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Sign On: Solidarity with Dar al Janub! Stop the Zionist, Islamophobic and State Attacks in Austria

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in solidarity with Dar al Janub, the Austrian association dedicated to anti-imperialist, anti-racist organizing and Palestinian and global liberation. Dar al Janub is a principled voice in Austria that has consistently elevated the voices and analysis of the Black liberation movement, the Palestinian liberation movement, and clear international solidarity. Recently, Dar al Janub has come under attack in an effort to decertify the association, label it as “terrorist” and subject it to a political, media and official smear campaign.

This builds upon the ongoing attacks on Palestinian organizing in Austria, including the ludicrous legal attack on boycott movement activists in BDS Austria seeking a 40,000 EUR penalty for making a satirical poster about Vienna’s collaboration with the Zionist regime and “Operation Luxor,” the series of raids in 2020 that targeted the homes of 70 Arab and Muslim individuals and associations, including a number of associations working in support of Palestine. While the raids were later declared unlawful and no one was convicted, the massive attack involving nearly 1,000 police was clearly designed to produce terror in the community. This is in addition to the extreme repression in neighbouring Germany, where police have arrested hundreds of people at demonstrations, raided the homes of Palestinian activists and offices of solidarity groups, attacked protests, banned slogans like, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and even banned Samidoun as an organization.

In this context, we urge all to support Dar al Janub. To add your support as an organization or individual, add your name to the statement Dar al Janub released here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiIvZn9BnZc0oYGaHgGcxQV4_0V6aYnXAHDaPFaiITtqP_CQ/viewform

We have republished Dar al Janub’s text below. 

Sign on here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiIvZn9BnZc0oYGaHgGcxQV4_0V6aYnXAHDaPFaiITtqP_CQ/viewform

Stop the Zionist, Islamophobic and State Attacks Against Dar al Janub!

Dar al Janub needs your support, sign the letter of solidarity at the end of the call!

After 20 years of its existence the Austrian association Dar al Janub (House of the South) – Union for Anti-Racism and Peace Policy – faces the threat of ultimately being prohibited. Dar al Janub[i] (DaJ) was founded in 2003 in the context of protests against the US-led Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While anti-imperial voices were more and more marginalized within Austrian universities and mass media, Dar al Janub has always been a place where people of different political, ideological and national backgrounds could gather in order to practice international solidarity by challenging the hegemonic discourses on the Global South. We were doing this by establishing a stage for marginalized voices. In 2004 we organized our first “big” event: the exhibition “Aidun – we will return” in remembrance of the Palestinian Nakba. Dar al Janub has been publishing political statements and organizing protests, information events, fact finding missios to Palestine and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and international conferences. We tried to support Muslim and migrant women by organizing German language classes, Arabic language classes, anti-racism workshops, festivals and sport events by providing also childcare for women with migration background. Our main focus was always the rethinking of racist structures and the enhancement of international solidarity with the people of the South.

The methods of silencing, isolating and encapsulating  

It is a well-known fact that doing solidarity work with Palestine is especially difficult in countries such as Austria, who have been directly involved into the genocide of marginalized peoples and communities in Europe. Therefore, the attacks on Dar al Janub weren’t surprising. Our association’s critique of the European settler-state of Israel and the solidarity with the Palestinian people raised the anger of persons and institutions sympathizing with and profiting from the Zionist project. After 1990, on the cultural level, in the majority of cases, people with a leftist/progressive attitude turned their “anti-fascism” in a direction toward compatibility with Zionism. Members of DaJ have been repeatedly labeled as antisemitic and well renowned guests of conferences have been publicly shamed by defaming articles in newspapers. These kinds of defamations accompany us for 20 years – but not only us.

A quite common method to silence the voices of the South in Vienna was the withdrawal of public spaces or university spaces, labeling the events as antisemitic and/or a potential threat and denying them the spaces for public speech within or outside Universities. In 2018 the University of Vienna banned a public event with the veteran of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army Dhoruba Bin Wahad[ii] and continued to do so in 2022[iii]. The same treatment happened to Ronnie Kasrils[iv], one of Nelson Mandela’s companions in the fight against South African apartheid. A new concerning measure nowadays, is the filing of SLAPP-suits (“Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation”) against activists. A member of BDS-Austria for example is currently facing such a lawsuit[v]. For the use of the logo of the City of Vienna, 40.000 € compensation claims are demanded. To quote anti-colonial professor Ward Churchill, it seems that a lot of “little Eichmanns”[vi] do their work to cover unjust politics with a construct of defamations. This is a development that can be witnessed all over the globe nowadays, but regarding Austria’s incomplete reappraisal of its Nazi past, these defamatory tactics are quite effective. They dominate the discourse and push it further into the direction of criminalization.

The preparation of criminalization and bans  

“Next level is now!” – In 2021 the University of Vienna and Austria’s Documentation Centre of Political Islam (DPI) published a so called “Islam map”[vii], which shows over 600 Muslim or Islam-affiliated locations in Austria. Since 2022 DaJ is also mentioned in this stigmatizing “map”.

This project and the DPI itself are a construct of the Christian-democratic party (ÖVP) and the Green Party. Long before the implementation of the “Islam map”, the Social-democratic Party (SPÖ) brought forward special laws against Muslims in 2017. It seems that the unconditional political support of Israel, combined with the stigmatization of Muslims, are part of the political agenda of all parties in Austria.

Recently, in December 2023, a dubious and unscientific study[viii] of the foundation DPI (“Documentation Center for Political Islam”, German: “Dokumentationsstelle Politischer Islam”), funded by the current government, described Dar al Janub as an “extremist leftist and antisemitic group” that supports “different groups being classified as terrorist organizations”[ix]. The “study” does not explicitly name what specific groups should be supported by Dar al Janub, neither does it explain why Dar al Janub’s activities should be regarded as antisemitic and actively leaves out our years-long cooperation with Jewish groups like Women in Black[x] or Jewish Voices for a Just peace in Vienna[xi], as well as our contact to Neturei Karta[xii] representatives in Austria, until they were excluded and expelled from all mainstream Jewish Institutions in Austria, which forced them to leave Austria.

After DPI released its study, public and private newspapers and television broadcasters adopted its condemnation willingly and uncritically. DaJ was labeled as some sort of antisemitic and conspiratorial group of terror sympathizers. Media outlets[xiii] and politicians[xiv][xv] from all ends of the political spectrum are publicly demanding the city government to cancel the rental contract for the rooms of our social center[xvi]. The walls, doors and windows of our center have repeatedly been smeared with racist slogans or attacked with acid. Moreover, some members of DaJ have been intimidated and even received death threats after being denounced and displayed with their face uncensored and full name in the national public television broadcast ORF.

