Basel Ghattas, Palestinian member of the Knesset, submitted his resignation and will be serving a two-year sentence in Israeli prison, in a plea bargain in which he stated that he did in fact bring cellular phones to Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. He affirmed that the transfer of cellular phones was done for “humanitarian and moral reasons,” due to the conditions and isolation in which Palestinian prisoners are held.
“I hope that we as a people, community, civil groups and parties, shall give due attention to the suffering of Palestinian prisoners in the occupation’s prisons and put it on the agenda of the Arab and international public opinion,” he said in the New Arab. He noted that he agreed to the plea bargain in order to focus on the issue of Palestinian prisoners and take action on the racist incitement campaign being directed at Palestinian citizens of Israel, who live under an apartheid system where over 50 laws discriminate against them. He stated that he resigned without regrets, and that his involvement in the Knesset was not a career but just one aspect of political work.
Ghattas’ seat in the Knesset, where he represented the Joint List, will be filled by Juma Zabarqa. Zabarqa has come under attack from Zionist parties for allegedly building his home without “proper permits.” Permits for home construction are routinely denied to Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, by the Israeli state; entire villages, especially in the Naqab, have been subject to demolition and lack of recognition by the Israeli state. “We have lived in our homes and villages for decades. We have inherited our land from our fathers and grandfathers, and we do not need a license to inhabit it,” said Zabarqa, noting that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship live in homes considered to be “unpermitted.”
On Friday, 24 March, we mark the date 11 years ago when PFLP General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades were abducted by Israeli military forces from their imprisonment in Jericho in the West Bank. Sa’adat was transferred to Israeli prisons, where he has participated in numerous prison struggles. At the meeting, we will tell the story of Sa’adat’s dramatic imprisonment and on the visit by some activists from the Middle East working group who visited with Sa’adat in prison in Jericho in 2005.
In commemoration of the 41st anniversary of Land Day and to close Israeli Apartheid Week, the General Union of Palestinian Students in France (GUPS Aix-Marseille) invites you to an evening of tribute to Basel al-Araj and Palestinian youth resistance.
We call for actions across the globe to mark April 17: Palestinian Prisoners’ Day and the 40 day memorial of Basel Al-Araj’s murder. On this day, we continue to demand an end to the Palestinian Authority’s security coordination with Israel. We call on Palestinian communities everywhere to use this moment as a first step in reorganising our communities and affirming our unwavering will for return, freedom and dignity.
Dozens of activists and campaigners gathered in Paris on Saturday, 18 March for meetings and a public event in solidarity with 
Participants also noted the importance of working with the movement to confront police violence, repression and racism. Abdallah himself recently 
In the statement, he emphasized the struggle of Palestinian child prisoners, noting that “I would like to draw attention to the increasing number of Palestinian minors who are increasingly involved in the struggle of the masses and who are facing severe repression by the Zionist army and the courts that inflict heavy sentences upon them. When one is barely 14 or 15 years old and one are sentenced to 10 or 15 years, international solidarity is necessary. Certainly you all know how to do that. A little word from time to time for each ‘lion cub’ and for each ‘flower’ makes it known to the Zionist jailers that these children are not alone.”
She also noted that Palestinian unity within the prisons is strong and based on daily confrontation with the occupation, highlighting the ongoing raids, transfers and use of isolation and solitary confinement against the prisoners. In addition, she noted that Abdallah himself is part of all of this: a symbol of resistance, a leader denied to Palestinian, Aab and international struggles due to imprisonment, and a unifying force for leftist and progressive forces in France, Lebanon and elsewhere.
Khaled Barakat, the international coordinator of the 
Barakat also emphasized the role of Georges Abdallah in leading and uniting the left in France as well as in the Arab world and in Palestine. Abdallah’s voice is a clear voice of principle from French prisons, that is connected to the struggles of people everywhere in the world, evidencing his deep knowledge and attention to popular movements everywhere. He said that French embassies and consulates should always be a site of protest and confrontation, demanding freedom for Abdallah.
Barakat noted that Abdallah is an integral part of the radical and revolutionary left, and that all forces must work toward unity and revival of the movements of the Left, especially on the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution. “Any oppressor will lose the battle of imprisonment when they cannot confiscate the voice of the prisoner, because his voice is the voice of the streets, the voice of the people,” Barakat said.
The Paris event coincided with other international events for the Day of Revolutionary Political Prisoners, which commemorates the 1923 founding of the International Red Aid by the Communist International as well as marking the anniversary of the Paris Commune. In Turkey, 
On 19 March, the 
Palestinian student Istabraq Yahya Tamimi was 
Palestinian poet 
Two Palestinian prisoners are currently on hunger strike to demand their release from indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention. 
New announcement from the 