30 June, NYC: Protest to free Nael Barghouthi and Stop HP

20 June 2017

Friday, 30 June
5:30 pm
Best Buy Union Square
52 E. 14th Street
New York City
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/260368777772696/

Nael Barghouthi, age 59, has been imprisoned by Israel for 36 years and is the longest-detained Palestinian political prisoner.

He was released by Israel in a prisoner exchange with Palestinian resistance groups in 2011, but swept up in a wave of detentions by Israeli occupation forces that targeted dozens of freed prisoners in 2014.

On March 22, an Israeli military court at Ofer prison, in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, used “secret evidence” to reimpose Barghouthi’s original sentence of life plus eighteen years.

Along with Samidoun, Addameer Prisoner Support & Human Rights Association has called for action to pressure Israel to release Barghouthi, now held as a political hostage by the Israeli government.

Stand with Barghouthi to demand that Israel release him and all 6,200 Palestinian political prisoners, and that Hewlett Packard companies end their contracts with Israeli prisons and detention centers, occupation and security forces, and checkpoints and settlements .

Help build a growing international campaign to boycott HP over the companies’ support for Israeli crimes.

Support the Palestinian people, the Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinian Resistance, and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

24 June, Naples: After the prisoners’ struggle, what next in Palestine?

20 June 2017

Saturday, 24 June
5:00 pm
Ex OPG Occupato – Je so’ pazzo
via Matteo Renato Imbriani 218
80136 Naples, Italy
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/700598726791436/

“In struggle against oppression” – after the victory of the prisoners, what is next in Palestine?

Discussion and presentation of the book “50 years later (1967-2017) – the occupied Palestinian territory and the failure of the two-state solution” with the author Michele Giorgio and Chiara Cruciati, journalists of Nena News Agency and il manifesto.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network will speak about the situation of the prisoners over Skype.

Presentation of Roberto Prinzi about the independent media project, Nena News Agency and dinner, to support the project.

**

Sabato 24 giugno – ore 17 – @Ex Opg “Je so’ pazzo”

“In lotta contro l’oppressione”. Dopo la vittoria dei prigionieri, cosa sta succedendo in Palestina?

Dibattito e presentazione del libro “Cinquant’anni dopo (1967-2017). I territori palestinesi occupati e il fallimento della soluzione dei due Stati”. Con gli autori: Michele Giorgio e @Chiara Cruciati, giornalisti di Nena NewsAgency eil manifesto.

– INCONTRO “In lotta contro l’oppressione”. Dopo la vittoria dei prigionieri, cosa sta succedendo in Palestina?
Facciamo un bilancio della mobilitazione con Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

PRESENTAZIONE DI Roberto Prinzi DEL PROGETTO
DELL’AGENZIA DI STAMPA INDIPENDENTE Nena NewsAgency E CENA A SOSTEGNO DEL PROGETTO!

—-
Quasi 2000 prigionieri palestinesi per oltre 40 giorni in sciopero della fame. Una delle mobilitazioni più importanti a cui il popolo palestinese abbia dato vita negli ultimi anni si è chiusa lo scorso 27 maggio. Insieme alla protesta dei detenuti, le manifestazioni di supporto di un intero popolo, uno sciopero generale che ha coinvolto tutti i territori palestinesi (e non accadeva dal 1987, anno della prima intifada), la “giornata della rabbia” in occasione dell’ultima visita di Trump, presidi permanenti, tutto nel silenzio tombale delle istituzioni e dei media occidentali. Eppure, nonostante tutto, la protesta dei palestinesi è riuscita ad irrompere ben lontano dalle carceri, costringendo i ministri israeliani, che fino a quel momento si erano opposti a qualsiasi forma di riconoscimento della battaglia dei prigionieri, a intavolare una trattativa a partire dalle rivendicazioni lanciate dal movimento di protesta: un immediato miglioramento delle condizioni di detenzione, la possibilità di comunicare e di incontrare familiari a cui viene negata sistematicamente la possibilità di accedere dalla Cisgiordania o da Gaza in territorio israeliano, l’accesso a cure mediche negli ospedali. Una mobilitazione che ha denunciato con forza e chiesto la fine della detenzione amministrativa, pratica inumana, retaggio del colonialismo britannico nella regione, per cui Israele può incarcerare senza formulare accuse, senza presentare capi d’imputazione, rinnovando la detenzione di sei mesi in sei mesi senza limiti.

