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Sunday, August 10, 2025
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Georges Abdallah returns to Lebanon, free and resisting

On Friday, 25 July, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah was finally liberated from French prisons after nearly 41 years behind bars, returning in the afternoon to his homeland, Lebanon, where he was welcomed by large celebrations in the streets as well as a community event in the town of his birth, Qobeiyat. He returned with his commitment to the resistance, to Palestine, and to Lebanon, unquenched despite decades of imprisonment, speaking with a clear voice and vision to demand immediate action for Gaza and rallying around the resistance.

In a clear and powerful rebuke to the United States and France — his captors — immediately after entering the airport, he emphasized the centrality of the resistance, at the same time that these imperialist powers are attempting to force the disarmament of the Lebanese resistance, especially Hezbollah, saying:

“Of course, my return to this land was inevitable because I am certain that the resistance is entrenched in it and thus cannot be uprooted. With resistance, the road home is never lost, for me or for my imprisoned fellow comrades. Their resilience inside depends on our steadfastness outside…The resistance is not weak, it is very strong thanks to its martyrs. Its leaders are martyrs so the Resistance is strong. A weak resistance is when its leaders are traitors. Our resistance is not traitorous, its leadership are martyrs! This is thanks to the sacrifices and blood spilled through resistance. My message today is to support the resistance more than ever, more than ever. We bow our heads in honor of the Resistance’s martyrs, the very foundation of all liberation struggles…A fighter inside captivity…remains steadfast as long as his comrades are taking a leading position in the confrontation. Confrontation against the enemy yields victory and so will its continuation until the end of time, until its defeat. This is ‘Israel’s’ last chapter, there are no more chapters left.”

He urged immediate action for Gaza amid the imposed starvation and genocide created by the Zionist regime and its imperialist backers, emphasizing the complicity of Arab regimes, especially in Egypt, closing the Rafah crossing to the entry of food and aid in compliance with Zionist-imperialist orders:

“The resistance in Palestine must continue and intensify. It must be up to the level of the current situation where we see children as moving skeletons. You look at them and you see skeletons moving. Still, there are millions of Arabs simply watching. In Egypt, a few meters away from Egypt’s Al-Azhar; and a few meters away from the Kaaba of Mohammed bin Abdullah, the children of Palestine are dying of hunger, meters away from 80 million followers of Mohammed bin Abdullah in Egypt. Such a shame for all the Arab peoples, which will go down in history, even more than the regimes, whose nature is known. How many people were killed in attempts to enter Gaza? None, no one was killed. If 2 million Egyptians take to the streets, the mass killing would stop. The genocide would come to an end. It depends on the Egyptian people more than anyone else.”

At the same time, hundreds waiting immediately outside the airport doors cheered at the news that his flight had landed, at the same time as many more hundreds gathered along the old Airport Road, particularly in al-Dahiyeh, the southern suburbs of Beirut. He soon emerged to greet the demonstrators, emphasizing that it was not merely a legal process, but struggle and solidarity in France and resistance in Lebanon, Palestine and throughout the region that won his liberation: “The condition of freedom is rallying around the resistance! The condition of freedom is rallying around Gaza! The condition of freedom is rallying around the martyrs of the resistance!”

After a warm and raucous welcome in the airport, his vehicle proceeded to the Airport Road, where large crowds awaited him, including a number of the mothers of the martyrs, particularly from the battle of Al-Aqsa Flood in Lebanon. The reception of Georges Abdallah highlighted that he is a national resistance leader, as he was welcomed with Lebanese and Palestinian flags, Hezbollah flags, flags of the SSNP, LCP and other left organizations, and others, collectively saluting his sacrifice and commitment to struggle, even as he emphasized the importance of the martyrs and their sacrifices.

Emerging once again, he said, “Glory to Dahiyeh! Glory to the martyrs, the heroes of Lebanon! Glory to the resistance! Glory to you all, glory to our martyred leader [pointing to a poster of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah], glory to the children of the resistance! Resistance is freedom. Rally around the resistance, rally around Gaza, rally around the masses of the resistance! Thank you to the resistance, thank you to the martyrs of Dahiyeh. Thank you to all who carry the banner of freedom!”

He then travelled north to his home village of Qobeiyat, stopping in Al-Bireh, another village in the Akkar region, along the road, where he was greeted with another welcome. All last evening in Qobeiyat and throughout the day today, he has received visitors, conducted interviews and continued to make clear his vision for the continuing resistance and his focus on the liberation of Palestine at a critical moment for Palestinians confronting genocide in Gaza.

As Georges was welcomed home, the Zionist regime continued its campaign of assassinations and aggression against Lebanon, as it killed the martyr Ali Quwsan Sadiq with a drone strike targeting him the southern Lebanese village of Barachit. These ongoing assassinations and attacks continue on a daily basis at the same time that the imperialist powers demand the disarmament of the Resistance. It also comes as reports surface that an unclear number of Lebanese prisoners, particularly fighters in Hezbollah, are being imprisoned in torturous conditions in an underground Zionist prison alongside Palestinian resistance fighters, and at least one of these Lebanese resistance strugglers was martyred inside the prisons under torture with his body remaining imprisoned, alongside the bodies of the Palestinian martyrs.

Supporters of Palestine, the resistance and Georges Abdallah also rallied internationally to commemorate his liberation and to demand urgent action for Gaza to end the genocide and confront the famine imposed upon Palestinians. In Brussels, the daily demonstration at the Bourse focused on Georges Abdallah, at the same moment that the right-wing government in Belgium is seeking to pass new laws in order to criminalize organizations like Samidoun, as well as environmental organizations like Code Rouge.

In Barcelona, people first expressed their solidarity with Georges Abdallah at a gathering confronting the eviction of the La Squatxeria social center, and then took to the streets for a spontaneous gathering in Raval to mark his release.

In Amsterdam, activists spoke and displayed photos of the prisoners in Zionist jails while marking the liberation of Georges Abdallah.

In Paris, people gathered for an emergency demonstration to demand an end to the artificially imposed famine in Gaza, and shouted, “Georges Abdallah won, Palestine will win!”

 

Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab revolutionary, had been imprisoned in France since 1984; the founder of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (FARL), he was accused of involvement in the FARL’s assassination of a Mossad agent and a CIA agent in Paris at the U.S. Embassy. Committed throughout his life to the struggle for the liberation of Palestine and Lebanon and for a socialist and revolutionary future, he was a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). The FARL was born out of the Lebanese national resistance following the Zionist invasion of Lebanon and the Sabra and Shatila massacres in 1982, with the conscious orientation that the battle for liberation should not be confined to the borders of the nations targeted by imperialism and Zionism, especially as the Zionist regime pursued assassination campaigns targeting Palestinian leaders across Europe, from Mahmoud Hamshari and Wael Zuaiter to Basil al-Kubeisi and Fathi Shiqaqi.

He was convicted in a trial marked by extreme irregularities; notably, his lawyer at the time worked for the French intelligence services, the DST. While he was expected to receive a sentence of no more than 10 years, the United States intervened to demand a longer sentence, and he was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for release since 1999. French and U.S. imperialism collaborated to impose endless imprisonment on Georges Abdallah; while he pursued legal appeals repeatedly, his parole requests were denied time and again, often with the overt collusion of French, U.S. and Zionist officials. In 2013, he won an appeal for his liberation, only to be denied at the last minute when Manuel Valls refused to sign the order for his deportation; U.S. Secretaries of State, from Condoleeza Rice to Hillary Clinton, boasted of their involvement in enforcing his continued imprisonment.

