Tuesday, October 1, 2024
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Second Week of the Educational Campaign: Over 30 years – pre-Oslo Prisoners

“Deans of prisoners” is a term used by the Palestinian people for those who have been imprisoned by the Zionist occupation for more than 20 years continuously. Over the years, many Palestinian prisoners were liberated through prisoner exchange deals or other forms of political concession, such as those released in 1995 after the Oslo Accords; the prisoner exchange deal imposed by Hezbollah in 2004 with which 400 Palestinian prisoners were freed; the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011, where 1027 Palestinian prisoners were liberated in exchange for the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit captured by the resistance; or in 2013 when the occupation announced the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners coinciding with the return of the Palestinian Authority to negotiations and the continuation of its security coordination with the occupier under the terms of Oslo and its corollaries.

However, there are many prisoners who played leading roles in the Palestinian resistance and revolution, especially prisoners from the territories occupied in 1948, whom the occupation refuses to include in these deals because of “security concerns” or under the pretext that the prisoner holds the “Israeli” nationality, trying in vain to separate our Palestinian people from the occupied lands in 1948 from the rest of the Palestinian people.

With that, Samidoun  Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network is pleased to publish the materials for the second week of the educational campaign on the prisoners, Ibrahim Bayadseh, Ahmed Abu Jaber, and Ibrahim Abu Nima. You can print the posters and hang them in your cities, and share them on the e-mail samidoun@samidoun.net

Ibrahim Bayadseh

Palestinian prisoner Ibrahim Abdel-Razzaq Ahmad Bayadseh, 62 years old,  is from Baqa’s al-Gharbiyeh in occupied Palestine ’48.

When he was arrested in March 1986, Bayadseh was accused of belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, possessing weapons and explosives, and participating in Palestinian armed resistance actions with a group that also included Walid Daqqa and Ibrahim and Rushdi Abu Mokh.

He has completed 37 years behind bars, and the hope of freedom hangs over every space surrounding him and his family. He was sentenced to a life sentence, which was later set for 45 years.

Ibrahim Bayadseh is one of the 30 veteran prisoners arrested before the Oslo agreement. The Zionist authorities refused to release them in any previous prisoner exchange or agreement with the occupation, despite widespread demand. As a Palestinian prisoner from occupied Palestine ’48, he was labeled an “internal Israeli matter.”

During his decades behind occupation bars, Ibrahim has suffered from multiple illnesses, including toothache, migraine, and high blood pressure, and he was a frequent visitor to the prison clinic, as he became familiar to staff there. His pains were always a concern of his comrades in captivity.

When Ibrahim recalls the most difficult situation that happened to him in prison, he recalls the death of his elderly mother, Umm Muhammad. Umm Muhammad Bayadseh was known to all the institutions working to free the prisoners and the families of his imprisoned comrades. She spent the last three decades of her life traveling between the occupation prisons and courts, accompanying her captive son. Despite her difficult circumstances, she remained steadfast and committed to bringing about the liberation of Ibrahim and all Palestinian prisoners.

Ahmad Abu Jaber

Palestinian prisoner Ahmed Ali Hussein Abu Jaber, 62, from Kafr Qassem, in occupied Palestine ’48 has been detained since 8/7/1986 and is sentenced to life imprisonment. He has spent 37 years in the occupation prisons. He is one of the veteran prisoners arrested before the Oslo Accords in 1993 whose release was promised in an agreement and then unilaterally rescinded by the Israeli occupation.  Abu Jaber is one of the leaders of the prisoners’ movement in the prisons of the occupation.  The occupation military court sentenced him to life imprisonment plus 10 years, after accusing him of killing an Israeli soldier and an agent of the occupation. He is married and has three children, two sons and a daughter, the youngest of whom was a month old when he was arrested. Abu Jaber has made many literary contributions in writing poetry, stories, and articles. Several years ago, the occupation authorities refused to set a time limit for the life sentence for Abu Jaber, unlike other Palestinians from occupied Palestine ’48, because he had been tried at the Nablus military court. At the same time, he has been excluded from all prisoner exchanges and agreements between the occupation and the Palestinian resistance.

Samir Abu Nima

The prisoner Samir Ibrahim Mahmoud Abu Nima, 62 years old, is a resident of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the occupied city of Jerusalem. The occupation arrested Abu Nima on 10/20/1986 and held him under interrogation for nearly two months, before a life sentence was pronounced against him and he was transferred to Ramon prison. He had been a dedicated struggler in the Palestinian resistance and was involved in a number of armed resistance operations targeting Israeli occupation soldiers.

