The escalation of repression in Europe continues as Carola Rackete, the captain of the Sea Watch 3 ship rescuing people from drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, was arrested by Italian authorities after docking her ship in the port of Lampedusa. She docked the vessel despite threats from Italian authorities to deny it access to their waters because the physical and psychological health of 40 refugees from Africa on board the ship were at severe risk after a lengthy time at sea.
While Rackete was arrested, the 40 refugees were able to leave the boat – yet now they face the next step of the European refugee system, potential threats of deportation or splitting up into various European countries. Rackete is being held under house arrest and faces three to 10 years imprisonment on charges of resisting a warship. She joins Pia Klemp, the captain of the Iuventa, another vessel that saved over 1000 people from drowning into the Mediterranean. Her ship was also confiscated and she is threatened with up to 20 years in prison.
The arrests of Rackete and Klemp the latest elaboration of the policy of “Fortress Europe” that has already stolen the lives of thousands of people from Africa, the Arab World and Southwest Asia seeking refuge. In the last six years alone, over 18,000 people have lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea seeking refuge and safety and denied it because of their national origin, race or ethnicity.
It must be noted that many of the people who have lost their lives in the sea have been the victims of European policies many times over: the Fortress Europe policy that defies international law, human rights and basic humanity with border walls, iron fences, closed doors and impenetrable policies, but also the lengthy history and present of European imperialism and colonialism. It is European and U.S. policies of invasion, intervention, colonization, destruction, environmental devastation, exploitation and war that has pushed thousands upon thousands of people to migrate from their homes, often against their desires, to seek their most basic right to safety.
The threats of Matteo Salvini and the Italian far-right are highly visible in propounding the most extreme form of “Fortress Europe” policy that seemingly openly welcomes the drowning of thousands in the sea. However, Italy is not responsible alone. As noted by Klasse Gegen Klasse in their statement, “Europe’s racist migration regime is primarily influenced by the interests of German imperialism…The federal government has offered in a hypocritical gesture to accept the refugees from the Sea Watch 3. But German imperialism is responsible for the fact that time and again so many people are searching for this dangerous route via the Mediterranean. Only a few years ago, the German federal government concluded a pact with Turkey to close the Balkan route – a pact that is still in force today. That’s why the Mediterranean route is used at all: because no other way remains open. No one would volunteer to face this mortal danger.”
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in solidarity with Carola Rackete, Pia Klemp and all of those struggling to bring an end to the racist framework of “Fortress Europe.” We join the calls for their immediate release, the dropping of all charges and the end to the seizure of rescue boats and the prosecution of those who save refugees’ lives. We join the calls to end the racist and discriminatory policies of deportation and exclusion, denial of benefits, forced camp stays, securitization and labor bans that prevent people from seeking safety and freedom.
Most importantly, we know that all of these things will not be possible without an end to European imperialism and colonization around the world, including the European Union’s support for U.S. wars and interventions and the Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestine. Instead, European states are – as is the case in Germany – escalating existing state structures of repression to target communities of color and oppressed communities, including those who have recently come to Europe, often as refugees, for surveillance and intelligence interest.
The rise of the far right in Europe has involved ongoing anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discourse and attacks; these same parties seek strong relationships with the Israeli state. In the case of Palestine in particular, support for the killing and repression of Palestinians and Arabs in Palestine and the Arab world is combined with repressive mechanisms to suppress organizing in Palestinian and Arab communities in Europe. Therefore, support for Palestine and to change European policy toward Israeli apartheid is intimately connected to the fight against racism and the policies of “Fortress Europe” and securitization inside European states as well.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in solidarity with the youth activists in Jordan who have been arrested for protesting against Jordan’s participation in the Bahrain “economic conference,” widely condemned by all sectors of Palestinian society. Suhaib Nasrallah, Malik al-Jaizawi and Mohammed Ajaj were all detained by Jordanian security forces under the charge of “disrupting the relationship with a sister country.”
In reality, these three young men were arrested because they were part of the massive protests expressing the will of the Jordanian and Palestinian people to completely reject the Bahrain “economic conference” organized at the behest of the United States and its most reactionary allies in the Arab world in order to promote the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and the subjugation of the Palestinian people. We express our strongest solidarity with these three prisoners of conscience and all of the Jordanians and Palestinians who are facing repression because they stand against imperialism, colonization and reaction.
The three young men are currently being held by the Jordanian Preventive Security forces under a 15-day arrest warrant issued by a “state security court.” Meanwhile, Dr. Said Diab, the General Secretary of the Wihda Party in Jordan (Popular Democratic Unity Party) was detained, searched and questioned by Jordanian security services after he crossed the Syrian-Jordanian border. He was returning from a conference in Damascus: the 62nd convening of the Arab Parties Conference under the slogan, “From Jerusalem to the Golan Heights, Restoring our Land.”
