On 29 October, 2024, pro-Palestinian activists and Samidoun organizers, Jaldía Abubakra and Miriam Ojeda, were summoned to testify before the National Court in Spain after being denounced in a complaint filed by the right-wing political party VOX on charges of “glorifying terrorism.” After their intial statements, the legal teams of both activists requested the dismissal of the case, arguing the need to protect freedom of expression and appealing to international frameworks that recognize the legitimate right to resistance of the Palestinian people in the face of the serious human rights violations of the occupation and the colonizing practices of the Zionist entity.
As has been reported on numerous occasions, the aim of these legal repressive actions in various imperialist states — “lawfare” — is to demobilise activism and solidarity with the Palestinian people through tools such as media persecution, social targeting, economic strangulation and the opening of criminal proceedings that seek to establish a culture of fear and censorship. These strategies are evident in the cases of Jaldía and Miriam.
Although one of the cases has been dismissed by the National Court, the investigating judge refused to dismiss the case against the prominent Palestinian activist Jaldía Abubakra. The dismissal of the case against Miriam Ojeda demonstrates the lack of legal basis and the weakness of the accusations, which shows that the real purpose of these complaints is to politically discipline and censor Palestinian voices and international solidarity voices that defend the liberation of the Palestinian people. It is unacceptable that the Zionist-fascist alliance, represented in Spain by VOX and the Zionist lobby, enjoys institutional protection while spreading messages of hate and supporting the ongoing genocide, while those who oppose these atrocities are persecuted and criminalized.
The same agents and governments that have for decades armed the genocidal entity of Israel are now seeking to establish a judicial precedent to criminally prosecute support for the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves, an internationally recognized right. The historical shame of prosecuting an activist like Jaldía, who, exercising her political rights, raises her voice to defend her people’s right to exist, is part and parcel of their support for the Israeli colonial genocidal regime and their complicity with the occupation.
We must not be silent in rejecting the attempts to impose political disciplining and silencing, reflected in the case against Jaldía Abubakra. The colonial and racist power of the Spanish State is manifested through repressive frameworks, such as gag laws or prosecutions of “glorification of terrorism.” This is a clear-cut attempt to stigmatize Palestinian, Arab and internationalist organizers as “international terrorists,” a racist narrative that aims to censor and delegitimize their struggles for political freedoms.
Many voices have been raised against the political use of these laws, which limit freedom of expression and persecute emancipatory discourse, especially when the aim of their usage is to silence demands for justice after decades of genocide, violence, occupation and complicity by the “international community.”
The persecution of Jaldía — a Palestinian woman from Gaza — and other activists is not only an attack upon freedom of expression, but also upon the political agency and mobilization of those who fight for the liberation of the Palestinian people, both in their homeland and in the diaspora. It also seeks to silence those who denounce the oppressions of the capitalist, patriarchal and colonial system around the world. It is an ethical and political obligation to stand up against this persecution, demand the acquittal of those who have been repressed, and fight for the repeal of the legal frameworks that facilitate this repression, as well as for the dismantling of the imperialist and colonial system that sustains Zionism.
Because the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea, is also the path to the liberation of all peoples.
Drop the charges against Jaldía Abubakra! Drop all charges against those facing prosecution for their solidarity with Palestine in the Spanish State! Freedom for Palestinian political prisoners held in imperialist and colonial Zionist prisons!
The following article, by author Alaa Abed, was originally published in Arabic at Banafsaj, a Palestinian website dedicated to women’s issues, on 20 November. Read the original Arabic here: https://bnfsj.net/p/2310 For more information about Palestinian women prisoners or to get involved with the independent international campaign for their liberation, please visit Dismantle Damon at https://instagram.com/dismantle_damon or https://t.me/dismantle_damon. Rula Hassanein, abducted by the Zionist occupation forces on 19 March 2024 from her home in al-Ma’asara, southeast of Bethlehem, is one of multiple women journalists imprisoned by the occupation, including Rasha Herzallah, Israa Lafi, Bushra al-Tawil, Amal Shujaiya, Nidaa al-Zoughaibi, and Sumaya Jawabreh (in house arrest). Freedom for Rula and all Palestinian prisoners! The translated article follows:
Accused of incitement and compromising state security, journalist Rula Hassanein faces trial alongside many others in Damon Prison under conditions that can only be described as inhumane. The cells are cold in winter, hot in summer, and are reported to have been a stable for horses or a tobacco warehouse in the past. At Damon, the occupiers intensify their oppression of women by confiscating clothes and blankets so that each prisoner has only one outfit, limiting showers and outdoor time, and cramming prisoners into overcrowded cells without enough beds. The list of violations is long.
In this interview, we speak with Hadeel Hassanein, the elder sister of journalist Rula Hassanein, to discuss Rula’s life as a mother and journalist, her over ten years of experience in journalism, and about her life, torn apart by the occupation. The walls of Damon Prison have separated a mother from her infant daughter, only months old at the time of her arrest, details that we really must record and preserve as they are an integral part of the ongoing Palestinian story and their ongoing Nakba, for over 76 years.
