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

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

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

31 May, Online Event: The Battle of Life and Freedom – The Case of Walid Daqqah

Join us on Wednesday, May 31 for an online event to Free Walid Daqqah! Walid Daqqah is a Palestinian political prisoner, intellectual and freedom fighter suffering from a rare cancer who requires freedom to receive proper treatment after years of medical neglect in Zionist prisons.

Hear from: Sanaa Salameh, the wife of Walid Daqqah

with Charlotte Kates of Samidoun and Judit Rodriguez of the Masar Badil.

Time: 9 pm Palestine/8 pm central Europe/2 pm Eastern/11 am Pacific

REGISTER: bit.ly/daqqahevent — USE THE FORM BELOW.

Register for The Battle of Life and Freedom - Freedom for Walid Daqqah

Register here to receive the Zoom link to attend the webinar on the case of Walid Daqqah.

Over 700 celebrate Palestinian struggle at Resistance Festival organized by Samidoun Brussels

On the afternoon of Saturday, 27 May, in Bethlehem Square in Brussels, Belgium, Samidoun Brussels organized its first Resistance Festival, part of the commemorations of the 75th anniversary of the ongoing Nakba. This cultural, social and political event celebrated Palestinian resistance in all forms, reaffirming the anti-colonialist, anti-racist nature of the struggle for Palestinian return and liberation from the river to the sea.  Welcoming festival-goers, the square was redecorated with many Palestinian flags as an assortment of groups and associations set up stands and tables. The event also included a screen printing workshop, children’s games and food and cold drinks. Banners surrounded the square carrying many messages of solidarity, particularly demanding the release of prisoners Walid Daqqah and Georges Abdallah, in support of the Palestinian resistance, for the boycott of Israel, and in support of the struggle of Delhaize supermarket workers. The initiative was a smashing success bringing together over 700 participants throughout the afternoon in a warm and enthusiastic popular atmosphere.

Nermin, the co-founder of the Palestinian Refugee Movement in Brussels, opened the festival with a speech declaring that despite 75 years of Nakba, the Palestinian people continue to resist for their inalienable rights.

Jaldia Abubakra, a member of the executive committee of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement; the Palestinian women’s movement Alkarama; and Samidoun Madrid, spoke next, emphasizing that the Palestinian people are not only confronting the Zionist movement but also the imperialist powers which have played a leading role in the colonization of Palestine. She reaffirmed that “the word resistance has today become synonymous with Palestine, and our people have never given up and they will resist until the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.” She concluded her intervention by affirming that the Palestinian resistance is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, stressing that “the fedayeen love life and are ready to sacrifice everything for our freedom” to a round of applause.

Mohammed Khatib, the Europe coordinator of Samidoun, intervened to recall that the Palestinian cause was an integral part of a global anti-imperialist struggle, affirming that the fights carried out in Belgium for justice and equality are also the struggles of the Palestinian people, such as the campaign to boycott Delhaize stores and the mobilizations against racist crimes. Furthermore, he strongly denounced the criminalization of Palestinian community organizing and the solidarity movement in Europe, in particular the dissolution (eventually suspended) of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra in France and the bans on demonstrations and the repression against Samidoun and other Palestinian organizing in Berlin, Germany.

A member of Samidoun Paris Banlieue presented a joint statement with the Collectif Palestine Vaincra calling for the immediate release of Georges Abdallah. A Lebanese communist imprisoned in France since 1984 and eligible for release since 1999, he has now become the longest held political prisoner in Europe. “Supporting his release is not only supporting a committed and dignified man who is faithful to his revolutionary principles and ideals. To support Georges Abdallah is to support the Palestinian resistance and its legitimacy against imperialism, Zionism and for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea,” he said. Showing their solidarity with the cause of the prisoner, the crowd chanted “Palestine will win, free Georges Abdallah!” enthusiastically at the end of the speech.

https://twitter.com/Collectif_PV/status/1663277337679470598

Next, the festival presented artists, Achille, Raj’een Dabkeh Troupe, Lowkey, and Osloob & Issa Mourad. In a family-friendly, enthusiastic atmosphere, young and old celebrated Palestinian resistance during these various performances. On the railings surrounding the square was a photo exhibition by photographer and former journalist Johan Depoortere, presenting photos of the Palestinian villages destroyed and/or depopulated during the Nakba.

