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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

15 Haziran 2020-22 Haziran 2020 : Corç Abdallah, Ahmet Saadet ve tüm devrimci tutsakların özgürlüğü talebiyle eylem haftası

19 Haziran, uluslararası devrimci tutsaklarla dayanışma günüdür. Bu tarih, aynı zamanda, Filistin’in ulusal kurtuluşu için savaşan ve 1999’dan beri serbest bırakılabilir durumda olmasına rağmen 36 yıldır Fransız devletinin zindanlarında olan Arap komünisti Corç Abdallah’ın özgürlüğü için verilen mücadelede de önemli bir parça.

Corç Abdallah, Filistin direnişi saflarında, emperyalizme, kapitalizme, Siyonizm’e, sömürgeciliğe, gerici Arap devletlerine ve her türden ezilme ilişkisine karşı yürüttüğü kavgaya dair hiçbir pişmanlığı olmayan bir devrimci tutsaktır. Bugün de gündelik olarak, adalet, hürriyet ve ezilen halkların kurtuluşu için yürüttüğü mücadele, güncel mücadelelerle tam bir uyum içindedir. Bu kavga, kapitalist taarruza ve kapitalistlerin yağma savaşlarına karşı çıkanların yürüttüğü haklı ve meşru kavgadır. Bu kavga, devlet şiddetiyle karşı karşıya olanların kavgasıdır. Bu kavga, reformizmi ve bu sisteme karşı her türlü tavizi reddedenlerin, kitlelerin ve yoksul mahallelerin yanında sınıf mücadelesine katılanların kavgasıdır. Tüm bir ömre yayılan bu kavga, bizim de kavgamızdır!

Son aylarda, pandemi ve eve kapanma şartlarından doğan özel duruma rağmen, yoldaşımızın «bin inisiyatif çiçek açsın» çağrısına çok sayıda kişi ve güç ses verdi. Fransız emperyalizminin temsilcileri, «yoldaşımızın tutsak kalmasının kendileri için sonuçlarının, özgür bırakılması ile kendileri için doğacak sakıncalardan dahi daha ağır olacağını» anlasın diye kararlı bir mücadele yürütenler çok sayıdadır. Her yerde ve her cephede, militan eylemler yoluyla ve güç dengesini bizim lehimizde değiştirerek yoldaşımızın özgürlüğünü kazanmak için yerel, ulusal ve uluslararası ölçekte mücadele edenler çok sayıdadır.

Bu bağlamda, bizler gibi, kendini Corç Abdallah’ın mücadelesinde ve bu mücadelenin güncelliğini ve aciliyetini kavrayan herkesi, kendilerini ifade etmeyi tercih ettikleri biçimde, 15-22 Haziran 2020 tarihleri arasında, Corç Abdallah’ın serbest bırakılması için uluslararası eylem haftası süresince eyleme geçmeye çağırıyoruz.

Bu hafta aynı zamanda, Filistin Halk Kurtuluş Cephesi Genel Sekreteri Ahmet Saadet’in serbest bırakılması için de harekete geçme vesilesi olacak.  Filistin’in kurtuluşu için savaşan, Filistin ulusal kurtuluş hareketinin lideri ve aynı zamanda uluslararası devrimci hareketin de sembolü olan Ahmet Saadet, 18 yıl önce Filistin yönetimince tutuklandıktan sonra, Siyonist işgalci ile «güvenlik meselelerinde iş birliği» kapsamında, 2006 yılında beri Siyonistlerin zindanlarında tutuluyor.

Ahmet Saadet’in mücadelesi, tüm Filistinli tutsakların ve aynı zamanda Corç Abdallah’ın mücadelesidir. Corç Abdallah’ın yürüttüğü mücadele, Filistin’in, Lübnan’ın ve tüm dünyanın ezilen halklarının haklı davasına olan bitmek bilmez bir bağlılığı göstermektedir. Bu kavga, mücadele eden halkların ve tüm dünyadaki devrimci tutsakların kavgasıdır. Hindistan, Peru, Filipinler, Türkiye, İtalya, İspanya, Hollanda ve her yerde, bu tutsakların devrimci mücadelenin en ileri kesimidir ve daha iyi bir dünya mücadelesi vermektedir. Bu tutsakları özellikle 19 Haziran 2020’de ama aynı zamanda tüm eylem haftası boyunca onurlandırmamız ve savunmamız gerekmektedir.