A prescindere dai risultati ottenuti, dagli avanzamenti “umanitari” che Israele sembra aver concesso e sui quali, i Palestinesi lo sanno bene, bisognerà vigilare nei mesi a seguire, lo sciopero dei detenuti ha rappresentato un momento fondamentale:

– ha rinsaldato il fronte della resistenza: la questione dei prigionieri tocca la totalità del popolo palestinese: secondo l’organizzazione di sostegno ai detenuti Addameer si contano 6200 palestinesi detenuti, di questi 490 in detenzione amministrativa e 300 sono minori. Ormai i prigionieri rappresentano un punto di riferimento decisivo per tutto il movimento di liberazione.

– ha fatto emergere, con forza, la lotta che i Palestinesi conducono quotidianamente “anche contro il collaborazionismo dell’Autorità Nazionale Palestinese, e soprattutto contro l’accordo di cooperazione militare con le forze di occupazione, che la sta trasformando in una forza di repressione del movimento di resistenza palestinese, in nome e per conto degli occupanti israeliani”.

– ha posto in questione l’occupazione nella sua totalità: impossibile parlare delle carceri israeliane e dei detenuti palestinesi senza tenere conto del processo di colonizzazione continua a cui è sottoposta la terra palestinese dal 1948, della repressione, dei soprusi cui è sottoposto il suo popolo, degli assassinii quotidiani di giovani palestinesi. Solo nel 2016, rispetto all’anno precedente, le costruzioni israeliane nei Territori Occupati sono aumentate del 40 %, l’assedio su Gaza non accenna tregue. D’altronde tutti i governi occidentali sostengono a mano bassa le direttrici criminali su cui si muove Israele, a partire dal governo italiano che da sempre intavola con lo stato sionista accordi commerciali, economici, di cooperazione militare, collaborazioni accademiche e diplomatiche.

Se è questo il quadro, allora, cosa fare per supportare e dare voce, anche qui, alla resistenza palestinese? Cosa sta realmente accadendo nei Territori Occupati, di cui è parte Gerusalemme Est, a Gaza? Cos’ha lasciato, e cos’ha significato, in Palestina, la grande lotta dei prigionieri?

Coordinamento napoletano per la Palestina

—-
Agenzia di Stampa NenaNews. CHI SIAMO?
http://nena-news.it/chi-siamo/
La Near East News Agency (Nena News), Agenzia Stampa Vicino Oriente, nasce nel 2010 dal progetto di un collettivo di giornalisti e ricercatori, che vivono e lavorano nel Vicino Oriente e in Italia, con l’obiettivo di diffondere un’informazione indipendente su un’area del mondo che è terreno di conflitti che condizionano l’intero pianeta. Il Vicino Oriente è da sempre oggetto di particolare attenzione da parte dei maggiori mezzi d’informazione; un’attenzione spesso appiattita su rappresentazioni schematiche della realtà dei singoli paesi della regione che, al contrario, è complessa e articolata. Gran parte delle notizie diffuse offre punti di vista parziali che trascurano l’analisi dei contesti politici, sociali ed economici entro i quali maturano ed esplodono conflitti e contraddizioni.

Nena News, aperta al contributo di giovani reporter, si propone di fornire aggiornamenti quotidiani sui conflitti in corso, sui processi politici di cambiamento, le dinamiche sociali, le lotte dei lavoratori, il protagonismo emergente dei giovani e delle donne, le produzioni culturali e musicali. Lo fara’ sia attraverso la diffusione di articoli, reportages, analisi e materiale multimediale.

NENA NEWS – Near East News Agency – Agenzia Stampa Vicino Oriente

Testata giornalistica registrata al Tribunale di Roma n.98/2011 – sede operativa: Via San Pio X, 36 – 06081 – Assisi (Pg)

Direttore: Michele Giorgio – @michelegiorgio2

Caporedattore: Chiara Cruciati – @ChiaraCruciati
Redazione: Roberto Prinzi – @Robbamir

