Monday, September 30, 2024
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13 May, NYC: Palestine Takeover for #Nakba75

Saturday May 13th
2 PM
72nd & 5th Ave
Bay Ridge Brooklyn
Info: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr4Jt9XOmwS/

Samidoun NY/NJ will be joining Within Our Lifetime for this important event! 

Join us for a takeover of Bay Ridge, the heart of the Palestinian community in NYC, to celebrate Palestinian resistance, life, culture, food, music and the ongoing struggle for Palestinian liberation!

This will be more than a protest, it will be a community gathering to assert our power and show NYC that we stand with Palestine from the river to the sea, and we support Palestinian resistance and liberation by any means necessary.

This will be a family friendly event, we will have face painting, coloring books, and more activities for kids! We will have food, beverages, resistance music and more surprises planned for throughout the day.

Every year thousands of people come to Bay Ridge to experience the Palestinian community and stand in solidarity with us in the fight against zionism and settler colonialism. We also want this to be a space that does more to give back to our community which is why we want rallies and street actions that create a space for Palestinian resilience.

DM us if you want to volunteer or if your organization wants to endorse/cosponsor!

Breaking News: Gaza under attack with repeated occupation air raids; resistance leaders targeted

As of 4:50 pm Pacific time Monday, 8 May, occupation forces are currently targeting the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance in attempted assassination raids, particularly targeting leaders of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine. Homes in Rafah, in Gaza City and elsewhere have been hit by Zionist missiles, leading to casualties and martyrs. The homes that have so far been targeted reportedly included those of several resistance leaders. Confirmed Palestinian reports indicate that at least 12 martyrs have been killed by the occupation assault and 20 Palestinians have been injured. These include the leaders of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine: Jihad Ghannam, secretary of the Saraya al-Quds Military Council; Khalil Salah al-Bahtini, member of the Military Council of Saraya al-Quds and commander of the northern region; Tariq Izzedine, a leader of Islamic Jihad in the West Bank; as well as the wives and children of targeted leaders.

Occupation warplanes are continuing to attack central and southern Gaza and occupation forces announced their intention to close the Erez and Kerem Salem crossings “indefinitely,” further tightening the 16-year siege of Gaza. This comes only hours after fishers’ boats were targeted by occupation warships in the Gaza sea.

All Palestinian resistance fighters, police and security personnel are on high alert in Gaza and a state of emergency has been declared. In the meantime, occupation forces are calling on settlers around Gaza to shelter or go to bunkers, in fear of the response of the Palestinian resistance.

Fascist Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir tweeted “It’s time!” as occupation forces rained U.S.-made and -provided weaponry on residential neighbourhoods and Palestinian self-defense sites.

These attacks are ongoing Zionist war crimes, funded and supported by US and Western imperialism. As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of Nakba — and 75 years of ongoing resistance to Zionism and imperialism — this is a key example of the ongoing colonial violence perpetrated against the Palestinian people, as well as the strength and steadfastness of the people and their resistance. We urge all to mobilize, organize and make clear that we will not accept the ongoing murder of the Palestinian people and their resistance leaders, and that Palestine will, and must be, free, from the river to the sea.

Free Walid Daqqah: Palestinian prisoner confronting medical neglect and struggling for freedom

Haifa demonstration for the release of Walid Daqqah

On Sunday, 7 May, Sana’ Salameh, the wife of imprisoned Palestinian intellectual, writer and freedom fighter Walid Daqqah confirmed that he had been returned to Barzilai hospital two days prior, after he had been removed from the civilian hospital and returned to the infamous Ramleh prison clinic. On 12 April 2023, Daqqah underwent surgery to remove part of his lung after he developed pneumonia, a complication of his ongoing, delayed and inadequate treatment for the rare bone marrow cancer, myelofibrosis.

Salameh and the Daqqah family have emphasized the importance of following the official campaign page for updates on Daqqah’s health, medical treatment and legal case, in order to avoid rumors and misinformation.

Daqqah was diagnosed with myelofibrosis in December 2022, following a leukemia diagnosis 10 years before. Daqqah, 62, has been imprisoned since 25 March 1986. Sentenced to 37 years in occupation prisons, he should have been released in March of this year (2023), except for an additional two-year punitive sentence added on to his prison sentence, allegedly related to accessing mobile phones inside occupation prisons.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates our call for Daqqah’s immediate release from Zionist prisons, and the release of all Palestinian prisoners. The policy of long-term medical neglect is a policy of the slow execution of Palestinian detainees, with Walid Daqqah the latest example of this brutal policy.

The family have emphasized their demand: the immediate release of Walid Daqqah so that he may receive treatment without conditions or restrictions. They have urged widespread action to seek his liberation. 

Charleroi, Belgium – May Day demonstrators demand freedom for Walid Daqqah, Khader Adnan and all Palestinian prisoners

The systematic and deadly nature of Israeli medical neglect is clear in the case of Khader Adnan, who lost his life after 86 days on hunger strike after repeatedly being denied transfer to a civilian hospital. In Daqqah’s case, he is denied family visits even in a civilian hospital and is treated as a prisoner; the Ramle prison clinic, where he had been transferred on 30 April, is even more notorious as an unsuitable environment dangerous for a person receiving treatment for a rare cancer like myelofibrosis.

Palestinian prisoners have declared their dedication to fight for Daqqah’s release. The Handala Center for Prisoners and Former Prisoners said that Palestinian detainees in Nafha and the Naqab desert prison were demanding Daqqah’s release, planning protest actions and wearing prison uniforms to show their readiness to struggle.

