International lawyers denounce European states’ repression of Palestine organizing

14 July 2023

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers adopted a resolution at its Council meeting on 2 July 2023, condemning the attacks on Palestine solidarity and Palestinian community organizing in Europe. Specifically, the resolution addresses the banning of Nakba commemorations and other demonstrations in Germany, the Israeli ambassador’s demand to ban Samidoun Deutschland, and the ongoing targeting of Palestinian activists for deportation, surveillance and immigration repression; the French government’s ongoing attempt to dissolve and ban the Collectif Palestine Vaincra and other organizations; the prosecution of protesters in Spain while Israeli security agents point guns on university campuses; the City of Geneva cancelling an art exhibition at the request of the Israeli ambassador; and the Netherlands’ recent arrest of Palestinian activists while buying Israeli weapons from Elbit Systems. It also urges institutions and legal organizations to reject the so-called “IHRA definition of anti-Semitism” that aims to equate anti-Zionism and support for Palestinian liberation with anti-Semitism.

The full text of the resolution follows:

IADL Resolution on State Repression Targeting Palestine Solidarity and Palestinian Community Organizing in Europe

Whereas, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers has previously raised serious concerns about the ongoing repression of Palestinian community and Palestine solidarity organizing in Europe, particularly in Germany, and

Whereas, these incidents have included the stripping of a Schengen visa from torture survivor and former political prisoner Rasmea Odeh, the political ban on Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat and his deportation from Germany, the firing of Palestinian and Arab journalists for expressing their opinions about Palestine on social media, the acts of various state governments, including that of Berlin, to ban commemorations of the Nakba and demonstrations to free Palestinian political prisoners, and to block events and activities in support of Palestine or advocating for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, from taking place in public facilities or at all, and

Whereas, this has also included Berlin immigration officials in multiple cases recommending denial of residency, expulsion and even bans from Germany or from Europe for multiple years, particularly against Palestinian youths, including stateless Palestinian refugees, and

Whereas, on 17 April 2023, Berlin police once again banned demonstrations for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, and in May 2023, banned commemorations of the 75^th anniversary of the Nakba, the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and lands, and

Whereas, the one event on 20 May 2023 that was not initially banned, organized by Jewish solidarity organizers, was attacked by police after the organizers refused to exclude Palestinian activists from their demonstration or bar people from chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and Jewish, Palestinian and solidarity activists were violently arrested by Berlin police, and

Whereas, Berlin police dispatched at least six armed officers to remove a mural poster of Khader Adnan, the Palestinian prisoner who died in Israeli jails after 86 days on hunger strike, from an empty wall in Berlin, and

Whereas, the Israeli ambassador to Germany has since demanded that grassroots Palestinian prisoner solidarity organization Samidoun be banned in Germany and that posters in support of Palestinian political prisoners should also be banned in Berlin, while the German-Israeli Society called for criminal prosecution of Samidoun members and other Palestinian activists under Germany’s Section 129(b), which has been used to prosecute Turkish and Kurdish leftist activists in Germany, and

Whereas, Palestinian and solidarity activists in Berlin were visited in their homes by police and questioned about their work with Samidoun, and

Whereas, a Palestine solidarity demonstration in Köln was dissolved by the police on 13 May 2023 after demonstrators spoke in favor of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation, and

Whereas, over 160 organizations have joined in an International Campaign Against Anti-Palestinian Repression in Germany, and dozens of organizations in Berlin have created the Revolutionary Solidarity Coalition to organize against this repression, and

Whereas, these concerns are not limited to Germany, as France has issued dissolution orders against the Collectif Palestine Vaincra and several other Palestine organizations, and has recently issued a new dissolution order against environmental activists, and

Whereas, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra was victorious in its initial appeal to the Council of State, suspending the application of the dissolution order, but the main case is still pending and these Palestine solidarity organizations continue to be threatened with dissolution, and

Whereas, the pending threatened dissolution continues to be used to deplatform the Collectif and deny it access to fundraising tools and banking, and

Whereas, the Israeli ambassador to Switzerland intervened in May 2023 and caused the City of Geneva to bar an exhibition of the posters of Swiss artist and revolutionary Marc Rudin organized by Secours Rouge Geneva and Samidoun Geneva from a city-owned venue, and

