25 October, San Francisco: Cross Walls and Borders

16 October 2018

Thursday, 25 October
6:30 pm
518 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/242309766453318/

Cross Walls & Borders: Women’s Imprisonment from the U.S. to Palestine, A Teaching Palestine Event

The U.S. and Israel have developed coordinated strategies of repression and imprisonment for decades which include the use of similar forms of gendered violence. Understanding the impact of imprisonment on women in both contexts these countries and women’s counter-strategies for resistance can help us develop cross border solidarity and action.
– Presentation by Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, Professor San Francisco State University
– Slideshow by California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP)
– Comments by Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC)
– Next steps for action

Presented by FireStorm, a project of CCWP and The AMED Teaching Palestine Project

Palestine contingent at #Unteilbar demonstration in Berlin fights racism, faces right-wing attacks

16 October 2018

Palestinian and Palestine solidarity activists joined the mass #Unteilbar (“Indivisible”) demonstration in Berlin, Germany on 13 October, organizing a contingent in support of the Palestinian struggle against racism, colonialism and oppression and for the freedom of Palestinian political prisoners.

The mass demonstration, which estimates indicate drew upwards of 200,000 people to the streets of Berlin in protest of racism, fascism and the far right, included many contingents. The Palestine bloc marched in a left/revolutionary group with the Internationalist Alliance, including the MLPD (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany), Rebell youth organization, ATIF (Association of Turkish Workers in Germany) and many other groups. The Palestine contingent was organized by the Democratic Palestine Committees, the Palestinian youth organization Hirak e.V. and a number of Palestine activists.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network participated in the contingent, carrying signs and posters demanding freedom for all Palestinian prisoners. The protest action also came as part of the week of action for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Arab Communist struggler for Palestine jailed in France for 34 years, with actions in cities across Europe, in Palestine, Lebanon and throughout the Arab world.

BDS Berlin activists marched for Palestine as part of the bloc, while organizers from Coup Pour Coup 31 in Toulouse, France, joined the protest in Berlin, carrying signs and posters for Georges Abdallah. Palestinian youth led the contingent, carrying the Palestinian flag high while carrying the group’s lead banner calling for Abdallah’s liberation.

A speaker representing Palestinian youth and the community in the Internationalist Alliance addressed the demonstrators, calling for real anti-racist, anti-fascist organizing in Germany that supports the rights of the Palestinian people and their liberation from a racist, oppressive system.

Charlotte Kates of Samidoun also spoke at the protest, emphasizing the importance of supporting the struggle of Palestinian political prisoners on the front lines of the international movement for liberation. She especially noted the case of Georges Abdallah in France and carried a sign calling for freedom for Raja Eghbarieh, the Abnaa el-Balad leader in Palestine ’48 arrested for his writings and speeches on Palestine. The speeches on Palestine were followed by a musical performance of “We Will Not Go Down in Gaza Tonight.”

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network comment on right-wing attacks:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Palestinian and Palestine solidarity presence in the manifestation has come under attack from the right-wing Israeli and German press. Bild, a tabloid published by Axel Springer AG and often criticized for its role in sensationalizing news and stirring up hatred against migrants and refugees in the country, attacked the demonstration first for including “Israel-hate.” It was shortly followed by competing right-wing tabloid BZ, runnng a nearly identical article.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post – itself known for its strong support of the Israeli far-right and its international campaigns against Palestine solidarity – also chimed in to denounce the participation of Palestinian and Palestine solidarity activists in the march. The Jerusalem Post has been directly involved in attempts to shut down Palestine solidarity organizations in Germany and close their bank accounts; it had to back down on earlier attacks against the MLPD, one of the organizers of the Internationalist contingent in the march. Even Michael Blume, who himself has attacked the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and Palestinian advocacy in his position as the Baden-Wurttemburg anti-Semitism commissioner, expressed his frustration with Jerusalem Post writer Benjamin Weinthal’s crusades.

Of course, such allegations come as no surprise; they emerge in response to the visible involvement of Palestinians and Palestine solidarity organizers in the anti-racist movement in Germany. This role is entirely natural, given that Palestinians and Arabs are frequent and some of the most visible targets of racism and hatred in Germany, from state levels to street fascists. In addition, the Palestinian struggle itself is one that confronts institutionalized state racism, dispossession and oppression, and Palestinians have for generations played an integral role in international movements confronting colonialism, racism and imperialism.

Supporters of apartheid and Israeli state racism in Germany have played on the horrific crimes of German Nazism and fascism to redirect anti-fascist and anti-Nazi anger from right-wing Germans toward suppressing Palestinian participation. So-called “leftists” have even attacked migrant and refugee community centers for hosting Palestinian speakers or attempted to bar discussion of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS). Meanwhile, the AfD and other far-right forces in Germany have cozied up to their natural partners in the Israeli state, as Palestinians and Arab migrants face scrutiny and exclusion in Germany for their criticism of the state responsible for their dispossession. .html

Indeed, Beatrix von Storch – an AfD leader, the granddaughter of an aristocratic Nazi finance minister and a frequent promoter of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim propaganda – has called Israel “a role model for Germany.” She was a co-founder of the “Friends of Judea and Samaria,” meant to promote far-right illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank. Settler violence is a mainstay of Palestinian life, with 48-year-old Aisha Rabi’ the last Palestinian civilian called by a settler attack, when the mother of 8 was murdered by settlers pelting her vehicle with rocks.