Daqqah obtained a master’s degree in political science and wrote several books while behind bars, in the realm of political theory as well as fiction, including children’s fiction. On multiple occasions, he has faced harsh repression, including solitary confinement, especially targeted toward his expressive work. For example, Daqqah was thrown into solitary confinement when he published a new children’s book, “The Secret of Oil”; a launch event for the book in the town of Majd al-Kurum was shut down by far-right Israeli minister Aryeh Deri. In the preface to the book, Daqqa wrote, “I write until I am freed from prison, with the hope of freeing the prison from me.” This followed the defunding of a Haifa Palestinian theater that exhibited a play based on his work “Parallel Time.” His family’s official campaign page asserts:

“In spite of all the injustices and discriminations inflicted upon Daqqah throughout the 37 years of his incarceration, he has managed remarkable achievements that have made him in to the political, intellectual and cultural icon that he is. He has been a leader among the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement and is a prominent figure in the Palestinian, Arab and international cultural scene, in particular in the field of prison studies. Even his intellectual life has been deemed dangerous as prisoner authorities subjected Daqqah to extra punishment due to his political, social and intellectual activism, in particular solitary confinement.

Daqqah is a prolific author. Among his works: Testimonies of Resistance: The Battle of Jenin Camp 2002 (2004); Consciousness Molded or the Re-identification of Torture (2010); The Story of the Forgotten in Parallel Time (2011); The Oil’s Secret Tale (2018); The Sword’s Secret Tale (2021); The Spirit’s Secret Tale/ The Martyrs Return to Ramallah (2022). In addition, Daqqah published several translations, and tens of articles both in Arabic and Hebrew, most prominently: “Parallel Tine” (2005); “Milad: I Write to a Childe Yet to Be Born” (2011); “Liberate Yourself by Yourself” (2020), and “Control through Time” (2021). Daqqah also has several unpublished manuscripts, paintings, poetry, lyrics, and autobiographical and theatrical writings.

Under these harsh circumstances, Daqqah married the activist, journalist and translator Sana’ Salamah on 10 August, 1999 in Askalan Prison. The occupation state denied them conjugal visits and their right to be parents, in spite of all the appeals. Undeterred, on 3 March 2020 their daughter Milad was born in Nazareth from liberated semen for artificial insemination.”

We urge Palestinian communities around the world and supporters of Palestine to include the campaign to free Walid Daqqah in your events and activities for Nakba 75 and the Week of Palestinian Struggle, representing the unity of all Palestinians and of Palestine from the river to the sea. Use these signs below in your actions and campaigns, and send us your photos on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or via email at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Use the hashtags:

Download below, in English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese and Italian — or Download all PDFs (A3) or (11×17).

 

Global actions honour the life and struggle of Khader Adnan, demand justice and accountability

One week after Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan‘s life was taken behind bars after 86 days of hunger strike, after he was deliberately denied transfer to a civilian hospital, blocked from release on bail and returned to the infamous Ramle prison clinic only one day before, actions and events around the world to honour the martyred imprisoned resister have continued to multiply. Adnan’s 2023 hunger strike was his sixth; he won his freedom on four separate occasions through hunger strikes while jailed without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention.

Throughout his 86 days of hunger strike, his wife, Randa Musa, and nine children campaigned tirelessly for his freedom. While grassroots protests in Palestine and internationally raised voices for his liberation, international human rights organizations and institutions like the International Committee of the Red Cross remained largely silent on his strike, even as his situation became more severe.

In an article in Middle East Eye, fellow former hunger striker Monammed al-Qeeq paid tribute to Adnan:

“It is odd how a hunger strike, which literally eats the body from the inside, gives a prisoner unparalleled power: the power of rejection, and saying “no” in the face of jailers who view you as nothing more than a number.

I knew Adnan didn’t like death or suffering. He loved life, but he wanted a life that was free of injustice and humiliation – the type of life he lived when he was with his wife and children. He saw hunger striking as the most powerful weapon he had that would allow him to return to this life as soon as possible.”

Al-Qeeq also recalled Adnan’s history as a student activist — specifically highlighting an incident when Adnan was a mathematics student at Birzeit University in February 2000. Lionel Jospin, then the French prime minister, visited Birzeit only days after he condemned the Lebanese resistance to Zionist occupation of the south of Lebanon as “terrorist.” Khader Adnan was the first student to stand up and denounce Jospin, inspiring his fellow students to hurl shoes and rocks at Jospin, expelling him from the university.

Khader Adnan’s body is still being detained by the Israeli occupation alongside those of hundreds of Palestinian martyrs, including multiple prisoners who continue to be imprisoned in death. Etaf Alayan, a former Palestinian prisoner with her own distinguished history of hunger strikes (she conducted the longest individual hunger strike against administrative detention, in 1997, before Adnan’s 2011-12 strike), is currently on hunger strike outside the offices of the ICRC in El-Bireh to demand the return of Adnan’s body and that of his fellow Palestinian martyrs.

Adnan’s hunger strikes, especially in 2011-12, 2015, 2018 and 2021, played a major role in mobilizing international support and attention for Palestinian prisoners, including the growth and development of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

In Toulouse, France, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra honoured Khader Adnan, with Palestinian, Arab and internationalist activists planting a jasmine tree in a community garden, accompanied by portraits of Adnan as well as the flag and map of Palestine. Participants delivered a speech in Arabic underlining his commitment and sacrifice for his people and his land.

The image mirrored one of Adnan himself planting a tree in occupied Palestine in solidarity with Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for nearly 39 years. A photo of Abdallah adorned the tree, calling for his liberation. In Toulouse, the next action for Palestinian liberation, the prisoners’ movement and the resistance will take place on Saturday, 13 May at 3 pm, the Palestine Tour, which will begin from Jeanne d’Arc metro station.

Meanwhile, in the streets of Paris, France, Samidoun Paris Banlieue has created multiple visual displays throughout the city highlighting the case of Khader Adnan and continuing to call for the release of all 4,900 Palestinians locked behind occupation bars.

On Saturday, 13 May, CAPJPO-EuroPalestine is organizing a rally in Paris to commemorate 75 years of ongoing Nakba and support the Palestinian resistance. Samidoun Paris Banlieue is participating in and supporting this mobilization alongside dozens of organizations, and the march will salute Khader Adnan while calling for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.