Throughout this time, it was clear that if he disavowed the resistance, apologized for his role in the struggle, and accepted silence about Palestine, Lebanon and global popular struggles against imperialism and Zionism, he would be freed. He refused to do so, and the movement for his liberation grew exponentially over the past decade, as thousands marched outside the prison where he was held in Lannemezan, France. The Palestinian prisoners’ movement recognized him as part of their ranks, and he would join their hunger strikes from French prison. He never hesitated to send messages with clear politics and revolutionary zeal to every campaign for justice in France and internationally. The Collectif Palestine Vaincra in France was targeted for dissolution specifically for its effective role in demanding Georges’ liberation. Even members of Parliament and MEPs joined the call for his freedom amid the mass demonstrations against the genocide in Gaza and for the liberation of Palestine in the era of Al-Aqsa Flood. His imprisonment became an international symbol for French complicity in Zionist-imperialist genocide, as well as illustrating the harsh repression against the Palestine liberation and solidarity movements in France.

Finally, on 18 July, after nearly 41 years inside French prisons, the courts affirmed that he would return to Lebanon on 25 July, released from behind bars. This was not merely a legal victory: it was the continuing Toufan al-Ahrar, the flood of the free. Indeed, Georges Abdallah was always free: free in his mind, his spirit and his commitment to resistance and liberation. Today, as he walks free in his homeland, his path of struggle urges us all to escalate, to struggle, on the path of Gaza, Dahiyeh and Yemen, and to embrace his calls for action, for resistance, for absolute rejection of the dictates of Zionism, imperialism and their reactionary agents, on the road to victory. 

As he has ended his statements for so many years: It is together comrades, and only together, that we shall win.

Georges Abdallah will be free; Palestine will be free!

On 25 July 2025, after 40 years in prison and an entire life in struggle, Georges Abdallah will be free! 

Today, Thursday, July 17, 2025, the Paris Court of Appeal has ordered the release of our comrade, Lebanese communist and resistance fighter in the Palestinian liberation struggle, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been imprisoned for over 40 years.

After more than four decades of relentless political and judicial persecution and imprisonment by the French authorities and successive governments, after a life of struggle and steadfast resistance, after decades of mobilization by his supporters to liberate Georges Abdallah from French colonial and imperialist prisons, our comrade is finally set to be released from French custody on July 25.

Our immense joy at the announcement of this decision cannot be complete, however, until he has arrived in Lebanon—on his land, surrounded by comrades, loved ones, and family—he, whose flame of resistance has never been extinguished despite the efforts of France and its allies. Throughout these more than 40 years of imprisonment, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah has stood as a symbol of struggle and determination for entire generations of activists, who have come of age in political engagement with his name in their hearts and have mobilized to demand his release. Even today, from his prison cell, Georges Abdallah remains a living symbol of the resistance of peoples against imperialism, colonialism, and Zionism—an uncompromising resistance that refuses to yield in the face of its enemies. His example has proven vital for the movement in support of the Palestinian people and their resistance over the past decades.

The political responsibility taken on by Georges Abdallah from his prison cell over the past 40 years exemplifies the unique role and mission borne by all revolutionary prisoners— including and particularly the more than 10,800 Palestinian prisoners, and especially the imprisoned leaders of the Palestinian resistance. Those who confront the repressive, colonial, and imperialist prison systems, by virtue of their role before and during their incarceration, embody the advanced front of their people’s resistance to oppression.

As we celebrate the upcoming liberation of our comrade, our hearts and minds remain torn, and our thoughts turn to the more than 10,800 Palestinian prisoners enduring starvation, illness, isolation, violence, sexual assault, and targeted killings in Zionist prisons. We extend our deepest solidarity to the imprisoned leadership of the resistance—those sentenced to dozens, hundreds, even thousands of years, accumulating life sentences, yet whose certainty of being freed through the struggle of their comrades remains unshaken. We think of the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, loved ones and comrades, in the hands of the enemy, far from those they love, far from the warmth of their communities—yet who, through resistance and struggle, have built a school of struggle and a community of resistance within the Zionist prisons. Our thoughts are with the 73 prisoners who have been martyred in Zionist prisons since October 7, and with the families of the martyrs held in the morgues and “cemeteries of numbers” of the Zionist regime, where over 700 bodies of Palestinian martyrs are being held, stolen from their families, denied a dignified burial—leaving behind a gaping wound no amount of love from their people can fill. We think of all prisoners of the Palestinian cause and all revolutionary prisoners torn from their comrades and loved ones, in Zionist, imperialist, and reactionary prisons around the world. The upcoming liberation of our comrade Georges Ibrahim Abdallah will be their victory, and we will continue to mobilize until we can celebrate theirs as well.

As our comrade Georges Ibrahim Abdallah receives the news of his imminent release in his cramped cell in Lannemezan, and shares it with his fellow detainees, our hearts bleed in the face of the current situation in Gaza and the region more broadly, in the face of the genocide the Palestinian people have endured for over 21 months now. Every liberation of prisoners torn from imperialist and Zionist prisons—especially those who, like Georges, have refused any compromise or betrayal despite decades of incarceration—is a promise of future victory, of better days ahead, and of justice for the lives and futures torn apart by colonial violence.

We extend our most heartfelt and sincere greetings and thanks to the successive generations of comrades who have fought this battle with determination—to those who passed away before seeing this moment, to all those whose hearts beat in unison with our comrade, to the organizations and individuals who dedicated years of their lives, sleepless nights, and months of mobilization to build events and demonstrations; to those who chanted our comrade’s name in the streets, on university campuses, and wherever their steps led them. This is a collective victory—a victory for an entire movement—which must serve as a foundation to continue the struggle and win further victories, until the liberation of Palestine, from the River to the Sea.

Let’s continue mobilizing until July 25 and the arrival of our comrade in Lebanon!
Freedom for all our prisoners!
Glory to the Palestinian resistance!
From the River to the Sea: Palestine will Win!

The Zionist prisoners and the families of our prisoners in the enemy’s jails — Khaled Barakat

 

The Zionist Prisoners and the Families of Our Prisoners in the Enemy’s Jails
Khaled Barakat

The following article, by Khaled Barakat, Palestinian writer and member of the Executive Committee of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, is published especially for the Samidoun website (originally in Arabic):

From the moment the Palestinian resistance in Gaza announced the capture of a number of Zionist soldiers and settlers during the glorious Al-Aqsa Flood operation, the issue of the Zionist “hostages” became the center of global attention. Hours upon hours of television programming are devoted to it. Political pressure is exerted, tents are erected in public squares, and tears are shed for those whom the media describe as “innocent victims.”

Meanwhile, more than 10,800 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, remain in the occupation’s cells — some for more than thirty years —without the hypocritical world so much as blinking an eye, or hearing the cries of a Palestinian mother who has waited decades for a long-delayed embrace.

The Zionist captive is presented as a wronged human being, kidnapped from among loved ones, shown through emotional family photos and touching stories broadcast night and day. Western media is diligent in feeding this narrative: the child waiting for his father, the sleepless wife, the mother who never stops crying. All this is done in complete detachment from the context of war and occupation, as if these “hostages” were not part of a military machine that destroys Gaza, besieges the Palestinians, and squats on their land.

