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Monday, June 30, 2025
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Take Action Monday, 1 June: Free Ubai Aboudi! #Freedom4Ubai

This call to action is taking place amid an uprising across the United States sparked by the police murder of George Floyd, led by Black communities and movements struggling for justice, against anti-Black racism, for an end to police repression and for meaningful social transformation, including the liberation of Black political prisoners and the dismantling of police structures built on racism and oppression.

We strongly support the call of the Movement for Black Lives for a week of action to #DefundPolice and #DefendBlackLives, and we urge all Palestinian and solidarity activists to build and participate in this week, including the widespread marches, demonstrations and online actions.

Endorsing Organizations | Call to Action | Action Items | Graphics and Signs | Additional Info | Tweet Sheet

Endorsing Organizations

Call to Action

Palestinian-American researcher Ubai Aboudi, executive director of the Bisan Center for Research and Development, was abducted from his home by Israeli occupation forces on 13 November, 2019 and put in detention without charge.

Ubai, who had been working with Scientists for Palestine to organize the Third International Meeting on Science in Palestine, which took place on 10-12 January, 2020 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was later transferred from “administrative detention” to an Israeli military court, once his case caught international attention.

Ubai, a Palestinian civilian, now faces an Israeli military trial which offends the most basic US and international standards of due process, on charges which were manufactured months after he was abducted. Moreover, it appears Ubai is being charged purely for his public, civilian work in the field of education and community service, activities which are lawful for Israelis to undertake, but which are smeared as “terrorism” when conducted by Palestinians.

And despite Ubai’s United States citizenship, as well as the U.S. government’s $3.8 billion in annual military aid to Israel, the U.S. has largely left Ubai and Hind Shraydeh, his wife and the mother of their three children, to suffer alone. The State Department has done nothing to ensure that Ubai is safe, has done nothing to ensure that he is receiving due process as required by international law, and has done absolutely nothing to protect Ubai from false and unlawful military charges.

Your calls and emails have been helping protect Ubai from even more Israeli violence. Now more than ever, Ubai and his family need us to take action to demand freedom for Ubai. On Monday, 1 June take action to demand freedom for Ubai and 4,700 other Palestinian political prisoners: Join us first thing in the morning on Monday, continue all day long, and join the coordinated social media storm on Monday, 1 June at 1 pm Eastern. (10 am Pacific/5 pm UTC/8 pm Palestine time.)

TAKE THESE ACTION STEPS:

  1. Demand the U.S. government intercede for Ubai and his freedom. Call and email the U.S. State Department at (202) 647-4000. Calls are best, but if you cannot call, email: OFM-Info@state.gov, OFMNYCustomerService@state.gov, OFMCGCustomerService@state.gov, and OFMMICustomerService@state.gov.
    Further, if you are a U.S. citizen or resident, find your Congressional representative here. Use these talking points:

    • Israel is currently subjecting U.S. citizen and civilian, Ubai Aboudi, to trial before a military court, without due process, and for recently manufactured charges. 
    • The U.S. government must immediately intercede to secure Ubai’s immediate and unconditional release, and must reject any charges against Ubai as illegitimate.
    • Ubai was interred in an Israeli military center for months without charge under “administrative detention”  – along with over 400 fellow Palestinians – until international pressure forced the Israeli military to manufacture charges against him.
    • Israel, and its military, is now being investigated for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, including for its breach of due process, torture and abduction of Palestinians.
    • Israeli military courts convict Palestinian defendants at a rate of 99.76%.
    • Israel routinely subjects Palestinians in military detention to mistreatment, including torture.The Israeli military apparatus is estimated to torture over 95% of Palestinians they abduct, including children.
    • The US must also impose meaningful sanctions for Israel’s crimes against Palestinians, including over 4,700 Palestinian political prisoners. These crimes include its abduction and torture of Palestinian men, women and children. The U.S. must immediately end its $3.8 billion in annual military aid.
  2. Ask your organization to endorse this call to action. Please use the form here – visit the link at https://bit.ly/action4ubai.
  3. Join a social media storm at 10:00 am Pacific time (1:00 pm Eastern time, 5:00 pm UTC, and 8:00 pm Palestine time.) Share content about Ubai with the hashtags #Freedom4Ubai and #Science4Palestine. Use this handy tweet sheet for suggestions: https://bit.ly/tweet4ubai
  4. Post pictures and videos of yourself and your organization demonstrating in solidarity or holding up the signs to support Ubai.

    Check below for signs that you can print out and hold, or design and share your own! Use the hashtag #Freedom4Ubai to help others find them.Take a selfie, like this one of Samidoun’s international coordinator, with one of the signs.
  5. Demonstrate publicly where local conditions and restrictions allow. If possible, organize a car caravan, protest or rally in a public area, then share photographs and footage of it online with the hashtag. Bring the signs above to your local actions and demonstrations for social justice and against anti-Black racism and take a photo along with your banners and signs in defense of Black lives and for Black liberation.

Graphics and Signs

Printable sign (Download PDF):

Printable Sign (Download PDF):

Printable Sign (Download PDF):

Printable Sign (Download PDF)

Within Our Lifetime Image for Social Media:

Samidoun image for Social Media:

Resources on the Case of Ubai Aboudi

From Gaza to Minneapolis, one struggle for justice and liberation! #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its firmest support and solidarity to the Black liberation movement, the friends and family of George Floyd and to all of the people taking to the streets in Minneapolis and elsewhere to demand justice, accountability and an end to racist and colonial police terror. The blatant act of police murder, in full view of multiple cameras, indicates a form of confidence and impunity that is not limited to the murderer himself, Derek Chauvin, but reflects the institutional, racist, oppressive structure of U.S. policing. We support the uprising in Minneapolis, the intifada of people subjected to an ongoing, vicious and structural racism, inheriting a lengthy and rich tradition of Black resistance, organizing and struggle.

Tens of thousands have come out to make clear that they will resist the ongoing, violent assault of police forces against oppressed communities and particularly Black and Indigenous communities. As Frank Chapman of the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression noted:

“Yet another murder of an unarmed Black person in the month of May. Finan Berhe, in Springfield, MD, Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, GA, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY and now George Floyd in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN and all this in the worst pandemic in a century. What an outrage, what an American made tragedy that the lynching of Black people continues unabated, that racist terror continues to stalk the land like a beast of prey. With the brutal, callous murder of George Floyd, when one cop crushed the breath out of brother Floyd with a knee pressing down on his neck while other cops stood by watching. At best they were complicit in the murder of George Floyd. No wonder the people rose up in righteous anger demanding justice for George Floyd and an end to this legacy of racial terror that plagues not only the Twin Cities but the entire country.”

As a Palestinian prisoner solidarity network, we are deeply aware that the United States and Israel not only share a common settler-colonial, racist foundation and fundamental reality, billions of dollars in military assets and a joint imperialist project in the Arab region but also tactics, trainings and “security” frameworks used against Black communities in the United States and against Palestinians living under occupation, apartheid and colonialism. We see the indelibly devastating images of the murder of George Floyd and recognize the same racist impunity that did not hesitate to cut down the lives of so many Palestinian and Black martyrs.

Image by Carlos Latuff for Mint Press News

U.S. police forces truly are occupation forces inside cities and communities nationwide, and so this sharing of tactics and joint colonial approach comes as no surprise. However, it must impel us toward escalated and meaningful action in solidarity with the Black liberation movement. There is a tradition of internationalism and joint struggle that has a profound history, legacy, present and future in both the Palestinian struggle and the Black movement, an anti-colonial, anti-imperialist framework for liberation.