All of these attacks come along the lines of a series of repressive measures carried out against Palestinians and Jordanians defending Palestinian rights, including the suppression and prohibition of events in honor of Abu Ali Mustafa, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine assassinated by the Israeli occupation in August 2001, and ongoing harassment, interrogation and arrests of Jordanian and Palestinian activists who uphold Palestinian rights and fight imperialism and Zionism in the region.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network strongly condemns the arrest of these youth activists who are standing for justice and dignity: confronting the malicious plans of U.S. imperialism in the region, the most reactionary Arab regimes and the normalization of Israeli colonialism, racism and apartheid. We urge all supporters of justice in Palestine, who stand with the Jordanian and Palestinian people against Trump’s “deal of the century,” to join the call for the liberation of Suhaib Nasrallah, Malik al-Jaizawi, Mohammed Ajaj and all political detainees in Jordanian prisons.
Speakers carried signs and banners supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, including representatives of BDS Berlin, who carried three large letters reading “BDS.” This Palestinian call for international action urges people and organizations around the world to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel and its complicit institutions and multinational corporations until basic human rights of the Palestinian people are implemented: namely, ending the occupation and dismantling the apartheid wall, implementing full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel and implementing Palestinian refugees’ right of return. Participants expressed their strong support for the campaign, chanting “Free, free Palestine!” and “Yes, yes, BDS!”
Photo: Afif el-Ali
On 17 May, the German Bundestag passed an anti-BDS resolution that falsely equated this Palestinian movement with anti-Semitism. A series of anti-Palestinian resolutions were proposed by the various political parties in the Bundestag after the extreme-right AfD along with the ultra-capitalist FDP kicked off this particular attack on Palestinians with a proposal to ban the BDS movement. This decision has been widely condemned by Palestinian and international rights advocates, as well as by Jewish and Israeli scholars.
Photo: Janis
However, the anti-BDS resolution is not an outlier but reflects an ongoing and escalating campaign to criminalize Palestinians and Palestine organizing in Germany. Most recently, Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat has been subjected to a political ban, forbidding him from speaking or attending meetings or demonstrations – like this one – under threat of a year in prison if he fails to comply. Samidoun members and other participants in the demonstration carried signs highlighting his case, reading “Solidarity with Khaled Barakat!”
Photo: Janis
One of the speakers at the rally, Majed Abusalama, a Palestinian activist from Gaza in Berlin, highlighted a series of repressive actions targeting Palestinians and their supporters in Germany in addition to the anti-BDS resolution, including:
Participants in the demonstration collectively called out “Thank you, Talib!” saluting the rapper for his clear solidarity for Palestinian rights and his principled stand to refuse silence on BDS and Palestine, even at the price of seeing his own performances and festival invitations cancelled as a result.
Photo: Afif el-Ali
It should be noted that the demonstration was pushed by police to a side area of the Platz der Republik while a tiny pro-apartheid counter-protest was instead given the prime location in the plaza directly in front of the Bundestag to wave a few Israeli flags.
Photo: Afif el-Ali
The protest included a flash mob, where “We Shall Overcome,” a classic Black song of the U.S. civil rights movement was played, as participants kept tape over their mouths while raising “victory” signs, representing resistance to the intended silencing of the Palestinian people and the Palestine movement in Germany. After the song, the participants collectively tore off the tape, shouting, “Free, free Palestine!”
Photo: Janis
Organizers emphasized that this protest was only the beginning of an escalating campaign to defend Palestinian rights in Germany and to secure liberation and justice in Palestine, with further protests and actions to take place in the coming months.
Hundreds of people took to the streets in Paris, France, on Saturday, 22 June to demand the liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the imprisoned Arab struggler for Palestine who has been jailed in France for nearly 35 years. After the large demonstration, attacks have poured in from the French far right and pro-apartheid organizations, as documented by the Collectif Palestine Vaincra (translation below from the original French)
A story that comes (again) from afar
We can recognize the “quality” of these attacks in their consistency. Indeed, the Zionist far right and its allies have been repeatedly outraged by the growing support for the release of Georges Abdallah, Arab Communist and fighter for Palestine imprisoned in France since 1984 and eligible for release since 1999.
Since his arrest in 1984, Georges Abdallah has suffered repeated attacks from the supporters of the apartheid regime.
In 2016, during a film screening about Georges Abdallah at Utopia in Toulouse, the CRIF defamed the resister Georges Abdallah and the organizations that support him by attempting (unsuccessfully) to ban the event.
A few months ago, La France Insoumise member of parliament Danièle Obono was subjected to a wave of insults on Twitter for her support for the longest-held political prisoner in Europe. Among these Twitter attacks, one could count that of the lawyer-editorialist for the extreme right, Gilles William Goldnadel, or those of the leaders of the Printemps Républicain, Gilles Clavreul and Laurent Bouvet.
The campaign targeting only this one parliamentarian while dozens of prominent political figures also support Georges Abdallah must raise clear questions. This is especially true as many attacks referred to “integration” and the “values of the Republic,” long-established anti-Black, racist dog-whistles.