In Berlin, Germany, Samidoun Deutschland has continued its efforts to highlight the struggle and sacrifice of Khader Adnan, even as it fights back against repression. Following the initial banners and posters hung in memory of Adnan, Samidoun Deutschland created a new large poster mural in his tribute. This has come hand in hand with the international campaign against anti-Palestinian repression in Germany, as well as the call to participate in the demonstration commemorating 75 years of ongoing Nakba on Sunday, 14 May at 2 pm, marching from Rathaus Neukolln to Hermannplatz.

It also highlighted the graffiti springing up around the city to honour Adnan and call for the liberation of Palestine.

In Cologne, Germany, Samidoun Deutschland posted a large poster mural in tribute to Adnan as well as a call to participate in the Nakba commemoration rally on Saturday, 13 May at 2 pm at Kalk Post in Köln.

In Düsseldorf, Samidoun activists hung posters in stores and on the streets of popular neighbourhoods, especially those with large Arab and Palestinian communities, saluting Adnan’s commitment to struggle and to Palestinian liberation.

In Madrid, Spain, Samidoun Spain organized a demonstration on 5 May in honour of Khader Adnan, together with Alkarama, Al-Yudur and the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement. Participants demanded the release of Israa Jaabis, Walid Daqqah, Ahmad Sa’adat and Georges Abdallah, as well as all Palestinian prisoners.

They called for broad participation in the Nakba 75 rally in Madrid, on Sunday, 14 May at 12 pm, marching from Atocha to Plaza de las Provincias.

Meanwhile in Barcelona, Catalonia, Samidoun Spain organized a poster campaign on the streets of Barcelona honouring Adnan. The poster campaign is leading up to a series of events comemorating al-Nakba in Barcelona, including several presentations about Georges Abdallah and a march on Saturday, 20 May at 6 pm.

International activists from various movements have joined in the campaign to honour Khader Adnan and continue the struggle forward for the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

In Dublin, Ireland, Anti-Imperialist Action honoured both Khader Adnan and Bobby Sands, the martyr of the Irish Republican prisoners’ movement who died in British prison on 5 May 1981, at their protest against the coronation of British king Charles.

During his hunger strikes, Adnan both received and expressed solidarity with Irish prisoners and their ongoing struggle for freedom.

Also on 5 May, the Green Brigade, dedicated fans of the Scottish football club Celtic, known for their strong and consistent support for Palestine, displayed a large banner in honour of Adnan in Glasgow.

The Bobby Sands Trust also issued a statement mourning Adnan’s death, offering condolences to Adnan’s wife and family.

In Tehran, Iran, days after people gathered in Filistin Square to mourn Adnan, a large banner mural was hung honouring his commitment to the liberation of Palestine.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes all of these efforts and encourages all friends of Palestine and Palestinian communities to include Khader Adnan and all of the Palestinian prisoners struggling for liberation in the upcoming Nakba 75 commemorations in cities and communities around the world, as part and parcel of the campaign for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. 

Download and use these graphics:

Former Palestinian prisoner Etaf Alayan launches hunger strike to demand the release of Khader Adnan’s body and the detained martyrs’ bodies

Former Palestinian prisoner and long-term hunger striker Etaf Alayan launched a hunger strike on Sunday, 7 May, outside the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Al-Bireh, occupied Palestine, to demand the release of the body of Khader Adnan and his fellow detained martyrs in the occupation’s morgues.

“I will not stop my strike until his body is handed over and buried next to his father, according to his will,” Alayan said. Khader Adnan, the Palestinian prisoner whose life was taken due to medical neglect and the policy of “slow killing” after 86 days of hunger strike inside the occupation prisons on 2 May, carried out six hunger strikes inside the occupation prisons, winning his liberation from administrative detention without charge or trial on four occasions.

His body, like hundreds of Palestinian martyrs, including prisoners who have died inside the occupation prisons, is currently being detained by the Israeli occupation, which refuses to return him to his family for burial. The International Campaign to Liberate the Bodies of Detained Martyrs highlights and demands an end to this ongoing policy of collective punishment against Palestinian families and the Palestinian people as a whole.

Alayan, 61, previously spent 14 years in Israeli occupation prisons. Prior to Khader Adnan’s 2011-2012 66-day hunger strike, she carried out the longest individual strike against administrative detention by a Palestinian prisoner, striking for 44 days in 1997 to win her freedom.

She brought a mattress, blankets and her bags with her, emphasizing that she intended to continue the strike until Adnan’s body is released. Alayan said that she chose to carry out her strike in front of the ICRC building to demand that it and fellow international institutions be responsible towards Palestinian martyrs and prisoners. “The occupation thought that it silenced Khader Adnan’s voice by assassinating him, but it will learn that he has moved the hearts of all free people,” Alayan said.

Randa Musa, the widow of Khader Adnan, called for support for Alayan’s strike: “I send a message to all the free people of the world, to follow in the footsteps of the freed prisoner, sister Etaf Alayan, in pressuring human rights and international institutions to implement Sheikh Khader Adnan’s will.”

Etaf Alayan is a Palestinian refugee who was born in Bethlehem on 20 October 1962, with a family originally from Khaldeh near al-Ramleh. Palestine Today has written more extensively about her distinguished life in struggle for Palestinian liberation.

In her youth, she joined the Palestinian revolutionary movement, seeking military training in Beirut from the Fateh movement in 1980 at the age of 17. She was inspired to join the Palestinian revolution from an early age, having witnessed the training camps of the fedayeen as a 7-year-old girl visiting family in Amman, Jordan; as a student, she aimed to join the resistance herself. However, her communication with Fateh and the revolution in Lebanon was cut off shortly after the Zionist invasion of Beirut in 1982. In 1984, she and a group of her comrades, acting as an early group of the Brigades of the Islamic Jihad in Palestine, planned to carry out a resistance operation at the headquarters of the Zionist prime minister.