This launch of the festival was supported by the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, Zin-TV, EuroPalestine, Revolutionaire Eenheid, Masar Badil, Classe Contre Classe, DK, Bruxelles Pantheres, Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine, La Fronde, De-Colonizer, Secours Rouge, Revolutionary Action Front and ILPS. In addition, various groups were represented, making the trip, including Free Palestine Maastricht, Palästinakomitee Stuttgart, Anti-Imperialist Front and Samidoun chapters from the Netherlands, Spain and France.

Samidoun Brussels would like to thank all the participants, the dozens of volunteers and  various partner organizations for having made the launch of this festival a political and cultural success! In particular, we would like to thank the DK, Classe Contre Classe, the residents of the neighbourhood and Palästinakomitee Stuttgart for their precious logistical help, without which this Resistance Festival would not have been possible.

The mobilization did not stop there! On Monday, 29 May, in the streets of Brussels, members and sympathizers of Samidoun  marched with the colours of Palestine on the occasion of the demonstration against the far-right Vlaams Belang party, emphasizing the indissoluble link between the anti-fascist and anti-Zionist struggles.

For several months, Samidoun Brussels has been building up to develop and intensify solidarity with the Palestinian people and their resistance until the return and liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. To join us and/or participate in our activities, contact us on Instagram or by e-mail at  brussels@samidoun.net.

 

Resistance Festival today, Saturday 27 May, in Brussels, Belgium, welcomes Lowkey, Osloob, Raj’een, Achille and more!

On Saturday, 27 May, Brussels, Belgium will be home to the Resistance Festival, a political, cultural and artistic festival in support of the Palestinian resistance and confronting 75 years of Nakba, occupation and racism.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, together with many Palestinian, Arab and international associations, is organizing the Resistance Festival in Bethlehem Square on Saturday, 27 May from 4 pm to 8 pm, with performances by rapper and activist Lowkey, Raj’een Dabkeh Troupe, Achille, Osloob and Issa Mourad.

The Resistance Festival will include cultural and artistic programs, special areas for children, and political speeches and presentations along with tables and information stands. Speakers will represent the Masar Badil (Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement) and many organizations. Liberation movements, anti-imperialist organizations, and community groups will participate in the festival to show their support for Palestinian rights and liberation and call for the imposition of a comprehensive boycott on the Zionist regime. The festival also aims to strengthen the role of the international popular cradle of the Palestinian struggle, as it rallies around the resistance and the path of return and liberation.

The Resistance Festival also coincides with the 23rd anniversary of the liberation of the south of Lebanon from Zionist occupation. Join us at the Resistance Festival to show support for the resistance and struggle of the prisoners’ movement in the occupation jails!

Groups participating in the Festival include Classe Contre Classe, Collectif Palestine Vaincra, EuroPalestine, Masar Badil, Zin TV, Revolutionaire Eenheid, The DK, Bruxelles Pantheres, ILPS, Secours Rouge, Revolutionary Action Front, De-Colonize and more.

Palestinian prisoners announce struggle steps to defend Ahmad Sa’adat, Walid Daqqah

Palestinian prisoner Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was ordered returned to isolation for an additional week by the Zionist prison administration, in retaliation for writing a political article. This came after Sa’adat, along with fellow leaders Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh and Walid Hanatsheh, were to be released from isolation after escalating protests among the prisoners.

Not only was Sa’adat, a prominent national leader who has been imprisoned by Israel since 2006 — and prior to an Israeli attack on Jericho, by the Palestinian Authority since 2002 — isolated an additional week for expressing himself politically, he was banned from family visits for a month. Denial of family visits is a common tactic used by the Israeli prison administration in a form of collective punishment against the prisoners and their families.

