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Saturday, July 5, 2025
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10 November, Chicago: Film Screening of “Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight”

Friday, November 10
9 pm
Sweet Void Cinema
3036 W Chicago Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
Info: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzW7UcQP70-/

This Friday at 9pm, Sweet Void Cinema is once again teaming up with Chicago Films for Palestine to bring you Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight. We will have a guest speaker from Samidoun: Political Prisoner Solidarity Network, an introduction prior and a discussion after. Hope to see you there!

Join us for an educational screening about Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese fighter for Palestinian liberation and one of the longest-held political prisoners in Europe. This documentary traces a life of resistance to imperialism and Zionist occupation. We will discuss the relevance of Georges’ story to the resistance today for the liberation of Palestine, confronting the genocide on Gaza.

A call to action: Confront the Zionist-imperialist assault on the Palestinian people!

 

The following statement was issued by Samidoun NY/NJ:

The New York/New Jersey Chapter of the Samidoun Palestinian Political Prisoners Network condemns in the harshest language the ongoing crimes committed against our people in Gaza and Lebanon by the Zionist enemy and its devoted Western backers.

The United States empire leads and funds these atrocities in hopes of crushing our people’s resistance. They continuously target civilians, hospitals, and journalists, and have severed Gaza’s access to basic necessities like food, water, electricity, and the internet signals needed to broadcast these atrocities. The world watched as the Zionist enemy bombed the Rafah border crossing to prevent the delivery of humanitarian aid and deployed internationally banned chemical weapons such as white phosphorus. So far, the Zionist enemy has martyred more than 9,000 Palestinians, most of whom were and children.

The New York/New Jersey Chapter of the Samidoun Network stresses that the western colonial powers created the Zionist entity, which remains loyal to the interests of western capital in the Arab world and beyond.  These very powers—principally the United States and its European allies—fund and/or manufacture every bullet, plane and bomb that the Zionist enemy uses against our people.

It is crucial to note the United States’ close coordination with the Israeli occupational government. Its political, tactical and strategic support has empowered each genocidal move made by the Zionists—including the bombing of the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital that killed over 500 civilians and, more recently, the violent ground invasion of Gaza that may involve around 5,000 U.S. military personnel. 

The Biden administration staunchly supports the occupation and has doubled down on its hospital bombing lie, even suggesting it was a legitimate military target. More broadly, the US imperialist regime continually threatens genocide not only to the Palestinians but the whole of the Arab world to enforce their violent world dominance.

We hold the American and European states responsible for every crime committed by the Zionist enemy over the last eight decades. We call on our supporters, the masses of our Palestinian people in exile, and all free people worldwide to challenge manifestations of Zionism and western imperialism by all available means.

Glory to the Martyrs… Freedom for the Prisoners… and Revolution until Victory

The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network – New York/ New Jersey

 

ALL OUT FOR PALESTINE in Washington, DC, and everywhere around the world, November 4!

The ongoing genocide in Gaza and the heroic Palestinian and Arab resistance confronting that genocide have spotlighted, perhaps more than ever, the destructive alliance of Zionism and U.S.-led imperialism, with the threat that they pose not only to Palestine but to humanity as a whole. As U.S. President Joe Biden — now dubbed “Genocide Joe” on social media — and Congress ready to send an additional $14 billion in weapons to the Zionist regime as it carries out its genocide, as Germany bans demonstrations for Palestine and even the Samidoun Network, as the British Home Secretary threatens people carrying a Palestinian flag, and as the French state attacks demonstrators and threatens political parties with imprisonment for speaking favourably about the Palestinian resistance, the alignment of the imperialist powers in order to protect their outpost in the region is clear.