She was arrested in August 1987, before the operation was planned to take place, and underwent harsh interrogation and torture at the Moskobiya interrogation center in Jerusalem, where she launched her first hunger strike, in which she refused to eat, speak and even drink for 12 days to demand an end to the interrogation and torture. She never confessed and brought her interrogation to an end through her strike. She was sentenced to five years in prison, to which an additional 10 years was added on charges of participating in confronting a Zionist warden in Ramla prison. She went on hunger strike again to demand her transfer from Abu Kabir prison and was transferred to Ramla prison. For four years, she was held in isolation and solitary confinement, during which her belongings were confiscated and she was denied family visits.

After her release in 1997 with all of the women prisoners, she was re-arrested by occupation forces only four months later in October 1997 and transferred to administrative detention, where she carried out a 44-day hunger strike, then the longest individual hunger strike by a Palestinian detainee confronting imprisonment without charge or trial, and won her release.

In 2002, she was arrested and imprisoned for nine months related to her work with the Al-Naqaa Charity Association, and she was imprisoned again for three years between 2005 and 2008 for opening a center that provided daily surgical and health services for Palestinians who were “wanted” and in hiding, pursued by the Israeli occupation forces. In 2006, she went on hunger strike to end her separation from her infant daughter, Aisha. Aisha entered the prison with her mother for a year and a half, until Etaf and Aisha’s release in 2008.

Since her first arrest, she has been subjected to a travel ban, and her home has been raided more than once. From 1997 to 2020, she headed an Islamic Women’s Association, which operated a kindergarten and a school, and is a member of the Women Prisoners’ League for Freedom and the Jerusalem Center for Literature. She regularly visits the families of martyrs and prisoners. She is married to Walid Hodali, a novelist, member of the Palestinian Writers’ Union and the Jerusalem Center for Literature, who himself previously spent 15 years in Israeli occupation prisons.

Palestine Today reports, “Alayan adopts Islamic thought, and believes in the importance of building a national relationship with all who strive for Palestinian liberation, regardless of ideological differences. She rejects the Oslo accord and sees that the path of ‘negotiations’ has proven its failure, and believes that the Palestinian factions suffer from internal weakness and a lack of a strong vision for confronting the occupier, especially after Oslo. She supports the resistance in all forms and believes in the necessity of a real Palestinian alliance that seeks to bring the occupation to an end…She believes in the liberation of historic Palestine and the return of Palestinian refugees to the homes from which they were expelled, and affirms that the liberation of Palestine is an inevitable divine promise no matter how long it takes.”

Alayan has written part of her experience, which was published by Beitunia municipality in 2021.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses our strongest support and solidarity with Etaf Alayan, continuing her lifelong legacy of struggle and commitment to the liberation of Palestine, with her action for the liberation of Khader Adnan’s body and the liberation of the bodies of the martyrs. We urge all supporters of Palestine to escalate pressure on the ICRC and similar bodies to take meaningful action and uphold their responsibilities to the prisoners, martyrs and entire people of Palestine. 

Palestinian prisoners under attack: Ahmad Sa’adat, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Walid Hanatsheh transferred to isolation

Palestinian prisoner leaders are once again under attack inside occupation prisons today, as Zionist repressive forces invaded sections 5 and 7 of Ramon prison and transferred three prominent Palestinian prisoners to solitary confinement and potential interrogation in an unidentified location: Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; and fellow PFLP leaders Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh and Walid Hanatsheh (also a member of the Higher Emergency Committee of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement).

On the morning of Monday, 8 May, repressive forces stormed Sa’adat, Abu Ghoulmeh, and Hanatsheh’s rooms, ransacking their items and seizing the three imprisoned leaders. The attacks have met with widespread condemnation and the immediate response of fellow Palestinian political prisoners.

Immediately following the news of the invasion, the PFLP prisoners in the occupation prisons began banging on the windows and bars of the prison rooms and refusing to stand or come out for the roll call or number check that takes place repeatedly during the day, reported the Handala Center for Prisoners and Former Prisoners.

Awad al-Sultan, speaking in Gaza for the PFLP’s prisoners’ affairs office, said that the attack on Sa’adat, Abu Ghoulmeh and Hanatsheh is part and parcel of a “widespread Zionist attack targeting male and female prisoners in the occupation jails, the continuing policy of medical neglect and slow execution of dozens of sick prisoners, led by the very ill prisoner Walid Daqqah, who is in a serious health condition in an occupation hospital amid a media blackout,” urging widespread action to support the prisoners. “Support for the prisoners and responding to the crimes of the Zionist jailer against them requires the broadest popular participation in all events and actions in support of the prisoners, and escalating the resistance against the occupation and the settlers.” He denounced the silence and inaction of international human rights institutions and the International Committee of the Red Cross, saying that they “must assume their responsibilities…the silence of these institutions toward the crimes against our prisoners is tantamount to participation and complicity in these crimes.”

The Hamas movement issued a statement, saying that the transfer and isolation of Sa’adat and his comrades “would not break their will and the will of our heroic prisoners.” The movement “warned the occupation of the repercussions of its fascist policies and its systematic violations and crimes against our heroic prisoners, and we hold it fully responsible for their lives and safety. We affirm that their cause will remain the cause of the entire Palestinian people, who will not leave them, and will remain with the resistance in a covenant of loyalty until they gain their freedom.”

The attack on Sa’adat, Abu Ghoulmeh and Hanatsheh came amid a wide-ranging Zionist media campaign against the PFLP and fellow Palestinian resistance forces.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the attack on Sa’adat, Abu Ghoulmeh, Hanatsheh and all Palestinian prisoners. The targeting of specific leading prisoners is an ongoing practice used by the Israeli occupation regime against multiple Palestinian political forces. It aims to disrupt and undermine the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, its organizing and ongoing resistance leadership. We urge all friends of Palestine to speak out against the ongoing attacks against the Palestinian prisoners and escalate the calls for their liberation and for the liberation of Palestine, especially as we organize for events in the coming week in commemoration of the ongoing Nakba. 

