Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its strongest solidarity with the Refugee Movement for Rights and Justice, a new mobilization that has arisen in Greece in response to the latest attacks on refugees’ human dignity and rights. Approximately 600 individuals and families will be stripped of critical benefits under a new series of measures announced by the Greek government.

The Greek Ministry of Migration Policy announced that recognized refugees will lose their access to housing and cash assistance under a European Union policy. It should be noted that even recognized refugees in Greece struggle to find housing or employment and often have no means to support themselves. This policy is in fact a policy of exclusion that is layered upon many other systems of discrimination, racism and rejection that refugees face in Europe at the hands of European states.

It should especially be noted that the European powers driving this decision include the most powerful states in the EU. These countries are deeply involved in the ongoing wars, exploitation, violence and climate destruction that have forced people to migrate from their homes in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Palestine and sub-Saharan Africa. In many cases, EU bombers have directly participated in the military invasion of these countries, while in other cases, weapons industries have profited directly from ongoing wars. EU foreign policy is also directly complicit in the Israeli colonization and apartheid regime in Palestine, including the siege on Gaza that has forced many people to flee their homes.

Therefore, the very powers that are directing the Greek government to cut the small lifelines of aid provided by cash and housing assistance or refugee camps are responsible in large part for their suffering, dispossession and forced migration. In addition, the crisis of refugees in Greece, many of whom are struggling to reach other European states, has been cemented by the development of the Fortress Europe policy and, in particular, the EU-Turkey deal which has forced countless impoverished and marginalized people to take even greater risks to reach safety. People struggling to preserve their lives are threatened with forced deportations to countries facing current military occupations and wars at the hands of the United States, the European Union and their imperialist and reactionary regime allies.

The seas have become deadly for people seeking refuge and asylum, and now even recognized refugees are facing further exclusion and impoverishment at the hands of the Greek government and the EU powers. It should be noted that this, much like the policies that have deepened the economic crisis in Greece on the backs of working-class and poor people, are directed by the EU in the interests of the wealthiest imperialist powers and their capitalist classes.

Greek people and refugees in Greece together suffer from austerity and the confiscation of basic economic and social human rights at the hands of an EU regime that seeks to extract wealth at the expense of the Greek people – and at the expense of refugees forced to flee their homeland. This is only the latest appalling action of the Greek government under Alexis Tsipras.

Tsipras’ party SYRIZA was elected to govern Greece with a mandate to fight back against EU austerity, confront racism and support the Palestinian people. Instead it has acquiesced to harsh regimes of EU control and domination, deepened the Greek military and economic alliance with Israeli apartheid (including the planning of the so-called “EastMed” gas pipeline for the theft of Palestinian natural resources) and is now imposing an even more brutal regime of poverty upon the most marginalized people in the country, again at the behest of EU authorities.

In response, the Refugee Movement for Rights and Justice has announced a series of actions to demand that this new policy be stopped before people’s lives and health are put at even further risk. It should be noted that many refugees already face inhumane and nearly unlivable conditions inside the refugee camps. “Those who can spend astronomical sums to finance wars and create our crisis and our suffering must assume the responsibility to find a solution,” declared the movement in its founding statement. The Movement’s next action will be a demonstration planned for 16 March at 2:00 pm at Victoria Square in Athens.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in full solidarity with the Refugee Movement for Rights and Justice and joins in its demands. We note that among the refugees seeking asylum in Europe are many Palestinians, many going through a second Nakba after being forced from their homes and lands by Zionist forces in 1948 and many more facing a new Nakba due to siege, occupation and colonization in Gaza and throughout Palestine. These refugees have been denied their fundamental right to return to their homes and lands for over 70 years.

Furthermore, we emphasize the fundamental responsibility of U.S. and EU imperialism for creating the crises that have taken countless lives and forced many others to seek safety – where instead, many find only even more death, destruction and repression due to racist and colonialist policies of exclusion, deportation and militarization. For all refugees, we demand and defend the right to stay and the right to return, the freedom to move and the full recognition of their human rights, especially their economic, social and cultural rights including the right to health care, education, housing and work. We urge all friends of Palestine in Greece to take action and lend their support and action to this critical call for justice.

We reprint below the founding statement of the Refugee Movement for Rights and Justice:

A few days ago, the Greek government, through the Ministry of Migration Policy, made a decision backed by the European Union – DG Home Fund Agency to cut financial and housing aid to the refugees. This decision is intended as a first stage for over 600 people and families on Greek territory.

The implementation of this unjust and hasty decision will create a new crisis that will only add to the ongoing suffering of the refugees. Hundreds of families, children and youth will be displaced to the streets, where neither shelter nor food will be found. This unjust decision is also a result ofthe Turkey-EU agreement in 2016, which resulted in the conversion the Greek Islands to refuge to mass prisons and detention camps until this moment. In addition, such decisions only encourage and incite political forces on the extreme right in Greece and throughout Europe to exploit the living conditions of the Greek people, suffering from a suffocating financial crisis. This is also the result of the reckless, profit-seeking European policies that come at the expense of human rights and international law.

