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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

27 Years of Oslo Devastation

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

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

Palestinian Refugees: Right of Return under Attack

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cutting off the Road to Freedom

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

Oslo in the International and Arab context

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Confronting normalization today

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

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

Palestinian Prisoners: Betrayed by Oslo

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

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

The Case of Ahmad Sa’adat

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

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

Oslo and International Political and Economic Repression

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

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

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

End Oslo: Forward to Liberation! 

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Take Action:

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

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

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

Read Prof. Imad Barghouthi’s Letter from Prison:

Ofer Israeli prison camp,
Saturday September 12th, 2020

On my current administrative detention

Dear colleagues,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Confronting normalization and the role of the Palestinian Authority: Statement from Palestinians in Europe

Statement issued by the Union of Palestinian Communities and Institutions in Europe:

We emphasize the unity of our Palestinian people everywhere and the unity of all Palestinian resistance forces in confronting Zionist colonialism. At the same time, it is important for us to emphasize our position on the meeting held in Ramallah and Beirut under the auspices of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, as well as our position on the Arab League draft resolution at the meeting of Arab foreign ministers dropping its condemnation of the normalization agreement between the UAE and the Zionist entity, and, finally, the announcement of the bilateral Bahrain-Israeli agreement.

The meeting that brought together the forces of the Palestinian Authority and the forces of resistance in Ramallah and Beirut on 3 September 2020 did not reach the level necessary to deal with the current national challenges facing the Palestinian people inside occupied Palestine and in exile and diaspora. It also came in accordance with the “political ceiling” that still hovers above the Palestinian people: the so-called “two-state solution” and the concession of 78% of the land of Palestine.

This meeting did not go beyond a festival of rhetoric for the powers of the Authority and the Palestinian factions, at a time when our people need a real and serious review and a clear program of struggle that breaks with the previous era and the disastrous Oslo path, which has been taking place for 27 years.

In light of these challenges, the Palestinian people will remain united in their national goals and aspirations. Accordingly:

1) We renew our call to the Palestinian resistance forces and popular institutions in Palestine and in exile to form a united national front outside the path of Oslo and its limitations, in order to mobilize our people, their popular forces and their great potential energies for the field of comprehensive resistance to the Zionist entity, on the way to reclaim the project of liberation and return that will ensure all rights for the Palestinian people in their homeland, Palestine, from the river to the sea.

2) We call on the progressive forces and the people of our Arab nation, with all of their parties, trade unions, federations and Arab resistance forces in the region, to shoulder their responsibilities and raise their voices loudly against all forms of betrayal and dependency, and block the path of normalization projects and the collaborationist reactionary regimes in the region.

3) The decline in Arab and international official support for the Palestinian cause, and the rush of some countries to normalize with the Zionist entity, is at least in part the result of the utter failure of the so-called Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its embassies and the leadership of the Authority, and it is a natural repercussion of the destructive political approach of the hegemonic Palestinian Authority leadership that contributed to opening the gate of normalization by continuing to adhere to the Oslo agreement and its obligations, first and foremost, security coordination with the Israeli occupation.

4) The Arab League’s decision not to condemn the UAE’s acions was simply more evidence that this institution is a corpse hijacked by the tools of Arab reactionary regimes, and we did not expect them to take a stance in support of the Palestinian cause and rejecting normalization. Those who commit massacres and promote foreign interference in the affairs of Arab countries cannot stand in support of the Palestinian cause. In recent years, this institution has turned into a tool for implementing U.S. and Zionist agendas.

statement issued by Dr Fawzi Ismail
President of the General secretariat of the Union of Palestinian Communities and Institutions in Europe
11 September 2020

Video: Online rally for Gaza raises international voices against the siege

This online rally for Gaza was organized on 7 September 2020 by the 16th October Group, based in Gaza, Palestine, to highlight the current situation and the siege on Gaza and urge international action to bring it to an end.

Organizations around the world participated in the event, including Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. Charlotte Kates of Samidoun spoke about international struggle to end the siege, as well as the case of Mohammed al-Halabi, Palestinian charity worker and political prisoner. Organizations participating also included Palestine Action, the International Solidarity Movement, Palestine Speaks, Daarna, Ship to Gaza, Friends of Palestine, Nevadans for Palestinian Human Rights. Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance, Solidarity Rising, GW Law Students for Justice in Palestine, Palestine Network South Asia and the IHRC/UK.