Tra i collaboratori: Fidaa Abu Hamdiyyeh (cucina etnica), Barbara Antonelli (Palestina, Israele), Sonia Grieco (Africa, Medio Oriente), Giorgia Grifoni (Iran, Medio Oriente), Federica Iezzi (Siria, Africa), Francesca La Bella (analisi), Cristina Micalusi (cultura), Rita Plantera (Africa), Rosa Schiano (Palestina, Israele), Cecilia D’Abrosca (cultura), Stefano Mauro (Iran, Libano, Israele), Patrizia Cecconi (Palestina, botanica)

Le immagini riprodotte in questo sito provengono in prevalenza da Internet e pertanto le riteniamo di dominio pubblico. Gli autori delle foto o i soggetti coinvolti possono in ogni momento chiederne la rimozione, scrivendo al seguente indirizzo di posta elettronica: nenanewsagency@gmail.com

—–
Je so’ pazzo è un ex-opg (ospedale psichiatrico giudiziario) occupato nel marzo 2015 da un gruppo di studenti, lavoratori, disoccupati, per sottrarlo all’abbandono e per restituirlo alla città, per ricostruire la memoria di questo luogo terribile di esclusione e tortura, e lanciare percorsi di mobilitazione a partire dalle nostre concrete esigenze: dal lavoro al territorio, dalle scuole alle università, dalla casa alla sanità.

—–
Come arrivarci?
– Metro Linea 1: Fermata Materdei
(5 minuti a piedi verso Salita San Raffaele)
– Dal centro storico (15 minuti a piedi):
arrivare al museo nazionale e salire via Salvator Rosa,
all’incrocio con via Imbriani ci trovate sulla destra.

—–
Ex Opg Occupato – Je so’ pazzo
pagina facebook: https://www.facebook.com/exopgjesopazzo
sito web: http://jesopazzo.org/
twitter: https://twitter.com/ExOpgJesopazzo

24 June, Liege: Musical Festival featuring Raj’een Dabkeh Group

20 June 2017

Saturday, 24 June
4:00 pm
Espace Georges Truffaut
Avenue de Lille 5
4020 Liege, Belgium (Droixhe)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/137886120098702/

The CCAPL and the Association Belgo-Palestinienne of Liege and Espace Georges Truffaut invite you to a Musical Festival. The music will not be alone on the stage: the Palestinian folkloric dance troupe Raj’een Dabkeh Group will perform.

Free Entry

Le CCAPL en collaboration avec l’Association Belgo-Palestinienne régionale de liège et l’Espace Georges Truffaut vous invite à la Fête de la musique.
La Musique ne sera pas seule sur la scène, la danse folklorique palestinienne avec le groupe «Raj’een Dabkeh Group فرقة راجعين للدبكة» et la danse orientale feront leurs démonstrations qui combleront les admirateurs de ces danses.
La musique de l’Orient et du Maghreb séduira un public amateur et nostalgique.
Lieu : Espace Georges Truffaut
Avenue de Lille 5, 4020 LIEGE (Droixhe)
P.A.F. : entrée libre – Au programme :
16h : Jeunes musiciens du cours de musique du CCAPL
18h : Dabké palestinien « Raj’een Dabkeh Group فرقة راجعين للدبكة »
et Danse Orientale
Repas oriental
Concert de musique traditionnelle et folklorique arabe

23 June, NYC: Al-Quds Day Community Iftar

20 June 2017

Friday, 23 June
7:30 pm
147 W. 24th St. 2nd Floor
NYC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/399192140475962/

Join New York City Students for Justice in Palestine for Iftar Friday, June 23rd, Al-Quds Day. As the fight continues for a liberated Al-Quds (Jerusalem), we will come together over food and discussion to celebrate the ongoing resistance to Zionism within historic Palestine and across the diaspora.

We invite you join us at the Al-Quds Day rally in Times Square before our Iftar!:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1850932601791010/

————————–
Food Provided by Yemen Cafe

Sliding Scale Donation Accepted
$15 – Standard Rate
$20 – Al-Quds Rate
$10 – Discount/Student Rate

No one turned away for inability to pay!

1 to 23rd St & 7th Ave
N, R to 23rd St & Broadway
C, E to 23rd St & 8th Ave

23 June, New York City; International Day of al-Quds

20 June 2017

Friday, 23 June
4:30 pm
42nd St and 7th ave, Times Square
New York City
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1850932601791010/

#QudsDay
#Right2Boycott

On International Day of Quds, people of conscience gather to express solidarity with all the oppressed human beings of the world and particularly the innocent civilians of Palestine who are victimized by the oppressive and racist Zionist regime.