Misrepresentation in the service of Israel
The “controversy” surrounding the Paris demonstration for Georges Abdallah was sparked following an article in the pro-Israel, far-right website “Le Monde Juif,” close to the Jewish Brigade and the Jewish Defense League. This article, accompanied by a video, claims that the demonstrators chanted “Death to Israel,” (“A mort Israel” in French) and thus reflects anti-Semitism in the streets of Paris.
Even though it is very clear in the video that the slogan being chanted is actually “Down with Israel,” (“A bas Israel” in French) this is a classic refrain of the supporters of Israeli apartheid. They repeatedly affirm the Zionist claim that attempts to assimilate all Jews under the banner of the Zionist state. What is targeted in this slogan is the Israeli state, as a colonial, racist and advance base of Western imperialism in the region.
The accusation of anti-Semitism is too serious to be taken lightly. We condemn these wretched propaganda operations which aim to cast opprobrium upon a campaign that actually has great political clarity. Indeed, this campaign supports the struggle of Georges Abdallah and his organizations – the FARL as well as the PFLP – who fought and still fight against colonialism and racism, and for a free and democratic Palestine from the river to the sea.
Leading politicans support the attacks
This campaign, initiated by the most extreme ultra-Zionist networks, was soon joined by several prominent politicians.
For example, Les Républicains leader Eric Ciotti said, “hearing ‘Death to Israel’ on the streets of France in 2019 is unacceptable. This anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic act is intolerable.” Note also that he uses the same amalgamation as President Macron in an attempt to criminalize anti-Zionism.
Entendre "Mort à Israël" dans les rues de France en 2019 est insoutenable.
Cet acte antisioniste et antisémite est intolérable.
Je m'étonne qu'une telle manifestation de soutien au terroriste Georges Ibrahim Abdallah ait été autorisée à Paris par la @prefpolice ! pic.twitter.com/uFLZS8zCJR
For her part, the Israeli apartheid ambassador to France, Aliza Bin Noun, said she was “shocked, especially since the organizers were authorized by the Prefecture of Police.”
On a scandé “mort à #Israël” ce samedi en plein cœur de #Paris. Pas étonnant: c’était lors d’une manifestation de soutien au #terroriste notoire Georges Ibrahim Abdallah! Je suis plus que choquée, ce d’autant + que les organisateurs aient reçu l’autorisation de @prefpolice
This new campaign of defamation helps to reveal that, in the diversity of its expressions, the campaign for the liberation of Georges Abdallah is growing and disturbing the defenders of racism and colonialism. The Collectif Palestine Vaincra asserts on this occasion its support for the Jeunes Révolutionnaires, initiator of the red block that is attacked in the video, which has been attacked on multiple occasions on social networks in this regard.
Meanwhile, LREM deputy Sylvain Maillard will propose that the National Assembly adopts the “IHRA definition of anti-Semitism,” which is yet another attempt to censor support for the Palestinian people. We must not allow France to criminalize anti-Zionism; this is our duty to everyone.
Dozens of collectives, political parties and national and international associations participated, including CLGIA, EuroPalestine, Le Cri Rouge, PIR, JR, NPA, BDS, PCRF, SRI, the Belgian Call, Secours Rouge, AFP, MRAP and many more.
Photo: Pat Bardet
For over two hours, protesters chanted for the liberation of Georges Abdallah, their support for the Palestinian resistance and for the freedom of Palestine from the river to the sea. The march ended with a special message from Georges Abdallah himself from his prison in Lannemezan (see full text below).
Today, Georges Abdallah, your comrades are here in the streets of Paris!
Today, we once again say loud and clear that resistance to Zionism and imperialism is legitimate!
Resistance is legitimate, like that led by the leaders and fighters of the Palestinian revolution: George Habash, Ghassan Kanafani, Wadie Haddad, Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, Abu Ali Mustafa, Rima and the tens of thousands of fedayeen who gave their lives for this cause.
Resistance is legitimate, like that led by the 5,450 Palestinian prisoners inside the Zionist occupation prisons. To Ahmad Sa’adat, Marwan Barghouthi and all of the others, your determination and your courage are an example!
Resistance is legitimate, like that led by the youth of Gaza who, since March 30, 2018, have challenged the Zionist occupation in the Great March of Return. They demonstrate that not only is Oslo dead and buried but that the only way forward for the Palestinian people is the reistance. And that Trump’s new offensive and its “deal of the century” will not change this!
Resistance is legitimate, like that waged by the entire Palestinian people and its organizations against the Bahrain conference being organized next week. This conference aims to liquidate the Palestinian cause with the complicity of Arab reactionary regimes. Do not let them go!
Resistance is legitimate, especially the one led by our comrade Georges Abdallah from the prisons of French imperialism. For 35 years they want to silence him and still he resists!
35 years in prison and Georges Abdallah remains true to who he is: an anti-imperialist fighter and a relentless Arab Communist.
On behalf of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, which has the immense joy of having as honorary members Leila Khaled and Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, we call to continue the fight for the liberation of Georges and also to build a solidarity movement for the Palestinian people to support the only fair and just option: a free, democratic Palestine from the river to the sea!
