The actions of the reformist and legalistic left in Greece once in power, embodied by the Syriza coalition, is another example of how it positions itself on essential issues:
– Greece is still an active NATO member
– The Greek government scrupulously applies the Memorandum of the Troika, continuing the process of impoverishing the Greek people for the benefit of creditors
– Police and officials continue to persecute prisoners of the revolutionary left
Exceptional measures: refusal of leave, punitive transfers, and isolation
To oppose their transfer to prisons involving isolation, prisoners must carry out hunger and thirst strikes, as in the case of Dinos Yigtzoglou, a member of the Conspiracy of Fire Cells, who resisted his transfer to Larissa Prison. Dimitri Koufodinas, a member of the organization “17 Novembre” has led a hunger strike to apply the rules of granting prison leave to his case. Last year, Pola Roupa and Nikos Maziotis, members of the organization “Revolutionary Struggle”, had to go on a hunger strike to get Nikos out of isolation and so that they could have visits from their 6-year-old child (himself locked up four days when his mother was arrested) in dignified conditions.
Systematic Persecution of the Members of the Turkish Revolutionary Left
Turgut Kaya is a Turkish revolutionary who has been arrested, tortured and repeatedly imprisoned in Turkey on charges of belonging to the TKP / ML. In April 2018, he was arrested in Greece following an arrest warrant issued by Interpol. His extradition was decided at a court hearing in Athens on May 30. Turgut Kaya immediately went on a hunger strike to protest his extradition threats to Turkey. Hidir Gönek was also arrested in Greece and is accused of facilitating Turgut Kaya’s entry into the country, and is also on hunger strike.
Then there are the other members of the Turkish revolutionary left tried by Greek justice: 9 activists were arrested on November 28 in Greece, they are accused of belonging to the DHKP-C and having planned an action against President Erdogan. Among these prisoners is Ali Ercan Gokoglou, an active member of Tayad (an organization supporting political prisoners in Turkey), who has finally escaped the danger of extradition but remains in prison.
Police offensive and judicial attacks
Let us also mention:
– The police attacks against the squats (thus the big offensive of 2016 against the squats in Thessaloniki: the squat “Orfanotrofio”, the community “Hurriya” and the squats located on the avenue Nikis, with a total of 74 arrests).
– The detention of activists and supporters of the Kurdish liberation movement.
– The numerous judicial proceedings against the anarchist members of the Rouvikonas group. 12 have yet to go on trial for various activist actions of the group, and 20 for a demonstration inside the Ministry of the Interior in support of the hunger strike of Dimitris Koufodinas.
Solidarity with the revolutionary prisoners in Greece!
No isolation! No exceptional measures! No extradition!
Rally on Wednesday 11 July from 5pm to 6pm in front of the Greek Embassy in Brussels
L’arrivée au pouvoir de la gauche réformiste et légaliste en Grèce, incarnée par la coalition Syriza, est un nouvel exemple du camp dans lequel cette gauche se positionne sur tous les enjeux essentiels :
– la Grèce est toujours un membre actif de l’OTAN,
– le gouvernement grec applique scrupuleusement les mémorandum de la Troïka en continuant le processus de paupérisation du peuple grec au profit de créditeurs,
– police et justice continuent à persécuter les prisonnier.e.s de la gauche révolutionnaire.
Des mesures exceptionnelles : refus de congé, transferts punitifs, et régime d’isolement
Pour s’opposer à leur transfert vers des prisons impliquant l’isolement, les prisonnier.e.s doivent mener des grèves de la faim et de la soif, ainsi Dinos Yigtzoglou, membres de la Conspiration des Cellules de Feu, qui a résisté à son transfert vers la prison de Larissa. Dimitri Koufodinas, membre de l’organisation “17 Novembre” a mené lui une grève de la faim pour que lui soit appliquée les règles d’octroi des congés pénitentiaires. L’année passée, Pola Roupa et Nikos Maziotis, membres de l’organisation “Lutte Révolutionnaire”, ont dû mener une grève de la faim pour que Nikos sorte de l’isolement et pour qu’ils puissent avoir des visites de leur enfant de six ans (lui-même enfermé quatre jours lors de l’arrestation de sa mère) dans des conditions dignes.
