Freedom Revolution — Administrative Detainees’ Intifada: Prisoners’ movement announces 18 June hunger strike

5 June 2023

On Monday, 5 June — the anniversary of the Naksa, the 1967 Zionist occupation of the remaining parts of Palestine (the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem), the Syrian Golan Heights and the Sinai of Egypt, the Administrative Prisoners’ Committee, announced yesterday by the Higher Emergency Committee of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement, announced its plans to move to an open hunger strike on 18 June to confront the policy of Israeli administrative detention.

The beginning of the strike also coincides with the 40th day anniversary of the martyrdom of Sheikh Khader Adnan, the Palestinian prisoner and long-term hunger striker whose life was taken after 86 days of hunger strike on 2 May 2023. Khader Adnan won his liberation from administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial — on four separate occasions through hunger strikes.

Since the end of 2022/beginning of 2023, the number of administrative detainees has consistently remained greater than 1,000, over one-fifth of the total number of Palestinian political prisoners. Administrative detention orders are issued on the basis of so-called “secret evidence” for up to six months at a time, indefinitely renewable. Palestinians routinely are jailed for years at a time under these orders, which particularly target community leaders and organizers in an effort to separate them from the people and the liberation movement as a whole.

In their statement, the prisoners make clear the necessity of support and engagement from the Palestinian people in exile and diaspora and international forces of solidarity. We invite all to join us in mobilizing, organizing and acting to support the prisoners’ struggle, bring an end to administrative detention and liberate Palestine and the prisoners!

Below is the full text of the new statement, released today:

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful…

Statement by the Administrative Prisoners’ Committee on the national project and open-ended hunger strike in rejection of administrative detention

O masses of our revolutionary Palestinian people everywhere:

The administrative detainees in the prisons of the occupation have decided to launch their national project and their open-ended hunger strike in rejection of administrative detention, in fulfillment and loyalty to the path taken by the imprisoned martyr Khader Adnan, who was advancing, without retreat, on hunger strike. We take this step in order to preserve the principle for which our martyr paid the price, and to put the issue of administrative detainees on the table in a real and effective manner, in confrontation with the policies of the occupation and the Shin Bet, which enjoys torturing us, draining our lives, and stealing our years through the policy of arbitrary administrative detention.

This comes after the number of administrative detainees exceeded 1083, in an unprecedented manner. All parties concerned with the prisoners’ cause — the government, the factions, the resistance, the people, the institutions and the international community — must bear the burden and responsibility in ending our suffering and restraining the occupation regime from its repressive practices, because the level of aggression against the prisoners has never before reached its current level in its scale and boastfulness.

Our struggling people, our factions rising up, our heroic resistance: Facing all of these facts, on the fortieth anniversary of the martyrdom of Khader Adnan, we confirm the following:

First: We, as administrative detainees, will embark on an integrated national project to combat administrative detention, in which all administrative detainees from the entire spectrum of the prisoners’ movement will participate and join under the umbrella of the Palestinian flag. All methods of struggle are part of this initiative, primarily the open-ended hunger strike and the boycott of the occupation courts that has been going on since last September, and the programs of struggle that support the fight of the administrative detainees in their initiative: Freedom Revolution – Administrative Detainees’ Intifada.

Second: We announce to you that Sunday, 18 June 2023, will be the official date for the launch of the open-ended hunger strike, under the title Freedom Revolution – Administrative Detainees’ Intifada.

Third: We emphasize that our primary demand is to end administrative detention and oblige the occupying “state” to respect international humanitarian law.

Fourth: We call on the Palestinian Authority’s “presidency and government” to adopt the demands of the administrative detainees and activate all the mechanisms of diplomatic pressure, make our cause a national priority and provide an official and popular cradle to support us.

Fifth: It is required that all factions, the resistance, institutions, civil society organizations and all of our people must effectively support our cause and our strike, to rise up in all arenas and fields, to ignite all points of contact with the occupation and to form a lever of power and a safety net for us in our battle. Support us and do not leave us to be isolated by the occupation. You are our support, after God.

Sixth: We call upon the Palestinian communities in exile and diaspora to take action and engage in a movement of solidarity to support our cause through sit-ins in front of enemy embassies, and to address all European institutions and parliaments so that the occupation responds to our demands.

O free people everywhere, we will proceed with our strike and our project, as the years of our lives have passed in the hands of the Zionists without salvation finding us. This flood has reached its crest. We call on all for real support to stop the bleeding of detention and save us from the clutches of the occupation and its arbitrary policies. The stance of the people, the factions and the resistance, especially in the West Bank, in Jerusalem, and inside occupied Palestine ’48, can shorten the duration of the strike, ensure its success and end our suffering.