The Toxic History of Austria

One cannot understand these dynamics without taking a look into the contemporary history of Austria and how the last 100 years shaped Austria’s dealing, not only with so called “other” people, but also with “other” opinions. The Austrian state considers its unconditional support for Israel as a “reason of state” and justifies it with its “historical responsibility” because of Austria’s involvement in the genocide against Jews. At the same time, other minorities who have been victims of the genocide, like Roma and Sinti, are facing structural and individual racism without being defended. Austria is making the distinctions between worthy and unworthy victims and therefore its policies to fight “Political Islam” and “Antisemitism” usually come with a quite reactionary touch aiming to criminalize critical Muslim individuals and associations alike. These policies are creating an intimidating atmosphere, especially for the Muslims who are classified into good, i.e. non-political, and bad, i.e. undemocratic political Muslims.

 Another example for this policy was “Operation Luxor”, one of the largest police actions in the Austrian post-fascist history.  After 21.000 hours of observation, 960 police officers carried out raids in about 60 flats, businesses and association rooms in different cities all over Austria and 30 persons have been immediately arrested and interrogated. However, the results of this gigantic undertaking have been quite minimal. In the end, there was not even one person legally convicted. One of the most influential Austrian news magazines, Profil[xvii], described the Operation as a “political and public authorities scandal” and concluded in an article “today, two and a half years later, there is not much left of the condemnations.” However, much remained of the accusations: traumatized small children who were torn from their beds at night during this police action, brought out into the cold at gunpoint, character assassination that led to job losses and an intimidated community that for years no longer dared to exercise the constitutionally guaranteed right of assembly, academics who left the country because the political climate in Austria had been poisoned. A political climate that is now becoming even more repressive with Israel’s war against the people in the Gaza Strip.

One might ask, why did the right-wing government of ÖVP and Green Party spend/waste so many resources with practicably no outcome? – Maybe the time was right:

Indeed, Operation Luxor happened only because, on the one hand, the social and political climate was ripe – Muslims and migrants were established as the oriental “others”. And on the other hand, the Austrian state and its government wanted to proof internationally that they are willing to execute measures under the so-called “War on Terror” to make Austria fully prepared for the next decades of war and crisis.

The Viennese police enacted strict measures against the long constructed political enemy “Political Islam”[xviii]. It seems that these measures have been quite welcome in order to further intimidate, cut citizen rights and divide the Austrian Muslims into the good and quiet Muslim and the bad “political Muslims”. Sebastian Kurz, the former Austrian Chancellor, wanted to get votes by the huge reservoir of far-right voters (approx. 30%) and Operation Luxor was staged in a media-effective manner as a huge strike against terror and “Political Islam”.

The construction of Political Islam and Operation Luxor have not been the only measures to gain political power for racist anti-Muslim agendas: compulsory and racist value-courses for migrants; restrictive amendments in Austrian Islam Law, the shutdown of mosques and the ban of headscarves for school and kindergarten teachers, … all of these measures were accompanied by racist media coverage that led to a significant rise of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism within the last 10 years. According to the Documentation Centre of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism (Dokustelle Islamfeindlichkeit & antimuslimischer Rassismus)[xix] the government’s crusade against so-called “political Islam” is an attempt to silence critical voices within the Muslim communities and other critical voices opposing racist, restrictive and exploitative government measures.[xx]

How Dar al Janub is portrayed

“Behind the façade”, the defaming newspaper article[xxi] states, Dar al Janub “hides a world view that attributes all good to the global South and all bad to the ‘West’”. In order to demonstrate how dangerous the “hidden agenda” of DaJ is, the media showed the picture of one of our members meeting Hamas political office member Ismail Haniyah in the Gaza Strip. DPI and the media are neglecting the fact that the picture was taken in 2011, when Dar al Janub participated in an international delegation[xxii] bringing humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip. Following this logic, DPI should also condemn former British parliament member Claire Short for joining this delegation and the British newspaper “The Guardian” should be put on the terror list, for publishing a whole article[xxiii] with Ismail Haniyah in 2012.

In Austria, the coalition of Politics, Media and contract research is trying to label Dar al Janub as a terrorist organization that works together with Hamas. Lisa Fellhofer, Director of the DPI further insinuates: “Social engagement and freedom of speech were used by Dar al Janub members to devaluate other people, this is the basis for radicalization”. Lisa Fellhofer and her government-funded institute are trying to convince us that all efforts Dar al Janub was taking during its 20 years of existence – organizing galleries in remembrance of the Nakba, organizing fact finding missions to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, organizing a two-year social project in Nablus supporting a local social charitable society, etc. – only had one single goal, which is to “devaluate other people”. In other words: a bunch of radical, antisemitic terrorist supporters were putting in all this effort only in order to cultivate and exercise their antisemitic worldview. As Dhoruba bin Wahad describes, in the age of social media, “perception becomes reality.” One picture is enough to stigmatize 20 years of political and social work as illegal.[xxiv]

Dar al Janub, as it is in reality

In fact, Dar al Janub practiced something that is not so familiar to many politicians, journalists, NGO staff, and contract “scientists” like Fellhofer: We have worked and continue to work without payment for a cause that we believe in. Moreover, we put together our own money and that of our friends and families to guarantee that the costs of the locality and everything else we organized (conferences, etc.) are covered. In fact, this made us free to become independent from state funding and only through this process we got an understanding of what free speech really is and how it could be. We only received funding in the early phase of our association[xxv], which we have made totally transparent; everything was given to those in need. Everyone who is interested what happened with the received money can check out our homepage, where all our projects and external funding are archived.

Concerning the accusation of devaluating people, we would like to know what people should have been devaluated by our work. Criminal political leaders? Greedy CEOs? Ruthless Journalists? Honestly, we do not understand why profiteers of exploitation and war always take it so personally when they are criticized for the crimes and genocides they are committing or supporting. We might have criticized their actions, but they did devaluate themselves by doing so.

It was not Dar al Janub who divided the world, enslaved millions of people, colonized more than 90 percent of the world and still continues these wars and crimes, always claiming to act for the greater cause (“Faith, Civilization, Trade, Security, Justice, Democracy”, …). They are using these respected terms to justify their crimes and they are those who devaluate and sacrificing our common ethic values and the well-being of further generations for their own profit.

Dar al Janub has always opposed all forms of racism because racism is one of the root causes for the division of our world into oppressor and oppressed. Dar al Janub is trying to rethink history, present and future in order to find peace and equality for all, not just for a privileged few.

Michel Trouillot states in his article “an unthinkable history”[xxvi] on the Revolution in Haiti in (1791-1804) that “[t]he literature on slavery in the Americas and on the Holocaust suggests that there may be structural similarities in global silences […] erasure and banalization are not unique to the Haitian Revolution”.[xxvii]Actually, the Haitian Revolution poses a good reference point to the current situation in Palestine/Gaza. Back in the 18th century, nobody in the Western world could even think of the possibility that the Haitian slaves could organize, revolt and establish a society without slaves, just like nobody believed that the Palestinians would reorganize and resist after these decades of fragmentation and colonization. After 100 years of occupation, ethnic cleansing, brutal mass killing and Apartheid, Palestinians fight for a freedom the so-called “West” does not even think as being applicable to them. The concept of freedom and the right to resist, also militarily, against an occupying power, seems to be perfectly clear in the context of (white) Ukraine, whilst (black, brown and Arab) Palestinians are being denied the same rights. In respect to these double standards, Palestinians are the ones who are devaluated these days, especially in Austria.