He has suffered from pain in his neck and spinal nerves since his torture under interrogation many years ago. The lacerations at the base of his neck affect his joints and cause him severe pain. He also has severe foot pain and is unable to stand for long periods of time. He has had over six surgeries during his time in prison and is still awaiting care for other serious medical problems. He has been transferred repeatedly among multiple prisons and detention centers, including al-Mascobiyeh interrogation center, Ramle prison clinic, and Ramon, Shatta and Ashkelon prison, where he is currently held.

Abu Nima is among 13 long-time, veteran prisoners of Jerusalem whose names have been consistently excluded by the occupation from prisoner exchanges with the resistance and other agreements for prisoner release. His mother died while still awaiting her son’s liberation.

Ibrahim Bayadseh Posters:

Ahmad Abu Jaber Posters:

Samir Abu Nima Posters:

Zionists out of the University! Demonstrators in Madrid confront Israeli ambassador, armed security, official complicity and police repression

On Wednesday, 8 February, students and activists for justice in Palestine gathered at the Complutense University of Madrid to protest the appearance of the Israeli ambassador to Spain, Rodica Radian-Gordon, at an event organized to “commemorate” the notorious Oslo Accords aiming toward the liquidation of the Palestinian cause. Student organizations and activists for justice in Palestine joined together to issue a call: “Zionists out of the university!” demanding that the university not invite the representative of a state engaged in war crimes and crimes against humanity targeting the Palestinian people.

After the university refused to cancel the invitation, students and Palestine organizations called for a demonstration outside the university. Demonstrators outside the building were kept far away from the entrance to the university and those with tickets who tried to enter found that those with Arab names or people known as political activists had their names marked in red on the attendance sheet and were denied entry.

Organizers noted in particular the dangerous precedent set by this action, as public universities in Spain, like the Complutense, are meant to be open to all without discrimination. The invitation of the Zionist ambassador was accompanied also by an invitation to impose racist, apartheid practices and policies of political censorship on the university and its students. This means that the Complutense University is accepting the racist, apartheid policies of the Zionist state for its own policy, something that is even more troubling given that academic credit was available for students attending the seminar, with a number blocked because of their names and ethnic backgrounds.

The demonstrators decided to enter the university at 10:50 am, when the ambassador was scheduled to speak, where they were beset by police as well as a man — an Israeli security agent — pointing a gun, marked with the standard yellow adhesive strip in the side for Israeli undercover agents, at student protesters before going inside the Assembly Hall, where Spanish police quickly withdrew the Israeli agent.

The Zionist press confirmed all of this: the man with the gun was a Israeli agent, the ambassador’s speech was interrupted during the protest and she was temporarily confined in a safe room.

Riot police and university private security stormed the area, dragging protesters away, including one activist who was carried and dragged through the university, and another who was beaten in the face. They demanded identification from all of the protesters while arresting two women who were involved in the demonstration. The women were accused of resisting police — and their charges later amended to some form of “minor injury” against the heavily armed and shielded cops that arrested them.

Spanish media later reported that university officials justified the presence of the extensive security and riot-geared police to students who complained, because a man had been reported carrying a weapon — that is, the Israeli security agent. However, the police attacked the protesters and forced them from the university, while there is no indication that the Zionist agent was ever detained or even questioned.

The incident has drawn widespread attention and condemnation of the violence displayed against the students and organizers for justice in Palestine, while despite the repression the protesters have made clear that direct action to boycott the occupation works: the Zionist ambassador’s speech was interrupted, and she fled from protest and challenge, while the regime she represents continues its daily assault on the Palestinian people, including extrajudicial killings, mass incarceration, home demolitions, land theft, denial of the right to return and 75 years of ongoing Nakba. Rather than stopping the growing movement for justice in Palestine, the action in Madrid will only inspire further organizing and activity.

In this sense, this direct action has consolidated the anti-fascist, anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist movement at the university and in the streets of Madrid. The university now knows that the next time they want to invite the Zionist ambassador or other imperialist criminals, they will have to deploy much more security and resources, and even with that, they will encounter resistance among the student body.