Governments, embassies, and international organizations are mobilized to pressure the Palestinian resistance, and any attempt to demand a prisoner exchange is condemned as “humanitarian blackmail,” while the root of the crisis — the Zionist occupation and settler colonialism — is entirely ignored.

No one hears about the 73 martyrs who have died in the enemy’s prisons since October 7, 2023, or about the 10,800 Palestinian prisoners suffering in the occupation’s cells, including about 400 children, 50 women, 500 sick detainees, and some who have been imprisoned for over three decades. There is no mention of their denial of visits, medical care, and education; no mention of the children snatched from their homes at night and thrown into interrogation dungeons; no mention of the 3,600 administrative detainees held without charge or trial. There are no images of Palestinian mothers’ tears or families awaiting news from behind bars.

For the Western media machine, the Palestinian prisoner is merely a “terrorist,” not treated as a human being, and not factored into calculations of justice and conscience. The resistance’s demand for their release is painted as a moral crime, not a legitimate right.

Amid this grossly uneven struggle, the “Palestinian Authority,” along with the defeated official Arab governments, stands in a position of impotence and complicity. The Authority does nothing, save for a few hollow statements on ceremonial occasions. Its embassies practice selective deafness and deliberate muteness, taking no part in solidarity campaigns for the prisoners or in legal and political battles on the international stage. There is utter silence in the face of daily massacres and mass arrests. In fact, the Authority has reached the point of repressing popular events in solidarity with the prisoners if they dare deviate from the official line.

The security coordination with the occupation, which the Authority secretly prides itself on while publicly disavowing, is one of the direct causes of the continued and systematic arrests and the collapse of popular trust in the Authority. This cannot be excused as weakness, but must be understood within the context of a political-security function that aligns with the logic of “managing the occupation,” not resisting it, and a futile reliance on negotiations, not a struggle to liberate the prisoners.

What makes matters worse is the state of paralysis afflicting the majority of Palestinian “factions” in the West Bank. With the exception of some individual and youth-led initiatives, there is no organized movement or sustained campaign that provides platforms for the voices of prisoners’ families, exposes the realities of imprisonment, or expresses the voice of their loved ones. Active prisoner committees have disappeared. These “organizations” and so-called “human rights institutions,” which were supposed to lead the street in defense of their sons and daughters in prison, have become incapable of addressing their own constituencies, let alone the world.

While weekly marches are organized in Tel Aviv for the families of Zionist soldiers, the cities of the West Bank lack continuous actions expressing the voices of Palestinian prisoners’ mothers, fathers, spouses and children. This silence is the result of organizational decay, bureaucratic stagnation, and the political division that has torn apart the national movement.

The world’s hypocrisy is laid bare when the Zionist soldier is presented as a victim worthy of sympathy, while the Palestinian prisoner is reduced to a “security number” or accused of “terrorism.” As soon as someone hears the phrase “families of the prisoners,” they immediately imagine the families of Zionist captives in Gaza. Western media does not see the Palestinian detainees as human beings—it does not record their stories, convey their suffering, or give them a platform to speak of their suffering. In contrast, doors are thrown open for the families of Zionist soldiers in international organizations and parliaments, and they are used as political pawns to pressure the resistance.

A Palestinian mother says:

“My son has been in prison for twenty years. He grew up without me, and I grew old at his prison gate. I haven’t touched him, haven’t hugged him, I don’t know what he looks like now. Why does no one hear my cry? Am I any less of a mother than others? Or is my blood cheap because I’m Palestinian?”

But these words fall on closed ears, because their speaker belongs to the “wrong side” of the colonial equation. The world does not care, and the human rights organizations are busy counting the breaths of Zionist soldiers — not the cries of Palestinian mothers.

The experience of the resistance in Gaza has shown that the issue of prisoners is not just a negotiating file, it is a symbol of national dignity. Indeed, the cause of the prisoners and their liberation was one of the main reasons behind the glorious Al-Aqsa Flood operation. Whoever seeks equality in suffering must begin by achieving justice, and breaking the wall of silence, complicity, and hypocrisy that has surrounded us for decades.

What is needed today is not only the adoption of a balanced and humane discourse, but the forceful extraction of the prisoners’ cause and their families from the grip of marginalization, neglect, and silence—returning it to its natural and rightful place at the heart of the national liberation struggle, as a central issue.

These brave prisoners in the enemy’s jails are in fact the trusted, legitimate, and true Palestinian leadership. They are, with the armed resistance, the sole legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people and their liberation struggle. And whoever does not stand with Gaza and the valiant armed resistance will never stand for the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, which remains the first line of defense for Palestine.

Dignity as Leverage: A Counterframework for Palestinian Prisoner Negotiations — Rima Najjar

The following article is republished from Medium.

One table, two frameworks; power negotiates. Resistance endures; the future hangs in the balance
One table, two frameworks; power negotiates. Resistance endures; the future hangs in the balance

The U.S.-Israeli approach to negotiations with Palestinians remains fundamentally misaligned with justice and human dignity. While Israeli hostages are publicly mourned and framed as victims, Palestinian prisoners are treated as threats — statistics to be managed, not lives to be honored.

In this asymmetrical terrain, U.S. mediation reinforces Israeli security narratives, ignoring systemic abuses: rearrests, torture, indefinite detention, and the criminalization of Palestinian grief and solidarity. Incarceration becomes not a tool of justice but of demographic warfare.

Yet even within this environment, Palestinian resistance reframes captivity — not as defeat but as defiance. Through hunger strikes, courtroom refusal, and the ethic of sumoud (resilience), prisoners have transformed their bodies into frameworks of refusal. This is not passive survival — it is political agency. As PFLP’s prisoner Ahmad Sa’adat declares, “Our imprisonment is not the end of our struggle — we are the conscience of a people who refuse to be erased.”

This counterframework refuses to engage through the language of victimhood alone. It posits prisoners as political subjects — architects of strategy, not merely its symbols. Their bodies become texts of resistance, declaring humanity through suffering wielded deliberately. The ethical foundation of this model begins not with what must be demanded, but what must be refused.

Refusal is not obstinacy — it is strategy. The counterframework rejects hostage diplomacy staged as deterrent theater, denounces militarized humanitarianism where aid becomes surveillance, and repels the symbolic erasure encoded in practices like anonymous burial and re-arrest. These acts strip captives of memory and dignity in an effort to unwrite them from the historical record.

The refusal is deliberate, layered, and unyielding. Hamas and allied factions have responded to Trump’s proposed prisoner exchange and ceasefire deal with a spirit of negotiation — but not submission. They understand the logic underpinning the dominant framework: Israel retains military leverage while discarding the burdens of governance; it aims to dismantle Hamas while presenting itself as a rational actor in a “peace process.”

The asymmetry is clear: the framework is not peace — it’s containment.

In submitting counterproposals, Hamas and allied factions reframed the negotiation. Their demands reject tactical pacification and assert structural conditions for any progress. Chief among these is the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Though the upfront demand for ending the war has been softened, the insistence on written guarantees — specifically for troop retreat and uninterrupted ceasefire negotiations — signals the emergence of a political safeguard.

The notes of Hamas and allied factions further call for international oversight — preferably under UN administration — and removal of U.S.-Israeli control over aid and surveillance. Hamas and its allies understand the risks of leaving mediation tools in the hands of those invested in their containment. The counterframework demands mediation not as diplomatic theater, but as structural protection.