Whereas, the government of the Netherlands signed a $305 million deal to purchase weapons from Israel’s Elbit Systems in May 2023 and then, in June 2023, arrested a Palestinian-Dutch father and daughter for their charitable work for Palestine, who have been subjected to a long-running defamation campaign by Israel-aligned organizations, and

Whereas, several activists in Spain are facing prosecution in Madrid for protesting against the presence of the Israeli ambassador at the Complutense University, while there appears to be no punishment for an Israeli security agent accompanying the ambassador, who pointed a gun at the protesters in the university building, and the prosecution appears to seek the addition of hate crimes charges in this case of progressive activists protesting the representative of an apartheid state, and

Whereas, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Definition (“IHRA Definition”) of anti-Semitism and its “examples,” most of which pertain to Israel, including “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, eg, by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour” as an example of anti-Semitism, has been repeatedly used to justify the silencing, repression and banning of Palestinian and Palestine solidarity activities across Europe by equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism;

Therefore, be it resolved, that the International Association of Democratic Lawyers once again reiterates its call to German officials at the federal and state levels to cease the use of political bans, firing from public media positions, police prohibitions on events and immigration consequences to restrict public expression and advocacy for Palestinian rights, and

Be it further resolved, that the IADL calls upon French, Swiss, Dutch officials and the officials of all States to recognize the rights to freedom of expression in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including Article 19 and Article 2, without ostensibly claiming the right to restrict the freedom of expression of non-citizens, and

Be it further resolved, that the IADL calls upon lawyers’ organizations and states to reject the IHRA definition and its examples as a proper definition of anti-Semitism and instead encourages increased attention to fighting fascism, anti-Semitism and all forms of racism, including anti-Palestinian racism, and

Be it further resolved, that the IADL affirms that the right of Palestinians in exile and diaspora and supporters of justice in Palestine to organize, speak and boycott, divest and sanction Israel is part of the struggle for Palestinian rights and liberation, and actions to suppress these rights are a form of official state complicity with Israeli colonialism, apartheid and occupation in Palestine, and

Be it finally resolved, that the IADL will actively work together with targeted organizations and progressive legal associations to defend Palestinian and solidarity activists facing arrest, imprisonment, state harassment, political bans, immigration denials, and event prohibitions and defeat the unjust mechanisms used to carry out these repressive actions, including paragraph 129b in Germany and the widespread use of organizational dissolution in France.

Adopted by the IADL Council

2 July 2023

The IADL Council also adopted resolutions calling for freedom for Palestine Action prisoners in British jails and divestment from Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems and for the release of Palestinian prisoner, intellectual and freedom fighter Walid Daqqah, suffering from myelofibrosis, a rare bone marrow cancer, repeatedly denied release and subjected to systematic Israeli medical neglect.

Founded in 1946, the IADL is accredited to UNESCO and ECOSOC at the United Nations, and it has sections and members in 50 countries and territories.

Since IADL’s founding in 1946 in Paris, IADL members have participated in the struggles that have made the violation of human rights of groups and individuals and threats to international peace and security, legal issues under international law. From its inception, IADL members throughout the globe have protested racism, colonialism, and economic and political injustice wherever they interfere with legal and human rights, often at the cost of these jurists’ personal safety and economic well being. IADL members in the United States, Canada, France, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Italy, Venezuela, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria, the Philippines, Japan, Spain, Portugal, Togo, South Africa, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and India, among others, participated in the Council meeting.

Seattleites rally in solidarity with Jenin and denounce Boeing’s war profiteering

14 July 2023

On Saturday, 8 July over 50 people united in Seattle’s Ruby Chow Park to rally in opposition to the Zionist invasion of Jenin and show their support for the Palestinian resistance. Ruby Chow Park is situated directly across from the Boeing Propulsion Engineering Lab, where the company assembles engines that are used in the production of military aircraft.

Members of Samidoun Seattle, Resist U.S. Led War, Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return at the University of Washington (SUPER-UW) and Falastiniyat gave speeches highlighting the role of the U.S. government in funding and arming Zionist aggression.

“At this moment, we must play our part alongside the brave people of Jenin and of Palestine and consciously combine our struggles to confront this military machine of colonialism and occupation,” said Nina Kranzdorf of Samidoun Seattle.

“In the so called ‘United States’ — the center of global economic and military domination — our popular movements must organize, take to the streets, hold emergency actions and build power that is capable of boycotting and isolating the occupation regime, and breaking the bonds of military cooperation, diplomatic alliance and security collaboration targeting the Palestinian people.”

