15 June, New York City: Film Screening – Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight

13 June 2025

NOTE: We are publishing events for the Week of Action to Free Georges Abdallah that are independently organized. For any information about these events, please contact the organizers, as Samidoun is not an organizer of these events and actions.

On Sunday June 15th, Al-Ahrar-NY-NJ will be hosting a screening of Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight.
Doors at 6PM
Screening at 6:30
May Day Space, 176 St Nicholas Ave, Brooklyn, NY
More info: https://www.instagram.com/p/DKnjv52vl8Z/

Following the film Al-Ahrar will have a short presentation and discussion on the current state of Abdallah’s case and ways we can support.

This screening is in a part of the international week of action for Georges Abdallah June 11-19th.

The 19th is a very important date for Georges Abdallah and the campaign for his release. On 15 November 2024 the court ordered his release, but the decision on the appeal by the government-ordered prosecution, originally scheduled for February, has been postponed to a new hearing on 19 June. His detention is a political offense, a reprisal by the state against those who stand up to the powerful.

Join the social media campaign to #FREE_GEORGES_ABDALLAH

13 June 2025

On 19 June 2025, the French Court of Appeal will convene to consider the request to release the Lebanese struggler for Palestine, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, held as a political prisoner in French jails for 41 years, without a fair trial or legal justification, and despite being eligible for release since 1999. The four decades of his imprisonment reveal the falsehood of France’s claims of “democracy” and underline its continued colonial domination of Lebanon and its role as an imperialist power, allied with the United States and the Zionist project, the military base of imperialism in the region.

To participate in the social media campaign, “We are all Georges Abdallah”:

1 Post your photo as a prisoner or hostage (Like the example in the poster above or the photo below, ideally with a French flag) with the hashtag #كلنا_جورج_عبدالله or
#FREE_GEORGES_ABDALLAH

2 Take to the streets: take part in the marches and protest stops in front of the French embassies and consulates in cities around the world as part of the Week of Action to Free Georges Abdallah, from the Europe-wide march in Paris to events in Madrid, Barcelona, and elsewhere.

3. Hold a screening of the film “Fedayin, Georges Abdallah’s Fight” near you, which retraces his story and that of Palestine, or hold events and symposia on the case of Georges Abdallah and all prisoners of the Palestinian cause. Screenings are planned in New York, Seattle, Beirut, Vancouver and elsewhere.

Freedom and justice for Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and all revolutionary prisoners in the Zionist, French and imperialist prisons.

15 June, Beirut: Film Screening of “Fedayin” on the Life and Struggle of Georges Abdallah

13 June 2025

تدعوكم الحملة الوطنية لتحرير جورج إبراهيم عبدالله وشبكة صامدون للدفاع عن الأسرى ‏الفلسطينيين والاتحاد الطلابي العام، لحضور عرض فيلم “فدائيين”، الذي يتناول سيرة المناضل ‏اللبناني الأسير جورج إبراهيم عبد الله، في ملتقى السفير – الحمرا، في أسبوع التضامن مع ‏الأسير البطل جورج عبد الله، وفي ظل انعقاد المحكمة الفرنسية يوم 19 حزيران للنظر في ‏قضية الإفراج عنه، وكذلك الإعلان عن انطلاق الحملة الدولية ضد العدوان الصهيوني على ‏لبنان، وضد سياسة الاغتيالات الصهيونية‎.‎

‎ ‎الزمان: الأحد – 15 يونيو (حزيران) 2025‏‎ ‎
المكان: ملتقى السفير – الحمرا – بيروت‎ ‎
‎ ‎الساعة: السادسة مساءً‎ ‎

The National Campaign to Free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, and the General Student Union invite you to attend the screening of the film “Fedayin,” which chronicles the life of the imprisoned Lebanese activist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. The screening will take place at the As-Safir Forum in Hamra, during the Week of Solidarity with the heroic prisoner Georges Abdallah. The event also coincides with the French court’s convening on June 19 to consider the case for his release. The event also marks the launch of the international campaign against the Zionist aggression against Lebanon and against the Zionist policy of assassinations.

Date: Sunday, June 15, 2025
Venue: As-Safir Forum, Hamra, Beirut
Time: 6:00 PM

Samidoun condemns U.S.-Zionist aggression on Iran, urges solidarity, unity and action

13 June 2025

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemns in the strongest terms the Zionist aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, launched in the early morning hours of Friday, 13 June 2025, and affirms Iran’s complete and legitimate right to defend itself and to respond by all means. This is not only an attack by the Zionist entity alone, but clearly coordinated with, armed, funded and directly cheered on by the United States and its fellow imperialist powers. The moment requires clear and explicit solidarity and action to confront the Zionist-imperialist war machine.

As the people of Iran awaken to the bombing of residential neighborhoods in Tehran and sites throughout the country, imperialist politician after imperialist politician declares that they are “praying for Israel” amid its ongoing, unlawful and illegitimate aggression. This attack once again exposes and underlines the facade of U.S. “diplomacy” and expressions about “peace” — they want only subjugation, surrender and the abdication of sovereignty and self-determination, but never peace or security for the people of the region.

When the US claims it wants “negotiations” on the future of a sovereign nation’s energy and defense policy, it is only buying time in order to carry out its imperial war plans. The only way to security and peace in the region is to uproot the Zionist entity — the military base of Western imperialism — once and for all.