At the same time, not only have Arab resistance forces from Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen joined the battle, the tide of normalization imposed upon the Arab masses is being overturned, even as reactionary regimes continue their complicity under imperialist domination. The streets of the region, from Baghdad and Sanaa to Tehran and Istanbul, are full of people standing with Palestine unconditionally. In Latin America, Bolivia, Colombia and Chile have joined the long-standing position of Venezuela and Cuba in rejecting the Zionist regime or, at minimum, withdrawing ambassadors. The outrage, however, spans borders, and defies ruling classes; at the heart of the imperial core, massive demonstrations, from London to New York to Toronto, from Paris to Berlin to Rome, have expressed widespread popular support for Palestinian liberation and rejection of the imperialist genocide being conducted by the Zionist regime in Gaza.

Belgian trade unions have announced their refusal to load weaponry bound for the Israeli military, and direct actions at weapons manufacturers like Elbit Systems — like those of the Palestine Action movement in Britain and the US — are directly confronting the war machine. Today in the San Francisco Bay Area, community members have occupied a military ship attempting to bring more weapons to the Zionist regime. This weekend is a global mobilization — everywhere — to take action, march, organize and make clear that the people of the world stand with Palestine!

In the United States, Saturday Nov. 4 is a major national mobilization to Washington, DC, to confront imperialism in the belly of the beast. It is on track to be the largest demonstration for Palestine in U.S. history. Around the world, from Johannesburg to Caracas to Beirut, from Santiago to Vancouver to Tokyo, people will march for Palestinian liberation. Samidoun is one of hundreds upon hundreds of organizations endorsing and supporting this major mobilization.

We also urge all to participate in the Black People’s March on the White House, beginning at 11 am at Malcolm X Park, an important Black Liberation Movement event with a strong anti-imperialist framework as well as clear solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

If you are in the United States and can come to Washington, DC, we urge you to join the mass mobilization and demonstrate popular power and resistance to imperialism and Zionism! 

Samidoun is collecting demonstrations and actions around the world on the Global Calendar of Resistance for Palestine. TO ADD YOUR EVENT TO THE CALENDAR: Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net or tag us on social media! We know that these events are mainly international and that the Arab people are marching everywhere for Palestine — we will be honored to add Arab events.

Please attend all of these events and actions in your area. The genocide is continuing — and the resistance is still rising. ALL OUT FOR PALESTINE!

Friday, November 3

Saturday, November 4

Sunday, November 5

3 November, NYC: Teach-In — Free all Palestinian Political Prisoners!

Join Samidoun NY/NJ at @MaydaySpace (176 St. Nicholas Ave, Brooklyn, NY) this Friday, November 3rd, at 7pm for a teach-in and discussion on the Palestinian Prisoners Movement, along with a talk from Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network International Coordinator, Charlotte Kates!

As the the Palestinian resistance continues the valiant fight against israel’s brutal attacks on Gaza, the zionist regime is ramping up abuse against prisoners and detainees by transferring them to an unknown location, while occupation forces are also carrying out an arbitrary arrest campaign targeting released prisoners and resistance fighters in the West Bank.

There has never been a better time to come together to learn about the Palestinian Prisoners Movement and discuss ways we can stand in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners from within the belly of the beast.

Gaza is a Strategy, Not Just a Place

The following statement was developed by Samidoun NY/NJ:

Gaza is a Strategy, Not Just A Place

We echo the sentiment that Gaza is ‘the first experiment in considering us all disposable” and “the likely future for the working-class masses worldwide.” ~Colombian president Gustavo Petro and The Hampton Institute

In the 20th century, fascist states used racialized dehumanization, ghettoization and forced transfer to concentration camps, coupled with brutal military suppression of working class and colonized people to expand their system of extermination. These tactics served as a mechanism for accomplishing the ruling class’ “final solution” and to preserve the power of capitalism.

In the 21st century, contradictions between the western imperial core and the racialized global working class continue to heighten. The power of the US-led imperial core is declining but it continues its desperate stranglehold on capitalism. Gaza is a focal point of this stranglehold and the testing ground for a completely new tactic of extermination.

These new fascists have found it more expedient to beseige a people where they already live and coordinate a two-pronged assault: on the one end, a brutal blockade preventing anything from getting in or out, on the other, after decades of global military escalation, a constant bombing campaign, increasing each time in scope and barbarity all the while engaging in global dehumanization campaign of the population to be exterminated.

