From the CHAZ in Seattle: Free Palestinian Prisoners, Protest Annexation 1 July

15 June 2020

Gwenola Ricordeau – police and prison abolitionist and professor at the University of California, Chico – speaks from the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle. The CHAZ was set up by protesters taking to the streets to call for police abolition and support the Black Lives Matter movement and the struggle for Black liberation after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

She calls for freedom for Georges Abdallah – jailed for 35 years in France – and all Palestinian prisoners. During her message, she urges people to participate in the July 1 actions against Israeli annexation. Samidoun also urges all to join in the 1 July protests by organizing an action or event in your local area. Please email us at samidoun@samidoun.net to tell us about your events.

Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition and the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel have issued calls to action against annexation, and we encourage all friends of Palestine to endorse both.

16 June, Online Event: South African Youth Day Seminar

15 June 2020

Tuesday, 16 June
10 am Pacific – 1 pm Eastern – 5 pm UTC – 7 pm Johannesburg – 8 pm Palestine

Register online: https://shamsaan.org/webinar-registration/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/2SunsShamsaan/

Shamsaan and our partners are launching a Webinar Series on transnational struggles resisting settler colonialism on June 16, commemorated as SOUTH AFRICAN YOUTH DAY. This June 16 is significant because it marks 44 years since the historic 1976 SOWETO UPRISINGS which was sparked by school children protesting the Afrikaans Medium Decree, which forced black schools to use Afrikaans and English as the languages of instruction. This legislation by the apartheid government was a form of further oppressing and hindering the education of black students, in order to exploit black labour and keep the unjust order of systematic racism intact.

The struggles for decolonised education in South Africa were revived by the 2015 ‘RHODES MUST FALL’ and ‘FEES MUST FALL” protests at universities. These protests have resonated across the world and currently at Oxford University; there are ongoing protests to remove the statue of the racist Cecil John Rhodes.

In USA the brutal killing of George Floyd has given renewed energy to the BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT (BLM) and has shifted mindsets the world over driven to addressing structural racism. In PALESTINE, days after George Floyd was publicly slain, a 32-year-old disabled autistic man, Iyad Halak, was killed by Israeli police in Jerusalem. This issue is not far from home for South Africans either, and the killing of Collins Khosa and more than 19 others under the lockdown at the hands of the South African National Defense Force and police has also sparked outrage. Taken together, these deaths highlight parallels between three struggles which have their roots in systems of violent settler colonialism.

While the world pledges its solidarity with BLM, it was hopeful to see thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge to begin annexing parts of the West Bank. Given the devastating but hopeful times we are in, seeing people coming together against unjust status quos around the world, it is important that we take time to engage with one another on how all our struggles for justice are deeply connected.

“LET’S CONNECT” over shared struggles and transnational solidarity in resisting systems of settler colonialism and oppression the world over, from South Africa to Palestine, to the United States of America and beyond.

“LET’S TALK” with students, activists, academics, workers, artists and organisers to re-imagine what must rise as we push for systems of oppression to fall.

“LET’S BUILD” relationships and grow a social justice movement that promotes freedom and collective liberation.

REGISTER NOW at www.shamsaan.org/webinar-registration The series will be live-streamed on Facebook and available on video platforms like YouTube and podcasting outlets.

The first episode is titled “CONNECTING THE JOINT STRUGGLES FOR DECOLONISED EDUCATION – PAST PRESENT + FUTURE”… FROM SOUTH AFRICA TO PALESTINE AND THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT.

The discussion will be facilitated by SHAEERA KALLA, a South African activist and former president of the Student Representative Council at the University of the Witwatersrand. She was involved in the Fees Must Fall movement that began in 2015 that calls for decommodified and decolonised education.

FROM USA: DR MARC LAMONT HILL, academic, activist and media personality; an award-winning journalist named on America’s top 100 most influential Black leaders and academic. His research focuses on the intersections between culture, politics, and education in the United States and the Middle East.

FROM PALESTINE: 14 year old JANNA JIHAD is a young activist who has recorded and posted reports of her life as a child living under Israeli military occupation since the age of 7. She has been awarded internationally for her work and as the ambassador of Shamsaan, travelled internationally to several countries including South Africa and the USA on speaking tours. She was named in a Knesset report as a security threat for this but she continues to produce media reports for international news agencies and has been featured in documentary films.

AHED TAMIMI is a teen activist who became a PALESTINIAN NATIONAL SYMBOL. She has protested against land confiscation and the exploitation of natural resources for settlement construction around the village of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank since she was a young child. At the age of 16, she was arrested, subjected to Israeli military court processes and jailed for 8 months after a live video of her confronting Israeli soldiers was spread online. She is currently pursuing studies in international law at Birzeit University.

