A Boycott Tour marched through central Toulouse, France, on Saturday, 17 December 2022, as several dozen members and supporters of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra (a member organization of the Samidoun Network), came together to bring the message of boycott and Palestine solidarity to the city’s busy shopping district. The goal of this action was to raise awareness of the need to boycott Israel and the corporations complicit in its colonial oppression of the Palestinian people. Participants gathered outside the Esquirol metro station with Palestinian flags and signs stating: “For Christmas, I’ll boycott Israel!” Other signs highlighted specific corporations to be boycotted, including HP, Puma, and Teva.
Outside the Darty store, marchers gathered with flags and placards, while others distributed flyers presenting the products not to buy for the winter holidays, in order to support the Palestinian people and their resistance. A spokesperson for the Collectif Palestine Vaincra spoke, pointing out that this Darty store sold products produced by companies supporting the Israeli occupation:
In this Darty store, as in many stores in Toulouse, Hewlett-Packard brand products are sold. But HP is complicit in the colonization of Palestine! HP is an American company that plays an active role in the oppression of the Palestinian people by supplying hardware to the Israeli navy and software for population control in the West Bank. So, during the holidays and throughout the year, do not buy HP computers, printers and ink cartridges! It is also important to boycott the Sodastream water aerator. A few years ago, it was produced in a settlement in the West Bank, today this brand is installed in the occupied Naqab, part of Palestine which is the target of a policy of ethnic cleansing by the Israeli authorities. So, let’s not buy from Sodastream and let’s inform our friends, family widely so as not to support this colonial enterprise. In this way, you will bring substantial support to the Palestinian people!
The participants marched down rue Saint Rome, a pedestrian street crowded with people during the holiday season. Participants received numerous messages and shows of support and distributed many stickers and leaflets to passers-by. Outside the Foot Locker and Courir stores, participants promoted the #BoycottPuma campaign, informing passers-by about the company’s role in sponsoring Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid. A speaker from the Collectif Palestine Vaincra said:
This German sports equipment supplier is the sponsor of the Israeli Football Association, of which 6 teams are located in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. While Puma prides itself on “[integrating] human rights into [its] operations”, it agrees to sponsor football teams of a racist and colonial regime that steals land, evicts, imprisons and kills Palestinians. Today, in support of Palestine: boycott Puma!
The marchers then headed towards the crowded rue Alsace Lorraine, chanting slogans in support of the Palestinian people and for the boycott of Israel. Once more, speakers explained the objectives of the Boycott Tour to passers-by, many of whom expressed joy at seeing Palestinian flags in the city center. Next, the Boycott Tour headed to the Jean Jaurès metro. Near several pharmacies, another activist from the Collectif Palestine Vaincra spoke:
Many pharmacies sell TEVA brand products. The largest Israeli pharmaceutical company, it is a powerful multinational and the largest producer of generic drugs in the world. Through its financial contribution to the State of Israel, it contributes to colonization and apartheid. At the same time, Palestinians’ access to healthcare has been extremely deteriorated by Israeli colonial and racist policies: the numerous checkpoints in the occupied West Bank, the blockade of Gaza, the successive bombardments, etc. Let’s not stand aside: we can take action and bring concrete support to the Palestinian people by boycotting Teva and all Israeli products! At your pharmacist, ask for another brand of medicine and ask us for the “boycott TEVA” sticker to put on your health and prescription card.
Finally, the march ended with a stop in front of Fnac. Marchers once again called for a boycott of HP, while emphasizing the importance of supporting the Palestinian people throughout the year as they confront the murderous policy of settler colonialism. Ending after an hour and a half of walking the streets of Toulouse, the Boycott Tour was a great success, receiving support and interest from many people.
The tour followed a solidarity evening on Thursday, 15 December, in support of Palestinians in Gaza confronting siege and colonization. Despite a breakdown of the Toulouse metro before and during the event, dozens of people participated in the “Solidarity with Gaza” evening program, organized at Toulouse’s Maison de Quartiere de Bagatelle. The event was introduced by a Collectif Palestine Vaincra activist who noted that the event aimed to build solidarity with Gaza, which has suffered under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade for over 15 years. Despite the catastrophic humanitarian effects, Gaza has been a strong center of Palestinian resistance, bravely confronting the violence of the colonial occupation, a violence made possible through Western powers’ support and complicity.
The evening included the screening of “Gaza Fights Back,” a documentary highlighting the Israeli assault of May 2021 and its effects. It highlights the reality of the assault by the Israeli army and explains how the Palestinian people are facing them by all means necessary with courage and determination, with the voices of many Palestinians in Gaza.
After the film screening, Nawras Shalhoub, Palestinian artist present in Gaza in August 2022, spoke about the current situation. He emphasized that more than 70% of the Palestinians of Gaza are refugees, deprived of their right to return home for more than 74 years. Thus, the resistance is fighting for the liberation of all of Palestine and the return of refugees and that is why it is supported by all of the Palestinian people. For example, he recalled that the Israeli occupation said it was attacking only one Palestinian party during the last deadly attack in the summer of 2022. In reality, it was the entire Gaza Strip and Palestine that was under attack. Similarly, Shalhoub highlighted the importance of the resistance that has spread everywhere, from Jenin to Nablus and throughout Palestine. He extended the evening by emphasizing that Gaza was also a place of life, joy and sharing. In this sense, he presented his work which aims to bring together artists inside and outside the Gaza Strip.