Farklılıklarımıza rağmen birlikte mücadele ederek kazanacağız!

Corç Abdallah’a özgürlük!

Ahmet Saadet’e özgürlük!

Tüm devrimci tutsaklara özgürlük!

Paris, le 02 juin 2020  Campagne.unitaire.gabdallah@gmail.com

 

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

15 de junio de 2020 al 22 de junio de 2020: Semana internacional de acciones para exigir la liberación de Georges Abdallah, de Ahmad Sa’adat y de todos los prisioneros revolucionarios

El 19 de junio es el día internacional de los prisioneros revolucionarios. Esta fecha es un hito importante en la lucha por la campaña unitaria para exigir la liberación de Georges Abdallah, luchador comunista árabe por la lucha de liberación nacional de Palestina, prisionero en las cárceles del estado francés por más de 36 años a pesar que el es liberable desde 1999.

Georges Abdallah es un prisionero revolucionario sin remordimiento ni arrepentimiento de la lucha que siempre libró junto con la resistencia palestina, contra el imperialismo, el capitalismo, el sionismo, el colonialismo y los Estados árabes reaccionarios y todas formas de opresión. Esta lucha, que él la libra a diario, por la justicia, la libertad y la emancipación de los pueblos oprimidos, forma parte del terreno de las luchas actuales. Es la de las revueltas justas y legítimas de quienes se oponen a la ofensiva capitalista y sus guerras de saqueo. Es el de todos los que se enfrentan a la violencia represiva del estado, que se abate sobre ellos para intentar amordazarlos. Es la de todos aquellos que rechazan cualquier reformismo y compromiso con este sistema y se comprometen plenamente en esta lucha de clase contra la clase al lado de las masas y los barrios populares. ¡Esta lucha de toda la vida, es nuestra!

En los últimos meses, ha habido muchas voces y fuerzas que, a pesar del contexto particular de la pandemia y el encierro impuesto, han respondido una vez más al llamado de nuestro compañero para que “mil iniciativas de solidaridad florescan “. Muchas voces y fuerzas están ahora decididas a hacer que los representantes del imperialismo francés entiendan que “su encarcelamiento está comenzando a pesar más que las posibles amenazas inherentes a su liberación”. Muchos ahora se están movilizando, local, nacional e internacionalmente, a fin de arrancar su liberación estableciendo con sus acciones militantes en todas partes y en todos los frentes, una real confrontación des fuerzas contra el poder.

Es en este sentido que llamamos a todos aquellos que, como nosotros, se reconocen en la lucha de Georges Abdallah y afirman su actualidad y su urgencia, para actuar, en la diversidad de nuestras expresiones, durante la semana internacional de acciones que se extenderá del 15 al 22 de junio de 2020 para exigir la liberación de Georges Abdallah.

Esta semana de acción también será una oportunidad para movilizarse para la liberación de Ahmad Sa’adat, secretario general del Frente Popular, luchador por la liberación de Palestina, líder del movimiento de liberación nacional palestino y también un símbolo de movimiento revolucionario internacional, arrestado durante 18 años por la Autoridad Palestina en el marco de la “cooperación de seguridad” con el ocupante sionista y encarcelado desde 2006 en las cárceles de la entidad sionista.

Su lucha y la de todos los prisioneros palestinos es también la de Georges Abdallah: la lucha de un apego inquebrantable a la causa justa de los pueblos oprimidos de Palestina, Líbano y en todo el mundo. Esta lucha junto a los pueblos en lucha es también la de todos los prisioneros revolucionarios del mundo: la de todas esas mujeres y esos hombres de India, Perú, Filipinas, Turquía, Italia, España, el país Euskera y otros lugares. Puntas de lanza reales de la lucha y trincheras avanzadas del combate revolucionario, que lucharon por el advenimiento de un mundo mejor, hoy detenidos y a quienes también debemos honrar y defender particularmente el 19 de junio de 2020, pero también a lo largo de esta semana internacional de acciones.

¡Es unidos y solos unidos, en la diversidad de nuestras expresiones, que venceremos!

¡Libertad inmediata para Georges Abdallah! Libertad inmediata para Ahmad Sa’adat

¡Libertad para todos los prisioneros revolucionarios!