These positions reorient the entire frame of the negotiation. The factions are no longer reacting to Israeli terms — they’re building a system where justice isn’t deferred to humanitarian appeals but embedded in strategic architecture.

U.S. Framework vs. Palestinian Counterframework: How oppression tries to outlast resistance

Palestinian factions, far from being reactive, now hold key cards:

– Operational Leverage: Remaining Israeli captives are not just bargaining chips — they are Israel’s strongest incentive to negotiate. The factions control the timeline and rhythm.

– Political Unity: A unified front among factions strengthens their legitimacy, undercutting narratives of fragmentation and allowing them to act with moral coherence.

– Narrative Authority: By framing the negotiation as one centered on sovereignty, protection, and justice — not mere exchange — they control the moral terrain.

This leverage does not simply stall Israeli ambition — it redefines the negotiation itself.

As one analyst recently put it, “Hamas isn’t playing with borrowed cards — it’s designing its own deck.” And as Fateh’s prisoner Marwan Barghouti stated, “Resistance is a holy right for the Palestinian people to face the Israeli occupation. Nobody should forget that the Palestinian people negotiated for 10 years and accepted difficult and humiliating agreements, and in the end didn’t get anything except authority over the people, and no authority over land, or sovereignty.” Here, he is not just reflecting on past failures, but insisting that dignity and sovereignty must anchor any negotiation and reframing what legitimacy looks like.

If Netanyahu responds true to form, several patterns will likely emerge:

– Delay Tactics: Publicly, negotiations will slow under the guise of security reviews and logistical constraints — buys time, hopes to fracture Palestinian unity.

– Defiance Masked by Concession: Netanyahu may appear hawkish to domestic audiences while quietly engaging mediators to preserve diplomatic cover.

– Displacement of Blame: He’ll lean on U.S. mediation to obscure accountability, portraying Israeli rigidity as consequence of “external constraints.”

But the terrain has shifted. Public sympathy, diplomatic fatigue, and the irreducibility of Palestinian refusal may disrupt his playbook.

If Netanyahu overplays his hand, dragging negotiations without movement, he risks pushing factions from tactical flexibility to strategic closure, i.e., the withdrawal of participation as a strategic response to a framework that undermines justice from the start.

The counterframework insisted upon by Hamas and allied factions isn’t designed to win negotiations — it’s meant to transcend them. Its logic is liberatory, not procedural. Ceasefires must not merely pause violence — they must erode the legitimacy of systems that reproduce it.

This means restoration of collective dignity as the barometer of success — not appeasement metrics, and the insistence on international oversight divorced from occupation logics and recognition of Palestinians as strategic participants in shaping political outcomes.

To the extent that prisoner exchanges and ceasefires are real, they must reflect the architecture built by prisoners themselves — the cost borne, the unity forged, the refusals sustained.

Resistance, in this frame, is not reactive. It is architectural.

_________________
Rima Najjar is a Palestinian whose father’s side of the family comes from the forcibly depopulated village of Lifta on the western outskirts of Jerusalem and whose mother’s side of the family is from Ijzim, south of Haifa. She is an activist, researcher, and retired professor of English literature, Al-Quds University, occupied West Bank.

Three liberated Palestinian prisoners assassinated in Gaza by “Israeli” genocidal forces

On Thursday, 3 July 2025, Zionist occupation forces assassinated three liberated prisoners who had been released by the Resistance in the Wafa’ al-Ahrar exchange in 2011, in the massacre at the Mustafa Hafez School:

  • Mahdi Omar Shawar al-Tamimi, from al-Khalil
  • Ayman Yousef Ahmad Abu Daoud, from al-Khalil
  • Bassam Abu Sneineh, from Jerusalem

All three, originally from the West Bank of occupied Palestine, had been deported to Gaza. While Mahdi Shawar al-Tamimi and Bassam Abu Sneineh were deported to Gaza upon their liberation in 2011, Ayman Abu Daoud was originally freed to al-Khalil. However, in 2012, he was re-arrested by the occupation regime, which then declared in 2013 that it would re-impose his original sentence upon him. He launched a hunger strike and was deported to Gaza at that time, two years after the initial prisoner exchange.

The martyr and liberated prisoner Mahdi Shawar

Mahdi Shawar was arrested by the occupation in 2002 and sentenced to 21 years in prison, one of the many prisoners of the Al-Aqsa Intifada; he was liberated by the Resistance in 2011 in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange. After he was forcibly displaced to Gaza, he obtained a degree in journalism and media from the Islamic University of Gaza, and then a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies from Al-Azhar University in Gaza.

Mahdi Shawar greeted by Ismail Haniyeh upon his liberation in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange

Ayman Abu Daoud, from al-Khalil, was born in 1982. Arrested in 2004, he was sentenced to 36 years in occupation prisons for participating in the resistance during Al-Aqsa Intifada before he was liberated on 18 October 2011 in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange.

The martyr Ayman Abu Daoud

He was abducted only a few months later, on 13 February 2012 and imprisoned by the occupation and accused of “violating the terms of his release” for allegedly providing money to Palestinians affiliated with political parties, despite attending mandatory check-ins with occupation forces and not leaving his district. He launched a hunger strike on 14 April 2013 after the occupation declared it was reimposing the remaining 29 years of his prison sentence, which continued until 23 May 2013 when his lawyer arranged an agreement for him to be exiled to Gaza for 10 years; he was forcibly deported three months later.

The martyr Bassam Abu Sneineh

Bassam Abu Sneineh, from Jerusalem, was born in 1973 in Palestine’s capital, the holy city; he was sentenced in 2000 to life imprisonment for killing a settler in a resistance operation. After his liberation in 2011 in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange and his exile to Gaza, he spoke frequently about Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa and the need for their liberation, focusing on cultural and educational work to preserve the image and commitment to Jerusalem for generations of Palestinians in Gaza who had never seen their capital due to the ongoing occupation, siege and blockade. He was a frequent guest on multiple television programs, especially speaking about occupation attacks on Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Later on Thursday, 3 July, imperialist-funded and -backed Zionist occupation forces in al-Khalil invaded the family homes of both Mahdi Shawar al-Tamimi and Ayman Abu Daoud. The next day, a large troop of occupation forces surrounded the Shawar family home and prevented them from receiving condolences on their son’s martyrdom.

Also on Friday, 4 July, occupation forces invaded the Wadi al-Hariyya neighborhood of al-Khalil, attacking the mourning tent that had been set up by the family of Ayman Abu Daoud. They destroyed the contents of the tent, tearing down posters and banners, smashing chairs and fired stun grenades and tear gas canisters at the mourners, abducting 15 Palestinians from the mourning tent.

Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, issued a statement on the assassination, noting that it was a targeted attack on the prisoners:

As we mourn the martyrs Mahdi Shawar, Ayman Abu Daoud, and Bassam Abu Sneineh, who were freed in the “Wafa al-Ahrar” exchange in 2011 and were forcibly deported to the Gaza Strip, we affirm that the occupation’s crime of assassinating them and those who preceded them from the martyrs of the prisoners’ movement and the liberated prisoners is a desperate attempt to eliminate national symbols and break the will of our people and their adherence to the path of resistance.

We affirm that the blood of the martyrs will not be in vain and will remain fuel for the continuation of the resistance until freedom is achieved and the occupation is defeated, regardless of the cost and sacrifices.