We express our deepest condolences to the Iranian leadership and people on the martyrdom of senior leaders, including Major General Hossein Salami, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Lieutenant General Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, and a number of scientists and leaders.

The vicious hands of imperialism and Zionism are carrying out a genocide in Gaza for the past 20 months amid 77 years of ongoing genocidal colonialism throughout occupied Palestine; carrying out daily assassination and bombing crimes in Lebanon; besieging and bombing the brave people and leadership of Yemen; occupying Syria and engaging in daily aggressions and bombings; and today attacking Iran after years of warmongering and economic coercive measures intended to undermine the independent and self-determined path of development for Iran.

Iran is being targeted today because it stands with Palestine and the Resistance throughout the region and because it refuses to relinquish the independent future of its people and its nation to the exploitation, domination and destruction of U.S. imperialism.

Iran has every right to defend itself, which is, particularly at this time, a defense of humanity against the genocidal forces of death and devastation that seek only to extract the wealth, resources and future of the peoples of Iran, Palestine, the region and the world.

It is urgent to unify the ranks of our collective camp of resistance at this critical moment, including the popular movement in the imperial core and around the world, to stand firmly and clearly against the U.S.-Zionist aggression and in solidarity with Iran’s self-defense and self-determination.

The liberation of Palestine is at the heart of the global struggle against imperialism, as it is at the core of the struggle for Arab liberation and to defend the Islamic nation. The nuclear-armed Zionist project is carrying out a genocide in Palestine and aggressively seeking to expand throughout the region, and the battle of confrontation against its genocide and aggression requires the united effort of all.

This is a moment when action, escalation and organizing are critically necessary, including direct action to shut down the war machine, bring the genocide against the Palestinian people to an end. We must take action to materially impede the aggression of imperialism and Zionism and to develop our collective organizations to withstand repression, state violence and targeting, especially at a moment of growing uprising in the United States against fascist state violence, particularly targeting migrant workers and communities.

The bombing of children, the assassination of leaders, the attempted destruction of nations: this is, in short, the nature of the Zionist entity and U.S. and European imperialism. There is no path to peace, security or justice without bringing them to an end and imposing true accountability for their crimes.

Victory for Iran, victory for Palestine, victory for humanity.

All for Lebanon campaign against Zionist aggressions and assassinations | Video: The Butcher of Khiam prison

12 June 2025

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the liberation of South Lebanon — and the liberation of the infamous Khiam prison — by the Lebanese resistance led by Hezbollah, Al-Mahatta channel published a short documentary highlighting the experiences of Lebanese and Palestinian men and women imprisoned at the notorious torture center, as well as the role of the United States in preventing accountability for Amer Fakhoury, one of the leading torturers in Khiam.

Today, when the United States is demanding that Hezbollah and the Lebanese resistance “disarm” and seeking to impose normalization with the Zionist regime, this documentary (with full English subtitles and English language voiceover) is critically important testimony to the crimes of the Zionist occupation of Lebanon, the necessity of resistance, and the long-term role of U.S. imperialism as a primary enemy of Lebanon, its people and its self-determination.

Given the role of the so-called “South Lebanon Army,” often called the “Lahad Army” — far-right Lebanese agents armed, funded and directed by the Zionist occupation — in the torture and abuse at Khiam prison exposed in the film, it is also particularly urgent to understand these lessons today. The same Zionist regime, once again in collaboration with the U.S., is funding, arming and directing collaborators in Gaza, such as gang of Yasser Abu Shabab, in order to advance its genocidal project and particularly its starvation campaign, by conducting organized “looting” and raids on aid trucks under air cover by the occupation regime.

Watch the video on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5j58TrGYxs

The Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, has launched a new campaign: All for Lebanon: Popular Campaign Against the Ongoing Zionist Aggression on Lebanon and the Assassination Policy, with a global petition in support of Lebanon and its people — and of Palestine — at this time of daily assaults by the Zionist regime that come hand in hand with their genocide in Gaza.

The text of the petition is below:

We, the undersigned liberation movements, organizations, parties, associations, and solidarity forces, firmly condemn the repeated Zionist aggression against the Lebanese people and the cowardly Israeli assassination policy that targets leaders of the Lebanese resistance in broad daylight, with explicit support from American hegemonic and colonial powers in the region and the world.

A ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and “Israel” was signed on 27 November 2024. Since then, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has recorded more than 3,000 Israeli air violations, over 1,000 breaches of the Blue Line, in addition to military incursions north of the Blue Line, hundreds of airstrikes, drone attacks, and around 750 artillery shellings — not to mention the ongoing crimes of assassination.

Once again, South Lebanon has become an open arena for Zionist war crimes amid a disgraceful official Arab silence that can only be interpreted as direct or indirect complicity with the Zionist imperial project. This is also taking place under the shameless watch of the so-called “international community,” which sees and hears nothing except when it comes to protecting the Zionist entity and the interests of colonialist Western powers.

The brutal crimes committed by the occupation army — from systematic assassinations to bombing infrastructure and targeting civilians — are nothing but a continuation of its war-crime-driven, liquidationist, and aggressive approach. These are crimes that do not lapse with time and whose perpetrators must be held accountable as war criminals before the court of the people, if the international courts, subdued by Western hegemony, fail to act.