The media attack on Palestinian participation in this anti-racism rally – something natural and apparent in every rally around the world confronting fascism, from New York to San Francisco to London to Athens to Milan to Paris to Brussels to yes, Berlin – seems to come clearly as an attempt to once again force the Palestinian narrative from the scene. It should also be noted that it is an attempt to prevent the emergence of a strong anti-fascist, anti-racist movement that fights the right wing not by silencing Palestinians and acceding to right-wing, Zionist demands, but instead by building alliances of struggle between movements of people directly affected by racist, imperialist and capitalist oppression.

Wherever people fight racism, Palestine is there. Wherever people fight imperialism, Palestine is there. And whenever the Palestinian people achieve a victory, it is a victory for all who struggle for justice and liberation.

Photos:

Successful information stand in Toulouse urges freedom for Georges Abdallah

16 October 2018

As the week of action to free Georges Abdallah began on 13 October, Coup Pour Coup 31 in Toulouse, France – an anti-imperialist collective and member organization of the Samidoun Network – held an information table to raise support for the campaign for his freedom. An Arab Communist struggler for Palestine, Abdallah has been jailed in French prisons for 34 years; he will begin his 35th year in prison on 24 October.

At the information stand, participants distributed thousands of flyers about the case and gathered 138 petition signatures, 14 support cards and 159 EUR in donations.

The week of action includes events around the world, including in cities across France as well as events in Geneva, Berlin, Brussels, Milan, Gothenburg, Manchester, Belfast, Tunis, Beirut and throughout Palestine. In Toulouse, Coup Pour Coup 31 is organizing a bus to the central event of the week of action – the national protest and march in Lannemezan, where Georges Abdallah is imprisoned.

The bus from Toulouse, funded by donations, will leave at 11:30 am from the Basso Cambo metro station. Participants can register for the bus by emailing couppourcoup31@gmail.com.

More photos:

Ahmad Sa’adat: Prisons, the Black Liberation movement and the struggle for Palestine

15 October 2018

The following article, by imprisoned Palestinian national liberation movement leader Ahmad Sa’adat – the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – was originally published in French as the preface to the new French-language edition of “Revolutionary Suicide” by Huey Newton.

On 15 October – the anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party – we salute the profound legacy and ongoing struggle of the Black Liberation Movement, on the front lines of confrontation against U.S. racism, imperialism and capitalism. Sa’adat’s article, published in English for the first time here, elucidates the common struggles and revolutionary alliances of the Palestinian and Black movements. It focuses particularly on the struggle against racist and colonial imprisonment:

It is an honor to write an introduction to this book by a great leader of the Black liberation struggle in the United States, Huey P. Newton. From inside the occupier’s Ramon prison, on behalf of myself, my comrades and the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, we extend our clenched fists of solidarity and salute and arms of embrace to our Black comrades whose struggle for liberation in the belly of the beast continues today against fierce repression.

From Ansar to Attica to Lannemezan, the prison is not only a physical space of confinement but a site of struggle of the oppressed confronting the oppressor. Whether the name is Mumia Abu-Jamal, Walid Daqqa or Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, political prisoners behind bars can and must be a priority for our movements. These names illustrate the continuity of struggle against our collective enemy – their legacies of organizing that reach back to the anti-colonial, liberation movements of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s to today. Political prisoners are not simply individuals; they are leaders of struggle and organizing within prison walls that help to break down and dismantle the bars, walls, and chains that act to divide us from our peoples and communities in struggle. They face repeated isolation, solitary confinement, cruel tortures of the occupier and jailer that seek to break the will of the prisoner and their deep connection to their people.

So when we witness the escalation against our movement as we see today in the Philippines, as we see the murderous and orchestrated attacks on our Palestinian resistance, as we see the criminalization of Black people and movements, it is clear that we are still facing the situation that Huey Newton identified and confronted. We are still seeking to defend our peoples from the relentless assaults of capitalism, Zionism and imperialism and their police and military forces. We have not yet been able to realize our dreams and transform the prisons into museums of liberation. Revolutionaries across the world struggle and dream for this future, in every movement of oppressed people. Indeed, when we speak of the prisoners’ movement, we are in essence speaking of Resistance.

Prisons exist for a reason, for the needs and interests of those with power. And when there are prisons to lock up the people, when there is occupation, colonialism, oppression; where there is occupation and colonization, there will be prisons and all of the laws and legal frameworks erected to legitimize exploitation, oppression and injustice and criminalize resistance and liberation. From the Fugitive Slave Acts of the 1800s to the “terrorist lists” that seek to criminalize and isolate the resistance movements of the peoples of the world, these are reflections of a war on the people. We salute sister Assata Shakur, still struggling and free in Cuba, while facing renewed threats and “terrorist” labeling to justify hunting down this global symbol of freedom.

This also illustrates clearly that the struggle, the cause, and the movement of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Movement are not a closed file. It is an open file, an ongoing struggle and a continuing movement for justice and liberation. As I write today, the revolutionary Palestinian Left, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is marking its 50th year of struggle, a time for both celebration and review of this legacy in order to sharpen and strengthen our march toward revolutionary victory. Similarly, we have just passed the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party, whose vision for revolutionary change continues to be just as relevant today.