In response not only to this attack but to the de facto assassination of Khader Adnan and the ongoing denial of release and proper medical treatment to Walid Daqqah, prisoners of the PFLP have announced their readiness to proceed to a hunger strike to demand Sa’adat is released from isolation and Daqqah is released to freedom and to receive proper medical care for his rare cancer, myelofibrosis. They issued a statement:

The Martyr Khader Adnan Brigade

The prisoners of the Popular Front are beginning their first steps to confront the targeting of the leader Abu Ghassan (Ahmad Sa’adat) and the leaders of the Popular Front, and to support the leader Walid Daqqah and the sick prisoners.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine announces that the ranks of the prisoners of the Front will advance the Brigade of Martyr Khader Adnan. 54 prisoners of the Popular Front will go on strike in the first batch, in response to the Prison Administration’s policy towards the leadership and cadres of the Front, and in rejection of the policy of medical neglect, in solidarity with the imprisoned intellectual Walid Daqqah, and the prisoners and the patients of Ramleh prison clinic…

The Zionist attack on the prisoners is escalating daily, and has reached the level of insolent indifference to our blood, starting with the hundreds of martyrs among the prisoners who were executed by a Zionist decision of the entire colonial structure, the most recent of which is the disregard for the blood of the martyr Khader Adnan. This is what the occupation, the Prison Administration and its officers are aiming for through their intransigence in the decision to reject the release of the sick prisoner, the leader and thinker Walid Daqqah, and the continuous attempts to harm the life of the leader Ahmad Sa’adat, by isolating him or practicing abuse and isolation against the leaders of the Popular Front, against the sick prisoners, and playing for time in the context of the policy of slow execution carried out against the prisoners.

Therefore, we in the PFLP organization in the occupation prisons, announce that the Brigade of the Martyr Khader Adnan is embarking on the battle that bears his name in loyalty and honour to him in order to fight the battle of loyalty and support for the leader Ahmad Sa’adat and the leadership of the prisoners’ movement, and confirms that it has taken a decision to escalate in all prisons within the framework of confronting the jailer’s retaliatory measures against the leader Ahmad Sa’adat and the imprisoned leadership of the Popular Front.

We call on all our people and all living consciences to stand by our side, in this battle of ours, everywhere.

We also call on our strugglers to protect our blood, which will inevitably be precious for the sake of dignity, freedom and the human rights attacked by the Zionist jailer.

Glory to the martyrs, freedom to the prisoners, and victory to our people!
25 May 2023

Hearing delayed, returned to Ramleh prison: Occupation targets Walid Daqqah’s life and health

On Thursday, 25 May, the Israeli occupation prison system once again removed Palestinian prisoner, intellectual and freedom fighter, Walid Daqqah, suffering from the rare cancer myelofibrosis and a number of severe health complications, from Assaf Harofeh civilian hospital to the infamous Ramleh prison clinic, putting his life and health at even more severe risk. The extreme disregard and systematic medical neglect shown to Walid Daqqah indicates an attempt at his assassination by the occupation regime, which continues to deny him access to proper medical treatment. 

This comes one day after an Israeli court ordered a one-week delay, on 24 May, of a planned hearing on Daqqah’s lawyer’s and family’s appeal for his immediate release. Rather than hearing information and taking action, the court ordered a one-week delay — reminiscent of the constant delays ordered by Zionist courts in the case of Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan, who lost his life after 86 days on hunger strike. Khader Adnan’s martyrdom came one day after yet another week-long delay ordered by an occupation court.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners went on a one-day hunger strike on 15 May for his release, while his fellow severely ill prisoners in the Ramleh prison clinic have been organizing to demand his release as well. The Palestinian prisoners’ movement is escalating its steps of struggle to resist attacks on the prisoners, particularly the continued medical abuse of Walid Daqqah.