In the discussion with participants, one person recalled that Gaza was also used as a testing ground for Israeli weapons which were sold on the world market after testing them on Palestinian civilians. In this sense, an activist from Collectif Palestine Vaincra recalled the important campaign carried out by Palestine Action in Great Britain against Elbit Systems, the main manufacturer of Israeli weapons, and the importance of being in solidarity with them, in particular with four #ShutElbitDown campaign activists remanded in custody. He also denounced the complicity of France and its multinational corporations in the oppression of the Palestinian people, such as Thalès, which collaborates with Elbit Systems and has a site in the Mirail district. Several exchanges also took place on the importance of international solidarity with Gaza in order to end the siege and the importance of developing solidarity with the Palestinian people who are waging an anti-colonial liberation struggle.
The event also included a small exhibition on the reality of life in Gaza which was met with great interest from those present. In addition, this evening raised several hundred euros as part of the solidarity campaign in support of AWDA, a leading Palestinian health organization founded in 1985 which offers medical care every year. to 300,000 people in the Gaza Strip and which administers the Al Awda hospital. Don’t hesitate to make an online donation too!
The Collectif Palestine Vaincra organizes many actions in the Toulouse area in support of Palestine. Do not hesitate to contact the Collectif if you wish to mobilize in Toulouse and to follow us on our various social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Telegram).
On Saturday, 17 December, Samidoun Paris Banlieue organized its monthly Palestine stand in Aubervilliers, Paris, focusing on the boycott of Israel, especially in the holiday season. At the stand, they urged the boycott of Israel and that of corporations complicit in war crimes and colonialism, such as HP, supplier of computer equipment to the Israeli occupation navy and software facilitating population control in the West Bank of Palestine, or Puma, main sponsor of the Israel Football Association, which includes multiple teams from illegal settlements.
In this period of crisis where the capitalist system encourages unbridled consumption and dedicates targeted marketing an advertising techniques to encourage people to pull out their wallets and spend, Samidoun Paris Banlieue emphasized the key importance of the boycott in building solidarity for the Palestinian struggle against the Zionist settler colonial project.
Boycott action is a method of concretely supporting the Palestinian people and their resistance. By targeting corporations with interests in colonization, we are taking an active role and not merely acting as onlookers in supporting the Palestinian cause.
The table also informed Aubervilliers residents about the forced deportation of Salah Hamouri to France by the Israeli occupation, after he was imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention for over 7 months. The colonial regime expelled him from his native Jerusalem and stripped him of his Jerusalem ID and residency, while the French government failed to act with any meaningful protest against this latest outrage.
Samidoun Paris Banlieue thanks all of the people we met at the stand who showed support. To get involved in all events and mobilizations, please contact Samidoun Paris Banlieue on social media (Instagram , Facebook , Twitter)or via email at parisbanlieue@samidoun.net.
Ka Joma Lives: International Proletarian Revolutionary Leader, Theoretician, Teacher and Poet in the Service of the People
Join this international day of tribute online (along with many international organisations, including Samidoun) to honor the life and struggle of Jose Maria Sison.
Palestinian prisoner and freedom fighter Nasser Abu Hmeid died in the morning of Tuesday, 20 December 2022 after falling into a coma, becoming the latest symbol of the devastation caused by the Israeli occupation’s policy of medical negligence. Abu Hmeid, 50, from Al-Amari refugee camp, passed away in Assaf Harofeh hospital, having been repeatedly denied release and return to his family even after his terminal cancer diagnosis and the severe deterioration of his health.
Throughout the West Bank of occupied Palestine, people took to the streets in mass marches and refused to work, conducting a general strike in outrage over the death of Nasser Abu Hmeid, an assassination caused by the policy of slow killing. The Palestinian Bar Association announced that no lawyers would conduct work today, while Birzeit University announced the closing of campus to remember Abu Hmeid and support participation in the demonstrations, mourning tents and actions denouncing the policy of medical neglect and demanding the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners.
In the Gaza Strip, a mourning period of three days was declared by the National and Islamic Forces. Resistance organizations and Palestinian factions called for action and confrontation to hold the occupier accountable for this crime. Inside the occupation prisons, the prisoners’ movement also declared three days of mourning, affirming that Palestinian prisoners would return their meals for the next three days in honor of Abu Hmeid.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the martyred prisoner Nasser Abu Hmeid and extends our condolences to the family and fellow strugglers of Abu Hmeid and the Palestinian people on this latest crime of the Zionist occupation. The occupier is solely responsible for the policy of medical neglect and the taking of Nasser Abu Hmeid’s life. He is the 233rd Palestinian prisoner whose life has been taken inside the occupation prisons, including at least 74 due to the ongoing policy of medical neglect, negligence and abuse, and the refusal to provide early release or even family visits to suffering Palestinian prisoners. Abu Hmeid and his family put out a call to the people, one which we issue: to take to the streets, to confront the occupier, to stand with the prisoners’ cause and the liberation of Palestine.
There are currently 60 Palestinian prisoners with severe disease such as cancer, including Walid Daqqa, the prominent Palestinian leader and thinker, whose diagnosis was recently corrected to myelofibrosis, after a lengthy period of delay, and over 600 Palestinian prisoners — out of over 4,750 held in occupation jails — diagnosed with some form of serious or degenerative illness.