This is a legacy that is carried on both with ideas and with people themselves whose histories of struggle continue to animate and inspire their communities. You could pass by the first prisoner of the PFLP somewhere on the streets of Berlin, still organizing Palestinians. You could feel the legacy of the Black Panther Party and the continuing Black struggle on the streets of Chicago, Oakland and Harlem. There are people who carry within them the legacies of struggle as a human treasure. The experiences of the elders of our movement, especially those who have come through prison, stand alongside the ideas passed down through writing, books and literature in carrying on, from one generation to another, the trajectory and path of struggle toward a future in which youth are coming forward to lead Black and Palestinian revolutionary struggles for liberation.

Every political prisoner, whether they are currently in prison or not in prison, carries within them the dream and reality of liberation and what it can and must mean in practice. Today, when we look at the Black Liberation movement or the Indigenous and Native struggle in the United States and Canada, we are talking about the same camp of enemy that we confront in occupied Palestine. The bullets that assassinated Malcolm X or Fred Hampton could have been used to kill Ghassan Kanafani or Khaled Nazzal or Mahmoud Hamshari, and today we see the same tear gas and bullets shipped around the world for use against the people. We see corporations like G4S profiting from the attacks on our movements and the mass imprisonments of our people and U.S., European and Israeli police forces exchanging training with one another to escalate racism, “counter-insurgency” and repression on the streets of our cities, camps and villages.

In our circles here in prisons, we always hope and wish to communicate to movements elsewhere and political prisoners everywhere. We want to share our experiences with one another to strengthen all of our movements for liberation and the movement to free our prisoners. The political prisoners have a firsthand experience of confrontation, and the experience of the prison can be a transformative one for a political prisoner. It is not an individual experience but a collective one; the heroism of a prisoner is not simply to be in prison but to understand that they carry with them the leadership of a movement and a continuing struggle in a new location that continues to have international reverberations. Georges Ibrahim Abdallah today is struggling in Lannemezan prison just as Mumia Abu-Jamal is struggling in Mahanoy. The heroism also does not come simply in that one has spent years in prison and now has been released; but in being a veteran of struggle who continues to carry the message of liberation for those who remain.

The political prisoner is not weak and is not broken, despite all of their best efforts. The responsibility of the political prisoner is to safeguard the flame. This is not a role that we have sought out or worked for. But now that we are in this position we must hold our position to set an example, not to our people, who are rooted and steadfast, but to the enemy, to show that imprisonment will not work to defeat us or our people. We carry a cause, not simply an individual search for freedom. Israel or France or the U.S. would free us, or Georges Abdallah, or Mumia Abu-Jamal, if we were willing to become tools of the system or betray our people. But instead, the prisons have generated striking examples of a culture of resistance, from art, to literature to political ideas.

Today, our movements and the revolutionary movements around the world are facing very difficult times. However, these difficult times can also hold value if we look more closely; we are paving the way for new generations of revolutionaries around the world who can still carry the demand for socialism, for people’s democracy, for an alternative world. In the era in which Newton wrote, movements and prisoners shared experiences and communicated through letters, books and art, often smuggled out of or into prisons, past censors and iron walls. Today, with all of the great revolutions in technology, political prisoners are struggling to have their words heard at all, denied access to even telephones to speak with our families and loved ones.

Why do we still consider and read and reprint the writings of Huey Newton today? Fundamentally, because his analysis and that of the Black Panther Party was right and continues to be right, valid and essential. Today, when we see the ravages of U.S. imperialism, the threats of Trump against the world and the shooting down of Black people on U.S. streets by cops, then the fundamental correctness and necessity of the Black Panthers’ work is underlined. Today, when popular movements are under attack and liberation struggles labeled as “terrorist” and criminalized, we see a massive coercive attack on our peoples. Prisons are only one form of coercion in the hands of the occupier, colonizer, capitalist and imperialist; stripping the knowledge of the people and imposing new forms of isolation are yet more forms of coercion.

The imposition of consumerism, the stripping of peoples from their humanity, the isolation of peoples are all forms of coercion alongside the prisons that act to undermine our movements, our peoples and our visions of liberation. They want to see all of our movements isolated from one another, through the terror of the “terrorist list” and the silence of solitary confinement. Capitalist and imperialist media blankets the world, so even here in Israeli prison we hear about the latest technologies in the U.S. while the repression of Black people is rendered invisible. But the reality today is that every day, a little Huey or Assata or Khalida or Ishaq is being born that can carry forward the vision of their people.

Huey Newton and the Black Panthers stood for socialism, for social justice, against racism, imperialism and war, from the streets of Oakland to the refugee camps of Lebanon. Huey Newton said, “We support the Palestinians’ just struggle for liberation one hundred percent. We will go on doing this, and we would like for all of the progressive people of the world to join our ranks in order to make a world in which all people can live.”

Of course, I cannot speak as an expert about incarceration in the United States today. But just looking at the numbers is a stunning illustration of what is deeply wrong with the system. As Palestinians, we also face an experience of negation, of attack on our existence, as being treated as lesser or non-humans for our designated racial identity. We understand through our own experiences how occupation and capitalism are all about profit and the example that U.S. prisons are creating for the world, where prisons are seen as a source of cheap and coerced free labor and a profit for capitalism. We see how incarceration is used to control, divide and threaten communities and peoples under attack. Incarceration means a lot of money for corporations at the same time that it means a direct threat to Black children and their futures. And this is the “security solution” that Trump and U.S. imperialism is marketing to the world as a solution to the crisis of capitalism, a solution built on bloody and brutal exploitation.