Glory to the martyrs, freedom to the prisoners, healing to the wounded.

Committee of Administrative Detainees in Occupation Prisons

Monday, 16 Dhul al-Qidah 1444.
Corresponding to 5 June 2023.

Palestinian prisoners’ movement demands freedom for Walid Daqqah, escalates struggle to end administrative detention

4 June 2023

In a new statement released by the Higher Emergency Committee of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement, the unified leadership body representing the Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails, the prisoners’ movement declared an escalation of struggle to confront the policy of administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. As administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable, Palestinians routinely spend years at a time jailed without even the pretext of a trial in a Zionist military court.

In addition, the prisoners’ movement highlighted the case of Walid Daqqah, the imprisoned freedom fighter and intellectual suffering from a rare cancer and subjected to Israeli medical neglect. Daqqah’s appeal for release was just denied and referred to yet another committee on 31 May, despite even the prison administration’s medical report noting that he is critically ill and not expected to survive, especially if he is not freed to receive necessary treatment. The next hearing for his release will take place on Thursday, 18 June, a delay of nearly three weeks. Daqqah has been imprisoned since 1986, and his sentence expired in March of this year; he is now being held on a two-year additional sentence for allegedly seeking to smuggle a mobile phone into prison.

The prisoners’ statement follows:

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful;

A statement issued by the Higher National Emergency Committee of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement to announce the formation of the Administrative Prisoners’ Committee

O masses of our great people, O free people of the world, Palestinian greetings.

With loyalty to the martyr Khader Adnan, and in rejection of the unjust policy of administrative detention that steals the lives of the detained children of Palestine, and with the increase in the frequency of this detention to levels that have become intolerable, bringing the number of administrative prisoners today to 1,083 detainees in the prisons of the occupation; and to organize the ranks of administrative detainees to confront this policy, it was decided to form a special committee for administrative prisoners emanating from the Higher National Emergency Committee. The Higher Committee in turn worked, and is still working, to organize a movement to confront administrative detention, culminating in an open collective hunger strike, the date of which and the number of participants to be announced in the coming days.

To our heroic people, with the imminent announcement of the prisoners’ movement’s strike to confront administrative detention, we emphasize the following:

First, your support for this strike is a victory for the martyr Khader Adnan, and it is raising the alarm so as to not repeat the crime of execution against any prisoner on hunger strike.

Second, all legal, human rights and media institutions inside and outside Palestine must live up to their responsibility to confront this unjust detention and to support the administrative detainees in their struggle against this criminal policy.

Third, in light of the sharp deterioration of the imprisoned intellectual Walid Daqqah’s health and the occupation prison administration’s refusal to release him, we call upon our people and all the free people of the world to launch the largest campaign of solidarity with our heroic prisoner Walid Daqqah, and to pressure the occupation to release him before it is too late.

Glory to the martyrs, freedom to the prisoners, and healing to the wounded

Victory for our people and our nation

The Higher National Emergency Committee for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement

Sunday 15 Dhul Qi’dah 1444 AH
Corresponding to 4 June 2023 AD

This statement came as the Prisoners’ Committee of the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces opened a solidarity tent in Gaza City, in front of the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross, in support of Walid Daqqah and demanding his immediate release. This is the latest in a series of actions taking place throughout occupied Palestine, from Gaza to Ramallah to al-Khalil to Baqa’a al-Gharbiyeh, Daqqah’s hometown in occupied Palestine ’48.

Daqqah’s wife, Sana Salameh, and their daughter Milad — conceived through smuggled sperm — have been present at events and actions throughout Palestine, campaigning tirelessly for their husband and father’s release.

On Friday, 2 June, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member organization of the Samidoun Network, held a Palestine Stand in Toulouse, France, in support of Daqqah, while on 3 June, Samidoun Vancouver organized a solidarity action together with several community organizations.

Take action to save the life of Walid Daqqah and defeat the Zionist policy of assassination through medical neglect. We urge Palestinian communities around the world and supporters of Palestine to include the campaign to free Walid Daqqah in your events and activities for Palestine and to organize actions and events demanding his immediate liberation and that of all Palestinian prisoners. Use the signs at the link below in your actions and campaigns, and send us your photos on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or via email at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Download posters for local events and read more about the life and struggle of Walid Daqqah here.

Vancouver action calls for freedom for Walid Daqqah, demands Scotiabank #ShutElbitDown

3 June 2023

On Saturday, 3 June, Samidoun Vancouver organized a flash rally and leaflet distribution to free Walid Daqqah, the Palestinian prisoner, intellectual and freedom fighter jailed by the Israeli occupation since 1986, and all Palestinian prisoners. The Vancouver action took place at the local headquarters of CBC, the state-sponsored broadcaster, which refuses to use the term “Palestine” on air. The action was joined by activists with Canada Palestine Association, BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish, the Masar Badil (Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement) and the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) Vancouver.