Some posters for the campaign for Ahmad Sa’adat are below that can be included in these actions!

Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners, freedom for Palestine, from the river to the sea! 

Posters and Campaign Materials

Graphics and Posters are available in multiple languages (English, Arabic, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Farsi, Swedish, Danish, Italian, Portuguese)! Please see below. With any special requests or additions, please contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Double-sided leaflet, The Case of Ahmad Sa’adat: Introduction to Palestinian Political Prisoners
Presentation, The Case of Ahmad Sa’adat (for use in educational events)
Resource Guide, the Case of Ahmad Sa’adat (updated 22 December 2022) – 28 pages
Poster: Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat (English)
Poster: Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat (Arabic)
Poster: Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat (French)
Poster: Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat (German)
Poster: Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat (Dutch)
Poster: Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat (Spanish)
Poster: Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat (Farsi)
Poster: Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat (Swedish)
Poster: Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat (Danish)
Poster: Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat (Italian)
Poster: Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat (Portuguese)

Over 160 Organisations, Political Parties, and Unions join the International Campaign Against Anti-Palestinian Repression in Germany

More than 160 organizations, unions, and political parties around the world joined the call issued by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network, as part of the “Revolutionary Solidarity Coalition”, against the extreme anti-Palestinian repression taking place in Germany.

To add your organization’s signature to the campaign, please click here.

Accompanying this international campaign, we formed a team of lawyers that will be undertaking the legal battle against the demonstration bans and the court cases for those who are targeted by the state for their struggle for a liberated Palestine. Support us and donate to:

Name: Rote Hilfe e.V.
IBAN: DE55 4306 0967 4007 2383 17
BIC: GENODEM1GLS
Note: Palaestina gegen Repression

The “Revolutionary Solidarity Coalition” consists of revolutionary and internationalist groups and organizations in Berlin that are engaged against imperialism in Germany and worldwide. The coalition was formed as a collective response against an array of extreme repressive tactics employed by the German state particularly in Berlin in May 2022.

These incidents of repression last year began with a nation-wide smear campaign against Palestinian organizing in April, the ban on Al Quds Day demonstrations on 29.04.2022, the ban of Soviet flags and communist symbols during the commemoration of the liberation of Berlin from Nazis by the Soviet Union on 08.05.2022, extreme repression and violence perpetrated by the German police against a Kurdish demonstration in Berlin on 14.05.2022, and the ban on all demonstrations commemorating the 74th year since the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) in the German capital. Nakba demonstrations mark the forcible displacement of well over 700,000 Palestinians from their homes and towns after a series of brutal massacres and atrocities all over historic Palestine by Zionist militias. The creation of this coalition was a natural response to the extreme repression against anti-imperialist struggle in Germany and comes from the deep understanding that the German state is part of the imperialist camp. Therefore, anti-imperialist movements have historically been and continue to be faced with intense state repression, including the targeting of organizing for justice in Palestine. The “Revolutionary Solidarity Coalition” responded to these repressive attacks in 2022 by taking to the streets despite the ban on Nakba day demonstrations under the motto “class struggle against repression” and decidedly chose to resist state repression. The direct action was later accompanied with an elaborate analysis of the repression attacks in May, multiple seminars, discussion rounds, and solidarity meetings, and the advancement of the coordination level between the member organizations throughout the past year.

This year, the German state is employing these tactics once again by launching a nationwide smear campaign against Palestinian organizing and Samidoun in particular, in clear coordination with Zionist institutions and the Israeli embassy. This smear campaign took the form of a week-long engagement of all mainstream/corporate German media in attacking Palestinian organizing in Germany, with the enthusiastic participation of German politicians. This campaign provided, again, the political cover for the German state to deploy a full ban on all demonstrations commemorating Palestinian Prisoners’ Day that were planned in Berlin on the 15th, 16th and 17th of April.

This attack also included the forcible dispersion of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day demonstration in Cologne on 15 April for “supporting the resistance”. This barbaric repression against anti-imperialist struggle in Germany expresses itself as well in law 129, which is used by the German state to prosecute revolutionaries and anti-fascists in Germany, especially our Turkish and Kurdish comrades. It is also important to note that this repression in Germany comes in the context of increased repression all throughout Europe against Palestinian organizing: from the dissolution of Collectif Palestine Vaincra in Toulouse, France, to the prosecution of Palestine Action activists in the UK, to the smear campaign in the halls of the EU in March 2023 against activists and Palestinian and internationalist organizations all around Europe.

All of this represents an unacceptable attack on freedom of speech and assembly in Germany, specifically targeting Palestinian organizing and anti-imperialist movements. 

We, in the Revolutionary Solidarity Coalition, are launching the international campaign against anti-Palestinian repression in Germany. This campaign will include international and local actions, popular mobilizations, and legal efforts, in order to confront German state repression and defend the rights of our people to protest, organize and struggle for the liberation of our homelands from US and European imperialism.

We also want to make three things clear:

1- This is an attack against all progressive and revolutionary forces. It is clear that the imperialist interests of the German state and its alliance with U.S. imperialism will always be put ahead of the oppressed and exploited communities in Germany. Struggling for social equality, environmental justice, the inalienable rights of the Kurdish people, against fascism in Turkey and US imperialism, and for the liberation of Palestine, serves the oppressed and exploited, while engaging in European and US imperialist projects worldwide, protecting the profits of big companies, collaborating with fascist politics in Turkey and elsewhere, engaging in NATO offensives and wars, and serving the interests of the Zionist entity internally and on the world stage, serves no one but German capital and bourgeoisie and the global imperialist camp.