Here in our cells, we can feel the reverberations of these attacks and the physical impact of them in the invasions and inspections of the special repressive units of the occupier. We also see the potential and indeed, the necessity, for movements to rise inside prisons together with those on the outside. We see thousands of people sentenced to massive sentences of 20, 30, 40 years in prison and even more, stripping people’s freedom and taking people’s lives. Resistance is critical and it must have a real impact on people’s lives. Our sacrifice in prison has meaning when it can lead to fruits for the poor and liberation for our peoples. Our struggle must impact people’s lives in a material way.

From Ireland to the United States to France to Palestine, political prisoners continue to be leaders in movements fighting racism, imperialism and colonialism. We also see the prisoners of the Palestinian movement facing political imprisonment around the world in the jails of the enemy – from the heroic Rasmea Odeh forced from the United States to the Five prisoners for Palestine, called the Holy Land Five, held in extreme solitary confinement alongside Black strugglers, for engaging in charity work for our people, to our dear comrade Georges Abdallah who has suffered for 34 years in French prisons.

The prisons and the political prisoners are also an example of the power and necessity of “breaking the law.” The law – the law of the imperialist and the colonizer – is used to steal the rights and resources of our people and also to justify our imprisonment and repression and criminalization. Through the collective “breaking” of the law and its power to define justice and injustice – when people, collectively, confront and “break” the law, not merely as individuals but as a collective power, it loses its claim to legitimacy. Breaking of the law must become the norm, and not the exception – the law of capitalism, imperialism and exploitation.

Political prisoners are jailed because they fear our actions and they fear our ideas, our power to mobilize our peoples in a revolutionary way against their exploitation and colonization. They fear our communication and they fear the powers of our people. They fear that if we come together that we will build an international front for the liberation of oppressed peoples. They know, and deeply fear, that we can truly build an alternative world. For them, this is the terror of defeat, but for us, and for our peoples, this is the hope of freedom and the promise of victory.

Ahmad Sa’adat

Ramon Prison

November 2017

October 21, San Francisco: Zionist Lawfare and the Boycott Movement – Solidarity and Resistance

15 October 2018

Sunday, October 21
3:00 pm
518 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/252281192096789/

Join us on Sunday, October 21 at 3pm at 518 Valencia for, Zionist Lawfare and the Boycott Movement: Solidarity and Resistance in the Trump Era.

This event will focus on attacks on the BDS movement, specifically academic boycotts, including the recent lawsuit targeting members of US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), in the context of broader right-wing and Zionist repression, including of student activists such as GUPS at San Francisco State University.

The speakers, listed below, will also discuss the campaign launched by USACBI to boycott study abroad programs in Israel (http://usacbi.org/boycott-study-abroad-in-israel/) and in support of the right to education and the right to freedom of movement in Palestine. The panel will connect resistance to colonial borders in the US/North America and Palestine/Israel, linking Israel’s deportations and ban on Palestinian travel to sanctuary activism and immigrant/refugee solidarity here.

Speakers:
Liz Jackson, Palestine Legal
David Palumbo-Liu, USACBI
Sunaina Maira, USACBI
Kung Feng, Bay Resistance and Jobs for Justice
Loubna Qutami, Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)
Moderated by Sara Kershnar, International Jewish Anti-Zionism Network (IJAN)

The event is part of a national defense campaign for USACBI to build solidarity with the academic and cultural boycott movement and defend solidarity with the Palestinian people:

Cosponsored by: Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)-Bay Area, AROC, National Lawyers Guild-Bay Area, Palestine Legal, Center for Political Education, QUIT, and International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)

23 October, Helsingør: Film and debate on Palestine – Roadmap to Apartheid – with presentation by Irene Clausen

14 October 2018

Tuesday, 23 October
7:00 pm
Smedenes Hus
Strandgade 46
Helsingør, Denmark
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/367791133761433/

Internationalt Forum Nordsjælland will screen the film, “Roadmap to Apartheid,” taking a look at the current situation in Palestine, comparing Israel to the former apartheid regime in South Africa

After the film, there will be a short presentation by Irene Clausen, a member of the IF’s Middle East Group who has just released her new book, “PFLP & Palestine.”

IF Nordsjælland inviterer til film og debat om Palæstina og apartheid-staten Israel.

Vi viser filmen Roadmap to Apartheid – Filmen kaster et blik over den nuværende situation i Israel og Palæstina, ved at sammenligne med det tidligere apartheid-regime i Sydafrika.

Efter filmen kort oplæg v. Irene Clausen. Irene er medlem af Internationalt Forums Mellemøstgruppe og har netop udgivet bogen “PFLP & Palæstina” på Internationalt Forums forlag.

Audio: Samidoun’s Mohammed Khatib calls for escalated action to free Georges Abdallah

14 October 2018

Mohammed Khatib, the Europe coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, was interviewed by journalist Shireen Mousa Habash on the “Sawt Falasteen” (Voice of Palestine) program on Sawt al-Shaab Radio in Lebanon on Friday, 12 October. He was asked about the upcoming week of action to demand freedom for Georges Abdallah and the need for increased actions to win his freedom.