It is increasingly clear that this tactic will not stay contained to Gaza.

From Kashmir to Korea, fascist states like India and the US are already laying the groundwork to replicate this tactic.

It is clearer every day that we are facing a coordinated effort to normalize not just the genocide of the Palestinians but the genocide of any and all people who resist the US-led imperialist world order.

It is in that vein that we salute the brave Palestinian people and their resistance. Their containment of these fascist policies gives us all precious time to understand the gravity of the situation and, more importantly, to act decisively against it.

Stop the Israeli Genocide of Palestinians!

Support Palestinian Resistance & Revolution!

Unite With the Struggling People of the World to Stop the Fascist Onslaught!

Repression and Surveillance

“Ask yourself why the capitalist ruling class has been responding to economic collapse with overpopulation rhetoric, cop cities, and… unprecedented spending on military.” – The Hampton Institute

As the global capitalist economy deteriorates and leaders initiate unpopular austerity policies, revolutionary movements are once again resurging throughout the world and especially in the global south, as they did throughout the 20th century.

In response:

  • Police forces around the world are becoming increasingly militarized and worldwide military spending has ballooned to its highest level in history
  • The United States is forcing the construction of a multi-billion dollar Cop City in Atlanta, GA to further militarize police and prepare them for urban warfare
  • Countries across the developed world have normalized high-tech spying and sophisticated forms of public opinion shaping
  • Drone technologies, pioneered and tested by the Zionist regime, are increasingly common around the world, shrouding the skies in an air of death
  • Red scare tactics used in the 20th century are making a come-back to scare people from pubicly supporting Palestine or participating in anti-imperialist resistance movements.
  • States around the world are instituting anti-“terrorism” laws to brutally suppress movements and create distrust within the communities they oppress.

Anti-Immigration Measures

As Gustavo Petro remarked, “Anti-immigration policies, concentration camps for immigrants… [and] economic blockades of rebel countries” along with clandestine operations to replace any leaders who threaten US and NATO’s global hegemony are amplifying.

As the West continues to hoard the world’s resources whilst degrading the land and atmopshere, economic and climate refugees are increasingly migrating to where it is safer.

In response:

  • Western countries are tightening up their immigration policies and, more recently, threatening to deport and incarcerate anyone who questions their genocidal policies
  • Border wall construction has gone into overdrive: today, the world has over 80 border walls compared to just 7 at the end of World War II
  • Several US politicians have said they support invading or bombing Mexico in pursuit of “drug dealers”, a broad, weaponized designation not dissimilar to “gang members” or “terrorists” used to justify military occupation and suppression of people resisting US imperial domination.

The German government outlaws and dissolves the Samidoun International Network of Solidarity with Political Prisoners.

Imagen: Pancarta de apoyo a Samidoun Alemaina en una manifestación en Madrid

Today Nancy Faeser, the German interior minister (previously known for multiple anti-Arab propaganda campaigns), announced a ban on Samidoun:

The ban on Samidoun by German officials is active participation in the ongoing genocide on Gaza. The purpose of such a ban is to repress dissent with the full force of the state. It comes hand in hand with bans on demonstrations, police assaulting people on the streets for wearing a kuffiyeh or carrying a Palestinian flag, the ban on saying “Freom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” the imposition of political bans, the efforts to deport activists or strip them of residency. 

All of this is full-on complicity and particiption in genocide. As we speak to you today, Israeli occupation forces just carried out a new massacre in al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, bombing 30 homes in a heavily populated camp. The German state and the Ministry of the Interior are choosing to support these attacks by waging a campaign of terror and repression against those who dare to speak out against these ongoing crimes, who want to mobilize people to put an end to destruction, war, occupation and colonialism. 