The death of Nasser Abu Hmeid also brings another ongoing crime of the occupation to the forefront: the imprisonment of the bodies of Palestinian martyrs, dating from the “cemeteries of numbers” to the 11 bodies of martyrs currently held inside the occupation’s morgues as a form of collective punishment of the entire family and the Palestinian people. Families have been campaigning for the release of the bodies of their loved ones for years; now, the Abu Hmeid family has launched an open sit-in at the entrance to Al-Amari camp to demand the return of Nasser’s body as well as those of all the imprisoned martyrs’ bodies. The family declared that they will not receive condolences for his death until his body and that of all of the martyrs is returned to his family for a proper burial.
Nasser Abu Hmeid, a fighter in the Fateh movement, was born on 5 October 1972 in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, to a Palestinian family from the displaced village of al-Sawafir, forced from their homes in the Nakba in 1948. He spent a total of 33 years in occupation prisons and was a struggler and leader in the great popular Intifada of 1987 and then the Al-Aqsa Intifada beginning in 2000. He was arrested for the first time at 12 years old, was severely injured and wounded by bullets of the occupation on multiple instances.
As a leader in the armed struggle in Fateh, he was arrested for the last time in 2002 and sentenced to 7 life sentences and 50 years. Four of his brothers are also Palestinian prisoners: Nasr, Mohammed, Sharif and Islam; all of his brothers spent some time in occupation prisons, and one of his brothers, Abdel-Moneim, died in the struggle. The Abu Hmeid family home was demolished five times, and Nasser’s mother became a symbol of the prisoners’ families and their steadfastness. In 2021, he was diagnosed with lung cancer; since that time, he has been denied release on multiple occasions despite the severe deterioration of his health.
After the tumor in his lungs was diagnosed in August 2021, he was returned back to Ashkelon prison and subjected to further treatment delays and only received chemotherapy after the cancer had already spread throughout his body. Even in September, when the occupation’s Assaf Harofeh hospital recommended he be released as he lived his last days, he was instead sent back to the notorious Ramle prison clinic and imprisoned until his last moment.
The Palestinian prisoners’ movement issued a statement:
“Our martyr, the leader Nasser, emerged from the arms of a struggling family of resistance fighters, which did not wait a day in offering its blood and energy to liberate our homeland from the destruction of the brutal, criminal occupier, which still fears Nasser as a martyr and has not dared to liberate his body after his soul was liberated from the oppression of the jailer…We bid farewell to the beloved Nasser, known on the streets of the homeland as a fighter and a struggler, who rose as a martyr as a result of medical negligence and his continued imprisonment without liberation. The time has come now to liberate our children from captivity at the hands of a criminal enemy practicing all kinds of torture and medical neglect for our children….This policy of systematic killing has not and will not weaken our resolve for one day, and we will not stop our resistace inside and outside the prison but instead this increases our certainty of the correctness of the method and our goal.”
Despite the severity of his illness and the pain of his suffering, Nasser Abu Hmeid refused to submit himself to the occupation. He refused to allow his lawyers to submit a request for a pardon to the Israeli occupation military commander, declaring that the occupier had no right or legitimacy to pardon the occupied for resisting and seeking liberation.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network underlines the full responsibility of the occupation and its backers, including the U.S., Canada, the British government and European governments, for these ongoing and systematic crimes against the Palestinian people and the Palestinian prisoners, including the policy of slow killing and medical neglect that today took the life of Nasser Abu Hmeid. His life of struggle, his refusal to break his principles in even the most severe of circumstances, and his call to stand with the Palestinian prisoners’ movement must inspire us all to rededicate our efforts to obtain liberation for all Palestinian prisoners and for all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
French-Palestinian lawyer and human rights defender, Salah Hamouri, was forcibly deported to France this morning, Sunday, 18 December, an action that constitutes yet another Israeli war crime against the Palestinian people. It appears that the Israeli occupation regime sought to use the World Cup finals — in which France will appear against Argentina — as a distraction and a shield as they forcibly uproot another Palestinian from his homeland and home city, Jerusalem.
“Despite decades of harassment, Salah has never surrendered his dignity and his basic demand to remain in his beloved hometown. His tenacity and love for al-Quds represents the unwavering Palestinian connection to the city in the face decades of the most brutal policies against its residents. Yet this brutality has done nothing to sever the Palestinian connection, or to dampen their commitment to steadfastness, sumud, by remaining in Palestine, and al-Quds particularly,” the Justice for Salah campaign noted.
🇵🇸 En direct de l'aéroport à Paris où de très nombreuses personnes, élus et associations se réunissent pour accueillir l'avocat franco-palestinien Salah Hamouri expulsé de sa terre natale. La mobilisation continue jusqu'au retour de tous les réfugiés ! 🗝️#JusticeForSalahpic.twitter.com/kLUW4b0FPF
Salah was greeted at the airport by over 200 friends, family members, activists, supporters and elected officials from a wide range of organizations.
Salah arrive en homme debout ! Son combat est celui de tout le peuple palestinien. Il va continuer jusqu'zu retour de tous les réfugiés et la libération de la Palestine 🇵🇸🗝️#JusticeForSalahpic.twitter.com/DCSJLCCH2v
Samidoun Paris Banlieue members participated in the delegation of welcoming and struggle, which included many mayors and elected deputies from the French Communist Party, France Insoumise and EELV, along with representatives from the Association France-Palestine Solidarite (AFPS), BDS, Amnesty International, UJFP, Collectif Boycott Israël Apartheid – Paris Banlieue and the Ligue des droits de l’Homme. Slogans rang out through the halls of Charles de Gaulle Airport, terminal 2C: “Palestine vivra, Palestine vaincra!” (Palestine lives, Palestine will win!) Signs and banners welcoming Salah and avowing that he is a citizen of Jerusalem joined Palestinian flags in the crowd.
