On Tuesday, 30 June, Mohammed Khatib, Europe coordinator of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, met in Madrid, Spain, with Manu Pineda, Member of European Parliament for Izquierda Unida (the United Left) and Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Palestine. The meeting was also attended by Jaldia Abubakra, feminist and community activist with Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Movement, and Majid Dibsi, journalist and Palestinian community leader in Spain.
The Palestinian delegation congratulated Pineda on his consistent stand and vigorous advocacy to defend Palestinian rights at the European and international level, including urging the liberation of Palestinian political prisoners and calling for an arms embargo, the expulsion of Israel from EU programs and an end to the EU-Israel Association Agreement in response to annexation, colonization and the ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity targeting the Palestinian people.
They also praised Pineda’s advocacy for Palestinian rights inside Europe as well, despite vicious attacks from Zionist organizations and the Israeli state. For example, Pineda hosted Khaled Barakat, Palestinian writer, for a conference on the political ban imposed on him in Germany. Zionist groups and Israel’s “Ministry of Strategic Affairs” – the anti-BDS ministry charged with suppressing Palestine solidarity internationally – engaged in a failed attempt to bar Barakat from the parliament and attack Pineda’s role in organizing the event.
Mohammed Khatib discussed Samidoun’s activities to confront the annexation plan, emphasizing the importance of clear voices from European left parties not only in condemning this latest attack but in opposing the entire Zionist settler colonial project in Palestine. He emphasized that as part of the settler colonial project, this is the latest effort to escalate attacks on the Palestinian people, forcing Palestinians from their land and plundering their resources.
He also emphasized the struggle of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails, noting that there are nearly 5,000 imprisoned Palestinians, including nearly 500 jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention and almost 200 imprisoned children. He discussed the escalating attack on Palestinian student organizers and the ongoing arrests targeting student council and student bloc members at Bir Zeit University and other universities throughout occupied Palestine.
They continued the conversation by discussing the situation of Palestinian and Arab prisoners in the jails of Arab reactionary regimes, especially those engaged in normalization with Israel, noting that the intensification of normalization campaigns has been accompanied by escalating repression targeting Palestinians and Arab activists for Palestine, such as in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.
They discussed the case of Ramy Shaath and the imprisonment of boycott movement activists – in this case, the coordinator of BDS Egypt – simultaneous with Egypt’s normalization with Israel, as well as the case of the five young men in Jordan criminalized for alleged involvement with the Palestinian resistance, including one who is already imprisoned in Israeli jails. Khatib noted that Samidoun views these prisoners as an essential part of the Palestinian liberation movement.
The group also discussed the issue of European Union conditional funding and the imposition of bogus “anti-terror” conditions designed to criminalize Palestinian resistance and subject Palestinian civil society organizations to European scrutiny and surveillance. This escalation of conditional funding comes shortly after an Israeli government campaign of attacks against Palestinian human rights defenders and civil socety organizations and reflects EU complicity in those attempts to silence Palestinian organizations, Khatib noted.
Khatib noted that these EU conditional funding guidelines – broadly rejected by The Palestinian National Campaign to Reject Conditional Funding aim to reshape Palestinian politics and organizations to meet what are, essentially, Israeli occupation demands, at the same time that the EU continues to fund and support Israeli projects tied directly to the Israeli military and intelligence agencies actively engaged in war crimes and crimes against humanity targeting the Palestinian people. He also noted that the Israeli attempts to target, smear and isolate Palestinian organizations at the European level are combined with direct repression inside Palestine. Civil society leaders like Abdel-Razzaq Farraj and most recently, Salah Hamouri, a French-Palestinian lawyer, are subjected to arbitrary imprisonment, often administrative detention without charge or trial.
Khatib emphasized the need for a strategy to confront EU complicity with these Israeli attacks on Palestinian civil society and defend these organizations working under very difficult conditions of occupation, apartheid and siege.
Pineda emphasized the strength and commitment of his solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian people. He expressed his support for the work of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network to free Palestinian prisoners and defend the rights of the Palestinian people from Israeli colonization. He further expressed that he will do all in his power to fight for justice and liberation for Palestinians.
On 30 June, French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri was once again detained by Israel. He was seized by occupation forces inside a medical clinic where he was receiving a mandatory coronavirus test, as he had planned to travel to France to spend time with his wife and child and had a flight booked for 4 July. Hamouri and his family are forcibly separated by the Israeli occupation, as his French wife, Elsa Lefort, has been barred by the Israeli occupation from entering Palestine, despite an employment contract with the French consulate in Palestine and a valid visa.
This is not the first time Salah Hamouri was detained before traveling to France to visit with his wife and family. In 2017, he was seized and held for 13 months in administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – once again, only days before a booked and planned flight to France. That arbitrary detention also came only days after Hamouri passed the Palestinian bar examination and was sworn in as a lawyer.
Hamouri is a former Palestinian political prisoner whose case was widely known throughout France as a symbol of injustice and false allegations until his release in 2011 in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange, only a few months before his sentence was to end. He has spoken throughout France and internationally at events like the World Social Forum on Palestinian prisoners and the struggle for freedom.
During his previous imprisonment, Hamouri’s case won wide support among French popular movements and even elected officials, with over 1,000 signing a call for his release. Nevertheless, French official diplomacy continued to drag its feet rather than defend its citizen, inaugurating the “France-Israel season” while Israel imprisoned a French citizen without charge or trial.