Daqqah, married to Sana’ Salameh and the father of daughter Milad — born through smuggled sperm — is suffering from the rare bone marrow cancer myelofibrosis and in need of proper medical treatment that he can only obtain outside prison, particularly a bone marrow transplant. His health has declined dramatically on multiple occasions, he has suffered from a stroke, pneumonia, and surgery to remove a large portion of his lung. Nonetheless, he is repeatedly returned to the notorious Ramleh prison clinic, referred to as a “slaughterhouse” by the prisoners.

On Wednesday, 31 May, the Israeli prison system’s “early release committee” hearing the case of Palestinian prisoner and intellectual Walid Daqqah refused to rule on his release, instead once again delaying his case and his treatment by referring his file to the “release committee for prisoners with life sentences.” His family called this decision “permission for his execution.”

Participants distributed leaflets urging liberation for Daqqah and his fellow 4,900 Palestinian prisoners. They also carried signs calling for the freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned and recently isolated general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for 38 years; and Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu Baker and Mufid Abdulqader of the Holy Land Foundation humanitarians, serving lengthy sentences in U.S. prisons for their charity work for Palestine.

They also took solidarity photos expressing their support for Daqqah and his fellow prisoners, and calling for their liberation.

Following the CBC action, participants marched to the nearby Scotia Tower, local headquarters of Canada’s third largest bank, Scotiabank. As they marched, they chanted: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime!”

Scotiabank currently invests $500 million in Elbit Systems, the Israeli arms company responsible for producing weaponry used to kill Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians. Elbit drones are a key piece of Israel’s assassination policy. As Palestine Action notes, “Elbit Systems, based in Haifa, is Israel’s largest private arms manufacturer and security company. Elbit’s largest customer is the Israeli Ministry of Defence, with Elbit providing up to 85% of Israel’s land-based military equipment and approximately 85% of its drones.”

Palestine Action’s direct action campaign has caused two Elbit locations in Britain to close already, and the campaign is proceeding at additional Elbit sites. Elbit has been divested by a number of banks, including HSBC, and sovereign wealth and pension funds in Australia, Sweden and Norway. Meanwhile, Scotiabank has launched a massive investment in Elbit system, making it Elbit’s largest single foreign investor and an owner of 5% of the firm.

We are demanding that Scotiabank immediately drop Elbit Systems. It’s time to #ShutElbitDown in Canada! The organizations participating in today’s action, as well as the Canadian BDS Coalition, will be announcing a series of actions to bring an end to Scotiabank’s profiting from Palestinian death.

Participants in the action also held up signs denouncing Scotiabank’s “pinkwashing” campaign of putting up large Pride signs while engaging in predatory practices from Turtle Island to Palestine.

Samidoun Vancouver regularly organizes protests, information stands, actions, and educational events. We organize anti-imperialist actions and are dedicated to the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, as part and parcel of the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.

To get involved with our activities, contact us at vancouver@samidoun.net or reach out on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

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Toulouse action mobilizes for the liberation of Walid Daqqah, all Palestinian prisoners

3 June 2023

Around the world, initiatives and actions have been growing in support of the freedom of Walid Daqqah, the Palestinian intellectual and freedom fighter imprisoned since 1986 by the Israeli occupation, especially inspired by the call of his family and the international campaign for his release. Daqqah was again refused early release on 31 May, despite the fact that he is suffering from a rare cancer, requiring him to receive appropriate treatment outside the prison system. His family called this decision “permission for his execution.”

The Collectif Palestine Vaincra mobilized in Toulouse, France on Friday, 2 June near the Bagatelle metro station in a Palestine Stand calling for Daqqah’s freedom and the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners.

Organizers distributed over 700 leaflets and had many discussions with passers-by on the situation of Walid Daqqah and the policy of medical neglect by the Zionist regime. There are around 600 sick Palestinian prisoners, including 200 with chronic illnesses, and they are not receiving appropriate medical care. Posters and banners also demanded the release of all 4,900 Palestinian political prisoners, denouncing the ongoing attacks against Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese struggler imprisoned in France for 38 years; Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who was just isolated for over three weeks; and others.

https://twitter.com/Collectif_PV/status/1664652605287432197

Many people visiting the stand learned about various campaigns of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, including the campaign against the “sister city” relationship between Toulouse and Tel Aviv, and the campaign to boycott PUMA. The Collectif Palestine Vaincra is a member organization of the Samidoun Network.

People took many free leaflets and stickers to raise awareness about the Palestinian cause and build the solidarity movement. Many who visited the table posed for solidarity photos in support of Walid Daqqah, highlighting the level of popular support for the Palestinian prisoners’ cause.