 

7 September, starting soon – Online Rally for Gaza

Monday, 7 September
9 am Pacific – 12 pm Eastern – 7 pm Palestine time
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/s/online-rally-for-gaza/1087260368337126
Join on Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89357099768

Samidoun will be joining this event along with many people and organizations around the world! 

You are all kindly invited to attend an Online Protest Rally to demand an immediate and permanent end to the blockade on Gaza.

We, human rights activists, are hereby inviting and making a loud appeal to Human Rights Organizations, Politicians, Congress members, Parliament members, and other pro-Palestine stakeholders, to pressure Israel to end the 14 years of blockade on Gaza.

📆 Date: Monday 07 September 2020
⏰ Time: 7 pm Palestine time / 4 pm GMT / 9 am PT / 12 pm ET

Zoom Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89357099768

We hope to be honored by the presence of a massive audience, and we thank you in anticipation.

Video: Interview with Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat on Palestinian national unity and the road forward

In this video (Arabic audio with full English subtitles), Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat speaks with Samidoun about Palestinian politics today, the question of national unity, confronting normalization – and what these have to do with the “factions meeting” that took place on September 3, 2020 in Ramallah and Beirut.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQy_yCRcB58?cc_load_policy=1

Full transcript:

Question 1: What is your opinion of the Palestinian factions’ meeting in Ramallah and Beirut on 3 September?

Khaled Barakat: I think the correct question is why this meeting took place now in Ramallah and Beirut and why it was convened in this way. Was this meeting for the forces of the Palestinian resistance? Or was it a meeting called by Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), President of the Palestinian Authority and the forces of the Authority, and the factions were present?

Because this raises a very important point – and that is, how many times such meetings with the factions have taken place and nothing has come from it?

We know that before this meeting, there were meetings in Mecca, Doha, Cairo, Beirut and more than one capital. Why would this meeting be different, and the results be different?

The truth is, the Palestinian people, who are being targeted on a daily basis by the hands of the Israeli occupation with prisons, siege, dispossession – they know that such meetings will not result in anything, Simply, because this meeting was not for Palestinian resistance. This meeting was attended by forces that are against the resistance and hostile to the resistance, and some persons who attended and delivered speeches, are part of the path of Oslo and normalization and, at the forefront of them, is Abu Mazen himself.

The essence of this meeting and the framework under which it was convened, and the program it was based on – all of these issues are very important and determine the outcome of any meeting or conference.

Question 2: Some say that the meeting of the factions was positive in itself, as it may lead to national unity. What is your view?

Khaled Barakat: The meeting in itself is not important. People do not convene just for the sake of meeting, unless they already decided that nothing will come out of it. It will not produce anything, and there will be no real decisions that have value.

Inside the forces of the resistance, we can disagree. We can have different points of view as much as we want. We have differences on all various issues here.

But amongst them is not treason. Amongst them is not to concede 80% of Palestine. Amongst them is not security coordination with Israeli occupation, justifying the continuation of the path of Oslo and the Palestinian official recognition of the Zionist entity (Israel).

Therefore, the point is not to meet for the sake of meeting. There must be a reason for a conference. Frankly, this is an Israeli way of convening meetings, and they have practiced it with Palestinians for 30 years. Saying let’s meet, just to talk, no problem! And that the mere meeting in itself is important and is positive, and so on.

This will not deceive the Palestinian people. Palestinians are a people who are wise and smart and understand it instantly. And that meetings must have real decisions that have value and that Israel must also see it as such, otherwise it is a waste of time.

Question 3: Some say the final statement had positive elements, like fighting normalization, supporting popular resistance, and rebuilding the PLO. What do you think?

Khaled Barakat: The Palestinian people did not stop their confrontation of normalization or their resistance.

The final statements that were produced, talking about fighting normalization. Who is going to fight normalization?

Ahmad Majdalani? And others who are frequent guests at the Zionist Herzliya Conference? One of those who delivered a speech in the conference just arrived from the Knesset, the parliament of the enemy. He is coming to lecture us about fighting normalization? And he wants to fight normalization?