The German state and all imperialist powers, following the lead of U.S. President Biden, are partners not only in the defamation and dehumanization of the Palestinian people but the murderous war crimes and crimes against humanity of the occupation regime. Complicity in genocide is illegal under international law, as is the persecution of organizations because they oppose apartheid, and we are committed to hold Germany accountable for its crimes against not only Samidoun, but the Palestinian people as a whole.

This attack should be of serious concern to all who carry out political work, especially for Palestinian liberation. It is meant to introduce a norm in which organizations may be banned for organizing demonstrations, lectures, publishing posters and engaging in entirely public and political work that challenges the German state and its complicity in Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ongoing genocide in Gaza. It comes at a time when more people than ever are speaking out for justice and liberation in Palestine and is meant as an attack on the movement as a whole. 

If it is possible to ban Samidoun, then it is possible to ban every political organization and group in Germany that challenges the politics of the German state and its imperialist role. This action comes hand in hand with the United States’ ongoing resupply of bombs to target the Palestinian people in Gaza. It is meant to bolster the Israeli war effort by depriving the Palestinian people of popular support on the streets.

This is also a racist assault on the Palestinian and Arab community. Samidoun in Germany is led by Palestinian refugee youth, and the German media has engaged in a blatantly racist smear campaign intended to incite the most racist and fascist forces in the country against the Palestinian community, which is the largest in Europe. The police in Berlin have engaged in an ongoing, targeted and offensive assault against Arab neighbourhoods and communities. Samidoun activists have faced severe repression, such as Zaid Abdulnasser being threatened with stripping his residency and Musaab Abu Atta being subjected to a political ban. Other activists have been threatened with deportation for merely attending protests and events. This ban is meant to keep the communities silenced by terror and fear, to repress the voice of youth, and to empower the most racist and fascist forces against the Palestinian people both in Germany and in Palestine.

The attack on Samidoun is part and parcel of the attack on the Palestinian people as a whole. It reflects the German state’s imperialist interests. Far from expressing a sense of guilt or responsibility for Nazi crimes and genocide, this action evidences the German state’s aggressive dedication to and promotion of racism, repression and war crimes. We must be clear: Germany has no legitimacy or authority to speak on human rights, freedoms or democracy. It is dedicated to stripping all of those things from anyone who speaks out against genocide and colonialism in Palestine

Samidoun has also been particularly targeted because we advocate for the Palestinian prisoners, on the front lines of struggle, confronting repression, and express our solidarity with and the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance. While Germany suppresses the Palestinian community and bans Samidoun, its official outposts abroad have frequently sought to influence and direct Palestinian politics through conditional funding and similar colonial enterprises. Through this ban, the German state wishes not only to support genocide but to criminalize even verbal resistance to that genocide. The Palestinian people, like all colonized and oppressed peoples, have the right to resist to liberate themselves and their land from colonialism and occupation, from the river to the sea. Those who resist occupation and oppression — the Palestinian resistance — are not only heroes of the Palestinian people, they are defenders of all of humanity. 

At this moment, we urge all activists and supporters of Palestine, and all who care for freedom and justice, to speak out against the genocide in Gaza, to speak out against the ban on Samidoun and to affirm loudly and clearly that Palestine will be free from the river to the sea, and that Palestinians have the right to resist occupation and oppression. Through this action, through repeated demands of police on protest organizers, the German state wants to suppress these truths and this reality. They want to secure our silence and even our complicity, and we will not allow them to do so. 

We reiterate our words upon German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ announcement of the demand to ban Samidoun: In Arabic, the word “Samidoun,” means those who are steadfast. We use this name to refer to the Palestinian prisoners, who remain behind bars, struggling for freedom. Today we affirm that we shall remain steadfast and committed to the Palestinian people, until victory, return and liberation.

 

The Gaza Resolution

Samidoun is one of many global organizations that have signed onto the Gaza Resolution below, initiated by the Progressive International:

The Gaza Resolution: Popular movements, parties, and unions across the world issue a pledge to stand for Palestinian liberation and sever ties of complicity with the State of Israel.