We invite all peace loving people to voice their opposition to the unjust and illegal occupation of the great Al-Aqsa Mosque and the usurpation of the Holy Land by the Zionist regime. In addition, we will also protest the current Saudi aggression in Yemen.

We, the citizens of the United States and in particular residents of New York, reserve the right to boycott any and all parties involved in practicing racist, discriminatory, and oppressive policies.

Stand with us! Stand for your rights!

We will rally at Times Square at 4:30 where our speakers will shed lights on the atrocities being committed by the Zionist state on the oppressed people of Palestine.

*ENDORSING ORGANIZATIONS*

1) Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
2) Jafaria Association Of North America
3) Neturei Karta
4) International Action Center
5) Al Awda NY
6) Palestine Right to Return Coalition
7) New York Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)
8) BDS App
9) Students & Youth for a New America
10) New York for Palestine
11) Samidoun
————————–—————-
NOTE: “Muslim Congress and its AlQuds subcommittees in respective cities have no affiliation with any foreign entity.
Funds for Al-Quds events are generated by local community organizers who strongly believe in exercising their legal right to protest against oppression.”

21 June, San Francisco: Freedom and Dignity across Walls – from Palestine to Pelican Bay

20 June 2017

Wednesday June 21
7pm
Mission Center – City College of San Francisco
1125 Valencia St., SF
Room 107
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1930149910600506

Featuring:

Marie Levin of Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity, and sister of one of the 2011-2013 CA Hunger Strike leaders, Sitawa Jaama

Lara Kiswani, Executive Director of AROC: Arab Resource & Organizing Center

Special update from Palestine, by Addameer Prisoner Support & Human Rights Association

Moderated by former political prisoner and Freedom Archives director, Claude Marks

Just a couple weeks ago, Palestinian prisoners suspended a 40-day hunger strike, bringing the Israeli state to the negotiating table. At the same time word began to emerge of a prisoner hunger strike against appalling conditions at Folsom State Prison here in California. Although both strikes come amid an intensification of Israeli colonialism in Palestine, and brazen plans for increased policing and imprisonment against Black, Brown, and immigrant communities in the US, they are also born of bold prisoner organizing.

Join us for a discussion drawing connections between struggles by
imprisoned organizers in Palestine and California, providing updates on current prisoner-led actions, and lifting up opportunities for more powerful solidarity.

Mass marches in Greece declare “Netanyahu Not Welcome!” in Thessaloniki and Athens

19 June 2017

*Photo: Thessaloniki, 15 June – Ghassan Kanafani Front for Resistance and Solidarity*

Large crowds took to the streets on Thursday, 15 June in Thessaloniki and Athens, Greece, protesting the visit of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Greece-Israel-Cyprus summit promoting increased economic and military cooperation between the Israeli occupation, Greece and Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

*Photo: Athens, 15 June – Workers’ Revolutionary Party*

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Greece joined a number of Greek and Palestinian organizations in calling for the demonstrations to reject the presence of Netanyahu in Greece as a war criminal. Organizations including ANTARSYA, KOE (Communist Organization of Greece), NAR (New Left Current), EEK (Workers’ Revolutionary Party), KKE ml (Communist Party of Greece – Marxist-Leninist), the Friends of Palestine, the Ghassan Kanafani Front for Resistance and Solidarity, the Friends of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a wide range of anti-war, anti-imperialist, anti-racist and social justice organizations and activists joined in the marches that took to the streets in both cities.

The summit, which included Netanyahu, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras and Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades, convened in Thessaloniki under the auspices of a touted gas deal for pipeline construction between occupied Palestine, Greece and Cyprus. Protesters denounced the role of the SYRIZA-ANEL government in Greece, elected on a left, anti-austerity program with campaign pledges that included an end to joint military exercises with Israel, for its role in enforcing more austerity, greater EU control over Greek resources and a massively intensified relationship with the apartheid settler-colonial Israeli regime.

*Photo: Thessaloniki, 15 June – Middle East Monitor*

In Athens, hundreds gathered outside the Israeli Embassy where protests went on for over an hour before a march through the streets to the Defense Ministry, demanding an end to collaboration with the Israeli occupation. A wide array of left organizations and youth participated in the protest and march.