Who are they trying to fool? There are figures, like Mohammed Madani, a member of the Central Committee of Fateh. He is leading a committee called the Committee for Communication with Israeli Society, a committee that has no task but normalization. He was also present in the meeting.

Here is the problem. The severe contradiction between message and messenger.

Because the most important thing: Palestinians have to present a model, confronting normalization and resisting occupation. And they do, but not the ones attending this meeting. Many of them are a bridge for normalization with the Israeli occupation. That’s why nobody believes them.

The Palestinian people did not go out in the streets celebrating that we have national unity. Because they understand that this is not national unity. If Palestinian national unity were really materialized, in words and in deeds, because the Palestinian people want to see actions and not rhetoric, even statements. Anyone can write a statement, even an excellent statement. At the end, there is no value for this unless it is truly practiced with serious actions that the Palestinian people will feel.

Today, our people, whether in Palestine or in the diaspora: They do not want to read statements, they want to see actions.

Question 4: What is the alternative for the Palestinian resistance?

Khaled Barakat: The alternative is known. All Palestinians know the alternative – ask the Palestinian people, and they will tell you the alternative in details:

The Palestinian people regain their collective decisions and national institutions, and liberate them from the class of Oslo, and banks and security agencies. That is the alternative.

And when the Palestinian prisoners’ movement regains its natural place as a decisive force in Palestinian politics, that is the alternative.

And when Palestinian refugees and the Palestinian refugee camps have a voice and a decision. They want the camp to be an audience. Well, the camps did watch them. What did they come up with?

The alternative is the path of liberation and return. The alternative is the path of Ghassan Kanafani, Kamal Nasser, Yahya Ayyash and Dalal al-Mughrabi. That is the alternative. The alternative is known!

And if we cannot today achieve liberation and return, at least to consider this a stage of steadfastness and resilience. We consider that the scrapping of the Oslo accord will be an achievement. If we end the Palestinian official recognition of the Zionist entity (Israel), this will have a value.

The Palestinian people must raise their voice and participate. Frankly, without the participation of the Palestinian masses, going out into the squares and streets and raising their voices and participating, and saying that these are our national institutions and we are going to liberate them from the 1% and the merchants of Oslo.

Otherwise, we will not be able to move forward, and the Palestinian people will not be able to regain its voice and liberate the national institutions, to liberate the Palestinian national charter, and regain it as the constitution that determines the relationship of Palestinians with each other.

We will not be able to mark one real step forward, unless it cuts with the entire stage of Oslo, the illusions of Oslo, and all of the path of Osloization that destroyed our people and cause, and shredded the rights of Palestinians, and even our people themselves.

And without Palestinian resistance forces realizing these issues, it will be very hard to move forward on the front of national unity.

The Palestinian internal front – the unity of the Palestinian internal front is a very vital and important issue. But the side that is blocking this unity, this class in Ramallah that is dominating all aspects of Palestinian national institutions, hijacking them and turning them into a private farm that benefits a certain class in occupied Palestine.

Apelo Global para Refugiados Palestinos: Não esqueceremos nossos direitos … Estamos voltando | 18 a 26 de setembro de 2020

Lançamos esta declaração na véspera da dolorosa memória dos massacres de “Sabra e Shatila” e os massacres de setembro na Jordânia [setembro negro], a fim de organizar um movimento popular palestino, árabe e internacional entre 18 e 26 de setembro de 2020 para proteger os direitos dos refugiados palestinos no caminho para a libertação da Palestina do rio ao mar. Defendendo o direito de retorno às suas casas e lares na Palestina por meio da luta, resistência e ação popular unificada, e tudo o que for necessário para enfrentar os projetos de normalização que visam liquidar a causa palestina.