Khaled Barakat noted:

“Palestinians know well the use of mass imprisonment to maintain racist domination and oppression and breaking the racist structures of imprisonment is critical to our liberation movement. We salute Mumia Abu-Jamal and all of the political prisoners of the Black liberation movement in U.S. jails and call for their immediate freedom…Since the earliest days of the Black movement in the U.S., from slaves revolting for freedom to the civil rights movement and beyond, Black people, organizations and movements have faced severe state repression, targeting, incarceration and killings at the hands of the state. U.S. domestic intelligence agencies such as the FBI, who target Palestinian and Arab communities for state repression, have for years focused on attacking Black movements, leaders and communities as a central project.”

The murder of George Floyd by police was the deliberate killing of a prisoner, a systematic extrajudicial execution. It was a death through torture at the hands of the state, a crime against humanity in a long line of such crimes committed inside and outside the United States by its authority, from the genocide of Indigenous people to the enslavement of Black people to the wars, killings and murderous sanctions of U.S. empire.

We recall the words of Ahmad Sa’adat, writing in response to the words of Black revolutionary Huey Newton:

“From inside the occupier’s Ramon prison, on behalf of myself, my comrades and the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, we extend our clenched fists of solidarity and salute and arms of embrace to our Black comrades whose struggle for liberation in the belly of the beast continues today against fierce repression…So when we witness the escalation against our movement as we see today in the Philippines, as we see the murderous and orchestrated attacks on our Palestinian resistance, as we see the criminalization of Black people and movements, it is clear that we are still facing the situation that Huey Newton identified and confronted. We are still seeking to defend our peoples from the relentless assaults of capitalism, Zionism and imperialism and their police and military forces…The struggle, the cause, and the movement of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Movement are not a closed file. It is an open file, an ongoing struggle and a continuing movement for justice and liberation….You could feel the legacy of the Black Panther Party and the continuing Black struggle on the streets of Chicago, Oakland and Harlem. There are people who carry within them the legacies of struggle as a human treasure. The experiences of the elders of our movement, especially those who have come through prison, stand alongside the ideas passed down through writing, books and literature in carrying on, from one generation to another, the trajectory and path of struggle toward a future in which youth are coming forward to lead Black and Palestinian revolutionary struggles for liberation.”

Sa’adat continued, with words that resonate with the images and sounds of people in motion in Minneapolis today. “The law – the law of the imperialist and the colonizer – is used to steal the rights and resources of our people and also to justify our imprisonment and repression and criminalization. Through the collective “breaking” of the law and its power to define justice and injustice – when people, collectively, confront and “break” the law, not merely as individuals but as a collective power, it loses its claim to legitimacy. Breaking of the law must become the norm, and not the exception – the law of capitalism, imperialism and exploitation.”

Samidoun expresses our deep solidarity with the intifada in Minneapolis and joins the demands for justice for the martyr George Floyd and the dismantling of the systems that killed him. We urge all to support the organizing being done in Minneapolis, including the work of the Minnesota Freedom Fund, an organization providing direct jail support and bail funds for protestors, as well as the array of movement fundraisers they recommend. We also urge all to join the NAARPR on the 30 May day of action against racist murders and police violence and for freedom for the imprisoned.

Glory to the martyrs – victory will come, through struggle. From Gaza to Minneapolis, from all of Palestine – from the river to the sea – to all of Turtle Island, one struggle for justice and liberation!

#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #BlackLivesMatter #LongLiveTheResistance

Israeli military court once again detains Palestinian former hunger striker without charge or trial

Huzaifa Halabiya Bader with his daughter, Majdal, after his release from his previous term in administrative detention

Former long-term hunger striker and Palestinian detainee Huzaifa Halabiya Bader was once again ordered to six months in administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, by the Israeli Ofer Military Court on 25 May 2020. The new administrative detention order comes only five and a half months after he was released in December 2019 from a previous period of imprisonment without charge or trial, during which he conducted a 67-day hunger strike to win his freedom.

Israeli occupation forces raided his hometown of Abu Dis near occupied Jerusalem on 17 May, seizing Bader from his home. He was once again taken from his young daughter Majdal, who was born during his previous imprisonment. Bader, 29, suffers from a number of health concerns, and his imprisonment amid the COVID-19 pandemic is raising even greater alarms. He survived a serious fire in an accident as a young boy, leaving him with burns over the vast majority of his body, and later survived leukemia. As a result, he has consistently required specialized medical treatment, while Palestinian prisoners are subjected to systematic medical neglect and mistreatment inside Israeli jails.

Israeli occupation forces invade occupied Abu Dis on 17 May to abduct Huzaifa Halabiya Bader.

During his previous term in administrative detention, dozens of Palestinian prisoners joined solidarity strikes and refused meals to join the campaign for his release as he carried on a 67-day hunger strike for freedom. His community in Abu Dis maintained ongoing solidarity tents and vigils to demand his freedom, while protesters elsewhere in Palestine and internationally echoed the calls for his immediate release.

He is now one of approximately 500 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial, out of nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners in total. Administrative detention was initially introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate and has been embraced by the Zionist regime to arbitrarily detain Palestinians, especially community activists, student organizers and other influential leaders in their community. Administrative detention orders may be issued for up to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable; Palestinians have spent years jailed without charge or trial as a result.

It is notable that the new arrest and arbitrary imprisonment of Huzaifa Halabiya Bader comes as the Israeli regime – along with its U.S. imperialist partners – plans and promotes the official annexation of even more of occupied Palestine, specifically the fertile Jordan Valley.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Huzaifa Halabiya Bader and all Palestinian prisoners, especially those jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. Administrative detention is a colonial mechanism aimed to prevent, disrupt and target Palestinian resistance and organizing in any form, removing leaders from their communities as they confront the daily violence of Zionist colonialism, apartheid and occupation. We urge the broadest international solidarity to demand the release of Huzaifa Halabiya Bader and all Palestinian detainees, including building the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions and the isolation of Israel.

From the Belly of the Beast! Week of Struggle Against US Imperialism – May 25 to 31

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is a member organization of the International League of People’s Struggles. We urge all to get involved in the Week of International Struggle against US Imperialism, 25-31 May 2020! 

Join the ILPS International Week of Struggle Against US Imperialism from May 25 to May 31, 2020!

Amid the pandemic, peoples and nations are rising up and asserting their interests and demands as corporations and governments gear up for a “new normal” under the same system. With more than a century since Lenin’s seminal work on imperialism was initially released, we continue to see the ongoing relevance and vital importance of building a broad proletariat-led movement to smash imperialism.

As US-based peoples, we are one with the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia: to fight back and defeat US intervention and fascist reaction.

We want an end to the old system of imperialism, plunder and war. We want real change.

TO PARTICIPATE:

  1. Initiate offline and online actions within your organizations to confront and condemn US war and militarism and uplift anti-imperialist people’s movements. Share your events with us at bit.ly/ILPSUS-AntiImpeWeek
  2. Invite your friends and networks to the ILPS US Facebook event and make sure to monitor for updates
  3. Share updates on your events, actions, statements media and prop highlighting your anti-imperialist struggles on the Facebook event
  4. Make sure to tag ILPS on social media (IG: @ilps.us and FB: International League of Peoples’ Struggle-ILPS US)
  5. Use the hashtags #AntiImperialistWeek2020 #LeninLives

DOWN WITH US IMPERIALISM!
BUILD THE BROAD ANTI-IMPERIALIST UNITED FRONT!
LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!

OPPOSE THE US IMPERIALIST STRATEGY OF REGIME CHANGE! ORGANIZE TO STOP US IMPERIALISM AND BUILD A BETTER WORLD!

STATEMENT OF COMMISSION 4 OF THE ILPS FOR ITS ANTI-IMPERIALISM, ANTI-WAR WEEK MAY 25-30, 2020

(You may access the pdf version here.)