París, 02 de junio de 2020, Campagne.unitaire.gabdallah@gmail.com

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

Samidoun: Israeli arrest campaign will not stop Palestinian student movement confronting annexation

Please click here to read the statement in Arabic.

Israeli occupation forces abducted Palestinian student Layan Kayed, 22, as she traveled to Ramallah with her mother on Monday, 8 June 2020. They seized the Bir Zeit University student at the Zaatara roadblock in the central occupied West Bank.

As Samidoun Palestine noted,

“The goal of the extensive campaign of arrests by the Israeli occupation forces, especially in the occupied West Bank of Palestine and Jerusalem, is primarily targeting the activists and leaders among the Palestinian student movement and the Palestinian youth. The latest of these is the abduction of Bir Zeit University student Layan Kayed. The goal is to keep the Palestinian national liberation movement on the defensive and in order to push through the Zionist annexation project in the West Bank by creating an atmosphere of intimidation and repression.

Samidoun affirms that the escalation of the arrest campaign conducted by the occupation forces, including the widespread invasions last night in which around 30 young people in occupied Jerusalem were targeted, is a futile policy that will not break the will of the struggling Palestinian people and will not deter or stop the student movement.

Samidoun renews its call for united action and national steadfastness to confront the occupation’s attacks, emphasizing the need for broad popular participation in the national march on 1 July 2020 to reject the schemes of the Israeli occupation and confront its racist colonialist attacks.”

There are hundreds of Palestinian university students held in Israeli jails, including approximately 80 from Bir Zeit University, while over the years, thousands of Palestinian university students have been targeted for arrest and persecution. Palestinian universities have been frequently raided by Israeli occupation forces; student organizations’ offices have been ransacked, their belongings confiscated and destroyed.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network once again urges broad global solidarity with Layan Kayed and all Palestinian students facing repression, arrest and imprisonment at the hands of an Israeli occupation regime that  wants to clear the road for its ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people through wide-scale abductions targeting the Palestinian student movement, youth organizers and leaders.

We urge students and faculty around the world to join campaigns for the academic boycott of Israel and Israeli institutions and to organize in support of targeted Palestinian students. Despite these attacks, Palestinian students continue to organize, struggle and learn despite severe and systematic repression, and the Palestinian student movement continues to confront Israeli colonial schemes. We demand the immediate release of Layan Kayed and all imprisoned Palestinian students!

Take action: Clemency campaign for Jalil Muntaqim – Freedom now!

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in full support of all efforts to free Black Liberation political prisoners from U.S. jails, including Jalil Muntaqim, currently suffering from COVID-19 due to his continuing imprisonment. Despite his vulnerability, New York State officials worked to block his release on medical grounds and keep him in prison despite an order for his release – and he contracted COVID-19 as a result.

We are sharing the campaign below for a commutation of Jalil Muntaqim’s sentence, issued by The Jericho Movement, and urge all supporters of justice in Palestine and around the world to join in these efforts to free imprisoned Black freedom fighters in the U.S.

Jalil Muntaqim Back in Sullivan Infirmary
Recuperating from Covid-19

For months, public health experts, faith leaders, Congress members, and hundreds of others have warned NYS officials that the prisons are potential death traps in the COVID-19 pandemic. Recognizing this, a New York State judge on April 27th ordered Jalil’s temporary release from Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, NY, based on his extreme vulnerability to the virus. Jalil is 68 years old and suffers from serious chronic health conditions that can make COVID-19 deadly.

However, NYS Attorney General Letitia James, acting on behalf of NYS DOCCS Commissioner Anthony Annucci, appealed the ruling, blocking Jalil’s release and forcing him to remain in prison. Just as we feared, Jalil, who was ordered released a month ago, eventually contracted COVID-19. Jalil became ill on May 22nd and was taken to Albany Medical Center on May 25th.

On May 28th, while Jalil was hospitalized, the Appellate Division, Third Dept. heard oral arguments from Jalil’s attorney Nora Carroll and DOCCS attorney Frank Brady. Watch the stream of the hearing from the Court’s website. Jericho encourages everyone to watch this hearing. Jalil’s attorney Nora Carroll was excellent!

