Annual mobilization for the release of Georges Abdallah outside his prison gates in Lannemezan. Meet at Lannemezan station at 2 pm.
Georges Abdallah is a Lebanese communist militant and a struggler for the Palestinian cause imprisoned in France since 1984. He has been eligible for release since 1999. He will begin his 36th year of detention on 24 October, making him one of the longest-held political prisoners in the world.
📢 Manifestation annuelle pour la libération de Georges Abdallah devant les portes de sa prison à Lannemezan.
Rendez-vous devant la gare de Lannemezan à 14H.
🚨 Georges Abdallah est un militant communiste libanais et combattant de la cause palestinienne emprisonné en France depuis 1984 et libérable depuis 1999. Il entamera une 36e année de détention le 24 octobre prochain, ce qui fait de lui l’un des plus vieux prisonniers politiques du monde.
➡ Plus d’infos : http://liberonsgeorges.samizdat.net/
Détails à venir
Join The Red Nation for a night of food, dialogue, and information about the intersections between Palestinian rights and Indigenous liberation. Talk with Indigenous folx who have been to Palestine and learn how struggles for demilitarization, abolishing borders, ending resource extraction, abolition, and decolonization are interconnected across Palestine and Turtle Island.
On Saturday, 17 August, Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat spoke in Berlin after the end of the political ban imposed on him by the German state. Joining him were Samidoun’s international coordinator, Charlotte Kates and European coordinator, Mohammed Khatib. Thanks to solidarity video network Public Solidarity, videos of the talks are now available online for those who were unable to attend the event.
Watch the videos below:
Charlotte Kates:
Khaled Barakat:
Mohammed Khatib:
Watch all three videos as a playlist:
The event came in response to escalating repression in Germany targeting the Palestinian community and the Palestine solidarity movement, at the same time that this movement is on the rise. Recent incidents have included:
* the political ban imposed on Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat and the use of anti-Palestinian arguments to deny him a residency visa renewal
* the anti-BDS resolution passed by the Bundestag
* the political ban and stripping of the Schengen visitor visa targeting Rasmea Odeh, former Palestinian political prisoner and community leader
* the criminal prosecution of activists for interrupting an Israeli official speaker involved in the war on Gaza at Humboldt University
* the closure of the bank account of Jewish Voices for a Just Peace and other organizations in Germany
* the cancellation of performance invitations to American rapper Talib Kweli and Scottish rappers Young Fathers for their support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement
* the forced resignation of the director of the Jewish Museum in Berlin for tweeting a link to a statement against the Bundestag’s anti-BDS resolution written by Jewish scholars
BDS Berlin is calling for a demonstration at the PUMA Concept Store at Hackeschen Markt at Rosenthaler Str. 40/41 in 10178 Berlin on Saturday, 24 August 2019 from 2 pm to 4 pm.
BOYCOTT PUMA
PROUD SPONSORS OF ISRAELI APARTHEID
More than 200 Palestinian football teams have called on PUMA to end sponsorship of the Israel Football Association (IFA) due to its support for Israeli war crimes. The IFA includes football teams that are based in illegal settlements and host matches on land stolen from Palestinians.
EVERY ISRAELI SETTLEMENT IN THE WEST BANK, INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM, IS ILLEGAL, AND A WAR CRIME UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW.
Israel’s settlements contribute to serious human rights abuses and are a direct cause for restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement, access to natural resources, and ability to build homes and conduct business.
PUMA’S SPONSORSHIP OF THE IFA LEGITIMISES AND GIVES INTERNATIONAL COVER TO ISRAEL’S ILLEGAL SETTLEMENTS.
By sponsoring the Israel Football Association (IFA), Puma is endorsing the continued ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Israel uses sport to whitewash its crimes and normalise the status of illegal settlements.
As the main international sponsor of the IFA, Puma is lending its brand to cover up and sportwash Israel’s human rights abuses, including against Palestinian footballers.