However, this ambiguity goes back to the days when human rights were “firstly” being declared in the so-called American and French Revolutions. According to Trouillot, “this was an age of change and inconsistency. Few thinkers had the politics of their philosophy”.[xxviii] In the age of “big revolutions” (French and American Revolutions), the biggest revolution these days have witnessed was the first revolution through which slaves were able to free themselves and declare their own state in Haiti in 1804. Yet it could not be seen as such because slaves were not perceived as equal human beings having the same human rights as white people. In respect to this background, we see Dar al Janub – indeed – as a memorial to Europe’s colonial past and present, a place to remind us that the construction and imperial realization of the “West” and the so-called “rest” (of the World) through the colonial conquest of “America” destroyed individual freedoms and heterogeneity within Europe itself: Muslims (with Jews) were expelled from Southern Europe, so called heretics were burned and women were brutally murdered and burnt by constructing them as dangerous witches. Dar al Janub regarded itself always as a constructive corrective in a post-fascist society that finds it at times uncanny to deal with its own past and present. “We all need histories that no history book can tell, but they are not in the classroom – not in the history classrooms, anyway. They are in the lessons we learn at home, in poetry and in childhood games, in what is left when we close the history books with their verifiable facts.”[xxix]

Counter-revolution, fake radicals and real terrorists

If we dare to look back at the history of revolutions in Europe, we should ask ourselves which humanism was achieved, enforced or defended by these “revolutions”. Some forty years after the French Revolution, France occupied Arab Algeria and remained there until 1962. During these 130 years, 50% of the Algerian population was killed in the name of civilization and the French state did not leave Algeria voluntarily. Many of the German revolutionaries who escaped the suppression of the 1848 revolution were involved in the establishment and colonization of the “whites only” state of Texas. And this involvement meant the expulsion and extermination of the indigenous population and the establishment of a slave-owning society. In this context, the historian Gerald Horne speaks of counterrevolution and thus sheds a different light on this “civilization project”[xxx].

Since Dar al Janub was founded in 2003, the West started and continued numerous wars all over the globe: in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc., and supported numerous proxy wars in the so-called “Middle East”, Africa and the Americas. While think-tanks like the DPI denounces our activities as a “devaluation of other people” and even as antisemitic, in fact it is the opposite. Criticizing Israel, America and Europe for their human rights violations is not a “devaluation” of individuals, it is our democratic right of free speech, and it is based on the assumption that all people should have the same “value”. Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)[xxxi] guarantees freedom of opinion and freedom of expression, which are the “foundation stone for every free and democratic society”.

It also has to be said that the mentioned attacks on Dar al Janub, BDS and its supporters are a clear violation against the freedom of speech. In their report on the situation of human rights defenders in Austria, the UN Special Rapporteurs say: “The professed goal of the BDS call for boycott is not to advocate for an arbitrary discrimination of Israeli citizens, but to target a deliberate State policy and to promote compliance with public international law.”[xxxii]

While international Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International clearly condemn Israel’s Violations of International Law by committing the crime of Apartheid, their local Austrian national committee always remained silent when Palästina Solidarität Österreich, BDS, Dar al Janub or other pro Palestine activists were being publicly shamed, criminalized or faced lawsuits. The fact that they indeed showed solidarity with climate activists who had to face similar state repression is raising the question whether they are regarding Palestinians and those being in solidarity with them as equally valuable?

The instrumentalization of the “Never again” slogan

Since 1999, when former left activist and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called for war against ex-Yugoslavia[xxxiii], the antifascist slogan “Never again” has been reframed and instrumentalized. Nowadays, “never again” means “always again”! “Again” against the people of the Global South – with or without international law. People with a conscience who grew up in this country, know that the slogan “never again” poses a deep and troubling challenge to everyone who is trying to elaborate, understand and practice it in a historical place such as Austria. From the very beginning, the founding members of Dar al Janub interpreted their historical responsibility within the scope of a global history. A global history of powers of injustices and a global history of people who resisted and are still resisting these crimes. In February 1945, three months before the liberation from the Nazi regime, 500 detainees of the Austrian concentration camp Mauthausen managed to break out of the camp. Most of them were Soviet officers. Under the slogan “No man may be brought back to the camp alive”, SS, local police units, units of the Wehrmacht, SA, Hitler youth, Volkssturm and local inhabitants started a human-chase that went down in Austrian history as the “Mühlviertler hare hunt”[xxxiv]. Only eleven people survived this unprecedented act of human barbarism. To hunt people as if they were animals in the upper Austrian woods in February, at eight degrees Celsius below zero, resonates in Austrian history until today, when starved and tortured people who managed to escape the most inhumane place in human history (a concentration camp) did not find any (!) safe place outside of the death camp, except those eleven (!) people who could hide in the stalls and homes of some brave members of civil society. As Dar al Janub we salute the few brave Austrian people who hid those who escaped the camps, and they will always have a special place in our hearts. As Dar al Janub we feel connected with all the brave people in the world who fought and continue to fight against these wars of injustice – and in the end to fight against their and our fears.

We salute those who try to speak up against the different systems of oppression despite the censorship attempts by the City of Vienna and the Austrian government, who have a long tradition in cancelling events even with internationally renowned persons. In 2001 for example, Edward Said was invited to Vienna by the Freud society (named after Sigmund Freud) which later denied him the right to speak because of his political advocacy for Palestinian rights. His comment was: “Freud was hounded out of Vienna because he was a Jew. Now I am hounded out because I’m a Palestinian.”[xxxv]  In 2011 we organized a big conference with Joseph Massad, Ilan Pappe and Salman Abu Sitta. The title was “Remapping Palestine”. Weeks before the event, the Wiener Zeitung, a Vienna based Austrian newspaper wrote “Dissatisfaction about ‘Remapping Palestine’/’untrustworthy’ scholar stirs up the minds”[xxxvi]. In the article Ilan Pappe had been described as a “difficult person”. The secretary general of the Austrian Israeli society Susi Shaked even denied him his Israeli identity as they quoted her: “Remapping Palestine is a totally unnecessary and totally one-sided symposium. Not a single Israeli statement is tolerated.” She further stated that “Remapping Palestine” actually means the re-besiegement of Israel/Palestine. Without shame or further ethical reflection, Austrian newspapers and politicians denounced an Israeli scholar by the backing of Jewish/Israeli representatives without asking themselves if Austria is in a position to denounce Jewish people regardless of their political opinion, or even more so to censor critique of the colonization and systemic murder of a colonized people. By describing a world-renowned scholar like Ilan Pappe in such a manner, they have crossed all lines of personal integrity.