Now, Salah Hamouri is once again detained, held in the notorious Moskobiyeh interrogation center infamous for numerous cases of severe physical and psychological torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment against Palestinian detainees. On 1 July, his interrogation was officially extended for seven days, which his lawyers immediately appealed. On 5 July, the appeal for his release was denied by an Israeli court as Salah was “present” via video conference.
The French consulate in Jerusalem has been denied a meeting with Hamouri by Israeli occupation officials, who have also denied him clothing brought to him by his family.
The Ligue des droits de l’Homme (the League for Human Rights) issued a call for the immediate release of Salah Hamouri, denouncing the harassment against this “indefatigable defender of Palestinian human rights” and calling for French and European authorities to take all actions in their power to obtain Hamouri’s liberation.
On Monday, 6 July, Hamouri’s support committee called for a public demonstration at the town hall of Ivry-sur-Seine, calling for his immediate release and meaningful action from French officials.
Of course, it must be noted that France was recently condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for its prosecution and criminalization of activists calling for the boycott of Israel, and it continues to imprison Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine Georges Ibrahim Abdallah for 35 years. Public pressure is critical to compel French officials to take meaningful action to release Salah Hamouri.
Take action:
The Salah Hamouri support campaign has called on friends of Palestine and those who support Salah to send a message to French officials calling upon them to take action. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network supports this call.
A sample letter, provided by the campaign, and the email addresses for the action are provided below, as is an English translation. If you are a French citizen, please send the French version. International supporters may wish to send the English version or write their own letter!
Monsieur le Consul,
ou Monsieur le Ministre des affaires étrangères,
ou Monsieur le Président de la République,
Le 30 juin 2020, notre compatriote, l’avocat franco-palestinien, défenseur des droits de l’homme, Salah Hamouri, a été arrêté à Jérusalem-Est par l’armée d’occupation dans un centre de santé. Les autorités militaires n’ont donné aucun motif à cette arrestation. Ce 1er juillet, le tribunal a prolongé sa détention jusqu’au 7 juillet.
Le Consulat n’a toujours pas eu de réponse à sa demande de visite de notre compatriote. Sans cette visite consulaire, Salah Hamouri est totalement isolé, pendant 7 jours, dans le centre d’interrogatoire de Moskobiyeh, tristement connu pour ces interrogatoires violents, tortures physiques et psychologiques.
L’arrestation de notre concitoyen est inadmissible et insupportable. Les autorités françaises ne doivent pas laisser passer une telle infamie. Cette situation doit cesser sans délai. La France doit exiger la libération de notre concitoyen qui subit une fois de plus l’arbitraire israélien.
Je vous demande d’œuvrer au nom de la France, pour la libération immédiate de Salah Hamouri.
Veuillez agréer, Monsieur, l’expression de ma haute considération.
Dear Consul (or Minister of Foreign Affairs, or President of the Republic)
On 30 June 2020, the French-Palestinian lawyer and human rights defender Salah Hamouri, was arrested in East Jerusalem by the occupation army in a health center. The military authorities have given no reason for his arrest. On 1 July, a court prolonged his detention until 7 July.
The consulate has still not received a response to its request to visit this detained French citizen. Without this consular visit, Salah Hamouri is totally isolated for 7 days in the Moskobiyeh interrogation center, unfortunately known for violent interrogations and physical and psychological torture.
The arbitrary arrest of this human rights defender and French citizen is unacceptable and unbearable. The French authorities must not allow these abuses to continue. This situation must end immediately. France must demand the immediate release of this human rights defender who is once against subjected to Israeli arbitrary violations.
I urge you to work actively on behalf of France for the immediate liberation of Salah Hamouri.
The following statement was initially released in French by the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, based in Toulouse and a member organization of the Samidoun Network. In the lead-up to and after the successful demonstration on 1 July, which brought hundreds of people in Toulouse to the streets to support Palestine, Zionist organizations like the CRIF – which claims to represent Jewish organizations in France but instead places its highest priority on lobbying for the Zionist settler colonial project in occupied Palestine – have escalated their media attacks and propaganda campaign against the Collectif Palestine Vaincra.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands with our comrades in the Collectif Palestine Vaincra against these attempts to repress Palestine organizing in Toulouse. We note that these attempts to ban demonstrations for Palestine come only weeks after the European Court of Human Rights condemned France for its violations of freedom of expression for earlier repression, arrests and criminalization directed at activists organizing for the boycott of Israel. Of course, it must also be noted that France continues to imprison Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine who has been jailed for 35 years.
It should be noted that, in the article by the CRIF regional president, Franck Touboul, discussed below, he essentially physically threatens organizers for Palestine, saying that “his community” will “dismantle their stands” for Palestine, thereby creating a “disruption of public order.” This article openly appears to incite violence against activists for Palestine in an attempt to create a pretext for the repression of Palestine activities in Toulouse. Nonetheless, the CRIF president, by all appearances, does not seem to worry about legal consequences for this kind of agitation – instead, the organization is stepping up its demands to ban Palestine organizing and deny fundamental human rights in France, a call that apparently has found a warm hearing from Toulouse mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc.
On Wednesday, 1 July, a rally was organized in Toulouse at the call of about 20 organizations, to denounce the project of annexation of the West Bank launched by the Israeli Netanyahu/Gantz government. Nearly 300 people affirmed their support for the Palestinian people, as in many other cities in France and around the world. This was the reaction of the president of the CRIF Midi-Pyrénées in an interview with the newspaper La Dépêche. In it, Franck Touboul “denounces the inaction of the public authorities” in the face of the demonstrations of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra in particular, threatening to “go to confrontation” if the collective’s actions are not stopped. This defamatory article is the latest in a series of attacks by supporters of Israeli apartheid that aim to intimidate the Collectif Palestine Vaincra.