The action was an opportunity to meet, discuss and show solidarity with Palestine and its prisoners. The Collectif thanks everyone who came to show support, bring bottles of water or make a donation. As the Palestinian people confront occupation, colonialism and apartheid, our solidarity with the Palestinian resistance is of strategic importance to support the struggle until return and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea! Do not hesitate to join us during our next activities that the Collectif Palestine Vaincra organizes regularly in Toulouse and to follow us on our various social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Telegram).

#WeStandWithFatima: Defend Palestine, Resist Zionist Attacks, Organize for Liberation

31 May 2023

Take Action:

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Fatima Mohammed, the graduate of CUNY Law and elected student speaker whose powerful words of social justice and revolutionary conviction have drawn threats, racist attacks and demands for repression from Zionist organizations and an array of right-wing media and politicians. We are proud to stand with Fatima and her fellow students, who elected Fatima to represent them as the speaker at their law school graduation, and denounce in the strongest terms the actions of the CUNY administration for their complicity in smearing and attacking Fatima.

It is clear from the malicious and defamatory attacks upon Fatima, the attempts to smear her name, the threats against her, the hostile media camping outside her house, the full-scale right-wing press and the denunciations by politicians from Eric Adams to Richie Torres to Ted Cruz that what truly frightens these forces is the vociferous support with which she was met by her fellow students. The support for Fatima makes clear that Palestine is popular, anti-imperialism is a mass demand and revolution can be a reality.

It is the words of Fatima that fill the hearts and minds of youth graduating from law school today, while pro-cop politicians like NYC mayor Eric Adams are roundly booed by the student body at the same event. This is the inconvenient reality that these politicians, Zionist organizations and right-wing forces wish to suppress.

Fatima was instrumental in the adoption of a boycott, divestment and sanctions resolution against the Zionist regime by the student body of CUNY Law School, which was followed by a similar resolution adopted by the law school’s faculty. It is in this context that the CUNY Board of Trustees and chancellor issued a shameful, false and defamatory statement on 30 May 2023 labeling Fatima’s profound words “hate speech.”

We join the demand that the CUNY administration immediately retract and apologize for the defamatory statement about Fatima’s speech and instead act to sever their ties with Zionist organizations both on and off campus. It is time the CUNY administration act to protect students and workers, rather than allying with right-wing politicians and participating in junkets to the Zionist colonial project.

Fatima’s powerful speech also came just one year after Nerdeen Kiswani, fellow CUNY Law School alumna and chair of Within Our Lifetime, was elected student speaker for graduation and also delivered an inspiring address for Palestinian and international liberation, which drew yet more Zionist attacks and slander.

The election of Fatima reflected the student body’s wishes and perspective: that they would not allow politicians, capitalists and Zionists to silence voices for justice, in Palestine and everywhere.

Indeed, since the attacks on Fatima began, her fellow students, workers and faculty at CUNY have spoken up in support, including: CUNY Jewish Law Students Association, CUNY Law Students for Justice in Palestine, CUNY Law OUTLaws, CUNY Law Indigenous Americans and the Law Student Advocates, CUNY Law Student Government, CUNY Law Labor Coalition, CUNY4Palestine, CUNY Law Environmental Justice Coalition, CUNY Law Formerly Incarcerated Law Student Advocacy Association, CUNY National Lawyers Guild, CUNY Law Housing Rights Project, CUNY Public Interest Law Association, CUNY Law Women of Color Collective, and CUNY International Law Society.

Throughout her speech, Fatima referenced the forms of imprisonment used as a mechanism of colonial control and suppression of resistance.:

“As Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshippers, murdering the old, the young, attacking even funerals and graveyards as it encourages lynch mobs to target Palestinian homes and businesses; as it imprisons its children, as it continues its project of settler colonialism, expelling Palestinians from their homes, carrying the ongoing Nakba — that our silence is no longer acceptable…I see future attorneys who will protect the communities terrorized by the surveillance state and not protect the agents of oppression that carry out that terror…Let us remember that it was just this week, Gaza has been bombed with the world watching. That daily, Brown and Black men are being murdered by the state at Rikers; that there are Palestinian political prisoners like the Holy Land Foundation [5] in US prisons, that there are refugees at the southern border still locked up.”