2- We invite all progressive and revolutionary forces in Germany to join us in organizing this campaign. An organized, principled and coordinated left is the only deterrent against these repressive attacks. The formal German left’s capitulation and cowardice on Palestine strips it of any credibility as a meaningful counter-force and gives the German state free reign in unleashing all its repressive tools on one of the most oppressed sectors in Germany, the refugees.

3- Equating “Israel” with Judaism, and claiming that the atrocities of the Zionist entity are representative of all people of the Jewish faith, and painting all Jews with the blood of the Palestinian and Arab people massacred by this fascist regime is itself antisemitic. This notion that is propagated by Western powers and the Zionist entity, insisting on the ethno-nationalist “identity” of “Israel” is an insult to all of our progressive Jewish comrades who are fighting with us for the liberation of Palestine. Make no mistake, if the German state is truly interested in combating antisemitism, it would start with the Nazi groups within its military, police, and political circles. Instead, the state instrumentalises the fight against anti-Semitism as a repressive tool against all who stand with the Palestinian struggle, and to shift the blame of its Nazi crimes upon the Palestinians and Arabs in Germany. It is the Palestinian liberation movement, an anti-racist, anti-colonial movement, that rejects the equation between Zionism and Jewishness. And it is, therefore, the Palestinian liberation movement that is fighting against antisemitism, fascism and all forms of racism, not the German state.

As progressive forces, we will not be intimidated by their repression. Resistance can never be banned and we will take to the streets and stand united against their attacks.

To add your organization’s signature to the campaign, please click here.

Following is the statement signed by 160 organizations around the world against the anti-Palestinian repression taking place in Germany:

Against the attacks on Palestine organizing in Germany

We, the undersigned organizations, declare our rejection and outrage at the Berlin police’s ban on commemorations of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on the weekend, 15 – 17 April. This ban is an attack not only on the Palestinian and Arab community in Berlin and supporters of Palestine, it is a threat targeting all of our freedom of expression. Beyond this, it is an attempt to silence support for the 4800 Palestinian prisoners themselves, struggling from beyond colonial bars for their freedom. 

This police ban is a reflection of anti-Palestinian racism and repression. Rather than opposing anti-Semitism, the rationale for the ban actually embraces the anti-Semitic equation that Zionism and Judaism are identical and that the Israeli occupation regime is the representative of Jews. Furthermore, it is clear that the government has no regard for the public safety of the Palestinian and Arab community in Berlin – the largest such community in Europe – and does not hesitate to instrumentalize racism and smear campaigns in order to impose a form of collective punishment on the community. 

We view this ban as an attack first and foremost on the Palestinian prisoners and on the Palestinian community in Berlin as well as an attempt to silence the rising support for Palestine in Germany and around the world. Many people are increasingly aware of and appalled by the crimes of the Israeli occupation regime in Palestine and are raising their voices against it, and this is what the ban aims to stop. 

Further, we view this as a repeat of the May 2022 ban on commemorations of al-Nakba, and warn against another such ban in 2023, the 75th commemoration of the Nakba. These bans are an expression of state-sponsored anti-Palestinian racism and a full identification with Israeli colonization of occupied Palestine. This is particularly important as the vast majority of the Palestinian community in Berlin are refugees denied their right to return home for the past 75 years. 

We reject these bans on demonstrations for Palestinian prisoners’ day and declare that our voices will not be silenced. We must shout, louder than ever, for the release of all Palestinian prisoners locked in Israeli regime jails, and for the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. And we declare, clearly and firmly, that this form of state repression will not succeed in silencing our support for the Palestinian people, their resistance and their prisoners’ movement struggling to end colonialism and racism. 

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! Free all Palestinian prisoners! Down with state repression; long live international solidarity! 