We reject and resist the Zionist aggression on Lebanon.
We stand with the resistance and the Lebanese state and affirm their natural and legitimate right to respond to Israeli attacks and to liberate occupied land.

We denounce the policy of assassinations targeting the symbols and cadres of the resistance and consider it a failed Zionist-American policy to extinguish the flame and voice of the brave Lebanese resistance.

We salute the patience and responsible positions of the resistance aimed at protecting Lebanon and its people.

We call on all free people around the world to organize solidarity events with the Lebanese people and support their right to liberate their land and expel the Zionist invaders.

Click here to sign on to the campaign

It is the Resistance that brought the torture of Khiam prison to an end and that liberated South Lebanon from Zionist colonial occupation on 25 May 2000, only months before the great Intifada that erupted in Palestine on 28 September 2000, and it is the Resistance that has unremittingly stood with Gaza and the liberation of all of Palestine, not only throughout the past 20 months of genocide, but throughout its storied history of struggle. The ongoing, daily bombings and assassinations in Lebanon are an ongoing imperialist-Zionist crime that requires action and accountability; they are also part and parcel of the genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and throughout Palestine.

We urge all supporters of the Palestinian people, of Lebanon and the Lebanese people and their resistance, and all those who stand against Zionism and imperialism, to join us in supporting this important campaign at a critical moment for the future of the region and of humanity.

Two Palestinian youth leaders in Brussels freed after two days in jail; join daily demonstrations at the Bourse

11 June 2025

After two days in prison our comrades Hussam Al-Faqawi and Shaker Fouda are free. The two were seized by the police as they marched in the large mass demonstration in Brussels, Belgium, on 9 June to end the genocide in Gaza and in response to the Zionist regime’s piracy of the Freedom Flotilla ship Madleen and the abduction of its crew, including Palestinian-French MEP Rima Hassan.

The Bourse in central Brussels has been the site of daily protests against the ongoing genocide in Palestine over the last several months. These protests at the Bourse, principally led by Shaker, Hussam and their comrades, have been a constant focal point for the solidarity movement in Brussels, a place where people gather to express their outrage at the genocide and western complicity, and to voice their solidarity with the Palestinian people and their resistance.

The targeting of Shaker and Hussam cannot be understood as anything but a racist attempt by the state and police forces to repress the growing momentum for Palestine, a heightened discontent towards the Arizona Government, and a trigger-happy police force that are increasingly resorting to extreme violence to put down popular uprisings in Brussels. The arrests of Shaker and Hussam need to be understood in the context of a police force characterised by racism and impunity. Next to the violence enacted towards the protestors at Bourse, the Brussels police have in the last two months killed two young men – Fabian and Christophe, and when faced with the mourning of their victims at the marche blanche for Fabian decided to again resort to extreme violence to disperse the march. Violence that the Belgian political establishment supports and provides cover for when the refuse to denounce the violent and murderous actions of the police while making justifications for the targeting of Palestinians during the daily protests.

However, what the state, and the police will never understand is that their repression only works to heighten our resistance and steadfastness. We need everyone to join us today to make a clear statement that Hussam, Shaker and all the other Palestinians do not stand alone in the face of state and police repression. And that if they come for one of us, they come for us all!

Revolution until victory!

Freed Palestinian prisoner Ra’iq Bisharat assassinated by occupation forces in Tammoun

10 June 2025

Occupation forces assassinated freed prisoner Ra’iq Bisharat in Tammoun, south of Tubas in occupied Palestine, announcing his assassination immediately after midnight on Wednesday, 11 June. A leader in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, Bisharat, 47, had been “wanted” by the occupation regime since 2023.

During this time, his home has been repeatedly attacked in repeated invasions of Tubas by the Zionist-imperialist occupation forces. His brothers have also been repeatedly arrested by the occupation forces and his home repeatedly ransacked in attempts to make him surrender himself.

Two of his sons, Yazid and Yazan, have been arrested and are currently detained — the former by the occupation, held under administrative detention, and the latter, held by the collaborationist Palestinian Authority since December 2024.

Ra’iq Bisharat is a double amputee. Both of his hands were amputated in 2002 following the explosion of an explosive device he was working on in his home during the Al-Aqsa Intifada; his pregnant wife was martyred. In 2003, he was arrested by the occupation forces and served eight years in occupation prison.

He was arrested on at least three occasions and held in administrative detention following those arrests. In 2021, when he was arrested and ordered jailed without charge or trial, he launched a 53-day hunger strike which ended in an agreement for his release on 20 January 2022. During his hunger strike, the martyr Sheikh Khader Adnan visited his home, sitting with his family in a solidarity tent to support his struggle.

He was released and warmly welcomed by his community, family, loved ones and brothers in January 2022, but was shortly thereafter once again pursued by the occupation as he continued his path of struggle. Despite his injuries and their repeated invasions and pursuits, the occupation forces were unable to capture or assassinate him for over a year and a half.

After his assassination, occupation forces exiting Tammoun abducting at least eight Palestinian men — at least some held as human shields. They also abducted the body of the martyr, carrying his body using one of the occupation forces’ bulldozers of destruction — the same equipment, produced by Caterpillar and other multinational corporations, used to destroy Palestinian homes, buildings and refugee camps. There are currently over 700 Palestinian martyrs’ bodies being imprisoned in death by the Zionist colonial regime in its morgues and “numbers cemeteries,” meant to impose collective punishment upon Palestinian families and communities denied the ability to bid farewell to their loved ones and to extort the Palestinian resistance in a prisoner exchange.