Franck Touboul claims to be surprised that the prefecture of Haute-Garonne has not banned the rally against the annexation of the West Bank, a project that is even denounced by the international community and the UN. With this article, he attempts to push the authorities to muzzle freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate.
More broadly, the president of the CRIF wants to ban our information stands that have been organised every month for the past year in the centre of Toulouse. He even wonders whether he should “involve activists from [his] community to dismantle [our] stand and thus characterize a disturbance of public order […]”. Franck Touboul thus aims to provoke a “public disorder” that does not exist in order to stop these activities.
He then refers to the murders perpetrated by Mohammed Merah. We denounce the equation of support for the Palestinian cause with Mohammed Merah’s anti-Semitic attacks. This rhetoric is part of a broader political strategy of mixing anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, encouraged by Emmanuel Macron’s formula that anti-Zionism was the “new anti-Semitism.” We recall that anti-Zionism is part of an anti-racist and antifascist struggle calling for an end to the occupation in Palestine. The amalgamation with anti-Semitism is an “intellectual” scam that should trick no one. We are outraged tha Franck Touboul instrumentalizes the memory of the victims of anti-Semitic attacks for a cheap political manoeuvre.
The president of the CRIF further states that the Collectif Palestine Vaincra Collective calls for a boycott of Israel in defiance of the decisions of French courts, which have “pronounced several condemnations” against boycott activists. We remind the president of the CRIF Midi-Pyrénées that last month, France was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for prosecuting activists who participated in boycott actions, emphasizing that these actions fall under the banner of freedom of expression.
Franck Touboul also attacks our campaign against the Toulouse-Tel Aviv sister city relationship. This is yet another demonstration that the campaign to challenge the twinning between Toulouse and the capital of a racist state is progressing and embarrassing the supporters of colonialism.
He also denounced “the support of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated as a terrorist organization (…)”. It comes as no surprise that a supporter of Israeli apartheid is worried about the growing defence of the project of a free and democratic Palestine, from the river to the sea, for all people with equal rights.
Finally, when the journalist of La Dépêche asked the president of the CRIF if he feared that “elements of the Jewish community would go into confrontation during the next demonstration of this collective,” the latter launched a frank appeal: “by their attitude, the public authorities give an impetus to violence. Today our members are sufficiently agitated to stop letting themselves be stepped on.” We are outraged that the president of the CRIF Midi-Pyrénées openly resorts to such gangster-style methods in an attempt to stifle all forms of expression contradictory to Israeli policy.
This new attack is an attack against all organizations and individuals fighting against racism and colonialism. These methods of intimidation will not silence us, they will not stop our solidarity!
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network fully supports this initiative taken by a range of Palestinian community, Palestine solidarity, student and social and racial justice organizations throughout Florida for a series of statewide demonstrations on Sunday, 5 July. We encourage all supporters of justice for Palestine and members of the Palestinian community to come out to these actions – or join the at-home actions provided below by the organizers:
Tampa:
Sunday, 5 July
5:00 pm
N. 50th St and E. Fowler Ave
Tampa, FL, USA
This Sunday, July 5, 2020, six major cities in Florida will be mobilizing direct action by activating a statewide “Day of Rage”. The main objectives of these rallies will be to oppose the annexation of Palestinian territory, protest the Deadly Exchange program and, ultimately, stand against the genocide of the Palestinian people. The six cities participating in this demonstration are Gainesville, Tallahassee, Orlando, Tampa, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. Alongside Palestinian liberation, this “Day of Rage” will give a platform to other international struggles and further augment the Black Lives Matter campaign.
This Palestinian struggle is intertwined in the battle against police brutality and militarism in the U.S. The regimes of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu intersect through the Deadly Exchange program. Police, ICE, border patrol and FBI from the U.S. converge with soldiers, police and border patrol from Israel to share “worst practices” that promote and extend discriminatory and repressive policing in both countries. These practices include racial profiling, massive spying and surveillance, deportation, detention and attacks on human rights defenders (deadlyexchange.org).
Francis Boyle, a professor of international law, argued in 2013 that: “For over the past six and one-half decades, the Israeli government and its predecessors in law – the Zionist agencies, forces, and terrorist gangs – have ruthlessly implemented a systematic and comprehensive military, political, religious, economic, and cultural campaign with the intent to destroy in substantial part the national, ethnical, racial, and different religious group constituting the Palestinian people.”
Starting in 1948 with the ongoing Nakba, also known as the Palestinian Exodus, Palestinians have been exiled from their homes and murdered at the hands of Zionists who are sustained by aid from the U.S. The annexation of the West Bank and extensive parts of Jordan leaves Palestinians to survive on 10% of the land whilst under Israeli military occupation and extends Israel’s illegal occupation to full control of 90% of the land. The meager region left to Palestinians will be divided by Israeli only roads, checkpoints and walls. This is the most aggressive land grab since the Naksa of 1967.
Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. aid since World War II. Most of this compensation is in the form of military assistance, although Israel has also received significant economic assistance. The U.S. actively finances the genocide of the Palestinian people and Israel actively supports the barbarity of policing in the U.S.
The people are grappling for liberation and realizing their chains are linked. Palestinians have exhibited solidarity with liberation efforts in the U.S. and this “Day of Rage” will display unification with their emancipation. As Maya Angelou said, “The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.”