It is our duty as refugees of various nationalities and social backgrounds to stand together collectively to confront these racist decisions, peacefully and in unity, in order to raise our voices high, pressure the concerned parties to shoulder their responsibilities, and obtain all of our rights, which have so far been violated and denied. Our first goal is to not allow the implementation of this decision or any similar resolutions that violate our rights as refugees.

In response to this situation, we are duty-bound to shoulder our responsibilities toward our people, all of the poor and the refugees. We are a group of refugee youth of different nationalities who have come together to form the Refugee Movement for Rights and Justice to confront these decisions and develop a series of actions and activities to challenge these machinations of political interest on the part of the Greek government and the European Union. We know very well that the justifications expressed by international organizations, alongside the Greek government and the European Union, are nothing but deception and an attempt to cover up the failure of their programs. The disbursement of hundreds of millions of Euros on temporary projects has failed to provide a real, radical solution to refugees’ suffering.

Those who can spend astronomical sums to finance wars and create our crisis and our suffering must take responsibility in finding a solution. This financial and housing assistance is insufficient and does not meet our needs, but it is one of our rights that we will not abandon.

Stopping this unjust decision depends on our participation and the spirit of solidarity among the refugee population. This decision is only a first step in targeting all refugees and their rights, contrary to justice and international law.

Three activists in Berlin are facing criminal charges of “trespassing” and “assault” for speaking out against Israeli apartheid and war crimes at a speech by Knesset member Aliza Lavie in the German capital in 2017. Majed Abusalama, a Palestinian from Gaza who has lived through multiple bombardments and seen friends and loved ones killed by repeated Israeli attacks, and Israeli activists Ronnie Barkan and Stavit Sinai, have pledged to challenge Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in court as well.

“We are, however, determined to use our relative privilege in order to turn the tables against Israel and take it to court. We do not concern ourselves with the consequences, but rather with the opportunity of challenging Israel along with Germany’s complicity in crimes against humanity,” they wrote in a statement.

While they faced a media attack and criminalization in Germany, the three activists were recently honored in Copenhagen, Denmark, with an award for their courage in challenging apartheid by the Municipality. Prof. Richard Falk, himself frequently targeted for scurrilous allegations by supporters of Israeli apartheid and Zionist racism, came to Berlin to speak in support of the Humboldt 3:

The attempt to silence these three activists echoes other cases around the world of people criminally prosecuted for interrupting Israeli war criminals or representatives of the Israeli apartheid state, including the “Irvine 11” in California.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its support and solidarity with the Humboldt 3 and all people around the world who face criminalization and persecution to speak up for Palestinian rights. There are nearly 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails locked behind bars because of their struggle for the liberation of their land and people. The struggle to free the prisoners and free Palestine includes the struggle against repression of Palestine activism internationally – it is because this activism is so important that the Israeli state and its supporters in imperialist states and reactionary regimes work so hard to criminalize and suppress it. We urge all to participate in the solidarity protest at Moabit criminal court on 4 March and upcoming actions in support of these activists.

Their statement is reprinted below:

By Ronnie Barkan, Stavit Sinai & Majed Abusalama

We are three human rights activists, two Jewish-Israeli dissidents and a Palestinian survivor of several Israeli onslaughts on Gaza, who will soon be facing trial in Berlin for disrupting a representative of the Israeli state and challenging her responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity. We are charged with two counts of criminal offenses: trespassing and assault.

Our protest, for which we were charged, took place in June 2017 in front of MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid), member of the Israeli apartheid parliament as well as Chair of the anti-BDS lobby and Head of the Israeli mission to the European Council, who was hosted by the Deutsch-Israelische Gesellschaft at the Humboldt University in Berlin. MK Lavie herself is personally accountable for her role as a coalition member during the 2014 attack on the besieged Gaza Strip, where over 2,200 people have been killed, including 89 entire families that were obliterated.

Aliza Lavie furthermore sees herself as fighting the “delegitimization” of Israel.

From her Knesset page:

“Lavie also focuses on hasbara (efforts to improve Israel’s image abroad) and fighting the delegitimization of Israel, strengthening the status of the IDF…”

The backlash we experienced soon after was overwhelming as a media frenzy broke out throughout Germany and Israel, which included slander, lies and the outrageous claim of anti-Semitism against us, even though two of us are descendants of Holocaust-surviving families.

Having criminal allegations leveled against activists is a common and standard practice in Germany. We are, however, determined to use our relative privilege in order to turn the tables against Israel and take it to court. We do not concern ourselves with the consequences, but rather with the opportunity of challenging Israel along with Germany’s complicity in crimes against humanity.