The Wednesday action marked the second significant blow to the Israeli occupation from the area of the Spanish State on 8 February, as that date also marked the decision of the mayor of Barcelona, Catalonia, to cut relationships with Israel and suspend the “Barcelona-Tel Aviv” twinning relationship.

It was followed by another mobilization on Saturday, 11 Febuary, part of the Days of Rage and Resistance called by the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement. Organized by the Masar Badil, Samidoun Spain, Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization, Al Yudur Palestinian Youth Mobilization, and Unadikum, demonstrators gathered in a square in Madrid to stand with the Palestinian people and denounce the ongoing massacres and crimes, declaring that the struggle for return and liberation will continue.

Days of Rage and Resistance on the streets with labour in France

Activists for justice in Palestine once again took to the streets in France alongside the labour movement fighting back against the Macron government’s pension reforms that aim to raise the retirement age, over the objection of 93% of working people in France. The movement has involved multiple one-day general strikes as well as mass manifestations throughout the country on Saturday, 11 February.

This date also coincided with the ongoing Days of Rage and Resistance, called for by the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement. In Toulouse, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra — a member of the Samidoun Network — joined the demonstration — which attracted over 100,000 people — affirming that “challenging the government and corporations here also means denouncing the French government’s unconditional support for Israeli apartheid and its privileged diplomatic, political and economic relations.”

The Collectif displayed flags and banners calling for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, and for the freedom of Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for the past 38 years. Speakers denounced the complicity of French companies, like Carrefour and Thales, in the colonization of Palestinian land.

Several contingents, especially the youth and student contingent, once again enthusiastically responded to the call of the Collectif’s stand by chanting for Palestine:

Participants also took solidarity photos in order to denounce French state complicity with Israeli crimes. Over 40 Palestinians have been killed by occupation forces since the beginning of 2023, while the policies of ethnic cleansing and colonialism only escalate with the full support of imperialist powers, as recently witnessed in Macron’s welcome of Netanyahu in Paris. This came as part of the Days of Rage and Resistance, which highlighted the issue of complicity in the call to action: “These days aim to confront U.S., Canadian, British and European policies in support of Zionist colonialism, and confront the fascist and racist states and movements that work to cover up, justify and beautify Israeli crimes and colonialism throughout all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”

Meanwhile, in Paris, Samidoun Paris Banlieue and other activists for Palestine joined with CAPJPO-EuroPalestine to take to the streets in the mass demonstration that filled the streets of the capital city.

Participants waved Palestinian flags and banners calling for the liberation of Georges Abdallah. They chanted loudly: “Violences sionistes, violences sociales : même combat contre le capital” (Zionist violence, social violence: same fight against capital!” They also carried signs for the Days of Rage and Resistance highlighting French complicity in Israeli crimes.

These were not the only cities where the presence of Palestine was felt in the labour struggle. In Bordeaux, Tarbes, Saint-Etienne, Annecy, Grenoble, Marseille and elsewhere, participants carried banners for the liberation of Georges Abdallah and flew Palestinian flags, indicating once again that the Palestinian cause is a global symbol of the struggle to confront imperialism, colonialism, racism and all forms of injustice and exploitation.

Sheikh Khader Adnan on eighth day of hunger strike following detention by occupation forces

Palestinian leader and former long-term hunger striker, Sheikh Khader Adnan, is currently on hunger strike for the eighth day as of 12 February. He is being held in Al-Jalameh interrogation center, where he is being subjected to a harsh interrogation. The Salem military occupation court extended his detention until next Monday; he was seized by occupation forces on 5 February from his home in Arraba, Jenin. He immediately launched a hunger strike to reject his unjust arrest and detention.

During the invasion of his home by occupation soldiers, his belongings were damaged, his house vandalized and his family was threatened. Khader Adnan has been detained 12 times by occupation forces and spent 8 years in Israeli jails, mostly in administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial — or accused of membership in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.

He has launched five hunger strikes, including four to reject administrative detention, and participated in collective hunger strikes. His first hunger strike was in 2004, when he went on strike for 25 days to protest his isolation. Eight years later, in 2012, his 66-day hunger strike captured the attention of people in Palestine and around the world, as he challenged his administrative detention with no charge or trial and won his freedom. Adnan’s hunger strike helped to kick off a wave of individual and collective hunger strikes, particularly those challenging administrative detention.