Organizers of the event called for the release of Palestinian political prisoner and freedom fighter Walid Daqqah, who has been imprisoned for over 37 years. Currently suffering from a rare bone marrow cancer, his medical condition is rapidly deteriorating and urgently needs a bone marrow transplant that the Zionist entity has repeatedly delayed and denied.

Speakers also uplifted the names of each martyr while denouncing Boeing’s ties to the Zionist entity and other imperialist wars.

SUPER-UW and Resist member Alon Lapid explained how the company’s weaponry was deployed directly against Palestinian resistance fighters in Jenin.

“Israel used [Boeing] Apache helicopter fire in the West Bank for the first time since 2002,” they said. “But also for the first time, an Apache helicopter was forced to make a crash landing because it was downed by the Palestinian resistance.”

With attendees chanting “Long live the Intifada, Intifada Intifada!”, the event culminated in a heated march to the Seattle I-5 bridge to drop a banner boldly painted “Long Live the Palestinian Resistance.”

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A post shared by Samidoun Seattle (@samidounseattle)

Lima, Peru, gathering stands in solidarity with Jenin

14 July 2023

The voice of Palestine resounded on Tuesday, 11 July in Miraflores, Lima, Peru. The organizers of the demonstration emphsized that it was important to stand for Palestine, “because the call for justice cannot be cloistered within four walls, nor can it be silenced just because the Israeli oppressor cuts off innocent lives with increasing viciousness.”

Poets, singers and citizens in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation cause gathered to express their solidarity and hope for Palestine and to denounce and reject, as they said, “the barbaric Israeli Zionist occupation that is increasingly merciless against the Palestinian population, whose glorious resistance gives everything, even their lives, to liberate their homeland.”

“On 3 and 4 July, we witnessed new attacks against the Jenin refugee camp where 12 heroic he were killed by the cowardly occupying army. The reprehensible action also left a balance of around 300 injured, including children, the elderly and people in a precarious state of health. Fortunately for Palestine, the people in resistance overcame the monstrous Israeli military deployment that not even with its dozens of tanks and its warplanes could overwhelm the heroic Jenin,” they declared, urging people to join in the commemoration.

The political and cultural event included honouring the memory of the martyrs, poetry readings of Mahmoud Darwish, Rafeef Ziadah and Fadwa Tuqan, and Latin American songs of resistance and solidarity. Participants also displayed the photos of Palestinian prisoners, calling for their freedom, and laid flowers in memory of the Palestinian children killed by the occupation this year.

“We promise you, Palestine, that every day, until your freedom, we will live renewing that revolutionary ardor, with the fire of the soul of your men, your women, your boys, your girls, your heroes and your outstanding martyrs,” the organizers affirmed.

PRESS RELEASE

The latest massive attack by the Israeli colonial army on the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin left 12 dead, more than 100 injured and 3,000 forcibly displaced. This is not the first such instance. So far, these attacks have already killed more than 180 people in occupied Palestine in 2023 alone. The occupation forces violently invaded on the night of Monday, 3 July, destroying everything in their path. In 48 hours they destroyed streets, sidewalks, houses and the Freedom Theatre, where the children of the camp had a space for relaxation and safety. The hospital was also not spared from tear gas bombs and the Israeli army prevented ambulances from assisting the wounded.

The 20,000 inhabitants of Jenin refugee camp are refugees from the 1948 Nakba, when Israel began the invasion of Palestine. And today they were forced to flee again: 3,000 people, entire families, children, women thrown out into the open!

As in other cases, there were also detainees. As of April this year, there were 4,900 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli military jails. Of which, nearly 1100 are held under administrative detention without charge or trial, 160 children and 37 women. The guards – Israeli soldiers – subject the prisoners to the cruelest torture, as well as unjustifiably placing them in solitary for long periods, subjecting them to hunger and cold and deplorable hygiene situations or not offering them adequate medical care in case of illness. This was the case with Khader Adnan, and now Ahmad Manasra and Walid Daqqah, among others.

From Volunteers for Palestine – Peru we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, subject to an apartheid regime, a brutal and long ethnic cleansing and the theft of their land imposed by the Israeli colonial state since 1948. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance, which is confronting one of the most powerful armies in the world and its accomplices.