In spite of the character assassination and certain restrictions against us, our trial signals to the neutralized and pacified German civil society that it cannot choose its criminals based on its history – as Prof. Richard Falk recently pointed out in a joint event concerning our upcoming trial. While endorsing our actions, the renowned legal scholar and co-author of the UN report which squarely blames Israel of practicing The Crime of Apartheid had also stressed the urgency of global solidarity today more than ever. This is especially so as the West is increasingly trying to force Palestinians into surrender.

Richard Falk emphasized that,

“It seems to me important to present yourselves as actually engaged in German patriotism in a certain way. That you’re liberating Germany from its own dark past, because that’s what it really is. It really comes down to the understanding that if you want to get rid of antisemitism, you’ve got to begin to take criminality seriously wherever it occurs, and you can’t choose your criminals because of your history.”

The Crime of Apartheid is not a subjective reflection or a question of opinion but a legal matter. Israel has maintained an apartheid system since its inception, and we will continue to resist it by calling for equality, freedom and justice in Palestine – from the river to the see – until apartheid has been abolished. Opposition to supremacy may be the moral imperative of our time.

The “special relationship” between Israel and Germany apparently also means the coordinated slander campaign by German and Israeli media. Thus, they parroted the lies even though there is video evidence to the contrary, as if we were 20 activists, as if we attacked a Holocaust survivor, as if we referred to them as “Nazis”, while we were physically attacked and we were referred to as such. The rabid Simon Wiesenthal Center had also tried to bully the Berlin Mayor, Michael Müller, by threatening to place the mayor on a list of the top ten antisemites in the world, simply for “not doing enough against BDS” in the city.

At the same time that we are being taken to court by the German state, we are embraced by Danish lawmakers. Copenhagen’s Mayor for Technical and Environmental Affairs, Ninna Hedeager Olsen, has awarded us The Courage Award at a ceremony in Copenhagen’s City Hall on Feb 7th (full statement in English) for speaking up against Israeli apartheid.

We choose to challenge German complicity in Israeli criminal policies in Berlin of all places. Where, if not in Berlin, should we be able to speak up against such immoral and criminal practices? This is not only our duty as conscientious citizens of that land – privileged and underprivileged residents who are struggling together to bring about a better future – but it is also incumbent on us as humanists and as Berliners to do so.

The trial is on March 4, 2019, and we are ready to take Israel to court in Berlin.

– Ronnie Barkan is an Israeli dissident, a BDS activist and serial disrupter to apartheid representatives. (@ronnie_barkan)

– Stavit Sinai is Jewish Israeli dissident and anti-apartheid activist. She holds a doctoral degree in sociology. (@stav_si)

– Majed Abusalama is an award-winning journalist and human rights activist, born in Jabalia, Gaza. (@majedabusalama)

(They contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle)

Translations: العربية | Dutch

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemned the executions carried out by the Egyptian regime against 9 Egyptian youths, calling for an end to the “systematic and continuous repression and killings by the fascist regime of General Abdel-Fattah Sisi.”

“What is happening in Egyptian prisons is systematic and documented torture. While this is widely known, it does not receive sufficient attention from international human rights bodies and legal institutions,” said Mohammed Khatib, the Europe coordinator of Samidoun. He referred to the “disgraceful collaboration between the so-called international community and the generals in Cairo.”

Khatib launched a scathing attack on the Egyptiann regime and what he called “the silence of the Egyptian and Arab parties who describe themselves as standing with the people. They say with words that they oppose the Camp David regime, but remain silent on the daily violations of the rights of tens of thousands of Egyptian prisoners in Egyptian jails by that same Camp David regime.”

He pointed out “the perpetrators of torture and killings that took place in the prison known as ‘Scorpio’ (the Tora prison complex) and other jails and prisons have not been held accountable for their crimes. As a result, this only encouraged further repression and organized state terror on the part of the generals.”

The steadfastness of political prisoners in the jails of the Arab reactionary, dictatorial regimes stems from the deep and absolute conviction and reality in the interdependence and linking of the struggle of the national and social movements in the Arab world with the struggle of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian prisoners, which is the spearhead of the liberation cause,” said Khatib. “The crimes perpetrated by the Camp David regime against the poor and the oppressed in Egypt cannot be separatedfrom the crimes of the Zionist enemy and imperialist powers in the world, because of the Egyptian state’s dependence on these same imperialist forces. These powers see these regimes as a tool to destroy popular movements in order to further plunder and steal the resources of the Arab peoples.”

He called on activists and friends of the Samidoun Network internationally to stand with political prisoners in Egyptian jails and advocate and organize against the executions while working for the release of all Egyptian prisoners.