Until they end their sponsorship of the IFA, join us in boycotting Puma and calling on Puma-sponsored teams to drop Puma.
BDS Berlin ruft auf zur
Kundgebung vor dem PUMA Concept Store am Hackeschen Markt
in der Rosenthaler Str. 40/41 in 10178 Berlin
am Samstag, den 24. August 2019 von 14:00 – 16:00 Uhr
Mehr als 200 palästinensische Fußballmannschaften haben PUMA aufgefordert, sein Sponsoring des Israelischen Fußballverbandes (IFA) aufgrund seiner Unterstützung für israelische Kriegsverbrechen einzustellen. Im IFA sind Fußballmannschaften, die in illegalen Siedlungen ansässig sind und Spiele auf von Palästinenser*innen gestohlenem Land ausrichten.
JEDE ISRAELISCHE SIEDLUNG IN DER WESTBANK, EINSCHLIESSLICH OST-JERUSALEM, IST ILLEGAL UND GEMÄSS VÖLKERRECHT EIN KRIEGSVERBRECHEN.
Israels Siedlungen tragen zu schweren Menschenrechts-verletzungen bei und sind eine unmittelbare Ursache für Einschränkungen der Bewegungsfreiheit der Palästinenser*innen, des Zugangs zu natürlichen Ressourcen und der Möglichkeit Häuser zu bauen und Geschäfte zu tätigen.
PUMAS SPONSORING DES IFA LEGITIMIERT UND GIBT ISRAELS ILLEGALEN SIEDLUNGEN INTERNATIONALE DECKUNG.
Boycott PUMA
Mit dem Sponsoring des Israelischen Fußballverbandes (IFA) billigt PUMA die anhaltende ethnische Säuberung der Palästinenser*innen. Israel nutzt den Sport, um seine Verbrechen zu übertünchen und den Status illegaler Siedlungen zu normalisieren.
Als internationaler Hauptsponsor der IFA stellt PUMA seine Marke zur Verfügung, um die israelischen Menschenrechtsverletzungen, auch gegen palästinensische Fußballspieler*innen, zu vertuschen und zu verschleiern.
Macht mit, boykottiert PUMA und ruft von PUMA gesponsorte Mannschaften auf, PUMA fallen zu lassen bis das Unternehmen sein Sponsoring des IFA beendet. #BoycottPUMA
On Wednesday evening, 21 August, the Prison Branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced that a number of Palestinian prisoners were launching a solidarity strike with Huzaifa Halabiya and his fellow hunger strikers on Thursday, 22 August. Halabiya, from Abu Dis in Jerusalem, has been on hunger strike for 53 days against his imprisonment without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention. There are eight prisoners currently on hunger strike and almost 50 more have already joined solidarity strikes inside Israeli prisons.
Protest in Gaza for the prisoners, 22 August
Dozens of prisoners announced that they would join a three-day solidarity strike beginning on Thursday, including the following:
From Ramon prison: Ahmad Karajeh, Ahmad Abu Hassaniya, Ahmad Abu Sheikha, Mahmoud Abu Asba, Ahmad al-Masri, Majdi Qawariq, Siraj al-Khatib, Ashraf al-Sajdi, Khaled Yousef
From Ofer prison: Khaled Taha, Mohammed Safi, Tarek Karajah, Ahmed Kittani, Mohammed Farahin, Bahaa al-Khawaja, Maher al-Amarin, Hafez Omar, Bassem Mizher, Ramez Rayan, Mohammed Khamour, Mohammed Fares, Mohammed Ghatrashi, Yousef al-Zaghari
From Nafha prison: Mohammed Khalaf, Mohammed Saleh, Uday al-Titi, Ahmad al-Khatib, Mohammed Hawarin, Hussein Atta
From the Negev desert prison: Fadi Abu al-Huda, Yousef Yousef, Tariq Mahran, Taleb Abu Khait, Hamdi al-Balawi, Mahmoud al-Haj Mohammed, Ibrahim Salem, Khader Madi, Mohammed Laddawa, Ali Darwish, Haytham Siyaj, Majed Alama, Munther Hajajreh, Mohammed Khatatbeh, Hamza Zawil
Protest in Gaza for the prisoners, 22 August
A number of the 48 prisoners launching solidarity strikes today have previously participated in solidarity actions during the strike of the administrative detainees. In their statement, they said that “the battle of freedom and will continues until the administrative detainees achieve their liberation and victory over the policy of administrative detention.”