Rula Hassanein: The Mother and Journalist
The imprisoned journalist Rula Ibrahim Hassanein, who turned 30 in Damon Prison, hails from Al-Jalazone Refugee Camp, north of Ramallah, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Media as well as a master’s in Contemporary Arab Studies, both from Birzeit University. She has worked in journalism for over a decade and is an active member of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. She is married and a mother to a baby girl who was nine months old at the time of her arrest.
On a personal level, I have a close friendship, work and student relationship with the journalist Rula. Having lost her father at a young age, she is known for her sound judgment and strong stances. There was no room for grey areas in her life, as the truth is always more deserving of being followed, as she always said. I can describe her as a genuine friend, the kind of friend who is always present, loyal to her friends, pure in her affection, generous in her giving. She never tires in her conversations of going beyond personal concerns to the duties of citizenship, efforts at social reform, and the needs of a Palestinian society that seeks liberation from its occupier, longing for freedom.
Rula was thrilled to be pregnant with her first two children, Youssef and Elia. Despite suffering from chronic kidney disease, and doctors warned that her health condition would worsen with pregnancy and childbirth, which made her pregnancies particularly challenging,as she endured the pain and the risks to bring her children into the world. When her condition posed a threat to her life and the lives of her children, doctors opted for early delivery in her eighth month of pregnancy.
Baby Youssef died three hours after his birth, while Elia spent over 40 days in the neonatal intensive care unit. Elia left the hospital with health issues that required ongoing treatment, including respiratory problems due to her premature birth. Meanwhile, Rola experienced postpartum depression due to her grief over her baby Youssef, and additional health complications.
The Night of the Arrest
Two days before Mother’s Day, Israeli forces arrested journalist Rula Hassanein, depriving her of celebrating her first Mother’s Day with her daughter Ilya. Her sister Hadeel recounts:
“On March 19, 2024, the arrest order was brutally executed. The house was raided at night, she was handcuffed and blindfolded. The weather on the night of the arrest was very rainy and very cold, which only worsened the situation. Despite Rula informing the soldiers that she was a mother to an infant and needed medication for chronic illnesses, they refused her requests to bring her medicine. She asked them to take her little girl with her, who was entirely dependent on breastfeeding and refused to accept formula, but they refused as well.”
Hadeel added, “My sister suffers from chronic kidney disease, diagnosed in 2017, and her condition worsened during pregnancy. At the time of her arrest, she also suffered from postpartum depression, kidney complications from pregnancy, gastrointestinal infections, irritable bowel syndrome, severe migraines, and leg pain, none of which was taken into account as they arrested her brutally.”
False Charges of Incitement
Four days after her arrest, Rula appeared in court where she was charged with incitement on social media. Hadeel explains:
“We learned that the charge against her was ‘incitement’ on social media, due to her journalistic work. In fact, before her arrest, she was threatened more than once and her photos were circulated in Telegram groups run by settlers, such as the ‘Nazi Hunters’ group. They directed their incitement against her personally, calling her a top instigator against the occupying state, and that she is one of the journalists who incite against Jews and Zionists.”
The indictment included posts that the occupation claimed Rula had published on her social media accounts, translated into Hebrew, and they showed the number of likes on each post, and the number of followers, which was greater than 3,400.
Despite two Israeli military court rulings for her release (April 17, 2024, and July 2, 2024), the prosecution appealed each time, keeping her in custody under the pretext of “state security”. Israeli military law supposedly prohibits the detention of mothers with children under two years old, yet this was ignored in Rola’s case. This is what happened when the occupation tried to arrest the writer Lama Khater from al-Khalil, and the implementation of her arrest was postponed due to the presence of her son Yahya.
Hadeel said: “After the release decisions were issued, the prosecution resorted to an appeal, so she was not released, because the charges against her are ‘incitement that harms state security’, and therefore she must be detained to preserve the security of the occupying state, and the state of emergency created on 7 October prevents the implementation of any rules regarding the arrest of mothers.”
The Struggle of Mother and Daughter
Both the imprisoned mother and her daughter suffer deeply, living in a complex state of loss and a constant feeling of anxiety. Rola has had no contact with her child for over seven months, relying only on updates from her lawyer, while her family lives with worry for their daughter, especially in light of the dangerous conditions that both male and female detainees are currently experiencing.
Meanwhile, her daughter Elia, cared for by her father, Dr. Shadi Breijieh, and paternal grandmother, has suffered greatly due to the absence of her mother. At the beginning of Rula’s detention, Elia would not take any type of baby formula, so she faced malnutrition and hospitalization on multiple occasions during the initial period of her mother’s absence. She eventually required intravenous feeding and suffered other health problems, such as breathing issues and insufficient oxygen.
Hadeel shares:
“Since Rula’s arrest, her father Shadi has been taking care of her with her grandmother. He is trying to compensate for the loss of her mother, and he is making sure that the little girl does not forget her mother. Rula’s pictures are spread everywhere in the house, so that the little girl gets used to her mother’s image and appearance, so she does not feel strange when Rula leaves prison. The truth is that Elia often carries a picture of her mother and walks around the house calling out, ‘Mama, Mama.'”