The Prisoners’ Media Office issued a statement mourning the martyrs and highlighting their assassination:

The office pointed out that this crime comes within a systematic policy followed by the occupation in targeting liberated prisoners, especially those who gained their freedom in exchange agreements, through repeated assassinations aimed at breaking the will of the Palestinian people and striking their national symbols.

The Prisoners’ Information Office held the occupation fully responsible for the assassination of the three martyrs, stressing that their blood will not go in vain, and will remain a beacon for the resistance and a pledge to continue the struggle until freedom and salvation from the occupation.

Similarly, the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club and the Prisoners’ Movement issued a statement:

Since the beginning of the genocide, the occupation has escalated its targeting of liberated prisoners and deportees to Gaza through systematic assassinations.

It’s worth noting that the occupation has never ceased targeting prisoners, whether those released in exchange deals or those who spent years in prison and were released after completing their sentences in Gaza and the West Bank. This targeting has taken the form of assassinations, executions, and repeated arrests. A large percentage of those targeted during these arrest campaigns were former prisoners who had spent years in occupation prisons.

The Wafa’ al-Ahrar exchange, conducted on 18 October 2011, liberated 1,027 Palestinian prisoners from occupation prisons in exchange for Zionist soldier Gilad Shalit, imprisoned by the Resistance in Gaza. Among those released in the exchange were the martyred resistance leader and later head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar; Hussam Badran; Ahlam Tamimi; Zaher Jabarin; Nael Barghouti; Samer Issawi; and many others. Many of the liberated prisoners were targeted for re-arrest and their original sentence re-imposed, and were only freed again — and deported outside Palestine — in the Toufan al-Ahrar prisoner exchange as part of the January-March 2025 ceasefire in Gaza.

The liberated prisoners — particularly those freed in exchanges with the Palestinian resistance — have been a particular target for assassination and execution throughout the ongoing Zionist-imperialist genocide in Gaza, as well as in the West Bank and throughout occupied Palestine. By assassinating liberated prisoners, the occupation aims to deprive Palestinians of national leaders and symbols of struggle, as well as attempting to instill despair at the potential to liberate prisoners — and indeed, Palestine itself — through the resistance and armed struggle.

The liberated prisoners represent the continuity of struggle, as generation after generation fights for total liberation. As the prisoners inside occupation prisons are being targeted for “slow killing” — assassinations carried out through torture and the denial of medical care — the liberated prisoners are being targeted for assassination in an effort to expedite the genocide and deprive the Palestinian people of their leaders and defenders.

Every imperialist power that continues to arm, fund and support the Zionist regime — the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Canada, etc. — is responsible for these ongoing crimes in full. We urge all supporters of Palestine to act, confront those responsible, and escalate all actions to bring the genocide to an end, impose accountability on those responsible, free all Palestinian prisoners — and, fundamentally, defeat and dismantle zionism and the zionist regime, for a free Palestine from the river to the sea.

British repression against the Palestine movement continues: Airport detentions under the Terrorism Act

The following article, by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! and Samidoun supporter Louis B, is republished from FRFI, details his detention at Manchester Airport under the Terrorism Act, where state agents seized his laptop and questioned him about the Palestinian resistance and his presence in Egypt. These incidents are especially important in light of the proscription of Palestine Action and the persecution of political prisoners and targeted activists like the Filton 18 and the SOAS 2, highlighting once again that repression against the growing movement in support of Palestine is a key tool in Britain, and other imperialist powers’, complicity in genocide in occupied Palestine, especially in the Gaza Strip.

On 1 July I was detained for the second time consecutively by British ‘counter-terror’ police at Manchester Airport, using Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which strips detainees of the right to ‘no comment’. It is clear that this and other measures by the British state constitute harassment and blacklisting of pro-Palestine activists. At a time when charges of ‘terrorism’ are being extended to ever-widening circles of those who resist British support for Zionism, these moves must be fought by all progressive forces.

Schedule 7 applies only at Britain’s borders, giving the police powers to opportunistically detain – they insist that this is not an arrest – without stating any reason or evidence of lawbreaking. Detainees have no right to silence or a lawyer present, though they are able to consult via phone; solicitors say these calls are routinely listened in on by the police.

My previous detention in summer 2024 came as I returned to Manchester from Ireland. An organised squad met me on the tarmac as I exited the plane and drove me to a secure location in the airport. I had expected them. Zionist Twitter trolls reported to police a speech given on a demonstration, demanding an arrest. FRFI comrades, among others had been arrested for ‘terrorism’ in similar circumstances.

During this 2024 detention, I was asked insulting and totally unsubstantiated questions about Palestinian friends and activist groups: Who did I know in Gaza and Lebanon? Did I send them money? What was I involved in in Britain? And what were my views on everything from British politicians to the Palestinian resistance operations of 7 October 2023? I would encourage others in the same situation to think creatively about their answers.

The second time around, the anti-terror cops seemed like they were caught off guard, making up questions on the hoof. This time I did make it into the airport terminal, only to be stopped by the Border Force guard checking my passport – something had flashed up on his screen. Again, they gave no reason for my detention, but told my solicitor that I had been out of the country for ‘an unusual length of time’ – did they miss me? – in a ‘hot spot’; clearly they had little knowledge of how the Egyptian state has overwhelmingly kept a lid on any pro-Palestine sentiment.

Common to both detentions were questions smacking of anti-Islamic racism. When the force interrogating me in 2024 knew I was heading to Cairo, they asked directly whether I planned to ‘get into Muslim culture and religion.’ This time, they led on Hamas. I could easily bat off their stupid questions – keeping answers short seems to help – but I wondered what kind of barrage Muslim comrades would face under Schedule 7. On both occasions, police took my electronic devices. The Act gives them powers to investigate confiscated properties for a week but this can be extended.

They also routinely look through written materials carried in your luggage. But though they asked some remarkable questions on newspapers and books they found – ‘Who killed Ghassan Kanafani?’ – the focus of their intelligence gathering seems to be electronic. I would advise others to delete their Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram and other apps before travelling, and remove SIM cards.

At the time of writing, the police have my laptop and will determine from that whether to prosecute any kind of terrorist offence. In my case, I doubt it – the aim is clearly snooping and gathering information on those of us who oppose them. But, as we have seen with the British state targeting the Filton 18, the SOAS 2 and others, the Labour government is on a mission to repress and terrorise those who speak out. This means criminalising and imprisoning anti-imperialists and progressives. By fighting all of these charges and combating state harassment, we stand alongside those in Gaza resisting the same global regime.

Louis B

What to do when you, too, become a “terrorist”: New zine launch!

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is launching a new zine, “What to do when you, too, become a ‘terrorist'” — inspired by our own experience being banned in Germany and being labeled a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT)” by the United States and a “terrorist entity” by Canada, and by the ongoing attempts of the British state to proscribe Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organization. Of course, it is also influenced by the years of state repression targeting a wide array of liberation struggles and movements, from the Black Liberation Movement to Indigenous warriors to Puerto Rican independentistas, not to mention the designation of Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemeni, Iranian, Filipino and other resistance organizations as “terrorists” by the imperialist powers.

The zine lays out lessons as well as political analysis from our experience and the experiences of others who have been targeted by the state for designation, listing and sanctions. As Pawel Wargan noted on X/Twitter:

Terrorist designations were created to punish liberation movements in the South.

Now, with Samidoun and Palestine Action, they target solidarity movements in the North — a dangerous precedent that opens the door to the criminalization of all meaningful political opposition.