The assassination of Ra’iq Bisharat is the latest example of the ongoing policy of assassination and targeting of the liberated prisoners, amid the targeting of the entire Palestinian population for massacre and genocide.

Ra’iq Bisharat and his fellow liberated prisoners represent the continuity of struggle, as generation after generation fights for total liberation. As the prisoners inside occupation prisons are being targeted for “slow killing” — assassinations carried out through torture and the denial of medical care — the liberated prisoners are being targeted for assassination in an effort to expedite the genocide and deprive the Palestinian people of their leaders and defenders.

Every imperialist power that continues to arm, fund and support the Zionist regime — the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Canada, etc. — is responsible for these ongoing crimes in full. We urge all supporters of Palestine to act, confront those responsible, and escalate all actions to bring the genocide to an end, impose accountability on those responsible, free all Palestinian prisoners — and, fundamentally, defeat and dismantle zionism and the zionist regime, for a free Palestine from the river to the sea.

Glory to the martyr!

Samidoun: Sanctions on Addameer and five Palestinian charities are acts of genocide by U.S. imperialism

10 June 2025

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemns in the strongest terms the latest attack by the US Treasury Department on the movement for Palestinian liberation, including attacking the Palestinian prisoners’ movement through designating Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and five other charitable organizations supporting the financial and economic needs of the Palestinian people as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” (SDGT), as Samidoun was similarly designated, along with Palestinian writer and activist Khaled Barakat, member of the Executive Committee of the Masar Badil: Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, on 15 Oct 2024.

Today’s designations are quite obviously a deliberate effort to isolate the Palestinian prisoners and obstruct solidarity with them from the United States in particular, as well as to starve the Palestinian people and exacerbate the ongoing US-imperialist-Zionist policy of imposed famine on the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza.

In this context, we note that the following claim made in today’s designations: “Additionally, in the spring of 2022, [Khaled] Barakat coordinated with the PFLP to send funds to Addameer and to arrange meetings between Addameer and Samidoun,” is completely fictional and has no basis in reality. It appears to be yet another fabrication by the Zionist entity and its intelligence services that continually release a stream of fabrications and lies to the global media, from attempting to blame Palestinians for bombing their own hospitals to claiming that the days of the week on a calendar were resistance fighters guarding prisoners.

No such funds were arranged or sent, nor were any such meetings held by Khaled Barakat; we did not encounter each other except should representatives of both organizations by chance happen to be present at some other conference or meeting. Of course, issuing this denial is itself an exercise in absurdity, because all organizations advocating for the prisoners should in fact be meeting and coordinating with one another to develop the most effective strategies to defend the prisoners and struggle for their liberation. However, the facts remain: the content in this US Treasury document is entirely false and of unknown and dubious origin, and we view this as a deliberate attempt to create division within the movement.

We further denounce in the strongest terms the designations of ISRAA Foundation in the Netherlands, as well as the designations of Amin Abou Rashed and his daughter, Israa Abou Rashed, tireless campaigners for the Palestinian people and their liberation who have successfully provided substantial amounts of critical, much-needed, and unconditional humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the refugee camps in Palestine and the surrounding countries of exile and diaspora.

We also further denounce the ongoing US Treasury Department attack on the Palestinian community in Italy, coming atop last October’s designations of community leader Mohammed Hannoun, one of the most prominent leaders of the Palestinian community, the solidarity movement and the struggle against the ongoing Zionist-imperialist genocide, and the Charity Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, with today’s attack on La Cupola d’Oro and its designation.

In addition, we strongly denounce the designation of the Al Weam Charitable Society, Filistin Vakfi, and El Baraka Association, in Palestine, Turkey and Algeria, and their leadership, including Mohammed Abu Marei, Zeki Ararawi and Ahmed Brahimi. All of these designations are clearly intended to advance the US-Zionist genocidal starvation policy currently being carried out against the Palestinian people as a whole, and particularly in Gaza. These attacks aim to cut off the independent Arab, Palestinian, Islamic and international aid and lifelines of support for Palestinians under siege and genocide, and seek to subjugate the Palestinian people to the conditional “aid” provided by the imperialist powers and complicit institutions.

These sanctions are economic warfare against the Palestinian people that are intended to create chaos and desperation alongside mass famine and starvation. They come hand in hand with the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” and its death traps in Rafah & Netzarim. The imposition of these sanctions today comes alongside the billions of dollars in weaponry, the intelligence sharing and guidance, the vetoes at the United Nations, the arrests and intimidation, as an act of ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people — not only of mere complicity. Indeed, the imposition of sanctions and criminalization upon those who are working to bring genocide and apartheid to an end is in and of itself a war crime and a crime against humanity, only the latest in the bloody history of US imperialism.

They also come hand in hand with the use of sanctions and siege — for 18 years this month in Gaza, alongside the sanctions imposed on Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Venezuela, the DPRK and other independent nations — to seek to undermine popular resilience, immiserate and starve the masses of the population, and cut off the road to independent development and self-defense. The effects of such sanctions regimes have been all too visible in Syria, with a growing amount of Syrian land under Zionist occupation even as its new government pursues normalization under the banner of “sanctions relief.”