Protest in Gaza for the prisoners, 22 August
As they launched their strike, protests were planned throughout occupied Palestine, including a protest in Gaza City at the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at 10 am and a protest outside Ofer prison. Participants in the Gaza protest carried signs and banners demanding freedom for all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, while children performed street theater in support of the prisoners.
Protest in Gaza for the prisoners, 22 August
In Eizariya and Abu Dis in Jerusalem, both towns observed a general commercial strike in support of Halabiya and Ismail Ali, both from Abu Dis. Ali has been on hunger strike for 30 days against administrative detention. National forces and political parties called for a day of anger and demonstrations to confront the occupation. The general strike followed an evening protest on Wednesday, which launched from the sit-in tent in support of the prisoners in Abu Dis to the homes of the martyrs Nasim Abu Roumi and the wounded Mohammed al-Sheikh in Eizariya. Hundreds joined the march to support the prisoners and demand justice for the wounded and the martyrs, while occupation forces fired tear gas, sound grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets toward the youth in the demonstration.
Protest in Gaza for the prisoners, 22 August
Halabiya is facing a particularly precarious health condition. He is a leukemia survivor who also suffered burns over the majority of his body as a child. He has been jailed without charge or trial since June 2018. When he was seized from his home by Israeli occupation forces, his wife was pregnant; he is now the father of seven-month-old Majdal, who he has been denied the opportunity to even meet.
Protest in Gaza for the prisoners, 22 August
All eight of the long-term hunger strikers are held without charge or trial under administrative detention, a policy of arbitrary detention introduced to Palestine under the colonial British mandate and adopted by the Zionist regime. Palestinians can be jailed for up to six months at a time under administrative detention orders, which are indefinitely renewable. This means that Palestinians can spend years in administrative detention. The hunger strikers include:
Huzaifa Halabiya, 54 days
Ahmad Ghannam, 41 days
Sultan Khallouf, 37 days
Ismail Ali, 31 days
Wajdi al-Awawda, 26 days
Tareq Qa’adan, 22 days
Nasser al-Jada, 17 days
Thaer Hamdan, 12 days
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters and friends of Palestine everywhere around the world to stand with these courageous prisoners who have put their lives on the line to seek freedom and an end to the unjust system of administrative detention. International solidarity can play an important role in supporting their struggle, and Palestinian prisoners are calling for our actions. All of our participation, protests and petitions can play a role in helping them to seize victory for justice and freedom.
Take Action:
1) Organize or join an event or protest for the Palestinian prisoners. You can organize an info table, rally, solidarity hunger strike, protest or action to support the prisoners. If you are already holding an event about Palestine or social justice, include solidarity with the prisoners as part of your action. Send your events and reports to samidoun@samidoun.net.
2) Write letters and make phone calls to protest the violation of Palestinian prisoners’ rights. Demand your government take action to stop supporting Israeli occupation or to pressure the Israeli state to end the policies of repression of Palestinian political prisoners. In particular, demand that your political officials put pressure on Israel to end the policy of administrative detention, the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial.
Call during your country’s regular office hours:
• Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne: + 61 2 6277 7500
• Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland: +1-613-992-5234
• European Union Commissioner Federica Mogherini: +32 (0) 2 29 53516
• New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters: +64 4 439 8000
• United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt: +44 20 7008 1500
• United States President Donald Trump: 1-202-456-1111
3) Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Join the BDS campaign to highlight the complicity of corporations like Hewlett-Packard and the continuing involvement of G4S in Israeli policing and prisons. Build a campaign to boycott Israeli goods, impose a military embargo on Israel, or organize around the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Learn more about the BDS campaign at bdsmovement.net.