This means that we can expect the weapon of the “terrorist” designation, the political ban, the proscription and the dissolution to be used ever more frequently. In recent months, in addition to the current attack on Palestine Action — in which Britain’s parliament has already voted to proscribe the direct action movement — France dissolved the Collectif Palestine Vaincra and is threatening Urgence Palestine with dissolution; Belgium’s far-right “Arizona” government is threatening to create an entirely new legal structure in order to ban Samidoun and other organizations working for Palestine; the Netherlands’ right-wing Parliament is attempting to ban Samidoun; Germany has banned Palestine Solidarity Duisburg and Zionists are working to ban the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement; and the United States designated Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and five Palestinian charities as SDGTs.

This is only a small group of examples of the various forms of state repression being pursued by imperialist powers in defense of their Zionist project in Palestine and the region and their ongoing genocide. In this context, it is important for organizers to prepare politically, legally and practically to confront escalating forms of repression and continue their struggle for Palestinian liberation and in support of the Palestinian and regional resistance.

As the booklet notes:

“Like the Zionist entity fears the Palestinian resistance, so do the imperialist powers fear the Palestinian diaspora and their supporters that have been rising up again and again, especially since the start of operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the Zionist genocide. They fear a strong, popular movement that threatens their economic and political interests in Palestine and the region. Repression is a sign of strength for the Palestinian movement and the international solidarity movement. This movement has mobilized the largest demonstrations for Palestine in history, has cost Israeli and Zionist companies billions of dollars in losses, it has united millions of people from across the world as well as virtually all social movements in every country for the Palestinian liberation struggle.”

The booklet includes analysis, advice from organizers who have already experienced designation and repression, suggestions for security tips to support your organizing and resources for further reading. It is available for downloading, printing and wide distribution in your area and online!

what to do when you too, become a terrorist what to do when you too, become a terrorist booklet

Glory to the martyr: 22-year-old Louay Nasrallah martyred in occupation prisons

On Monday, 30 June 2025, Palestinian prisoners’ institutions reported the martyrdom of Louay Faisal Mohammed Nasrallah (Turkman), 22, imprisoned by the occupation, in Soroka Hospital. He had been suddenly transferred to the hospital after being held in the Naqab prison. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns and salutes the martyr, and extends our condolences to his family and loved ones, the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the Palestinian people as a whole.

Louay Nasrallah Turkman, from the city of Jenin, had been imprisoned without charge or trial under “administrative detention” since 26 March 2024, when he was abducted from his home by occupation forces. His family reported that, at the time of his arrest, he had no health issues or medical problems and was a healthy, active young man. He was held in the Naqab prison, which is infamous for the prison administration’s policies of forced overcrowding, starvation, and denial of hygiene products and medical care, which has led to the rampant spread of the scabies skin disease inside the desert prison.

He is at least the 73rd identified martyr of the prisoners’ movement since 7 October 2023, of at least 310 martyrs of the prisoners’ movement since 1967  (data is not compiled for the period 1948–1967). The occupation continues to imprison his body, as it does the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians, including at least 82 martyred prisoners—71 of them since the launch of the Al-Aqsa Flood.

The martyrdom of Palestinian prisoners—today, Louay Nasrallah—is part of an assassination campaign inside the occupation’s prisons and detention camps, carried out through institutionalized physical and psychological torture, beatings, starvation, sexual assault, the spread of contagious disease (particularly scabies), and the deliberate denial of medical care. This takes place in parallel with the ongoing, escalated genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine. These war crimes and crimes against humanity are compounded by the denial of family and legal visits, preventing any external monitoring of the mistreatment suffered by imprisoned Palestinians. All imprisoned Palestinians, and especially the leaders of the prisoners’ movement, are living under an ongoing threat to their lives due to the occupation’s policy of “slow assassination.”

Every dollar, euro, and pound exchanged with the occupation; every weapon given to its genocidal forces; and every intelligence-sharing and police-training mission between the Zionist project and the imperialist powers—especially the US, Canada, France, Germany, Britain, and EU countries—are evidence of full complicity in the ongoing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian people as a whole.

In memory and honor of Louay, and all of the martyrs, wounded and prisoners of Palestine, and of the resistance that continues to meet the occupiers and genocidaires with fire, we urge all to organize and take action, to escalate the struggle in the imperial core, to bring the genocide to an end, to break the siege on Gaza, to free the Palestinian prisoners and to free Palestine from the river to the sea.

Download this poster of the martyr Louay Nasrallah — as well as this group of prisoners’ posters — to include in your next action.

Poster below (Download PDF):

The martyrs of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in the past 18 months include the following:

  • Omar Daraghmeh
  • Arafat Hamdan
  • Majed Ahmed Zaqoul
  • Abdel-Rahman Al-Bahsh
  • Atta Yousef Hasan Fayyad
  • Zuhair Omar Sharif
  • Raja Ismail Samour
  • Walid Abdel-Hadi Hamid
  • Abdel-Rahman Mar’i
  • Dr. Iyad Al Rantisi
  • Thaer Samih Abu Assab
  • Faraj Hussein Hasan Ali
  • Hamdan Hassan Anaba
  • Hussein Saber Abu Obeida
  • Ali Abdullah Suleiman Al-Houli
  • Arafat Al-Khawaja
  • Mohammed Ahmed Al-Sabbar
  • Mohammed Abu Sneineh
  • Ahmed Rizq Qudaih
  • Izz al-Din Ziad Al-Banna
  • Asif Abdel-Mu’ti Al-Rifai
  • Khaled Musa Jamal Al-Shawish
  • Majed Hamdi Ibrahim Sawafiri
  • Ahmed Abdel Marjan Al-Aqqad
  • Jumaa Abu Ghanima
  • Dr. Ziad Mohammed Al-Dalou
  • Wafa Amin Mohammed Abdelhadi
  • Kamal Hussein Ahmad Radi
  • Walid Nimr Daqqah
  • Fathi Mohammed Mahmoud Jadallah
  • Abdel-Rahim Abdel-Karim Amer
  • Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh
  • Karim Abu Saleh
  • Ismail Abdel-Bari Khader
  • Mohammed Sharif Al-Assali
  • Omar Abdelaziz Junaid
  • Adnan Ashour
  • Islam Al-Sarsawi
  • Sheikh Mustafa Abu Ora
  • Nasr el-Din Ziyara
  • Kifah Dabaya
  • Ayman Rajeh Issa Abed
  • Zaher Tahsin Raddad
  • Mohammed Munir Musa
  • Walid Ahmed Khalifa
  • Samir Mahmoud Al-Kahlout
  • Moath Khaled Rayyan
  • Anwar Aslim
  • Sheikh Samih Suleiman Muhammad Aliwi
  • Munir Abdullah al-Faqaawi
  • Yassin Munir al-Faqaawi
  • Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Idris
  • Mohammed Anwar Labad
  • Alaa Marwan Hamza al-Mahlawi
  • Mohammed Walid Hussein Al-Aref
  • Mohammed Rashid Saeed Al-Akka
  • Ashraf Mohammed Abu Warda
  • Motaz Mahmoud Abu Zneid
  • Musaab Hani Haniyeh
  • Ali Ashour Ali Al Batsh
  • Tayseer Sababa Abou Al Saeed
  • Khalil Haniyeh
  • Ayman Abdel-Hadi Qudaih
  • Mohammed Yassin Jabr
  • Raafat Adnan Abu Fannouneh
  • Khaled Mahmoud Qassem Abdallah
  • Walid Khaled Ahmad
  • Musaab Hassan Adili
  • Khalil Nasser Radaideh
  • Muhyiddin Nijm
  • Amr Hatem Odeh
  • Ayman Abdel-Hadi Qudaih
  • Bilal Talal Salameh
  • Mohammed Ismail al-Astal
  • Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Habl
  • Raed Suleiman Asa’sa
  • Louay Nasrallah Turkman
  • There are at least two more martyred workers from Gaza whose names have not been disclosed.