As we noted at the time of our designation, the designation today of Addameer is clearly intended to isolate the Palestinian Prisoners Movement from solidarity internationally, and particularly in the United States, by targeting all of the organizations, one by one, that advocate for the prisoners’ liberation, particularly those working at the grassroots, legal or official international levels. The US imperialist regime does not want the prisoners to be a central rallying cry for the Palestine liberation and solidarity movements in the United States.

Similarly, it does not wish us to ally with fellow movements confronting imprisonment and deportation, as we see today in Los Angeles and nationwide, amid the ongoing uprising against ICE repression and deportation and state violence. The use of “terror” designations and the attack on the Palestine liberation movement cannot be separated from the attack on migrants, refugees, students and workers in the United States, the use of mass deportations and state terror, and imprisonment on the basis of political activity and involvement. It is not only in our signs and slogans that we find similarities — we are confronting the same enemies, with US imperialism at the core.

All of this is also intended to keep the over 10,4000 Palestinian prisoners held under torture and starvation, their lives directed by the notorious fascist Itamar Ben Gvir, subjected to “slow assassination” and systematic destruction of their health, without international support, solidarity and exposure. It is further intended to undermine the tireless efforts of the Palestinian Resistance to obtain the prisoners’ liberation in a dignified and just ceasefire and prisoner exchange with full withdrawal of the genocidal occupation forces from besieged Gaza under genocide.

As we noted at the time of the designation of Samidoun:

The repression of Samidoun is part of a larger attack against the Palestinian diaspora, the Arab community and all internationalists that struggle for Palestine. All mainstream political parties, from Democrats to Republicans, and from social democrats to the extreme right-wing, have used the past year to propagate more racist, Islamophobic and repressive measures against the Palestinian people, Arabs, Muslims, refugees, migrants and activists. This repression reflects the interests of the US and Canada, themselves settler-colonial states built on genocide, ethnic cleansing and continued oppression of the Indigenous peoples, and Europe, the birthplace of the Zionist movement.

It is part of the global struggle against colonialism and imperialism that will continue until the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, the right of return for all Palestinian refugees and the liberation of all oppressed peoples and nations.

Like the Zionist entity fears the Palestinian resistance, so do the imperialist powers fear the Palestinian diaspora and their supporters that have been rising up again and again, especially since the start of operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the Zionist genocide. They fear a strong, popular movement that threatens their economic and political interests in Palestine and the region.

At this moment, we underline to comrades of the Palestine liberation movement in the United States: The response to “terrorist” designations of any kind cannot be to isolate the designated organizations, warn movement organizations against “coordinating” with them or refuse to speak about them.

This type of practice, justified as “smart” or “strategic legal advice” on far too many occasions, leads only to encouraging the U.S. regime to designate and sanction an increasing number of organizations and individuals, as it clearly indicates to our enemies that they can achieve their political goals by doing so. We cannot confront “terrorist” designations without understanding, quite clearly, that our enemies are not bound by the letter or spirit of the law, but are rather engaged in a genocidal war upon the Palestinian people as a whole, daily violating the greatest prohibitions in domestic and international law.

Of course, this is nothing new — Palestinian organizations have faced this type of labeling and repression for decades. There are multiple Palestinian prisoners in US jails, including Ghassan Elashi and Shukri Abu Baker of the Holy Land Five, serving 65-year sentences for providing charitable aid for the Palestinian people, imprisoned since 2008. The purpose of imperialist “anti-terror” law is not only to criminalize the organizations and subject them to financial sanctions and a starvation policy, it is also to alter and direct the politics and priorities of the movement as a whole.

Therefore, our response cannot be primarily guided by parsing the text of the law nor by interpreting it in the most conservative manner possible, but rather by confronting the attempts to isolate the resistance and the prisoners by celebrating, normalizing and saluting the Palestinian people, their Resistance organizations, and the prisoners’ movement.

For the solidarity movement’s work to be meaningful and effective, it must act to support the Palestinian Resistance organizations — and, indeed, to coordinate with them on the broadest possible level.

The response to these designations must be defiance, solidarity and refusal to allow our movement to accede to the US-Zionist-imperialist demands to isolate the resistance, isolate the Palestinian prisoners, and starve the Palestinian people through “legal compliance.”

Instead, we must redouble our efforts to escalate our resistance, support the intifada in the streets of the cities of the world, demand an end to the so-called “terrorist” list and the removal of all Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemeni, Iranian and other resistance organizations from such lists, stand with the Palestinian Resistance and all of the forces of Resistance in the region and the world, and demand the liberation of every Palestinian prisoner — and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Online seminar with Dr. Basem Naim highlights importance of international support for Palestinian resistance

9 June 2025

In an international seminar organized by Samidoun Network
Dr. Basem Naim calls for escalating global support for Palestinian resistance and breaking the siege on Gaza

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organized an international online event, during which it hosted Dr. Basem Naim, a member of the Political Bureau of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement. He gave a direct and extensive intervention addressing the catastrophic conditions facing the Palestinian people under the ongoing genocide waged by the Zionist occupation on the Gaza Strip for over twenty months.