Persécution systématique des membres de la gauche révolutionnaire turque
Turgut Kaya est un révolutionnaire turc qui a été arrêté, torturé et emprisonné à plusieurs reprises en Turquie sous l’accusation d’appartenance au TKP/ML. En avril 2018, il a été arrêté en Grèce à la suite d’un mandat d’arrêt lancé par Interpol. Son extradition a été décidée lors d’une audience du tribunal à Athènes le 30 mai. Turgut Kaya a immédiatement entamé une grève de la faim pour protester contre les menaces d’extradition vers la Turquie. Hidir Gönek avait également été arrêté en Grèce et est accusé d’avoir facilité l’entrée de Turgut Kazya dans le pays, est également en grève de la faim.
Ce ne sont pas les autres membres de la gauche révolutionnaire turque éprouvé.e.s par la justice grecque : 9 militant.e.s ont été arrêté.e.s le 28 novembre en Grèce, ils sont accusés d’appartenance au DHKP-C et d’avoir planifié une action contre le président Erdogan. Parmi ces prisonnier.e.s citons Ali Ercan Gokoglou, membre actif de Tayad (une organisation de soutien aux prisonniers politiques en Turquie), qui a finalement échappé au danger d’extradition mais qui reste en prison.
Des offensives policières et judiciaires tous azimut
Citons aussi :
– Les attaques policières contre les squats (ainsi la grande offensive de 2016 contre les squats à Thessalonique : le squat “Orfanotrofio”, la communauté “Hurriya” et les squats situés sur l’avenue Nikis, avec un total de 74 arrestations).
– La détention de militant.e.s et sympathisant.e.s du mouvement de libération du Kurdistan.
– Les nombreuses procédures judiciaires contre les anarchistes membres du groupe Rouvikonas. 12 doivent encore passer en procès pour diverses actions militant.e.s du groupe, et 20 pour une manifestation dans l’enceinte du Ministère de l’Intérieur en soutien à la grève de la faim de Dimitris Koufodinas.
Solidarité avec les prisonnier.e.s révolutionnaires en Grèce !
Pas d’isolement ! Pas de mesure d’exception ! Pas d’extradition !
Rassemblement mercredi 11 juillet de 17h à 18h devant l’Ambassade de Grèce à Bruxelles
A Palestine delegation, coordinated by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, met with the South African ambassador to Germany on Monday, 2 July to discuss the situation of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the importance of international support for their freedom and for justice in Palestine. The delegation, including former Palestinian political prisoner Abu Mohammed Sakhran, Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat and Samidoun international coordinator Charlotte Kates, met with Ambassador Phumelele Stone Sizani in his Berlin office.
The delegation delivered a copy of the statement calling for freedom for imprisoned Palestinian feminist, leftist parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar, signed by 275 organizations. Abu Mohammed Sakhran, the first wounded struggler of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine imprisoned by Israel for over 13 years, formally presented the statement and other documents to the ambassador.
The delegates expressed their strong support for South Africa’s action to remove its ambassador from Tel Aviv, emphasizing the importance of South Africa exerting moral and political pressure on a global scale against settler colonialism and apartheid perpetrated in Palestine by the Israeli occupier. They noted the importance of international action to stand with Palestine, especially amid an intense campaign by U.S. President Donald Trump, reactionary Arab regimes and the Israeli occupation to liquidate the Palestinian struggle for liberation.
Ambassador Sizani welcomed the delegation and expressed South Africa’s solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for freedom. He quoted late South African president Nelson Mandela’s famous statement that “our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians” noting that South Africa’s freedom remains incomplete. He strongly condemned the Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza in the Great Return March, in which Israeli occupation soldiers have killed over 130 Palestinians, including children, paramedics and journalists, as they participate in a popular protest in freedom, denouncing the killings as unacceptable.
The ambassador is himself a former political prisoner under the apartheid regime who was held in Robben Island prison for two years; he took special interest in the situation of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, the focus of the delegation’s presentation.
Barakat recalled the long history of cooperation and joint struggle between the Palestinian and South African movements, recalling his own time as a Palestinian youth organizer in New York participating in the mobilization and organizing of events in solidarity with the South African struggle against apartheid. He also presented on the current political situation in Palestine, noting in particular the importance of international action by countries like South Africa in contradiction to the assault by U.S. imperialism and its allies.
He spoke about the “camp of the siege on Gaza,” noting the roles of Israel, the United States, the European Union and Arab regimes, especially Egypt and Saudi Arabia, in imposing the ongoing siege on Palestinians in Gaza. He also noted the dangerous role of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah and its sanctions on Gaza and its public employees that are pushing people further into poverty amid siege, highlighting the ongoing popular movement to lift the sanctions that has faced PA repression. In this context, he emphasized that there are two paths in Palestine today, the path of resistance and the path of capitulation and surrender.