Convidamos organizações, associações e partidos para aderir a este chamado e movimento popular palestino internacional. Solicitamos que assinem a declaração, assim como as demais que já fortalecem a convocação para a organização do movimento popular entre 18 e 26 de setembro / setembro de 2020, como:
Rede Samidoun para Defender os Direitos dos Prisioneiros Palestinos, Centro Negev para Atividades Juvenis no Campo Burj Al-Barajneh (Líbano) Fórum de Xadrez Palestino no Campo Shatila (Líbano) Aliança pelo Direito de Retorno (EUA) Movimento Juvenil Palestino (América do Norte), Movimento das Mulheres Palestinas – Dignidade (Espanha) Campanha Internacional pelo Direito de Retorno, Estudantes pela Justiça na Palestina (filiais dos Estados Unidos) Organização em Nossas Vidas – Unidos pela Palestina (Nova York) Liga Palestina triunfará (França) Aliança de Nova York pela Palestina, Euro Palestina (França) Rede Internacional de Judeus Contra o Sionismo (Canadá) Fórum Internacional (Dinamarca) Muslims for Palestine (New Jersey) Action Network for Palestine, Forum Palestine – Charlua (Bélgica) Independent Jewish Voices (Toronto) Amigos da Palestina Contra o Imperialismo e Sionismo, Organização de Solidariedade Feminina Palestina (Toronto) Rede de Ação contra o Imperialismo (Irlanda) Movimento Juvenil Palestino (Berlim) União Árabe Palestina Democrática (Itália).

Esta campanha popular prevista para acontecer entre 18 e 26 de setembro vem a celebrar os mártires da Palestina nos campos de Sabra e Shatila de 1982 e os mártires dos massacres de setembro na Jordânia em 1970, assim como para denunciar os traiçoeiros Acordos de Oslo (13 de setembro de 1993) e as tentativas de atingir os direitos do povo palestino e sua luta legítima por retorno. Estes serão dias de ação palestinos, árabes e internacionais – para reafirmar os direitos políticos, culturais e econômicos dos refugiados palestinos em todos os lugares, principalmente o direito de retorno às suas casas na Palestina e o de recuperar suas terras e propriedades saqueadas – no caminho para alcançar a libertação do povo e da terra palestina.
Este apelo surge no meio de uma escalada de campanha raivosa americano-sionista em andamento e em estreita cooperação com os regimes árabes reacionários da região para liquidar os direitos palestinos, especialmente com o anúncio de um acordo para normalizar as relações bilaterais entre a entidade de ocupação e os Emirados Árabes Unidos, e em face do colapso e fracasso do projeto de liquidação de Oslo e as políticas da autoridade.

Além disso, há a desastrosa Autoridade Palestina que segue cooperando e coordenando a segurança com a entidade sionista.

Centenas de milhares de palestinos e palestinos sacrificaram suas vidas e foram encarcerados nas prisões da ocupação em luta pelo direito de retorno e da libertação. O fizeram pelo bem de uma Palestina democrática em todo o solo nacional palestino, e hoje a única liderança nacional confiável é a resistência palestina e o movimento cativo palestino nas prisões da ocupação, que confrontam e enfrentam políticas diárias de opressão e liquidação e nos chamam a cumprir nosso papel e nosso dever em todo o país e na diáspora.

A normalização desses “acordos” com a ocupação são pretextos e justificativas para expandir o ataque criminoso ao povo palestino e seus direitos, coincidindo com a escalada dos bombardeios quase diários e a contínua agressão sionista na sitiada Faixa de Gaza. 70% dos palestinos no setor de resistência são refugiados que foram desenraizados de suas terras e que têm seus direitos negados há 72 anos.

Este é o momento para uma ação urgente e ampla em todos os cantos do mundo, para proteger os direitos palestinos. Apelamos a todos os apoiadores da Palestina e convocamos as campanhas de boicote internacional contra a entidade sionista, associações e organizações populares palestinas, jovens, estudantes, mulheres e as forças de solidariedade com o povo palestino para se juntar a este esforço e participar ativamente desta campanha que acontece na semana de 18 a 26 de setembro.

Vamos trabalhar juntos para proteger a Palestina: o povo, os direitos e a causa.

Vamos nos unir em nossos esforços comuns e em todos os lugares. Vamos levantar nossa voz contra os projetos de fechamento de capital, normalização e liquidação da Palestina e dos direitos dos palestinos.

Llamada urgente para firmar: ¡Rechazamos el discurso de Abbas y pedimos la unidad palestina en la lucha!

Llamada urgente para firmar:

A las fuerzas, instituciones y asociaciones palestinas en la patria y la diáspora.