The following released prisoners were either martyred almost immediately upon their release due to torture and the denial of medical care, or, in the case of Kazem Zawahreh, following the prisoner exchange where he was returned to a Palestinian hospital in a coma.

  • Rami Attiya Jumaa Abu Mustafa
  • Farouk Ahmed Issa Khatib
  • Kazem Issa Zawahreh

We are all Palestine Action! Confronting proscription and “terror” designation of direct action in Britain

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses our full solidarity with Palestine Action, threatened with proscription by the British imperialist regime because of their direct action to materially inhibit the Zionist war crimes and genocide in Palestine and throughout the region. British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has introduced into Parliament an order to proscribe — that is, to ban, in a system similar to other imperialist powers’ “terrorist designations” — the direct action organization that has done so much to escalate the stakes of the solidarity movement and impose material costs on the imperialist and Zionist war machine. The attempt to proscribe Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organization is yet another British colonial crime against the Palestinian people and a clear indication of British imperialism’s commitment to full complicity and participation in the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine.

The proscription proposal is scheduled to be voted on in the British House of Commons on Wednesday, 2 July, and in the House of Lords on Thursday, 3 July. A court challenge brought by Palestine Action will be heard on Friday, 4 July, before the proposed proscription is scheduled to go into effect, and could lead to an injunction against the order. It is clear, however, that relying on the courts is insufficient to defend Palestine Action and the Palestine liberation movement; this threat requires full-scale mobilization, protest and direct action to confront the state terror of unjust proscription and “anti-terror” laws.

Proscription is already used by the British state to criminalize Palestinian and regional resistance organizations. including Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The extent of repression connected to these designations is substantial, as even mere speech and moral support in favor of a proscribed organization may be criminalized under Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000. During the past several years, and particularly escalated amid the ongoing genocide, British police have raided activists’ homes, arrested and raided journalists, and put speakers and demonstration attendees on trial for affirming Palestinians’ right to resist and to organize to do so effectively. All of this creates a context where speaking honestly about the ongoing Zionist genocide and the forces leading the resistance to that genocide puts activists, students and even journalists at risk of severe state repression.

The excellent work of Riverway Law and CAGE in challenging the proscription of Hamas is a much-needed legal effort to advance the right to organize and defend international law — and becomes even more important amid the criminalization of grassroots solidarity resistance. One of the purposes of proscription and “terrorist” designation is an attempt to cut off legal challenges as well as popular support; while the precise mechanisms may vary between the imperialist powers, the mechanism serves the same function of both aiding and abetting genocide while also seeking to severely restrain the political and action-oriented horizons of the solidarity movement and the Palestinian and Arab community in exile and diaspora.

The attack on Palestine Action is part and parcel of British colonialism in Palestine, which continues today and did not end with the Balfour Declaration. Britain is now and has consistently been a partner in the Zionist colonization and genocide throughout Palestine, from the Balfour Declaration of 1917 seeking to provide the Zionist movement with a “Jewish national home” in occupied Palestine, to the British colonial mandate of Palestine that included the assassination and imprisonment of Palestinian leaders and strugglers in intifada after intifada, to the ongoing British arming and funding of the Zionist regime. As an imperialist power and part of the US-led imperialist camp internationally, it is a leading force in the alliance of genocide. The British colonial mandate was the first to introduce “administrative detention” — imprisonment without charge or trial — to occupied Palestine, a policy enthusiastically adopted by their Zionist colonial successors, currently used to detain nearly 4,000 of the nearly 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners held hostage in Zionist jails.

Today, the British Royal Air Force has flown at least 500 spy flights over Gaza in order to provide intelligence sharing with the Zionist genocidal regime, thereby helping to facilitate the ongoing bombings and assaults on the entire population of Gaza, as well as the assassinations targeting political leaders, government officials, health workers, journalists, aid workers, police and security officers, and other targets of the Zionist regime, often alongside their entire families. British officials have refused to answer questions about these spy flights while the British state and mainstream media has been silent and avoiding the issue entirely.

Palestine Action, through its powerful action on 20 June 2025 at the RAF Brize Norton air base, has forced these crimes into full public view. As Palestine Action noted:

Palestine Action have damaged two military planes at RAF Brize Norton, where flights leave daily for RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, a base used for military operations in Gaza and across the Middle East. Two activists broke into the largest air force base in Britain and used electric scooters to swiftly manoeuvre towards the planes. They used repurposed fire extinguishers to spray red paint into the turbine engines of two Airbus Voyagers and caused further damage using crowbars. Red paint, symbolising Palestinian bloodshed was also sprayed across the runway and a Palestine flag was left on the scene. Both activists managed to evade security and arrest.

By putting the planes out of service, activists have interrupted Britain’s direct participation in the commission of genocide and war crimes across the Middle East.

This follows upon Palestine Action’s many successful actions against Elbit Systems, “Israel'”s largest weapons manufacturer, which makes 85% of the drones used in Zionist aerial attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and throughout occupied Palestine; in Lebanon; in Yemen; in Syria; and in Iran. Palestine Action has forced Elbit to sell its factories in Tamworth and Oldham and to shut down its London offices. Its direct actions have cost the war criminal company millions of British pounds in damages since 2021, acting directly to stop ongoing genocide in line with international law, and taking action when states refuse to do so. There are currently dozens of Palestine Action political prisoners, despite many actionists successfully winning their criminal cases in court by raising the necessity defense — that their actions were necessary to bring an end to Zionist war crimes in occupied Palestine.

Palestine Action and other direct action groups have not backed down in the face of the proscription attempts nor multiple arrests and imprisonments of its actionists. On 29 June, actionists taking on the name “Yvette Cooper” — for the Home Secretary seeking Palestine Action’s ban — sprayed red paint and broke windows at the offices of BNY Mellon’s investment firm, shareholders in Israel’s biggest weapons producer. In the past days, Palestine Action shut down the Bristol facility of Elbit Systems and occupied the roof of Guardtech, suppliers to Elbit Systems, in Suffolk.

In addition to the Filton 18, four actionists are currently being held under the Terrorism Act over the RAF Brice Norton direct action. The British state has been escalating the charges against actionists, especially after their repeated legal victories, and has even been shown to be coordinating its prosecutions with the Zionist embassy in Britain. Communications about state repression in Britain with the Zionist embassy also dovetailed with the British government’s raid on journalist Asa Winstanley.

As in the case of Samidoun, which was listed as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” in October 2024 by a Democratic administration in the United States and as a “terrorist entity” by a Liberal government in Canada, it is the Labour Party’s government that is today seeking to proscribe Palestine Action. Once again, it is clear to all that the Labour Party and the Tory Party are two wings of imperialism, with the same devastating onslaught against the people of the world, including the Palestinian people.