Barakat also expressed certain similarities between the histories of struggle in Palestine and South Africa, noting in particular the attempts by the apartheid regime and the occupier to impose their chosen “representatives” upon the people. He also noted the use of the “divide and conquer” strategy, historically in South Africa and today in Palestine and throughout the region, where the U.S. and its reactionary Arab regime allies work hand in hand with Israel to push for war on Iran rather than confrontation of Zionism. He also expressed the potential importance of South Africa’s influence as a moral power in the region to play a positive role in supporting justice rather than the continuing intensified colonization and war.
In her presentation, Kates thanked South Africa for officially calling for Jarrar’s release upon her arrest in 2017, and emphasized the importance of continued and enhanced international support for her freedom and that of all Palestinian prisoners. She discussed the system of administrative detention, in which over 450 Palestinian prisoners, including Jarrar, are held without charge or trial under indefinitely renewable Israeli military orders, as well as the military courts that convict 99.74 percent of the Palestinians brought before them.
Kates also provided statistics and information about the current situation of the approximately 6,100 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, including Palestinian child prisoners like Ahed Tamimi. She also discussed the boycott of the Israeli military courts by administrative detainees like Jarrar. She noted both the long history of joint anti-colonial struggle between the South African and Palestinian liberation movements and the role that political imprisonment and imprisoned leaders have played in both movements, saying that Israel is seeking to lock away the true leadership of the Palestinian people, much as the apartheid regime did in South Africa.
She also discussed the siege on Gaza, noting in particular the targeting of fishers and farmers, the sectors in Gaza most responsible for Palestinian self-sufficiency in the Strip. Fishers and farmers have been particular targets of the siege, with fishing boats facing daily shooting and attacks by Israeli warships and farmers’ land confiscated for a so-called “buffer zone.” She noted that the Freedom Flotilla is currently sailing to Gaza in an effort to break the siege and that the boats of the Flotilla are in Europe preparing for their journey.
The delegates noted that the growth of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement has in many ways been inspired by both long Palestinian and Arab traditions of boycott as well as the international success of the South African boycott campaign against apartheid. They noted that further international action at the United Nations to hold Israel accountable, despite U.S. vetoes and pressure, remains important in underlining the illegitimacy of the Israeli occupier, while Abu Mohammed Sakhran said that all nations, including South Africa, should entirely sever their ties with Israel.
The delegation also delivered a letter from current and former Palestinian prisoners, coordinated by former prisoner Ahmad Abu al-Saud, which said:
“We know that the Republic of South Africa has taken a principled stand beside the Palestinian people through bonds of struggle that have endured for decades. Both of our peoples have struggled against apartheid, settler colonialism, racism and imperialism, and we have shared a common legacy of joint struggle and mutual assistance over the decades. In particular, our collective experience in resisting political imprisonment has played a major role in defining our struggles for liberation. We know that as a former political prisoner yourself, you have felt the pain of isolation as well as the commitment to liberation that unites us all.
We thank the Republic of South Africa for withdrawing its ambassador from Israel, and we hope that you will continue to help to expand the boycott on all levels – economic, cultural and military – and expose the crimes of the occupation in international forums.”
They provided the ambassador with a packet of information, including a dossier on the case of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the imprisoned Lebanese Communist struggler for Palestine who has been held in French jails for 34 years, and an overall report on the situation of Palestinian prisoners.
Graffiti in France urging Khalida’s release. Photo: Coup Pour Coup 31
International support for detained Palestinian parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar is continuing to grow. The leftist, feminist Palestinian leader and advocate for political prisoners has been jailed by Israel without charge or trial for a year. The Israeli military recently ordered her to another four months of administrative detention, an extension awaiting approval by an occupation military court.
275 international political parties, feminist organizations, solidarity groups, student organizations, social justice movements and others have signed on to the campaign to free Khalida Jarrar, coming together in a common statement to demand her release. Since the statement was announced last week, over 90 organizations have added their endorsements, including the third-largest party in the Turkish parliament, the HDP (People’s Democratic Party).
In France, anti-imperialist collective Coup Pour Coup 31 – a member of the Samidoun network – noted the appearance of “Free Khalida Jarrar” graffiti in the Toulouse area, demanding the release of all Palestinian prisoners.
New Yorkers protest to free Khalida Jarrar. Photo: Joe Catron
New Yorkers demonstrated outside the offices of the “Friends of the IDF,” an organization that raises money for the Israeli occupation army, demanding Jarrar’s release, on 30 June. Samidoun activists and others distributed information and material about her case and the situation of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.