In 2016, the Austrian Parliament first invited and afterwards canceled the invitation of Hedy Epstein, a survivor of the Holocaust who lost both of her parents in Auschwitz. Her human rights activism including Palestine made her a “not classical Holocaust survivor”, as Efraim Zuffrom (Wiesenthal Center) said[xxxvii]. Even antifascist activist and composer Mikis Theodorakis experienced the same disrespectful treatment[xxxviii]. A single critique by a pro-Israeli organization seems to give Austrian media the right to treat critical voices in such a disrespectful manner. Until today, Austria seems to have a very clear conception in what is “good” and what is “evil”. In this tradition, the state and its institutions also distinguish between good and bad Jews. Three generations ago, Nazi technocrats like Adolf Eichmann where also taking such decision in Vienna, deciding which “good” Jewish families would be allowed to emigrate to Palestine and which ones are sent to the extermination camps.  No wonder that other critical Jewish voices are considering twice if they are willing to give a speech in countries like Austria or Germany. In Germany for example, US scholar Judith Butler already stated that she has been repeatedly treated disrespectfully and caricatured in a rude manner”, calling the reports about her “aggressive” and even “antisemitic”.[xxxix]

Let us raise a hypothetical question: if any Palestinian were able to flee through a tunnel in Gaza, under the Mediterranean to Austria, would they then find refuge in an Austrian apartment? It is hypothetical because Palestinians do not flee today, they resist. Not hypothetically, but in the real brutality of post-fascist Austria, the functionaries and (mass) murderers not only lived unaffected in this country but also made stellar careers. The euthanasia doctor Heinrich Gross died of natural causes in 2005, as a well-respected and wealthy member of society. In the decades after 1945, he continued to work as a doctor and sued those who escaped his torture experiments.[xl] The de-nazification of Austria was never completed – or rather never begun. In fact, there have been so many members of the NSDAP in Austria, that political parties from left to right competed for their votes and nobody wanted to talk about the past. “Never again” was established as a lip service with no intention to deal with the root causes of the genocide, which are racism, greed and imperialist competition. And the parties who paved the way to re-integrate the Nazis into society are the same political parties that want to criminalize Dar al Janub nowadays.

We will not distance ourselves one millimeter

During the last 20 years we were able to cooperate with some of the greatest human rights defenders, activists and historians. They have (or had) different backgrounds, are from different associations and institutions such as Salman Abu Sitta, Peter Melvin (RIP), Paula Abrams Hourani (RIP), Joseph Massad, Ali Huwaidi, Ronnie Kasrils, Farid Esack, Ilan Pappe, Dhoruba al-Mujahid Bin Wahad, Karam Khella (RIP), Rolf Becker, Helga Baumgarten, Silvia Baraldini, Gerald Horne, Ward Churchill, Gerry Maclochlainn, Andrea Komlosy, …

All these people took a decent amount of risks, some survived Nazi-Fascist Austria, some survived the brutal US prison system, some survived Israeli bombs in Lebanon, some brought white-racist South Africa to an end. And all of them never gave up raising their voices against injustice, white supremacy, as well as academic laziness and superficiality.

Those people had to risk a lot, some of them everything, and they did it because of their love towards humanity, because of their feeling that we all are connected in some way being the children of one family: humankind!

No, we will not distance ourselves from a single person we met, group we cooperated with, or political history we worked on.

Yes, we oppose the commitment of war crimes, justified by the instrumentalization of the slogan “Never again!”, as we demand that a genocide is never carried out again to anybody and nowhere in the world.

Yes, we distance ourselves from injustice war policies and racist measures of the Austrian government and the EU and the USA and the “extreme center”[xli].

Yes, we are in solidarity with the resisting people in Palestine and all groups and people in the EU and the U.S. who are facing state repression because of their solidarity work.

We demand:

– the immediate discontinuation of the racist monitoring site “Islam Map”[xlii] by the University of Vienna

– the call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza by the Austrian Government, as it is Austria’s obligation according to Article III of the Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide[xliii]

– the Austrian government to stop violating the right of freedom of speech by attacking groups like Dar al Janub and BDS, as demanded by the UN special rapporteurs[xliv]

If you think the work of Dar al Janub has a positive impact and should continue without facing legal repression and attacks from Zionists and Austrian media, please sign and share this letter!

Sign on here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfiIvZn9BnZc0oYGaHgGcxQV4_0V6aYnXAHDaPFaiITtqP_CQ/viewform

**

[i]     https://dar-al-janub.net/ueber-uns/

[xli] Tariq Ali, The Extreme Centre: A Second Warning (London 2015).

 

Hands off Yemen! Statement on Canada’s involvement in the imperialist attack on Yemen

We — Samidoun Toronto, Samidoun Vancouver, and the undersigned organizations — denounce the United States and United Kingdom-led military aggression against Yemen, which Canada is actively arming and providing military intelligence to. We demand a permanent end to Canada’s diplomatic, financial, and military support for Israel and the US-led imperial operations in support of Israel.

The imperialist military coalition of the US, UK, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands, in alliance with the Zionist entity, seek to punish the brave Yemeni resistance who are taking necessary action opposing the Zionist entity in light of Israel’s ongoing genocidal military assault on Gaza, which has already killed over 25,000 Palestinians. While Canada remains an active and vocal participant in this genocide, the rebel movement in Yemen remains dedicated to stopping the imperial flow of capital that funds the ongoing genocide. For these simple acts of solidarity with the Palestinian people, the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Bahrain, and the Netherlands, are expanding their imperialist-Zionist war in an attempt to violently stomp out any and all support for the Palestinian people and their resistance.

We proudly stand with the Yemeni resistance, people, government and armed forces against the imperial powers and all other resistance against the illegitimate settler-colonial project of Zionism. The AnsarAllah movement is part of a strong regional resistance working in alliance with the Palestinian resistance, Lebanese resistance, Iraqi resistance, and others to topple U.S. imperialist hegemony in the region, including Zionist settler colonialism. We unwaveringly support an end to the occupation of the entirety of historic Palestine, the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland, and the right of Palestinians to resist oppression by any means necessary.

We demand an immediate end to Canada’s participation in the current imperialist-Zionist military operations and a permanent end to all Canadian support to the Zionist entity.

Samidoun Toronto
Samidoun Vancouver

Add your endorsement here:

Endorse the statement on Canadian participation in the imperialist attack on Yemen

1 February, Online: Teach-In — “If I Must Die, You Must Live”: Redefining Solidarity

Thursday, 1 February
8 pm Eastern, 7 pm Central, 5 pm Pacific
Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Y5KfK1JWTGq3W81hYs9OJQ#/registration

Various forms of state sanctioned violence are functionally equivalent to the death penalty. This event will explain how both the US and Israel use mass criminalization and law enforcement terrorism against those who resist state violence, and how it brings them closer to a premature death.

Along with assessing state technologies and their impact on targeted peoples, this event will shed light on the legacy of solidarity between racialized peoples in the US and the Palestinian people. It will conclude with a discussion about the need for redefining and strengthening international solidarity.

Charlotte Kates, Samidoun’s international coordinator, will be part of this event together with Jihad Abdulmumit, Nina Farnia, Tunde Osazua, Tania Siddiqi and Michelle Smith.