New cartoon to support Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, by Carlos Latuff
As Palestinian prisoner Huzaifa Halabiya exceeds 52 days of hunger strike against his imprisonment by the Israeli occupation without charge or trial, the prisoners’ movement is urging people to take to the streets on 22 August to stand with Palestinian prisoners fighting for freedom. In a statement, Palestinian prisoners called on people to rally in front of the Ofer prison, emphasizing that the Palestinian people “will not stand idly by and accept the continued suffering of the striking administrative detainees.”
The statement also “called on all in the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza, occupied Palestine ’48 and in the refugee camps in diaspora to confirm together that we are fighting one battle, the battle of freedom and victory.”
Huzaifa Halabiya, on hunger strike since 1 July
The Prison Branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a call to participate in these actions in cities, camps and villages throughout occupied Palestine. It also urged “activating all forms of Arab and international support and solidarity with the prisoners, especially the administrative prisoners who are engaged in an open-ended hunger strike.” The statement also called for bringing Gilad Erdan, the Minister of Public Security, and other Israeli officials to be brought before “popular tribuals and international courts for their crimes against the prisoners and the Palestinian people as a whole.”
The statement also demanded that “The International Committee of the Red Cross and other concerned international bodies must take up their responsibilities to the prisoners. These institutions cannot be silent on the crimes against the prisoners.”
Huzaifa Halabiya’s mother joins protest for his freedom. Photo: Muhammed Qarout Idkaidek
Huzaifa Halabiya, from Abu Dis in Jerusalem, has been jailed without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention since 10 June 2018. He launched his hunger strike on 1 July to demand his freedom from detention. His health is precarious, especially given that he requires specialized medical care. He is a leukemia survivor and suffered severe burns as a child over the majority of his body. When he was arrested by occupation forces, his wife was pregnant; today, he is the father of a six-month-old daughter, Majdal, who he has been denied the ability to meet.
He is joined on hunger strike by Ahmad Ghannam, who has gone without food for 39 days. He is also a leukemia survivor held without charge or trial under administrative detention. From Dura near al-Khalil, he is married with two children. Sultan Khallouf, from the village of Burqin near Jenin, has been on hunger strike for 35 days. He was arrested on 8 July and launched his strike immediately after occupation authorities announced that he would be transferred to administrative detention.
Ismail Ali, also from Abu Dis in Jerusalem, has been jailed without charge or trial since January 2019; he launched his strike 29 days ago to demand an end to his administrative detention. He was jailed in the past for seven years by the Israeli occupation. Wajdi al-Awawdeh, 20, has been held under administrative detention since April 2018, and has now been on hunger strike for 24 days.
Tareq Qa’adan, a prominent leader in Jenin and a former prisoner who spent 11 years in Israeli jails, launched his hunger strike 20 days ago. He was transferred to administrative detention instead of being released at the end of his sentence.
Two more prisoners have joined the strike: Nasser al-Jada, who has been on hunger strike for 15 days, and Thaer Hamdan, who has been on strike for 10 days. All are held without charge or trial under administrative detention.
Poster for the 22 August protests…”It’s victory..or victory!”
Administrative detention was first introduced to Palestine under the British colonial mandate and was then adopted by the Zionist state. Palestinians can be jailed for up to six months at a time under each administrative detention order, without charge or trial. These orders are indefinitely renewable, so Palestinians spend years at a time jailed under administrative detention. There are approximately 500 administrative detainees among the over 5000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, and the end of administrative detention is a major demand of the prisoners’ movement.
The administrative detainees are not alone. Almost 50 fellow prisoners have launched solidarity strikes in order to pressure the Israeli occupation authorities to accede to the strikers’ demands. More prisoners are vowing to join the battle in the coming days.