In Berlin, a Samidoun delegation visited the South African ambassador, with information about the situation in Palestine and the case of Khalida Jarrar. The South African government has officially called for Jarrar’s release, from the time of her arrest in 2017.
And in Gaza, Palestinians took to the streets to call for freedom for Khalida Jarrar and Hassan Shokeh, a fellow administrative detainee who has been on hunger strike for nearly a month. Gathering outside the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, demonstrators demanded the abolition of administrative detention and the freedom of Palestinian prisoners.
You are invited to add your organization’s name to the following statement to demand freedom for imprisoned Palestinian leader Khalida Jarrar! We will continue to update this statement and re-release with additional signatories. To endorse, please use the form or email samidoun@samidoun.net with your group’s name.
Freedom for Khalida Jarrar! End administrative detention!
We, the undersigned organizations, come together to demand freedom for Palestinian political leader Khalida Jarrar, prominent leftist, feminist, prisoners’ rights advocate and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. She has been imprisoned without charge and without trial since July 2017 – and now the Israeli military occupation has declared that her imprisonment will be extended for an additional four months.
On July 2, 2017, Khalida Jarrar’s home was raided by Israeli occupation soldiers in a pre-dawn raid. She was ordered shortly thereafter to administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. She is one of approximately 450 Palestinians held under administrative detention, a relic of the British colonial mandate that has been used by the Israeli occupation to jail thousands of Palestinian community and political leaders, and one of approximately 6,100 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
In December 2017, her detention was renewed for another six months. Now, another military order declares that she will be imprisoned for four more months. Administrative detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable. Palestinians can spend years at a time jailed under these orders, never knowing when they could be released, if ever.
As Addameer notes, “This practice of arbitrary detention is a grave violation of international laws and human rights standards, particularly articles 78 and 72 of the Fourth Geneva Convention which state that an accused individual has the right to defend him/herself. This also violates Article 66 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the basic standards of fair trial.”
On July 2, an Israeli military court is scheduled to approve the detention order. Jarrar, like all administrative detainees, has boycotted these hearings since February, as they are mere rubber-stamp sessions used as a fig leaf to “legitimize” the arbitrary imprisonment of Palestinians.
Jarrar is a Palestinian political leader, representing the Abu Ali Mustafa Bloc, allied with the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in the Palestinian Legislative Council. She is a frequent leader and participant in demonstrations and popular actions for Palestinian freedom, a a long-time Palestinian political prisoners’ advocate and former executive director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and now a member of its board, and chair of the Prisoners’ Committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
She has also been active in the Palestinian women’s movement since her earliest days as a university student organizing with other female students to challenge the occupation. She is a leading organizer of International Women’s Day events in Palestine and coordinates closely with Palestinian women’s organizations. “Palestinian women are full partners in the Palestinian struggle,” she emphasizes.
Khalida Jarrar is heavily involved in the fight to hold Israeli officials accountable for war crimes in the International Criminal Court. She is a member of a Palestinian commission charged with bringing complaints and files before the international court about ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, from attacks on Gaza to land confiscation and settlement construction to mass arrests and imprisonment.
Since 1998, she has been forbidden to travel outside occupied Palestine. When she needed medical treatment in Jordan in 2010, she struggled for months in a public campaign before finally receiving it. The Israeli occupation attempted to forcibly displace her from her home to Jericho in 2014, and in 2015, arrested and jailed her 14 months for her political activities.
The extended administrative detention of Khalida Jarrar is an attempt to remove an effective, grassroots leader from the Palestinian national movement. Especially now, when people are taking to the streets throughout occupied Palestine and thousands are marching in Gaza for the Great Return March, leaders like her are targeted for arrest and imprisonment in an attempt to defuse the Palestinian struggle.
Khalida Jarrar is being targeted as a Palestinian leader, a Palestinian voice for justice, and an active Palestinian woman. Her imprisonment is yet another attack by the Israeli colonial state against the Palestinian people struggling for freedom, and administrative detention and the mass imprisonment of Palestinians are two of the weapons used in an attempt to break the Palestinian liberation movement.
We come together today to demand the immediate release of Khalida Jarrar, an end to the policy and practice of administrative detention and freedom for Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. We pledge to struggle for justice through protests, actions, organizing and escalating boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) actions against Israel, in Khalida’s own spirit of resistance.