At-Home Action
We are looking forward to making noise with you all tomorrow evening in Gainesville and across Florida. We know that some of us cannot take to the streets, but you can still join us in protest by making 3 phone calls. Call any office of our 2 Senators and then call your District Representative.
Check these photos to find what to say and phone numbers.
The following report is largely translated from the original French, published by Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member organization of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network:
Nearly 300 people rallied at Metro Capitole in Toulouse, France, on 1 July, the international “Day of Rage,” surrounding a giant Palestinian flag, to express their rejection of the Israeli annexation project in the occupied Palestinian West Bank and their support for the Palestinian resistance. The protest was organized by a number of groups, including Collectif Palestine Vaincra, BDS Toulouse, Secours Rouge Toulouse, UJFP, the Palestinian Association and others.
For almost two hours, the demonstrators chanted together, shouting “Israel assassin, Moudenc complice!” a reference to Toulouse mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc, who has repeatedly attempted to suppress activism in support of Palestine in the city while supporting an ongoing “sister city” relationship with Tel Aviv, despite thousands of signatures gathered to oppose the twinning.
Protesters also chanted “Palestine vivra! Palestine vaincra!” (Palestine will live, Palestine will win) and “Boycott Israel!” Many participants carried signs supporting the boycott of the Israeli occupation, denouncing the annexation plans and calling for the release of Georges Abdallah, the imprisoned Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for over 35 years. Others carried signs demanding an end to the Toulouse-Tel Aviv twinning.
Speakers representing various organizations and collectives affirmed their support for the Palestinian people in the struggle against Israeli occupation and colonization. In the speech by Collectif Palestine Vaincra, they noted that the mobilization came as part of an international day of action, alongside demonstrations taking place from the United States to Palestine to Turkey. The collective’s speech also emphasized the importance of supporting the Palestinian resistance and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. The speech also demanded the release of all Palestinian prisoners, especially Salah Hamouri – French-Palestinian lawyer seized the night before – and Georges Abdallah.
Several activists of Collectif Palestine Vaincra chanted solidarity slogans in Arabic, while the collective also ran an information table with flyers, stickers and other material in support of the Palestinian struggle.
The speech of the Toulouse BDS campaign highlighted the important victory achieved by campaigners for the boycott of Israel in the condemnation of France by the European Court of Human Rights for obstructing freedom of expression for its attempt to criminalize BDS activism. A large delegation from Courserans Palestine also participated with various solidarity banners.
On the evening before the demonstration, Collectif Palestine Vaincra also unfurled a massive banner -100 square meters in size – on the Pont des Catalans Bridge, one of the largest bridges in Toulouse,supporting the liberation of all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
I speak on behalf of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member of the international Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
Today is a Day of Rage for the Palestinian people and their supporters who are demonstrating all over the world. From Gaza to Ramallah, from Frankfurt to Madrid, from New York to Istanbul, we all say with one voice, “No to the annexation plan for the West Bank!”
A day of rage against this new step which aims to colonize more and more of the land of Palestine and make the situation ever more unbearable for the Palestinian people. For more than a century, Zionist colonisation has been advancing, from so-called “partition” plans to formal and informal annexation.
A day of rage at the hypocrisy of Western governments. On the one hand they say that “Netanyahu goes too far” with this plan; on the other hand they never impose any sanctions – and worse, they try to criminalize legitimate support for the Palestinian people.
A day of rage at the reactionary Arab regimes that are normalizing their relationships with the Zionist state by sacrificing Palestinian blood for dollars.
A day of rage at the failure of the strategy of the Palestinian Authority, which has not stopped security coordination since the Oslo Accords. And the result is clear: the Zionist occupation has never before been so extensive on the lands of Palestine.
It was a day of rage when we learned yesterday that Salah Hamouri, the Franco-Palestinian lawyer, was once again arrested in Jerusalem, and joins the 5000 Palestinian prisoners locked up and tortured by the Zionist occupation.
But it is also a day of hope! A day of hope seeing that for more than a century the Palestinian people remain steadfast! Stand up and resist! In the face of immense challenges, the Palestinian resistance continues to fight, including with arms in hand, for a free and democratic Palestine from the Jordan River to the sea. This is the meaning of the struggle of Georges Abdallah, imprisoned in France since 1984, who continues to fight despite his imprisonment – Like thousands of women, men and children who continue to resist from inside the Zionist jails.
A day of hope because the Zionist state and its allies are afraid! Afraid to see that the boycott is growing, afraid to see that solidarity with Palestine is still alive, afraid to see that Toulouse’s twinning with Tel Aviv is increasingly being called into question, because colonialism must stop! Racism must stop! Apartheid must stop!
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine jailed for over 35 years in France, released a statement in support of the growing international protests against Israeli annexation, read out in the original French at the protest in Paris on 27 June 2020, which brought thousands to the streets in a mass protest of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The image and words of Georges Abdallah – and the Palestinian prisoners – were very visible throughout the Paris march.
The translated text is below. Read the statement in French, Arabic or Italian.
Dear friends and comrades,
The Palestinian popular masses and their revolutionary vanguards have been fighting relentlessly since the late 1960s, under particularly difficult conditions. The emergence and affirmation of the modern Palestinian revolution, following the defeat of the Arab bourgeoisie and its various regimes in 1967, aroused the enthusiasm of the popular masses and the living movements of the Arab world, especially in the Mashreq. However, reactionaries on all sides never wanted to – and cannot seek to – coexist with this revolutionary hotbed in the region and in any way endorse a real Resistance to the Zionist entity, which, by the way, is not just one instrument among many others in the service of imperialism for the plunder and domination of the region. It is, in fact, an organic extension of Western imperialism. This is why the struggle of the Palestinian people in the region involves a far more complex task than other national liberation struggles against traditional forms of colonialism.