“We are here to protest the presence of the war criminal Netanyahu in Greece. We are against this relationship between the current SYRIZA government and the Israeli apartheid state. We see Greece’s natural position in the Middle East, supporting the people and anti-war. We are against the involvement of Greece in the European Union, more and more, and supporting the colonial machine in the region,” said Mohammed Khatib, the European coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, speaking to reporters at the protest.

*Photo: Athens, 15 June – Nikolas Joao Kokovlis*

In Thessaloniki, an even larger crowd gathered at the Venizelos Statue and marched throughout the city carrying Palestinian flags and red flags, banners and signs demanding an end to Greek cooperation with EU, US and Israeli schemes stripping the wealth of the Greek and Palestinian people. As they marched by the United States consulate in Thessaloniki, protesters stopped and burned an image of a U.S. and Israeli flag, chanting slogans against U.S. imperialism in the region.

Also in Thessaloniki, another protest of hundreds marched from St. Sophia Square to denounce ongoing NATO involvement in Greece and Israeli occupation. Another group of Greek activists protested inside the studios of state-run TV station ET3 until they ran a video protesting the summit and denouncing the role of Tsipras in engaging in military and economic cooperation with the Israeli occupation.

Palestinian revolutionary Leila Khaled called on all to participate in the demonstration: “This message is to call on all progressive, socialist, democratic, anti-imperialist, anti-apartheid forces to firmly stand strongly against this visit and this summit. Our mutual struggle is based on common interests for our peoples. On behalf of the martyrs, the prisoners and their families, I call upon everyone to participate in the demonstration. Let Netanyahu hear our voices, from Palestine to Greece via Cyprus, that he is not welcome anywhere.” In Athens, Leila Khaled’s message was read aloud in Greek to the crowd.

Earlier, the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine had urged protests of the summit, calling on Greek organizations to respond: “The PFLP urged all friendly Greek forces and parties to fight the intensifying political, military and economic ties between Greece and the Zionist entity, which necessarily come at the expense of the Palestinian and Arab people whose resources and rights have been confiscated by the occupier, while opening the wealth of the Greek people to looting by the U.S. and Zionist state. The Front denounced the role of the Syriza-ANEL government in escalating this relationship between Greece and the Zionist occupation state to unprecedented levels at the expense of the Greek and Palestinian peoples and their gas and water wealth and resources.”

The Union of Palestinian Communities and Organizations in Europe had called on the Greek government to cancel the meeting. “The SYRIZA government was elected with claims of commitment to international law and respect for the will of the Greek people. At the same time, it is standing with imperialism and Zionist forces and the interests of oil and gas companies while receiving a racist war criminal who killed thousands of civilians in Gaza. Netanyahu is a criminal, a killer of children, and his only natural place is in the dock at the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” said Dr. Fawzi Ismail, president of the Union.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is dedicated to continuing to organize in Greece and internationally against the Greece/Cyprus/Israel gas deal and attempts to extract the wealth of the Palestinian and Greek people for exploitation by U.S. imperialists, oligarchic captialists and Israeli colonialists. The large turnout in Athens and Thessaloniki makes clear that Greek people support justice for the Palestinian people, not war deals with apartheid settler-colonial states.

Video from Thessaloniki:

Video from Athens:

Photos from Athens:

Photos from Thessaloniki:

New Yorkers protest to end Israeli administrative detention and boycott HP

19 June 2017

New Yorkers protested in support of Palestinian political prisoners on Friday, 16 June outside the Best Buy electronics store in Union Square. Organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, the protest focused on three recent administrative detention cases – those of Rami Fadayel, Hasan Safadi and Hassan Karajeh.

The rally also demanded that Hewlett Packard companies end their contracts with Israel’s prisons and detention centers, military and security forces, and other occupation infrastructure. Best Buy sells a number of HP products, including laptop computers, printers, ink and printer accessories. HP is subject to a global boycott campaign due to its profiteering from the imprisonment, occupation and colonization of Palestinian land and people. A growing number of churches, labor unions and other organizations are becoming HP-free zones in response.

New York organizers distributed information to passers-by about the situation of Palestinian political prisoners as well as HP’s complicity in Israeli apartheid, urging Best Buy shoppers to choose alternative options to HP products. They engaged in lively discussions and received a great deal of support from people passing by on the street.