In recent times, the popular masses have burst onto the political scene and assert themselves more than ever with enthusiasm and determination.
From one country to another, and more particularly in the countries of the southern periphery of the Mediterranean, the struggle continues to spread and flourish in insurrectional uprisings of a particular type. In waves, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of women, men, young and old from various perspectives take to the streets and gather in public places …
No longer able to remain indifferent to the worsening of their precarious existential conditions, they come out of their torpor as if by magic and call to account those who believed themselves untouchable. And suddenly, a new era begins to form and structure itself before our eyes and so many hopes begin to emerge on the horizon.
Of course, the diversity of expressions in the unity of the struggle, as well as the manifest enthusiasm and determination of the popular masses, cannot make us forget the real contradictions within the movement. The stratification of the working class and its structural weakness, the generalization of existential precariousness, and above all the extent of informal work on a world scale, especially in the southern countries, give the petty bourgeoisie and its various proposals considerable weight at all levels, not just at the political leadership level of the movement.
This suggests to us that the strength of the transition already underway, whether for a longer or shorter time, is always a function of the capacity of the popular masses and the revolutionary protagonists working to succeed in the fight against the hegemony of the bourgeois projects, as well as the reinforcement of the unity of the popular movement.
Which obviously is not an easy task …
Naturally, this situation is part of the extension and flourishing of all these protests, and other revolts (“Hirak”) that have shaped the Arab world for a decade.
It is also part of an international context where inter-imperialist contradictions are exacerbated against the backdrop of the global crisis of the moribund globalized capitalist system. The loss of hegemony of US imperialism at the world level pushes it in its drive towards more aggression vis-à-vis other imperialist poles and especially towards increasingly criminal hostility towards independent states who protest even somewhat against its dominance…
What we see these days, both in the Gulf vis-à-vis Iran and the withdrawal of the nuclear agreement, and in Palestine concerning Zionist colonization, is an expression of this loss of hegemony of an imperialist superpower.
The latter is now unable to manage and control the relations between the various regional powers in the Middle East. It asserts itself, and it is obliged to assert itself, as an enemy of all the peoples of this region. Whatever the suffering it may cause, the popular masses will eventually debunk all the puppets and other potentates at its command in the Gulf and elsewhere in the Arab world.
Comrades, as you see today, the masses in both Algeria and Sudan say loud and clear that there is certainly room for other futures than submission to the diktats of the imperialists and their scavenging guard dogs. .
Comrades, we can not be indifferent to the Palestinian popular masses and the Resistance fighters bravely opposing the barbarity of the Zionist military forces and their hordes of settlers, in particularly difficult conditions.
We can not be indifferent to the place of our communist comrades and our Kurdish comrades who face the fascist regime in Turkey …
We can not be indifferent to the massacres orchestrated by the imperialists through the potentates of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf in Yemen …
Solidarity, all solidarity with Algeria and its popular masses in struggle!
Solidarity, all solidarity with Sudan and its popular masses in struggle!
Solidarity, all solidarity with the Resistance in Zionist jails, and in isolation cells in Morocco, Turkey, Greece, the Philippines and elsewhere in the world!
Solidarity all solidarity with the young proletarians of the popular neighborhoods!
Honor to the Martyrs and the popular masses in struggle!
Down with imperialism and its Zionist watchdogs and other Arab reactionaries!
Capitalism is nothing but barbarism, honor to all those who oppose it in the diversity of their expressions!
Together comrades, and only together, we will win!
To all of you comrades and friends, my warmest revolutionary greetings.
When I saw you in October, in front of the prison gates in Lannemezan, I told you about the arrest in Israel of our friend and comrade Mustapha Awad, a Belgian worker and artist of Palestinian origin.
After 9 months of arbitrary detention, Mustapha has finally been released through the mobilization, among others, of certain sectors of trade union organizations. His first words when he arrived at Zaventem Airport were: “I’ll never be free without the freedom of Georges Abdallah, Ahmad Saadat, Marwan Barghouti and all Palestinian prisoners.”
Comrades, we, too, are not free without their liberation.
This month, Mustapha was finally able to rejoin his family in Lebanon, in Ain al-Helweh, in the camp where he was born. We hope with all our heart that George can also join his as soon as possible.
In March, we traveled to Lebanon with a delegation from the Plat-Forme Charleroi-Palestine. In all our contacts with Palestinians and Lebanese activists, we always found that George is not forgotten. The Collective that fights for his release with his brother Robert, is particularly active and puts pressure on an ongoing basis.
The day we arrived, we learned that an action was taking place in front of the Consulate of France. We demonstrated with the Collective and Robert in the streets of Saida, with banners demanding the release of George. It was during a demonstration in tribute to Marouf Saad, and thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians were present.
Comrades, let’s continue the mobilizations. 35 years of life in prison, 35 years of fighting: let’s free Georges Abdallah!