Thanks to Jalil’s supporters, various articles about this case were written:

https://sfbayview.com/2020/05/jalil-muntaqim-tests-positive-for-covid-19-and-is-hospitalized-in-new-york/

https://www.essence.com/feature/jalil-muntaquim-black-panther-covid-19-letitia-james/

http://www.franknews.us/debates/402/402

http://www.franknews.us/interviews/403/addicted-to-punishing-people-of-color

https://theintercept.com/2020/05/27/coronavirus-elderly-prisoner-jalil-muntaqim/

https://www.colorlines.com/articles/hospitalized-covid-19-advocates-fight-jalil-muntaqims-release-prison

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/05/9841953/jalil-muntaqim-prison-release-appeal-covid-19

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/01/jalil-muntaqim-former-black-panther-covid-19-prison#maincontent

On June 4, 2020, the Appellate Division, Third Department issued a decision regarding Jalil’s habeas petition, originally granted by Judge Stephan Schick of the Sullivan County Supreme Court. The lower court’s decision was reversed and the petition dismissed. We are free, as the decision acknowledges, to file a new writ, but this sets a terrible precedent statewide and also ends this lawsuit.

That same evening, NYC Jericho received a call from our beloved brother Jalil. He is back at Sullivan C.F. in isolation in the infirmary. Jalil is still weakened by the virus and is slowly recovering. He reports that one of his lungs, his kidneys and his liver were affected by the virus, according to medical exams.

Jalil informed us that his request for medical parole was denied. He received notification of this on May 30th. He requests that we continue our campaign to Governor Cuomo for commutation of his sentence to time served.

Commutation Campaign to Governor Cuomo for Jalil Muntaqim

After the last parole hearing and denial, pursuant to NYS Constitutional Article IV, Section 4, Jalil filed an Application to Commute the Sentence to Time Served with NYS Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. Governor Cuomo has the authority to grant the Application and order Jalil’s immediate release from NYS DOCCS custody.

Since the Application’s submission it has been revealed that the NYS Board of Parole had a “secret deal” with the NYC Police Benevolent Association (PBA), permitting them to submit opposition letters directly to the Board of Parole from their website. These opposition letters negatively influenced the decision-making process, ensuring Jalil would not receive a fair and impartial parole hearing. During Jalil’s 2014 parole hearing, he was told that “current and former members of law enforcement” were parole commissioners, many of whom decided to deny his release.

On December 4th & 5th, 2016, The New York Times published an extensive exposé entitled “The Scourge of Racial Bias in New York State’s Prisons” that informed: “The racism can be felt from the moment a black inmate enters New York’s upstate prisons.” This implacable racism has been institutionalized in the entire parole system, permitting subjective biases of parole commissioners to influence parole decisions.

Since the submission of the Application to Commute the Sentence to Time Served, Governor Cuomo has received many letters and communications urging him to grant Jalil’s Application. However, the governor has refused to do so, despite the heightened danger to all prisoners during the current pandemic.

Jalil exceeds all requirements for release. His release on parole has been supported by activists, academics and community leaders from across the country and around the world, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the family of one of the victims. The political nature of his conviction has prevented parole commissioners from giving fair and impartial consideration to his release, despite the overwhelming community support.

During the 48+ years of his imprisonment, Jalil has accomplished the following: Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, Certificate of Architectural Drafting, Certificate of Computer Literacy.

He has established many programs, such as the first Men’s Group for therapeutic training in the NY State prison system, an African/Black Studies program, a computer literacy class, a Sociology class and a poetry class. He has received two commendations for preventing prison riots. He has raised money for the children’s fund, was office manager of the computer lab and a teacher’s aide for GED classes.

Jalil is also the recipient of several certificates for rehabilitation programming, and is a published author, poet, educator and blogger.

As a human rights advocate, he had the first U.S. prisoners national petition heard and recorded by a Special Committee at the United Nations on U.S. prisons and the existence of U.S. political prisoners. He has litigated several civil rights complaints on behalf of prisoners. In 2000, Essence magazine featured an article on father-daughter relationships. The article, entitled “Daddy Says,” quoted Jalil stressing the importance of maintaining these relations even during incarceration.

We request that people do the following for Jalil:

We are requesting that Friends and Supporters call, tweet, email and write NYS Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s office and appeal to him to grant Jalil’s Application to Commute the Sentence to Time Served.

We also request that this Initiative be widely posted on social media platforms, encouraging freedom loving people around the world to join in this initiative.