Hasan Safadi, 26, the Arabic media coordinator of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, is a Palestinian journalist and human rights defender who has been imprisoned without charge or trial since 1 May 2016 as he returned from an Arab youth conference in Tunisia. After 40 days of interrogation, he was ordered to administrative detention which has now been repeatedly renewed, most recently for an additional six months on 8 June. The call for his release has been joined by Amnesty International, among others.

Rami Fadayel, 37, has been held without charge or trial for 18 months and was ordered on 7 June to another four months of arbitrary imprisonment under administrative detention. Fadayel is well-known in Ramallah as a leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian leftist political party. His detention has been repeatedly renewed under the pretext of a “secret file.”

Hassan Karajah, a youth activist with the Stop the Wall campaign who is actively involved in the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, has been imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 12 July 2016, when he was seized by Israei occupation forces at a military checkpoint west of Ramallah. His administrative detention was renewed for another four months on 7 June.

The three are among nearly 500 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of a total of approximately 6,300 Palestinian political prisoners. Administrative detention orders last from one to six months, but are indefinitely renewable; Palestinians can spend years at a time imprisoned with no charge and no trial on the basis of “secret evidence.” Over 50,000 administrative detention orders have reportedly been issued since 1967; the practice dates from the colonial British mandate over Palestine and was re-imposed by the Israeli occupation.

Israel’s use of administrative detention comes in violation of international law; unlike the detention permitted under international law, it is systematic, prolonged and applied repeatedly over years against large numbers of Palestinians.

New Yorkers are continuing to protest for freedom for Palestinian political prisoners and building the boycott of HP. On Friday, 23 June, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network will join many Palestine organizations for the International Day of Al-Quds demonstration at 4:30 pm at the corner of 42nd St and 7th Avenue in Times Square. Following the demonstration, Samidoun will join NYC Students for Justice in Palestine at its Al-Quds Day Iftar at 7:30 pm at 147 W. 24th Street in Manhattan.

The following week, on 30 June, weekly demonstrations will resume at Best Buy in Union Square at 5:30 pm. On 30 June, the protest will focus on the call for freedom for Nael Barghouthi, the longest-held Palestinian prisoner who has spent 36 years in Israeli jails. Re-arrested in June 2014 after his release in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011, his original life sentence was reimposed on the basis of so-called “secret evidence.” All supporters of justice, freedom and liberation for Palestine and the Palestinian people are invited to participate.

Al-Buraq Revolution: Legacy, Continuing Struggle and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement

18 June 2017

*The three Palestinians executed at Akka prison – Fouad Hijazi, Atta al-Zeer and Mohammed Khalil Jamjoum*

17 June marks the anniversary of the execution of three of the earliest martyrs of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement – Fouad Hijazi, Atta al-Zeer and Mohammed Khalil Jamjoum – by British colonial occupiers, in Akka prison.

The execution of these Palestinian strugglers has remained for years an ongoing story of resistance that continues to inspire strugglers through 100 years of resistance to colonization and occupation. Indeed, the song written to commemorate Hijazi, al-Zeer and Jamjoum, “From Akka Prison,” today remains one of the most well-known and powerful poems of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.

Hijazi, al-Zeer and Jamjoum were seized by the British colonizers for their role in Al-Buraq Revolution of 1929, named for the al-Buraq Wall in Jerusalem. The uprising was sparked after Zionist groups came to the wall and planted Zionist flags, declaring that “This wall is ours.”

In Jerusalem, Haifa, Yafa and Safad, Palestinians rose up against British colonization and the declared Zionist plans to colonize Palestine and declare it a “Jewish state.” Hundreds of Palestinians were seized by British forces and 26 sentenced to death by hanging; there was such an outcry by the Palestinian people that most of these sentences were converted to life imprisonment, with the exception of Hijazi, Jamjoum and al-Zeer.

Fouad Hijazi was 26 years old, from Safad; Mohammed Jamjoum was 28, from al-Khalil, as was Atta al-Zeer, 35.

Born in Safad in 1904, Hijazi received his primary education in his hometown; his university education was completed at the American University of Beirut. He actively participated in the Buraq Revolution and wrote a message to his family the day before his execution, which was published in the newspaper on 18 June 1930. In the message, he said, “On 17 June of each year, this should be a historic day in which speeches are made and songs are sung in the memory of our blood spilled for the sake of Palestine and the Arab cause.”