Fatima’s speech in many ways anticipated the repression and attacks to come:

“Like many of you, I chose CUNY School of Law for its articulated mission to be law in the service of human needs, one of a very few legal institutions created to recognize that the law is a manifestation of white supremacy that continues to oppress and suppress people in this nation and around the world…systems of oppression created to feed an empire with a ravenous appetite for destruction and violence; institutions created to intimidate, bully and censor and stifle the voices of those who resist. And at this moment of celebrating who we are, I want to celebrate CUNY Law as one of the few, if not the only law school to make a public statement, defending the right of its students to organize and speak out against Israeli settler colonialism. This is the law school that passed and endorsed BDS on a student and faculty level. Recognizing that, absent a critical imperialism/settler-colonialism lens, our work and the school’s mission statement is void of value… We are the student body and faculty that fought back when investor-focused admin attempted to cross the BDS picket line saying, loud and clear, that Palestine can no longer be the exception to our pursuit of justice; that our morality will not be purchased by investors….And we did all of this in spite of the racism, in spite of the selective activism, the self serving interests of CUNY Central, an institution that continues to fail us, that continues to train and cooperate with the fascist NYPD, the military that continues to train IDF soldiers to carry out that same violence globally, a larger institution committed to its donors, not to its students. I am here to remind us all that our existence on its own today in this room is revolutionary.”

The attack on Fatima is not taking place in a vacuum. As Within Our Lifetime notes,

“It is important we contextualize these developments not as individual viral sensations or disorganized backlash, but as part of a proactive, coordinated campaign that has been shaping CUNY as a battleground for decades, and increasingly over the past two years. This is a campaign of racialized militarization and privatization – which, in recent years, has manifested itself through the hiring and lauding of war criminals like David Petraeus and Colin Powell, the return of the ROTC, tuition hikes, tightening admission standards designed to attract wealthy out-of-state students, an exploitative multi-tiered labor system and increased precarity for the majority of CUNY workers. Repression against Palestinian student organizers is one part of this wider landscape.”

At CUNY, just in recent incidents noted by CUNY For Palestine, the university attempted to ban Nerdeen Kiswani from addressing a Nakba commemoration at Hunter College, her undergraduate alma mater; launched an anti-Palestinian “partnership” with Zionist foundations backed by settlement-funder and football owner Robert Kraft; cancelled the Palestine Lives conference in May 2022; and collaborated with an anti-Palestinian witch hunt at the NY City Council attacking Kiswani, Within Our Lifetime, and the movement for Palestine more broadly. Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez joined a propaganda junket to promote Zionist universities after the faculty and students of CUNY Law adopted a boycott resolution, including academic boycott.

This is also taking place in the context of increasing repression targeting the Palestinian and Arab communities in exile and diaspora and the Palestine solidarity movement throughout the Western imperial core, amid the growing strength of Palestinian resistance action. As Fatima noted, the Palestinian cause is an anti-imperialist cause, and resisting imperialism is central to our struggle here.

As these anti-imperialist links have strengthened, we see not only the attack on the students and workers of CUNY — and the mass movement in New York City — but also the criminalization and banning of Palestine organizing, anti-fascist organizing and other revolutionary struggles in Germany, including the targeting of Samidoun Deutschland; the persecution of demonstrators challenging Zionist presence in universities in Spain; the imprisonment of 9 Palestine Action activists in Britain; the attempt to ban the Collectif Palestine Vaincra in France. Of course, this repression operates hand in hand with the use of “terror” designations to criminalize resistance movements in Palestine, Lebanon, the Philippines and around the world and interrupt solidarity — not to mention the use of bogus “domestic terror” charges to repress Indigenous sovereignty organizing, the Black liberation movement and the fight to stop “Cop City” in Atlanta.

All of these are signs of the growing crisis and desperation of Zionism and its imperial backers, and a recognition of the increased power of the resistance, particularly following the 2021 Unity Intifada/Battle of Seif al-Quds. The thunderous applause, standing ovations and cheers of support greeting Fatima’s speech made clear that the perspective she represents is in fact the perspective of the future.

“So may the joy and excitement that fills the auditorium here, may the rage that fills this auditorium dance in the hallways of our elementary schools, in our home villages of Sheikh Jarrah; Aden, Yemen; Haiti; Puerto Rico; the Philippines, may we rejoice in the corners of our New York City bedroom apartments and dining tables, may it be the fuel for the fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism and Zionism around the world….as the great Malcolm X said, we declare our right on this earth, to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary… For oppressed people everywhere, for greater empires of destruction have fallen before and so will these.”

Let us make our voices heard: CUNY must immediately rescind the defamatory statement attacking Fatima; further, it must take action to protect students and faculty who speak out in favor of Palestinian liberation – without censorship, threats or intimidation – including their right to advocate for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS); it must cut its ties with all Zionist/pro-Israel groups on and off campus, including its “partnerships” with large Zionist foundations; and it has a responsibility to denounce blacklist websites, such as Canary Mission, and politicians that target CUNY students using false claims of antisemitism to marginalize support for Palestine within CUNY.