Signed,
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Al-Awda NY, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right of Return Movement
Action Antifasciste NP2C
Actions4Palestine
Alkarama Movement of Palestinian Women
Al-Quds Day Committee of New York
American Muslims for Palestine – NY/NJ
American Party of Labor
Anticapitalistas
Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland
Anti Internment Group London
Anti-Zionist and Anti-Imperialist Friends of Palestine
ArbeiterInnenmacht (Germany)
Arbeiter*innenstandpunkt (Austria)
Asociación Palestina BILADI
Association Belgo-Palestinienne
Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP)
Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), India
Association France-Palestine Solidarité
Association France-Palestine Solidarité — Groupe du Pays de Cornouaille
AFPS 63 (Association France Palestine Solidarité 63)
AFPS 59/62
AFPS Albertville
AFPS Alès-Cévennes
AFPS Paris 14-6
Associazione Amicizia Sardegna Palestina
Assopace Palestina – Italy
ATIK – Confederation of Workers from Turkey in Europe
BAF – Brigade Antifasciste de Strasbourg
Balfour Declaration Centenary Campaign
BDS Berlin
BDS France Saint-Étienne
BDS France Toulouse
BDS Italia
BDS Turkey
BDS UChile (Universidad de Chile)
BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish
BDS Zürich
Belgian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BACBI)
Biellesi per la Palestina Libera Committee
Black Alliance for Peace
Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within (aka Boycott from Within – Israeli citizens for BDS)
Bruxelles Panthéres
Cafe Palestina of the Southern Berkshires
California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Campagne BDS France
Campagne unitaire pour la libération de Georges Ibahim Abdallah (Paris)
Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon
Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
Canada Palestine Association
Canadian BDS Coalition
Canadian Friends of Sabeel
Centre de la Communauté Démocratique Kurde de Toulouse
Cercle de Silence – Amiens
Christchurch Progressive Network
Coalition for Justice – Blacksburg
Coalition of Women for Peace
CODEPINK – Women for Peace
Colectivo Contraimpunidad
Collectif 69 de soutien au peuple palestinien
Collectif de Soutien à la Résistance Palestinienne 59-62
Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine
Collectif Justice pour la Palestine Annecy
Collectif pour la Libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah
Colletivo Palestina Rossa
Comité Internacional Paz,Justicia y Dignidad a los Pueblos
Comité de Vigilance pour la Démocratie en Tunisie
Comité Poitevin Palestine
Comite pour le Respect des Libetés et des Droits de l Homme en Tunisie CRLDHT
Committee to Stop FBI Repression – National
Committee to Stop FBI Repression – NY
Committees for a Democratic Palestine – Europe
Communist Party, Sweden
Coordinamento Napoli Palestin
Coordinamento di Solidarietà con la Palestina – Sicilia
Corsica Internaziunalista
Corvallis Palestine Solidarity
Coup Pour Coup 31
Dones x Dones
Dun Padraig Friends of Palestine
Egitim Sen Istanbul 6 Nolu Üniversiteler Subesi
EH Bildu municipal group of Donostia
Eye On Palestine Arts and Film Festival
Familles de prisonniers pour la Justice – Belgique
Femmes en lutte 93
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! Manchester
F.O.R. Palestine (Berlin)
Free Gaza Movement
Free Palestine Movement
Freedom Archives
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Friends of Palestine Network
Friends of Sabeel North America
Frihet åt Ahed Tamimi Göteborg
Fronte Palestina
Gaza Action Ireland
General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS Aix-Marseille)
General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS France)
Gents Actieplatform Palestina
Global Campaign for Palestinian Political Prisoners (GCPPP)
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Greek Front of Resistance and Solidarity with Palestine “Ghassan Kanafani”
Green Mountain Solidarity with Palestine
Greenville for Gaza
Groupe Non-Violent LOUIS LECOIN
Handala Center for Prisoners and Former Prisoners – Palestine
Harakat Shaab – Lebanon
HDP Peoples’ Democratic Party
HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) Central Women’s Assembly
Hilombé Solidaridad
Human Rights Defenders
ICAHD
If Americans Knew
Independent Jewish Voices – Canada
Indivisible Midlands
Inminds Human Rights Group
intal
International Action Center
International Association of Democratic Lawyers
International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) Spain
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network – Canada
International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS)
International Red Help
International Women’s Alliance
Internationalt Forum – Denmark
Invictapalestina – Documentation Center
Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association (IRPWA)
Irish Socialist Republicans
ISM France
Izquierda Unida – Spain
Jacksonville Community Action Committee
Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network
Jericho Movement – National
Jericho Movement – New York City
Jersey City Peace Movement
Jeune Garde Lyon
Jeunes Révolutionnaires Genève
Jeunes Révolutionnaires Vaud
Jewish Liberation Theology Institute
Jewish People’s Liberation Organization
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
Jewish Women for Justice in Israel/ Palestine
Jews Against Genocide (JAG)
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Justice For Palestinians, Calgary
Justice for Palestinians – San Jose
Karapatan Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights – Philippines
Katie Miranda Studios
Kia Ora Gaza (New Zealand)
Kickapoo Peace Circle
LA4Palestine
Labor for Palestine
Laura Wells for Congress, District 13
La Voix des Prisonnier.ère.s Politiques de Turquie et Kurdistan
Le Collectif Rouge Internationaliste pour la libération des prisonniers révolutionnaires (Paris)
Le Comité d’action et de soutien aux luttes du peuple marocain (Paris)
Friday, 6 July 6:00 pm Mairie de Montcel Montcel, France 63460
A ceremony to honor imprisoned French-Palestinian human rights defender Salah Hamouri and declare him an honorary citizen of the town.