Para firmar la declaración: correo electrónico shatatstatement@gmail.com o usa el formulario: http://bit.ly/shatatsignaturees

Arabe: https://samidoun.net/ar/2020/09/shatat-statement-ar/
Inglés: https://samidoun.net/2020/09/sign-on-statement-we-reject-abbas-speech-and-call-for-palestinian-unity-in-struggle/

Nosotros, los abajo firmantes, instituciones, asociaciones y fuerzas palestinas y árabes en la patria y la diáspora, rechazamos lo expresado en el discurso del presidente de la Autoridad Palestina, Mahmoud Abbas, en Ramallah el 3 de septiembre de 2020 en la reunión de las facciones, y expresamos nuestra posición ante la opinión pública palestina y a través de la siguiente declaración:

El reaccionario proyecto de liquidación estadounidense-sionista requirió reacciones palestinas excepcionales que reunieran a todas las masas de nuestro pueblo palestino en la Palestina ocupada y en el exilio. La posición tomada por el Presidente de la Autoridad Palestina en este último discurso no es más que una repetición estéril de posiciones anteriores que no cumplen con las aspiraciones y objetivos mínimos de nuestro pueblo y no responden a las tareas de ordenar la casa palestina, conseguir nuestros derechos nacionales, políticos y organizativos sin demora, y la elección de un nuevo Consejo Nacional Palestino.

En un momento en el que algunos esperaban el anuncio de la anulación de los traicioneros y desastrosos acuerdos de Oslo y la retirada del reconocimiento oficial palestino de la entidad sionista; y que este anuncio lo hiciera precisamente quien diseñó y firmó personalmente el acuerdo de Oslo en la Casa Blanca el 13 de septiembre de 1993, pidiendo disculpas al pueblo palestino y a la nación árabe y asumiendo sus responsabilidades políticas e históricas y el fracaso de un camino erróneo en el que se ha manipulado, negociado y dilapidado los logros de nuestro pueblo durante un período que duró alrededor de un cuarto de siglo y más.

Este enfoque oficial corrupto que controla todas nuestras instituciones nacionales insiste una vez más en presentar su proyecto de rendición en el que cede el 78% de la tierra histórica de Palestina y continúa su apego a las ilusiones de las negociaciones y la llamada iniciativa árabe, y la continuación de la coordinación de seguridad y persecución a la resistencia a través del espantapájaros del “caos de seguridad” en Cisjordania, además de un claro escape a las obligaciones nacionales utilizando una terminología laxa, los convierte en rehenes de las decisiones de un equipo que domina la organización actual, que no representa un consenso nacional y popular y no fue designado por libre elección popular.

En consecuencia, nuestro pueblo militante palestino y con él sus fuerzas patrióticas no pueden avanzar hacia una unidad nacional sólida que haga frente a los grandes desafíos históricos, sin dar la vuelta a las tornas y bloquear la conspiración estadounidense-sionista, y sin adoptar posiciones radicales que confronten la postura reaccionaria árabe oficial y establezcan una nueva etapa de lucha en palabras, hechos y posicionamientos claramente en contra de las políticas de Trump – Netanyahu – Bin Salman, y el eje del campo estadounidense en la región.

Nuestro pueblo palestino, a pesar de todas las grandes dificultades históricas y desafíos que enfrentaba, estuvo en el pasado y seguirá pudiendo reanudar su proyecto de liberación, retorno, restauración de sus bienes y ejercer su derecho natural a la libre determinación en su suelo nacional mediante el establecimiento del Estado de Palestina en todo el territorio nacional palestino y la liberación de su capital eterna y unificada, la Santa Jerusalén. Este es el proyecto de liberación nacional en el que está unido todo nuestro pueblo, y es el proyecto humano revolucionario que, bajo su bandera y por su realización, fueron martirizados cientos de miles de mártires, entre los que se encontraban los que lucharon durante las últimas décadas y enfrentaron el proyecto colonial con armas, piedras, palabras y toda forma de resistencia.

Nosotros, las instituciones, asociaciones y fuerzas palestinas y árabes en la patria y la diáspora, en respuesta a esta reunión, afirmamos que la verdadera salida nacional para la actual crisis palestina y el estado de desintegración y fragmentación solo puede alcanzarse atendiendo a lo siguiente:

Primero: La declaración inmediata y clara del fracaso del plan y la experiencia de Oslo, la retirada del reconocimiento oficial de la entidad de ocupación y el cese de la colaboración con ella, empezando por el cese de la “coordinación de seguridad” y el reconocimiento explícito de la necesidad de abrir un nuevo rumbo de lucha basado en la adhesión a los firmes principios nacionales, el enfoque de resistencia y liberación, y la construcción de instituciones nacionales que unan a nuestro pueblo.