Since this will be ongoing, we propose that people tweet and/or email Governor Cuomo every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and call and write the Governor every Tuesday and Thursday.

Communications to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s office must refer to Jalil as: ANTHONY JALIL BOTTOM, 77A4283, Sullivan Correctional Facility, P.O. Box 116, Fallsburg, New York 12733-0115.

Write the Governor:

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of the State of New York
Executive Chamber
State Capital Building
Albany, New York 12224

Call the Governor: 1-518-474-8390

Tweet the Governor: @NYGovCuomo

Use hashtags #FreeJalil #FreeThemAll

Email the Governor:  https://www.governor.ny.gov/content/governor-contact-form

For more information concerning Jalils case, check https://thejerichomovement.com/

Click here to download a pamphlet to distribute to your family, friends, neighbors, faith group, etc.

Click here to download a sample letter to Governor Cuomo

Read the article: Gov. Cuomo’s Program for More Clemency Applications Appears to Stall, As Prisoners Wait and Hope for a Second Chance

Samidoun joins letter demanding NY address racist state violence of police, courts, jails and prisons

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joined over 175 organizations to demand that New York State address its racist state violence of policing, courts, jails and prisons. We support the multiple efforts taking place in the U.S. and internationally to defund, dismantle and abolish police and prison structures built upon settler colonialism, racism and capitalist oppression.

The letter, addressed to New York Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, notes:

“People across the world are witnessing the pain of hundreds of years of Black subjugation,abuse, and murder at the hands of the state. We’ve seen the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade and countless others taken by law enforcement. But the deaths and violence don’t stop at police interactions. They are perpetrated against Black people in jails and prisons across New York and have taken the lives of Layleen Polanco, Benjamin Smalls, Kalief Browder, and too many others. The system that purports to “protect” and uphold “public safety” has instead subjugated, dehumanized, and murdered Black people for centuries.

We need bold and immediate change that will pull power away from the system that has made clear that Black lives, Black pain, Black existence, and Black humanity do not matter. To that end, we are calling on you to do what is right and address racist state violence from policing to courts to jails and prisons.”

Read the full letter below or at the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) website: http://bit.ly/state-violence

https://samidoun.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/JUNE-5-Letter-to-NY-State-Legislature_-Address-Racist-State-Violence.pdf

Palestinian student Yahya al-Qarout abducted by Israeli occupation forces

Please click here to read this report in Arabic.


Today, Thursday 4 June 2020, Israeli occupation forces abducted Palestinian university student Yahya al-Qarout from his family home in the Aqtaba area in occupied Tulkarem after large numbers of occupation soldiers stormed the home at 4:00 a.m. Al-Qarout is in his third year of study at Bir Zeit University, where he studies computer science. He is also the secretary as the preparatory committee of the Bir Zeit University Student Council.

Samidoun Network in occupied Palestine communicated with Yahya’s family, who told Samidoun representatives that this was his first arrest. His family is making attempts to reach the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission in order to learn more about their son’s situation and seek his immediate release. He is expected to be brought before Israeli occupation military courts on Sunday.

The al-Qarout family noted that Yahya is a calm, dedicated student who loves sports, especially weightlifting and football, and is a very socially oriented person who always tries to help and support others.

This marks the latest arrest in an ongoing Israeli policy of targeting involved and active students and the Palestinian student movement as a whole. There are hundreds of Palestinian university students held in Israeli jails, including approximately 80 from Bir Zeit University.

Over the years, thousands of Palestinian university students have been targeted for arrest and persecution. Palestinian universities have been frequently raided by Israeli occupation forces; student organizations’ offices have been ransacked, their belongings confiscated and destroyed.

Palestinian student activities are notable for their political diversity and expression. Student council elections spark a vast amount of debate and political competition between all trends of the Palestinian movement and are often considered to reflect the prevailing sentiment in Palestinian society. This vibrant expression of a democratic political culture is routinely subjected to violent suppression by the Israeli occupation, including raids and arrests targeting student council members.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network once again urges broad global solidarity with Yahya al-Qarout and all Palestinian students facing repression, arrest and imprisonment targeting their right to education. This includes escalating academic boycott campaigns by students and faculty at universities around the world. Palestinian students continue to organize, struggle and learn despite severe and systematic repression, including torture under interrogation and arrests that inhibit and disrupt their academic careers. We demand the immediate release of Yahya al-Qarout and all imprisoned students!