This teach-in is part of a series on war, the death penalty, political imprisonment and genocide in Palestine, organized by the Texas People’s Tribunal. Learn more about the series, watch prior videos and register for the event: https://texaspeoplestribunal.com/teach-ins

4 February, Online: Teach-In — How to Defend Palestinian Resistance

Sunday, 4 February
3 pm Eastern (12 pm Pacific)
Register for Zoom Link: https://linktr.ee/bxantiwar

The Bronx Anti War Coalition and Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network are partnering to organize a teach-in on Palestinian resistance. This event will dive into the reality of Palestinian life under occupation, the various forms of resistance employed, and the portrayal of resistance in mainstream Western media. The discussion will conclude with ways individuals can show solidarity and defend Palestinian resistance by any means necessary.

By shedding light on the different armed resistance groups in Palestine and the “Axis of Resistance” in the region, our objective is to demystify Arab resistance and arm you with the knowledge required to foster global solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Our esteemed speakers will include Charlotte Kates and Khaled Barakat, with moderation by Saher Al Khamash and Marina Samuel.

2 February, Pittsburgh: Breaking Resistance – Weaponizing Incarceration in Palestine and the U.S.

Friday, February 2
6 pm
Tripoli Community Center
816 Tripoli St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1815680922213037/

Join us for a panel discussion that explores the parallels between the weaponization of mass incarceration in Palestine and in the United States.

Our panelists will discuss the use of mass incarceration as a form of collective punishment used to silence movements, disrupt communities, and break resistance.

Let’s engage in a crucial conversation about justice, human rights, and the need to recognize mass incarceration as a form of violence and we can keep each other safe in times of unrest.

Please register online https://secure.everyaction.com/G-Aq5SouZ06QL-6gIWHsfg2

Moderator: Tanisha Long

Sponsoring organizations:
Abolitionist Law Center
CCRIP
PSL Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Palestine Coalition
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Abducted by IOF: Palestinian-Canadian Journalist Mansour Shouman

The following statement was developed by Samidoun Toronto. Reach out to Samidoun Toronto at toronto@samidoun.net.

It is strongly suspected that on January 21st, Israeli Occupation Forces abducted Palestinian-Canadian journalist Mansour Shouman at a safe passage crossing between Khan Younis and Rafah in Gaza. Shouman is a Canadian citizen and was living with his mother, wife, and five children in Calgary before bravely choosing to report from Gaza on the Zionist genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian people. His kidnapping and possible incarceration as a Palestinian journalist makes Shouman a political prisoner of the Zionist entity. Samidoun Toronto strongly condemns the IOF’s targeted kidnapping, incarceration, and slaughter of Palestinian journalists.

Like other reporters before him, Mansour Shouman’s journalism exposed the reality of Israel’s colonial brutality in Gaza. The Palestinian journalist’s work is inherently politicized due to the nature of this feat, and thus Israel’s incarceration of Palestinian journalists is a form of political incarceration. We continue to call for the release of all political prisoners from the Zionist dungeons as the Resistance has called and struggled for since October 7th.

Samidoun Toronto condemns the cowardly silence and indifference of the Canadian settler-colonial government towards the safety and wellbeing of Canadian citizens forcibly contained in Gaza. This includes Mansour Shouman, the Kouta family, and any others still abandoned by their so-called government that is actively arming the ongoing genocide, putting their lives at risk. We demand the so-called Canadian government take immediate action in locating Mansour Shouman and facilitating his unconditional release and safe passage back to his family. We call on all people in so-called Canada to demand elected officials to locate Shouman and ensure his safe return home by signing Justice for All Canada’s call to action addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, and Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller. Be sure to issue the same demands to your local elected officials and be unrelenting in the struggle for Palestinian liberation by any means necessary.

We urge all people of conscience in so-called Canada to support the Palestinian struggle by involving yourselves in local solidarity events and organizing. It is our duty as people in the imperial core to demonstrate our principled and unconditional support of this anti-colonial struggle and that the masses will not tolerate so-called Canada’s direct military, financial, and diplomatic support of the genocidal Zionist entity.

Upcoming Palestine Solidarity Events in Toronto:

  • GENOCIDE IS NO JOKE: Protest at Yuk Yuk’s, a comedy venue fundrasing for the IOF. Wednesday, January 31st at 5:45pm at 224 Richmond St W.
  • Trinity of Fundamentals Book Launch: Palestinian Youth Movement translated a book written in prison by a political prisoner in Palestine. Friday, February 2nd 6-8pm. Preorder your copy here!
  • Keep up with the ILPS Canada social media for our upcoming teach-in series about the Right to Resist featuring Samidoun Toronto and our comrades in Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) Toronto, Canada-Philippines Solidarity Organization (CPSO) Toronto, Anakbayan Toronto (ABTO), Tamil Freedom Coalition (TFC), Jewish Anti-Zionist Collective Toronto (JAZCto), and more.

Samidoun Brussels statement: Attack on the demonstration on 21 January

On Sunday 21 January, at the mass demonstration that brought tens of thousands of people to the streets in Brussels to express their support and solidarity for the Palestinian people resisting genocide in Gaza, the Popular Committee for Palestine (PCP) block was suddenly and severely physically assaulted by security personnel assigned to their task by the organizing committee of the demonstration. Stewards wearing fluorescent vests stole Samidoun flags and attempted to confiscate those calling for freedom for Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for 39 years, physically assaulting several people in the block (including women, one of whose glasses were broken by the attackers.)

We strongly denounce this attack, which is unfortunately not the first of its kind: since the demonstration on 11 October in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have been systematically subjected to physical and verbal attacks and attempts to prevent us from expressing our membership of the Samidoun Network or our support for Georges Abdallah. The pretext for the ban was that “the Palestinian community” (although the Palestinian Community organisation was not a co-organizer of the demo and there is no basis to declare individuals representatives of the Palestinian diaspora in Belgium) had expressed the wish that only the Palestinian flag should be flown.

While this was used as an excuse, it is clearly untrue: At this demonstration and since the demonstration on October 11, organizations like Intal, Viva Salud, PTB, FGTB, LDH, Amnesty International and others routinely bring flags and banners with their logos and names, and they are not attacked and their flags are not removed. In addition, our banners, including banners featuring Ghassan Kanafani and demanding the freedom of Palestinian prisoners, have also been attacked forcibly by these security personnel, despite the presence of a large number of diverse banners representing other organizations in the marches.

See above, examples of organisational flags at the demonstration that were not interfered with.

Although we are systematically attacked at national demonstrations (and our applications for demonstrations are refused by the police and public authorities), the coalition, which has been informed of these attacks, has not reacted in any way or taken any action to stop them.

This attack is all the more reprehensible because it deliberately targeted the block, the majority of which was made up of young Palestinians and Arabs, with the presence of families, children and elderly people. Rather than being the source of unity, such actions aim to divide the Palestinian community and people in Belgium and set them against one another, as well as to isolate activists who are facing state repression.

In addition to our rejection of the physical violence against people who had come to demonstrate their support for Palestine, it should be stressed that this attack has taken place simultaneously with a very public propaganda campaign by the Zionist regime: the Israeli colonial regime has decided to classify the Samidoun network as a terrorist organisation and is putting pressure on Western countries to do the same. The far right and its supporters have joined this initiative, and the Israeli ambassador in Belgium was tweeting to attack the PCP block and Samidoun at the same time that the organizers’ security personnel physically assaulted us in the demonstration. In Germany, the government has declared a political ban on Samidoun (without legal proceedings, it is a political ban, not a legal one).

