and practices of segregation and apartheid, on both sides of the Green Line. As recently highlighted by South Africa at the UN Human Rights Council, “The CERD found… that the strategic fragmentation of the Palestinian people formed part of a policy and practice of segregation and apartheid. Annexation would be yet another example of complete impunity that makes a mockery of this Council and would gravely breach international law.”
In light of the mounting recognition of Israel’s maintenance of an apartheid regime over the Palestinian people, which will only continue to be entrenched through annexation, we, the undersigned Palestinian, regional, and international civil society organisations, urge the UN General Assembly to take urgent and effective actions to address the root causes of Palestinian oppression and to end Israel’s occupation, illegal blockade of Gaza, unlawful acquisition of Palestinian territory by force, its regime of apartheid over the Palestinian people as a whole, and the prolonged denial of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including to self-determination and the right of Palestinian refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes, lands, and property.
In light of the above, we call on all Member States of the UN General Assembly to:
Launch international investigations into Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people as a whole, as well as associated State and individual criminal responsibility, including by reconstituting the UN Special Committee against Apartheid and the UN Centre Against Apartheid to end apartheid in the 21st century.
Ban arms trade and military-security cooperation with Israel.
Prohibit all trade with illegal Israeli settlements and ensure that companies refrain from and terminate business activities with Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.
List of signatories from Palestine
Palestinian Human Rights Organization Council (PHROC), consisting of:
Al Haq Organization – Law in the Service of Mankind
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
ADDAMEER Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
DCI – Defense for Children International – Palestine
Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center
Aldameer Association for Human Rights
Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies
Hurryyat – Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights
The Independent Commission for Human Rights (Ombudsman Office) – Observer Member
Muwatin Institute for Democracy and Human Rights – Observer Member
Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), including:
Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem
Arab Center for Agricultural Development (ACAD)
The Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies
Psycho-Social Counselling center for Women (Bethlehem)
Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society
Women’s Center for Legal aid and Counseling (WCLAC)
Women Study Center (WSC PAL)
Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees
Nawa for Culture and Arts Association
Al Karmel Association
Aisha Association for Women and Child Protection
The National Society for Rehabilitation
Baitona Association for Community and Development
Civic Coalition for the Defense of Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem
List of international signatories
Argentina
Liga Argentina por los Derechos Humanos
Jóvenes con Palestina
Austria
Women in Black (Vienna)
Bangladesh
La Via Campesina South Asia
Belgium
La Centrale Generale-FGTB
European Trade Union Network For Justice in Palestine (ETUN)
De-Colonizer
Association belgo-palestinienne WB
Viva Salud
CNCD-11.11.11
Vrede vzw
FOS vzw
Broederlijk Denle
Belgian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BACBI)
ECCP (European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine)
Brazil
Coletivo Feminista Classista ANA MONTENEGRO
ESPPUSP – Estudantes em Solidariedade ao Povo Palestino (Students in Solidarity with the Palestinian People – USP)
Canada
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Just Peace Advocates
Colombia
BDS Colombia
Egypt
Habitat International Coalition – Housing and Land Rights Network
Finland
Finnish-Arab Friendship Society
ICAHD Finland
France
Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine
Union syndicale Solidaires
Mouvement International de la Réconciliation (IFOR)
The hunger strike of Irish republican prisoners and Dr Issam Hijjawi Bassalat is escalating in British prisons in the north of Ireland, as over 50 prisoners have joined the hunger strike to demand an end to isolation for Issam Hijjawi, a Palestinian community leader who was seized along with the Saoradh 9 in a series of attacks on Irish republicans.
Dr Hijjawi Bassalat was taken from his detention cell for much-needed health testing; however, when he returned, he was once again put in isolation for 14 days. While the prison administration has justified this on the basis of COVID protections, Irish republican prisoners have noted that non-political prisoners have been taken for health reasons and returned to collective detention, without being held in isolation for another 14 days. Dr. Hijjawi Bassalat was also denied bail on 16 September due to the political charges against him and the Irish republicans.
On Tuesday, 22 September, an online webinar with Stephen Murney of Saoradh, Palestinian community organizer Yousef Qandeel and Irish diaspora organzer Micheáilín Butler will focus on the case of Issam Hijjawi Bassalat and the Saoradh 9. The webinar will take place at 10 am Pacific time, 1 pm Eastern time, 6 pm Ireland time and 8 pm Palestine time. To join, please register at https://bit.ly/prisonersolidarity
“As the illegal occupation attempts to hide its proverbial head in the sand to the harsh reality in Ireland today, there are over 50 Republican Prisoners on hungerstrike only ingesting water.
It comes as no surprise as the occupations MI5 directed gaol administration has effectively ripped up the negotiated 2010 August Agreement and is clearly intent on upping the ante, refusing to listen to logic in response to the utterly absurd position in relation to anti imperialist prisoner, Dr Issam Hijjawi.
Issam, along with 50 Republican Prisoners throughout Ireland are embarking on their sixth day of hungerstrike. The difference being Issam is being needlessly held in the filth and squalor of the occupations Foyle House in intense pain, unable to sit or lay down as the pain is unbearable. On top of this, he is enduring the harsh effects of not eating.
There is no logic to Issam being held in the occupations Foyle House as over the past two week period, two loyalist prisoners were taken to outside hospitals and returned to loyalist Bush House. They were not forced to endure the 14 day, 24 hour lock up due to “COVID isolation”. This is clear proof that the occupiers MI5 led gaol administration is using the isolation of Issam as a tool to persecute Republican Prisoners. This disproves the false narrative of the occupation.
Is it only Republican Prisoners that go to hospital and be sent to the squalor and filth of Foyle House?
The occupations MI5 led gaol administration seem intent on doing this.
Clearly logic is wasted on the illegal occupation.”
The Red Nation issued a solidarity statement in support of the prisoners, noting that “We demand the freedom of all political prisoners in Palestine and Ireland, and call upon their supporters to organize solidarity actions.”
Meanwhile in Glasgow, the IRPWA and the Revolutionary
Communist Group protested on 20 September, demanding freedom for the hunger strikers:
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:
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.
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
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.
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.
Online event: “Solidarity with Issam Hijjawi Bassalat and the Saoradh 9” When: Tuesday, September 22 at 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET/6:00 pm Ireland/8:00 pm Palestine REGISTER TO JOIN ON ZOOM: https://bit.ly/prisonersolidarity
We stand in 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.
Join us to hear from speakers: * Stephen Murney of Saoradh, former Republican political prisoner * Yousef Qandeel, Palestinian community organizer in London * Micheáilín Butler, Irish diaspora organizer and activist
Organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network supports the call of the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine for a week of action commemorating the Second Intifada and the ongoing Intifada of the Palestinian people between 22 and 28 September, alongside the call for the Week of Action for Palestinian Refugees’ Return and Confronting Normalization, #Action4Return. There are many activities and online actions that are part of this call, and we encourage you to share the photos, images and maps below on your own social media pages, post them in your community or take a selfie or a video expressing your support for the Palestinian people and their resistance and your stand against normalization.
“Intifada” is a term that expresses the free Palestinian popular position towards the occupation and its incessant crimes against children, women, youth and the elderly, and in the face of the torrent of grave violations of human rights and dignity committed by the occupation against the Palestinian people.