Daqqah’s family and official campaign once again emphasized their clear demand for his immediate release, noting that it is impossible for him to receive proper treatment within the occupation prison system. This call is borne out by his forced return once again to the Ramleh prison clinic, described by the prisoners held there as a “slaughterhouse,” despite his severe health deterioration and the constant risk to his life.

Daqqah’s 37-year sentence in occupation prison expired in March 2023, but an additional two-year sentence was imposed upon him, allegedly for being involved in bringing mobile phones into the occupation prisons. While he struggles for his life, the infamous Zionist minister Itamar Ben Gvir, known for his fascist pronouncements and ideology, declared that Daqqah’s “life must end in prison,” a clear threat of assassination against Daqqah; Ben Gvir directs the prison system in which he is held captive.

The targeting of Walid Daqqah follows the martyrdom of Khader Adnan on 2 May as well as the December 2022 death of Nasser Abu Hmaid, another Palestinian prisoner and freedom fighter repeatedly denied release as he battled cancer inside the occupation prisons.

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.

Daqqah was diagnosed with myelofibrosis in December 2022, following a leukemia diagnosis 10 years before. Daqqah, 62, has been imprisoned since 25 March 1986. Sentenced to 37 years in occupation prisons, he should have been released in March of this year (2023), except for an additional two-year punitive sentence added on to his prison sentence, allegedly related to accessing mobile phones inside occupation prisons. Walid needs intensive health treatment for the lungs, kidneys and blood, and he also needs a very sensitive bone marrow transplant procedure (noting that more than one donor is available). This requires a therapeutic environment that is not available at a minimum level, in light of the conditions of his captivity and the strict guarding practiced by the prison administration.

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council noted, about his medical condition:

The only curative treatment for Walid is a bone marrow transplant—one of the most difficult and dangerous medical procedures currently known. Gatt also recommended that Walid be put in a clean place where exposure to infections can be minimized, neither of which is possible inside the miserable conditions offered by Israeli prisons.

In mid-February 2023, Walid suffered from a severe cardiovascular stroke that led to a physical injury on his chest. Not only did the IPS in Askalan prison refuse to transfer him to a hospital for emergency treatment, the in-house prison clinic, despite diagnosing a blood clot as the cause of the stroke, refused to provide him with a necessary blood transfusion. Consequently, Walid lost a lot of blood through a minor tongue wound in the days that followed. Further, his medical records indicated that he lost over 10 kilos (22 pounds) in one and a half months. Only after his hematologist visited Askalan for a routine appointment, nearly two weeks after the stroke, was Walid finally transferred to Barzilai Medical Center. Similarly, as Walid developed symptoms of severe pneumonia over the past couple of weeks, the IPS once again ignored his health and evaded hospital admission until his lawyers and doctors intervened. Walid is currently being held in a private room at Barzilai, suffering from pneumonia, kidney failure, and a life-threatening drop in blood cell count.

Daqqah obtained a master’s degree in political science and wrote several books while behind bars, 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, Daqqah 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, Daqqah 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.” His family’s official campaign page asserts:

“In spite of all the injustices and discriminations inflicted upon Daqqah throughout the 37 years of his incarceration, he has managed remarkable achievements that have made him in to the political, intellectual and cultural icon that he is. He has been a leader among the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement and is a prominent figure in the Palestinian, Arab and international cultural scene, in particular in the field of prison studies. Even his intellectual life has been deemed dangerous as prisoner authorities subjected Daqqah to extra punishment due to his political, social and intellectual activism, in particular solitary confinement.