The global scenario: acute crisis and inter-imperialist contradictions. The COVID-19 pandemic has conflagrated it. ILPS studies of state responses to the pandemic confirm the disasters wrought by neoliberal austerity and privatization policies which have crippled health care systems and put workers in even greater peril around the world.  The military-industrial complex, the engine of monopoly capitalism, including big pharmaceutical companies, seek to exploit the crisis, destroy progress and steal more resources from state, natural environment and labour to keep profits flowing. They demand that the workers sacrifice themselves for the well-being of a few, to give up their livelihoods or risk direct contamination on the job in conditions which have been underpaid and unsafe all along. As usual, the most oppressed, poor and vulnerable populations are suffering the most.

Meanwhile, tensions among imperialist states run high and the US keeps on punishing states that do not comply with the US imperialist model and policies by maintaining cruel sanctions, depriving whole populations of medicine and food. Neither has the US and its allies relented its militarization, threats and active military engagements from Syria to Venezuela. It continues to support the most reactionary regimes such as those of the Philippines, Israel and India in order to attain their narrow and anti-social goals.

The situation is driving working people to organize community systems to cope, and at the same time they raise more questions, voice objections and act politically. The ILPS has called for a week of anti-imperialist activities as one step in uniting and building the anti-imperialist movement for a better way. This follows the development of its international and chapter-wide education programs to discuss and enhance understanding of the crisis informed by Leninist analysis and organization principles in this year of Lenin’s 150th birthday.

Commission 4 operates on the principle of just peace, which is peace with guarantees of social, economic and political justice. The people resist imperialism and reactionary, oppressive regimes, rightfully refusing to give up until their demands for land, political and social reforms are properly addressed. In fact, we urge that the people step up their education, organization and mobilization to stop imperialism and win just peace according to local conditions and in whatever ways they can.

Though its own society is crumbling, its people rising in anger and its global influence waning, the US is still the biggest military force charged with defending the monopoly capitalist system. It is the center of the world arms trade. It has a nuclear warhead stockpile of over 6,000 and has produced some 70,000 since 1945. Its rivals, Russia and China, have likewise kept and produced thousands. The US has at least 700 military bases around the world and sharing or visiting agreements in more locations. Its proxies and satellites such as Australia, Canada, Turkey and Colombia provide resources and act on its behalf. With a 2020 military budget of some $800 million, robbing its people of guaranteed public services and decent living conditions, it demands other states to give up funds and other resources and put their own people in harm’s way to supply its war machinery, for which inhumane domestic austerity programs have been intensified.

The context of an all-sided crisis of the global system and the major imperialist powers has inspired the US to adopt a  multi-faceted, aggressive strategy dubbed as “hybrid war, ”often cloaking these destructive practices in terms such as ‘counterinsurgency’ or ‘overseas contingencies operations.’ That is the fierce and relentless repertoire of tactics including weapons of mass destruction, bio-weapons, xenophobia, economic coercive measures, cultural assault, media and psy-war, cyber warfare, espionage, deals with crooks and murderers, and political interference and manipulation.  Politically, the US and company are leaning further to the Right, away from bourgeois democracy, social development, law and science.  In desperation, they are collaborating with reactionary, fascist and terrorist elements while they try to bend the law and the truth.

LATIN AMERICA

In a recent webinar hosted by activists in the US, Carlos V. Ron Martinez, Vice-Chancellor of Venezuelan Foreign Affairs for North America, spoke about “why the US is obsessed with Venezuela.” He explained the two main reasons for the US’ desire for regime change in Bolivarian Venezuela: the nationalization of its oil industry and its independent foreign relations with states such as China, Russia and Cuba. Bolivarian policies rub against the geopolitical norms and policies that the US imperialists and its allies prefer. [Notes from a webinar entitled “An Inside View of Venezuelan Resistance to US Imperialism and How to Build International Solidarity” recorded on April 23, 2020 and uploaded to the Facebook page “Stop the Machine! Create a New World!”]

The Bolivarian government uses the oil industry as the “motor of its economy” to help the people.  The late President Hugo Chavez revived OPEC discussions independently and began reversing privatization by renationalizing its oil industry in 2001. He renegotiated the terms of contracts with big private players such as EXXON in 2007. When world oil prices were dipping in 2013, President Nicolas Maduro reopened OPEC discussions. That is when US President Obama started imposing coercive economic measures against Bolivarian Venezuela by Executive Order. These sanctions have since intensified. Today some $5 billion are frozen in various banks out of allegations of corruption and $30 billion of revenues have been lost from the Venezuela state corporation’s sister company in the US, Citco, which the US overtook. Thus, the capacity of the renewed state to provide and build services for the people has been drastically reduced. The people cannot acquire daily necessities because of the sanctions. It makes coping with COVID-19 especially hard. [ibid.]

Vice-Chancellor Martinez describes this “bizarre context” which the US is employing a “maximum pressure strategy” to force the Bolivarian government to change. It has tried to take advantage of the switch in government and COVID-19. It is backing the most reactionary elements lead by Juan Guaidó  who block discussions with all the opposition parties in the Venezuelan national assembly, while the US is threatening military intervention unless President Maduro accepts its “transition plan” to have him step down and have a coalition government chosen by the US to take over. It has even proposed this plan to  the UN . It also continues its provocations, such as the outrageous, baseless indictment against the Maduro government for supposedly trafficking narcotics. “This [strategy] is basically overthrowing a government,” says Martinez. The US will not rule out a full scale, all-out military intervention. He describes it as “the biggest military mobilization in 30 years” going on in the waters surrounding Venezuela, in addition to land border incursions by mercenaries. This scenario of “hybrid war” poses a “very dangerous situation” for the Venezuelan people and the whole region. His government is calling for the US to step aside and allow parliamentary discussions to proceed in order to smooth out internal conflict. [ibid.]

WEST ASIA

West Asia (aka Middle East) is rife with conflict because of the long and brutal history of British colonialism, which the US inherited. The US and its partners in crimes against humanity including local reactionary leaders want to ensure that (1) transnational corporations have access to the oil and other industries, and (2) national independence and social liberation are thwarted. They are hostile to nationalized industry and social reforms, not just socialism. The Turkish state enjoys the support of its NATO allies in its barbaric campaigns to subdue labour and crush Kurdish self-determination movements in Turkey and Syria. Iraq remains in turmoil with Islamic state and NATO forces actively trying to frustrate Iraqi independence. The US is constantly challenging Iran for its independent policies. The US, Canada and European states support Saudi Arabia’s attacks on Yemen, which is destroying Yemeni society and causing famine. (Canada has made deals to supply the Saudi military.) Since 2011, the US, supported by its allies and mercenaries, and Islamic state terrorists have been assaulting Syria. Today, part of Syria is occupied by Turkey and Israel. Millions of displaced Syrians have fled and are languishing in refugee camps with little to no protection from COVID-19.