The interview was conducted in Arabic. Listen below, and read the English-language transcript following the audio file:

The program also included interviews and contributions by several others, including Ahmad Abdullah, Fidaa Abdel-Fattah, Mohammed al-Aidi and Rami Ibrahim. Listen to the full program here:

English transcript:

Shireen Mousa Habash: We’re here to speak more about the week of action for Lebanese prisoner Georges Abdallah. With us from Athens, the capital of Greece, the European coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Mohammed Khatib. Welcome Mohammed, to the Voice of Palestine program at Sawt al-Shaab (Lebanon):

Mohammed Khatib: Hello, thank you for having me.

S: Welcome, Mohammed,as you are the coordinator of Samidoun in Europe, and as your network is one of the main organizers of the international solidarity week for the freedom of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, can you please tell us more about the actions and events that are being organized during this week?

M: First of all, thank you for the invitation to speak with you on Sawt al-Shaab, to bring this issue to the Lebanese people, the Palestinian people. It is the cause of all forces of solidarity, and I salute all Lebanese people and all resistance movements in Lebanon. Samidoun works primarily with a focus on the Palestinian and Arab prisoners in the Zionist prisons and in prisons around the world, and on supporting the solidarity movements who have prisoners, from Black Liberation movement in the United States to struggles in Europe.

Regarding the actions, this is not the first year of the week of action; these weeks have been happening for approximately four years. Many major European cities will have events this week between the 17th and 24th of October. The main event will be in front of the prison in Lannemezan, where comrade leader Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is being held, on 20th October. Other cities will have supporting actions, like other cities in France such as Paris, Marseille, Toulouse and Martigues; in Berlin, the capital of Germany; in Gothenburg, Sweden; in Milan, Italy; in Geneva, Manchester, Belfast, these are some of the most active cities.

There will be an announcement of actions in Tunisia; Tunis has been one of the most active Arab cities on the case of Georges. There is a constant struggle in Tunisia and demonstrations in front of the French Embassy demanding the freedom of Georges Abdallah. And I’m sure that in Beirut our comrades and friends will mobilize.

S: These events are going to be what kind of actions, protests?

M: Yes, protest actions – some will be mobilizations in front of French embassies. But in the case of Geneva, for example, there will be a campaign of writing letters to George. But mostly we will see events and angry protests to demand the freedom of comrade Georges Abdallah, who has spent 34 years in prison without justification.

S: Now Mohammed, as you said, the cause of Georges Abdallah is not just limited to a Lebanese matter, because he is a Lebanese citizen. It is a cause of all strugglers around the world, especially the resistance forces in the Arab world and around the globe, particularly the Left. How do you evaluate the role of these left forces in activating the cause of Georges Abdallah and pressuring the French government to release him? How do you see the level of this work in the past and in the last few years?

M: Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, for us and for all the resistance forces around the globe and in Lebanon, is not just a prisoner. Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is a symbol, a leader – an international leader. Political prisoners in the Philippines know about the case of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. European prisoners too – there are 30 political prisoners in Greek prisons who consider Georges Abdallah as a leader and symbol. This is the case in all of the Arab world also. In the last week, we in Samidoun received a letter from Ahmad Sa’adat inside the enemy prisons, reflecting the fact that Georges is a symbol for Palestinian prisoners and the prisoners’ movement. This is the case for all six thousand Palestinian prisoners, not only for the PFLP prisoners alone, because he is an example of resistance. Not only that he resists occupation, but that he resists imperialism and Zionism in their own stronghold. So any mobilization is insufficient – the fact that Georges Ibrahim Abdallah has been in prison for 34 years means that any mobilization is not up to what it needs to be, in the past or now. The actions do not rise to the level of the sacrifices of Georges and they must be elevated. They also do not rise to meet the needs of the left. In fact, we need Georges Abdallah more than he needs us; we need himoutside of prison. The left needs a symbol with the value of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.

S: The forces of the left, and the resistance forces, what are they doing today for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah?

M: For sure, there are shortcomings from the left forces. Today, the left is weak and that is why we need Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. There is a lot of criticism to to the resistance movement, I’m speaking in general –

S: Yes, not specifically –

M: I’m talking about the resistance in general, the supporters of the resistance, the forces of the resistance, they must realize the level of the insult by France to keep imprisoning a national, international, and human symbol like Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. The role and the duty needed of the left – it is not a favor, it is a responsibility towards the left itself – and in order for people to find a reason to belong to the left, the left must take seriously the case of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. This is necessary and should be a central issue on the agenda of the left and not just an annual event that we can organize in Beirut or in an Arab or Western capital.

Even the solidarity movement, the solidarity movement with Palestine in France, and what they call the center-left or the radical left, they have a greater responsibility than mere verbal solidarity with Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. Today, after 34 years in prison, we should not just say that we are in “solidarity” with George Ibrahim Abdallah. He does not need our words of solidarity only. We should be working to free George Ibrahim Abdallah. There is a big difference between saying that we are with Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and working on our duty to actually free this Arab and international struggler.

S: In January 2013, there was a decision to free Georges Abdallah and deport him, the decision was never implemented because the interior minister Manuel Valls refused to sign for his release. Some people are saying France is not the only or actual jailer that is imprisoning Georges Abdallah…

M: When Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the PFLP, was arrested by the Palestinian Authority and held in Jericho prison, he was not truly and solely under the PA’s authority. There were all kinds of Western intelligence agencies involved, including the British, the French, the CIA and the FBI – the intelligence services of all imperialist forces. The fact that Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is held in a French prison, as you said, does not mean that he is only a prisoner of France. Of course, the main pressure, for the past 34 years, has been coming from the State Department of the United States. The French government is so preoccupied with Georges Ibrahim Abdallah because they are afraid of him, even though they act against their own laws and they claim to be a democracy.