The following statement was issued by Samidoun Nederland following the genocidal chants (including “Kill the Arabs” and cheering for the mass slaughter of Palestinian children in Gaza), thefts of Palestinian flags, destruction of property, breaking of windows, and attacks on Arab and Muslim community members by Zionist football hooligans, fans of “Maccabi Tel Aviv” in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. See also the statement of the Masar Badil: “There is no place for Zionism, racism and fascism in the squares and stadiums of Europe.”
This was followed by the popular response holding the rioting hooligans accountable for their fascist attacks in the streets through community self-defense. In response, the imperialist powers once again underlined their full responsibility and involvement in the ongoing genocide in Palestine, as officials from the notorious Geert Wilders of the Netherlands to Ursula von der Leyen to Justin Trudeau rushed to condemn the people of Amsterdam for confronting rioting fascist Zionist hooligans in the streets. The incident demonstrated once again that the masses of the world, including in the heart of the imperial core, find genocidal fascism, racism and Zionism repugnant and are willing to act to defend themselves, their communities and Palestine from their attacks, despite harsh police repression, criminalization and threats of deportation. No amount of repression will force the people to accommodate Zionist racism and support genocide in Palestine:
Throughout the past week, Zionist hooligans have been attacking the people of Amsterdam and causing destruction in the city and its neighbourhoods. People walking on the streets wearing kuffiyehs, taxi drivers, and random Muslims and Arabs have been beaten up by these hooligans. The windows of homes with Palestinian flags were smashed and the flags stolen. The police did not intervene, the media was silent and the mayor stood by and watched as these Zionist hooligans caused chaos in the city.
Yet how different is the situation after a night in which the people of Amsterdam — Muslims, Christians and Jews, Dutch, Arabs and Palestinians — defended themselves and their city against this violence?! The police arrested dozens of people, the media speaks outrageously with sensationalistic lies, and the mayor speaks of very serious “anti-Semitic” incidents. It is as if the world turned upside down.
Where in occupied Palestine the imperialist powers declare their support for the Israeli genocide and fulfill it with military, diplomatic and economic assistance, here in Amsterdam, the ruling powers express their support for fascist Zionist hooligans who attack our city and our people. Where in Palestine, the Palestinian resistance is repressed with life sentences, here, the defenders of Amsterdam are beaten up and arrested by the police. These are, we note, the same police force that was responsible for arresting tens of thousands of Amsterdam Jews during World War II.
The reaction of the people of Amsterdam to the fascist hooligans is normal and natural. Firs, because we do not accept any attack on our city and people, and second, because these attacks are racially motivated. It is very clear that the attacks of the Maccabi hooligans are anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim and anti-Arab. This also makes them anti-Amsterdam, because these groups are a crucial part of Amsterdam, of our city, our people and our community. This whole week, Amsterdammers have been attacked and harassed, and last night they decided to defend themselves and not turn the other cheek anymore.
The self-defense of the people of Amsterdam against fascist attacks is indeed exactly what we mean by “Globalize the Intifada” . This is part of the boycott movement to isolate and weaken “Israel.” Just as we fight for the exclusion of the Zionist regime from education, culture and sports, we also want fascist Zionists to have nowhere that they find free rein to celebrate genocide and attack Palestinians, Arabs and entire communities.
The self-defense of the people of Amsterdam also follows months of political and media attacks against Palestinians and their supporters, especially the student activists who have unleashed a student intifada since May. This includes the Dutch entry ban against our European coordinator Mohammed Khatib, which we demand be lifted immediately.
The people of Amsterdam declared last night that Zionism will not be tolerated here. Amsterdam is a Zionism-free city. And if it is not yet, we will make it so. And no, anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. This movement is made up of people of all backgrounds, religions and ethnicities. This movement is a popular movement that is against genocide and wants to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea. This movement is not led by one or even several organizations. It is the masses of Amsterdam and the Netherlands, the so-called “ordinary, hard-working Dutch people,” who defended the city against fascist hooligans last night.
We call for the immediate release of all those arrested and the dropping of all charges against them. This is the moment to escalate the fight against genocide and for the liberation of Palestine. Together against Dutch support for “Israel” and for the total isolation of the Zionist regime, in sports and all other arenas.
Now is the time to defeat Zionism in Palestine — and its birthplace, Europe!
For a total boycott of the Zionist entity!
Freedom for all prisoners of the Intifada, from Amsterdam to Palestine!
Mohammed Attiya Abu Warda, Abu Hamza, 48 years old, enters his 22nd year in occupation prisons today, 4 November 2024. A resistance struggler with the Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, he was seized by Zionist occupation forces on 4 November 2002 — amid the Al-Aqsa Intifada — and sentenced to 48 life sentences. This means that he is serving the third-highest sentence in Zionist jails, after Abdullah Barghouti and Ibrahim Hamed, and equal to that of Hassan Salameh, and is one of the prisoners with high sentences whose release is a key demand of the Palestinian resistance in a prisoner exchange.
Abu Warda, born on 17 January 1976, is a Palestinian refugee born in Al-Fawwar refugee camp in Dura, al-Khalil, occupied Palestine. His family is originally from ‘Iraq al-Manshiyya, forced from their homes and lands during al-Nakba. After attending the Sharia school in al-Khalil, he attended Bethlehem University and Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, studying physics, before switching to study education at the Dar Al-Mu’allimin College Faculty of Educational Sciences in Ramallah. While studying, he worked as a construction laborer and often dedicated his earnings to the expenses of organizing student activities.