Despite the US’ hypocritical claims about democracy, human rights and international law, US imperialism and reaction oppose Syria’s struggle for sovereignty and independence. Speaking in a webinar hosted by Sanctions Kill on May 9, 2020, the Syrian Ambassador to the UN, Bashar Ja’afari, explained that the “punitive and unlawful unilateral, coercive measures” (i.e. sanctions) impede the Syrian government’s functions to support the health care sectors and finance responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Never endorsed by the UN Security Council, the illegal sanctions have been blocking bank transfers and freezing Syria funds abroad. This resulted to price inflation. Trade and humanitarian assistance is greatly restricted, except those allowed by US to reach terrorist factions in the west and north. The EU also refused entry to a Syrian aircraft sent to retrieve Syrians in Europe on May 9. Ambassador Ja’afari sums up the multi-pronged strategy of US-led imperialism as “health terrorism, financial terrorism, education terrorism, and media terrorism” in addition to military action. [Click on the Facebook or Youtube video link on https://sanctionskill.org/resources-2/]

“All Arab lands are under some form of colonialism today,” said Palestinian activist and writer Khaled Barakat during a webinar broadcast on May 16. The webinar was hosted by ILPS member Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network [https://www.facebook.com/SamidounPrisonerSolidarity/].   After invading and destroying Iraq society, the US wants Iraq, an intersection of various nations and conflicts, to also serve as a second control in the region. Barakat elaborated that Israel, far from having evolved as a nation-state historically, was manufactured by British colonialism and maintained by US neo-colonialism (aka present-day imperialism) to serve capitalism and Western imperialism.  It is a settler colonizer. US-led imperialism supplies Israel with the arms and technology for it to be the strongest power in the region capable of protecting capitalism and maintaining reactionary rule, said Barakat. He asserted that “Israel is a deathtrap”, one that desires to perpetuate conflict. Israeli reactionary and US imperialist discourse fog up the reality that Israel occupied Palestine. Religion is not the source of the conflict, as three religions have always existed in the Palestinian population. The Israel state always gets in the way of dialogue and cooperation in the region. Peoples’ self-determination movements, such as those in Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia, have really just begun recently, claimed Barakat, with the only measure of success so far being Tunisia.

The region is a pivotal arena of international struggle.  It is important to work together to build the anti-imperialist struggle and aim to build socialist societies that do not oppress the peoples. This way, anti-imperialists can push national liberation movements, at their own pace and according to each set of circumstances, to unite with sectoral struggles, and march forward towards freedom and peaceful co-existence with social justice.

SOUTH ASIA

On August 5, 2019, India clearly unmasked its imperialist face to the world. The Modi government in India revoked Article 370 of its constitution that had allowed the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOK) a certain amount of autonomy: their own constitution, a separate flag and freedom to make laws. From that day onwards, the IOK has been under siege by the Indian military. More than 700,000 Indian troops have been deployed to the region, with the people of IOK facing a fresh onslaught of brutal killings, harassment, and persecution. The region has been completely cut off from all types of communication including mobile and internet services.

Kashmiri activists believe that the fascist Indian government is now following Israeli Zionist strategies to subjugate Kashmiri freedom fighters, which is well proven by statements by Indian officials. A Muslim majority area, the IOK faces fresh waves of killings with the ultimate goal of bringing in Hindu Indian settlers to change the demography as is happening in Occupied Palestine. There have been blatant statements about purchasing land in Kashmir and diverting foreign investments to the region. As part of the multi-polar world where imperialist powers are vying to annex and occupy territories, the fresh onslaught on IOK is part of the open race for control of raw materials, labor and markets. Rich in its natural bounty, Kashmir is a key target for many reasons including its geo-political positioning.

There is little doubt that India is simultaneously flexing its muscles towards China, which also claims territorial rights to parts of IOK. This is also partly a retaliation to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) agreement between China and Pakistan, the starting point of the corridor being Gilgit, and is considered by India to be part of the disputed territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir that is supposed to be under Pakistani control.

India’s imperialist policies in IOK cannot be viewed solely on their own merit and need to be understood in the light of the current strong ‘bonding’ between fascist regimes of United States of America and India. Trump’s trip to India was an open acknowledgment of their combined political and economic ambitions in the Asia region, referred to as the Asian Century, which is where the future growth lies. No doubt, it’s the US hegemonic agenda and military power which India is counting upon for its aggressive posture in South Asia.

The struggle between capitalist and people movements not only in Kashmir but across South Asia is rising where the various states, through nation-state lenses, are trying to divide the people’s movements and nullify their aspirations of national liberation. The test of time is not to fall sway to the slogans created by fascist regimes that foster religious and national divides, but to come together on the basis of collective peoples’ solidarity demanding social justice and long-lasting peace. This is no doubt only possible by engaging in resistance against monopoly capital.

CALLS TO ACTION

The imperialist system is the root of most of the major problems facing the people. It is imperative that the people rise together against it with a vision of constructing a new way according to the people’s will and present regional conditions.

Organize, unite and mobilize to stop imperialism!

Deactivate all WMD!  Oppose the arms trade!

End all general economic coercive measures!

End the occupations now!

Down with fascism and militarization!

Struggle for just and lasting peace!

Salam Taha: 82 days of interrogation in the al-Moskobiyeh slaughterhouse by Hind Shraydeh

by Hind Shraydeh

The following article, by Palestinian writer Hind Shraydeh, was originally published in Arabic at Hadf News:

Salam and Rubou’The different meanings of “Peace”

To some who hold power and authority, “peace” is linked with settlement and accommodation, with privileges they aspire to obtain in exchange for crumbs of the historic Palestine. Salam, on the other hand, whose name in Arabic means “peace,” exemplifies another meaning for the term.

Salam Taha was born in the village of Deir Abu Misha’al, situated northwest of Ramallah city. He adores the sea, although he was deprived of enjoying it due to the occupation. Salam usually escapes from the noise of the city to Khirbet Al-Rachniyeh east of the village, to relish the green views of his secret place, gazing towards the occupied Palestinian coast, confronting his feelings with absolute silence, and spending time in spacious verdant fields.

“He is the most shy among us but the bravest too,” says his friend at university.

Arrested while caring for his child

Israeli military soldiers raided Salam’s house after exploding its door to make their entry. They attacked Salam, forcing against the wall and cowardly hitting his body with their rifles.

It was four o’clock in the morning, when Salam was awake caring for his one-month baby, Cana’an. He never knew it is going to be his last turn in the ongoing rotation with his wife, Rubou’  or that he would be unable to look after his child for quite a long time.

Salam was tied to the kitchen chair, while military soldiers ransacked his place, turning it upside down. They were looking for his older mobile phone, which was directly in front of them the entire time, but they claimed not to notice it while acting in such a vicious manner.

Salam remained placid, as if he was unbothered, and mocked the soldiers’ actions, an attitude that angered the chief officer, who tried to provoke Salam by cursing his wife Rubou’ and directing profane insults at her while she prepared some milk for her child to calm his continuous crying during the assault. He stared at the chief officer with a shaming look, as if asking, “Is this the way you are raised to respect mothers?!”

He hummed a melody, with unidentifiable lyrics, repeating the only recognized words of it, which were “you may.”

After the extensive vandalism inside the house, the Israeli soldiers handcuffed Salam’s hands and grabbed him tightly from the shoulders. Rubou’ quickly knelt down on the ground, trying to put her husband’s shoes on with all care and diligence.

Salam saluted her, saying, “It will not take so long… I will come back soon.”

“This is how my husband was abducted on a Friday at dawn, 30 August 2018, only two days before his master’s degree studies commenced, as he was registered in the International Studies Program at Birzeit University,” Rubou’ says.

Salam with baby Cana’an

Earning his undergraduate degree with several interruptions

Over 80 students at Birzeit University are currently imprisoned in Israeli prisons. 20 of them are held under administrative detention, without any charges or trial. Their detentions are based on the “predictions” of the area commander of the Israeli military occupation, that these students might pose a “security threat to the state of Israel.” The rest of the students face indictments in military court, mostly revolving around involvement in student activities inside the university.

“Salam earned his BA degree in political science with a minor in public administration. His undergraduate studies were frequently interrupted by arrests, which extended the normal duration required to finish his studies,” Rubou’ stated.

There are students whose first university degree take them double the time they actually need to complete all their university requirements, in addition to courses related to their specialty. Students fail to join their classes, due to their repeated detentions, and yet try hard to resume their studies again at an older age with younger cohorts and sometime different generations than the ones that launched with them their academic journey.