This 1985 poster by the General Union of Palestinian Students indicates the systematic and ongoing nature of Israeli arrests and targeting of Palestinian students.

On Palestinian internal conflict by Khaled Barakat

This article was originally published in Arabic in Al-Adab on 31 May 2020. It is also available in Spanish at Palestina Libre.

By Khaled Barakat

Are we heading towards an internal Palestinian conflict, or what some would call a “civil war?”

This question is employed by some to serve their own petty goals, and to throw it in the face of the Palestinian people in order to intimidate and frighten them. There are those who want our people to accept the conditions of the Zionist enemy, so they will not resist – to accept “reality,” in order not to address the crisis in the Palestinian internal situation. All of this under the pretext of “dedication to national unity!”

On the other hand, there are those who want to push our people into the wrong battle, pushing them to mix apples and oranges, until their feet are dragged into the mill grinder of self-destruction.

In both cases, we are led into a minefield that threatens certain death and a project that serves only the enemy, its allies and its agents.

**

However, the above question remains legitimate if it is considered based on the historical experience of the Palestinian people, and if it is taken seriously and profoundly within its natural context.

Peoples and liberation movements confronting colonialism have experienced such internal conflicts or civil wars. They did not reach them suddenly or without precursors accumulating or conditions that led clearly to them. Nor did they reach the breaking point with internal political opponents because they “want” a new war or conflict that only adds to the daily torment at the hands of the colonizer. Indeed, the vast majority of the people seek a natural state of stability, preferring to manage their internal differences according to peaceful and democratic mechanisms, if they are able to do so. However, boiling internal struggles sometimes lead to the impossibility of coexistence between incompatible programs, classes and social forces, and the contradiction between them reaches the point of explosion and no return.

Despite the specificity of space and time for every people, area and nation, the writing of the martyr, Comrade Mahdi Amel, on the civil war in Lebanon remains an important intellectual and historical reference to understand the essence of sectarian conflicts, civil wars, their origins and the role of local and external forces. Mahdi Amel wished to emphasize that these events go beyond the form of a conflict between sects, leaders, factions and tribes. There is a ruling class that reaps all the benefits of the conflict and is willing to sacrifice human lives.

There is another example, in Lebanon also, that may seem quite distant from our understanding of civil war: when we discuss the role of the “South Lebanon Army,” collaborators with the Israeli occupation and its agents in the “security belt region.” The resistance dealt with them as an integral part of the enemy forces and legitimate targets of resistance fire. The presence of the Zionist enemy in the battle made this conflict appear as if it were entirely outside the scope of the internal clash in Lebanon. This facilitated the mission of the resistance to take on the battle resolutely, and achieve victory and finally liberation.

Examining the experiences of people’s movements and liberation struggles in China, Vietnam, Cuba, Sudan, the Philippines, Colombia, Ireland, South Africa and others is necessary to draw lessons and reveal similarities and differences. The same applies to the experience of the Palestinian people themselves, internal conflicts in their society and how there were (and are) local Palestinian forces obstructing the progress of their national liberation struggle from the time when Napoleon’s warships were anchored in front of the walls of Akka in 1799.

Perhaps more attention has to be paid today to our understanding of the meaning of internal conflict or civil war. This type of war is, in most cases, inseparable from conflict in a region or area. The Palestinian case is no exception. Moreover, the causes of internal conflicts are always present, and their elements may be discovered burning under the ashes. And this war does not always mean violent or clear political conflict. The internal conflict is the embodiment of a struggle between blocs, classes, political options and power centers. It is often a clash between the popular majority and between the systems and structures founded by modern colonialism to “allow” them to govern to the extent that the colonizer permits, ruling for its benefit. They serve as its instrument, weapon and shield, whose fate is decided only by a popular revolution or when the colonizer itself is defeated.

This is the reality of the conflict, and the rules of its development and contradictions in any society in which one class establishes a regime of oppression instead of dialogue and does not consider confronting the external enemy to be a national priority. Any regime that opts for the path of abuse, exploitation, monopoly, impoverishment and exclusion – as is inherent in the capitalist system – is a regime of the ruling minority, and its relationship with the people will eventually reach a critical point, inevitably colliding with the popular majority that has lost everything and now has nothing left to lose.