His earliest political engagement was with the Fateh movement during the great popular Intifada and was first arrested by the occupation in 1992 and served three months in Zionist prisons at the age of 15 for throwing stones and empty bottles at the occupation soldiers stationed by the camp. When he was released, he later joined the Hamas movement, and his commitment to participating in the armed resistance escalated and he became part of the Qassam Brigades. He participated in planning and organizing several martyrdom operations carried out by the armed wing of Hamas following the Zionist assassination of Yahya Ayyash, the engineer of the resistance, in 1996.
As part of the Palestinian Authority’s “security coordination” with the Zionist regime, he was first kidnapped by the PA’s “Preventive Security Force,” which was designed to pursue and repress the Palestinian resistance in the interests of protecting the Zionist project in occupied Palestine. He was convicted by a sham PA court — much like that created for use against Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades — and sentenced to life imprisonment and hard labour. During the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2002, he was transferred to the PA prison in al-Khalil, from which he was able to escape, only to be re-arrested several months later; as the Zionists invaded the city of al-Khalil with massive military assaults, he was released and began his life as a fugitive from the occupation.
During his time in PA prisons, he married Noura Burhan al-Ja’bari — who he had met during his time outside the prison — and they had their only child, Hamza, while he was wanted by the occupation forces. They lived together for only two months of marriage, moving in disguise and never being seen in public — before multiple months of separation, where Mohammed stayed away from Noura in order to protect her as he was being pursued for imprisonment or assassination. Noura al-Ja’bari, a teacher at a school in al-Khalil, was herself arrested and imprisoned by the occupation in 2012, including being held for a full month under harsh interrogation, which she describes as the most difficult time in her life, as she was kept from her son Hamza. As a student, she was very active in activities on campus, and she is continually present at events to support the prisoners held in Zionist jails and demand their freedom, as well as to demand an end to the PA’s political imprisonment and “security coordination” with the occupation.
During his time in prison, Abu Warda has been an active part of the prisoners’ movement, participating in and leading several hunger strikes and other collective actions, including the 2012 collective Karameh strike.
The occupation forces refused to release him, along with multiple other prisoners with lengthy sentences, as part of the Wafa’ al-Ahrar prisoner exchange achieved by the Palestinian resistance in 2011.
From his prison cell, in 2016, Mohammed Abu Warda wrote a series of notes on his life, published at Dunia al-Watan. An English translation follows:
Birth: With the elders who were forced from ‘Iraq Al-Manshiyya, and with the scent of blood that overflowed from the bodies of our ancestors, leaving behind memories burdened and scattered by the hand of the occupier among the diaspora camps, and with the shouts of the deprived children who grew up in the camps, joy dawned on my grandmother’s face as she saw my mother on the day of my birth, announcing my arrival on the 17th of January 1976, to hand me the UNRWA ration card, which remained with us for a long time in Al-Fawwar camp, which boils over with the anger of its people over the anguish of displacement that scattered them in 1948, as the announcement of my birth was marked on the path of continuous refugeehood for the children of our people.
Upbringing: I grew up in the narrow alleys of the camp crowded with its people, and in my mother’s embrace, whom God honored me with, keen to breastfeed me with the milk of freedom and rebellion against the occupation’s oppression and tyranny. She had a prominent and important role in raising me and encouraging me to pray in the mosque since my childhood, and teaching me to memorize some verses from the Holy Qur’an. I clung to the life of the camp despite its harshness, playing on its soil and among its closely packed homes. I breathed in the fragrance of its air, I ran on the mats of its mosque until my feet gradually led me year by year towards its schools, which seemed more like illusions than reality. During the Intifada of Stones, we grew up carrying stones in our bags to confront the brutality of the army stationed by our camp at their points of concentration. We grew up with the stones, the bullets of the army, and the slogans that my little hands wrote on the walls, wrapped in the scarf of the Palestinian Liberation Movement – Fateh – earning me the title of “the little Fateh sheikh.” This persisted until my first arrest in In 1992, which lasted for 3 months. I resumed the same path after liberation, but with a new vision, whose transformations began at the hands of Sheikh Kamal al-Titi (Abu Sayyaf) and the blessed Sharia school in al-Khalil, and its honorable teachers who introduce me to the ranks of the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas – in addition to the role of its students, headed by Abbas al-Oweiwi and the martyr Raed Misk. The journey continued to the College of Educational Sciences in the city of Ramallah and the former Teachers’ Institute, where I embraced the Islamic Bloc in the years between 1993 and 1996, moving between most of its committees and becoming its leader. This was the most important turning point in my life, in which I practiced my role as an activist in the ranks of the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas – and all its activities inside and outside the institute, until the news of the martyrdom of Engineer Yahya Ayyash, the engineer of the Qassam Brigades in the West Bank, came. His martyrdom would be a new station marking a significant step for my involvement with the blessed Qassam Brigades.