Last week, three more student leaders were abducted by Israeli soldiers, just days before the end of the semester: Izz Shabaneh from the village of Sinjil, Mehdi Karajeh from the village of Saffa, and Basil Barghouthi from the village of Beit Rima.

Salam’s secret weapon

The Sunday after the invasion, Rubou’ knew that her husband is being held at Al-Moskobiyeh interrogation center in Jerusalem, where Salam remained for 46 days of harsh interrogation, during which he was banned from seeing his lawyer. Salam visited Jerusalem not as a tourist visiting the Dome of the Rock or the Holy Sepulcher, but rather stuck in an underground dungeon with numerous torture methods that are hatefully designed in order to drain the prisoner’s will. Fluorescent lights were switched on 24/7, causing him a severe headache and irritating his eyes, coupled with echoes of  endless screaming and low temperatures directed on his body by an air-conditioner were only some of the examples of the constant pressure and inhuman treatment.

After three months of detention, Rubou’ decided to take the risk in order to cheer her husband up and transfer to him good feelings to help him stay strong and carry on with a brave heart. She decided to provide her husband with a secret weapon while attending his court session.

How is that possible if even a tissue is not allowed to pass through the punitive inspections and searches?! She took extra care of her outfit, wore her favorite jacket, closed its buttons, and luckily succeeded to pass through the first inspection, the second one through an automatic inspection machine, and the last personal one, that looks like two harassing hands passing an electronic stick over your body. After she waited outside in the cold for hours, the security guard notified Rubou’ that it was time for Salam’s trial. She walked into the court room with her surprise and unbuttoned her jacket, where Salam was able to see his son Cana’an’s smiling face printed on Robou’s T-shirt. For two minutes long, the security guards were frozen in place. They did not know how to deter such a secret weapon!

Rubou’ laughed while recalling the incident, saying: “I felt that we had won a victory … the guards were frozen and did not know what to do! They think they can abolish the longing in our hearts, but we proved them wrong. This was my way of resistance and standing by Salam’s side”.

82 days of harsh investigation in the Al-Moskobiyeh slaughterhouse

“Salam did not sleep for so long, he was immensely pale, and bleeding from his wrists due to the tight shackles around them. The prison administration employed a number of interrogators who created stories and fake scenarios about our family to weaken Salam. Some of their fabrications were about me, his wife, and our son Cana’an, found dead in a car accident, others were about bringing me for interrogation in a room adjacent to Salam’s cell”, Rubou said, recalling what Salam told her in one of her visits.

Rubou’ with Cana’an

Many deceptions and malicious tricks were practiced by the Israeli intelligence agency, known as the Shabak, in order to put pressure on Salam, with one sole aim:  Extracting confessions from him in order to celebrate their delusional victory and prove their domination over Palestinians.

“Before his recent arrest, Salam underwent a colonoscopy, as he suffers from colon problems, stomach pains and hemorrhoids that caused him bleeding during the interrogation. The lawyer submitted Salam’s medical papers explaining his condition, but the fascist regime did not care about his medication, and refused to let him go to the bathroom frequently,” Rubou’ says.

The Israeli occupation deliberately mistreats prisoners, providing them with poor and inadequate health care in an attempt to exhaust the captives. As punishment for Salam’s steadfastness, the illegitimate military court sentenced him to 18 months in prison.

Just two weeks before the end of his sentence, when Rubou’ was wondering about the color of the dress that she planned wear to welcome her partner home, and the unique outfit she is preparing for her son Cana’an to wear, only two weeks before Salam’s sentence ended, the Israeli military forces sent him to the slaughterhouse of Al-Moskobiyeh once again. Salam underwent thirty-six days of cruel interrogation with an agitated and hysterical frequency, during which he was once again prevented from meeting with his lawyer.

Eighty-two days is the cumulative time of interrogation Salam has gone through, while the “civilized” world and the luckier youths of the colonial project live in isolation from the tragedies of the occupation, perhaps by playing soccer or baseball and setting some exciting plans for their travels to the Maldives. Eighty-two days of interrogation, and yet the occupation steals years from Palestinian youth: Their future, their families and their children.

Meanwhile, international human rights organizations act like Pontius Pilate, when he washed his hands of guilt for the blood of Christ. Such organizations’ roles are to adopt “codes of conduct”, or issue informative brochures, or to express their “mild” concerns about a rough death that happened in a sacred spot in the far reaches of the earth, called Palestine.

Salam is still detained without trial in the Eshel desert prison, after he was arbitrarily transferred in mid-March from Ofer prison overnight as a punitive measure, as a result of which he had to sleep a full night in the “Ramla crossing-point”, a place where prisoners are gathered before they are distributed to other prisons. This happened at a time when the occupation claimed to be cautious and to stop unnecessary movement between prisons, in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

“You may build a huge wall around me, and another wall around you, the enemy of the sun … Still I will not compromise” lyrics of an Arabic song

Eshel Prison differs in its structure from other prisons; it is more isolated and brutal. The square yard, known as the fora, in which the prisoners spend their outdoor time is covered, so that they do not see the sky at all, nor the sun’s light. It is not available all day, but only for specific hours, and it is also far from the prisoners’ rooms. When released prisoners describe this prison, some say: “The bathroom in Eshel does not accommodate a chubby person, and the showers are narrow. All can be coped with except the climate of the desert, the high humidity and temperature in the morning and extreme cold at night”.

Salam spends most of his time reading and trying to maintain a healthy pattern by playing sports. He keeps humming his favorite song, as he walks in the fora: “You may steal the last inch of my land… You may feed the years of my youth to the prison … You may put down the flame I keep rising… You may prevent me from kissing my mother …You may defeat the dreams I have for tomorrow. You may deprive my children of wearing their Eid holiday outfits… You may build a wall and yet another taller one… In that act you assure to the world that you are the enemy of the sun. Still I will not compromise. Until the last pulse in my veins, I will continue fighting,” an Arabic song by Lebanese singer Julia Butros,

Fatherhood on hold

“It is not easy to raise a child on your own, while the pictures of the baby’s father are hung on the wall”, Rubou’ said. “Cana’an will turn two years old in July, while he does not know his father. I finally obtained a permit to visit Salam after being banned for almost a year. The long-anticipated permit allowed me to visit my husband three times only before the spread of COVID-19, after which visits were suspended.”

“We were born in pursuit of joy, and for joy we die”

“To see my husband in front of me through an insulated partition and isolating glass without being able to touch his hand, and to speak to him through telephones which the jailers control, is not easy at all. This increases the pain in my heart,” Rubou’ says. “Salam and I experienced a beautiful love story at university, which was completed in our marriage, and Cana’an is the fruit of our love.”

“With all the suffering that I live alone with Cana’an, and all the decisions I have to make, serving as mother and father at the same time, I return to remember what we insisted on highlighting in our wedding card. ‘We were born in pursuit of joy, and for joy we die.’ This is our conviction, and this is our belief in which we live every day, and we will raise our children to follow it as well,” Rubou’ concluded.

 

Salam and Rubou’s wedding card

 

Hind Shraydeh is a Palestinian writer and human rights advocate. She is also the wife of Palestinian prisoner Ubai Aboudi, the Executive Director of the Bisan Center. We encourage you to join the 1 June Day of Action for Ubai Aboudi and to sign the Scientists for Palestine petition supporting him.

Taking to the streets: Week of Palestinian Struggle commemorated with global actions

Organizers and activists marked the Week of Palestinian Struggle with a series of events and actions in cities around the world. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and severe restrictions on gatherings in many places, organizations developed creative mechanisms to take a visible, public stand for justice and liberation in Palestine in many places, including actions in Toulouse, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Gothenburg, Minneapolis, Chicago, Istanbul, Montpellier, Berlin and Vancouver.