Within Our Lifetime, together with CUNY for Palestine, is leading a campaign to defend Fatima and CUNY organizing more broadly, as part of the Palestinian liberation cause. Read more and get involved at the following links:

Samidoun Sweden: Response to the anti-Palestinian smear campaigns against Jamal El-Haj

31 May 2023

Samidoun Sweden issued the following statement (original in Swedish) in response to an anti-Palestinian smear campaign in Swedish media targeting Palestinians in Sweden, the Palestinians in Europe Conference, and political figures attending the mass event:

In the past few days, there have been reports of the participation of the Swedish-Palestinian Social Democratic MP Jamal El-Haj in the Palestinians in Europe Conference. The 20th anniversary of this conference gathered many thousands of participants over one weekend. What the reporting makes clear is that there is a clear attempt to silence, criminalize and designate publicly existing Palestinians and Palestinian life as terrorism.

The campaign of attacks, which alludes to the fact that Jamal has met with Palestinians in Europe conference organizer Amin Abu Rashid, that the conference allegedly contributed to divisions among Palestinians as a collective, and that Jamal went against his party’s advice, must be seen as nothing less than an anti-Palestinian smear campaign. This comes at a time when the occupation of Palestine is experiencing a major internal crisis, including an escalating disagreement between factions that usually coalesce in unanimous hostility towards Palestinians. It comes at a time of recurring Zionist military massacres and settler pogroms against the Palestinian people in Palestinian villages, towns and refugee camps. It comes at a time when the Palestinian resistance in Palestine is growing stronger and more capable in the face of reactionary enemies who will stop at nothing. It comes at a time of growing anti-Palestinian repression throughout Europe, not to mention in Germany, with a growing criminalization and terrorist designation of anti-fascists, anti-imperialists and internationalists in general and Palestinians and supporters of Palestine in particular. The aforementioned groups are repeatedly banned from the streets, arrested and fined, and abused by police boots and batons. This comes at a time when international imperialism, a system that Sweden is very much a part of and benefits from, is entangled in extensive and successive crises around the world.

Who are the ones speaking out against Jamal, against Amin and against Palestinian organization? They are the representatives of the Swedish government under Ulf Kristersson and Jimmie Åkesson, the same government which happily cooperates with one of the main coordinators and financiers of reactionary political violence in West Asia and perhaps the world, the state of Turkey under President Erdogan, which, with funds from Europe and North America, supports groups such as the Grey Wolves and Daesh. They are representatives of the Sweden Democrats, the political home of Swedish white supremacist violence. They are so-called “terrorism researchers” who have made careers out of smearing Swedish Muslims and anti-racists. And it is the Social Democrats, whose government led Sweden’s participation in NATO’s war against Libya and approved Swedish support for Saudi Arabia’s war against Yemen, the same Social Democrats whose only response to over 75 years of ethnic cleansing in Palestine, that is still ongoing today, is empty words and thus a green light for the violence to continue, the same Social Democrats who are now prepared to sacrifice a loyal party servant because he was a visible, open and public Swedish-Palestinian for a weekend and spoke for the Palestinian right of return.

The smear against Jamal El-Haj, against Amin Abu Rashid and the Palestinians in Europe Conference and by extension against Palestinian existence and organization in Sweden is a desperate attempt from Swedish business and the Swedish state to defend their ongoing support of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. A desperate attempt to exonerate Swedish authorities from complicity in reactionary violence against the peoples of Palestine, West Asia and the entire world, including Sweden.

We in Samidoun condemn this smear as an attack on the Palestinian diaspora in Sweden, one of the largest in Europe, an attack on refugees’ organizing for their rights in Sweden, and an attack on Palestinians’ international right of return. We know that we only have the organized resistance of the oppressed and exploited masses in solidarity to rely on against imperialism, colonialism and fascism, for the liberation of the whole of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

3 June, Vancouver: Free Walid Daqqah! Picket and Info Stand

31 May 2023

Saturday, June 3
2:00 pm
CBC Vancouver (700 Hamilton St)
Vancouver

Join Samidoun Vancouver for a picket and information stand outside the CBC offices in Vancouver on Saturday, June 3. Walid Daqqah, the Palestinian prisoner and intellectual, was once again denied early release on May 31 by Israeli occupation authorities, despite the fact that his life is in severe danger at every moment and he is suffering from a rare cancer, myelofibrosis, that requires treatment outside the prison. His family has declared this to be an “authorization for his execution.”

Walid Daqqah is one of 4,900 Palestinian prisoners — including 600 sick and ill prisoners subjected to systematic medical neglect — locked up by the Israeli occupation regime. Meanwhile, the CBC and the Canadian government continue their silence and complicity in the occupation of Palestine, leaving the stories of Palestinians uncovered and refusing to so much as say “Palestine” on air.