Israel is a state that lives for war, its profits come from war and weapons development for the United States and its allies, from increasingly sophisticated and lethal techniques of warfare and surveillance. These weapons and methods are tested upon the Palestinian people in their successive bombardments of Gaza, with their surveillance cameras installed throughout the West Bank, and with their armed drones, which circulate permanently in Gaza and now, Jenin. Weapons that they later sell to states like Peru to attack peaceful protesters.

We demand sanctions against this criminal regime and that its authorities be tried as war criminals before the International Court of Justice.

Free Palestine from the River to the Sea! Long live the Palestinian People!
11 July 2023, Lima, Peru.

Interview: Freeing Georges Abdallah requires collective action

14 July 2023

On Tuesday, 11 July, the Lebanese TV channel Al Mayadeen conducted an interview with a member of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra (a member organization of the Samidoun NetworK) about the mobilization for the release of Georges Abdallah. Tom Martin, speaking for CPV, emphasized the significant growth of the campaign in support of the Lebanese Arab communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France since 1984, as illustrated by the recent open letter addressed to Emmanuel Macron, co-signed by 14 national organizations and calling upon the French President to put an end to the political-judicial persecution of Georges Abdallah.

He further noted that the continued detention of Georges Abdallah was first and foremost a political decision by the French authorities, as evidenced by a note from the DST, the French intelligence service, in 2007 which stated that “the release of Georges Abdallah would undoubtedly constitute , in Lebanon, an event. He will probably be celebrated as a hero on his return to his country, and also by different movements engaged in the revolutionary struggle.” During the interview, he further recalled that the continued detention of one of the longest-held political prisoners in Europe is one of the many examples of France’s neocolonial policy toward Lebanon, as evidenced by the recent visit of Jean-Yves le Drian in Beirut. Asked by the journalist about the possibility of the release of Georges Abdallah, he emphasized this outcome depends on collective mobilization and that everyone had to take their responsibilities to make Georges Abdallah’s freedom a reality.

Interview below (in Arabic):

Global lawyers’ association says: Free Walid Daqqah and all Palestinian prisoners

13 July 2023

The International Association of Democratic Lawyers adopted a resolution at its Council meeting on 2 July 2023, calling for freedom for Palestinian prisoner, intellectual and freedom fighter Walid Daqqah, suffering from myelofibrosis, a rare bone marrow cancer, repeatedly denied release and subjected to systematic Israeli medical neglect.

Read the resolution full text below:

Resolution of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers: Free Walid Daqqah

Whereas, Palestinian prisoner, thinker and writer Walid Daqqah has been jailed in Israeli prison since 25 March 1986 and is currently suffering from a rare bone marrow cancer, myelofibrosis, and

Whereas, Walid Daqqah has been imprisoned for 37 years and his medical condition is rapidly deteriorating, requiring a bone marrow transplant and other specialized medical treatment that has been repeatedly delayed or denied, or is entirely unavailable inside Israeli prisons, and

Whereas, Walid Daqqah’s sentence ended on 24 March 2023 and he is currently being held on an additional two-year sentence for allegedly smuggling a mobile phone into the prison, and

Whereas, Despite his medical condition and the severe deterioration of his health, Daqqah’s appeals for early release have been denied, most recently on 26 July 2023, with claims that his release is barred by the “Prevention of Terrorism” Act, despite the fact that his sentence expired, and

Whereas, Daqqah has been repeatedly transferred back and forth between civilian hospitals and the Ramleh prison clinic, dubbed a “slaughterhouse” by the Palestinian prisoners, and

Whereas, since December 2022, he was mistakenly diagnosed with leukemia; suffered a stroke after medical neglect and mistreatment; was denied treatment for the stroke until his fellow prisoners demanded it; developed pneumonia; had a portion of his lung surgically removed; and has developed multiple infections, and

Whereas, Daqqah has been repeatedly denied release in prisoner exchanges with other Palestinian political prisoners four times, in 1994, 2008, 2011 and 2014, because he is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, yet he has also been denied the rights and privileges granted to Jewish Israeli prisoners, such as conjugal visits and early release, reflecting the apartheid and settler colonial nature of the Israeli prison system, and

Whereas, Walid Daqqah is one of the preeminent intellectuals of the Palestinian resistance movement and has been subjected to solitary confinement in retaliation for his writing and publication, and is the author of multiple books, including: 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), as well as unpublished manuscripts, paintings, poetry, lyrics and autobiography, and