S: As they claim –

M: Of course – they go against their own rulings and laws, especially with the pressure coming from the United States. And because they realize the challenge that George presents outside prison. Why? Because he is a symbol of resistance. When Georges Abdallah was arrested in France, he, in his ideology and beliefs, recognized that the centers of the support and strength of Zionist movement are not only in occupied Haifa and occupied Yafa, but also in the imperialist capitals like Paris and London – that is the real support for the Zionist movement, that comes with money and weapons.

S: They’ve created this.

M: Yes, they created it, and until today, it is their machine that supports it. Many of the soldiers who stand on checkpoints in occupied Palestine come from these cities. They are Western citizens who carry Western passports, and France does not hold them accountable for being terrorists. If a Zionist soldier kills a Palestinian child, they can go back to France and spend their vacation, and they are not prosecuted. This is not like Georges Abdallah – they are not punished, like they are doing to Georges. Georges Abdallah did not kill civilians. Georges Abdallah is not a terrorist. They cannot say about Georges that he is a terrorist, they cannot claim that he is from IS (Da’esh) – he represents another version of resistance. The conscious resistance.

S: Yes, that is why they are pressuring France not to release Georges Abdallah. Lastly –

M: Georges Abdallah can have a major effect on an entire new Arab generation – with the political analysis and positions of comrade Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, and his consciousness and ideas, despite being in prison for 34 years, what he represents outweighs any leader who claims to be on the left [outside prison].

S: Mr. Mohammed Khatib, please in one minute, because we are running out of time, about your activities with the international community and the human rights commission at the United Nations –

M: We don’t rely on the so-called human rights community or on the United Nations. Our movement is in the streets, and our solidarity is in coordinating with the forces of the left, of the resistance, grassroots solidarity in the West and in all the world. Our hope is in the Lebanese resistance to take this issue seriously and consider Georges Ibrahim Abdallah as their son, even as he is a Communist and a Leftist. We demand that the Lebanese government must assume its responsibility, to defend the Lebanese people and Georges, just like they rushed to defend Saad al-Hariri when he was detained by the Saudis. France even interfered to free him!

S: Unfortunately, unfortunately –

M: Georges Ibrahim Abdallah is more important than Saad al-Hariri and all “kings of sects.” [Lebanese traditional political leaders]. He is the alternative example, He wants to liberate Lebanon from this ruling clique, to liberate all Arab land from colonialism and reactionary regimes. That is why they fear him.

S: Thank you Mohammed Khatib from Athens, of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

20 October, Tunis: Protest at the French Embassy in Solidarity with Georges Abdallah

13 October 2018

Saturday, 20 October
2:30 pm
French Embassy
Avenue Habib Bourguiba
Tunis, Tunisia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/327480194683643/

A call to all to join us on Saturday, 20 October at 2:30 pm in front of the Embassy of France in Tunis and to participate in the protest organized by the Tunisian Solidarity Committee for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah in coordination with the Tunisian campaign for boycott and against normalization with Zionism. We demand the release of the longest-held political prisoner in Europe and denounce the ongoing kidnapping of the struggler Georges Ibrahim Abdallah in French prisons after 34 years of captivity, despite his eligibility for release.

France is a colonial state!
Freedom for Georges Abdallah!
Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat!
Freedom for all prisoners in the Zionist jails!

دعوة إلى كل الأحرار للحضور يوم السبت 20 أكتوبر 2018 على الساعة 14:30 أمام سفارة فرنسا بتونس العاصمة و ذلك للمشاركة في الوقفة الاحتجاجية التي تنظمها لجنة التضامن التونسية من أجل اطلاق سراح جورج ابراهيم عبد الله بالتنسيق مع الحملة التونسية لمقاطعة ومناهضة التطبيع مع الكيان الصهيوني و ذلك للمطالبة بإطلاق سراح أقدم سجين سياسي بأوروبا والتنديد بجريمة الاختطاف المتواصلة التي يتعرض إليها المناضل جورج ابراهيم عبدالله في السجون الفرنسية بعد 34 سنة من الأسر رغم انتهاء مدة محكوميته

فرنسا هي هي فرنسا استعمارية
الحرية لجورج عبدالله
الحرية لأحمد سعدات

الحرية لكل الأسرى و الأسيرات في السجون الصهيونية

24 October, Athens: Demonstration for Freedom for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah

13 October 2018

Wednesday, 24 October
6:00 pm
French Embassy
Akadimias and Leof. Vasilissis Sofias
Athens, Greece

Join the Solidarity Initiative Iniwith the Palestinian People in Greece to join the call to free Georges Abdallah as he enters his 35th year in France’s colonial prison. We call on all left forces, trade unions, grassroots organizations and all people who love freedom to stand with Georges Abdallah and all political prisoners in the prisons of colonialism, imperialism, Zionism and reactionary regimes.

New audio and transcript: Georges Abdallah speaks to Gaza – and the world

13 October 2018

As the Week of Action for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah kicks off, Georges Abdallah recorded a message for people in Gaza – and throughout Palestine, the Arab world, and internationally from his French prison in Lannemezan. As he enters his 35th year of imprisonment, his spirit remains unbroken and his political vision clear. Listen to his statement and read the English translation (and Arabic full text) below:

English translation:

Dear brothers and sisters,

Greetings of steadfastness and constant struggle.