Segundo: Formular una estrategia nacional unificada, alternativa a los programas de Oslo y a la llamada “solución de dos Estados”, destinada a activar todas las formas de resistencia popular y armada, empezando con el fortalecimiento de las capacidades de resistencia armada en la Cisjordania ocupada frente a las medidas de ocupación, sus manadas de colonos y los planes de liquidación, saqueo y anexión.

Tercero: Abordar la normalización y las conspiraciones de los reaccionarios árabes requiere, al principio, la disolución del llamado Comité de Comunicación con la Sociedad Israelí de la OLP. Ya no es aceptable enfrentar la normalización mientras continúan las relaciones de la organización con la entidad sionista, y no podemos abordar la normalización árabe oficial con la entidad antes de presentar primero el modelo ideal palestino.

Cuarto: Abordar los desafíos y peligros actuales requiere retirarse de todas las políticas y procedimientos injustos que han agravado las condiciones de nuestro valiente pueblo en la Franja de Gaza, que sufre bajo asedio y agresión, y poner fin a las políticas de abandono y descuido de los derechos de nuestro pueblo en la diáspora, especialmente en los campamentos de refugiados en todas partes.

Quinto: Así como considerar el derecho al retorno, los derechos de los refugiados y presos, y el logro de su liberación, como prioridades nacionales que no se pueden postergar.

Dirigimos esta declaración / mensaje a todas las fuerzas de resistencia palestina y, a través de ellas, a las bases y partidarios del plan de resistencia y liberación en todas partes en aras de la convergencia y la unidad; y trabajamos para elegir un nuevo Consejo Nacional Palestino que restablezca el respeto por la Carta Nacional Palestina y la unidad de nuestro pueblo y sus instituciones nacionales en la patria y la diáspora, para que así los libere del robo y dominio  de la corriente  de Oslo y el alegórico  proyecto de autonomía administrativa.

La responsabilidad es histórica, y el tiempo es de sufrimiento y sangre.

Y la victoria es el aliado de nuestro pueblo palestino que lucha, tarde lo que tarde.

Para firmar la declaración:

correo electrónico shatatstatement@gmail.com

o usa el formulario: http://bit.ly/shatatsignaturees

La declaración se emitirá a nombre de todos los signatarios en los días venideros

Fuerzas, instituciones y asociaciones palestinas en la patria y la diáspora

4/9/2020

Sign on statement: We reject Abbas’ speech and call for Palestinian unity in struggle!

Call for Signatures to Palestinian and Arab associations in Palestine and in Exile

Your signature is invited!

To sign the statement: email shatatstatement@gmail.com or fill out the Google form: http://bit.ly/shatatstatementen

عربى: https://samidoun.net/ar/2020/09/shatat-statement-ar/
Declaración en español: https://samidoun.net/2020/09/llamada-urgente-para-firmar-rechazamos-el-discurso-de-abbas-y-pedimos-la-unidad-palestina-en-la-lucha/

We, the undersigned Palestinian and Arab institutions, associations and organizations in Palestine and in exile and diaspora, reject the statements of the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in his speech in occupied Ramallah on 3 September 2020 at the meeting of the Palestinian factions. We hereby express our position before the Palestinian public opinion through this statement, and we hope that the largest number possible of Palestinian institutions, centers and societies will join us.

We reject this speech for the following reasons:

The U.S.-Zionist-Arab reactionary liquidation project mandates an exceptional Palestinian response to bring together all of the Palestinian masses in occupied Palestine, in diaspora and in exile. The statements and positions taken in the speech of the President of the Palestinian Authority are nothing more than a sterile repetition of previous statements that do not meet the minimum goals and aspirations of the Palestinian people. They do not respond to the necessity of putting the Palestinian national house in order or any of the other national, political and organizational challenges that must not be subjected to further procrastination and delay, first of which is the election of a new Palestinian National Council.