Mohammed Khalil Jamjoum was born in 1902 in al-Khalil; like Hijazi he attended university at the American University of Beirut. Atta al-Zeer was born in al-Khalil also, in 1895. Throughout his life he worked as a farmer and a manual laborer and was known from his earliest days for his courage and physical strength.

On 17 June 1930, Palestinians organized a general strike throughout Palestine as large crowds gathered in major Palestinian cities across the country – in Yafa, Haifa, al-Khalil and Nablus. After the executions, their bodies were handed to the men’s families, who had been denied the right to bury them in their home cities. Thousands of Palestinians streamed through the streets of Akka in honor of Jamjoum, Hijazi and al-Zeer, figures and symbols of Palestinian resistance to British and Zionist colonization. The three revolutionaries were executed on that day, but their anti-colonial message and commitment has continued to resonate through generations of Palestinian struggle for national liberation.

Abu Maher al-Yamani, co-founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestinian labor leader and historical leader of the Palestinian national movement, left his village of Suhmata for the first time at the age of six with his father. There, he “was surprised to encounter the execution of three Palestinian martyrs by British colonial authorities on that day, June 17, 1930 – Fouad Hijazi, Mohammed Jamjoum and Atta al-Zeer. The awareness of the child Ahmed al-Yamani was awakened, viewing the executions and the bodies of the martyrs in the gallows of the courtyard of Akka central prison; this incident greatly affected him and remained an image in his mind that could not be forgotten.”

Their story has been embedded as well in the Palestinian culture of resistance. Palestinian poet Ibrahim Tuqan’s poem, “Red Tuesday,” commemorates the three, noting “their bodies in the homeland’s graves/their souls in the reaches of heaven.”

The popular song, “Min Sijjin Akka,” or “From Akka Prison,” continues to be sung and celebrated throughout Palestine. The origin of the poem is not precisely clear; some say that it was written on the walls of Akka prison by a revolutionary named ‘Awad, himself awaiting execution by the British colonial rulers. Other scholars note that the poem was likely composed by a working-class popular poet and in Haifa, Nuh Ibrahim, perhaps the most famous Palestinian poet of his time and carrying his own legacy of resistance. “He was not a poet of the elite and he did not write poetry for social occasions or holidays. Instead Ibrahim is known for composing for the 1936-1939 Palestinian Revolt and to peasants working their grapevines, orchards and wheat fields. He spoke and wrote in everyday language, as a provocateur and broadcaster for the revolt, in which he also participated as a fighter,” wrote Samih Shabeeb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ANSDXXaORQ

The lyrics of the song are known today throughout Palestine and continue to be sung at national events, weddings and cultural celebrations. Ibrahim himself died struggling for Palestine eight years later, as a fighter in the movement of Izzedine al-Qassam in the 1936-39 revolution in Palestine. After being imprisoned in Akka prison himself, he was killed by the British colonial army in a battle in the Westen Galilee.

The ongoing relevance of the Buraq Revolution and the legacy of the execution of the three martyrs of 17 June 1930 is not limited to its cultural resonance. Just weeks ago, Palestinian Authority official Jibril Rajoub was widely criticized by Palestinian organizations and strugglers inside and outside Palestine for his statements on Israeli TV about the al-Buraq Wall being under “Israeli sovereignty.” Indeed, Palestinian youth activists and journalists like Nassar Jaradat and Zaher al-Shammali are currently politically detained by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, seemingly for their publicly posted critiques of Rajoub’s avowed willingness to abandon the same Palestinian national site and symbol struggled for by generations of Palestinians.

*Three Palestinian youths from Deir Abu Mashaal – Adel Ankoush, Bara’a Atta, Osama Atta*

Days later, on 16 June, the eve of the anniversary of the execution of Hijazi, Jamjoum and al-Zeer, three young Palestinians from the village of Deir Abu Mashaal, Bara’a Ibrahim Saleh Atta, Osama Ahmed Mustafa Atta and Adel Hassan Ahmed Ankoush, were shot down by Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem after they stabbed several Israeli occupation military Border Police officers, killing one and wounding several, only meters from al-Buraq Wall itself. Bara’a Atta and Osama Atta, both active in the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, were both former prisoners in Israeli prisons, imprisoned as young teens; Osama Atta was the leader of the PFLP child prisoners during his imprisonment. The third Palestinian youth, Adel Ankoush, was active with Hamas.