Jihadist Work: After I had the honor of belonging to the Qassam Brigades in the Faculty of Educational Sciences, introduced by one of the brothers from Gaza, who in turn introduced me to the brother, the prisoner Hassan Salameh, who was one of the Qassam leaders in Gaza, and who came to the West Bank to organize the operations of revenge for the blood of the engineer Yahya Ayyash. My introduction to the prisoner Hassan Salameh was the real beginning of my activity in the Qassam Brigades, and among our most important operations were:
1- The first response operation in revenge for the assassination of Yahya Ayyash, on February 25, 1996, carried out by the martyr Majdi Mohammed Mahmoud Abu Warda from Al-Fawwar camp, in the city of Jerusalem on Street 18, and resulted in the killing of 26 Zionists and wounding of dozens more, as he detonated himself on a passenger bus. My role in it was to organize the martyr and bring him to the leader Hassan Salameh.
2- The second response operation, on the same day, was carried out by the martyr Ibrahim Hassan Sarahneh from Al-Fawwar camp, in the occupied city of Asqelan, and resulted in the death of a Zionist and the wounding of dozens.
3- The third operation was a week after the previous ones, also in Jerusalem, also on Street 18, carried out by the martyr Raed Abdel-Karim Al-Sharnoubi from Burqa, Nablus, and resulted in the death of 18 Zionists and the wounding of dozens.
4- An attempt to send a fourth martyr during the Al-Aqsa Intifada after my release from the Palestinian security services’ prison in 2001, but God’s will did not allow it to succeed.
Arrest: The Palestinian Authority’s security forces seized me in March of the same year, and I was taken to its prisons and interrogation centers in the city of Jericho. I was convicted of these operations in a mock trial and sentenced to life imprisonment and hard labour, thus beginning a journey of suffering and pain in the heat of Jericho that continued for five and a half years, awaiting the day of freedom and salvation. At the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, in which the Palestinian Authority lost its control over the cities of the West Bank due to the invasions, fate took me back to the city of al-Khalil, hoping to breathe the air of our camp (Al-Fawwar camp) after years of separation. However, the Preventive Security Service re-arrested me again, keeping me imprisoned for another four months, until the al-Khalil invasion began in April 2002, and I was released to a life of pursuit and persecution by the Israeli army.
Marital status: Displacement, the bitterness of the Intifada of Stones, and imprisonment left me no room for love and marriage. However, after I left Jericho prison and came to the city of al-Khalil in search of the air of the camp, which the security forces had prevented me from accessing, fate brought me a different breeze from the heart of Hebron University, the breeze of the woman I loved and who became my inevitable fate, and a life project that compensated for the bitterness and cruelty of the years of prison. The sight of her scattered aside the harsheness of prison, awakening love in my desolate life and inspiring a song as joyous of that of a nightingale.
Yet, once again, this song was cut short by the prison bars of the Authority, for her to begin with me a life of love wrapped in the thorns of the prison and its barbed wires. I spent the period of rosy dreams of engagement in the Preventive Security prison, and I married her among the soldiers of the security services and the prison guards. I left their prison to the wedding hall that contained nothing but the bride and the soldiers, I finished the wedding ceremony by returning to my room in the PA prison, I stole a few hours to visit her like a deprived eye glimpsing the moon, until the city was invaded and she lived with me amid the harsh period of pursuit by the occupation. During that time, God blessed me with a child, whom I named Hamza, as an extension of me and her and the bringing of together two hearts that were united in that marriage for only a few short days.
Life Under Pursuit: My life on the run began with the invasion of the city of al-Khalil and continued for 3 months, filled with more suffering and harsh scenes until my final arrest in November 2002.
Prison life: Life folds into chapters of separation known only to those who have lived it, longing for a wife who lived with me for days and separated from me for years, a son who was born, lived, and grown without ever feeling my touch or embrace, and for a family deprived of their home and their reunion on even one occasion. But God’s decree of trial is for his beloved ones, and I pray to be among them and to help me to remain steadfast in His destiny, and to adhere to His religion and learn His book, and to patiently grow in the circles of knowledge that accompany me on my journey of suffering. As for the people who affected me the most through their words and books, they are Sheikh Ahmed Al-Qattan, one of the prominent figures in the Hamas movement and one of the teachers of the Sharia school, along with the martyrs Kamal Al-Titi, Abdullah Al-Qawasmi, and Abdel-Majid Dudin.
On Tuesday, 29 October, the primary Telegram channel of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has been banned in the US, Canada, and some European countries, following the sanctions imposed on Samidoun by the United States and Canada.
The attempt to silence Samidoun on Telegram is part and parcel of the attack on the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the Palestinian resistance. It comes hand in hand with attacks that aim to suppress Resistance News Network, media outlets and all organizations confronting Zionist/imperialist genocide and upholding the resistance!
This ban comes after baseless sham accusations by the US, Canada, Netherlands, and zionist entity, all aimed at silencing the liberation movement and scaring other organizers. Framing Samidoun’s activities in support of Palestinian prisoners for the last 13 years “terrorism” is part of an increasingly aggressive stance that seeks to criminalize Palestinian solidarity, undermine grassroots mobilization, and obscure the injustices and genocide faced by the Palestinian and Arab peoples, especially the prisoners’ movement.
We urge all to resist censorship and silencing of the movement for Palestinian liberation! Join our new channel and also follow the channels below for important information and updates on the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.