"Our journey together has just begun … Palestine is our cause… and we stand by our cause to ensure that our next generation does not suffer what we suffer"
When he arrived, he directed his first words to the supporters who flocked to greet him, declaring that this journey has only just begun and that the struggle continues:
“Today, brutally torn from my homeland, by this occupying force, which continues its ethnic cleansing since 1948 until today. Today, I am more convinced that this machine of destruction, which is called Israel, will retreat only before a project of Palestinian resistance. For me, Palestine is a cause, not a geography. I’m changing locations, but the fight continues with you.”
“We always speak of liberation and return, and we will continue to speak of liberation and return….Palestine is our cause, and we stand by our cause to ensurre that our next generation does not suffer what we suffer. Our motto should be: Resistance, Liberation, Return. We stand by this motto and we will continue.”
“I will continue the struggle for my right to live in Jerusalem and in my homeland. Just because the state of Israel expelled me does not mean that I will not return. The Israelis are not stronger than the Americans, and the Palestinians are not weaker than the Vietnamese.”
🚨 Extrait de la déclaration de l'avocat franco-palestinien Salah Hamouri faite aujourd'hui à son arrivée à l'aéroport de Paris-Charles de Gaulle suite à l'expulsion de sa terre natale.#JusticeForSalahpic.twitter.com/j6ZerjhMQg
As the Committee to Support Salah Hamouri noted, “This expulsion could not have taken place if the French authorities, first and foremost the President of the Republic, had not shown cowardly complacency vis-à-vis this “rogue state” which commits crimes of all kinds with complete impunity.” Rather than refusing to accept a deportation order for Salah Hamouri, France has continued efforts to attempt to criminalize the boycott of Israel — despite a clear rebuke from the European Court of Human Rights — and ban organizations working for justice in Palestine, like the Collectif Palestine Vaincra.
🚨Salah Hamouri, le fils de Jérusalem, expulsé de sa terre natale par Israël.
The forced deportation is the latest outrage committed by the ISraeli regime against Hamouri, a French-Palestinian lawyer, born in Jerusalem, who has been repeatedly targeted for administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. He has been jailed arbitrarily since March 2022 and has been fighting the attempt to strip him of his residency rights and deport him from his native Jerusalem since 2021 on the basis of “breach of allegiance” to the colonial occupation, an act constituting a war crime. His wife and children are barred from entering Palestine, forcing him to live apart from his family. He was one of six Palestinian human rights defenders who were proven to be surveilled through the infamous “Pegasus” spyware sold by the NSO group. He was imprisoned for 7 years until his release in 2011, in a case that became well-known, especially in France, as an example of the illegitimacy and injustice of the Israeli system of incarceration.
As the International Association of Democratic Lawyers stated in a resolution demanding Salah Hamouri’s release from detention and free return to Jerusalem, “Israeli authorities routinely use the forced revocation of the residency of Jerusalemite Palestinians as a means to displace indigenous Palestinians and create a “Jewish majority” in occupied Jerusalem, as well as to silence and suppress Palestinian human rights defenders, organizers and political representatives. Between 1967 and 2015 alone, at least 14,500 Palestinian Jerusalemites have been stripped of their Jerusalem identity and expelled from their home city, which constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute.”
The Justice for Salah campaign statement continued: “Salah will be reunited with his wife and children from whom he has been cruelly separated for some time. As he adjusts to life in exile, he will be surrounded not just by their love but that of millions of his compatriots – particular the Palestinians of Jerusalem – for whom he will always be the city’s most beloved son, and an exemplar of steadfastness and self-sacrifice in the struggle for liberation.
Like the millions of other Palestinians now in exile, Salah will struggle for his right to return to his homeland. His expulsion – however painful in the present – is but one stepping stone on the long road to liberation, a road paved by the sacrifices of Palestine’s heroes and their indefatigable will for freedom.”
Immediately before his deportation, Salah sent a recorded message to the Palestinian people: No forced deportation nor the act of ethnic clansng will scare me nd nothing will deter us from the chocie of resistance. there is no power on this planet that can uproot Palestine an the Palestinian people from our soul and heart…I leave you today from prison to exile, but rest assured that I will always remain the person you know, always loyal to you and your freedom. You will remain my only compass, until we meet again and I embrace you in Jerusalem, the Galilee and Haifa…I will remain loyal to you forever and ever and ever.”
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Salah Hamouri, his steadfastness and his commitment to the liberation of Palestine despite the most devastating circumstances he confronts on a daily basis. It is clear that the Zionist regime must be held accountable for its crimes today — part and parcel of its 75 years of crimes against the Palestinian people as a whole. We pledge to work for the return of Salah Hamouri and the return of all exiled Palestinians to their homes and lands, from Jerusalem to the river to the sea, in a liberated Palestine. Salah’s words today, invoking the triumph of the Vietnamese people over U.S. imperialism and avowing the path forward, of resistance, liberation and return, continue to inspire us to act, mobilize and march toward victory for Palestine and the Palestinian people.
On Saturday, 17 December, the Masar Badil (Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement), with Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization, organized an online seminar on the case of the Holy Land Five, Palestinian political prisoners in U.S. jails. Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu Baker and Mufid Abdulqader remain imprisoned, serving lengthy sentences for their work to provide charitable support to the Palestinian people.