The nature of the proscription being brought by Cooper on behalf of Keir Starmer’s Labour government reflects the overall use of “anti-terror” laws and designations, both in Britain and throughout the imperial core. The proposed proscription lists three organizations: Palestine Action and two little-known far-right entities (the Moldovan “Maniacs Murder Cult” and the “Russian Imperial Movement”), much as terrorist lists primarily target anti-imperialist and national liberation movements yet also include fascist, reactionary and far-right organizations. This serves the goal of blunting clear opposition to such proscriptions and demands to abolish these so-called “terror lists.” While it is the proscription of Palestine Action that is the subject of large-scale press coverage, including extensive comments by Cooper herself, massive protests and widespread outrage, linking these three organizations is meant to cast opponents of the proscription as supporters of, for example, a “maniacs murder cult.”

The drive to proscribe Palestine Action is clearly not a result of any single action among its many powerful direct actions confronting genocide. Instead, it reflects the ongoing escalation of repression in the heart of the imperial core against the Palestine liberation movement, as seen also in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Spain, among others, as well as the escalating panic of the imperialist ruling class that even the masses in their own countries widely reject genocide.

This is on vivid display at present, as the British corporate and state media and imperialist politicians denounce punk band Bobby Vylan for leading tens of thousands at Glastonbury music festival in the chant, “Death! Death! to the IDF!” and after British prosecutors were forced to drop charges against “Mo Chara” of Irish rap group Kneecap for “support for a proscribed organization” for holding up a Hezbollah flag at a concert. That prosecution was only launched after Kneecap inspired tens of thousands to cheer and chant after displaying the message, “Fuck Israel Free Palestine” at the Coachella music festival in the United States.

While tens and hundreds of thousands cheer for these artists at festivals, and millions more salute the Palestinian resistance and every missile of resistance from Yemen and Iran fired at the Zionist entity, the ruling class is turning to increasingly harsh repression in an attempt to impose state terror upon the public, as the propaganda to justify genocide has been a miserable failure in the face of the documented reality of the Zionist-imperialist mass slaughter of children, women, men and elders, destruction of hospitals, carpet-bombing of residential buildings, demolition of mosques and churches, savage torture of prisoners, overt use of starvation as a weapon of war and ongoing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine as well as in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran.

Palestine Action has consistently set the standard in the imperial core for imposing a material cost on weapons manufacturers and war criminals for their ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people. Indeed, actionists are doing only what is absolutely necessary to prevent and interrupt a genocide in progress.  This is why they are being targeted now.

It is critical that the entire movement stands behind Palestine Action and against the criminalization of direct action and resistance — and indeed, escalates the campaign to not only stop the proscription of Palestine action, but to deproscribe Palestinian and regional resistance organizations and, indeed, to scrap the entire “terror list” and proscription system. 

There is a massive popular and even official outcry against the proscription of Palestine Action, with even British civil servants appalled at the trampling of democratic, civil and political rights in order to advance the genocide. Dozens of organizations have spoken out against the proscription, while UN experts released an official call urging Britain not to use “anti-terror” laws to repress protest. Of course, this type of repression is nothing new for Britain and bears a striking parallel to the attacks on Irish republicans and the Irish liberation movement, which continues to confront proscription and political imprisonment today amid their continuing struggle.

Under the slogan, “We are all Palestine Action!” protests are being organized at Parliament, the High Court, and at British embassies and consulates internationally, while direct actions against Zionist-imperialist weapons manufacturers are taking inspiration from the example set by Palestine Action.

We urge all to continue to speak out and mobilize — including, and, indeed, especially, if the proscription is imposed by the British state. Unfortunately, experience shows that following proscriptions and designations, in many cases, large NGOs or liberal organizations have dedicated significant time and energy to isolating the targets of designation in the belief that such isolation provides them with some form of protection from further repression. This approach has even extended to the actual resistance organizations leading the struggle for liberation on the ground, with organizations in the imperial core seeking to uphold other forces, such as NGOs, as the “leadership” of the Palestinian cause.

Raising this at this moment is not a matter of alienating allies who are speaking up at this urgent moment to stop the proscription of Palestine Action; it is a warning for a critical time, because this type of reaction only encourages the imperialist powers to continue on the path of repression, as their goal is not merely to arrest or raid homes, but to constrain the horizons of the movement and impose silencing and censorship, whether externally or internally enforced. If we do not rally, even with the associated risks, behind those who are targeted, we encourage the state to escalate its attacks. This is especially true in the case of Palestine Action, which has done so much to lead in direct action materially resisting the Zionist-imperialist war machine. We must learn the lessons of history and act in clear rejection of such proscriptions, bans and designations throughout the imperial core, against Palestine Action – and against Samidoun, against Addameer, against Palestinian and Arab charity organizations, and against the resistance organizations leading the liberation struggle, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, Hezbollah, AnsarAllah and other movements.

British imperialism seeks to shut down direct action for Palestine and aims to use this proscription to try to erase the example that Palestine Action sets for the confrontation of Zionism, imperialism and capitalism in the imperial core. It is all of our responsibility to multiply and globalize their work — a globalized intifada for a free Palestine, from the river to the sea.

We urge all to take the following actions recommended by Palestine Action at their website:

Stay Updated

Support Palestine Action

Watch the Film

Because of the unprecedented action the government just took against Palestine Action, the director of To Kill A War Machine has just dropped the link so that you can buy tickets across the UK or download the film.

Visit tokillawarmachine.com to watch the film, check screenings near you, or host a screening yourself!

Defend Palestinian activists: The Netherlands upholds entry ban on Mohammed Khatib

In a blatant escalation of political repression, the Dutch state has rejected the appeal of Mohammed Khatib, Europe coordinator of Samidoun, upholding his two-year entry ban into the Netherlands. 
In October 2024 the Dutch state banned Mohammed Khatib from entering the Netherlands, in an effort to stop him from speaking at Radboud University. This entry ban and the court’s rejection of Khatib’s appeal, only reinforces the Dutch government’s commitment to criminalizing any dissenting voice that speaks out in support of the Palestinian resistance and the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners struggling inside Zionist detention camps.
Meanwhile the fascist Dutch state, alongside it’s other imperialist allies, continues their unconditional support for the ongoing Zionist genocide in Gaza. Therefore, this is not just an attack on Khatib as an individual or Samidoun as an organization: it is an attack on the entire Palestine movement, as it is precisely these repression tactics that are allowing the Dutch government to continue their complicity in genocide and colonialism. As NATO’s warmongers gather in the city of the Hague and ships carrying Zionist weapons parts enter the port of Rotterdam, the Dutch state continues to brutalize and criminalize anyone that dares to resist this complicity in genocide and the colonial occupation of Palestine. The Palestinian diaspora resisting the destruction of their homeland are faced with threats of deportation, protesters stopping arms shipments for the Zionist entity are arrested and students throughout the imperial core are faced with police brutality for protesting their universities ties with the Zionist entity.
While we are outraged at these intensifying repression efforts, we also know that it speaks to the strength of our movement that, since the heroic Al-Aqsa Flood operation and  start of the Zionist genocide in Gaza, has been able to mobilize the biggest demonstrations for Palestine in history and unite millions across the world for the Palestinian liberation struggle. Let us continue to unite, defend each other and confront repression and criminalization, for a free Palestine from the river to the sea.
We will continue to fight the entry-ban of Mohammed Khatib and call upon the Palestinian diaspora and their supporters in The Netherlands to support him in this fight and continue intensifying the struggle for an end to the genocide, an end to the occupation and a liberated Palestine from the river to the sea. ​​​​​​
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