Participants in the event included cadres and members of the Tariq el-Tahrir Student and Youth Network, activists from the Palestinian Women’s Movement – Alkarama, representatives of the Anti-Imperialist Front, trade unionists and political activists from the Masar Badil: Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, as well as activists from over 24 countries across Europe, North and South America, and the Arab region and beyond. The event was simultaneously translated in English, Spanish and Arabic.

In his speech, Naim emphasized that “what is happening in Gaza is a systematic genocide targeting the Palestinian people in their lives, dignity, and future,” calling on popular and revolutionary forces around the world to regard the Al-Aqsa Flood as their own collective and individual battle, and to escalate actions to support the Palestinian resistance in all its forms and to break the Zionist siege imposed on the Strip for more than 18 years.

He added: “The battle in Gaza is not only a Palestinian one, but an international battle against colonialism, fascism, and ethnic cleansing,” stressing that “the trench of resistance is the trench of humanity confronting the Zionist racist project.”

Naim presented a comprehensive perspective on the Palestinian resistance’s position on negotiations and the nature of the field and political struggle it is waging under these harsh and unprecedented conditions in human history. He reviewed examples of Palestinian families whose members were almost entirely eliminated, such as Palestinian doctor Alaa al-Najjar, the Abu Sharia family, and other families subjected to genocide over the past twenty months. He also described what the people of Gaza are enduring in terms of destruction of their lives and targeting of their sustenance through the policy of engineered starvation, affirming that these crimes have not led our people to surrender or accept the enemy’s projects and plans. He pointed to the awareness of the Palestinian people in Gaza, who will not be deceived by the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” and other schemes aimed at liquidating the cause.

Liberation of Prisoners and Building a the International Popular Cradle of the Resistance

For her part, Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of the Samidoun Network, affirmed in her intervention that the liberation of Palestinian prisoners is an essential part of the resistance and national liberation project, and must be placed at the core of revolutionary movements’ programs around the world. She called for the construction of a broad international front to support the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and resistance, and to support their political, humanitarian, and military demands, considering that the people of Gaza are defending human dignity in this era.

Kates emphasized that supporting the resistance is inseparable from supporting the steadfastness of the Palestinian people as a whole in the face of siege and aggression, and from the global battle against imperialism and settler colonialism. She also pointed out that the targeting of student leaders and pro-Palestine activists in American and Western universities aims to silence the living conscience, affirming the need to confront this repression with more solidarity and unity.

The Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood: An Irreversible Path of Liberation

Participants in the dialogue with Dr. Basem Naim focused on the Al-Aqsa Flood battle launched by the Palestinian resistance on 7 October 2023, considering it a strategic shift in the course of confrontation with the occupation, and part of an ongoing historic liberation process that will not cease until the defeat of the Zionist entity and the full liberation of Palestine, with Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque at the forefront.

Rawa Alsagheer, coordinator of the Samidoun Network in Brazil, gave a brief overview of the events and campaigns against the Zionist movement and the so-called “Brazil-Israel Friendship Day,” and the role of the solidarity movement in supporting the Madleen Freedom Flotilla ship. She explained the nature of the challenges facing supporters of the resistance in Brazil.

Confronting Academic Repression and Expanding the Student Solidarity Front

Student Iman stated that the goal of establishing a youth and student organization such as Tariq el-Tahrir is to be part of the resistance movement on the international level and to work on organizing the Palestinian diaspora, particularly the youth and student vanguard.

The seminar also discussed the escalation of repression faced by students and activists supporting Palestine in Western universities, especially in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and others, where boycott campaigns and student sit-ins are being met with suppression, violence, expulsions, firings, and arrests, in an attempt to silence free voices that reject genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Samidoun Network called for the urgent expansion of the student and youth solidarity front, the strengthening of ties among anti-imperialist youth movements, and the intensification of field and media campaigns that expose the crimes of the occupation and surround its academic, economic, and cultural tools around the world.

The network affirmed that this battle has broken the false image of the enemy and exposed its fragility, opened a new horizon for the forces of resistance in the region, and supported the spirit of struggle among peoples seeking liberation in the face of imperialist and colonial domination.

Toward an International Front for Resistance and Liberation

In conclusion, the Samidoun Network affirmed that this seminar is part of a series of international initiatives aimed at exposing the Zionist war crimes in Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen, and at reinforcing the connection between the Palestinian struggle and revolutionary movements in the region and around the world. It noted that the broad participation reflects the growing international solidarity front with the resistance and the battle for liberation and return.

The attack on the “Madleen” and our responsibility to resist, escalate and break the siege

8 June 2025

Zionist occupation forces attacked, boarded and abducted the “Madleen,” the Freedom Flotilla ship in international waters, in the early morning hours of 9 June 2025. The Madleen — the international ship aiming to break the blockade of Gaza amid the ongoing imperialist-Zionist genocide — has 12 crew members on board from Sweden, France, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Turkey and the Netherlands. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition has issued an urgent call for people around the world to contact the foreign ministries of these countries to demand the release of the abducted activists — and to break the siege on Gaza and end the genocide.

The FFC’s demands are:
• An end to the illegal and deadly siege of Gaza.
• The immediate release of all abducted volunteers;
• The immediate delivery of humanitarian aid directly to Palestinians that is independent of the control of the occupying power
• Full accountability for the military assaults on Madleen and Conscience.