In 2015, he again went on strike against his detention for 56 days and again in 2018 for 58 days. In 2021, he was once again arrested and ordered to administrative detention, and he went on hunger strike for 25 days. In each of these occasions, he was able to obtain his freedom and confront the jailer, breaking the chains of arbitrary administrative detention.

There are currently over 900 administrative detainees in Israeli occupation jails, among over 4,750 Palestinian political prisoners — meaning approximately one-fifth of all detained Palestinians are jailed without even the faintest appearance of justice — even though the Zionist military courts are also another form of rubber-stamp of military orders that convict over 99% of Palestinians.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses our strongest solidarity with Khader Adnan and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom. We call for his immediate release and the release of all imprisoned Palestinians in Zionist, Palestinian Authority and imperialist jails. Khader Adnan is a symbol of Palestinian courage, steadfastness and commitment to the struggle for freedom; he has become an international symbol of prisoners’ resistance. We will organize until the prisoners are free — and until Palestine is free, from the river to the sea! 

Students show support for Palestine at climate occupation protest at Erasmus University Rotterdam

On February 7th and 8th, 2023, Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, was rocked by on occupation of the primary university hall building by a large coalition of progressive students. The OCCUPY EUR movement demands that the university cut all ties with the fossil fuel industry, make the campus more accessible and tackle student debt. The development of the occupation showcases the state of the Erasmus as an institution where politics are discouraged while large companies that engage in the imperialist plunder of the global south are given free reign to conduct propaganda and recruit students for their companies.

Thus the Occupy movement resorted to militant action in defiance of the university board and their repressive countermeasures. The movement has been growing in numbers and determination since their previous occupation in January, when the board sent riot police to arrest activists after making false and empty promises about “dialogue.” This time more students flocked to the occupied hall building and unfurled banners criticizing the university board’s hypocrisy and profit-driven mindset. The movement sees itself as part of a global network of progressive student movements that confront the interests of fossil fuel companies and fight for climate justice.

Almost immediately the occupied space became a political space for young activists to expand their networks. As such the board attempted to intimidate the activists by trying to enforce demands about the course of the occupation. One such demand in clear violation of academic freedom and the right to protest was the demand to end the protest at 22:30. The students however, held their ground and awaited the police. Some chose to stay inside the building while other stood outside the entrance and held an improvised demonstration in solidarity. Even though it has been confirmed that the university board did call the police to have them arrested again, the police never showed up. As a result the occupation continued for a second day. On February 8th the board made clear that they would only discuss the demand of campus accessibility while refusing to acknowledge the other demands or even the very legitimacy of the occupation. Furthermore the right of protest was infringed again by declaring an arbitrary deadline of 19:00 to leave the building. When the deadline arrived the students exited the building with banners and chants while sending a crystal clear message: We will be back.

Samidoun Netherlands was also present at the occupation and spoke with numerous students about Palestine and the university’s ties with the Zionist entity. The overwhelming majority of the student movement expressed their clear support of Palestinian liberation from the river to the sea. Students took pictures with signs denouncing the ‘Israeli’ occupation and the university’s complicity with the occupation, including its promotion of exchange programs with Bar-Ilan University.

Samidoun supports the Occupy EUR movement and all students who wage a just struggle against criminal corporations and complicit university officials. We call on all students to recognize the struggle against the fossil fuel industry and its detrimental effect on the climate as a topic inherently interwoven with anti-imperialism and the colonization of Palestine. As Europe cuts ties with Russian gas, the fossil fuel industry is casting its greedy eyes on Palestine and its gas resources in besieged and steadfast Gaza. We will continue to support the Occupy EUR movement and their courageous efforts.

Samidoun Network announces the educational campaign: Over 30 Years – Pre-Oslo Prisoners

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“Deans of prisoners” is a term used by the Palestinian people for those who have been imprisoned by the Zionist occupation for more than 20 years continuously. Over the years, many Palestinian prisoners were liberated through prisoner exchange deals or other forms of political concession, such as those released in 1995 after the Oslo Accords; the prisoner exchange deal imposed by Hezbollah in 2004 with which 400 Palestinian prisoners were freed; the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange in 2011, where 1027 Palestinian prisoners were liberated in exchange for the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit captured by the resistance; or in 2013 when the occupation announced the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners coinciding with the return of the Palestinian Authority to negotiations and the continuation of its security coordination with the occupier under the terms of Oslo and its corollaries.