The online event included presentations and discussions by Zaira Abu Baker, the daughter of imprisoned Holy Land Foundation president Shukri Abu Baker, Nerdeen Kiswani, chair of Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine (WOL), and Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
Speakers discussed the importance of taking action to free the Holy Land Five and building a global campaign for their immediate release. The full video is above. To join the campaign, here are some steps that you can take:
Donate or host a fundraiser to support the Coalition for Civil Freedoms, a critical organization who has been supporting the Holy Land 5, their families, and many other political prisoners throughout the United States for decades
Organize an event, screening, or rally to defend the Holy Land 5 and all political prisoners. Send us the details and we’ll share it. Outside the United States? Protest at a U.S. consulate or embassy and demand the release of the HLF5.
Write to Shukri, Ghassan and Mufid using the instructions and addresses listed at the bottom of this page
Take pictures with the posters available here and on the WOL site and include the hashtag #FreeTheHLF5
Share this on social media with your communities
Write The Holy Land 5
Writing to prisoners is an important part of showing solidarity and building morale. Whether you are writing to Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails, Georges Abdallah in France, or the Holy Land 5 and other political prisoners in the U.S., your letters show these imprisoned strugglers that they are not forgotten, abandoned or isolated despite all attempts to do so, and they also show the jailers that these prisoners have external support.
Please remember that any letters sent to the HLF5 are liable to be opened and read by prison staff. Avoid writing anything sensitive that could be read into by guards and prison officials. Make sure to include both their name and their register number on the envelope.
SHUKRI ABU BAKER 32589-177
USP BEAUMONT
U.S. PENITENTIARY
P.O. BOX 26030
BEAUMONT, TX 77720
GHASSAN ELASHI 29687-177
USP MCCREARY
U.S. PENITENTIARY
P.O. BOX 3000
PINE KNOT, KY 42635
On Friday 16 December 2022, Professor Jose Maria Sison, founding chairperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines, passed away in a hospital in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where he was living in forced exile. He was 83 years old. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network sends its deepest condolences to Sison’s lifelong partner and comrade-in-arms, Julie De Lima, their children and family. We join the Filipino people, the workers and peasants, and millions of comrades inside and outside the Philippines in mourning the loss of Sison as teacher and guiding light.
Jose Maria Sison was the initiator and first chairperson of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 1968. Under his leadership the CPP became the leading revolutionary force in the Philippines and a bright example for the international revolutionary movement. The CPP expanded rapidly after its founding and established the New People’s Army (NPA) in 1969, which is still waging one of the world’s longest communist armed revolutions in almost all provinces in the Philippines.
At the time of his death, Sison was chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the united front including dozens of revolutionary mass organizations in the Philippines, such as peasants, workers, youth, women, indigenous people and overseas Filipinos. Sison was also chairperson emeritus of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), of which Samidoun is a proud member, that unites hundreds of anti-imperialist organizations from all continents.
Sison always remained committed to the struggle for national and social liberation of the Philippines. He worked passionately and tirelessly for this struggle until his last breath and leaves a legacy of revolutionary vigor that is known to everyone who has read or heard his words and his work.
As a committed revolutionary and Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Sison was also a principled proletarian internationalist who fully supported the Palestinian liberation struggle. He wrote dozens of articles and statements about the Palestinian people’s struggle, supporting the Palestinian resistance and demanding the freedom of all political prisoners.
On Palestinian prisoners day in 2020, Sison recorded a solidarity message:
“We join you in celebrating the Palestinian Prisoners Day, in honoring all the Palestinian political prisoners together with all martyrs and heroes for their self-sacrificing and noble struggle for the liberation of the Palestinian people, in condemning the violations of their democratic rights and fundamental freedoms and in demanding humane treatment for the political prisoners and their freedom from their unjust imprisonment.
The Filipino people and their revolutionary forces share a strong sense of solidarity with the Palestinian people and revolutionary forces because they are waging a common struggle against US imperialism and its reactionary puppets such as Israeli Zionism and the big comprador-landlord regime in the Philippines. We are all inspired by the sacrifices made by the political prisoners and all the martyrs and heroes in order to advance the struggle for national and social liberation.”
As Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network we give a final salute to Ka Joma, from all our chapters in the world. We vow to continue in the spirit of Ka Joma to struggle for the national and social liberation of Palestine, the Philippines and all countries that are resisting against the exploitation and oppression of imperialism, feudalism and capitalism.
Sison had direct experience in the prisoners’ struggle as he himself was arrested by the Marcos fascist dictatorship in 1977 and imprisoned for almost nine years. He was heavily tortured and spent most of his time in solitary confinement. Recounting his experiences in prison, Sison explained how he was able to survive those years and practice steadfastness, what is known to Palestinian prisoners as Sumud:
“When such outright physical tortures, as punching and water cure, were applied on me, I thought of resisting continuously because my estimate was that I would simply become unconscious when my body could no longer bear the pain of torture. All the way I thought that it would be a shame to give up and betray others and myself because of the torture. I could and did also try to outwit the enemy. Of course, I was always conscious of the duty to stand for the people and the revolutionary movement.
The most difficult kind of torture that I underwent was the protracted one, with the psychological form of the torture being principal and the built-in physical one being secondary. Being chained to a cot and put in solitary confinement in a small cell and not knowing when my conditions would change meant terrible stress on my mind. I felt like tons of lead were falling on my brain every second, every minute, every hour, every day and every week.
But to keep my sanity and even sharpen my wits, I fought back by composing poems, reviewing and analyzing my experiences and thoughts and imagining plots of novels that I never got to writing. I had the will to fight because I was fighting not only for myself but for the people, especially the toiling masses of workers and peasants.