This came at a time when some expected, instead of this mere repetition, an announcement of the cancellation of the treacherous and disastrous Oslo accords and the withdrawal of the official Palestinian recognition of the Zionist entity! Some even may have expected that those who engineered and personally signed the Oslo agreement at the White House on 13 September 1993 would apologize to the Palestinian people and the Arab nation for this treacherous action, and assume their political and historical responsibilities for the failure of the negotiations maze, and for squandering the achievements of our people during a lengthy period of over a quarter of a century.

This corrupt official approach that controls all of the Palestinian national institutions once again insists on promoting its project of surrender, relinquishing 78% of the historic land of Palestine and continuing its reliance on the illusions of negotiations and the so-called “Arab initiative,” continuing the practice of “security coordination” and the targeting of resistance through the pretext of preventing “security chaos” in the West Bank.

Further, this approach continues to evade all national obligations (such as rebuilding the Palestine Liberation Organization, electing a new Palestinian National Council and ending security coordination) by using broad and vague language, holding these fundamental rights hostage to the decisions of one group  that dominates the Palestine Liberation Organization at present, but does not represent a national or popular consensus or respect the free popular will of the Palestinian people.

Accordingly, our struggling Palestinian people, and with them, their national forces, cannot advance toward a meaningful national unity that will confront the great historical challenges of this stage except by turning the tables and blocking the U.S.-Zionist schemes and by adopting radical positions that confront the Arab reactionary regimes’ positions. It must establish a new stage of struggle –  in word and  in deed – against the policies of Trump-Netanyahu-Bin Salman, the axis of the American camp in the region.

Our Palestinian people, despite all the significant historical difficulties and challenges they have faced, have in the past and will continue to be able in the present and the future, to resume their project of liberation and return, restore their land and property, and exercise their natural right to self-determination on their homeland by establishing the state of Palestine on the entire land of Palestine and liberating its eternal and unified capital, sacred Jerusalem.

This is the national liberation project that unites all of our people, and it is the revolutionary project that, under its banners and for its achievements, hundreds of thousands of martyrs have struggled, among whom are those who fought over the past decades and confronted the settler-colonial project with weapons, stones, words and all forms of resistance.

We, Palestinian and Arab institutions, associations and organizations in Palestine and in exile and diaspora, and in response to this meeting, confirm that the true national exit for the current Palestinian crisis and the state of national disintegration and fragmentation is through the following:

First, the immediate and clear declaration of the failure of the Oslo approach and experience, the withdrawal of official recognition of the occupation state, ending “security coordination,” and the explicit recognition of the need to open a new path of struggle based on adherence to national principles, the path of resistance and liberation, and building national institutions that unify our people.

Second, the formulation of a unified national strategy as an alternative to the Oslo program and the so-called “two state solution.” Its goal is to activate all forms of resistance, including strengthening the capabilities of the armed resistance in the occupied West Bank, the popular struggle, and the international boycott movement, to confront occupation attacks, colonialist settler hordes and plans for liquidation, plunder and annexation.

Third, the dissolution of the so-called Committee for Communication with Israeli Society of the PLO, as a first step to confronting normalization and Arab reactionary schemes. It is not acceptable to claim to confront normalization while the official relationship with the Zionist state continues, and we cannot confront the Arab regimes’ official normalization without first confronting the Palestinian model.

Fourth, to end all unjust policies that have exacerbated the suffering of our brave people in the Gaza Strip, suffering under siege and aggression, and ending the policies of neglect and exclusion of the rights of our people in the diaspora, especially in the camps and among refugees everywhere.

Fifth, centering the right of return, the rights of refugees, the rights of the prisoners and the achievement of their liberation, as national priorities that cannot be postponed.

We address this statement and message to all of the Palestinian resistance forces and national institutions, and, through them, to the supporters of the path of resistance and liberation everywhere, in order to come together, unite and work for the election of a new Palestinian National Council that will restore respect for the Palestinian National Charter, consolidate the unity of our people and their institutions in Palestine and in exile and diaspora, and liberate them from the domination and hegemony of the Oslo clique and the devastating “administrative self-rule project. “

This is a historical responsibility at a time of torment and blood. Victory is inevitable for our struggling Palestinian people, in the long term or in the short term.

To sign the statement: email shatatstatement@gmail.com or fill out the Google form: http://bit.ly/shatatstatementen

The statement will be issued in the names of all the signatories in the coming days.

Palestinian organizations, institutions and associations in the homeland and diaspora

4 September 2020

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