Today, the revolutionaries in the Philippines are fighting their “own compatriots” with weapons, but they realize that they are fighting the tools of imperialism and corporate plunder in their country. The people of the Philippines lived for 400 years under the yoke of the Spanish colonizer, which then transferred them to a direct American occupation in 1898, which persisted for nearly 50 years. This reality of U.S. hegemony and domination persists to this day, even if the mechanisms of hegemony, nominal control and systems of plunder have varied over time.

The Algerian people know how French colonialism established the “Harki Brigades,” armed battalions of puppet Algerians who served the French colonizing forces and committed crimes against the people. They are a faithful copy of the “Palestinian Peace Factions.” (paramilitary groups founded by British colonizers to crush Palestinian resistance in the 1930s and 1940s.)

These so-called “factions of peace” were established by Britain in Palestine, supervised by British forces and trained and armed by Officer O’Connor in the mid-1930s. They participated in the suppression of the Great Palestinian Revolution in 1936, the prelude to the Nakba of 1947-48. They were led by figures from feudal families, among the wealthy with close ties to imperialist and reactionary forces in the region, including Fakhri al-Nashashibi, Fakhri Abdul-Hadi and others, led by Ragheb Nashashibi, leader of the National Defense Party. British General Charles Tiggart established a complete security system from these brigades and established police military centers in the cities and border areas known as “compounds” (Muqata’ in Arabic, today the name used for the Palestinian Authority’s presidential palace in occupied Ramallah). These formed “security belts” to protect British-Zionist settlers from revolutionary attacks. The collaborator Fakhri Nashashibi wa assassinated in Iraq in 1941, while Fakhri Abdul-Hadi was assassinated by revolutionaries in the village of Arraba (Jenin district) in 1943.

Before the formation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, the Israeli occupation established a system known as the Village Council Network. They also established other entities under various names and banners, all of which served the interests of Israel and the Zionist project. However, all of these were no longer necessary after the establishment of the Oslo authority and its instruments. The colonizer always works to create a buffer zone or system of mediation between itself and the colonized population through a subordinate local authority.

The armed clashes that took place between Palestinian forces in the year 1935, and in Jordan and Lebanon after the start of the Palestinian revolution in the 1960s, but also in Gaza in 2007, are all manifestations that embody this internal Palestinian conflict between one approach and its opposite, between classes and conflicting interests. The issue was not “personal” between Sheikh Izz al-Din al-Qassam and the feudal leader Ragheb Nashashibi, nor was it between the martyr Wadie’ Haddad and King Hussein of Jordan. Whoever claims otherwise only serves to promote illusions that benefit those who seek to market quick and ready answers.

***

Yes, there is a Palestinian conflict that always exists. Its fire fades and escalates according to the balance of forces and the tension of the internal class struggle. This has been the norm since the feudal leaders and the big bourgeoisie came to power, becoming a handful of compradors, representing the occupation and capital in Ramallah, Amman and Nablus. Regardless of the causes that led to this reality – which are undeniably important and should be addressed in subsequent articles – the fundamental and unwavering truth is that there is a Palestinian minority ruling sector that holds the cords of political decision-making and monopolizes it with power, money and foreign, American, European and reactionary Arab support, due to its security coordination with the occupation. It is willing to commit political crimes in order to defend its interests. These forces have prevented victory, aborted more than one popular uprising, negotiated away land and rights and destroyed Palestinian national achievements.

This war is not a war between regions, nor between religious sects, nor between inside and outside, between right and left, between right and right, nor between Gaza and the West Bank, but rather it is instead a natural part of the major conflict: between a people who are under occupation and in exile and diaspora that yearns to liberate their land and their people, and, on the other hand, those forces serving the colonizer. It is part of a larger struggle between the Arab nation and civilization that is crushed daily from the ocean to the Gulf, and the imperialist, Zionist and reactionary projects and forces that seek to consume and control the wealth of the peoples.

The popular anger to be found contained in the Palestinian refugee camps in particular, and in the belts of misery and poverty, is not due to “envy” of those who live in palaces and accumulate wealth in foreign banks. This anger is due to the fact that these fortunes are based on the plunder of the wealth of the Palestinian people, whose rights have been stolen, looted and violated for over 72 years.