I considered prison and even my small cell an arena of the struggle for national liberation and democracy. I thought then it was my special task to show defiance to the U.S. imperialists and the Marcos fascist regime in order to rouse the people further to wage the armed revolution.”
After being released from prison in 1986, Sison embarked on an international tour where he met comrades and revolutionaries from around the world. But when visiting the Netherlands, his passport got revoked by the Philippine government and he was forcibly exiled to a country more than 10.000 kilometers from his home. Since then he has been residing in the Netherlands together with his partner Julie De Lima and other exiled Filipino revolutionaries.
In 2007, under pressure from the United States, Dutch police arrested Sison and detained him for 16 days, maltreating him and denying him his medicines. He had been put on the terrorist lists of imperialist powers that wanted to weaken the revolutionary movement in the Philippines and its international strugglers. Trumped up charges without any proof were eventually thrown out by the court, but Sison was never able to travel outside of the Netherlands. The US, in contrast to the EU, never removed him from the terrorist list. Sison’s case is yet another demonstration of the use of “terror listings” in an attempt to criminalize and repress the revolutionary movements of the peoples of the world, much as they are used to target the Palestinian people and their resistance.
In the Netherlands, Joma lived a sober life in a small working-class apartment in Utrecht, where he worked every day from early morning until late at night. He was a humble but passionate man, who loved spending time with comrades, listening to their experiences and sharing his advice.
As Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network we will remember Jose Maria Sison, Ka Joma, as comrade leader who dedicated his whole life to the struggle for national and social liberation of the Philippines and the Filipino people. And we will always remember his unwavering support for the Palestinian liberation movement and the Palestinian prisoners’ struggle. Mabuhay, Ka Joma!
A selection of Jose Maria Sison’s quotes on Palestinian and Arab struggle
“We join you in celebrating the Palestinian Prisoners Day, in honoring all the Palestinian political prisoners together with all martyrs and heroes for their self-sacrificing and noble struggle for the liberation of the Palestinian people, in condemning the violations of their democratic rights and fundamental freedoms and in demanding humane treatment for the political prisoners and their freedom from their unjust imprisonment.
The Filipino people and their revolutionary forces share a strong sense of solidarity with the Palestinian people and revolutionary forces because they are waging a common struggle against US imperialism and its reactionary puppets such as Israeli Zionism and the big comprador-landlord regime in the Philippines. We are all inspired by the sacrifices made by the political prisoners and all the martyrs and heroes in order to advance the struggle for national and social liberation.” – 2020, https://samidoun.net/2020/04/video-jose-maria-sisons-solidarity-message-for-palestinian-prisoners-day/
“We must launch and develop a movement to demand the end of the conditions in which Israel can at will attack Gaza and massacre the Palestinian people. In six years, Israel has unleashed three massacres without being held to account by an international criminal court. It has turned Gaza into a concentration camp since 2006. It has subjected the Palestinians to various forms of collective punishment. Fishermen are shot to death whether they go beyond a 3-kilometer limit imposed unilaterally by Israel. Farmers are also killed when they harvest their crops beyond a borderline arbitrarily set by Israel.
We heed and endorse the call of the people of Gaza for the people of the world to carry out a movement for realizing boycotts, divestment and sanctions. As in the global campaign against the apartheid regime in South Africa in recent history, the people of the world and their institutions and organizations can and must pressure governments to sanction Israel and implement a comprehensive arms embargo. Israel has been able to occupy Palestine, operate a terrorist and apartheid regime and commit its murderous atrocities because of the support of imperialist governments, especially the U.S. and the European Union.” – 2014. https://www.workers.org/2014/08/15597/
“It is utter mendacity and hypocrisy worthy of war criminals and mega-terrorists for both the US and Israel to put the blame on Palestine and the Palestinian people for the ongoing large-scale crimes of aggression and oppression committed by Israel against them and for the impending Israeli invasion and reoccupation of Gaza. The current call of Israel for all-out war reminds us all of the Israeli aggression against Lebanon in recent times and how far Israel can go in committing crimes against humanity with complete impunity with the encouragement and support of the US imperialists and the acquiescence of the other imperialist powers.
The ILPS stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for national salvation and independence and for the defense of all their human and democratic rights against the onslaughts of the US-backed Israeli aggressors. We join the Palestinian and Arab people and the entire humankind in condemning the US-supported crimes of aggression of Israel and in demanding that Israel stop its scheme of all-out war of aggression.” – 2008, ILPS Statement, https://josemariasison.org/ilps-condemns-israeli-attacks-on-the-palestinian-people-in-gaza/
“In 1948 the US launched the Cold War in order to contain and combat the challenge of socialism and the national liberation movements and to counter the tendency of the US economy to slide into a crisis of overproduction. The Cold War was actually a series of hot localized wars. These included the big US wars of aggression in Korea and Indochina, the US-supported Israeli wars on Palestine and the anti-Soviet wars in Angola, Ethiopia, Nicaragua and Afghanistan….
We may count as forces of resistance from below those nonimperialist states that stand up to defend their national independence against imperialism. In fact the US has launched the most violent wars of aggression against such states, which have included Iraq, former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan in recent times. It has also emboldened and supported the Israeli Zionists to occupy Palestine and suppress the Palestinian resistance. As a consequence, we see the steady growth of armed and other forms of resistance in countries directly or indirectly attacked by the US….