SIGN UP: https://forms.gle/8RqifeX46EwinzD96

SIGNATORIES

  1. 100 Idee per la Pace, Italy
  2. ACTA, France
  3. AFPS 63 (Association France Palestine Solidarité 63), France
  4. AFPS Grenoble, France
  5. Al Yudur Palestinian Youth, Spain
  6. Al-Awda PRRC, United States
  7. Anti Capitalistas, Catalunya
  8. Anti Imperialist front, International
  9. Anticapitalistas (Spanish state)
  10. Asociación Americana de Juristas, International
  11. Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees, United States
  12. Association France Palestine Solidarité Nîmes, France
  13. Barcelona En Comú, Catalonia
  14. BDS Vancouver/Coast Salish Territories, Canada 
  15. Belgian Academics and Artists for Palestine (BAA4P), Belgium
  16. Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network, United States/International
  17. Bruxelles Panthères, Belgium
  18. Campagne Civile Internationale pour la Protection du Peuple Palestinien (CCIPPP34), France
  19. Canada Palestine Association 
  20. Canada-Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights
  21. Canadian BDS Coalition
  22. CAPJPO – EuroPalestine, France
  23. CASI (Committee of Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran), United States/International
  24. Center for the Study and Preservation of Palestine, United States
  25. Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies, Australia
  26. CGT Metal Madrid, Spanish state
  27. CGT Salamanca, Spanish state
  28. Charente Palestine Solidarité, France
  29. Chrysalis Theatre, Canada
  30. CJPME Saskatoon, Canada
  31. Collectif Georges Ibrahim Abdallah 38, France
  32. Collectif Palestine Vaincra, France
  33. Contrahegemonía-Argentina
  34. CSTEC STEs (IAC) Catalunya
  35. Dar al Janub, Austria
  36. Democratic Lawyers Association of Bangladesh 
  37. Diputado Unidos Podemos, Enrique Santiago Romer, Spanish state
  38. Dones X Dones, Spanish state
  39. Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships Program, Canada
  40. EATIP, Argentina 
  41. Éirígí – For A New Republic, Ireland
  42. Fédération Syndicale Étudiante, France
  43. Free Palestine Maastricht, Netherlands
  44. Free Palestine Movement, United States/International
  45. Freedom Road Socialist Organization, United States
  46. Frente Antiimperialista Internacionalista, International
  47. Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle, International
  48. Front de Libération Décolonial, France
  49. GABRIELA BC, Canada
  50. Gaza Solidarity Group, Canada
  51. Greater Toronto 4 BDS, Canada
  52. Green Mountain Solidarity With Palestine, United States
  53. Groupe Non-Violent LOUIS LECOIN, Luxembourg
  54. Grupo Libélulas, Spanish state
  55. Human Rights for All ( HR4A) Saskatchewan, Canada
  56. ICAHD-USA
  57. IJAN International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, International
  58. Indiana Center for Middle East Peace, United States
  59. Institut für Palästinakunde e.V., Germany
  60. International Action Center, United States
  61. International Center for Palestine Studies, Netherlands
  62. International prisoner’s network Belgium 
  63. International Women’s Alliance (IWA), International
  64. Intersindical Alternativa de Catalunya
  65. Izquierda Unida, Spain
  66. Izquierda Unida, coordinador en grupo parlamentario Mauricio Valiente Ots
  67. Jericho Boston, United States
  68. Jewish Network for Palestine, Britain
  69. Jewish Socialist Bund, Quebec/Canada
  70. Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, United States
  71. Jüdisch-Palästinensische Dialoggruppe München, Germany
  72. Just Peace Advocates, Canada
  73. Juventud Chileno-Árabe por Palestina de Valdivia, Chile
  74. JVP Central Ohio, United States
  75. Kairos Sabeel Foundation Netherlands
  76. Kenyans For Tax Justice, Kenya
  77. Kommunistische Organisation, Germany
  78. League of Filipino Students PUP, Philippines
  79. Libérons Georges Abdallah 38, France
  80. Liga Internacional Socialista (LIS-ISL), International
  81. Lluita internacionalista, Catalunya
  82. Manu Pineda – Member of the European Parliament (The Left – GUE/NGL)
  83. Masar Badil, Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, Palestine/International
  84. MD2Palestine, United States
  85. Middle East Crisis Response, United States
  86. Migrante BC, Canada
  87. Migrante NL, Netherlands
  88. Migrantifa Mainz, Germany
  89. Migrantifa NRW , Germany
  90. Montagsdemonstration Stuttgart, Germany
  91. Mouvement Citoyen Palestine, Belgium
  92. MRAP33, France
  93. MST en el Frente de Izquierda Unidad, Argentina
  94. Münchner Friedensbündnis, Germany
  95. National Lawyers Guild International Committee, United States
  96. National Lawyers Guild Palestine Subcommittee, United States
  97. National Students for Justice in Palestine, United States
  98. National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers – Philippines
  99. New Buffalo Center, United States
  100. New York City Jericho Amnesty Movement, United States
  101. Niagara Movement for Justice (NMJPI), Canada
  102. NorCal ISM, United States
  103. North New Jersey DSA BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group, United States
  104. Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste, France
  105. Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste 31, France
  106. Oakville Palestinian Rights Association, Canada
  107. Ongd AFRICANDO, Senegal
  108. Orléans Loiret Palestine, France
  109. Palästina Spricht , Germany
  110. Palästinakomitee Stuttgart e.V., Germany
  111. Palestina Komitee Rotterdam , Netherlands
  112. Palestina Libre de Murcia, Spanish state
  113. Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), Canada – Quebec
  114. Partido comunista de España
  115. Party of Communists USA
  116. Peace & Planet News, United States
  117. Pinay Sa Holland- Gabriela , Netherlands
  118. Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine, Belgium
  119. Radical Solidarity, Netherlands
  120. Resistance News Network, International
  121. Responsable de relaciones internacionales de Izquierda Unida, Jon Rodriguez Forrest (Spain)
  122. Resumen Latinoamericano prensa, International
  123. Rete Romana di Solidarietà con il Popolo Palestinese, Italy
  124. REVOLUTION, Germany
  125. Révolution Permanente, France
  126. Revolutionaire Eenheid, Netherlands
  127. Revolutionäre Internationalistische Organisation / Klasse gegen Klasse, Germany
  128. Revolutionärer Jugendbund, Germany
  129. Revolutionary Communist Group – Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!, Britain
  130. Roter Ring, Germany
  131. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, International
  132. Scottish Jews Against Zionism, Scotland
  133. Secours Rouge Genève, Switzerland
  134. Secours Rouge Montréal, Quebec
  135. Secours Rouge Toulouse, France
  136. SELondonFriendsOfPalestine, Britain
  137. Sindicato Solidaridad Obrera, Spanish state
  138. Solidarität International (SI) e.V., Germany
  139. Solidaritätsnetzwerk Berlin, Germany
  140. Stop the War Machine, United States
  141. Students for Justice in Palestine Amsterdam, Netherlands
  142. Sulong UBC, Canada
  143. SUPER-UW, United States
  144. The Key (Palestine)
  145. The Moroccan Front to support Palestine and against normalization, Morocco
  146. UK-Palestine Mental Health Network, Britain
  147. Unidas Podemos-Galicia en Común, Spanish state
  148. Union Juive Française pour la Paix (UJFP), France
  149. Unité Communiste, France
  150. United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), United States
  151. US Boats to Gaza
  152. US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI(
  153. Venceremos, Partido de Trabajadorxs, Argentina
  154. Veterans for Peace, United States
  155. Veterans For Peace Chapter 72, United States
  156. VIB, VIVA Intifada Berlin, Germany
  157. Vita Books, Britain
  158. V-SB, Belgium/Flanders
  159. Women Against Military Madness, United States
  160. Women for Filipino Women and Children, Netherlands
  161. Workers Voice Socialist Movement, United States
  162. Workers World Party, United States

 

Take action: Tell Ontario NDP to apologize to Sarah Jama and stand in solidarity with detained Palestinians

Sign-on Action for Canada:

Take one minute to send letter to the Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP) asking them to stop succumbing to the Israel lobby. Insist the ONDP apologize to Sarah Jama and the Palestinian community, and join the human rights community in condemning Israel’s detention of Palestinians and its occupation, apartheid and colonial regime in Palestine.