Daqqah is a prolific author. Among his works: Testimonies of Resistance: The Battle of Jenin Camp 2002 (2004); Consciousness Molded or the Re-identification of Torture (2010); The Story of the Forgotten in Parallel Time (2011); The Oil’s Secret Tale (2018); The Sword’s Secret Tale (2021); The Spirit’s Secret Tale/ The Martyrs Return to Ramallah (2022). In addition, Daqqah published several translations, and tens of articles both in Arabic and Hebrew, most prominently: “Parallel Tine” (2005); “Milad: I Write to a Childe Yet to Be Born” (2011); “Liberate Yourself by Yourself” (2020), and “Control through Time” (2021). Daqqah also has several unpublished manuscripts, paintings, poetry, lyrics, and autobiographical and theatrical writings.

Under these harsh circumstances, Daqqah married the activist, journalist and translator Sana’ Salamah on 10 August, 1999 in Askalan Prison. The occupation state denied them conjugal visits and their right to be parents, in spite of all the appeals. Undeterred, on 3 March 2020 their daughter Milad was born in Nazareth from liberated semen for artificial insemination.”

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 these signs below in your actions and campaigns, and send us your photos on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or via email at samidoun@samidoun.net.

Use the hashtags:

Download below, in English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese and Italian — or Download all PDFs (A3) or (11×17).

 

Paris area mobilizations commemorate 75 years of Nakba and ongoing resistance

For over a week, many organizations held events and actions, bringing together thousands of people in Paris, France, and its suburbs. These events were part of the collective commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, a process of colonization and ethnic cleansing in Palestine still underway today, which the Palestinian people tirelessly resist.

On Saturday, 13 May, CAPJPO-EuroPalestine organized a mass march and demonstration, proceeding from Châtelet to République in Paris. This dynamic and enthusiastic action brought together several thousand people in support of the Palestinian people and their resistance, the majority of whom were young people. This action was supported by many organizations, including Samidoun Paris Banlieue and other pro-Palestinian and internationalist organizations. Throughout the route of the march, the colors of Palestine and its resistance were proudly brandished, highlighting the vitality of the struggle of the Palestinian people and the failure and illegitimacy of Zionist colonization. Several speeches took place at the end of the demonstration. The first was by a young activist from EuroPalestine who recalled the current nature of the Nakba, the absence of international sanctions on the Zionist entity and emphasized the unity of the Palestinian resistance during the “Revenge of the Free,” the latest battle in which the resistance responded from Gaza against the Israeli offensive that killed 33 Palestinians in Gaza.

Alongside other organizations, Samidoun Paris Banlieue delivered a speech:

Today we commemorate 75 years of the Nakba, a process of ethnic cleansing and settler colonization which still continues today, and which the Palestinian people are courageously confronting.

As we speak, the Zionist occupation has launched a new military offensive against the Gaza Strip which has been under blockade for more than 15 years. Faced with this, the Palestinian people responded in a unified and collective manner to the aggression by using their legitimate right to resistance! Only a few days after the death of Khader Adnan, who was martyred while leading a hunger strike to demand his release, the occupying forces bombed Gaza. Supposedly making targeted attacks against resistance leaders but in reality murdering at least 25 people, including 5 children, and nearly 80 injured.

The resistance to this new offensive demonstrates that despite 75 years of Nakba, the Palestinian people will continue to fight until their return and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. We wish here to pay tribute to the martyrs who have fallen in recent days.

We, Samidoun, know that the Palestinian prisoners are the spearhead of the resistance. These 4,900 men, women and children represent the Palestinian people as a whole.

Like Walid Daqqah, an emblematic prisoner, long a struggler of the PFLP, and a renowned intellectual who wrote several books during his detention. Walid Daqqah spent more than 37 years in colonial prisons. Today he is seriously ill and the victim of a policy of medical negligence. Today, there is an urgent need to develop the campaign for his release!

Finally, we would like to emphasize that here too, in France, a Palestinian resistance fighter, an Arab communist has been imprisoned since 1984: Georges Abdallah. Today, supporting Georges Abdallah is not just supporting a man who is forthright, dignified and faithful to his political commitments despite 39 years in prison. To support Georges Abdallah is to support the Palestinian people and the legitimacy of their resistance!