Since the very early 1970s, the liquidation of the Palestinian revolution has been high on the agenda of the imperialist forces and their regional reactionary affiliates. Wars and massacres have followed one another since then, and the popular masses have confronted them with the means and capabilities available…although the revolution has been torn (it still is today) between two poles: one seeking at all costs negotiations and endless concessions and the other focusing on resistance by all means and especially armed struggle. Innumerable battles were fought, some were lost, some were won, but on the whole and despite all the losses and despite all the mistakes, the popular masses were able to consolidate certain achievements whose strategic significance no one today can dispute.
The Palestinian people are still there and the Palestinian cause is more alive than ever: a historic path whose contours are traced by the blood of the Palestinian revolutionaries, the dynamics perpetuated by the early engagement of the Flowers and the Lion Cubs of Palestine, and the ever more illuminating light of the torches of freedom, these indomitable Resistance heroes captive in Zionist jails…
All of them are these days affirming their rejection of the infamous Oslo Accords. Perhaps it would be useful to point out that initiatives for any negotiations, and at the cost of concessions that are far from negligible, have multiplied following the so-called “intermediate program” or the “ten-point program” around 1974, at the height of the Palestinian struggle, and then the acceptance of Resolutions 242 and 338 at the 1988 Palestinian National Council session, and finally Oslo, which served neither to stop the colonization and confiscation of Palestinian land nor to prevent the ever more accelerated Judaization of Al-Quds.
For more than 27 years “they” continued to nourish illusions about the establishment of a “truly sovereign state” over less than 22% of Palestine in the midst of an active colonization project, a settler colonial project: the illusions of two “states” next to each other like old neighbours who have fallen out over a piece of land, illusions about the ability of the Zionist entity to exist normally in peacetime and to establish other relationships with the region (and not only with the Palestinian people) that would not reflect the interests of this “organic extension of imperialism”.
Since 1993 the Palestinian popular masses have been forced to endure horrible massacres and a genocidal siege and the detention of children and entire families, not to mention the demolition of houses and other property, because a stratum of compradors has been able to glimpse its interests flourishing at the end of the fantasized tunnel!!
Certainly it is not such a small matter to get out of the swamps of Oslo, especially since the instruments of repression are essentially linked to the mechanisms of counter-revolution in the service of the Zionist occupier…
The Palestinian people and their vanguard fighters have accumulated, throughout their journey of existential struggle, what is necessary to take up the challenge and continue the struggle until victory. The forces of the Resistance in the region are so strong that one can say with confidence and without bluster: victory is more than ever on the agenda. Naturally, the masses of the people and their imprisoned vanguard fighters can count on your active solidarity.
May a thousand solidarity initiatives flourish in support of Palestine and its glorious Resistance!
Solidarity, all solidarity with the resistance fighters in Zionist jails and in the isolation cells in Morocco, Turkey, Greece and the Philippines and elsewhere in the world!
Solidarity, all the solidarity with the young proletarians of the working class neighbourhoods!
Solidarity, all solidarity with the Yemeni people!
Honour to the martyrs and the struggling masses of the people!
Down with imperialism and its Zionist and Arab reactionary watchdogs!
Capitalism is nothing but barbarism, honour to all those who oppose it in the diversity of their expressions!
Together Comrades, and only together will we win!
To all of you, Comrades and friends, my warmest revolutionary greetings.
On 1 July, 2020, over 100 people protested at the U.S. consulate in Amsterdam against the continued colonization of Palestine, specifically the announced Israeli plan to annex even more of the West Bank. At the same time, tens of thousands of people in many different cities around the world took to the streets, from Palestine to the U.S., and from the Philippines to Turkey. It is clear that the ongoing colonization of Palestine will also be met with increasing resistance.
The protest, organized by Samidoun Nederland, was joined by a number of different organizations in support of Palestine, including BDS Netherlands and the PGNL, the Palestinian Community of the Netherlands.
For the entire duration of the protest, U.S. consulate personnel acted fearful and anxious, refusing to leave the consulate and go out throughout the action for Palestine. Their behavior reflects the reality: that they know the U.S. is complicit in the ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine, and that they are unwilling to face any accountability, even the popular anger of the people of the world outside the doors of their well-secured bunker.
Samidoun emphasized that the annexation attempt took place on the very same day as Keti Koti, the Surinamese celebration of the abolition of slavery, and coincides with the international flowering of the Black liberation struggle. “We are also here to show our solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the struggle of our Black comrades and communities against racism, imperialism, and neo-colonialism. Especially today, on Keti Koti, we express our support for this movement,” said Samidoun Netherlands.
Speaking on behalf of the Democratic Platform, which includes Kurdish and Turkish revolutionary organizations, Serda Nehirci emphasized the connection between the Kurdish and Palestinian struggles. “All the states that support the annexation label the Kurdish and Palestinian people, who have experienced so much suffering and violence for decades, as the ‘terrorists.’ And then we are the ‘troublemakers,’ the ‘anti-Semites?’ We will not fall for that anymore! And we must make that clear everywhere: We are very legitimate – the struggle is very legitimate! We know who our enemies are, and we know who our friends are. And we as Kurds are friends of the Palestinian people.”