(1) Grieve the lives claimed in the renewed cycle of violence, brutality, and destruction unleashed by the ongoing occupation of Palestine;

(2) Consider that the Zionist project is colonial in nature, built on stolen land, and sustained by the systematic exclusion, exploitation, and extermination of the Palestinian people;

(3) Recognize Zionism’s use as a weapon of Western imperialism and the Israeli state as an instrument to suppress sovereignty and unity in the Arab world — and advance violent reaction far beyond it;

(4) Consider that the Zionist regime has demonstrated its genocidal nature both in intent and in effect;

(5) Understand that the fascist violence against the Palestinian people today foreshadows the violence of Western imperialism towards all the world’s workers and oppressed peoples tomorrow because this is the historical tendency of capitalism in decay;

(6) Acknowledge that the Palestinian people face a national struggle, a class struggle, and a feminist struggle; affirm that the national struggle must be won for the other struggles to advance; and reject the weaponization of “colonial feminism” to obscure the primary contradictions of colonialism and imperialism and distract from the patriarchal and sexual violence inherent in them;

(7) Recognize that as a colonial project and imperial outpost, the Israeli state stands against the tendency of history to advance toward liberation, and that the liberation of the Palestinian people will therefore represent not only a severe blow to imperialism everywhere but also a progressive leap for all humanity;

(8) Reject the false equivalence of colonizer and colonized, recognize that the violence of the oppressed is a response to the original condition of their oppression, and uphold the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to resist, enshrined in UN Resolution 2625, as “the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign occupation by all available means”;

(9) Denounce the disinformation being spread by the Israeli state and advanced by imperialist powers and their allies, which dehumanizes the Palestinian people, fuels the genocidal war against them, and whitewashes the crimes of their oppressors;

(10) Condemn the silence or equivocation of the non-governmental organizations and movements that weaponize human rights to transform our individual and collective entitlements to assistance, protection, dignity, and solidarity into an arsenal aimed at adversaries of the imperial order;

(11) Support the self-determination and sovereignty of front-line states and regional anti-systemic movements, whose democratic aspirations are constrained both by Israeli military aggression and US pressures to normalize relations with the Israeli state;

(12) Hear the urgent calls for solidarity from the Palestinian people, who demand, in the short-term:

  • an immediate end to the genocide,
  • the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the restoration of water, food, fuel and medical supplies to its people,
  • a military embargo against the Israeli state,
  • an investigation into the crimes against humanity perpetrated by representatives of the Israeli regime and their accomplices around the world,
  • the removal of Palestinian political parties from the US Treasury’s OFAC terrorism sanctions program,
  • the release of all political prisoners, and
  • determined political action at all levels to advance these goals;

(13) Recognize that these immediate aims remain insufficient and commit to supporting the long-standing aspirations of the Palestinian people by:

  • dismantling the mechanisms of corporate, institutional, and state complicity that sustain the Israeli apartheid state and its military machine, including through strikes and direct actions targeting the producers and suppliers of weapons, digital services, informational services, and related products;
  • upholding the truth and combatting the spread of lies and disinformation advanced by the Zionist regime and its imperialist backers, including by exposing their crimes against humanity and advancing popular education on the long struggle for Palestine’s national liberation;
  • advancing the anti-imperialist and anti-colonial struggle around the world, including by taking on Western militarism on all continents;

(14) Knowing that our collective struggles for liberation converge in Palestine, commit to responding to these calls for solidarity; consent for our actions to be measured against the seriousness of their aspirations; and vow to choke the arteries of complicity that sustain the Zionist oppression of the Palestinian people militarily, financially, technologically, and culturally.