The event will include the mayor of Montcel, the local member of the French National Assembly as well as as well as Jean-Claude Lefort, honorary member of the French National Assembly and coordinator of the Salah Hamouri support committee. Salah’s parents will Skype in from Jerusalem, and AFPS 63 will discuss the situation in Palestine.
The event will also include a screening of the film, “Palestine: La case prison.”
2INCLUDES STREET THEATRE AND MARCH TO THE FACTORY
MEETING: Outside Spindles Shopping Centre, (Market Place) Oldham at 12pm
Oldham Ferranti Technologies is owned and run by Israel’s largest arms dealer: Elbit Systems.
Elbit products are tested and used by the Israeli army to suppress, injure and kill Palestinians, used to enforce the siege of Gaza and the illegal occupation of the West Bank, are licensed for export by the UK government and have been used by Israel to commit massacres in Gaza and violations of international law.
This demonstration falls on the 4th year since Israel’s massacre on Gaza in 2014, when 2200 Palestinians, including over 500 children were murdered. Over the past few months, the Israeli army have shot thousands of protesters in Gaza with live ammunition including press, medics and many children. They have killed over 120. Amnesty International have called for an international arms Embargo with Israel. Gaza a population that is mostly children, under Israeli siege and suffering 3 major bombing campaigns in the last ten years, under Israeli military occupation for 50 years and according to the UN will be in a state that is “unliveable” with only 5 percent of water fit to drink and denied electricity by the Israeli authorities for 21 hours each day.
Stand with the Palestinian people and join the demonstration against Oldham’s Israeli arms factory.
On the 8th of July, 2014, Israel began a massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.
The assault, named “Protective Edge”, would go on to claim the lives of over 2300 Palestinians. Including the deaths of 551 children.
Companies that sell the produce of the apartheid state of Israel are complicit in their actions.
Tesco stock and sell Israeli produce.
Join the IPSC, Palestinians and all people of conscience in calling for an end Israeli apartheid by using the only successful weapon against apartheid.
New Yorkers protested for the second time in as many weeks outside the offices of a charity that raises money to fund the Israeli occupation forces and their war crimes. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network gathered outside the Broadway office of the “Friends of the IDF” to denounce ongoing Israeli war crimes in Gaza and demand freedom for imprisoned Palestinian leader Khalida Jarrar on Saturday, 30 June.
Jarrar, a Palestinian leftist, feminist parliamentarian who is well-known for her advocacy for Palestinian prisoners, has already been jailed for a year without charge or trial, since she was seized from her family home in El-Bireh by Israeli occupation forces on 2 July 2017. In mid-June, she received a new order for another four months of imprisonment without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention.
There are currently around 450 Palestinians held in administrative detention, among the over 6,100 total Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians have spent years at a time imprisoned on so-called “secret evidence” without charge or trial. On 2 July 2018, an Israeli military court is expected to rubber-stamp the order from the Israeli occupation forces’ commander for her continued imprisonment. Jarrar, along with her fellow administrative detainees, is engaged in a collective boycott of the military courts, demanding the abolition of administrative detention.
Over 270 international groups, including political parties, feminist organizations, Palestine solidarity and Palestinian community organizations, have signed on to a collective statement demanding her release in advance of the hearing, while thousands of individuals have joined a petition calling for her immediate freedom.
“Israel’s ongoing persecution of Khalida Jarrar and its brutal repression of the Great March of Return are two sides of the same coin. As it seeks to crush the resistance they embody, their heroic examples of steadfastness demand greater solidarity from all of us,” said Joe Catron, U.S. coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, highlighting the ongoing marches by Palestinians in Gaza for their right to return and the breaking of the siege.