For the 4th year in a row, at the call of the unitary campaign, we demonstrated together today in Paris to demand once again the release of Georges Abdallah.
It is 35 years since our comrade has been imprisoned by the French imperialist state, despite the fact that he has been eligible for release since 1999 and that several court decisions have been issued for his release.
35 years of judicial harassment and revenge in France but also 35 years of pressure exercised by the Zionist entity and the successive US governments to prevent any liberation of our comrade.
35 years of prison violence and the barbarity of the “little eternity” of life imprisonment.
But Georges Abdallah is also engaged in a lifetime and in particular 35 years of commitment to pursue a struggle – that of a communist, militant anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, who fought and continues to fight every day.
His is a lifetime and in particular 35 years of affirming a general political line of analysis of this class war that is taking place on a national and international scale. He maintains the closest analysis of the state of the imperialist forces and their contradictions, to unmask and denounce their plans of pillage and domination – as is the case today for example with what is taking place today in the Arab world in general and Palestine in particular through the “great deal of the century” orchestrated by US imperialism, under cover of the reactionary countries of the region. This is yet another attempt to liquidate the Palestinian cause and the just and legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.
Georges Abdallah has shown a lifetime – and in particular 35 years of internationalist commitment alongside the Palestinian resistance and its lion cubs, and also alongside all struggling peoples who resist capitalism, imperialism, Zionism, colonialism, Arab reactionary states and all forms of oppression.
Georges Abdallah has spent his whole life and 35 years in particular in condemnation of the moribund and dying capitalist system and with unconditional support for the global dynamics moving the ongoing struggle forward.
His is a lifetime and 35 years of refusal of any reformism and any illusory compromise to try to safeguard the achievements of a so-called democratic “capitalism with a human face” and it is 35 years of proclaiming the relentless struggle of “class against class”, alongside the masses and in the popular neighborhoods.
Georges Abdallah’s is a lifetime and 35 years of vigilance and hard struggle against any form of fascism, racism and state violence.
His is a lifetime and 35 years of affirming another future and that the agony of this system will end only in the overtaking of capitalism towards socialism and communism.
Georges Abdallah’s life is also that of 35 years of solidarity with the revolutionary prisoners and in particular with Palestinian political prisoners.
It is, in this case, 35 years of refusal to believe in “little legal tricks here and there” to break the relentlessness of a class judiciary actually in the hands of the ruling class politics, which in the name of the urgencies of state violates its own laws; it’s 35 years of determination that it is by changing the balance of power that we can succeed in liberating our comrades of the claws of the enemy.
Georges Abdallah’s life reflects 35 years of appeals for a thousand solidarity initiatives to flourish and inspiring a mobilization that continues to strengthen and expand; a mobilization that rests
now on a strong network of activists and active supporters, who aim to win over an increasingly wide spectrum of public opinion on a local, national and international level.
Georges Abdallah, to conclude, has lived a whole life of struggle and 35 years of determination and belief that it is together and only together, in diverse expressions of solidarity, in the coordination and intensification of the united mobilizations, that we will win.
YES, ABDALLAH, IS OUR COMRADE!
HIS IS OUR STRUGGLE! WE ARE IN THE BATTLE! FREEDOM FOR ABDALLAH!
PALESTINE LIVES! PALESTINE WILL WIN! FREE GEORGES ABDALLAH!
DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM, ZIONISM AND THE REACTIONARY ARAB REGIMES!
Unified Campaign ffor the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah
ILPS Solidarity photo with Khaled Barakat- Hong Kong, 26 July
The International League of People’s Struggles – of which Samidoun is a member organization – convened its 6th International Assembly in Hong Kong from 23 to 27 June, drawing hundreds of participants from dozens of countries.
Khaled Barakat, Palestinian writer and coordinator of the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat, was invited to be one of the conference’s keynote speakers. However, one day before the beginning of the conference, Barakat was suddenly slapped with a repressive political ban by German authorities, banning him from speaking in public either “directly or indirectly,” in person or over video. Therefore, Barakat was unable to deliver his keynote address, under threat of a year in prison in Germany.
Charlotte Kates, International Coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, spoke over video to the ILPS conference, discussing the repression that prevented them from hearing from Barakat and its context in the ongoing siege and attacks on Palestine by the imperialist powers.
During the closing session of the assembly, participants representing around 25 countries gathered together to take solidarity photos supporting Khaled Barakat and the Palestinian struggle against repression and for liberation. “The German government is acting as an accomplice to U.S. imperialism and Israeli Zionism, and it is trying to crush the German people’s attempts to protest about the plight of the Palestinians. Not only is it a right to protest, it is our duty,” said the ILPS in their message of solidarity.
ILPS Solidarity photo with Khaled Barakat- Hong Kong, 26 July
Call to rally against the inauguration of the “Place de Jerusalem”
Sunday 30 June, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, will receive the mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Leon, for an inaugural ceremony for a “Place de Jerusalem” in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. Moshe Leon is a ferocious advocate for the designation of Jerusalem as the capital of the Israeli state, in complete contradiction to international law and the fundamental rights ofthe Palestinian people. The city of Jerusalem (Al Quds) is the object of a policy of expropriation of the Palestinian residents, with repeated attempts to force them from their homes for the benefit of Israeli settlers.