Our salutes and appreciation to the strugglers and heroes of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege

Once again, the masses of Gaza stand in the front lines, confronting the Zionist imperialist onslaught, their lives and health on the line to defend their great cause. First, they realized the historical moment – that the Palestinian cause, in all of its dimensions, is threatened with actual liquidation. Despite their suffering under a criminal siege, facing starvation, murder and intimidation, they did not hesitate to mobilize all of their energies to meet the calls of the national committee for the March of Return and Breaking the Siege.

The masses of our people and their militant activists know for certain that this is the main obstacle to the criminal “deal of the century,” because it is precisely the embodiment of the collective collective will, with the rifle of the resistance which has disrupted the maze-like process of the Oslo Accords and the forces that grew from it, organized in the institutions of the Authority and its reactionary agencies.

In spite of everything these policies of social and national neglect have caused, and the cracks and distortions of the Palestinian collective consciousness, the masses of Gaza and their militant strugglers continue to steadfastly confront all blackmail maneuvers and push for an end to the devastating division, for the healing of internal conflict and to warn of the decline of some opportunistic forces to positions complicit with the aggression against Palestine and with the so-called “deal of the century.”

There is no rational person who can accept the further imposition of further sanctions on the masses of Gaza as anything other than a way to advance the policies of Trump and Netanyahu. There is no rational person who can rely on the support of the reactionary regimes of the region to support the struggle of the Palestinian masses.

Since the beginning of the movement, the criminal occupation forces have been confronted with confidence and steadfastness. The fighters and activists of the revolutionary forces are demanding more than others to push for an escalation of the struggle in all its dimensions, being careful not to allow Gaza to be singled out or left alone.

The revolutionary forces, including the fighters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, have not and will never abandon the masses with their advanced positions. They have not hesitated since the beginning of the marches, their blood has been shed as a symbol of loyalty to the masses of our people. Among these heroic strugglers is the fighter Ahmad Ashraf Abu Hussein, a son of Jabaliya, who marched with his comrades and whose blood was shed on the sands of Gaza on 13 April 2018. We also salute the heroic fighter Ahmad Abdullah al-Adaini, the son of Deir al-Balah, shot in the head as he marched for return. It was not more than two months before the heroic fighters Ahmed Abu Tayour from Rafah and Ataf Mohammed Musleh Saleh from Jabalya refugee camp were killed. One week later, Ayman Nafez al-Najjar and Muhannad Jamal Hanoudeh from Jabalya were martyred on 16 July 2018. Two days later, the heroic struggler Mohammed Abu Naji, from the Tal al-Zaatar refugee camp in Gaza, was killed.

The strugglers of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also recognize that the continuation and escalation of the Great Marches of Return is also conditioned on the development of the activities of mass struggle throughout the rest of Palestine and in effective communication with the population of the refugee camps in neighboring countries. More than ever, the Arab revolutionary left, especially in neighboring countries, has a responsibility to strengthen its confrontation of the imperialist onslaught on the region, in direct response to Arab reactionary forces’ collusion, and its confrontation of all forms of normalization with the Zionist entity by all available means.

It is not reasonable that the refugee camps in the countries around Palestine remain outside the framework of struggle by virtue of the positions of the bourgeois regimes, who pay lip service to solidarity in some cases and are practically complicit in the situation in all cases. It is not reasonable to encircle or besiege refugee camps in neighboring countries and then express verbal solidarity with the heroes of Gaza.

The stage which the Palestinian cause is confronting today and the stormy crisis in all of the states and entities of the region impel all revolutionary forces to work hard to form frameworks for joint movement and communication with all other fronts of struggle in the region and the world.

Together, only together comrades, we can move forward to confront the imperialist onslaught. Of course, it is not enough for the militants in Beirut, Damascus and Amman to celebrate solidarity with Gaza.

It is urgent and necessary for all to bear their responsibilities in the refugee camps in the immediate neighboring countries, because the cause – not only the revolution – is being targeted, but the cause; indeed, escaping from the maze of Oslo requires that, the release of the prisoners requires that, ending security coordination requires that, ending the scandalous division requires that.

True solidarity with the Great Return March, in honor of the glory and immortality of the martyrs, for the victory of the masses and the struggling peoples and the shame of the traitors and those who surrender, is to overthrow imperialism and its agents – the Zionists and the Arab reactionaries.

My sincere greetings to all of you.

Your comrade, Georges Abdallah.

Arabic original:

الأخوات والأخوة أيها الرفاق الأعزاء

تحية الصمود والنضال المستمر

تحية نضال وتقدير لأبطال مسيرات العودة وكسر الحصار

مرة أخرى تقف جماهير غزة في الطليعة بمواجهة الهجمة الامبريالية الصهيونية، تهب بشيبها وشبابها دفاعاً عن قدسية القضية، قبل غيرها أدركت بحسها التاريخي أن القضية الفلسطينية بكامل أبعادها مهددة بالتصفية الفعلية، وها هي بالرغم مما تعانيه من حصار مجرم وتجويع وقتل وترويع لا تتردد في حشد كل الطاقات لتلبية نداءات الهيئة الوطنية العليا لمسيرة العودة وكسر الحصار.