The strikers have been repeatedly transferred from prison to prison, thrown in isolation and deprived of sleep in an attempt to break their strikes. Their health conditions have deteriorated severely. Halabiya is vomiting water, suffers severe pain throughout his body and must rely on a wheelchair to move. Ahmad Ghannam has lost at least 17 kilograms (35 pounds), has difficulty breathing and an elevated heart rate. Addameer lawyers visited Ismail Ali on 20 August and reported that he has lost 14 kilos (29 pounds) and suffers severe joint pains and yellow hands and feet.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters and friends of Palestine everywhere around the world to stand with these courageous prisoners who have put their lives on the line to seek freedom and an end to the unjust system of administrative detention. International solidarity can play an important role in supporting their struggle, and Palestinian prisoners are calling for our actions. All of our participation, protests and petitions can play a role in helping them to seize victory for justice and freedom.
On 22 August, please share your support of the Palestinian prisoners! Take part in an event or print the cartoon of Carlos Latuff (above) in support of the prisoners and share your photo on social media.
Take Action:
1) Organize or join an event or protest for the Palestinian prisoners. You can organize an info table, rally, solidarity hunger strike, protest or action to support the prisoners. If you are already holding an event about Palestine or social justice, include solidarity with the prisoners as part of your action. Send your events and reports to samidoun@samidoun.net.
2) Write letters and make phone calls to protest the violation of Palestinian prisoners’ rights. Demand your government take action to stop supporting Israeli occupation or to pressure the Israeli state to end the policies of repression of Palestinian political prisoners. In particular, demand that your political officials put pressure on Israel to end the policy of administrative detention, the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial.
Call during your country’s regular office hours:
• Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne: + 61 2 6277 7500
• Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland: +1-613-992-5234
• European Union Commissioner Federica Mogherini: +32 (0) 2 29 53516
• New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters: +64 4 439 8000
• United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt: +44 20 7008 1500
• United States President Donald Trump: 1-202-456-1111
3) Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Join the BDS campaign to highlight the complicity of corporations like Hewlett-Packard and the continuing involvement of G4S in Israeli policing and prisons. Build a campaign to boycott Israeli goods, impose a military embargo on Israel, or organize around the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Learn more about the BDS campaign at bdsmovement.net.
Two events in Berlin on Friday and Saturday, 16 and 17 August, featured speeches by Palestinian writer and activist Khaled Barakat, who was subject to a political ban by the German state preventing him from speaking about Palestine at any public event or activity. Barakat appealed against the political ban in German courts, a move that secured a pledge not to renew the political ban when it expired. Barakat spoke out at these events both to highlight the urgency of the current Palestinian political situation as well as to expose anti-Palestinian repression in Germany.
The Saturday event focused on the escalating political repression targeting Palestine organizing in Germany, linking these attacks to racism, imperialism and the rise of the extreme right, while also highlighting the complicity and active involvement of supposedly left parties in attempts to silence advocacy for Palestine. In addition to the political ban imposed on Barakat, recent events have included the deportation of Rasmea Odeh, the passing of an anti-BDS resolution in the Bundestag, the criminal prosecution of Palestinian and Israeli Jewish activists for interrupting a speech by a member of the Knesset, the forced resignation of the director of the Jewish Museum, the closing of the bank account of Jewish Voices for a Just Peace and the disinvitation of international artists who have taken a stand to support Palestinian rights.
Charlotte Kates, the international coordinator of Samidoun, opened the event with an overview of the current situation around activism for Palestine in Germany, highlighting the connection between racism, colonialism and the attacks on Palestinian rights. She also presented historical photos and posters reflecting the past involvement of German left movements of the 1970s and 1980s in strong support for the Palestinian struggle, including prominent campaigns to boycott Israel at the time of the first Intifada. She also detailed the political nature of some of the latest attacks on Barakat from German authorities.
JUZI Gottingen, a left social center, in 1988. Slogans call for support of the Palestinian people and the boycott of Israel.