These events included commemorations of the 72nd year of the continuing Nakba, celebrations of Palestinian struggles for freedom, artistic and cultural interventions, protests and demonstrations, car caravans and other activities. They were organized by a wide range of groups and organizations in cities and areas around the world.

The Week of Palestinian Struggle also included a wide range of online actions, from the #KeyToJustice, #Nakba72 and #FlyTheFlag Twitter campaigns to a broad array of webinars and online discussions and educational events. Organizers held Nakba commemorations, protests against Israel/U.S. annexation plans, and commemorations of Al-Quds Day. All credit for each action belongs to the organizers, as noted below.

We are aware that this list is not exhaustive, but does represent the resilient, steadfast and resisting voice of Palestine for return and liberation despite all circumstances. If you would like to include your action on this list and it is not already present, please email samidoun@samidoun.net.

TOULOUSE, FRANCE

In Toulouse, France, the comrades of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra (a member organization of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network) organized an array of visible interventions around the city, including murals, graffiti and posters highlighting the Week of Palestinian Struggle.

Posters noted the 72nd anniversary of the Nakba and ongoing Palestinian resistance. Slogans included “Zionism = Racism,” “Palestine = Resistance” and “#KeyToJustice”.

FRANKFURT, GERMANY

In Frankfurt, Free Palestine FFM organized a week of action in line with the call for the Week of Palestinian Struggle, providing resources in German about the Nakba and ongoing Palestinian resistance and struggles.

They called on supporters and friends of Palestine to post images and flyers around the city to highlight the ongoing Palestinian struggle for liberation and return.

Comrades dropped two massive banners at the Iron Bridge, highlighting Palestinian struggle. One read, “Palestine = Resistance” and the other “Palästina wird nicht schweigen!” (“Palestine will not be silent!”) in a major display of Palestine solidarity in a highly visible location:

Ongoing displays of visibility for Palestine were organized throughout the week, including small sprayed images of the map of Palestine, slogans against the imprisonment of Palestinian children and the image of Handala:

Organizers hung keys of return, banners for Palestine and information about the week of struggle in prominent places throughout Frankfurt, highlighting 72 years of Nakba and resistance:

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

On Friday, 14 May, comrades of Samidoun Netherlands gathered in Amsterdam to mark the 72nd anniversary of the Nakba and the Week of Palestinian struggle, lighting flames of remembrance and struggle and holding banners, Palestinian flags and signs with slogans: “Zionism is Racism,” “Free Palestine,” and more.

“Palestinians have the right to resist – and we will defend that right at all costs!” declared the opening speaker representing Samidoun Netherlands. Participants highlighted the struggles of Palestinians in the refugee camps continuing to uphold their right to return to Palestine. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN

On Thursday night, 14 May, Samidoun Gothenburg organized a film screening at the Syndikalistiskt Forum about Israeli apartheid and 72 years of Nakba, while holding a banner with the slogan “Seger åt den Palestinska Befrielsekampen!” (The Palestinian Liberation Struggle will be Victorious!)

Later, on 23 May, Samidoun Gothenburg joined several other organizations, including Irlandinformation, Rojavakommittéerna and Kurdish Democratic Society Center – Navenda Civaka Demokratîk a Kurd for a flash rally in downtown Gothenburg in support of Basque political prisoner Patxi Ruiz, on hunger strike against the Spanish state.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, U.S.

Around 60 cars carrying dozens of families joined in a Nakba commemoration car caravan in Northeast Minneapolis, organized by the Anti-War Committee and American Muslims for Palestine – Minnesota.

The caravan proceeded down Central Avenue in an Arab-American neighborhood as participants chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” Before the rally launched speakers highlighted 72 years of Nakba and 72 years of Palestinian resistance.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.

On Friday, 15 May, the US Palestinian Community Network organized a car caravan to Chicago’s Federal Plaza to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the Nakba. Cars gathered at the offices of the Arab American Action Network draped with signs and Palestinian flags and traveled to downtown Chicago, bearing a clear message that Palestinians in Chicago continue to remember the Nakba and struggle for return:

One week later, on Friday, 22 May, an Al-Quds Day Car Caravan also wound through Chicago. Hundreds of Chicagoans launched from Mallard Lake to fly the Palestinian flag and carry the message of freedom and justice for oppressed people, organized by People United Against Oppression and other groups:

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

In Istanbul, Emperyalizme ve Siyonizme karsi Filistin dostlari (Friends of Palestine against Imperialism and Zionism) held a rally outside the Israeli embassy in Turkey on 15 May, marking the 72nd anniversary of the Nakba. The rally drew widespread press coverage and attention, and the organizers read out a statement highlighting 72 years of Nakba and resistance.

The organizers also highlighted the struggle of Palestinian prisoners, especially the case of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed for 35 years in French prisons. One speech in French and Turkish focused specifically on this case, as did several signs and banners at the event:

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE

On Saturday, 16 May, members of the Campagne BDS France Montpellier gathered for their usual stand, gathering at a social distance and with only 10 people, in accordance with health regulations for gatherings. Nonetheless, police dispersed their small group and confiscated their Palestinian flags. They pledged to resist and return one week later to Place de la Comedie for continued actions, and captured their solidarity stand – highlighting refugees’ right to return, 72 years of Nakba, and Palestinian prisoners – on video:

BERLIN, GERMANY

Protesters gathered in several locations in Berlin on 15 May to mark 72 years of Nakba and support the ongoing Palestinian struggle, including members of Palästina Spricht Palestine Speaks and members of various Palestinian community organizations.

Photos: Afif el-Ali

The protest outside the Brandenburg Gate was significantly smaller than typical Nakba protests in Berlin due to gathering restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, but speakers affirmed their commitment to return to Palestine outside the U.S. embassy.

VANCOUVER, CANADA (UNCEDED COAST SALISH TERRITORIES)

The Revolutionary Student Movement – Vancouver highlighted the struggle of the Palestinian people, posting tagged graffiti that depicted the flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the slogan, “Exist, Resist, Return”

DUBLIN, IRELAND

On Friday, 22 May, Anti Imperialist Action Ireland organized a solidarity vigil in support of Palestinian political prisoners, Grup Yorum and the prisoners on hunger strike in Turkish jails. As the organizers noted, “The plan had been to hold the event at the Turkish and Zionist Embassies in Ballsbridge, However the Free State demonstrated their support for Turkish Fascism and Zionism Placing a ring of steel around the location.In an attempt to prevent the solidarity action at the behest of the NATO Powers, Free State Police closed Raglan Road in Dublin 4 to the public, establishing checkpoints at both ends while the Political police stoped and harassed Socialist Republicans in an attempt to order them to leave the area.”

However, as the organizers noted in their report, “a delegation of Socialist Republicans regrouped undeterred at the James Connolly Statue at Beresford Place, the historic location of the establishment of the Irish Citizen Army in 1913 and fitting as Connolly was a Proletarian Internationalist and held the solidarity vigil without interference and with support from passing motorists. Solidarity was extended to #GrupYorum and with those who remain on Hungerstrike in Turkey as well as to All Palestinian Political Prisoners, as part of the international callout by Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoners Network.”

“Attempts by the Free State, Zionism and Turkish Fascism to prevent this action failed. The response of the state however demonstrated the Free States fear of a vibrant and growing Socialist Republicanism.”

“Anti Imperialist Action will continue to organise in support of our international comrades while at the same time continuing to combat and resist Free State Counter Revolution and Foreign Imperialism in Ireland.”