FROM USA: LOUBNA QATAMI, member, and the former International General Coordinator for the PALESTINIAN YOUTH MOVEMENT (PYM) She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, PhD from the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside, Former Executive Director of the ARAB CULTURAL AND COMMUNITY CENTER (ACCC) in San Francisco.

FROM NYC: NERDEEN KISWANI: Palestinian organiser from New York City and Law student at the CUNY School of Law. Founder and Chair of WITHIN OUR LIFETIME – UNITED FOR PALESTINE, a community based Palestinian youth organization that has been building the movement for Palestine for over 5 years.

FROM SOUTH AFRICA: NEO MOSALA: Student activist from South Africa, Allan Gray Orbis Foundation fellow and Law student at the University of the Witwatersrand. Chairperson of RETHINKING ECONOMICS FOR AFRICA (REFA) at the University of the Witwatersrand. REFA is an organisation of students building a better economics in society and the classroom. Through a mix of campaigning, events and engaging projects, REFA also connects people to discuss and enact the change needed for the future of economics.

OBAKENG LESEYANE: SOUTH AFRICAN Youth activist recognized as the youngest Inaugural Public Service Fellow at Apolitical Academy ‘19. Obakeng is committed to working at the intersection of Education, Public Policy and Strategic Development centering young people in the engagement.

REGISTER NOW at www.shamsaan.org/webinar-registration The series will be live-streamed on Facebook and available on video platforms like YouTube and podcasting outlets.

Video from Madrid: All out on 1 July to confront annexation and stand for Palestine!

12 June 2020

Palestinian activists and organizers in Madrid, from Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Movement and the Jafra Group dabkeh team, pledge to come out on 1 July to resist Israeli annexation and colonization and defend Palestinian rights from the river to the sea.

Watch the video:

Full text of the video:

“In response to Samidoun’s call, we are all going out on 1 July against annexation, colonization, settlements; to demand the rights of the Palestinian people, all of our rights! Our voice will be heard for the political prisoners in Israeli prisoners, for the mothers of the martyrs, for the whole world – to demand our rights to all of our land, our right to return. Palestine, from the river to the sea and from Naqoura in the north to the Naqab in the south 1 July, we come out with Samidoun!

We’re all coming out with Samidoun 1 July! “

We urge you to join them on the streets and in this important campaign on 1 July. Many Palestinians in exile and supporters of Palestine are, like Samidoun’s members, engaged in the uprisings and mass mobilizations taking to the streets to confront anti-Black racism and demand the defunding and dismantling of police and other structures of oppression. Confronting Israel’s annexation plans – fully backed by U.S. imperialism and inspired by Zionist racism – also comes as part of the global fightback against racism, colonialism and imperialism. Israel’s crimes are backed by $3.8 billion in military aid from the U.S. each year as well as unlimited diplomatic, political and “security” support from Canada, the European Union, Britain, Australia and other imperialist powers.

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

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

In Arabic: https://samidoun.net/ar/2020/06/july-call-ar/

ILPS: Stop Canada’s arms deal with Saudi Arabia!

12 June 2020

The following statement was issued by ILPS Canada. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is a member of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, an alliance of organizations and movements that promotes, supports and develops the anti-imperialist and democratic struggles of the peoples of the world against imperialism and all reaction.

After stalling for two years, the Canadian government has renegotiated a sale of light armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia for $14 billion. The deal was put on hold in 2018 because of political pressure against Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist. This news is jolting because, in December 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had said he would not go ahead with the sale. However, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois-Philippe Champagne announced that the contract was back on the table on Thursday, April 9, 2020.

The government claims it must proceed with the deal because thousands of jobs and substantial revenues might otherwise be lost. General Dynamics is the supplier building the vehicles to be sold. The government its sales rep, General Dynamics stands to lose profits from the transaction. However, it could be involved in the manufacture of other machinery for domestic and foreign use.

In response to the objection that the items to be sold to Saudi Arabia will likely be used for war, Minister Champagne tells the people not to worry. ““Under our law, Canadian goods cannot be exported where there is a substantial risk that they would be used to commit or to facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law, international human rights law or serious acts of gender-based violence.” (The Defense Post, April 10, 2020). If that is the case, then, no military items should be exported. Champagne added that there are protections in that export permits be delayed or canceled if it learns of goods sold not used for the buyers’ stated purposes. Well, it is pretty clear that military items are for military use, just as it is clear that Saudi Arabia is an aggressor who will likely use military equipment in its aggression against Yemen and elsewhere. Saudi Arabia is committing human rights violations and crimes against humanity. The fact that the war inhibits health care and safety responses to COVID-19 is even more reprehensible.