The resurgence of mass protest actions against war and against imperialism in the imperialist countries reflects not only a high sense of solidarity of the people in such countries for other peoples but also the growing discontent over the crisis of the world capitalist system. The people are restive over high rates of unemployment, the reduction of social benefits, the deterioration of social services and the highest priority given to corporate benefits and to military spending.
The Iraqi people are now waging a broad-based armed resistance of nationalists, communists, religious believers and various ethnic communities against the US occupation and the puppets and are laying the basis for bigger protest actions in the US and in the world.” – 2003, https://www.josemariasison.org/inps/WarImpeandResistbelow.htm
“We focus the principal attention on the US because it is the most bellicose power and is the biggest destabilizing factor in the world. It has a war-driven economy, with the military industrial complex always pushing the government to spend more for war production and wars of aggression. It is determined, together with the NATO and Zionist Israel, to weaken and bring down any regime that supports the struggle of the Palestinian people and the cause of national independence of the the Arab peoples.” – 2015, https://josemariasison.org/for-a-socially-just-world-strengthen-the-peoples-solidarity-and-intensify-the-struggle-against-imperialist-plunder-crisis-and-war/
“As regards to obtaining and keeping arms covertly for decades and launching small-formation offensives under the most limited and difficult conditions, the revolutionary armed organizations in Ireland and Palestine provide good examples of conscious discipline, skillfulness, resourcefulness and durability due to mass support of entire communities opposing an occupying force.” – 2019, https://josemariasison.org/on-the-question-of-peoples-war-in-industrial-capitalist-countries/
“Ten years after 9/11, the US finds itself bogged down in a historic debt crisis and protracted global depression. Its military forces are overstretched and pinned down in several theaters of war around the globe. The US retains more than 150,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and is now engaged with NATO in a war of aggression in Libya.
Over the past decade, anti-war, anti-imperialist and armed revolutionary movements have risen to resist the US wars of aggression. The American people have repeatedly manifested their opposition to the use of 9/11 for justifying wars of aggression. They have pressed for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan while protesting the huge military spending at the expense of real economic recovery, state subsidies and social services.
The peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Palestine continue to wage armed resistance to US-led and US-sponsored occupation and aggression. Revolutionary and progressive movements in Asia, Latin America and Africa are at the forefront of the people’s struggles for national and social liberation. Countries like Cuba, People’s Democratic Republic of Korea and Venezuela are asserting their sovereignty against US threats of aggression. Exploited and oppressed peoples in both imperialist and dominated countries are advancing the struggle against imperialist wars and for redirecting resources to jobs, livelihood, fair wages and social welfare.
It is imperative that the peoples of the world wage militant and sustained struggles against the US and NATO wars of aggression, state terrorism and counter-revolution. It is only through the struggle of the people that the people can hope to eliminate all forms of terrorism and achieve a new and better world of greater freedom, democracy, social justice, all-round development and world peace. ###” – 2011, https://josemariasison.org/ilps-statement-on-the-10th-anniversary-of-911/
“From its conquest of Iraq, the US has gotten far bigger material rewards than from that of Afghanistan. It has seized the second largest oil reserves in the world and has gained direct control over the entire OPEC more than ever before. The US dollar remains secure as the currency of oil transactions.
The US has long nurtured the plan to occupy Iraq and reshape the entire Middle East politically and economically under US hegemony. The US military bases in Iraq are now at the heart of the entire region. The Palestinian and Arab people are being told to accept the US-made “road map” and other dictates of the US and the Israeli Zionists.
The US arrogantly demands that Syria and Iran submit completely to US hegemony or else suffer the fate of Iraq. US strategists calculate that one way or the other they can soon take full control over Iran and Syria. They are also threatening the feudal oligarchies of Saudi Arabia and the emirates with loss of their feudal rights if they do not yield further to US economic and military demands…. As the Iraqi people’s war of national liberation intensifies and the US refuses to withdraw from Iraq, the mass protests and other forms of anti-imperialist resistance will rise to a new and higher level on a global scale. The US can still do worse in the Middle East by expanding the battlefield to Syria and Iran. It has long been accusing these countries of aiding Iraq and demanding their subordination to US dictates.
The US is scheming to grab Iran because of its oil wealth and because it is already sandwiched between the US-controlled countries of Afghanistan and Iraq. The US is also interested in controlling Syria because this country is seen as an obstacle in the US-made road map for Israel and Palestine. It is definitely to the interest of Iran and Syria to support the Iraqi people and to prevent the US from consolidating its power in Iraq.
It would be a colossal blunder for the US to take preemptive actions against Iran and Syria and to widen the battlefields from Iraq and Afghanistan. Popular armed resistance would spread like wild fire in the Middle East and Central Asia and encourage armed revolution in South Asia. At any rate, the US will increasingly pay for its imperial overreach. The people in all regions of the world see their opportunity to deliver their own blows on the overstretched and vulnerable monster.###” – 2003, https://www.josemariasison.org/inps/2yrsafter911.htm
This week a representative of the Jerusalem-based organization Regavim is scheduled to host a series of fundraisers in the Greater Toronto Area. The Canada Revenue Agency shouldn’t provide a single tax receipt for donations to this racist, colonialist, organization. Regavim is one of the organizations highlighted by the Defund Racism campaign, exposing tax-exempt organizations working to expand illegal settlements.