Week of Palestinian Struggle: Webinar Library of Events for #Nakba72 and more

During the Week of Palestinian Struggle, 15-22 May 2020, many different organizations held events, actions and webinars to highlight the Palestinian struggle, 72 years of Nakba and 72 years of resistance. Below, we are presenting an archive of webinars and online events presented during the week.

Please note, the vast majority of these webinars and events were organized independently by a wide range of groups. The groups that organized each event are noted, and these videos are hosted at the organizers’ YouTube, Facebook and other pages. We encourage you to visit these organizations’ pages for more information about their activities!

Videos are in English unless otherwise noted. This page is not complete! To add your event to this page, email samidoun@samidoun.net.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network webinars (English):

Liberate Palestine – From the River to the Sea with Khaled Barakat
Saturday, 16 May

Watch the video:

Palestinian Prisoners’ Families: Collective Punishment, Steadfastness and Resistance with Basil Farraj
Thursday, 21 May

Watch the video:

Samidoun Network webinars (Arabic):

“They can demolish our homes, but never break our will,” with Dr Widad Barghouthi (Arabic)
Thursday, 14 May

Watch the video:

Palestinian Organizing in Diaspora and the Revolutionary Alternative (Arabic)
Sunday, 17 May

Watch the video:

Art, Culture and Resistance in Palestinian Struggle (Arabic)
Saturday, 23 May

Watch the video:

Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition (English):

72 Years of Nakba, Marching Toward Return: Online Rally for Palestine (with participation by Mohammed Khatib, Samidoun)
Sunday, 17 May

Watch the video:

International League of Peoples’ Struggle Canada (English)

LENINFEST: National Oppression and National Liberation with Chandu Claver and Khaled Barakat
Tuesday, 19 May

Watch the video:

Palestinian Youth Movement

Nakba To Return: The Ongoing Struggle for Palestinian Liberation
Saturday, 16 May

Watch the Video:

And more….

Wednesday, 13 May

Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Israel’s Annexation Plan, with Diana Buttu

Watch the Video:

Thursday, 14 May

US Palestinian Community Network

Rasmea Odeh and George Khoury on the Nakba and Return: Discussion with Suzanne Adely

Watch the Video:

Spanish Revolution

Jewish Voices for Palestine: Against racism, apartheid and Zionism (Spanish)

Watch the Video:

Friday, 15 May

Coalition for Civil Freedoms

The Holy Land Five & COVID-19: A Conversation with their Sons and Daughters

Watch the Video:

EuroPal Forum

Webinar on #Nakba72 with Hatem Bazian, Ilan Pappe, Yousef Jabareen, Salman Abu Sitta

Watch the Video:

Palestine Solidarity Campaign, BDS Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace, South Africa BDS Coalition

Nakba Rally 2020 #SpreadSolidarity

Watch the Video:

The Red Nation, AROC, Center for Political Education

Palestine and the Blockade of Gaza

Watch the Video:

American Muslims for Palestine

Never Forgotten: 72 Years of Resilience

Watch the video:

Palestinian Action Committee in Austria

Commemoration of 72 Years of Nakba (Arabic and German)

Watch the Video:

Frente Antiimperialista Internacionalista

LA NAKBA. EL DERECHO AL RETORNO Y EL COVID19

Watch the video:

Saturday, 16 May

Australia Palestine Advocacy Network

Palestinian Nakba 2020: Virtual Commemoration

Watch the Video:

Friends of Sabeel North America

Commemorate by Resisting: The Nakba and Indigenous Struggles.

Watch the Video:

Palestinian Canadian Community Center

#Nakba72 Rally: Lift the Siege of Gaza

Watch the Video:

Mobilization for Justice

The Palestine Question with Ramzy Baroud, Ghada Ageel and Seyed Marandi

Watch the Video:

Alkarama – Palestinian Women’s Movement

El Deporte Como Resistencia (Spanish)

Watch the Video:

Sunday, 17 May

Al-Quds Toronto

Al-Quds Day Virtual Rally

Watch the Video:

Monday, 18 May

Toronto Palestine Film Festival

Q&A with 1948: Creation and Catastrophe Directors Ahlam Muhtaseb and Andy Trimlett

Watch the Video:

CLACSO TV

Nakba Palestina: colonialismo, resistencia y derecho al retorno (Spanish)

Watch the video:

Tuesday, 19 May

AMED Studies at SFSU

Honoring Malcolm X & Elombe Brath:Black Solidarity with Palestine

Watch the Video:

Unite the Union and Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Unite in Solidarity with Palestine

Watch the Video:

Wednesday, 20 May

American Muslims for Palestine – NJ and Palestinian American Community Center

HR 2407: Human Rights for Palestinian Children

Watch the Video:

Thursday, 21 May

European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine

Stop Settlements, on the Road to Justice

Watch the video:

Friday, 22 May

Coalition for Civil Freedoms

Israel’s Interference in the U.S. Criminal Justice System, with Miko Peled and Sami al-Arian

Watch the Video:

Islamic Human Rights Commission

Al-Quds Day 2020 #FlyTheFlag

Watch the Video:

Voice of Oppressed

Al-Quds Day Calgary

Watch the Video:

Palestinian prisoner Sami Janazrah nears second week of hunger strike as Israeli military courts reopen

Palestinian prisoner Sami Janazrah, 47, neared his second week of hunger strike as Palestinians and people around the world readied to celebrate Eid al-Fitr on Sunday, 24 May 2020. Janazrah is once again jailed without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention after conducting two previous hunger strikes to win his release. Janazrah is currently being held in Ela prison, thrown in isolation in retaliation for his hunger strike.

Janazrah was once again abducted by Israeli occupation forces from his home in the al-Fawwar refugee camp south of al-Khalil on 16 September 2019, only 10 months after his last release from 11 months in prison, also under administration without charge or trial. Following his detention, he was issued a four-month detention order by the Ofer military court. Administrative detention orders – a practice first introduced by the British colonial mandate in occupied Palestine and then adopted by the Zionist regime – are based on secret evidence and are indefinitely renewable. There are currently almost 500 Palestinians held in administrative detention, out of nearly 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

His detention order has since been renewed twice for an additional four months, the latest detention order sparking the launch of his hunger strike on 11 May 2020. Days before, the Israeli supreme court rejected the appeal of his lawyer against his administrative detention without charge or trial. He has previously launched two long-term hunger strikes against his imprisonment, for 76 days in 2016 and for 43 days in 2018.

He is the father of three children, Firas (16), Mahmoud (12), and Maria (8). He and his wife are awaiting the birth of their fourth child in the coming days, and he had been awaiting his freedom to welcome his new child. He missed the birth of two of his children due to his imprisonment; he has been jailed over the years for a total of 11 years, most of them without charge or trial in administrative detention.

Janazrah’s hunger strike comes as Israeli occupation forces announced the official reopening of the military courts on 24 May 2020. In-person military court sessions attended by the prisoners and at most one family member have been suspended since the first week of March, ostensibly in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Prisoners were also denied legal and family visits, with only limited phone calls allowed with lawyers. No indication has been made that legal and family visits will be resumed, despite the fact that prisoners will be put at risk to their health through arduous “bosta” transfers and repeated contact with jailers, guards and military court officials. (Israeli officials have claimed that medical masks will be worn in the military courts.)

Palestinian prisoners and their families have raised very serious concerns that the Israeli prison system may attempt to make these supposed preventative measures the new normal, especially as denial of family visits, suppression of access to lawyers as well as disregard for and medical neglect of Palestinian prisoners’ health are constant and systematic Israeli policies.