On Saturday, 26 October, the liberated prisoner and resistance fighter Islam Jamil Odeh, one of the leaders of the Ezz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, in Palestine, in Tulkarem, was martyred after fighting with a besieging force of the occupation army for over 10 hours. US-backed Zionist occupation forces attacked his apartment in the Al-Salam neighbourhood of Tulkarem, shooting missiles and shells at the building as he held them off with his handgun, fighting until his last breath for the defense of Palestine.
The occupation forces stormed the besieged building after targeting it with more than 20 Energa missiles, setting it on fire, destroying parts of it with bulldozers, and firing heavily, as Odeh fought back with his handgun.
This type of assassination raid and attack targeting resistance fighters and leaders — often liberated prisoners themselves — often overlaps with “arrest raids” targeting the Palestinian people. The attack on Islam Odeh mirrors many such assassination raids against fighters who refuse to surrender themselves to the occupation or to return to Zionist prisons, such as the cases of the “engaged intellectual” and freedom fighter Basil al-Araj, Ibrahim Nabulsi, Mohammed al-Azizi, Abdel-Rahman Soboh, Saleh Barghouthi, Ashraf Na’alwa, and Moataz Washaha, to name only a few of the recent targets of the current generation of resistance.
Islam Odeh, 29, was an engineer and a leader in the Al-Qassam Brigades, a graduate of Kadoorie Technical University in Tulkarem, where he was active in the Islamic Bloc as a student activist. As they besieged and attacked the building where he was staying, genocidal occupation forces abducted his mother and father, interrogating his parents and attempting to use them to attempt to force him to surrender and return to Zionist prisons. Despite this, amid his deep love and respect for his parents and family, Islam Jamil Odeh decided to fight the colonial army until his last breath, with which he affirmed his testimony of faith in God.
Later, the occupation soldiers were seen storming the house and then kidnapping the body of the martyr from inside the residential building. The occupation forces routinely kidnap the bodies of the martyrs in order to hold them hostage in an attempt to extort concessions from the Palestinian resistance in a prisoner exchange and to impose a form of collective punishment on the martyrs’ families.
Odeh was a former prisoner of the occupation and had also been detained by the security services of the collaborationist “Palestinian Authority.” In fact, in the past week, the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service attempted to arrest Odeh, after raiding his home more than once, under their “security coordination” with the Zionist occupation. The PA “security” forces also summoned his father and detained him for hours several days prior to his martyrdom.
The martyr Odeh assumed leadership of the Qassam Brigades in Tulkarem after the martyrdom of the previous commander of the Qassam Brigades in Tulkarem, Zahi Yasser Awfi and the leader of the Al-Quds Brigades in the camp, Ghaith Radwan, along with fighters from the resistance factions and multiple Palestinian workers, in a massacre carried out by a US-made Zionist occupation fighter jet that targeted the Tulkarem camp on 3 October. The martyrs of the assault on a cafe in Tulkarem include: Ayman Khaled Tanja (the brother of prisoners Walaa Tanja and Mohammed Tanja “al-Zanklouni”), Asim Nu’man Qawzah, Basil Mahmoud Nafi’, Anwar Mohammed Misimi, Omar Nimer Fayat, Ahmed Jamal Obeid, Muhammad Mamoun Anbas, Athir Mazen Hussein Lawisi, Majdi Jamal Salem, Mahmoud Nasser Khreish, Rawan Jawad Musa Ghanem, Mohammed Tahsin Khalil, Rakan Bilal, Issam Qawzah, Mohammed Abu Zahra, Saja Nasser Khreish, Mohsen Ghazi Dabaya and the children, Karam and Sham Abu Zahra.
Islam Odeh carries the body of the martyr Zahi Awfi in his funeral following the Tulkarem massacre.
Mahmoud Mardawi, a leader in the Hamas movement, saluted the martyr and his fellow resistance fighters in an interview with Al-Mayadeen, praising “the performance of the heroes of the resistance in Tulkarem and its camps, who are confronting the occupation’s incursions with a high fighting spirit full of defiance, courage and daring, and are inflicting heavy losses on its soldiers…Our people know the path to their freedom and dignity, and the resistance in the West Bank today has become unbreakable despite the daily raids, confrontations, and arrests, and despite the great sacrifices made by our heroic resistance fighters in all the West Bank governorates.”
The assassination raid on Islam Jamil Odeh echoes the stories of many martyred Palestinian resistance fighters, particularly former prisoners who refuse to return to the dungeons of the occupation. His battle and courage echo those of the resistance fighters from Gaza to Lebanon and everywhere throughout the region, of the prisoners who fight with their bodies behind bars, of the Palestinians who insist to remain on their land confronting a genocidal Zionist regime and its imperialist sponsors. Despite the massive array of US-made and -provided weaponry arrayed against him by the genocidal occupation regime, he struggled heroically until his last breath, resisting for his people, his land and their liberation.
Victory to the Resistance! From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
On 28 October 2024, the Zionist occupation regime issued 100 administrative detention orders in one day against Palestinians jailed by the occupation. Administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial, on the basis of a “secret file” denied to both the detainee and their lawyer — is indefinitely renewable. Individual detention orders are issued for up to six months at a time, but they are indefinitely renewable — meaning that Palestinians routinely spend years in jail at a time, never knowing when they may be released or even why they are being held.