However, there are many prisoners who played leading roles in the Palestinian resistance and revolution, especially prisoners from the territories occupied in 1948, whom the occupation refuses to include in these deals because of “security concerns” or under the pretext that the prisoner holds the “Israeli” nationality, trying in vain to separate our Palestinian people from the occupied lands in 1948 from the rest of the Palestinian people.

With that, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network announces the start of an educational campaign about the 23 Palestinian prisoners who are languishing in enemy prisons since before the Oslo agreement. We will introduce three Palestinian prisoners every week and provide materials and posters that you can print and hang in your cities. Get involved and send your contributions to samidoun@samidoun.net

Mohammad Ahmad al-Tus (65 years old) – from al-Khalil

Mohammed Ahmad al-Tus is the longest-held Palestinian prisoner and one of the deans of the prisoners movement who is imprisoned since before the Oslo Accords. The occupation forces arrested him on 6/10/1985 in an ambush, where all his comrades were martyred, while Mohammad was seriously injured. He was charged with belonging to the Fateh movement and resisting the occupation within a military commando group, and was given multiple life sentences. He has now been imprisoned for 39 years. Mohammad is currently held in Ramon prison and suffers from severe health problems, most notably a fluid cyst in the kidneys, chronic stomach problems, and loss of half of the vision in his right eye due to deliberate medical negligence.

Ibrahim Nayef Hamdan Abu Mokh (63 years old) – from Baqa’a Al-Gharbiya in occupied Palestine 1948

Ibrahim Abu Mokh is imprisoned in the Negev desert prison. He was seized by occupation forces on 3/24/1986 on charges of capturing and killing an occupation soldier in the occupied city of Umm Khaled in early 1985, after receiving military training in PFLP bases in Syria, along with his comrades Rushdi Abu Mokh, Ibrahim Bayadseh and Walid Daqqa. He was sentenced to life in prison, then his sentence was set to 40 years, of which he has now spent 38 years. Abu Mokh suffers from leukemia which was worsened severely as a result of the policy of “slow death” — deliberate medical neglect — and the prison administration’s disregard for his life.

Walid Daqqa (61 years old) – from Baqa’a Al-Gharbiya in occupied Palestine 1948

Walid Daqqa is known as one of the most prominent thinkers and intellectuals of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. He was seized by occupation forces on 3/25/1986 on charges of forming a commando cell and kidnapping and killing a Zionist soldier. He was initially sentenced to death, and later the sentence was commuted to 37 years in prison. The occupation added two years to his sentence in 2018, bringing him to 39 years, for smuggling mobile phones into prison.

Born in 1961 in Baqa’ al-Gharbiyya in occupied Palestine ’48, he has been imprisoned since 25 March 1986 along with Ibrahim Abu Mokh, Rushdi Abu Mokh and Ibrahim Bayadseh, for forming a military cell of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine that participated in a Palestinian resistance operation in 1985 in which an occupation soldier was captured and killed.

Once behind bars, he obtained a master’s degree in political science and wrote several books 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, Daqqa 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.”

In the book, Daqqa tells an imaginative story about a child born through smuggled sperm, where Palestinian prisoners smuggle sperm to their wives to allow them to have children from behind bars. In 1999, Daqqa married Sana’ Salameh, even as he was behind bars, and in 2020, Sana’ gave birth to their daughter, Milad, conceived from Daqqa’s smuggled sperm.

Daqqa is in Ashkelon prison, and in recent years he has been subjected to severe medical neglect, with complete disregard for his life, and not allowing specialized doctors to examine him. In December 2022, it was revealed that he has myelofibrosis, a rare form of cancer, after initially being diagnosed with leukemia. He is continuing to fight to receive the treatment that he needs.

Mohammed Ahmed Al-Tus poster:

Ibrahim Abu Mokh poster:

Walid Daqqa poster:

Poster template

12 February, Vancouver: Banner Drop for Palestine

Sunday, Feb 12
12 Noon
Meet at Main and Prior
Vancouver, BC

As part of the global Days of Rage and Resistance called for by the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil), join Samidoun Vancouver for a banner drop for Palestine. We’ll drop banners, share information and highlight the ongoing Palestinian struggle for liberation and return, challenging Canadian complicity in ongoing Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity. Meet us at Main and Prior so we can set up banners and reach thousands of people with a visible message for Palestinian liberation!