Click here to send your letter!

On May 2, newly elected Ontario NDP MPP Sarah Jama re-tweeted Palestinian academic Noura Erakat’s statement on the death of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, who had just lost his life inside an Israeli jail after 86 days of hunger strike. Adnan, 45, was on his sixth hunger strike against Israeli detention. From Arraba, Jenin, he was the husband of Randa Mousa, and the father of 9 children. Like many other statements on Adnan’s death, Erakat’s tweet concluded by honouring him as a “martyr for freedom. Free Palestine.”

After B’nai B’rith posted a picture of Jama retweeting Erakat the NDP released a “Statement regarding Hamilton Centre MPP”. It noted, “Last night, the MPP for Hamilton Centre retweeted a tweet by an American academic Noura Erakat concerning the death of Khader Adnan and later un-retweeted it. The content of the tweet does not reflect the views of MPP Jama or the Ontario NDP.”

But, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council and other human rights groups released statements similar to Erakat regarding Adnan’s death. The UN experts statement noted, “The death of Khader Adnan is a tragic testament to Israel’s cruel and inhumane detention policy and practices … The systematic practice of administrative detention is tantamount to a war crime.”

Israel is holding approximately 4,900 Palestinians in its prisons, including 1,016 in so-called administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Those who are charged — like Adnan, often with political charges like political party membership or visiting the homes of imprisoned Palestinians — face military courts with a 99.74% conviction rate. After winning his freedom from administrative detention four times due to hunger strikes, Adnan was a symbol of the struggle against administrative detention, and his detention in 2023 was an extreme example of Israel’s arbitrary power over Palestinians.

In Ha’aretz paper Gideon Levy called Adnan “a fighter for his freedom and was ready to sacrifice his life for it as only very few are willing to do. He fought against an evil, vindictive tyranny that for years threw him into prison repeatedly, without trial, in the hope of breaking his spirit… If he were Russian, Burmese, Irish or Iranian, Adnan would have been regarded as an honored freedom fighter, even by Israelis. As a Palestinian, he was regarded as a terrorist.”

The Ontario NDP must stop succumbing to pressure from B’nai B’rith. The party must apologize to Sarah Jama and the Palestinian community and join the human rights community in condemning Israel’s detention of Palestinians and its occupation, apartheid and colonial regime in Palestine.

Click here to send your letter!

This letter initiated by:

Canada Palestine Association

Canadian Foreign Policy Institute

Palestinian and Jewish Unity

Just Peace Advocates

Labour for Palestine

Oakville Palestinian Rights Association

Samidoun

Canadian BDS Coalition

6 May, Book Launch: “The Trinity of Fundamentals” (English) with Wisam Rafeedie

Samidoun is one of many organizations endorsing the Palestinian Youth Movement’s English language launch of the book by Wisam Rafeedie, “The Trinity of Fundamentals.”

Below is the announcement from PYM. PYM is also organizing several in-person watch parties — read their announcement for details! 

EVENT DETAILS:
WHEN: Saturday, May 6th, 1-3pm ET, 8-10 Palestine Time.
WHERE: in-person or Online
RSVP: Register to attend.

You can attend a watch party hosted by our chapters in the Bay Area, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia.

Join the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and 1804 Books for the book launch of Wisam Rafeedie’s The Trinity of Fundamentals. The Trinity of Fundamentals is Rafeedie’s fictionalized account of his nine years of hiding from the Occupation in Palestine, which ended in his capture by the Israeli occupation army in 1991. Rafeedie wrote The Trinity of Fundamentals during his imprisonment at Naqab Prison in 1993.

We will be joined by the author and guest speaker Wisam Rafeedie. Rafeedie is a former Palestinian political prisoner, full-time researcher and lecturer at the Department of Social Sciences at Bethlehem University – Palestine. He previously worked as a part-time lecturer in Sociology and Cultural Studies at Birzeit University. He holds two master’s degrees from Birzeit University, one in sociology for his thesis on the changes in the status of women in contemporary Palestinian literature before and after Oslo, and the other in contemporary Arab studies.

Wisam will be in conversation with the PYM and will speak about how the novel was written and smuggled out of Israeli prison as well as the broader phenomenon of Palestinian prisoner literature production.

We are grateful to our comrades at Al-Awda, Anakbayan, Bayan, Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), CUNY4Palestine, CPFQ, Malcom X Grassroots Movement, Makan, the Mosaic Rooms, National Student for Justice in Palestine, Nodutdol, Party for Socialist Liberation (PSL), Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC), Palestine Writes, the People’s Forum, Samidoun, Union Del Barrio, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)-NYC, US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), UK Palestine Mental Health Network for their organizational endorsement of the book launch.

6-7 May, Online: Eritrea Hearing, International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism

Join the International People’s Tribunal on US Imperialism: Sanctions, Blockades, Coercive Economic Measures for a hearing on Saturday and Sunday, May 6 and 7, on the effects and impacts of these policies and practices on the people of Eritrea. We will hear testimony and reports from expert and direct witnesses, with questions and discussion from our jurors.

The Eritrea hearing will take place over two days, on:

  • Saturday, May 6 at 10:30 AM EDT/7:30 AM PDT/2:30 PM GMT/5:30 PM Eritrea.
  • Sunday, May 7 at 10:30 AM EDT/7:30 AM PDT/2:30 PM GMT/5:30 PM Eritrea.

Register to listen online: https://bit.ly/eritreatribunal

Samidoun is a co-sponsor of the Tribunal. Visit the Sanctions Tribunal website to learn more and register for upcoming hearings.

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Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
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