As the Israeli policy of colonization and dispossession of the Palestinian people becomes even more radical, attempts to normalize relations with an Israeli state that does not respect international law are also multiplying. This planned inauguration of “Place de Jerusalem” echoes the American policy of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the Israeli state and move its embassy there. We refuse to give a blank check to the Israeli regime.
Attention, le lieu du Rassemblement est modifié : Place du Maréchal Juin, en face du métro Pereire (ligne 3) et du RER C Pereire-Levallois
Appel a rassemblement contre l’inauguration de la « place de Jérusalem » :
Dimanche 30 juin, la maire de Paris Anne Hidalgo recevra le maire de Jérusalem Moshe Leon, pour une cérémonie d’inauguration d’une « place de Jérusalem » dans le XVIIe arrondissement de Paris. Moshe Leon est un farouche partisan de la désignation de Jérusalem comme capitale de l’État d’Israël, en complète contradiction avec le droit international et les droits fondamentaux du peuple palestinien. La ville de Jérusalem (Al Quds) fait l’objet d’une politique d’expropriation de ses résidents palestiniens, poussés ou forcés de quitter leur domicile au profit de familles juives israéliennes.
A mesure que la politique israélienne de colonisation et d’expropriation du peuple palestinien se radicalise, les tentatives de normaliser les relations avec un État d’Israël ne respectant pas le droit international se multiplient. Le projet d’inauguration d’une « place de Jérusalem » sonne en écho à la décision américaine de reconnaître Jérusalem comme capitale de l’État d’ Israël et d’y déplacer leur ambassade. Nous refusons que soit ainsi donné un chèque en blanc au gouvernement israélien.
Rassemblement Dimanche 30 Juin, 15h Place du Maréchal Juin 75017 Paris, en face du métro Pereire (ligne 3) et du RER C Pereire-Levallois.
Appel à l’initiative du Collectif Ni Guerres ni État de Guerre, soutenu par :
Action Antifasciste Paris Banlieue
Argenteuil Solidarité Palestine
Association Femmes Plurielles
Association France Palestine Solidarité PARIS-SUD
Association des Travailleurs Maghrébins de France (ATMF)
Avec Naplouse
Campagne pour la Libération de Enfants palestiniens emprisonnés par Israël
Campagne unitaire pour la libération de Georges Abdallah
Collectif Faty Koumba : Association des Libertés, Droits de l’Homme et non-violence
Collectif Palestine Nord Essonne
Collectif 69 de Soutien au Peuple Palestinien
Droits Devant !!
EuroPalestine
Fondation Frantz Fanon
Forum Palestine Citoyenneté
Front Uni des Immigrations et Quartiers Populaires (FUIQP)
International Solidarity Movement
Montreuil Palestine
Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA)
Parti des Indigènes de la République (PIR)
Parti communiste des ouvriers de France (PCOF)
Union Générale des Étudiants de Palestine en France (GUPS)
Union Juive Française pour la Paix (UJFP)
Union Syndicale Solidaires
Brussels, Belgium: Solidarity with Khaled Barakat at the protest against the Bahrain “economic” conference, 25 June. Photo: Khaled Hashem
Following the political ban imposed on Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat by German authorities on 22 June as he went to deliver a lecture about the “deal of the century” and the Palestinian liberation struggle, people and organizations around the world are expressing their solidarity with Barakat and their condemnation of the ongoing German state attacks on freedom of expression. These attacks particularly target Palestinians, Arabs and the Palestine solidarity movement, including:
Mohammed Khatib, the coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Europe, issued a statement on the political ban imposed on Barakat:
“For us, as a Palestinian community in Europe, and as Samidoun, as people and organizations that struggle and mobilize for the freedom of Palestinian political prisoners in the Israeli settler colonial entity, we see the attack on comrade Khaled Barakat by the German authorities, as a part of their attempted to silence every free voice who call for freedom and justice. This comes as part of their efforts to suppress the boycott movement and every voice against the fascist State of Israel.
We know very well the role of Germany, Europe and all imperialist and colonial powers in our Nakba. We know their contribution and daily complicity in our suffering and siege, whether in the Gaza Strip or in small neighborhoods in Berlin. Khaled’s voice represents us and represents a line of struggle for justice. He always stands with migrants and people of color fighting for their rights and stands with all marginalized communities. When he speaks, he always highlights the connections between struggles everywhere and our struggle for the liberation of our homeland, Palestine.
When we, like Khaled, call for BDS in Germany, we are demanding that the European powers end their military aid and financial support to the Israeli state, including EU funds that go to finance settlement projects and military development. When we call for the liberation of Palestine, we are demanding that Europe take action to implement the rights of our people (and we note, that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live in Europe as refugees or citizens) specifically, the right of return to Palestine denied by the Israeli state for 70 years.