Abducted activists Baptiste Andre, Omar Faiad, Pascal Maurieras, Reva Viard, Rima Hassan, and Yanis M’hamdi are citizens of France.
E: alertes.cdc@diplomatie.gouv.fr & courrier.scec@diplomatie.gouv.fr
X : @FranceDiplo_EN & @francediplo & @jnbarrot
FB : @France Diplomatie & @Jean-Noël Barrot
IG : @francediplo & @jeannoelbarrot

Abducted activist Thiago Avila is a citizen of Brazil.
Email : portal@itamaraty.gov.br
X : @ItamaratyGovBr
IG : @itamaratygovbr
FB : @Ministerio das relacoes exteriroes

Abducted activist Greta Thunberg is a citizen of Sweden.
Web: https://www.government.se/contacts/
X : @SweMFA
FB : @SweMFA
IG : swedishmfa

Abducted activist Suyab Ordu is a citizen of Turkiye.
X : @MFATurkiye
IG : @tcdisisleri
FB : @T.C. Dışişleri Bakanlığı

Abducted activist Sergio Toribio is a citizen of Spain.
E: consular@maec.es
X @SpainMFA & @MAECgob @jmalbares
IG : @exteriores.maec
Bsky: @jmalbares.bsky.social @exterioresgob.bsky.social

Abducted activist Yasemin Acar is a citizen of Germany
W: www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/visa-service/buergerservice/contact-form
IG : @auswaertigesamt
FB : @Auswärtiges Amt
X : GermanyDiplo

Abducted activist Marco Van Rennes is a citizen of the Netherlands
X : @DutchMFA
IG : minbz
FB : Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken
Email : info@minbuza.nl VCl@minbuza.nl

The Zionist commandeering of the ship began with the “Madleen” being surrounded by occupation warships before quadcopter drones — the same types of drones that have been used to spray bullets and explosives on Palestinians in Gaza — began spraying an as-yet-unidentified white chemical substance on the deck of the ship. Shortly thereafter, occupation forces boarded and seized the boat, announcing that they were commandeering it to the port of occupied ‘Isdud (“Ashdod”).

The attack on the “Madleen” comes in blatant violation of international law; however, this comes as no surprise from an entity that is openly engaging in genocide, the greatest crime in international law. It is an assault on a popular initiative of free people and social movements seeking to break the siege and end the genocide, confronting the Zionist-imperialist war machine; the pirating of the Madleen comes in the service of continuing the genocide, including the unlawful blockade of Gaza.

It further comes almost 18 years to the day after the violent escalation of the siege on Gaza by the the “Israeli” regime, the imperialist powers and complicit reactionary Arab regimes, particularly Egypt, in June 2007, when the Rafah crossing was closed after European Union “monitors” imposed upon Egyptian-Palestinian trade and travel refused to accept the democratic will of the Palestinian people, the victory of the Change and Reform party associated with Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian elections, and the Palestinian defense of its electoral achievements and resistance against an attempted coup in that month.

Gaza has been besieged in various forms since 1967 — amid the ongoing colonization, occupation and genocide imposed upon the Palestinian people since 1948 by the Zionist regime, and prior, by the British colonial mandate. Over 70% of Palestinians in Gaza are themselves refugees denied their right to return home to their original homes and lands in 1948 occupied Palestine.

Amid the ongoing genocide and starvation policy imposed on Palestinians in Gaza, the occupation regime has continued its attacks on Palestinian fishers from Gaza, with warships repeatedly firing on any fishers that attempt to bring food to their people. Sinking, confiscating and damaging fishing boats from Gaza has been a policy of the occupation for even longer than the 18 years of siege imposed upon the Strip; this is one reason the “Madleen” was named in 2014 after Madleen Kullab, a young Palestinian woman fisher.

Just days ago, on 4 June, the occupation forces attacked another vessel — a Lebanese fishing boat near Ras Naqoura, in Lebanese waters, sailed by Lebanese fisherman Ali Fneich. Several months ago, fellow fisherman Mohammed Juheir was abducted in a similar incident; both Ali and Mohammed remain captives of the occupation. Another fisherman who survived the attack said: ”

“We were fishing as usual since early morning,” the fisherman recalls. “Then around 10:30 AM, four Israeli boats appeared, sailing deep inside our national waters. They headed quickly towards us while opening fire. They took Ali, threw me in the water, took my clothes, and everything else we had on the boat. They did the same to the other fishermen near us.”

This is just one of the ongoing attacks on Lebanon that continue daily in blatant violation of the November ceasefire agreement, with the full complicity of the United States and other imperialist powers, including ongoing assassinations, bombings of residential areas, and ongoing attempts to invade the south of Lebanon. (Sign on to the All for Lebanon campaign to join many around the world to take a stand in support of Lebanon against these assaults.)

The sailing of the Madleen, the Zionist assault on it and the abduction of its crew come amid a series of popular activities taking place around the world, all seeking to break the siege, end the genocide, and confront the policy of starvation imposed upon the Palestinian people. Major popular marches, including the Global March to Gaza, with over 2500 participants from various countries around the world, will set off from Cairo on 12 June for a march to the Rafah Crossing, where thousands of trucks are waiting to enter Gaza with necessary aid, ranging from food, flour and medicine to construction equipment, caravans and tents, and are prevented from doing so by the ongoing siege imposed by the genocidal Zionist regime.