The marches have been met with intense violence by Israeli occupation forces, who have killed over 130 Palestinians and injured thousands as they marched in mass popular demonstrations at the colonially-imposed armistice line. On 3 July, women in Gaza have announced a women’s march for return and breaking the siege, and they have urged international solidarity; events are being organized in Belfast, Bratislava and elsewhere.
The protest also highlighted the role of the “Friends of the IDF,” a notorious “charity” organization that raises millions of dollars from U.S. celebrities and Zionist organizations to fund the Israeli occupation army and its killing, colonization and siege of Palestinians. Among other efforts, such as “Adopt a Unit,” the FIDF encourages Americans and others to travel as foreign fighters to join the Israeli occupation army as “lone soldiers,” providing them with material aid and assistance.
The strength of Saturday’s demonstration was bolstered by an earlier protest against U.S. policies of migrant detention and deportation, especially the detention of children and the separation of families. Approximately 30,000 people – including the participants in the demonstration for Palestine outside the FIDF office – participated in the march across the Brooklyn Bridge, part of a national day of action against the separation of immigrant families and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency responsible for carrying out these repressive policies.
Following the protest, participants joined the ongoing encampment in Foley Square, “Occupy ICE.” The 24/7 encampment is present near the ICE office in New York “with the intention of disrupting deportations, giving mutual aid in the form of food serves, medical, and legal services to immigrants facing deportation cases, and raising awareness of ICE’s innumerable abuses.” Catron, among others, formed the night crew holding the space overnight to ensure the encampment remains until the morning. Samidoun activists and Palestine organizers are among those participating in the ongoing encampment over the weeks to come.
Photo: Rafael Justo
Since the Foley Square protest began on Tuesday, 26 June, police invaded it twice – and on both occasions, they removed a Palestinian flag mounted on a statue there by participants. They left other flags in place, including Mexican and pan-African flags. However, each time the police have removed the Palestinian flag, the participants have raised it once more.
Photo: Rafael Justo
Samidoun activists in New York will continue to organize to demand the freedom of Khalida Jarrar and all Palestinian prisoners in the weeks and months to come.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is coming back to Belgium to promote an increase in military spending on the occasion of the NATO summit.
Trump is not only the President of the United States, he is also a minister of Israel’s occupation policy and a strong supporter of Israel’s apartheid system. Since his election, the Israeli extreme right has found its best ally within the White House: transfer of the American embassy to Jerusalem, suspension of the budget provided to the UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East), support to the colonization, etc.
The ideal world of Netanyahu and that of Trump converge: an ultra-militarized world where the holy texts prevail on international law.
We, solidarity organizations with Palestinian people, whish to make this “Trump Not Welcome: Make PEACE great again” demonstration a rally for Palestine. We call upon the supporters of the rights of Palestinian people to join us from 3pm within the “international bloc” of this big gathering against Trump and its Zionist extreme-right policy.
Le président américain Trump revient en Belgique le 7 juillet prochain pour promouvoir une hausse des dépenses militaires lors d’un sommet de l’OTAN.
Trump, ce n’est pas que le président des Etats-Unis, c’est aussi un ministre de la politique israélienne d’occupation et un fervent défenseur du système d’ apartheid israélien.
Depuis son arrivée, l’extrême-droite israélienne au pouvoir a trouvé son meilleur allié à la maison blanche; transfèrt de l’ambassade américaine à Jérusalem, suspension des budgets accordés à l’Unrwa, l’agence onusienne pour les réfugiés palestiniens, soutien à la colonisation, etc.
Le monde idéal de Netanyahu et celui de Trump se rejoint : un monde ultramilitarisé où les textes sacrés priment sur le droit international.
Nous, organisations de solidarité avec le peuple palestinien, souhaitons faire de cette manifestation Trump Not Welcome: Make PEACE great again! un rassemblement aux couleurs de la Palestine ! Nous appelons les militant.e.s des droits du peuple palestinien à nous rejoindre dès 15H dans le bloque “international” de ce grand rassemblement contre TRUMP et sa politique d’extrême-droite ulta-sioniste.
Activists gathered near the “Fearless Girl” statue in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday, 26 June for their third monthly protest event to call for the freedom of imprisoned Palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi. Ahed, 17, is a leader, with other members of her family, in the indigenous anti-colonial land defense movement in her village of Nabi Saleh in occupied Palestine. She has been jailed by the Israeli occupation since December 2017, after a video of her confronting – and slapping – and Israeli soldier on her family’s land was virally circulated across social media.