According to Defund Racism, Regavim “works to expand Jewish control of land across Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories by pushing Israeli administrative, judicial, legislative, and military bodies to dispossess Palestinian and other non-Jewish communities of their land.” To dispossess Palestinians, it spies on them with drones and employs various legal measures. Regavim not only works to expand settlements in the West Bank but also to expand colonialism in the Naqab and Gaililee, including through the forced displacement of Palestinians.
It’s important the CRA takes immediate action regarding Regavim as its influence is set to grow. Regavim was founded by the notorious far-right anti-Palestinian racist Bezalel Smotrich, who was recently granted special power to control the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Amidst these discussion, Israeli paper Ha’aretz recently noted, “The Regavim NGO and Bezalel Smotrich don’t want law and order, they want to use more force against the Arabs.”
Regavim’s website offers tax receipts to Canadian donors. Its fiscal sponsor in Canada is registered charity Mizrachi Canada, which channeled $6 million to Israel in 2021.
According to CRA rules, registered charities are not supposed to assist the Israeli settlement project in the occupied West Bank since Ottawa officially considers it a violation of international law.
A formal complaint detailing why Canadian taxpayers should not be subsidizing Regavim has been submitted to the Canada Revenue Agency.
The Canada Revenue Agency must audit Mizrachi Canada and immediately halt it from granting tax receipts to Regavim donors.
Join the Committee of Anti Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran for a webinar leading up to the International People’s Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism: Sanctions, Blockades and Coercive Economic Measures. Samidoun is a co-sponsor of the Tribunal.
The Tribunal will expose the effects of unilateral and multilateral sanctions on peoples and nations targeted by imperialism — and explore legal and political strategies to challenge these regimes of coercion.
Speakers
1. Dr. Bikrum Gill | Professor in Political Science Department at Virginia Tech University
2. Dr. Corinna Mullin | Professor in Global Politics and Political Economy at City University of New York (CUNY).
3. David Paul | Sanctions Kill
4. Eunha Jeong Wood | Nodutdol for Korean Community Development
Moderated by Charlotte Kates | International Coordinator of Samidoun & Member of the Steering Committee of the Tribunal
Avoid Assisting in the Forcible Deportation & Transfer of Human Rights Defender Salah Hamouri
Summary
Israel has recently announced it will imminently deport Palestinian human rights defender Salah Hamouri, an act that could be a serious violation of international law. We, the undersigned human rights organizations, call on commercial airlines to do everything in their capacity to refuse to assist in what could constitute a war crime by refusing to transport individuals undergoing unlawful forcible deportation and making a public statement to this effect.
The below document provides background to the case of Salah Hamouri, references the relevant legal obligations of commercial airlines, and sets out the practical steps commercial airlines need to take to ensure they are not contributing to serious violations of international law.
Background
On 30 November 2022, the Israeli authorities informed imprisoned Palestinian-French human rights lawyer, Salah Hamouri, 37, that he will be forcibly deported to France from occupied East Jerusalem – his hometown – for “breach of allegiance” to Israel. Hamouri has been held in administrative detention since March 2022 without charge or trial on the basis of ‘secret evidence,’ and the decision to deport him follows Israel’s revocation of Hammouri’s permanent residency status in Jerusalem.1 Hamouri has said that he refuses deportation and will not willingly board a flight.
Hammouri’s deportation, which can take place any time from December 4, 2022, onwards, will be a clear escalation in Israel’s prolonged harassment and targeting of him through arbitrary arrests, travel bans, surveillance, and family separation.
Unlawful deportations and residency revocations in occupied territory violate numerous provisions of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Hammouri’s deportation out of the occupied territory could constitute a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and potentially a war crime as per the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
In accordance with the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention, the protected population in an occupied territory, such as is the case in the internationally-recognized occupied East Jerusalem, does not have a duty of allegiance to the Occupying Power (Israel), the basis upon which Hamouri is to be deported. 2
According to a UN Experts’ statement on 2 December 2022
“Such unilateral, arbitrary measures taken by Israeli authorities in retaliation against Mr. Hammouri as a human rights defender, violate every principle and the very spirit of international law
[…]
These measures set an extremely dangerous precedent for all Palestinians in Jerusalem. The international community must not remain silent and quietly watch this umpteenth violation”.3 Private commercial actors have a responsibility to respect human rights and international humanitarian law in their own activities. Where they fail to abide by those responsibilities in their activities and relationships, they risk contributing to grave violations and internationally recognized crimes.4
UN Experts’ statement
In light of the above, we strongly urge commercial airlines to refuse and refrain from assisting the Israeli authorities in carrying out its inhumane, discriminatory, and likely unlawful forced deportation of Salah Hammouri.5 Moreover, we ask that commercial airlines running direct flights to France make a statement on their website stating their refusal to participate in any unlawful forcible deportations by Israel of the population of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
At a time when Hammouri’s family and loved ones, Palestinian and international civil society, the United Nations, and states are calling on Israel to halt his forcible deportation and transfer and for Hammouri to be able to remain in his hometown, commercial airlines should review and act in accordance with the relevant set duties, namely those under international human rights and humanitarian law.
Organizational signatories
Adalah Justice Project
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
Al-Haq, Law in Service of Man
Alice Rothchild, MD
Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights
Bisan Center for Research and Development
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
Community Action Center, Al-Quds University
Democracy for the Arab World (DAWN)
Equipo Juridico Pueblos
European Legal Support Center (ELSC)
Freedom Archives
Human Rights Watch
International Association of Democratic Lawyers
International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
The table also informed Aubervilliers residents about the forced deportation of 
Avoid Assisting in the Forcible Deportation & Transfer of Human Rights Defender Salah Hamouri