We also see the term ‘anti-Semitism’ thrown around to target Khaled and other Palestinian activists. We know that we have nothing to prove here; it is not the Palestinian people or the Palestinian movement who have been responsible for horrific Nazi and fascist crimes against Jews in Europe. Palestinians are engaged in a struggle against racism in all forms. This is a cynical attempt to silence us. They will never stop us from calling out: Free Palestine, from the river to the sea! Instead, we will continue to struggle against Israeli colonialism that serves as a military base for Western imperialist powers.
In reality, these latest repressive actions taken by the German authorities against Khaled Barakat show how important the role can and must be of the Palestinian communities in Europe and the Palestine solidarity movements. Confronting Israel on the international level is very important and necessary today and is experiencing a growing degree of effectiveness.
We also know our history, including the bloody history of the assassination of Palestinian scholars, writers and leaders in Europe by Israeli agents. We emphasize that Germany and Israel are responsible for Khaled’s life and health. And we call on our community to participate widely and get involved in raising our voices to defend and demand our rights, in Palestine and here in Europe.”
People around the world are taking action. Your solidarity statements directed to samidoun@samidoun.net can help us to fight back against escalating repression. In addition, delivering letters and messages to German embassies and consulates in protest of these policies can help to make clear that people around the world stand against the escalating censorship imposed on Palestinian organizing. In Berlin, the Palästina Spricht/Palestine Speaks demonstration will gather at 5 pm on 28 June at the Platz der Republik in protest of the escalating repression – we urge all to join the rally!
You can show your solidarity with the graphics below! Print the signs and posters and bring them to a demonstration, or take a selfie and post on social media. You can use the cover photo on your Facebook or elsewhere to show your support for Khaled Barakat and your opposition to the escalating attempts to criminalize support for justice in Palestine in Germany and around the world. Download the images below:
Photo: Protest demands release of Palestinian women prisoners. Via Wattan TV
Palestinian women prisoners announced the suspension of their plans to launch a hunger strike beginning on 1 July. The Prisoners’ Affairs Commission said that, after a series of negotiations with the prison administration and escalating pressure from the Palestinian prisoners as a whole, the Israeli occupation prison administration responded to the women prisoners’ demands. Old equipment in the rooms will be replaced and the books confiscated from the women when they were transferred from HaSharon prison will be returned to them.
In addition, the prisoners expect to see maintenance and improvements of the conditions of living in their section in Damon prison in the coming days. The women prisoners thanked all of the organizations and institutions supporting them as well as all of the prisoners in Israeli jails for joining their efforts to put pressure on the Israeli prison administration.
This report came as the installation of public telephones began in Damon prison; the installation of these telephones was a major demand of the collective hunger strike of April 2019. The phones are being installed in Section 4, with Palestinian women and minor girls. Three phones have been installed and will reportedly be operational within one month. There are currently 40 women prisoners held in this section of Damon, including 35 women and 5 minor girls.
These achievements for the women prisoners come as 10 Palestinian prisoners are on hunger strike in Israeli jails, including jailed leader Jafar Ezzedine and Ihsan Othman. Ezzedine has engaged in several previous long-term hunger strikes against his repeated imprisonment without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention. He launched his most recent hunger strike on 16 June, after his detention was once again extended without charge or trial. Othman launched his hunger strike two days later in rejection of the renewal of his own administrative detention.
Eight more prisoners have joined the strike: Noureddine and Moheyuddin Shahrouri, Mahmoud and Qaid al-Fassous, Ghandafar Musa Abu Atwan, Abdel-Aziz Waleed Sweiti, Qais Khaled al-Nammoura and Wael Ayed Rubaie. The Shahrouri brothers are demanding their liberation from interrogation after their arbitrary arrests; the other six strikers are all protesting their administrative detention without charge or trial.
Administrative detention orders are issued for one to six months at a time but are indefinitely renewable; Palestinians have spent years at a time jailed under repeatedly renewed orders on the basis of “secret evidence.”
Former Palestinian prisoner and long-term hunger striker Khader Adnanurged solidarity with the strikers, noting that Jafar Ezzedine has always engaged in the struggle to support the prisoners, even while he was free. He has joined multiple hunger strikes in order to support fellow prisoners on hunger strike.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the Palestinian women prisoners on their achievement. We emphasize our international support and solidarity for their continuing struggles for justice and liberation. We also urge all supporters of Palestine to support the prisoners currently on hunger strike for an end to administrative detention. Their bodies and lives are on the line for the most basic principles of justice, and the continued crimes against Palestinian prisoners are made possible by the governments and corporations that support the Israeli state militarily, economically and politically. In support of the Palestinian prisoners, it remains important to escalate and intensify our campaigns for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel and for justice in Palestine.