The FGTB, a union claiming to be left-wing, went so far as to withdraw its signature from the call for the first rally, citing the presence of Samidoun, which it described as a “pro-Hamas organisation” supporting terrorism. This withdrawal comes at exactly the time when Zionist propaganda is intensifying and is the only response of the trade union organisation, instead of intensifying its demands in favour of the rights and freedom of the Palestinian people.

France seems intent on following Germany’s lead in its fascist drift, and Belgium is not far behind, since the NVA, known for its position on the far right of the Belgian political spectrum, has launched hostile attacks against Samidoun Brussels in parliament, openly calling on the Belgian government to respond to pressure from the extreme right-wing Israeli government and repress freedom of expression and association on Palestine in Belgium.

The fact that these Zionist and fascist attacks are followed by physical aggression and attempts to politically isolate Samidoun activists by organisations claiming to be motivated solely by solidarity with Palestine raises questions, particularly about the internal policing activities undertaken by the coalition organising the national demonstrations. Apart from the fact that these assaults are legally (theft, assault and battery) and politically (censorship) reprehensible, it is important to emphasise that they are an expression of the prevailing paternalism and racism: the predominantly white petty bourgeoisie silencing the voices of undocumented refugees and attempting to exploit and/or create contradictions within the Palestinian population in Belgium, at a time when the government is locking Palestinians up in closed centres, failing to meet its obligations in terms of reception and leaving them destitute on the streets, and continuing to send arms to the Palestinian Authority in order for it to engage in “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation and to repress the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank.

ABP, Intal, CNCD and company, we see you: you will not silence us with violence.

31 January, Rotterdam: Palestinian Women in Resistance

Wednesday, 31 January
6 pm
Gemaal op Zuid, Rotterdam, NL
Register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfM54cP4oUYSyTNWofydgSQsEgAmLBvqRtUvik9OIx0e5U2Ug/viewform

We invite you to our event “Palestinian Women in Resistance” on the 31st of January organised in collaboration with with “Reading Counterpower”.

This event will open with a shared dinner provided by @hetrodekeukentje and will follow up with a collective reading session, a shared space for discussion, a talk by Samidoun’s Charlotte Kates, and concludes with taking the time to write letters that will be sent to the female prisoners held captive in the occupation’s colonial jails.

The space provided is limited to 30 people, so for this event registration is required!

Heightened Police Repression against Palestinian Solidarity Protesters in Toronto

The following statement is issued by Samidoun Toronto. To get involved or find out more, email toronto@samidoun.net.

UPDATE, 17 February 2024: An organizer reached out to clarify that on one of the occasions of people being stopped by Toronto police, they were not even dropping a banner but simply wearing kuffiyehs.

24 January 2024

Since the commencement of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the Canadian state has made it abundantly clear that Palestinians, Muslims, Arabs, and all people who oppose so-called Israel’s Zionist occupation and imperialism are a threat to Canada’s own settler-colonial social order. Toronto Police Services (TPS) and other police agencies are, as the domestic enforcement arm of the state, at the forefront of repressing this threat through brutal violence, in line with their ongoing war on Black, Indigenous, and other racialized communities in Tkaronto.

On October 7, TPS officers attempted to stop Palestinian solidarity protesters from flying flags and banners on the Roncesvalles bridge in Toronto for alleged “safety reasons”. Since then, at least 28 people have been arrested during demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinian people. We, as Samidoun Toronto, vehemently condemn the heightened police repression against Palestinian solidarity activists and the violent and cruel brutality that the TPS is shamelessly inflicting on Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and allied protesters.

RECENT CASES OF POLICE REPRESSION

Zionism and Canadian settler-colonial expansion have been historically and continuously intertwined. Since October 7, TPS have engaged in a particularly violent censorship and political suppression campaign against Palestinian solidarity dissenters.

On October 29, 2023, the TPS put out a public press release alleging that a man who was attacked by a Zionist committed a “hate-motivated assault”[1]. The press release, which has since been deleted, included a photograph of the man. It is unclear whether any arrests occurred.

On October 30, 2023, six protesters were arrested for trespassing while staging a sit-in at MP and Minister for Justice Arif Virani’s office in Toronto. Minister Virani had been quick to denounce Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, and had promised legislation designed to obstruct anti-Zionist speech. That same day, five demonstrators were arrested for trespassing[2] while protesting in front of INKAS Armored Vehicle manufacturing plant in North York, an action organized by World Beyond War. The Toronto-based manufacturing company continues to supply military equipment to the brutal Zionist entity.

On November 13, 2023, TPS arrested three Palestinian solidarity protesters who disrupted the Scotiabank Giller Prize gala in Toronto, jumping on the stage and holding up a sign that reads “Scotiabank Funds Genocide”. Scotiabank is the top foreign shareholder in Elbit Systems[3], an “Israeli” corporation that produces weapons for the genocidal Zionist occupation, including cluster munitions, a deadly weapon banned by more than 100 countries, including so-called Canada[4]. The protesters were charged with mischief and, bizarrely, allegedly using forged documents to disrupt the awards show.

On November 14, 2023, Palestinian solidarity activists allegedly wheatpasted posters onto the outside of an Indigo store store. One person was arrested on site and charged with alleged criminal mischief over $5500. The following week, on November 22, 2023, TPS conducted an aggressive raid on the homes of ten of the alleged protesters, breaking down doors and ransacking homes before arresting them. The alleged protesters faced the same alleged charge of mischief over $5500 and an additional charge of alleged conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. The police declared the alleged solidarity demonstration a “hate-motivated offence”. Indigo Books and Music founder Heather Reisman and her husband have financially supported the IOF amid the Zionist occupier’s genocidal onslaught in Gaza. In 2005, the couple established the HESEG foundation which, between 2021 and 2022, provided $12 million in financial aid to IOF soldiers. If convicted, the ten alleged protesters face a sentence of up to ten years in prison.

On November 16, 2023, TPS were called to investigate a Starbucks location in midtown Toronto that was postered in condemnation of the ongoing genocide by the Zionist entity in Gaza. Starbucks is currently the subject of a grassroots boycott, partially[5] because Starbucks is suing the Starbucks Workers United union for making a statement of solidarity with Palestine[6]. One person was arrested with a mischief charge[7].

On December 10, 2023, TPS were caught on camera violently arresting a protester during a Human Rights Day rally. The officer punched and slammed the protester to the ground, then pressed his knee into the protester’s neck.

On December 17, 2023, a Palestinian solidarity protest occurred near the Eaton Centre. Two Palestinian solidarity protesters who had entered the mall were arrested by TPS on several alleged charges[8]. The action occurred days after Zara published an insensitive campaign photoshoot depicting models standing with props of body bags and rubble, which Palestinian solidarity supporters interpreted as making light of the genocidal onslaught by the Zionist entity on Palestinians[9].

On December 23, 2023, a group of Palestinian solidarity protesters disrupted routine holiday shopping in the Cadillac Fairview Toronto Eaton Centre in order to draw attention to the ongoing genocide in Gaza[10]. TPS detained at least one protester, but it is unclear whether that person was charged.