Join us to speak out outside the CBC offices in Vancouver on Saturday, 3 June at 2 pm. Distribute material and raise your voice for Walid Daqqah, for Palestinian prisoners and for a free Palestine from the river to the sea.

With any questions or for more info, email vancouver@samidoun.net

This event is taking place on the unceded and occupied territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples. The organizers stand in full solidarity and support of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination and with the ongoing movements to defend land, water and Indigenous peoples from plunder and settler colonialism.

Occupation regime again denies release of Walid Daqqah; delays amount to a policy of assassination

31 May 2023

On Wednesday, 31 May, the Israeli prison system’s “early release committee” hearing the case of Palestinian prisoner and intellectual Walid Daqqah refused to rule on his release, instead once again delaying his case and his treatment by referring his file to the “release committee for prisoners with life sentences.” This is despite the fact that Daqqah’s life sentence was reduced to 37 years and ended in March; he is now serving an additional 2-year sentence after being accused of smuggling a mobile phone. This decision is yet another indication that Israel seeks to assassinate Walid Daqqah by denying him access to proper medical care.

Daqqah is suffering from the rare bone marrow cancer myelofibrosis and in need of proper medical treatment that he can only obtain outside prison, particularly a bone marrow transplant. His health has declined dramatically on multiple occasions, he has suffered from a stroke, pneumonia, and surgery to remove a large portion of his lung. Nonetheless, he is repeatedly returned to the notorious Ramleh prison clinic, referred to as a “slaughterhouse” by the prisoners.

During the “early release committee” hearing, Daqqah’s family organized a protest outside the Ramleh prison to call for his release; the protesters were attacked by Zionist settlers calling for Daqqah’s death and threatening his family members, while the occupation police stood by.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins the family of Walid Daqqah, the campaign for his freedom and the entire Palestinian people in demanding his immediate release, the only way in which he can receive proper treatment without restrictions. The Israeli prison administration and the Zionist regime hold full responsibility for his life as they continue to deny him an appropriate environment to treat his rare cancer. The systematic delays, denial of appropriate treatment and repeated medical negligence are tantamount to an ongoing assassination attempt on a Palestinian intellectual and freedom fighter.

The family of Walid Daqqah and the official campaign for his release issued a statement, which we are republishing below in English:

A statement issued by the family and campaign for the release of the prisoner Walid Daqqah regarding “transferring his file to the Committee for the Release of Life Prisoners”

Wednesday, 31 May 2023

The release committee of the Israeli Prison Service decided not to rule on the early release of sick prisoner Walid Daqqah, and to transfer his file to the release committee for life prisoners. The hearing convened today, Wednesday, May 31, 2023, at 8:30 am, at the occupation court in “Ma’asiyahu Prison”-Ramleh. During the meeting of the committee, settlers attacked the family of the prisoner, Walid Daqqah, and the small number of his supporters who had managed to reach the court, including his wife, Sanaa Ahmed Salameh, and his three-year-old daughter, Milad. The settlers hurled racist slurs and slogans at them and threatened them with death and “meeting the same fate” as the prisoner Walid Daqqah, in full view and under the protection of the occupation police.

We, the family and the campaign for the release of the prisoner Walid Daqqah, consider this decision to be an authorization to execute the prisoner Walid Daqqa by procrastinating in making a decision about his release despite the very high degree of danger in his health condition, which was recognized even by the report of the occupation prison service. Despite this report, the removal of the “high-risk prisoner” classification of Walid Daqqah, the expiration of his unjust 37-year life sentence since 24 March 2023, and the appearance of some editorials in the occupation newspapers urging his release…The court, however, decided otherwise.

Therefore, we turn to all legal institutions, popular movements, and our Palestinian people in all places of their presence, to intensify the advocacy of our campaign today and every day. We also renew our call on all factions of the Palestinian national movement throughout historic Palestine, and the official Palestinian political leadership to carry out their duty through all available means to issue a decision at the political level in the occupying state to release the captive Walid Daqqah before it is too late.

Please join us today, 31 May, for a special Zoom webinar with Sanaa Salameh to discuss the urgent international campaign to free Walid Daqqah. Click here to register for the event.

Download posters for local events and read more about the life and struggle of Walid Daqqah here.

Toronto: “Walk Against Israel” confronts Zionist racism and crimes

30 May 2023

On Sunday, 22 May, Toronto 4 Palestine, together with Montreal 4 Palestine, Neturei Karta International and the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, organized the “Walk Against Israel” to challenge the “Walk for Israel”, a Zionist, pro-apartheid event that takes place annually in Toronto.