Finally, we wish to affirm that the occupation is not an invincible force. It survives thanks to the support of Western imperialist powers, including France. Today, we must mobilize everywhere against this cooperation, like our comrades from Samidoun in Germany and Palestine Action in England who are facing scandalous repression. Tomorrow, the demonstration for the Nakba is banned in Berlin and this is an outrage!

Faced with this, we have no other alternative than to pursue, develop and intensify our solidarity!

The Vietnamese people defeated US imperialism, the Algerian people defeated French colonialism and tomorrow Palestine will defeat imperialism and Zionism!

https://twitter.com/SamidounPB/status/1657432743922266115

On Sunday, May 14, we gathered in Montreuil at the Marbrerie for an event organized by the AFPS under the slogan “Justice for Palestine.” Supported by several organizations such as the LDH, the CGT, Solidaires, the UJFP, the JC, CEDETIM, the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine and Orient XXI, this event brought together several hundred people and gave the floor to several Palestinian activists and personalities. In the first part of the evening, we listened to the testimonies and speeches of Dana Farraj (lawyer and researcher at Birzeit University), Salah Hamouri (French-Palestinian lawyer and former political prisoner expelled from Jerusalem in December 2022), Qassam Muaddi (journalist, photo reporter and writer) and Rania Muhareb (doctoral student at the University of Galway, originally from Jerusalem).

The evening ended on a high note with concerts by Samah Mustafa, a Palestinian singer who combines classical music and electronic music, and Tamer Nafar, co-founder of the group DAM. The same organizations gathered the next day in Place de la République for a commemoration.

On Friday, 19 May, at La Caboteuse in Montreuil, AIM and Young Struggle organized a solidarity event with the Kurdish people. This evening was part of the “Punks for Rojava” campaign, which aims to show the solidarity of the alternative scene with the ongoing struggles in Kurdistan. Alongside several other organizations such as Action Antifasciste 77, Samidoun Paris Banlieue was present in particular to highlight the campaigns for the release of Georges Abdallah and Walid Daqqah.

As always, the evening was a resounding success. We warmly thank AIM and Young Struggle for their welcome and their invitation.

https://twitter.com/SamidounPB/status/1659894938597818369

On Saturday, 20 May, Samidoun Paris Banlieue held its monthly stand at the open-air market in Aubervilliers. This stand mainly centered around two fundamental themes: the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba and solidarity with the prisoners of the Palestinian resistance including Walid Daqqah and Georges Abdallah.

For more than two hours, we distributed leaflets explaining the situation of Europe’s longest-held political prisoner, the Lebanese communist and Palestinian resistance fighter Georges Abdallah. Once again, we confirmed that his name is well known and meaningful for the diasporas of the Maghreb, the Arab region as a whole, and sincere internationalist activists. This popular support shows us that we must do everything possible to secure his release after 39 years of judicial harassment.

We also drew attention to the situation of Walid Daqqah, emblematic prisoner of the PFLP and internationally recognized writer who has been detained for more than 37 years in the Zionist colonial prisons. Seriously ill, he suffers from bone marrow cancer and pneumonia triggered by the policy of deliberate medical negligence of the Zionist authorities. At the time of writing, he was suddenly returned to the infamous Ramleh prison clinic after initially being transferred to Assaf Harofeh Civil Hospital following a deterioration in his state of health. He suffers from complications related to the removal of a part of his right lung, after which he developed an infection and continues to suffer from an inability to breathe. Despite his catastrophic state of health, Walid Daqqah has been repeatedly taken out of civilian hospitals and returned to Ramleh prison clinic.

Walid Daqqah needs serious and proper treatment for his lungs, kidneys and blood, as well as a bone marrow transplant. This requires a clean therapeutic environment, where exposure to infection is minimal. This is not the case in colonial prisons. We invite all organizations and supporters of the Palestinian people to join this international campaign launched from Palestine by his family and loved ones to demand his immediate release!