Administrative detention was first used in Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist regime; it is now used routinely to target Palestinians, especially community leaders, activists, and influential people in their towns, camps and villages.
There are currently approximately 3500 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of over 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners — not to mention the thousands of Palestinians kidnapped from Gaza and subjected to extreme torture and abuse in Zionist detention camps, such as the notorious Sde Teiman. Administrative detainees include children, Palestinians from occupied Palestine ’48, student activists, women’s organizers and land defenders.
Administrative detention orders are issued by the military and approved by military courts on the basis of “secret evidence”, denied to both Palestinian detainees and their attorneys. Hundreds of Palestinians have gone on hunger strike to win their liberation from this form of arbitrary detention, which is not only illegal under international law but a form of psychological torture and collective punishment targeting Palestinian families and communities, as detainees are unable to predict or plan for their release.
The use of administrative detention has become so widespread and massive that this 100-order day does not stand alone; on other recent days, 200 orders were issued at a time, on another occasion, 80 orders were issued.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network notes that the imperialist powers that continue to fund, arm and provide military, diplomatic and political cover to the occupation are fully complicit in the mass imprisonment of the Palestinian people, as they are in the ongoing genocide targeting Palestinians, particularly in Gaza. We urge all supporters of Palestine and mobilized Palestinian communities to take action, mobilize, demonstrate and organize direct actions to confront the imperialist-Zionist war machine and demand an end to administrative detention, the liberation of all administrative detainees, and the liberation of every Palestinian prisoner in Zionist, imperialist, PA and reactionary jails — part and parcel of the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.
The list of 100 administrative detainees — 100 Palestinian lives — ordered jailed without charge or trial by the occupation today:
1. Ismail Ahmed Ismail Jibril – Qalqilya – 2 months
2. Haitham Majed Hussein Lawisi – Tulkarm Camp – 6 months
3. Hamad Mohammed Hamad Khaled – Jabal Al Shamali – 4 months
4. Muhammad Saeed Khalil Abdul Qader Qatanani – Nablus – 5 and a half months
5. Islam Mahmoud Ahmed Qunais – Bethlehem – 4 months
6. Jamil Ashraf Jamil Aqhash – Jenin – 6 months
7. Diaa El-Din Atef Mohammed Abbas – Zababdeh – 4 months
8. Saleh Mustafa Diab Nasser – Safa – 6 months
9. Majd Fikri Mohammed Hamid – Birzeit – 5 and a half months
10. Azzam Hani Yousef Kouberi – Ramallah – 6 months
11. Jamal Muhammad Ahmad Adi – Beit Ummar – 4 months
12. Abdel-Rahman Jamal Musa Abu Al-Jadayel – As-Samu – 4 months
13. Hamza Ayman Mahmoud Barham – Qalqilya – 6 months
14. Ali Rafiq Mohammed Shawahneh – Kafr Thulth – 4 months
15. Mohammed Sami Hassan Sabarneh – Beit Ummar – 6 months
16. Mahmoud Odeh Abdel-Salam Areikat – Abu Dis – 4 months
17. Khalil Haitham Khalil Ayyad – Al-Arroub – 6 months
18. Barakat Abdel-Karim Abdel Abu Sneina – al-Khalil – 6 months
19. Mamoun Abdel-Fattah Salim Dababneh – Tubas – 6 months
20. Sharaf Al-Din Adel Mohammed Abudayyeh – al-Khalil – 4 months
21. Mohammed Osama Ibrahim Matar – Bil’in – 6 months
22. Usaid Khalil Muhammad Ma’arouf – Safa – 5 and a half months
23. Mustafa Ashraf Mustafa Salah – Al-Khader – 6 months
24. Bahaa Saeed Abdul Karim Al-Abbasi – Jenin – 3 months
25. Fouad Walid Kayed Salibi – Beit Ummar – 6 months
26. Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Fawzi Bashkar – Nablus – 6 months
27. Mohammed Salim Shaaban Hindi – Beit Ummar – 6 months
28. Mohammed Mahmoud Amin Alawneh – Jaba – 6 months