Signatories:

National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa – NUMSA (South Africa) • Palestinian Youth Movement (International) • Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan – MKSS (India) • DiEM25 (Europe) • The Red Nation (International) • Potere al Popolo (Italy) • Women’s International Democratic Federation – WIDF (International) • Black Alliance for Peace (United States) • DSA International Committee (United States) • Black Lives Matter UK (United Kingdom) • Communard Union (Venezuela) • Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (South Africa) • Telar: Territorios Latinoamericanos en Resistencia (International) • Movimento de Pequenos Agricultores – MPA (Brazil) • Movimento de Trabalhadores Sem Teto – MTST (Brazil) • Ukamau (Chile) • Frente Popular Darío Santillán (Argentina) • Congreso de los Pueblos (Colombia) • Palestine Action US (United States) • Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (Pakistan) • Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (International) • Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima Tanzania – MVIWATA (Tanzania) • Women’s Democratic Front (Pakistan) • Palestinian Feminist Collective (International) • Communist Party of Kenya (Kenya) • Kuwaiti Progressive Movement (Kuwait) • WAELE Africa (International) • Coalition for Revolution – CORE (Nigeria) • Madaar Sorkh (Iran) • Borotba (Ukraine) • Danesh va Mardom (Iran) • House of Latin America (Iran) • Solidarity Iran (Iran) • Izquierda Libertaria (Chile) • Unión Sindical Obrera de la Industria del Petróleo – USO (Colombia) • Akcja Socjalistyczna (Poland) • El Maizal Commune (Venezuela) • Vencedores de Carorita Commune (Venezuela) • El Movimiento Democratico de Mujeres (Spain) • The International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism (International) • Instituto Simón Bolívar (Venezuela) • Cage (United Kingdom) • Foro Itinerante de Participación Popular (Venezuela) • Plataforma de Solidaridad con Palestina (Venezuela) • Brigada Internacionalista de Solidaridad Activa – BRISA (Venezuela) • Movimiento de Mujeres Palestinas Alkarama (Venezuela) • Movimiento Venezolano de Solidaridad con Palestina Al Awda (Venezuela) • Movimiento Ruta Revolucionaria Alternativa Palestina – Masar Badil (Venezuela) • The Socialist Refoundation Party – SYKP (Turkey) • El Ciudadano (Chile) • Mathare Social Justice Center (Kenya) • Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists (Egypt) • Democratic Way Party (Morocco) • Workers Party of Tunisia (Tunisia) • US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (United States) • Jews for Palestinian Right of Return (United States) • Labor for Palestine (United States) • National Lawyers Guild (United States) • All India Students’ Association – AISA (India).

Basque political prisoners fast in solidarity with Palestine

A group of Basque political prisoners announced that they would fast on Friday, 27 October in solidarity with Palestine and against the genocide being carried out in Gaza by the Israeli occupation regime with the full support and complicity of imperialist powers. Since 7 October, the Zionist bombing campaign has taken the lives of over 6,000 Palestinians while destroying the homes of 1 million Palestinians.

We are republishing their statement below and extend our solidarity and salutes to these political prisoners struggling behind bars for collective liberation:

Palestinian women and men have been suffering violence caused by the Zionist occupation for decades; forced out of their homes and forced into exile, their cities and towns destroyed; imprisoned, tortured, raped, murdered…

We have evidence of this genocidal policy carried out by this terrorist Zionist state, the massacres and horrors in Gaza that the whole world has been able to see in these past days.

Because of all this, in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and declaring the legitimacy of the right to defend oppressed peoples, we Basque political prisoners who sign this letter will carry out a day of fasting next Friday, 27 October 27.

Palestine advances!

*Signatories:

Mattin Sarasola Iarzabal

Iñaki Krutxaga Elezkano

Fernando Elejalde Tapia

Mikel San Sebastian Gaztelumendi

Dani Pastor Alonso

Garikoitz Etxeberria Goikoetxea

Aitor Cotano Sinde

Beatriz Etxebarria Caballero

Beñat Aginagalde Ugartemendia

Lexuri Gallastegi Sodupe

Josu Ordoñez Fernandez

Xabier Garcia Gaztelu

Orkatz Gallastegi Sodupe

Fernando Garcia Jodra

Jon Kepa Preciado Izarra

Patxi Ruiz Romero

Dolores Lopez Resina

Liher Aretxabaleta Rodríguez

Irantzu Gallastegi Sodupe

Jesus Mari Etxeberria Garaikoetxea

A campaign of assassination and torture: The martyrdom of Palestinian prisoner Arafat Yasser Hamdan