Finally, we discussed the 75 years of colonization, ethnic cleansing and oppression that the Palestinian people are constantly resisting with local residents attending the market. They expressed to us their unfailing, sincere and unconditional support for the Palestinian people and their resistance, and all morning took turns to discuss with us, take advantage of the stickers and flyers available and participate in our fundraising donations for the Al Awda hospital in Gaza.

This stand was organized a few days after a new poster campaign in the streets of Aubervilliers in order to continue the mobilization and awareness campaigns for Palestinian prisoners.

https://twitter.com/SamidounPB/status/1659187996439252993

We would like to warmly thank the organizations that organize these solidarity actions for the Palestinian people and their resistance, especially AIM, Young Struggle , Antifascist Action 77 and EuroPalestine. A big thank you to the inhabitants of Aubervilliers for their support, to the demonstrators who marched and responded to EuroPalestine’s call and to all the people we met throughout this eventful week.

Do not forget to follow us on our social networks to participate in our activities and find all of our actions and mobilizations (Instagram , Facebook , Twitter) or contact us by email at parisbanlieue@samidoun.net

Long live the struggle of the Palestinian people!
Glory to the resistance, to its martyrs and its prisoners!
From the river to the sea: Palestine will win!

Belgian activists confront sportswashing of Israeli apartheid in cycling

Several members and sympathizers of the Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine mobilized on 18 May at the  “Circuit de Wallonie” cycling race in Belgium against the participation of a propaganda team for Israeli apartheid and colonialism. Carrying large banners and Palestinian flags, these supporters of justice in Palestine expressed their rejection of Israel’s sportswashing of its war crimes in Palestine.

Activists gathered in two places along the route to challenge the presence of the so-called “Israel Premier Tech” team, self-described as an “Ambassador of Israel.” In the towns of Gozée and Jamioulx, the activists received a warm and supportive reception from the people of the area. Local residents allowed the activists to post Palestinian flags on their homes or to join in supporting the demonstration.

This is not the first time that the Plate-Forme, a member organization of the Samidoun Network, has organized such actions. Activists for justice in Palestine were also present in March, along the Course pour la Paix d’Ypres, at the Ghent-Wevelgem race, and at  the Tour de France in Cerfontaine and the Tour de Wallonie in Courcelles in July. 2022. In Belgium, an action also took place this year during the Liège-Bastogne-Liège race.

In many other countries, activists are also mobilizing against the Israel Premier Tech team’s participation in cycling races. In France, many collectives and committees mobilize each year against the participation of this team in the Tour de France. In addition, similar initiatives have also taken place in the Netherlands, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland and Canada.

Source: Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine

Georges Abdallah sends a message to French resistance gathering on Glières plateau

From 19 to 21 May, thousands of people converged on the Glières plateau in Haute-Savoie France, a historic site of the French resistance to Nazi occupation, for the Resistance Forum organized by the Resistant Citizens of Yesterday and Today association. The 2023 gathering, which marked the 17th such occasion, highlighted solidarity with Palestine at the heart of resistance today. This year’s event included the participation of French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri and many supporters of Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France since 1984, in particular through a stand organized by the Collective for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah 74.

On Sunday, 21 May, on the Glières plateau, during a rally bringing together hundreds of participants, a member of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra read out a message by Georges Abdallah written especially for this occasion, once again emphasizing that Georges Abdallah remains a deeply committed activist in support of current mobilizations for social liberation despite nearly 39 years of detention in French prisons.

Please note: Since this event took place, the event, the Collectif and Georges Abdallah have been under attack by an array of Zionist and right-wing French politicians, who do exactly what Georges describes in his message below: attempting to detach the historical legacy of the Resistance from today’s resistance movements struggling for liberation, in Palestine and beyond.

The message follows below:

Dear comrades, dear friends,

Sharing with you the enthusiasm inherent in your gathering on this Glières plateau is more than invigorating, especially when you have been behind these abominable walls for several decades.