On December 29, 2023, Cadillac Fairview Toronto Eaton Centre mall security with handcuffs assaulted Palestinian solidarity protesters and detained three people before TPS even arrived on the scene[11]. The three people were eventually released without legal charges.

On January 7, 2024, one person in Toronto was arrested on charges of public incitement of hatred for waving a flag for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Palestinian resistance organization that has existed since 1967, under the false pretense that he was waving a “terrorist flag”. TPS and Public Safety Canada have both labelled the PFLP a “terrorist entity” alongside other resistance organizations in the region; however, it is not illegal to carry a flag of a designated organization in Canada, and this is the TPS’ attempt to create widespread fear and intimidation.

On January 11, 2024, Palestinian solidarity protesters launched several awareness protests at several major highway bridges across the city. In a ridiculous and unprecedented move, TPS announced that they were prohibiting any demonstrations at the Avenue Road bridge over Highway 401. The TPS Police Chief threatened future protesters with arrests. This protest is one of a series of highway overpass protests throughout the Greater Toronto Area, where participants raise Palestinian flags and drop banners from the sidewalk calling for justice in Palestine. The goal of intimidating Palestinian solidarity voices into silence did not work, and two days later, there was a large demonstration and banner drop on that bridge. Police arrested three people at the demonstration. One man was charged with mischief, and two others charged with obstructing a police officer.

In a particularly absurd turn of events, the Toronto police chief made a public apology after a TPS officer was filmed handing coffee to a Palestinian solidarity protester. The protester had purchased the coffee, but the police initially barred the coffee from being delivered to the protester.

On January 22, 2024, a Palestinian solidarity protester was arrested on charges of alleged mischief regarding an alleged demonstration that took place on November 22, 2023[12]. A strange feature of this arrest was that the Hate Crimes Unit was involved, even though the arrestee was not charged with a hate crime. This seems to be in line with the TPS’ current narrative that they need additional funding to further suppress Palestinian solidarity demonstrations while smearing these anti-genocide demonstrations as “hate crimes”[13].

In all public statements, the TPS have unnecessarily and shamelessly name-doxxed all protesters that they arrested, despite no charges being made, in an attempt to intimidate and undermine the livelihoods and efforts of Palestinian solidarity supporters in so-called Toronto.

ILLEGITIMATE ARRESTS

There is no legal basis for the criminalization of Palestinian solidarity organizing; in fact, the TPS appears to be attempting to create new laws through the targeting and arrests of protesters. Moreover, we know that legality in settler colonies like so-called Canada and “Israel” are not an accurate determiner of morality and justice. Laws in Canada continue to criminalize marginalized communities, while Zionist laws criminalize Palestinians for simply existing in their homeland. Palestinian solidarity organizers who disrupt business-as-usual and do violate laws in Canada to bring attention to the ongoing genocide in Palestine are lawfully, but unjustly, criminalized.

Canadian police units have a reliable history of leveraging hate-related charges and investigations against marginalised groups in order to protect their own interests of upholding settler-colonialism and imperialism. One particularly egregious case occurred in 2020 when the Halton Regional Police investigated the vandalism of a Waffen-SS Nazi Memorial in Oakville as a hate crime. “Hate crimes” such as this that are pursued by police forces in this country reveal the absurdity behind claims of antisemitism that are wielding against Palestinian solidarity activists struggling against settler-colonialism on this land and abroad. To claim that people protesting against a genocidal settler-colonial occupying regime are committing a “hate crime” or being “willfully antisemitic” when Nazi memorials remain across this country exposes the reality behind Canadian hate crime legislation and what it truly serves: settler-colonial order and capital..

POLICE REPRESSION USED TO DISRUPT ORGANIZING

Despite the high incidence of arrests, imprisonment with political charges in Ontario is very rare. This is because the police’s primary goal with our movements is not to send people to jail. Nevertheless, the TPS’ heightened police repression leads to other risks that we, as people organizing for the Palestinian cause, should be aware of and prepared for.

The primary goal of police repression in Ontario, in the vast majority of instances is to disrupt our organizing. By arresting people, giving them non-association conditions (meaning that they cannot speak to their friends without going to jail), “keep the peace” conditions (meaning that they risk more severe legal consequences if they get arrested a second time), the increased use of arrests, even illegitimate ones, Ontario police forces create a climate where organizing communities are disrupted and individual actors are intimidated into silence and non-action.

The TPS uses these arrests as an excuse to identify people by legally compelling that information out of them, and then giving the so-called Canadian state an excuse to publish people’s names and personal information to intimidate people and make them the target of local fascists. This creates tangible consequences for people who are arrested and name-doxxed; it doesn’t matter if you are guilty of the alleged charges if the police force you to divert all your attention, time, and money to resolving the charges and dealing with potential threats to your housing and/or livelihood.

TPS TIES TO ZIONIST OCCUPATION

The Canadian police repress anti-Zionist activists because they share imperialist goals with their allies in the Zionist occupation’s police force. In 2005, 32 Canadian Police Chiefs, including the Chief of the OPP and the York Regional Police Chief, partook in a delegation that went to occupied Palestine, hosted by the occupation’s police forces and the Zionist Minister of Internal Security. A couple of months later, 39 Canadian Police Chiefs went to occupied Palestine[14]. Additionally, the RCMP receives police training from the Zionist police forces within occupied Palestine[15]. Just last week, the Toronto Police chief also held a community meeting at a Toronto synagogue publicly denouncing Palestinian solidarity demonstrations as “hate rallies”, thus pushing racist anti-Palestinian narratives that make it easier to criminalize Palestinian solidarity demonstrators without backlash from the general public as consent continues to be manufactured for state repression.

The Canadian federal government, too, is directly involved in financing the repression of Palestinians in the West Bank. The Government of Canada sends the majority of Canadian aid for Palestine to the collaborationist Palestinian Authority which funds the development of the traitorous Palestinian Authority’s security forces in the West Bank. Canada has even sent police personnel to train PA security forces directly through Project Proteus[16]. The PA’s security forces exist to provide security to the Zionist entity, not to provide security for Palestinians under occupation. Canada’s aid, therefore, is designed to make the PA more efficient in repressing Palestinian resistance and defending colonial power. Canadian-trained PA security forces work to quell any anti-imperialist sentiments that promote resistance against the occupation through armed struggle. They also function as an arm of the murderous occupation in the West Bank. For example, the Palestinian Authority security forces assassinated Palestinian pro-resistance activist Nizar Banat only a couple years ago and continue to imprison resistance members today amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The rise in mass anti-Zionist sentiment through public Palestinian solidarity demonstrations threatens Canada’s ongoing aid towards the imprisonment of Palestinians in the occupation’s brutal dungeons wherein over 5,000 Palestinians have been newly detained since October 7th— doubling the original number[17].

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

The repression being carried out by the TPS and other police forces across so-called Canada against Palestinian and Arab communities and the Palestine liberation movement is akin to that being pursued by other Western imperialist powers, including the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. At this moment, it is critical that we advance and escalate our mobilization and organizing efforts in support of the Palestinian people, their struggle against genocide, and their resistance movement until liberation and return.