**

However, if the residents of the palaces and the owners of the banks have their authority and its security devices, where may we find the power and authority of the camps and the popular classes? What is their alternative political project? Which forces express that vision today?

The land of Palestine that has been subjected to negotiations is the collective property of the Palestinian people. Natural resources and wealth are collective property. The natural gas stolen from beneath the seas of Palestine is collective property. The Palestine Liberation Organization and its institutions are also a collective property, but they have been confiscated, even kidnapped, and transformed into a private enterprise for a handful of merchants who have sold the cause, the land and the people. Our people realize that the network of Zionists, collaborators and thieves, which runs from Tel Aviv to Cairo and Amman to Ramallah, is one that pillages and sells their wealth, and it is these same forces that coordinate security with the Israeli occupation and conclude treaties of surrender. These include the Camp David agreements between Egypt and Israel of 1978 and 1979; the Wadi Araba treaty between Jordan and Israel of 1994; and, of course, the infamous Oslo accords of 1993 and their corollaries. This same sector excludes 99% of the Palestinian people and prohibits them from exercising their right to determine the fate of their national cause with their free and popular will.

**

Are we, then, on the verge of a Palestinian civil war?

The truth is that we live in the heart of this conflict. We have not left this ongoing contradiction for one day, even if its expression differs from one stage to another, without taking the form of a violent popular confrontation until the present moment. Until the Palestinian people liberate their voice and collective national will, the popular classes lead and an alternative approach prevails, the surrendered and degenerated segment of the Palestinian minority ruling class will continue to dominate, make deals and sell the people’s accomplishments and gains, in the name of those very people but behind their backs, without accountability or censure.

 

 

Join the Twitterstorm on 5 June: On #Naksa anniversary, #StopSettlements and Stop Annexation

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network will be joining in the following social media campaign on Twitter on Friday, 5 June 2020, initiated by Palestinian organizers in Gaza. We urge all supporters of Palestine to join us in this online action alongside demonstrations and other actions to reject Israeli annexation and settlements on the 53rd anniversary of the Naksa, the 1967 occupation of Palestine’s West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.

Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine is ongoing to this day.

On the 53rd anniversary of the “Naksa” (the 1967 occupation of Palestine’s West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem),

please join us on June 5, 2020 to express your solidarity with the Palestinian people and to reject the Israeli annexation by:

Tweeting with the two hashtags #Naksa and #StopSettlements
Time: 9:00 am Pacific/12:00 noon Eastern/4:00 pm UTC/6:00 pm Central Europe/7:00 pm Palestine

Please share widely!

Take action: Join a Palestinian video project for Black liberation

To support the uprising against anti-Black racism, colonial terror, and state repression, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is circulating the following appeal by Palestinian and solidarity activists in the United States, and urges participation by Palestinians in occupied Palestine and other Arab countries.

Palestinians in Houston, Texas joined a mass mobilization for Black liberation on Tuesday, 2 June 2020. (Photo by the Palestinian Youth Movement.)

Protests against state violence are erupting all over the U.S. in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd. A group of activists in the U.S. would like to create a short video, compiling statements by Palestinians in Palestine and the Arab world, expressing solidarity with Black communities in the U.S. If you are interested in contributing a short video message to this project please email us at donkeysaddle@gmail.com and we will send you additional info.

We hope to post the video within the week, so please let us know by Wednesday morning! #BlackLivesMatter


Palestinians in Oakland, California rallied for Black liberation on Tuesday, 2 June 2020. (Photo by the Palestinian Youth Movement.)

تندلع الاحتجاجات ضد عنف الدولة في جميع أنحاء الولايات المتحدة في أعقاب مقتل الشرطة لجورج فلويد. تود مجموعة من النشطاء في الولايات المتحدة إنشاء فيديو قصير ، يجمع بيانات من الفلسطينيين في فلسطين والعالم العربي ، معبراً عن التضامن مع الجماعات السوداء في الولايات المتحدة. إذا اردت المساهمة برسالة فيديو قصيرة لهذا المشروع ، يرجى مراسلتي بالبريد الإلكتروني، donkeysaddle@gmail.com, وسارسل لك معلومات إضافية. نأمل أن ننشر الفيديو في غضون أسبوع ، لذا يرجى إعلامنا قبل الأربعاء صباحًا!