After the expiration of the political ban, the German state reiterated the same arguments once again, adding repeated citations to the May 2019 anti-BDS Bundestag resolution in another document issued on 1 August, declaring that Barakat’s residence permit would not be renewed. This document also declared that referring to Israel as a “racist project” was “clearly anti-Semitic,” while failing entirely to cite any actual anti-Semitic content in the numerous referenced interviews and speeches Barakat made. It stated that critiques of the nature of the Israeli state can only be made “when the right of Israel to exist is recognized,” a particularly racist demand to impose upon a Palestinian.
Barakat focused in his own presentation on presenting a vision towards a liberated Palestine on the entire land of Palestine from the river to the sea, embracing a democratic, inclusive vision for a Palestinian revolutionary future. He emphasized that no political ban or repressive measures would stop him or, more fundamentally, the Palestinian people and their national liberation movement as a whole, from speaking about and struggling for justice. Instead, he noted, it only made clear once again that any expressive activity by the Palestinian people and the growing solidarity movement is seen as an existential threat by the Zionist state as well as by the imperialist and colonialist states that support it.
He reaffirmed the rights of the Palestinian people to resist occupation and seek their liberation by any means necessary, including armed struggle, underlining the goals of the Palestinian people for return and liberation. Barakat also emphasized the importance of the BDS campaign and the boycott movement, especially on an international level, in building material solidarity with Palestine.
Mohammed Khatib, the European coordinator of Samidoun, spoke about the need to confront European colonial policies in Palestine and around the world, linking European colonialism in the region with anti-refugee and racist policies inside Europe itself. He emphasized that Europe’s wealth stemmed from the exploitation of colonized peoples around the world, including people within Europe’s borders. He also focused on the importance of a clear, principled approach to supporting Palestine, declaring firmly that neither he nor the Palestinian people would recognize “Israel’s right to exist” on stolen land, built on the dispossession and displacement of the Palestinian people. A Palestinian refugee from Lebanon, he also discussed the popular movements in the camps in Lebanon and the importance of supporting their struggle for dignity and return.
Nadija Samour, a human rights lawyer who represents Barakat, spoke about the legal situation on an international level as well as within Germany, providing a comprehensive analysis of the rights of states versus those of people and emphasizing the various forms of attack that defenders of Palestinian rights are facing in Germany today. She underlined the fundamental human rights issues involved in this repression, including violations of Germany’s obligations under international law and the conventions it has committed to.
The event concluded with a lively discussion about bringing movements together to fight all forms of racism and oppression, the importance of confronting German imperialism and challenge escalating political repression. Participants noted that the upcoming Pop-Kultur Festival in Berlin, co-sponsored by the Israeli Embassy, is the focus of a growing boycott campaign not only in Berlin but at an international level, as artists of conscience around the world refuse to participate. They discussed successful, movement-building actions like the campaign to support Rasmea Odeh, the response to the anti-BDS resolution and the #BDSYes bloc at the Radical Queer March, emphasizing the need to build on these actions to work politically, legally and culturally to support Palestinian liberation.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemns the latest cynical attack by the Palestinian Authority against marginalized people in Palestine, noting that the ban on activities by al-Qaws is an attempt to distract from the PA’s ongoing failure to defend Palestinian rights from Israeli occupation, colonization and apartheid. While the PA claimed that it was investigating how to end its catastrophically damaging “agreements” with the Israeli occupation, in reality, security coordination with the occupier at the expense of the Palestinian people continues on a daily basis.
By targeting LGBTQ-identified Palestinians, Palestinian Authority security officials – also responsible for carrying out security coordination with the occupation on the ground and locking up Palestinian youth and students in political detention – are attempting to claim the mantle of religious and cultural identity to hide the PA’s ongoing involvement in coordinating “security” with the occupier. Instead, the PA seems to be attempting to incite conflict between Palestinians while providing free propaganda to the pinkwashing campaigns of the colonial Israeli regime and Zionist organizations around the world, while marginalized Palestinians bear the brunt.