On behalf of Samidoun, Yasmin Ahmed stressed the call for the immediate release of all 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners, including French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri. “When we went on a solidarity delegation to Palestine in 2017 with Dutch youth, Salah sat with us one evening together with other former prisoners. He told us about the experience of being a prisoner, including the interrogation process, which basically means torture. Salah has spent seven years in jail for his resistance. He was arrested again yesterday, while he was in a health clinic to get tested for coronavirus because he was planning to go to France to be with his wife and child. He was meant to travel in three days.”
As Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Netherlands, we call on all supporters of Palestine to continue to organize actions and to respond to the action calls of our comrades in Palestine. On July 1 there was also a protest at the Israeli embassy in The Hague.
And on Saturday, 4 July, there will be a protest in Maastricht against the continued colonization of Palestine. Join the action in Maastricht or organize one in your city. Together we stand strong for the liberation of Palestine – from the river to the sea!
The large demonstration filled the area in front of the Bundestag with Palestinian flags and calls for justice and liberation, making clear that despite the various repressive attacks undertaken against Palestinian community and Palestine solidarity organizing by the German state, the voice of Palestine continues to be heard.
In the speech on behalf of HIRAK and Samidoun, Ali emphasized that Zionist colonization and its expansionist settler colonial nature continue to attack the Palestinian land and people, fully supported by U.S. and European imperialism.
He urged Palestinians and Arabs inside outside Palestine to organize and take part in the liberation struggle against Zionism, imperialism and reactionary regimes.
Speakers in German, English and Arabic emphasized their commitment to justice for Palestine and rejection of all attempts to annex the Jordan Valley and illegal Israeli settlements, as well as their recognition that the most recent annexation threats are only the latest incarnation of over 72 years of crimes and displacement against the Palestinian people. Protesters also urged the boycott of Israel and meaningful international sanctions for Israel’s ongoing violations of Palestinian rights.
The Yafa Dabkeh Troupe performed traditional Palestinian dances to national songs, highlighting cultural resistance in the struggle for the return of Palestinian refugees and the liberation of Palestine.
As the demonstration concluded, participants joined in a collective dabkeh circle, waving the Palestinian flag high in front of the Bundestag.
The protest in Berlin came as part of a series of actions in nearly 100 cities in Palestine and around the world, confronting annexation and the Zionist settler colonial project in Palestine and calling for the liberation of the land and people of Palestine.
Signs and banners at the protest denounced annexation and Israeli colonization, while highlighting the struggles of Palestinians for liberation.
Photo: Afif el-Ali
Banners focused on the call to liberate Palestinian political prisoners, including the 5,000 Palestinians jailed in Israeli occupation prisons and Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for 35 years.
Protests were organized in, among others, occupied Palestine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Toulouse, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Baltimore, Albuquerque, Portland, Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, Toledo, Columbus, Rancho Cucamonga, Claremont, Halifax, St. Catherines, San Jose, Costa Rica, Oldham, Bedford, Saint-Denis, Amsterdam, The Hague, Frankfurt, Madrid, Frankfurt, Granada, Valencia, Valladolid, Bilbao, Athens, Sevilla, Istanbul, Johannesburg and Seoul.
Photo: Afif el-Ali
Many more were organized the prior weekend and more to come in the following days, including upcoming actions in Berlin, North Bergen, Amman, Toronto, Copenhagen, Mississauga, Dublin, Derry, Lyon, London, Nelson, Auckland, Detroit, Cleveland, Hamilton, Lisbon and more.
Thousands of people joined a massive rally and march for Palestine in Brooklyn, New York, as part of the “Day of Rage” against Israeli annexation, colonization and Zionism in Palestine on Wednesday, 1 July. The rally was led by Within our Lifetime • United for Palestine and organized by the NY4Palestine coalition, of which Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is a member alongside WOL, Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; American Muslims for Palestine – NJ; and several Students for Justice for Palestine chapters throughout New York City.
The rally gathered in Bay Ridge, a major center for the Palestinian and Arab community in New York, at the corner of 5th Avenue and 72nd Street. Over 40 speakers representing a wide range of community organizations and movements, including Dequi Kioni-Sadiki, longtime fighter for the freedom of U.S. political prisoners; representatives of Bayan, the Filipino community organization; a recorded message from political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal; and many more.
Speakers from The Red Nation, Decolonize this Place, Struggle La Lucha, NY Boricua Resistance, Stand With Kashmir, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and many more, as well as the Neturei Karta religious Jewish anti-Zionist organization also participated in the protest.
“Thanks to the initiative of our comrades in the Samidoun Network in occupied Palestine, as well as the hard work of our partners in Within our Lifetime • United for Palestine and the rest of the NY4Palestine coalition, New York held the strongest, most energetic demonstration for Palestine I’ve seen here in years,” said Joe Catron, U.S. coordinator of Samidoun.
Multiple speakers highlighted the necessity of common struggle to fight for Black liberation and the liberation of all oppressed nations and communities alongside the struggle for justice, liberation and return in Palestine. The lead banner of the protest read, “NYPD=KKK=IDF: One Struggle for Liberation.” Indeed, many speakers focused on the centrality of struggling for Black liberation as a necessary condition for the liberation of Palestine.
The rally lasted for nearly two hours as the crowd continued to grow, full of energy and militant spirit to struggle for Palestine. The march was widely attended by young people and by the Palestinian community in New York, and slogans like “Not just annexation – Not just occupation, Palestine won’t take it, Bring the whole thing down!” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “There is only one solution! Intifada revolution!” filled the air.