While administrative detention without charge or trial is one clear example of Israeli injustice, so too are the military courts, where Palestinians are convicted at rates greater than 99% on an array of bogus and trumped-up charges that criminalize political activity, public speech and student and cultural events, among other actions.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its strongest solidarity with Sami Janazrah and all Palestinian prisoners on the front lines of struggle against colonial policies of imprisonment, fighting for their freedom with their bodies and lives on the line. International solidarity can be particularly important to prevent occupation forces from isolating Janazrah and his fellow prisoners politically as well as physically – the Palestinian prisoners are not forgotten! Freedom for all Palestinian prisoners, and freedom for Palestine from the river to the sea!

Video: Basil Farraj on Palestinian prisoners’ families, collective punishment and resistance

On Thursday, 21 May, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organized a webinar with Palestinian scholar – and the brother and son of two Palestinian political prisoners – Basil Farraj. The discussion, held on Zoom and broadcast live on Facebook, focused on the experiences, struggles, resistance and steadfastness of Palestinian prisoners’ families. Given the widespread nature of incarceration by Israeli occupation prison regimes for Palestinians under occupation, far too many Palestinian families face collective punishment by the Israeli state yet continue to resist with tremendous steadfastness.

Watch the full video of the event:

During the discussion, Farraj presented his experience and those of other prisoners’ families, as well as providing an analysis of Israeli imprisonment of Palestinians as a colonial structure and how the phenomenon of imprisonment stretches beyond the direct prison walls, affecting entire families, communities and the Palestinian people as a whole.

Basil Farraj is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology and Sociology at the Graduate Institute, Geneva and a research assistant for the VIPRE Initiative. Basil’s work focuses on political prisoners, violence directed against them, and ways in which they resist the incarcerating regimes. His work reaches for the intersections of memory, resistance and art by prisoners and others at the receiving end of violence.

Farraj highlighted  Addameer’s “Free Our Prisoners” campaign, which includes the demand for non-monitored family communication, as Palestinian prisoners’ families communication with their loved ones is constantly subjected to surveillance. Abdel-Razzaq Farraj, Basil’s father and a political prisoner, shared his reflections on the experience of detention and imprisonment on the Amnesty International website (also available in Arabic.)

Mohammed Khatib, Europe coordinator of Samidoun, spoke about the Stop Collective Punishment campaign spearheaded by the families of Palestinian prisoners, which has an active Facebook page. He emphasized the failure and complicity of the Palestinian Authority and its representatives internationally in failing to highlight the situation of Palestinian prisoners and neglecting to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing crimes against the prisoners. He also urged a stronger focus on justice for the prisoners in campaigns for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

Khatib urged listeners to get involved with Samidoun and other efforts to support the prisoners, including the cases of Palestinian student organizers detained by Israel, urging attention to this issue by student unions globally.

Wrapping up the conversation, Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun, highlighted some ongoing and upcoming actions for people to join, particularly the 1 June Day of Action for Ubai Aboudi, a Palestinian-American researcher and the executive director of Bisan Center, detained by Israeli occupation forces since late 2019.

Hind Shraydeh, Palestinian writer and the wife of Ubai Aboudi, spoke in an earlier webinar about some of the issues in this discussion and highlighted the case. Watch the full video here:

Scientists for Palestine has issued a new petition for Aboudi, which has already been signed by prominent academics and scientists and is welcoming additional signatories.

On Saturday, 24 May, there will be an Arabic-language webinar organized by Samidoun Palestine and partners (PYM, HIRAK, Al-Naqab Center) on arts, culture and the Palestinian revolutionary alternative, with speakers Hafez Omar, Lina Abojaradeh and Kamal Khalil. The event will take place at 11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern, 8 pm central Europe, 9 pm Palestine time. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86133364893

Palestina – Estudiantes y Universidades en tiempos del Coronavirus de Jaldía Abubakra

El siguiente artículo se republica de La Comuna:

Artículo de Jaldía Abubakra

Izz Shabaneh (i), Mehdi Karajeh (c) y Basil Barghouthi (d), estudiantes de la Universidad Bir Zeit secuestrados por las fuerzas de ocupación israelíes el 21 de mayo de 2020.

Mientras estudiantes de todo el mundo preparan sus exámenes en esta época del curso, nuestros estudiantes en Palestina, además de tener la dificultad de estudiar en confinamiento, se les suma las practicas represivas, programadas y sistemáticas de la ocupación sionista que siempre busca arruinar el futuro de nuestros jóvenes.

Estos días hay que sumar también la intención del régimen sionista de declarar la anexión de gran parte del territorio palestino en Cisjordania que pretende la nueva coalición de gobierno israelí, con el beneplácito de EE.UU. y la complicidad silenciosa de todo el mundo. Como es natural ante estos hechos, los únicos que suelen protestar son los palestinos, especialmente la gente joven. En una medida preventiva a esto, las autoridades de la ocupación están llevando a cabo una serie de detenciones de jóvenes universitarios palestinos. Por un lado, callan sus voces y por otro, distraen al resto ya sea por intimidación o por la preocupación por sus compañeros detenidos.

Ayer se llevó acabo la detención de tres jóvenes estudiantes de la universidad de Ber_Zeet: Eiz Shabana, Mahdi Karaya y Basil Al-Barghuthi. Estos arrestos forman parte de una campaña continua y casi diaria cuyo objetivo es atacar al movimiento estudiantil y mantenerlo en posición de defenderse.

El secretario general de las Naciones Unidas, Antonio Guterres, ha convocado una “reunión del Cuarteto Internacional para buscar formas de celebrar una reunión ministerial para discutir el tema palestino”. Un hecho nada nuevo y del cual tampoco esperamos ninguna novedad, ya que saldrán con declaraciones de preocupación o en el mejor de los casos de condena y así se quedarán tranquilos y pensarán que ya han cumplido con el pueblo palestino que sufre las consecuencias de sus erróneas decisiones de partir Palestina desde hace mas de 72 años y apoyar a una mafia que es el movimiento sionista para seguir con sus crímenes y haciéndose cada día mas poderoso para dominar el mundo con el fin de cuidar de los intereses de una minoría que se beneficia de estos crímenes de varias maneras.

La UE también ya ha declarado que no está de acuerdo con la decisión de anexionar más territorios palestinos, pero como es lógico, eso ni le importa ni le inmuta el la entidad sionista, viendo que estas declaraciones nunca van acompañadas de medidas practicas, sino todo lo contrario, la política de hechos consumados que viene practicando esta mafia sionista, al final se acaba aceptando por la comunidad internacional, como el hecho de ir ocupando Palestina poco a poco antes de 1948.

Si a todo lo anterior le añadimos la nefasta respuesta de lo que llaman las autoridades palestinas, que no tienen ninguna autoridad real mas que eso “sacar declaraciones vacías” o la de los gobernantes árabes, vemos que el pueblo palestino y sobre todo sus jóvenes se enfrentan solos a la conspiración de las potencias dominantes.

Las fuerzas progresistas de la izquierda en todo el mundo tampoco está actuando a la altura de las circunstancias ni presenta medidas prácticas para luchar contra esta injusticia que sufre nuestro pueblo.

Por todo ello, nuestra esperanza está en los pueblos y en las personas para dar conciencia, alzar la voz y apoyar a nuestra gente en Palestina, ya sea mediante protestas activas o exigiendo el boicot en todas sus formas a este régimen criminal y terrorista, que no busca solamente quedarse con el dominio de Palestina y el intento de borrar su pueblo, sino el control completo sobre los pueblos de todo el mundo dominando las fuerzas que gobiernan.

Ya es hora de llamar a las cosas por su nombre y dejarnos de eufemismos. Nuestros jóvenes también tienen derecho a procurarse un futuro digno. Basta ya de condenas verbales o escritas no acompañadas de medidas prácticas.

 

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