Mohammed Khatib, the European coordinator of Samidoun, said:
“This dangerous reaction only proves once again that the PA is serving as a tool in the hands of the Zionist occupation that is used to oppress our people and to break any movement against the occupation. We know, very well, that the Zionist entity will be the only baneficiary of these repressive actions against LGBTQ-identified Palestinians. We can already see how these forces – which actively attack Palestinians of all identities through ongoing colonization, apartheid, occupation, killings, siege, imprisonment and dispossession – have already begun to disingenuously use this action to pinkwash the occupation.”
“Al-Qaws and other organizations have played a key role in building international awareness of the real situation of the Palestinian people, exposing the pinkwashing propaganda of the occupation state. Their members are part of the Palestinian people and our national liberation movement. The Palestinian people are diverse in our struggle for national and social liberation, and our diversity includes the LGBTQ community. Our vision of liberation includes justice for all.”
“These events should only encourage progressive and revolutionary LGBTQ movements and communities around the world to escalate their solidarity with the Palestinian people through fighting pinkwashing campaigns and building the boycott campaign against the racist, settler-colonial Israeli apartheid project, and building the BDS movement. Palestinians of all identities and sexualities are fighting for liberation from settler-colonialism as well as fighting for social liberation and democratic rights. It is impossible to achieve the latter without the fotmer.”
“Pinkwashing campaigns are, in reality, an international propaganda assault on LGBTQ Palestinians by the very forces most responsible for their oppression. We know that the Palestinian Authority is engaging in ongoing security coordination with the Israeli occupation. Far from protecting Palestinian values, it has completely sold out those values while pursuing normalization and cooperation with the Zionist occupation and the imperialist forces that fund, aid and arm it. In response to these attacks, this is the time to intensify all of our efforts to fight for national and social liberation in Palestine and for freedom for all oppressed communities.”
Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat‘s struggle against political repression in Germany was covered by Redfish in a new video interview. Organizations and activists around the world have responded with solidarity after Barakat was issued a political ban by the German state on 22 June, preventing him from speaking at any public events or activities on Palestine. Barakat and Samidoun activists spoke at the European Parliament about the growing repression in Germany, after which the Israeli state and Zionist organizations attempted to impose censorship there, but were defeated. Listen to this interview with Khaled Barakat and human rights lawyer Nadija Samour as they discuss the current state of repression in Germany targeting Palestinian rights:
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins organizers and activists throughout occupied Palestine in condemning the normalization meetings undertaken by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas with a delegation from the so-called “Israel Democratic Party” and it alliance, the Democratic Union. This meeting comes amid the approach to the Israeli elections scheduled in early September, in which the Israeli war criminal Ehud Barak – founder of this party – is marketing himself as a “left” competitor to his fellow war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu.
Abbas’ meeting with the representatives of Barak’s party – presented as a reunion with the granddaughter of Yitzhak Rabin and a symbolic reconstruction of the Oslo alliance – aims to perpetuate normalization of allegedly “left” Israeli forces which in fact represent the same brutal policies toward the Palestinian people, rooted in settler colonialism and Zionist racism, as their electoral rivals in the Likud or the Yisrael Beitenu of Avigdor Lieberman.
Such meetings with representatives of Israeli parties, competing for the right to oppress, exile and besiege the Palestinian people and escalate war threats against Iran and even Lebanon, only serve to normalize war criminals. Instead, all such parties – fundamentally based on the negation of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people to return, self-determination and national liberation on their land – should instead be clearly and firmly boycotted.
When Palestinian Authority officials engage in normalization meetings, this undermines the efforts of people of conscience around the world – including and especially Palestinian communities and organizations in exile and diaspora – to boycott Israeli political parties and institutions. International solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement can never be found in the accommodation of war criminals like Ehud Barak and his latest political machinations. Instead, popular movements around the world stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their legitimate resistance to the regime of occupation, apartheid, racism and colonialism that Barak’s party aims to helm.