Palestinian prisoner Ahmad Abu Ali dies in occupation prisons amid ongoing policy of medical neglect

On Friday, 10 February, Palestinian prisoner Ahmed Badr Abu Ali, 48, from Yatta, al-Khalil, lost his life inside the occupation’s Naqab desert prison, once again linked directly to the policy of medical neglect, delay and mistreatment to which the Palestinian prisoners are subjected to on an ongoing and systematic basis.

Abu Ali was transferred to Soroka Hospital in the dawn hours of 10 February after a serious deterioration in his health condition, with some reports indicating that he suffered a heart attack or stroke, and his transfer to the hospital was significantly delayed. He has been detained since 2012 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. A married father of nine children, his parents both died while he was held behind bars, and he was denied the ability to attend their funerals or bid them farewell.

Abu Ali is one of a number of severely or chronically ill prisoners in the occupation prisons, suffering from many health problems. He underwent a heart catheterization surgery last year after ongoing delays from the prison administration. His health condition worsened since 2022 and he was discovered to have an irregular heartbeat and highly symptomatic diabetes.

There are over 600 ill prisoners in the occupation prisons, including 60 with severe disease of various types and 24 suffering from cancer.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the martyred prisoner Ahmad Abu Ali and extends our condolences to his family and the Palestinian people on this latest crime of the Zionist occupation. He is the 235th Palestinian prisoner whose life has been taken inside the occupation prisons, including at least 75 due to the ongoing policy of medical neglect, negligence and abuse.

We further demand the immediate release of the martyred prisoner’s body, noting that multiple Palestinian prisoners and martyrs continue to be imprisoned after death in the morgues of the occupation, as a form of collective punishment targeting the families and communities of the prisoners and the entire Palestinian people. 

We further emphasize the full responsibility of the occupation and its backers, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, the British government and European governments, for the ongoing and systematic crimes against the Palestinian prisoners, including the policy of slow killing and medical neglect, part and parcel of the ongoing Nakba targeting the Palestinian people.  

 

Barcelona suspends twinning with Tel Aviv and all institutional relationships with Israel

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the popular movement and the people of Barcelona on the occasion of the Mayor of Barcelona’s announcement that all institutional relations with Israeli apartheid, including the Catalan capital’s twinning with Tel Aviv, will be suspended. We praise Mayor Ada Colau for taking this important step forward, a step that has come after years of work, organizing and dedicated action by many organizations, coalitions and thousands of residents of the city.

The twinning agreement between Barcelona and Tel Aviv had been in place since 1998. In the official announcement of the suspension of the relationship in a letter to Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Barcelona Mayor stated: “As Mayor of Barcelona, a Mediterranean city and defender of human rights, I cannot be indifferent to the systematic violation of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian population. It would be a severe mistake to apply a policy of double standards and turn a blind eye to a violation that has been, for decades, widely verified and documented by international organisations.”

In the letter, Colau specifically notes that this action comes in response to an official petition by 100 social organizations and thousands of residents under the slogan “Barcelona says NO to Apartheid, Barcelona says YES to human rights.” She emphasized the widespread support by human rights organizations for considering the Israeli regime to be an apartheid state, as well as a June 2022 Catalonian Parliament resolution.

The announcement today is a clear and resounding victory for the supporters of justice in Palestine who have been and continue to mobilize for the international isolation of the Israeli state as a settler-colonial, racist project that has oppressed the Palestinian people and dispossessed them of their land for the past 75 years, with the full complicity of imperialist powers internationally. It is a testament to the tireless work of many and the broad support for the Palestinian people from social movements, anti-racist campaigners, women’s organizations, labour organizations and wide sectors of society, and a strong victory for anti-racist and anti-colonial organizing.

At the same time, a temporary suspension of relations is an important step, but not enough: Barcelona should and must go further to completely sever relations with the illegitimate settler-colonial project.

This important achievement in Barcelona is also a clarion call to municipalities around the world, particularly in Europe and in other countries where “twinning” or “sistership” with Israeli cities have been a common route to promote Zionist propaganda and normalization at the expense of the Palestinian people. “Twinning” relationships of this type are a form of complicity in the Israeli occupation regime, its war crimes, crimes against humanity and the ongoing Nakba against the Palestinian people.