Whereas, Daqqah married the activist, journalist and translator Sana’ Salamah on 10 August, 1999 in Ashkelon Prison; after they were denied conjugal visits through multiple appeals, Sana’ gave birth to their child Milad Daqqah on 3 March 2020 through artificial insemination of “liberated semen” smuggled from the prison, and Daqqah’s family has urged the broadest international action for his release;

Therefore, be it resolved, that the International Association of Democratic Lawyers calls for the immediate release of Walid Daqqah for him to receive treatment without restriction in a hospital where the necessary conditions are met for the success of the medical procedures he needs, in the presence of his family,

And be it further resolved, that the IADL calls for the urgent formation of a medical team from his family, prisoners’ institutions, and human rights organizations to visit Walid, in order to break the medical blackout about his condition, and for the immediate and unrestricted access of Walid Daqqah’s family to their loved one,

And be it further resolved, that the IADL will join in all international, Arab and Palestinian efforts to free Walid Daqqah and his fellow 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, and to expose and hold Israel accountable for its ongoing medical negligence against Palestinian prisoners, as part and parcel of its unlawful regime of colonial occupation throughout occupied Palestine, including referring this breach of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention to the International Criminal Court for prosecution of Israeli officials,

And be it finally resolved, that the IADL will follow up on the case of Walid Daqqah and his fellow Palestinian prisoners by advocating for the and to the EU-Israel Association agreement and other free trade agreements with the Israel state, an end to U.S. and other states’ aid to Israel, and exclusion of Israeli police, prison authorities, “Border Police” and other institutions from research programs and joint initiatives, and further urges the U.N. Secretary General and all U.N. committees and agencies to take all available procedures and steps to bring to an end Israeli apartheid, war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestine, including the exclusion of the Israeli state from participation in the U.N. General Assembly as well as other committees and bodies.

Adopted by the IADL Council

2 July 2023

The IADL Council also adopted a resolution calling for freedom for Palestine Action prisoners in British jails and divestment from Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. Founded in 1946, the IADL is accredited to UNESCO and ECOSOC at the United Nations, and it has sections and members in 50 countries and territories.

Since IADL’s founding in 1946 in Paris, IADL members have participated in the struggles that have made the violation of human rights of groups and individuals and threats to international peace and security, legal issues under international law. From its inception, IADL members throughout the globe have protested racism, colonialism, and economic and political injustice wherever they interfere with legal and human rights, often at the cost of these jurists’ personal safety and economic well being. IADL members in the United States, Canada, France, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Italy, Venezuela, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria, the Philippines, Japan, Spain, Portugal, Togo, South Africa, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and India, among others, participated in the Council meeting.

18 July, Vancouver: Scotiabank, #ShutElbitDown: Drone Survivors and Activists Speak Out

13 July 2023

Tuesday, July 18
7 pm
Grandview Church
1803 1st Ave E
Vancouver
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1242297623113227

Join BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish for an important evening on Palestine, the struggle for justice — and the campaign to shut Elbit Systems, and its murderous drone force, down. Scotiabank, one of Canada’s biggest banks, is the largest foreign investor in Elbit Systems, which produces 85% of Israel’s killer drones used to target Palestinians for assassination in Gaza, Jenin and throughout occupied Palestine.Last month, BDS Vancouver and our partners launched a campaign for Scotiabank to divest from Elbit and #ShutElbitDown. In Britain, Palestine Action activists’ direct actions have led to the closure of two Elbit facilities — and now, Palestine Action members are in jail and threatened with imprisonment for disrupting the war machine.

Hear the story of Israel’s drones and Elbit Systems from two special guests with direct experience:

MOHAMMED ALZAZA, a Palestinian refugee from Gaza now in Canada and a drone attack survivor. As a 15-year-old boy, Mohammed and his cousin suffered a direct hit from a drone missile in Gaza, as they were hanging out near their home and only 1 meter away from the fence of a hospital. Mohammed’s cousin was killed, and Mohammed survived — but needed years of ongoing medical care.

RONNIE BARKAN, Anti-Zionist, anti-Apartheid activist and co-founder of “Boycott from Within.” On Nakba Day, May 15th 2022, Ronnie took part in an action against Elbit Systems HQ in Bristol along with other activists with Palestine Action. Ronnie is now facing two British crown court trials for taking action to confront Elbit and its killer drone industry. Learn more and support his case: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/helpronnie/

Organized by BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish, with Samidoun Vancouver and Canada Palestine Association. To get involved, email cpavancouver@gmail.com