جماهير شعبنا وطلائعها المناضلة تعلم حق اليقين أنها هي بالضبط العقبة الفعلية الأساسية أمام صفقة القرن المجرمة، لأنها هي – وبالضبط هي- تجسد الإرادة الجمعية المقاومة المتمثلة بالبندقية المقاومة التي عصت على متاهات اتفاقات أوسلو والقوى التي نمت، وانتظمت في مؤسسات سلطتها وأجهزتها الرجعية.

وبرغم كل ما أحدثته سياسات التفريط بالمسلمات الوطنية من شروخ وتشويه للوعي الجمعي الفلسطيني، لا تزال جماهير غزة وطلائعها المناضلة تتصدى بثبات لمناورات الابتزاز وتدفع باتجاه العمل على إنهاء الانقسام الجريمة ورأب الصراع والتحذير من مغبة انزلاق بعض القوى الانتهازية إلى مواقع القوى المتواطئة مع العدوان ومع صفقته التصفوية.

ما من عاقل يقبل أن يرى في فرض المزيد من العقوبات على جماهير غزة مدخلاً للتصدي لسياسات ” ترامب” و”نتنياهو” ما من عاقلٍ أيضاً يمكن أن يراهن على دعم الأنظمة الرجعية في المنطقة لنضال جماهير شعبنا.

جماهير غزة منذ بداية الحراك تواجه القوى المجرمة بثقة وثبات، مناضلو ومناضلات القوى الثورية مطالبون أكثر من غيرهم بالدفع باتجاه تصعيد النضال بكل أبعاده، والحرص كل الحرص على عدم السماح بالاستفراد بغزة.

القوى الثورية وفي الطليعة منها مناضلات ومناضلو الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين وكتائب الشهيد أبوعلي مصطفى، لم ولن يخذلوا الجماهير يوماً في المواقع المتقدمة لم يترددوا منذ بداية المسيرات في بذل الدماء الزكية عربون وفاء لجماهير شعبنا ورايات تحرره فها هو المناضل البطل أحمد أشرف أبو حسين ابن جباليا البار يسبق رفاقه ويروي من دمه تراب غزة الأبية بتاريخ 13 نيسان 2018، لم يتأخر عنه كثيراً المناضل البطل أحمد عبدالله العديني ابن دير البلح البار حيث أصيب بجرح في الرأس، ولم يمضِ أقل من شهرين حتى استشهد كل من المناضل البطل أحمد أبو طيور من رفح، وعطاف محمد مصلح صالح من مخيم جباليا، وبعد أسبوع استشهد البطلان أيمن نافذ النجار ومهند جمال حمودة من جباليا بتاريخ 16 تموز 2018، وبعد يومين استشهد المناضل البطل محمد أبو ناجي من مخيم تل الزعتر بغزة.

ليس بخافٍ على مناضلات ومناضلي الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين أن استمرار وتصاعد مسيرات العودة الكبرى مشروطاً أيضاً بتطوير فعاليات النضال الجماهيري في باقي أرجاء فلسطين، وفي التواصل الفاعل مع تجمعات اللجوء في بلدان الجوار القريب، أكثر من أيِ وقتٍ مضى تقع على عاتق اليسار الثوري العربي لاسيما في بلدان الجوار القريب مسئولية تعزيز فعاليات مواجهة الهجمة الامبريالية في المنطقة، والتصدي المباشر للقوى الرجعية العربية المتواطئة ومناهضة كافة أشكال التطبيع مع الكيان الصهيوني بالوسائل المتاحة.

ليس من المعقول أن تبقى مخيمات اللجوء في الجوار القريب خارج إطار المواجهة بحكم موقف الأنظمة البرجوازية المتضامنة لفظياً في بعض الحالات، والمتواطئة عملياً في جميع الحالات، ليس من المعقول أن تحاط مخيمات اللجوء في بلدان الجوار ويدّعون بعد ذلك بالوقوف مع أبطال غزة.

إن المرحلة التي تمر بها قضية فلسطين والأزمة العاصفة بكل كيانات المنطقة تدفع بكل الطاقات الثورية للعمل حثيثاً لتشكيل الأطر المؤاتية للتحرك والتواصل مع كافة جبهات النضال الأخرى في الإقليم والعالم.

معاً أيها الرفاق فقط … معاً يمكننا التقدم إلى الأمام في مواجهة الهجمة الامبريالية، طبعاً لا يكفي أن يقف المناضلون في بيروت ودمشق وعمان ويحتفلوا بالتضامن مع غزة، بات من الملح والضروري أن يتحّمل الجميع قسطه من المسئولية في مخيمات اللجوء وفي بلدان الجوار القريب، فالقضية لا الثورة فحسب هي المستهدفة بشكل مباشر، الخروج من متاهات أوسلو يستلزم ذلك، تحرير الأسرى يستلزم ذلك، وقف التنسيق الأمني يستلزم ذلك، إنهاء الانقسام الفضيحة يستلزم ذلك.

التضامن كل التضامن الفعلي مع فعاليات مسيرات العودة الكبرى، المجد والخلود لشهدائنا الأبرار، النصر للجماهير والشعوب المناضلة، العار للخونة وسائر المستسلمين، لتسقط الامبريالية وكلاب حراستها الصهاينة والرجعيون العرب.

مع خالص تحياتي لكم جميعاً

رفيقكم جورج عبدالله.

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