Over 10,000 people from throughout North Africa have registered to join the Sumud Caravan, launching today from Algeria, with participants from Morocco and Mauritania, traveling through Tunis, where thousands have joined at the initiative of a wide alliance of Tunisian organizations, including the Coalition of Joint Action for Palestine in Tunisia, and Libya, to Egypt to the Rafah crossing, in buses, vans and trucks. These three popular initiatives are bringing people aiming to confront the siege with their own bodies and consciences in the face of the Zionist-imperialist war machine.

The Madleen is only the latest initiative of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition seeking to break the siege; in 2008, the first several sailings of the Free Gaza campaign successfully challenged the siege and landed on Gaza’s shores, welcomed by the Palestinian people. In the ensuing years, the attacks by the Zionist regime to prevent the boats from reaching Gaza have only escalated, including diplomatic pressure on countries to prevent Flotilla ships from sailing from their ports and to remove flags from ships that are part of the Flotilla; sabotaging Flotilla ships in port; and, most infamously, the 2010 attack on the “Mavi Marmara,” the lead ship of the Flotilla, in which occupation forces killed 10 martyrs for the Palestinian cause. Just two months ago, in April 2025, the Freedom Flotilla’s ship “Conscience” was preparing to sail to Gaza from Malta; it was attacked off the coast of Malta by presumably “Israeli” drones and set on fire before finally being towed back to shore.

The attack on the Madleen also comes as the Zionist regime and its imperialist sponsors, particularly the United States, have been seeking to impose a system of “aid” blackmail upon the Palestinian people through the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” which aims to replace the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) and other legitimate aid distribution organizations with a surveillance operation controlled by the United States and “Israel” that targets Palestinians for abduction and assassination. Over 126 Palestinians in Gaza have been massacred at these so-called “aid distribution sites” — in reality, death traps — and hundreds more have been wounded, in just the past few days of their operation.

These sites distribute only small amounts of aid, requiring Palestinians to repeatedly return to the areas, and are intended to force Palestinians into even smaller concentration camp areas in Rafah and southern Gaza, as a prelude to their displacement. This is accompanied by the systematic support of armed collaborator gangs to attack and loot real aid trucks, selling flour and other basic supplies to Palestinians at highly inflated prices, again in an attempt to both impose the starvation policy and force hungry people to go to these US-Zionist death trap “aid sites”. In a statement issued on Sunday, 8 June, Palestinian resistance factions said:

The American aid distribution centers have turned into death traps and snares, targeting our hungry people who are driven by hunger and thirst to seek refuge there. These deceptive centers have become daily massacres and slaughters before the eyes and ears of the entire world.

Palestinian government officials, Interior Ministry workers, civil defense workers, aid distribution directors, police and security forces, and aid workers, have been systematically targeted for assassination; Palestinian security forces that protect aid trucks and clash with the “thieves” supported by the occupation have been repeatedly massacred in airstrikes and drone attacks. Just yesterday, Palestinian security forces from the Arrow Units, who had held a currency exchanger extorting over 50% profit from Palestinians under siege and genocide accountable, were targeted for assassination in yet another drone strike.

All of the governments that are complicit in the ongoing Zionist genocide in occupied Palestine for the past 77 years are also complicit in the attack on the Madleen and in the ongoing deliberately imposed famine and starvation on Palestinians in Gaza. It is the resistance forces in Palestine itself, from the heart of the land and people being subjected to genocide, and of the region, from Hezbollah and the popular cradle of the Lebanese resistance, to the Yemeni government, armed forces, AnsarAllah movement and people who daily confront the siege and genocide by besieging the occupier in the Red Sea and through drones and missiles, stretching to Iraq, Iran and beyond, that confront the genocidal regime amid the active complicity and involvement of the imperialist powers and the Arab reactionary regimes.

The popular movements around the world, visible through the direct actions at arms factories and other sites of the imperialist war machine, mass demonstrations, university encampments, workplace actions — from dockworkers refusing to load weapons for the occupation to tech workers refusing to produce AI for genocide — siege-breaking initiatives like the Flotillas, global marches, and caravans, and a wide variety of individual and collective confrontations of fascist forces — including the current uprisings against ICE and the deportation regime in the United States — are part of an international camp of resistance confronting imperialism, Zionism and reaction.

The attack on the Madleen, which comes hand in hand with the vicious repression inside many imperialist states, such as the United States, Germany, Britain and France, against the movement for Palestinian liberation, must serve as a call to escalate the struggle to meaningfully obstruct the mechanisms of genocide and to raise our level of organization, tactics, action and resistance to live up to the example set daily by Yemen, and to rise to fulfill our responsibilities at this critical moment.

As our comrades in Samidoun Brasil, the Masar Badil and Alkarama wrote: “Every shackle on the wrist of an activist aboard this flotilla is further evidence of the brutality of the entity and the failure of its deceptive propaganda. And every inch the flotilla advances on its way to Gaza is an open call for political and popular disobedience—against imperialism, against silence, and against defeat. Immediate and effective international mobilization to lift the siege on Gaza is not a choice—it is a revolutionary duty. And history will not forgive the complacent.”

Liberation of Prisoners and Building a the International Popular Cradle of the Resistance

The Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood: An Irreversible Path of Liberation

Confronting Academic Repression and Expanding the Student Solidarity Front

Toward an International Front for Resistance and Liberation

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