On Tuesday, 24 October, less than 24 hours after the assassination of Palestinian prisoner Sheikh Omar Daraghmeh, 58, fellow Palestinian prisoner Arafat Yasser Hamdan, 25, was martyred in Ofer prison by Israeli occupation forces, only two days after his arrest by the occupation forces. Hamdan was among over 1,000 Palestinian political prisoners seized by the occupation throughout the West Bank, Jerusalem and occupied Palestine ’48 following the launch of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation by the Palestinian resistance on 7 October and amid the ongoing genocide it is waging against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in affirming that the martyrdom of Arafat Yasser Hamdan represents a clear policy of assassinatiion and murder by torture targeting the Palestinian prisoners that is part and parcel of the genocidal war on the Palestinian people. 

As in the case of Daraghmeh, who was martyred in Megiddo prison, the occupation prison administration claimed that Hamdan, from Beit Sira, near Ramallah, had sudenly “felt unwell and was transferred to the prison clinic,” where he was declared dead. The healthy 25-year-old was arrested only 2 days ago, meaning that he was likely under interrogation when he was martyred.

It is notable that the killing of Arafat Yasser Hamdan took place in Ofer prison, where the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission released just today a list of the ongoing severe conditions imposed upon the Palestinian prisoners held there. There are currently approximately 6,300 Palestinian political prisoners jailed as well as approximately 4,000 Palestinian workers from Gaza who have been rounded up into Zionist prison camps. As Samidoun stated upon the martyrdom of Daraghmeh, “The massive escalation of arrests aims not only to undermine the organization of resistance, solidarity and rising struggle against the genocide in Gaza, but also in an attempt to prevent the resistance from achieving a prisoner exchange for imprisoned Palestinian leaders, strugglers serving life sentences and other prisoners that the occupation wants to avoid exchanging for the release of its prisoners of war.”

As the occupation continues its genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, which has already taken over 5,700 Palestinian martyrs’ lives, it is conducting a simultaneous campaign of targeting the prisoners, up to and including assassination by torture. All Palestinian prisoners in Ofer are subjected to collective punishment, including the confiscation of all electrical devices, including heating plates, televisions and radios (denying them access to news of the assault and the resistance); cutting electicity to the sections throughout the day; denial of access to the courtyard; destruction of sports equipment; cutting off of all hot water; closure of the kitchen; constant room searches and raids; overcrowding of the prison rooms; and the continued escalation of administrative detention orders. Palestinian prisoners whose sentences have ended are being ordered jailed without charge or trial rather than released.

Arafat Yasser Hamdan has become the 239th martyr of the prisoners’ movement, lives taken through medical neglect, colonial imprisonment, torture and outright assassination. The occupation continues to imprison the bodies of 12 martyrs of the prisoners’ movement (incluing Daraghmeh) alongside hundreds of strugglers for Palestine whose bodies are held captive.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns Arafat Yasser Hamdan, the second Palestinian prisoner assassinated in less than one day, as prisoners are targeted in the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the Palestinian people as a whole.  We express our deepest condolences to his family, his fellow strugglers, the prisoners’ movement and the Palestinian people as a whole.

Our focus on the collective defense of Gaza and organizing to end the bombing, break the siege and shatter the deadly alliance of Western imperialist powers like the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Italy with the Zionist regime will not prevent our movement from defending the Palestinian prisoners and confronting the ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people everywhere. We stand with the Palestinian people, the prisoners’ movement, the Arab people and all of the peoples of the world rising up, mobilizing and acting to bring an end to the genocide in Gaza and to liberate Palestine, from the river to the sea.