In statements by the PFLP, the leftist Palestinian party referred to the Palestinian resistance action as the “Promise of Al-Buraq,” explicitly recognizing the action not only as a refutation of U.S. and Zionist attempts to confiscate Palestinian land and rights, but also recalling the Buraq Revolution martyrs of 87 years prior.

*The three hunger striking martyrs of 1980 – Izhaq Maragha, Ali Ja’afari, Rasim Halawa*

Today, in 2017, over 200 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli occupation prisons since 1967. 72 of them were killed as a result of Israeli torture, including three hunger strikers, Izhak Maragha, Ali Ja’afari and Rasim Halawa, killed by torturous forced feeding in 1980. The Israeli state constantly threatens the reimposition of the death penalty, while putting it into practice in reality, with escalating extrajudicial executions – particularly against Palestinian youth; “arrest raids” that are in fact assassination raids as in the targeting of Basil al-Araj (for whom this anniversary marks 100 days after his assassination and three months exactly following his funeral) and Moataz Washaha; and the policy of “slow death” of medical neglect and mistreatment inside occupation prisons.

On this anniversary, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network remembers and honors the martyrs of 1930 and their ongoing legacy and role as a symbol of resistance and anti-colonial revolution that reverberates through generations to defend Palestinian land and Palestinian rights, in Jerusalem and throughout occupied Palestine, from Zionism, imperialism and colonization.

Protests in multiple cities demand freedom for imprisoned struggler Georges Ibrahim Abdallah

17 June 2017

*Georges Ibrahim Abdallah from Lannemezan prison in solidarity with the Traore family*

Protests are being organized in multiple cities on 17 June to demand the release of imprisoned Lebanese Communist struggler for Palestine, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. Called by the Unified Campaign to Free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a national demonstration bringing participants from across France will take place in Paris at 3:00 pm on Saturday, 17 June to demand the release of Abdallah, imprisoned for 33 years in French prisons.

Abdallah, sentenced to a life sentence on allegations of complicity with acts of resistance against the Zionist occupation of Lebanon, has been eligible for release since 1999. Despite two orders for release by parole tribunals to return home to Lebanon, his release has been blocked by intervention at the highest political levels, including by former Interior Minister Manuel Valls in response to the requests of then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Abdallah plays an ongoing role in the liberation movement, even behind bars. A photo of him wearing a shirt in support of the movement for Justice for Adama Traore, killed by French police – and his family, facing persecution – was recently sent out from Lannemezan prison. He has repeatedly joined in hunger strikes with other Palestinian prisoners, including joining with the recent Strike for Dignity and Freedom and participating in a solidarity hunger strike with Palestinian prisoner Bilal Kayed. During all of these strikes, he has organized the participation of fellow Arab and Basque prisoners behind bars.

The Unified Campaign to Free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah declared that “This fight of a lifetime is also ours! He is part of our struggle and we are with his struggle! That is why we call upon all who stand with the Palestinian resistance to fight capitalism, imperialism, Zionism, colonialism and the Arab reactionary regimes to join us.” Protesters will gather at 3 pm at the Place du Colonel Fabien in Paris.

In Brussels, Secours Rouge organized a group of people to travel together by car to join the protest in Paris; meanwhile, Mouvement Citoyen Palestine and other groups have called for a solidarity protest in the Belgian capital, outside the Consulate General of France. Demonstrators are invited to gather at 3 pm at 42 Boulevard de Regent to stand in solidarity with the Paris demonstration and call for the immediate release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.

Another event is being organized on Monday, 19 June in Milan, Italy, with a march to the French, Indian and Peruvian consulates. The protest, which will gather at 5:30 pm at Metro Pasteur in the city, will call for the release of Abdallah, Indian intellectual G. N. Saibaba and imprisoned Peruvian communist Chairman Gonzalo (Abimael Guzman.)

The demonstrations are being organized in advance of 19 June, the International Day of Revolutionary Prisoners. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes these demonstrations and urges all to participate in building the campaign to free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a prisoner of the Palestinian struggle inside French jails.

Follow us on Instagram @samidounnetwork