In particular, we note the campaign of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra in Toulouse for an end to the Toulouse-Tel Aviv twinning relationship. The right-wing mayor of Toulouse continues to attempt to suppress Palestine organizing in the city, condemns Amnesty International for reporting on Israeli apartheid and promotes twinning with Tel Aviv.

However, this important news from Barcelona must compel progressive municipal officials, city council members and organizations to take action — in Toulouse and everywhere — and stand for an end to this ongoing municipal complicity with apartheid, settler colonialism and occupation.

The labour and social struggle in France, confronting the pension cuts: Palestine is present!

Throughout the cities and towns of France, mass mobilizations, one-day general strikes and ongoing labour actions have mobilized tens and hundreds of thousands to take to the streets to defend labour rights against the pension “reform” plan that aims to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and increase the number of years a person must work in order to earn a full pension. The proposed measures are rejected by 93% of working people in France.

The trade union movement has made clear that it will not allow the crisis of French capitalism and imperialism to be resolved on the backs of working people. As three mass strikes have taken to the streets since 19 January 2023, these mobilizations have not been limited entirely to domestic concerns. Anti-imperialist organizers, including Palestine liberation campaigners, have been involved and present in the strikes across France.

The Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member organization of the Samidoun Network, has been involved in supporting all three strike days, and throughout that time, trade unionists, youth and labour organizers have also made clear that they recognize that Palestine is a workers’ and social justice issue.

On 7 February, hundreds of students marching in the youth and student march as part of the general strike that day in Toulouse which brought nearly 80,000 people to the streets, expressed their support for Palestine as they passed the stand of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, which distributed thousands of leaflets denouncing French complicity with the Israeli occupation.

In Tarbes, the Collectif 65 pour la libération de Georges Abdallah joined the demonstrations, calling for the liberation of Palestine and of Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for over 38 years.

Many participants in Toulouse also expressed their support for the immediate release of Georges Abdallah and participated in a solidarity photo campaign for the longest-held political prisoner in Europe.

Amid the strike action, Collectif Vacarme(s) Films, the directors of “Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight“, have made the film freely available for organizations hosting events to benefit strike funds, along with other films focusing on Palestine and liberation struggles.

Solidarity initiatives with Palestine were also present in Lyon, Bordeaux, Paris, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand, Annecy, Marseille and Rennes. This built upon the mobilization of 31 January, which also drew 80,000 to the streets in Toulouse alone and elicited wide support for Palestine from workers and youth visiting the stand of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra.

In addition to displaying flags and banners for Palestine and Georges Abdallah, activists also highlighted the role of French corporations in complicity with the Israeli occupation, including the recent expansion of the Carrefour Group in occupied Palestine, in particular in multiple illegal settlements in Palestine’s West Bank.

Demonstrators expressed their solidarity with Jenin after the massacre that was committed by the occupation forces killing 9 Palestinians, and several contingents in the mass march took up slogans for Palestine as they passed by the outreach table.

During all of these actions, which began on 19 January, the Collectif has issued a statement highlighting the links between the workers’ struggle in France and the Palestinian cause:

Why are we advocating for Palestine in the mobilization to protect pensions? Fighting for social justice is also supporting the Palestinian people!

In Palestine, Israeli colonization continues with ever increasing violence. Israel’s newly elected far-right government has made clear its intentions to further intensify the policy of ethnic cleansing that began 75 years ago with the Nakba. It has also declared its aim to intensify the repression against any form of Palestinian resistance to the occupation. The message sent is clear.

Also evident is the complicity of the French government in the situation in Palestine. But let’s not forget the increasingly important role of employers and corporations in supporting colonialism!

For example, the Carrefour Group has decided to set up in settlements in the West Bank and the French arms dealer Thalès is collaborating with the Israeli company Elbit Systems in the production of weapons of war (including drones). We should also mention the companies Veolia and Alstom which have actively participated in the development of metro lines to the settlements surrounding Jerusalem.

The French government and employers are defending their interests here by attacking social gains and there, in Palestine, by trampling on the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people against the occupation! Winning the battle for pensions is striking a major blow against this complicity!

Fighting the government and employers here also means denouncing the French government’s unconditional support for Israeli apartheid and its privileged diplomatic, political and economic relations. It also means denouncing the continuous crimes against the Palestinian people!

Solidarity is mutual aid in the common fight!
Let us develop the anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist struggle everywhere!

 

 

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