We urge action to confront ongoing Canadian complicity in Zionist colonialism– including confronting the listing of Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations on Canada’s lists of so-called “terrorist entities.” We also call upon all supporters of Palestinian liberation to show solidarity with and support all of those arrested for their struggle against the imperial war machine and confront repression as we demand freedom for all Palestinian political prisoners and all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20231130002208/https://www.tps.ca/media-centre/news-releases/58059/

[2] https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/10/30/israel-gaza-protest-toronto-factory-arrests/

[3] https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2193847363886

[4] https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/three-people-arrested-after-demonstrators-interrupt-scotiabank-giller-prize-gala/article_2de13d82-1857-5dff-8456-0f508b1ad07e.html

[5] Howard Schultz, former Starbucks CEO and one of Starbucks’ current biggest shareholders (https://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/052416/top-4-starbucks-shareholders-sbux.asp) continues to invest in the Zionist entity and even received “The Israel 50th Anniversary Tribute Award)” from the Jerusalem Fund of Aish Ha-Torah for “playing a key role in promoting a close alliance between the United States and Israel” (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/howard-schultz).

 

[6] https://theintercept.com/2023/10/17/starbucks-suing-union-israel-palestine/

[7] https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/11/18/woman-charged-in-midtown-starbucks-vandalism/

[8] https://www.tps.ca/media-centre/news-releases/two-men-arrested-in-suspected-hate-motivated-crime/

[9] https://new.thecradle.co/articles-id/2367

[10] https://www.cp24.com/news/Palestinian solidarity-protesters-stage-brief-sit-in-at-eaton-centre-1.6700163?cache=yesclipId10406200text%2Fhtml%3Bcharset%3Dutf-80404%2F7.626236%2F7.626236%2F7.626236%2F7.532963%2F7.532963%2F7.532963%2F7.532963%2F7.532963

[11] https://www.instagram.com/p/C1niGWctCOy/?igsh=MTRoMjY2bzZ2czBnNA==

[12] https://www.tps.ca/media-centre/news-releases/58584/

[13] https://www.tps.ca/media-centre/news-releases/58497/

[14] https://ijvcanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Challenging-Israeli-Canadian-Global-Pacification-no-Links.pdf

[15] https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/activist-reveals-hidden-military-ties-between-canada-and-israel

[16] https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/canadian-police-connections-israel-colour-responses-palestinian-solidarity

[17] https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/features/2023/10/21/number-of-palestinian-prisoners-in-israel-doubles-to-10000-in-two-weeks

Drop the Charges: Justice for the Merrimack 3!

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins with many organizations in standing with the Merrimack 3 and demanding that New Hampshire officials drop all charges against these activists taking a stand against genocide. Please join us in signing on to the statement below at the link.

The endorsing individuals and organizations resolutely stand with the Merrimack Three, joining the international call to drop all charges against these courageous young activists. On November 20th, 2023, the Merrimack Police Department of New Hampshire arrested Sophie Ross, Calla Walsh, and Bridget Shergalis for daring to confront the genocidal arms manufacturer Elbit Systems, a cornerstone of the global military-industrial complex.

The Merrimack Three’s direct action called attention to the web of interconnected, profit-motivated systems responsible for maintaining US hegemony across the globe. Demonstrating against this Elbit facility helped to reveal the corporations in our neighborhoods that are directly involved in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Elbit Systems supplies 85% of the land-based equipment and drones used by the Occupation Forces and further maintains the surveillance technology deployed at the apartheid wall, Gaza border, and military checkpoints. Marketing their weapons as “field-tested” on Palestinians, Elbit built the very weapons used to murder over 30,000 Palestinians since October 2023.

We have witnessed the US empire double down on its investment in the Zionist project, repressing and criminalizing the Palestine solidarity movement in the belly of the beast. The foundational role of political prisoners in the struggle against Zionism and imperialism has emerged from the empire’s reliance on violent repression as a means to quell mass movements and popular resistance. In a desperate attempt to make an example out of the Merrimack Three, the Hillsborough County Superior Court has levied charges of up to 37 years in prison. This draconian demonstration of repression only proves what we already know: the allegiance of the state lies with capitalism and the continuation of global exploitation.

We commend the Merrimack Three, as well as the broader campaign to Shut Elbit Down, for directly challenging war profiteers in the face of immense repression. The state will not deter our commitment to forge a world liberated from the chains of Zionism, capitalism, and imperialism, a world devoid of entities like Elbit. We call on our movement partners to join us in the global campaign to Drop the Charges against the Merrimack Three and to Shut Elbit Down. Sign onto the statement below!

Down with Zionism, Down with Imperialism, Liberation for All!

Drop the Charges Now, Shut Elbit Down!

The More They Try to Silence Us, the Louder We Will Be!

Sign on: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSceOlqnipvfrNa3CQu7MAGtd3cy3CiaGeNWzSpfhULwPan1cw/viewform

Endorsing Organizations:

National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP)
Palestinian Youth Movement
Palestine Solidarity Working Group
Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC)
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Within Our Lifetime: United for Palestine
Black Alliance for Peace
Black Alliance for Peace, Solidarity Network
National Lawyers Guild International Committee
National Lawyers Guild Palestine Subcommittee
Palestine Action
CAGE International
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)
United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
DSA International Committee
The People’s Forum
CODEPINK
Alliance for Global Justice
Labor for Palestine
Queers in Palestine
International Jewish Antizionist Network IJAN
Jewish Network for Palestine
Black Lives Matter New Hampshire
NH Youth Movement
Upper Valley for Palestine
Palestine Solidarity Coalition – University of New Hampshire
United American Indians of New England (UAINE)
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
Good Shepherd Collective
Interfaith for Palestine
Christians United for Palestine
The Palestine Pod
DecolonizePalestine.com
Babochki Collective
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
American Student Union
USA-Palestine Mental Health Network
Law Students for a Free Palestine
Adelphi Students for Justice in Palestine
Stony Brook Students for Justice in Palestine
SUNY BDS
CUNY for Palestine
Williams College Students for Justice in Palestine
Palestine Solidarity Alliance of Hunter College
Boston Jericho Movement
NYC Jericho Movement
Maryland2Palestine
NYCars4Palestine
Anti-Imperialist Action Committee
Anti-Imperialist Solidarity
Free Gaza Movement
Michigan General Defense Committee
Midnight Books
Al-Awda NY/NJ: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Western New York Peace Center
Berkshire Communists
Berkshires DSA
Boston Boricuas for Liberation
Colorado Palestine Coalition
Young Communist League of Britain
Bruxelles Panthères
Collectif Palestine Vaincra
Mouvement Citoyen Palestine
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill
Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU)
Canadian BDS Coalition
Global Peace Alliance BC Society
Calgary Peace Council
Canada Palestine Association
Ontario Palestinian Rights Association
BDS Vancouver/Coast Salish Territories
UBC Social Justice Centre
Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
The DuBois School
The Sunbird Movement
Friends of Socialist China
Center for Counter Hegemonic Studies