“Yesterday’s action was one of the most militant inspiring actions i have ever been to. It was full of youth and community who thought there could never be this many people in a Palestinian community chanting for full liberation, for all Palestinians’ land, and not just against occupation. This is the kind of empowerment that makes us and all those who attended believe we will truly free Palestine within our lifetime!” said Nerdeen Kiswani, co-founder and chair of Within our Lifetime • United for Palestine.
After the rally, a lengthy march continued for hours through Brooklyn, with chants for Black lives and Palestinian liberation reverberating through the streets before finally coming to an end in front of Barclays’ Center with dabkeh and chants, the militant mood of the day never faded.
The Day of Rage protest came alongside protests in occupied Palestine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Toulouse, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Baltimore, Albuquerque, Portland, Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, Toledo, Columbus, Rancho Cucamonga, Claremont, Halifax, St. Catherines, San Jose, Costa Rica, Oldham, Bedford, Saint-Denis, Amsterdam, The Hague, Frankfurt, Madrid, Berlin, Granada, Valencia, Valladolid, Bilbao, Athens, Sevilla, Istanbul, Johannesburg and Seoul.
Many more were organized the prior weekend and more to come in the following days, including upcoming actions in Berlin, North Bergen, Amman, Toronto, Copenhagen, Mississauga, Dublin, Derry, Lyon, London, Nelson, Auckland, Detroit, Cleveland, Hamilton, Lisbon and more.
As Palestinian community and solidarity organizers launched mobilizations in over 100 cities and towns around the world to confront Israeli annexation plans and resist over 72 years of Zionist colonization in Palestine, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network spoke with Palestinian writer and organizer Khaled Barakat about the political moment and our next steps to build on the 1 July Day of Rage and the thousands of people who took to the streets to defend Palestine, its land and its people, against Zionism, imperialism, settler colonialism and racism.
The following interview addresses some of the key questions of this historically significant moment for the Palestinian liberation struggle.
Samidoun: Today and in the preceding days, we have seen dozens of mobilizations in cities and towns around the world, from the march in Ramallah organized by Samidoun Palestine to thousands on the streets in Paris and New York, to small activities in local towns where people feel compelled to come out to resist this latest injustice. We saw a massive turnout in Gaza, we saw car caravans, people marching and all kinds of actions. What do you think this means?
Khaled Barakat: Palestinians are waking up from the great deception of the so-called “peace process” and the Oslo agreements. This is, in fact, a path of treason led by Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinians have continuously realized since the Oslo agreements, over the past 30 years, that there is no hope for this path to achieve their rights. A new Palestinian generation was born after the signing of the Oslo agreements and the creation of the Palestinian Authority, inside and outside Palestine.
Today, this generation is raising its voice. It has the historic task of taking on its rightful role in leading the Palestinian liberation movement, by force and by mobilization, by providing an alternative vision. All of these mobilizations come not only to say that they are against the colonization and annexation of the Jordan Valley or the theft of Palestinian land in the West Bank.
The major political force that is propelling this resistance is the conviction of the Palestinian people that the entire project of Israel and its existence is the problem. Our actions moving forward must proceed on this basis: confronting the entire system and working to dismantle it completely, for the total liberation of the land and people of Palestine.
Samidoun: What do you think are the next steps for the movement?
Khaled Barakat: Our people have no other alternative but to be united. This unity must be on the path of liberation and return. The real division is not between Hamas and Fateh but between the path of the “self-rule” government that serves only the 1% of Palestinian capitalists – and the path of the Palestinian masses, the popular classes, who want the liberation of Palestine.
The PLO has been confiscated from the popular classes by the 1% of Palestinian capitalists and its tools, and it must be liberated and returned to the people. You are either with the self-rule government or the liberation of Palestine, supporting the 1% of collaborators or the 99% of our people engaged in comprehensive resistance.
Today, our people realize that no one can deceive them with the so-called “two-state solution.” In fact, adopting and promoting the two-state solution is a crime against the Palestinian people.
At this moment, this movement to confront annexation is not only important as a defense of Palestinian land, although this is critical. It is also a movement to defend the workers and the farmers of the Jordan Valley. When we speak about steadfastness, we are talking about fishers, workers and farmers. These are the people who carry our cause on their shoulders. Every time a Palestinian fisher goes into the Gaza sea to feed their family, they are a fedayee – a freedom fighter. Sometimes they do not come back. Israel may kill them, arrest them or destroy their boats. When Palestinian farmers in Gaza today go to plant their land, they may face shelling with Israeli tanks and U.S.-made weapons. Supporting the Palestinian people is supporting the popular classes.
This, of course, also means fighting for the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners. Every day, those who are struggling in any means – by organizing their communities, organizing their campuses and building the resistance – are targeted for Israeli abduction, torture, interrogation and imprisonment. The Palestinian prisoners’ movement reflects the leaders of our struggle. The Palestinian refugees in the camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria and everywhere in exile and diaspora face various circumstances of siege and repression, at their core the denial of their right to return. These are the Palestinian masses, the Palestinian people, for and with whom this global movement struggles.
Samidoun: Now, everyone is saying that they are against annexation, even the Palestinian right-wing forces responsible for signing the Oslo accords. What is your view of the current political scene for Palestinians, and how can the Palestinian liberation movement truly rise to present a popular course of struggle?
Khaled Barakat: Our task today is to form a unified national front based on the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, defined by our people themselves. They are systematically denied and violated by the United States and Israel. The priority of the Palestinian people today is to protect their land, protect their rights and accumulate their strength in a comprehensive way.