The official representatives of the imperialist bourgeoisie of this country ritually come to strut before this or that necropolis of the Resistance. A whole ceremonial with great pomp intended above all else, not to pay homage to the maquisards (rural guerrillas, French and Belgian Resistance fighters), but rather to bury them in a distant past, in order to ward them off, all the values ​​of solidarity, fraternity, justice and freedom that were embodied these guerrillas. These guerrillas, these resistants, who saved the honor of this country in the darkest hours, when the bourgeoisie in its vast majority sank into Pétainism (collaboration with the Nazi occupation) and the crimes which are intimately linked to it, are far from being relics or fantasies of a bygone past.

In the diversity of their commitment, in the diversity of their origins, these women and these men in the various maquis (groups of rural French resistance fighters) of the country and in the various structures of the Resistance in the cities, are of a quite other than secondary importance on the global scale of the world capitalist system. These women and men were able to discover in the practice of the fight against the Nazi occupation forces and their Petainist auxiliaries, that it is together and it is only together that they will win.

The convergence of struggles, in spite of so many obstacles, ended up imposing itself in one way or another. It manifested itself in the most relevant way in the program of the National Council of Resistance, thus expressing globally the values ​​of solidarity, justice and freedom that underpinned the resistant, the maquisard, in his existential militant journey, and in this, it is more topical than ever here and elsewhere in the world where the barbarism of capitalism has never been so widespread since the middle of the last century.

In this time of the multidimensional crisis of mobilization and great struggles, of imperialist and inter-imperialist wars, devastation and other environmental catastrophes in sight, the protagonists of anti-capitalist action in this country are more than ever called upon to strengthen ever more the dynamic of international solidarity in the formation of a historical social bloc as a real political subject with a view to putting an end to the moribund capitalist system in its phase of advanced putrefaction.

Dear comrades, dear friends, when you see that the Zionist military and its hordes of settlers under the orders of the supremacists in power carry out the worst atrocities every day all over Palestine. Every day, young and old are martyred… The expropriation of land and the demolition of houses are continuou and widespread. In fact, this policy never stopped; sometimes it slows down and sometimes it speeds up. It will only stop with the dissolution of this entity, which in reality is an organic extension of Western imperialism, and whose process of fascism has recently accelerated more than ever.

Comrades and friends, from behind the abominable walls, Ahmed Sa’adat and the thousands of comrades imprisoned in Zionist jails send you their revolutionary greetings and draw your attention to what is happening in Palestine with the coming to power of the supremacist fascists.

That said, comrades, the popular Palestinian masses, involved today in this popular intifada of a particular type, can rely and must be able to rely on your mobilization and your solidarity.

You honor your country by demonstrating in the streets your attachment to the application of international law and the condemnation of all forms of colonization.

You do your country honor by standing alongside the masses of the people who are victims of crimes against humanity, apartheid and persecution.

You honor your country by taking part in the fight against all forms of ethnic cleansing and for standing alongside the Palestinian families in East Jerusalem who are threatened these days with being driven from their homes to be replaced by supremacist settlers.

You honor your country for not forgetting the criminal blockade of Gaza which has been going on since 2007.

The conditions of detention in Zionist jails are getting worse day by day. And as you know, comrades, to confront it, international solidarity proves to be an indispensable weapon.

Solidarity, all solidarity with the resistance fighters in Zionist jails and solitary confinement cells in Morocco, Turkey, Greece, the Philippines and elsewhere around the world!

May a thousand solidarity initiatives flourish in favor of our comrade Walid Daqqah!

Solidarity, all solidarity with the proletarians mobilized in this country! Honor to the martyrs and to the popular masses in struggle!

Down with imperialism and its Zionist and Arab reactionary watchdogs!

Capitalism is nothing but barbarism, honor to all those who oppose it in the diversity of their expressions!

Together, comrades, and only together will we win!

To all of you, comrades and friends, my warmest communist greetings.

Your comrade Georges Abdallah

 

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