Jugendwiderstand members join protest for Palestinian prisoners. Photo: Jugendwiderstand
On Wednesday, 26 June, state repression continued to escalate in Berlin, Germany, as Berlin police and right-wing media outlets promoted a series of raids and searches at the homes of nine alleged members of Jugendwiderstand (Youth Resistance), a left revolutionary youth organization that fights fascism and upholds Palestinian rights as well as supporting liberation struggles around the world. After a series of repressive attacks, the group dissolved itself earlier in June, but the raids and attacks have continued.
According to media reports, police allegedly accuse the Jugendwiderstand members of “attacking” two events. First, they accuse them of engaging in militant confrontations with the open neo-Nazis that parade through Berlin each year in the “Rudolf Hess Memorial March” protected from antifascists by the Berlin police. Despite the German government’s cynical use of the term “anti-Semitism” to oppose advocacy for Palestinian rights and criticism of Israel, actual Nazis and anti-Semites who celebrate Nazi leaders are provided with extensive, expensive protection against leftist demonstrators.
In one article, the Berlin Union of Police expressed its support for the “fundamental right” of the “freedom of demonstration,” accusing leftists of “hypocrisy” for seeking to shut down racist Nazi marches. On the other hand, this alleged concern for freedom of expression is nowhere to be found when police issue political bans against Palestinian speakers and activists like Khaled Barakat with reference to spurious allegations of “anti-Semitism,” which they equate to nothing more than “anti-Israelism.” This trend is truly appalling, obscuring the real history and threats of Nazi anti-Semitism while instead attacking leftists, Palestinians and Arabs.
Ermittler von Polizei und StA durchsuchen z.Zt. 9 Wohnanschriften von Mitgl. der linksextremistischen Gruppierung „Jugendwiderstand“ u.a. wegen Angriffen auf eine pro-israelische Versammlung am 12.09.18 und auf Teilnehmer des „Rudolf-Hess-Gedenkmarsches“ am 19.08.17. PM folgt.
— Generalstaatsanwaltschaft Berlin (@GStABerlin) June 26, 2019
Secondly, the members of Jugendwiderstand are accused of attacking a “pro-Israel gathering” on 12 September 2018. It should be noted that they were actually seeking to informally defend the location of a speech by Palestinian activist, land defender and former political prisoner Manal Tamimi from a group of pro-Zionist, pro-apartheid counterdemonstrators who wanted to see Tamimi’s speech shut down in its new location. Tamimi’s speech was driven from its original venue by threats to cut the funding of an Iranian refugee organization by “leftist” Berlin officials.
These police attacks have followed a series of media propaganda pieces against Jugendwiderstand activists. Jugendwiderstand has been one of only a few left organizations in Berlin to clearly uphold Palestinian rights on a principled basis as part of a commitment to opposing colonialism and racism and supporting national liberation struggles. This has been a key point in the ongoing propaganda pieces aimed at criminalizing both support for Palestine and resistance to fascists in Berlin.
One of the articles reporting the raids in the Berliner Morgenpost has no qualms in labeling both Jugendwiderstand members and Manal Tamimi “anti-Semites” and noting that the Israeli occupation labels her, as an opponent of that occupation, a terrorist; at the same time, it expresses concern about neo-Nazis who were “stuck in Brandenburg” after trains were allegedly sabotaged by anti-fascists to protest their march. The terms “anti-Semite” and “anti-Semitic” are nowhere used to describe the actual neo-Nazis participating in a “Rudolf Hess Memorial March” – further illustrating the degradation of this term in anti-Palestinian propaganda.
Another mainstream press article, this time in the Tagesspiegel (the newspaper that led the anti-Palestinian campaign against Rasmea Odeh), openly labels the raided activists “thugs” within the text of what might be expected to be “objective” coverage. Also within the text of the article, the Tagesspiegel writers take credit for inciting the raids “based on their information.”
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its strong solidarity with the leftists and former Jugendwiderstand members who have come under attack. This is part and parcel of the ongoing, escalating state repression targeting leftist voices and, in particular, Palestinian and Arab communities.
It is no accident that police spokespeople affirm their commitment to the “freedom of expression” of anti-Semitic neo-Nazis through raids on leftists only days after shutting down a Palestinian event against the “deal of the century” and imposing a political ban on Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat. From the anti-BDS resolution of the Bundestag, to the account cancellations and forced resignations of Jewish groups and leaders who criticize Israel in any way, to the criminal prosecution of people who interrupt Israeli officials responsible for the war on Gaza to the deportation of Rasmea Odeh, it is critical to confront the escalating repression in Germany with international solidarity.
The campaign targeting only this one parliamentarian while dozens of prominent political figures also support Georges Abdallah must raise clear questions. This is especially true as many attacks referred to “integration” and the “values of the Republic,” long-established anti-Black, racist dog-whistles.
Even though it is very clear in the video that the slogan being chanted is actually “Down with Israel,” (“A bas Israel” in French) this is a classic refrain of the supporters of Israeli apartheid. They repeatedly affirm the Zionist claim that attempts to assimilate all Jews under the banner of the Zionist state. What is targeted in this slogan is the Israeli state, as a colonial, racist and advance base of Western imperialism in the region.