 

The martyrdom of Omar Daraghmeh in Zionist prisons: Prisoners under attack amid genocide in Gaza

On Monday, 23 October, Palestinian political prisoner Sheikh Omar Hamza Daraghmeh, 58, was martyred in the Israeli occupation jails, only hours after a video hearing in his case where was reported to be in good health, without any symptoms of illness or discomfort. Daraghmeh, from Tubas, was a leader in Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement. He was seized with his son Hamza on 9 October, two of the over 1,000 Palestinian detainees abducted by the occupation following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October and amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Palestinian organizations across the board have affirmed that Daraghmeh was targeted in an assassination carried out by the occupation, and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins them in denouncing this latest Zionist crime against the prisoners taking place amid the backdrop of the genocidal bombing campaign being waged upon the Palestinian people of Gaza. 

The assassination of Omar Daraghmeh comes as part and parcel of the same genocidal war of ongoing Nakba against the Palestinian people. It aims to target the Palestinian prisoners’ movement as a whole, to undermine the prisoners’ unity and steadfastness in confronting the occupation. It particularly comes as the Palestinian resistance has captured prisoners of war in order to seek a prisoner exchange to liberate the Palestinian prisoners jailed by the occupation and its imperialist allies and backers.

Over 1,000 Palestinians have been seized in mass arrest campaigns targeting Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and occupied Palestine ’48 since the Al-Aqsa Flood and amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza. This comes in addition to the nearly 4,000 Palestinian workers from Gaza working with permits, who have been detained en masse in detention camps, raising the number of total Palestinian prisoners to over 10,300. The massive escalation of arrests aims not only to undermine the organization of resistance, solidarity and rising struggle against the genocide in Gaza, but also in an attempt to prevent the resistance from achieving a prisoner exchange for imprisoned Palestinian leaders, strugglers serving life sentences and other prisoners that the occupation wants to avoid exchanging for the release of its prisoners of war.

In addition, the battle is continuing inside the prisons, with multiple Palestinian prisoners and their families reporting an intense siege imposed upon the prisoners. Family visits have been banned and electricity, water and food have been repeatedly cut to prisoners in multiple prisons, with water being restricted to one hour per day. Televisions, radios and other forms of access to media have been cut from the prisoners to restrict their access to knowledge about the genocidal assault on Gaza as well as the actions of the Palestinian resistance. In addition, prison clinics have been closed down and prisoners denied access to medical treatment, and many prisoners have been severely beaten and tortured when being taken to either court hearings or virtual court hearing rooms in the past 18 days. It is in this context that the occupation prison administration announced that Omar Daraghmeh had announced that he was not feeling well, was taken to the prison clinic and “died,” without explanation.

The martyrdom of Sheikh Omar Daraghmeh was not an accident or a coincidence; it is a method of assassination intended to threaten and terrorize the Palestinian prisoners, their movement and their leadership. Daraghmeh was one of 1600 Palestinian prisoners held in administrative detention, jailed without charge or trial. He was ordered to detention almost immediately following his arrest. Today, he becomes the 238th martyr of the prisoners’ movement, lives taken through medical neglect, colonial imprisonment, torture and outright assassination. The occupation continues to imprison the bodies of 11 martyrs of the prisoners’ movement alongside hundreds of strugglers for Palestine whose bodies are held captive.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns Sheikh Omar Daraghmeh and extends its condolences to his family, his fellow strugglers, and the Palestinian people, including his imprisoned son Hamza. He is married and the father of four children; his brother, Ashraf Daraghmeh, was assassinated by the Israeli occupation forces in 2002. 

The assassination of Omar Daraghmeh is part of the comprehensive aggression and genocide targeting the Palestinian people as a whole. Our focus on the collective defense of Gaza and organizing to end the bombing, break the siege and shatter the deadly alliance of Western imperialist powers like the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Italy with the Zionist regime will not prevent our movement from defending the Palestinian prisoners and confronting the ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people everywhere. We stand with the Palestinian people, the prisoners’ movement, the Arab people and all of the peoples of the world rising up, mobilizing and acting to bring an end to the genocide in Gaza and to liberate Palestine, from the river to the sea.

 

 

 

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Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
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