At the same time, building for a united front should not hold us back or become a condition that prevents us from pushing the movement forward.
The resistance must become stronger and stronger. The popular movements must become stronger and stronger, including labor, women’s and student movements. Movements like Tal’at represent the aspirations of the Palestinian people. Movements like the Al-Awda coalitions and committees defending the right of return of Palestinian refugees everywhere. Organizations and networks like Samidoun are mobilizing people around the world to defend Palestinian rights, the Palestinian prisoners and the liberation of Palestine. Palestinian youth are taking the lead. Organizations like Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine, the Hirak Shebabi (Palestinian Youth Mobilization) in Berlin, the Palestinian women’s organization Al- Karama in Spain, Hirak Haifa in occupied Palestine ‘48, the student and youth movement, and many more, are presenting a way forward.
These are the forces that led the mobilizations today, not only outside Palestine, but also inside Palestine, along with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. These are the forces that do not rely on NGO funding from the European Union. Therefore, they dare to confront the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the United States, and adopt a necessary yet revolutionary vision for Palestinian liberation that focuses on the struggles of the popular classes, women’s struggles, national and social liberation.
Samidoun: In terms of this question of unity, there has been a lot of publicity in Palestinian media about this joint press conference of Jibril Rajoub from Fateh and Saleh al-Arouri of Hamas. Do you think this presents a real opportunity for Palestinian unity in struggle, or is this something else?
Khaled Barakat: It is not possible to unite two opposing paths – one of a program of resistance, and one of a program of concessions, negotiations and the devastation of Oslo – under the guise of “national reconciliation,” even amid the annexation project. The promotion of such meetings and conferences as a hope for unity for Palestinians promotes only illusion, especially when there remains no meaningful sign that the Palestinian Authority has truly diverged in any way from its failed path of surrender to the U.S. and Israel while repressing the Palestinian resistance through security coordination.
It is also an attempt to clean the image of Jibril Rajoub, previously the head of the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service in the West Bank. In that capacity, he practiced all kinds of repression, surveillance and detention of resistance fighters and organizations. We cannot wash away that history and present with the mere appearance of a joint online press conference. Such a media display also seeks to limit the terms of Palestinian unity to that of the Palestinian Authority: namely, the “two-state solution.” The Palestinian people have confidence only in the unity of resistance in struggle. Anything else must be met with a high level of skepticism.
National unity must be based on the principles of the Palestinian people and a program of struggle that cuts all ties with the devastating path and program of Oslo. It must not be used to burnish the appearance of the same “self-rule” Authority in the West Bank that continues, in practice, security coordination with Israel and the political repression of Palestinian resistance.
Samidoun: Many people around the world are mobilizing for Palestine by organizing campaigns for boycott, divestment and sanctions, for the boycott of Israel and of complicit corporations that are profiting from the oppression of the Palestinian people. Many of these same forces are responsible for crimes against oppressed communities around the world, the private prisons and security companies and official alliances that also attack Black communities in the U.S. and Indigenous peoples in Canada. How do you view the tasks of the boycott movement today?
Khaled Barakat: The tactic of boycott has a long history in the Palestinian movement. We boycotted British products in the 1930s. One of the first Palestinian and Arab organizations that was mobilizing in 1951 after the Nakba was the Assembly to Reject Reconciliation with Israel. This organization was founded by George Habash [the Palestinian leftist leader who later co-founded and led the Arab Nationalist Movement and then the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.] Of course, we also have the rich lessons of Palestinian boycott from the first Intifada. Boycott is an ongoing tool of Palestinian resistance, inside and outside Palestine.
The BDS campaign and boycott initiatives are an important part of the Palestine solidarity movement. When we look at BDS, we see it from a national liberation perspective. This is an important internationalist tool that can mobilize direct participation in the struggle to support the Palestinian people.
The BDS campaign includes many international organizations and initiatives that have responded to a Palestinian call to the world. It is an important part of the Palestinian solidarity movement. It is a key tool and tactic. At the same time, it is not an alternative to the Palestinian liberation movement.
We also cannot say that key political questions may be put off for the future. In reality, as I mentioned earlier, the two-state solution is a crime against the Palestinian people. It is time to be clear about the nature of the Zionist project and the necessity of total liberation, including the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to resist occupation.
Samidoun: How do you think the anger and commitment reflected in this Day of Rage can continue to build and move forward and fight back?
Khaled Barakat: The Palestinian national liberation movement is an anti-imperialist movement in its nature. The Palestinian struggle is part of the global struggle, those that confront U.S. imperialism, the capitalist system. The system that is plundering the resources of the people of the world, the system that has enslaved, exploited and continues to brutally oppress Black communities and people, the system that stole the land and commits genocide against Indigenous people. The system that sucks up the resources of the people of the world, that destroys lives and nations for profit.
Palestine is part of the camp of the world revolution. It will never change its position as an anti-imperialist, anti-racist movement. When we are building our movement, we are building that movement. When this global movement is victorious anywhere in the world, we feel it immediately in Palestine. When there are setbacks or attacks on that movement anywhere in the world, from a coup in Bolivia to U.S. economic war on Cuba, Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Iran, we also feel it immediately.
We are also part of an Arab progressive and revolutionary struggle. Palestinians have the task today to rebuild the Arab revolutionary, national liberation vision. We must be up to the task with the Arab people and the people of the region – and the people of the world – to stand as Palestinians on the front lines, confronting Zionism, imperialism and the Arab reactionary regimes that collaborate with them.