The Canadian Chapter of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles has opposed all military contracts with Saudi Arabia all along. We have stood in solidarity with the people of Yemen who have been suffering under assault after assault by Saudi forces, calling for Saudi Arabia keep its hands off Yemen. According to Dr. Yahyia Mohammed Saleh Mushed of the Union of Arab Academics at Sana’a University, the war has displaced around 200,000 people and left the country in misery (Sanctions Kill webinar, May 31, 2020). We deplore the coalition states (US, UK, France and Canada) that arms and supports these assaults. Furthermore, we find no justify for the blockade against Yemen, and join in the calls for the illegal economic coercive measures against Yemen and all countries to be lifted, especially in view of the humanitarian concerns during a pandemic.

Canada has been on the war path for the past two decades. It stands by the US imperialist war machine steadfastly and plays a deadly role as its most fervent ally. It itself is an imperialist state with ambitions for market expansion abroad. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau voices intolerance against states that dare to follow an independent course away from the dictates and norms set by the US. His negative relations with Venezuela are the starkest example. Also, his government has been increasing the national military budget and expanding the Canadian armed forces, favouring more active engagement. Money for health care and housing has been siphoned for the folly of war.

Now with the determination to rise against domestic militarization and resist its racist blades, let us also decry international militarization and organize to dismantle NATO, the US military bases and imperialist military agreements, and send the troops home. Let us expose and put pressure against the arms trade that encourages instability and feeds off bloody conflict. Let us call for a reduction of military budgets and redirect more tax money into social services and regional economic development.

Stop the Sales of Arms to Saudi Arabia!
Reject the arms trade!
Stop US and Canadian imperialism!
Dismantle NATO!
Close all foreign military bases!
End the coercive economic measures against all targeted countries!

PayPal stands with Israeli apartheid again, closes Collectif Palestine Vaincra account

10 June 2020

The following report is translated from the French original, available at the site of Collectif Palestine Vaincra. The collective, based in Toulouse, France, is a member organization of the Samidoun Network.

*Photo by @francois for LeWeb12 Conference, Paris/Flickr*

On 9 June 2020, Collectif Palestine Vaincra was informed though a brief email that its PayPal account “has been permanently restricted.” In addition, the money in the Collectif’s account has been frozen for a period of 180 days. The online payment company referred in its message to a “violation of the terms of service,” without specifying what type of violation was alleged. The Collectif Palestine Vaincra is self-funded and independent; it calls upon all supporters to help defeat this attack by making an online donation to support its work.

Unfortunately, this attack is nothing new. PayPal has arbitrarily closed the accounts of many associations and organizations supporting Palestine in recent years. In France, PayPal closed the accounts of AFPS and BDS France in 2018. It closed the Samidoun international network account in 2019.

A few hours after the account was closed and without any public announcement from PayPal, many pro-Israeli apartheid sites and far-right organizations published sensationalist articles welcoming this action. This shows their growing fear and concern at the growing global support for the Palestinian resistance and the boycott of Israel.

In particular, they aim to attack the collective by noting that the great struggler Leila Khaled is an honorary member. This obsessive focus by right-wing forces only speaks to the continued vitality of the political project she continues to represent after a lifetime dedicated to defending her people.

Defenders of Israeli apartheid are making immense efforts to silence the many and growing supporters of Palestine everywhere around the world. One of these means of pressure is, obviously, aiming to cut off funds to these organizations, but also by multiple campaigns of defamation and intimidation. The Collectif Palestine Vaincra denounces these pathetic attempts and reaffirms its commitment to struggle for Palestinian rights and to support the Palestinian resistance fighting for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.

Read the Samidoun statement on PayPal from 2019 at this link.

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

9 June 2020

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

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

Watch Janna’s video:

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

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

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

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

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

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

9 June 2020

*Tala’at demonstration today in Ramallah, Palestine*

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

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

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

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

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

Photos and videos from the demonstrations:

Haifa demonstration:

Photos:

*Demonstrators in Rafah, Gaza, Palestine*

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

*The detained demonstrators later secured their freedom*

*Demonstrators attacked by Israeli occupation police in Jerusalem*

Khatib: Jordanian regime must stop attempts to criminalize the resistance

8 June 2020

*Historical Palestinian poster, via Palestine Poster Project*

Read the original statement in Arabic.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8 June 2020

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

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

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

Read the full statement and call to action below:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6 June 2020

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

8 June 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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