Photo: Bud Korotzer/Desertpeace
Ahed’s mother, Nariman, is imprisoned with her in HaSharon prison, serving an 8-month sentence alongside her daughter. Her case has drawn widespread international attention and protests around the world. At the same time, her family in Nabi Saleh and the neighboring village of Deir Nitham have continued to face intense attacks by the Israeli occupation forces, even as they stave off attempts to claim their land for the nearby illegal colonial settlement of Halamish. Occupation soldiers killed Izzedine Tamimi in Nabi Saleh in early June, in another example of a so-called arrest raid that was actually an assassination raid, similar to the targeting of Basil al-Araj or Moataz Washaha.
Photo: Bud Korotzer/Desertpeace
Most recently, imprisoned Palestinian teen Hassan Tamimi, from Deir Nitham, lost his eyesight after he was one of dozens of Tamimi family members seized by occupation forces. He has a lifelong medical condition that requires him to have medication and a strict vegetarian diet. When arrested by Israeli occupation forces, he was denied medication and his special diet and became so ill that he entered a coma despite the specific pleas of his mother and family. He lost virtually all of his eyesight as a result; the Israeli prsion administration then released Hassan in an attempt to evade responsibility for the damage they did to the 18-year-old’s life and health. His father noted that he still faces the threat of being returned to prison, especially if his health improves.
Photo: Bud Korotzer/Desertpeace
The New York protest, organized by activists with Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and other local organizations, included the dressing of the famous statue, which faces the Wall Street Bull, in a kuffiyeh, “Free Palestine” cap and Palestine flag scarf worn as a sash. Participants distributed flyers and information about Ahed’s case and the imprisonment of Palestinian children while holding signs and posters demanding freedom for Ahed Tamimi and all Palestinian prisoners.
Photo: Bud Korotzer/Desertpeace
Located in this prime tourist location, the action drew the attention of a wide range of New Yorkers and visitors, many of whom chose to be photographed with the statue dressed as Ahed. Many international tourists had heard about Ahed’s case, including a British journalist visiting the city with his family.
Photo: Bud Korotzer/Desertpeace
The protest also received great support from passers-by and cars on the road, many of whom honked in support of the action. Children passing by were especially interested, as demonstrators distributed information to their families about the imprisonment of hundreds of Palestinian children in Israeli jails.
Photo: Bud Korotzer/Desertpeace
Joining the activists at the protest were a group of anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews from the Neturei Karta, who brought signs and banners espousing their support, from a religious perspective, for Palestinian liberation and their opposition to the Israeli state.
Photo: Bud Korotzer/Desertpeace
Following the action, participants marched in a group to Foley Square to join a rally against the Supreme Court ruling upholding U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban,” a travel ban targeting citizens of countries under attack by U.S. imperialism, including Iran, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, Libya, Somalia and the DPRK (North Korea). The mass protest was attended by large crowds, who marched in protest following the rally.
Friday, 6 July 6:00 pm Spazio Occupato Via Faenza 12/7 Milan, Italy
Georges Abdallah is a Lebanese Communist, anti-imperialist struggler for the Palestinian cause, imprisoned by France since 1984.
Support Georges Abdallah!
This event will include presentations, informative material and a video screening about Georges Abdallah’s case and the international campaign for his liberation.
Drinks and snacks will be available
Collettivo contro la repressione per un Soccorso Rosso Internazionale
The actions of the reformist and legalistic left in Greece once in power, embodied by the Syriza coalition, is another example of how it positions itself on essential issues:
Barakat recalled the long history of cooperation and joint struggle between the Palestinian and South African movements, recalling his own time as a Palestinian youth organizer in New York participating in the mobilization and organizing of events in solidarity with the South African struggle against apartheid. He also presented on the current political situation in Palestine, noting in particular the importance of international action by countries like South Africa in contradiction to the assault by U.S. imperialism and its allies.
In her presentation, Kates thanked South Africa for 
A ceremony to honor imprisoned French-Palestinian human rights defender Salah Hamouri and declare him an honorary citizen of the town.
2INCLUDES STREET THEATRE AND MARCH TO THE FACTORY
On the 8th of July, 2014, Israel began a massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is coming back to Belgium to promote an increase in military spending on the occasion of the NATO summit.
Georges Abdallah is a Lebanese Communist, anti-imperialist struggler for the Palestinian cause, imprisoned by France since 1984.