Participants spoke out against Zionist crimes in occupied Palestine. They emphasized their commitment to the right to return of Palestinian refugees and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, as well as their support for the Palestinian people’s right to resist by all means necessary. Speakers also demanded that Canada end its ongoing support for the Zionist regime and urged the escalation of the boycott of Israel. They called on the Canadian government to instead side with justice and Palestinian and Arab rights, and to break the siege on the Gaza Strip.

Toronto 4 Palestine was joined by many anti-Zionist Jewish groups, including the Orthodox rabbis of Neturei Karta, who denounced the existence of the Zionist project in Palestine. The participants in the demonstration declared: “We will not allow the celebration of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people,” labeling the Zionist event the “walk for apartheid.”

The mobilization came amid recent attacks by Zionist organizations against the growing Palestinian and Arab community and solidarity organizing in Canada. Many cities and universities organized large events in support of Palestine, marking the 75th anniversary of the continuing Nakba, and showing solidarity with the Palestinian people amid the recent Zionist aggression on Gaza. Students, organizers, and trade unions have also escalated their calls for boycott of the occupation and the corporations that are complicit in its crimes, and in support of the Palestinian prisoners’ struggle for liberation.

Mass demonstration in Vancouver commemorates 75 years of Nakba and resistance

30 May 2023

Samidoun Vancouver joined with the Palestinian Youth Movement, Canada Palestine Association, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights UBC and the International League of People’s Struggle to commemorate the ongoing Nakba since 1948 on Sunday, 14 May 2023. Hundreds participated in a mass popular march from the Vancouver Art Gallery in the center of downtown to the U.S. consulate, through busy streets crowded with shoppers on a sunny spring day. The rally denounced Zionist, U.S. and Canadian policies toward Palestine, expressed solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and affirmed the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. Marchers chanted slogans in Arabic, English and French in support of the resistance, against the Zionist aggression on Gaza, and for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.

The demonstration was joined by a multigenerational crowd who waved Palestinian flags and carried banners reading: “Generation after generation until total liberation,” and “Free Palestine: Resistance, Return, Liberation. Participants carried posters of the leaders of the prisoners’ movement, including the imprisoned struggler Walid Daqqah, the Lebanese communist imprisoned in France Georges Abdallah, the martyr of the hunger strike, Khader Adnan, and the imprisoned leader Ahmad Sa’adat, as well as of the martyrs of the Battle of the Revenge of the Free in Gaza.

Palestinian activist Nadia spoke on behalf of Samidoun Vancouver, emphasizing the need to support the prisoners in occupation jails and particularly highlighting the isolation imposed on leaders of the prisoners’ movement, Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh and Walid Hanatsheh. She noted that the prisoners’ movement had launched a one-day strike in solidarity to demand an end to isolation and the freedom of imprisoned writer and freedom fighter, Walid Daqqah, battling for his life and suffering from a rare cancer, myelofibrosis. He has spent over 37 years in occupation prisons, has completed his regular sentence, and is unable to receive proper treatment in occupation prisons.

She concluded her speech by expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Germany confronting repression at the hands of the state, particularly in Berlin. The Berlin police banned demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners and commemorations of the Nakba. She read out a message from Samidoun comrades in Berlin, calling for solidarity and participation in the campaign to expose German racism and complicity in crimes against the Palestinian people.

Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat spoke on behalf of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement. Barakat began his speech by expressing solidarity with the Indigenous people of the land struggling against settler colonialism, and emphasizing the need to build collective solidarity. He spoke about the failure of the Zionist project to break the will of the Palestinian people over the years since 1948, and emphasized the unity of Palestinian and Arab resistance forces for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. He urged all present to take a clear position against Zionism and the existence of the Zionist regime and to stand with the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, including campaigning to remove Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations from the so-called “terrorist entities” list in Canada.

He also emphasized the need to reject the illusion of the so-called “two-state solution,” emphasizing that the Palestinian people today are rallying around the path of armed resistance throughout occupied Palestine. He declared that the approach of the Canadian government and its prime minister Justin Trudeau, consistently supporting the occupation against the Palestinian people, was unacceptable and must be overturned.

Hanna Kawas, the chair of the Canada Palestine Association, said in the closing speech at the U.S. consulate that Canada was involved in the establishment of the Zionist project in Palestine and therefore in the Nakba. Its governments participated in this crime before and after 1948, he noted. He urged the continuation and expansion of boycott campaigns against the Zionist regime and its products and complicit companies, and stopping all forms of normalization and liquidation that undermine the Palestinian and Arab cause.

The demonstration in Vancouver came alongside others in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and other mass rallies in Canada, widely attended by Arab and Palestinian communities, solidarity movements and boycott committees, expressing support for the boycott of Israel, the right of Palestinians to resist and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, and, first and foremost, the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, villages and cities from which they were forcibly displaced.

Photos: Michael YC Tseng

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