The Israeli elections are being used to fuel one attack on the other upon the Palestinian people, from “anti-BDS minister” Gilad Erdan‘s alliance with the most overtly racist and reactionary settlers to invade al-Aqsa and displace Palestinian worshippers, to escalating threats of war from Gaza to Iran, to the promotion of a “neo-Oslo” normalization by Barak’s pseudo-leftist party whose very name is a fundamental contradiction: “Democratic Israel,” based on apartheid and colonization. Attempts by the Palestinian Authority to promote such figures come only at the expense of the Palestinian people and their fundamental rights.
The Oslo process has never been anything but deeply destructive to the Palestinian people, and normalization has never done anything but undermine Palestinian rights and cover up the reality of a struggle between a colonizer exerting its domination in alliance with the most powerful imperialist forces in the world and a colonized people continuing to struggle and resist.
While the Zionist parties may debate intensely with each other over a range of issues, they are unified in their commitment to the apartheid regime, the dispossession of the Palestinian people, the denial of Palestinian rights, the colonization of Palestinian land and the labeling of Palestinian resistance as “terror.” They compete with each other about how to more “effectively” combat the “Iranian strategic threat” and “Palestinian terror.” None of the Zionist parties recognize the national rights of the Palestinian people, and all are committed to denying Palestinian refugees’ right to return. Palestinians – especially Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails – are labeled “extremists” for pursuing their rights at the same time that occupation forces invade Palestinian homes on a daily basis and impose a deadly siege on the Gaza Strip.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges people around the world committed to Palestinian rights and especially Palestinian communities in exile to confront these dangerous normalization meetings. Instead, we must prioritize Palestinian prisoners and refugees, fighting for their fundamental right to return home and putting their bodies and lives on the line within Israeli occupation prisons in hunger strikes for dignity, justice and freedom. Any attempt to promote Zionist parties that continue to reject fundamental Palestinian rights, including by the Palestinian Authority and reactionary Arab regimes, can only harm Palestinians struggling for their lives, land and liberation.
We join the demand to immediately bring to an end the so-called “Committee for Communication with Israeli Society” in the PLO, which is in reality a mechanism to promote normalization with Zionist war criminals and their official political parties and institutions. We urge all friends of Palestine to confront normalization with intensified mobilization to support Palestinian refugees struggling in Gaza, Lebanon and around the world for their rights, and Palestinian prisoners on the front lines fighting for freedom. In particular, this is a critical moment to escalate the international call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel and the complicit corporations that continue to prop up its colonial regime.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
Annual mobilization for the release of Georges Abdallah outside his prison gates in Lannemezan. Meet at Lannemezan station at 2 pm.
Join The Red Nation for a night of food, dialogue, and information about the intersections between Palestinian rights and Indigenous liberation. Talk with Indigenous folx who have been to Palestine and learn how struggles for demilitarization, abolishing borders, ending resource extraction, abolition, and decolonization are interconnected across Palestine and Turtle Island.
BDS Berlin is calling for a demonstration at the PUMA Concept Store at Hackeschen Markt at Rosenthaler Str. 40/41 in 10178 Berlin on Saturday, 24 August 2019 from 2 pm to 4 pm.
The Saturday event focused on the escalating political repression targeting Palestine organizing in Germany, linking these attacks to racism, imperialism and the rise of the extreme right, while also highlighting the complicity and active involvement of supposedly left parties in attempts to silence advocacy for Palestine. In addition to the political ban imposed on Barakat, recent events have included the deportation of 
Charlotte Kates, the international coordinator of Samidoun, opened the event with an overview of the current situation around activism for Palestine in Germany, highlighting the connection between racism, colonialism and the attacks on Palestinian rights. She also presented historical photos and posters reflecting the past involvement of German left movements of the 1970s and 1980s in strong support for the Palestinian struggle, including prominent campaigns to boycott Israel at the time of the first Intifada. She also detailed the political nature of some of the latest attacks on Barakat from German authorities.
The event concluded with a lively discussion about bringing movements together to fight all forms of racism and oppression, the importance of confronting German imperialism and challenge escalating political repression. Participants noted that the upcoming 