29. Mohammed Atef Hussein Abu Aliya – Al-Mughair – 4 months
30. Ezz El-Din Mahmoud Mustafa Sabaaneh – Qabatiya – 6 months
31. Faisal Ibrahim Abdel-Rahman Sabaaneh – Qabatiya – 6 months
32. Omar Iyad Montaser Mansour – Jabal al-Shamali – 3 months
33. Raafat Rafiq Jamal Qandeel – Beit Surik – 4 months
34. Abdullah Abdel-Salam Hussein Sawalha – Asira al-Shamaliya – 6 months
35. Marwan Mohammed Abdel-Qader Abu Farra – Surif – 3 months
36. Kamal Faisal Suleiman Abu Seriyah – Nablus – 6 months
37. Kayed Fawzi Yousef Abu Al-Rish – Nablus – 6 months
38. Jamil Khaled Jamil Daris – Beitunia – 6 months
39. Ibrahim Youssef Dheeb Al-Sayis – Kafr Ni’ma – 6 months
40. Thaer Mohammed Mahmoud Matar – Idhna – 6 months
41. Shaher Hassan Shaher Arouj – Bethlehem – 6 months
42. Shadi Hazem Attia Al-Asakreh – Bethlehem – 4 months
43. Ali Omar Hamed Sholi – Asira al-Shamaliya – 6 months
44. Abdullah Abdel-Salam Hussein Sawalha – Asira Al Shamaliya – 6 months
45. Muhammad Mustafa Hussein Hasaniya – Al-Fawwar Camp – 4 months
46. Baraa Iskandar Hussein Abdo – Kafr Ni’ma – 6 months
47. Ahmed Nader Mahmoud Al-Kalbiyeh – Bethlehem – 4 months
48. Mohammed Mohsen Raja Shahadeh – Nur Shams camp – 6 months
49. Mohammed Ibrahim Yousef Abdel-Qader Awad – Beit Ummar – 4 months
50. Ahmed Nader Mahmoud Al-Kalabiya – Bethlehem – 4 months
51. Mohammed Walid Fayez Qatash – Jericho – 4 months
52. Moatasem Samih Mohammed Tamimi – Nabi Saleh – 6 months
53. Anas Ahmed Abdullah Injas – 6 months
54. Hashem Sami Hashem Houh – Nablus – 6 months
55. Karam Bani Zaid Saleh Shehadeh – Tulkarem – 6 months
56. Omar Ramzi Mohammed Nakhleh – Jalazone Camp – 6 months
57. Yasser Mohammed Saeed Abdel-Rahman Hammad – Qalqilya – 4 months
58. Muhammad Fayez Talal Dibsi – Aida Camp – 4 months
59. Fares Ihab Madi’ Abbas – Jenin – 4 months
60. Ibrahim Jamal Al-Din Ibrahim Hmeid – Bethlehem – 3 months
61. Nassar Jamal Jamil Ja’ar – Tulkarem – 6 months
62. Basem Mohammed Mahmoud Bisharat – Tammoun – 6 months
63. Mohammed Ibrahim Hamdan Al-Zawahreh – Deheishe Camp – 3 months
64. Abdullah Salam Jamal Desouqi – Barqa – 4 months
65. Omar Abdel-Rahim Mohammed Radi Hanbali – Jabal al-Shamali – 4 months
66. Raed Saed Ibrahim – Jericho – 6 months
67. Majdi Abdel-Qader Mahmoud Oweidat – Jericho – 4 months
68. Wadih Waher Muhammad Oweidat – Aqabat Jabr camp – 2 months
69. Ali Ahmed Abdel-Rahim Al-Jadaa – Qalqilya – 6 months
70. Abdel-Rahman Iyad Muhammad Al-Barajneh – Aqabat Jabr camp – 6 months
71. Aref Marwan Muhammad Shehab – Nur Shams camp – 6 months
72. Qusai Ramadan Abdel Abu Kwaik – Al-Amari camp – 6 months
73. Mohammed Bashir Mohammed Younes Halwani – al-Khalil – 5 and a half months
74. Baraa Burhan Farid Sa’adeh – Tulkarem – 6 months
75. Fadi Rajab Sobhi Musa – Khirbet Al-Misbah – 4 months
76. Bakr Nidal Abdel-Raouf Fuquha – Sinjil – 4 months
77. Sanad Diab Muhammad Jabarin – Beitunia – 6 months
78. Mohammed Omar Ismail Mujahid – Wadi Karam – 6 months
79. Rida Hossam Mustafa Hamamra – Bethlehem – 6 months
80. Sand Ali Ahmed Shawahin – Yatta – 6 months
81. Ahmed Saeed Hammad Araysha – Balata Camp – 3 months
82. Al-Baraa Saad Al-Din Mohammed Shweiki – Beit Sahour – 6 months
83. Ubadah Abdel-Salam Mohammed – Beita – 6 months
84. Jamil Munir Qasim Aqhash – Jenin – 6 months
85. Muhammad Saeed Hashem Salameh – Al-Am’ari – 6 months
86. Saleh Odeh Saleh Hureimi – Bethlehem – 4 months
87. Issa Ibrahim Ahmad Akhlil – Beit Ummar – 4 months
88. Mohammed Nizam Shahdah Akhlil – Beit Ummar – 6 months
89. Rashad Zaki Khalil Halayqeh – Shuyukh – 6 months
90. Nael Akram Hamed Sammouh – al-Khalil – 6 months
91. Anis Mashhour Mohammed Kouk – Turmus Ayya – 6 months
92. Ahmad Salim Mohammed Soufan – Ramallah – 6 months
93. Mohammed Yahya Ahmad Hardan – Ramallah – 6 months
94. Suhaib Khalil Atiya Al-Hamamreh – Bethlehem – 6 months
95. Ihab Abdel-Moneim Fayez Masoud – Ramallah – 6 months
96. Ahmed Fathi Mohammed Najjar – Yatta – 6 months
97. Muhammad Adel Ali Abu al-Rab – Qalandia Camp – 6 months
98. Kamal Suhail Abdel-Hadi Abu Ghuwaila – Qalandia Camp – 6 months
99. Mohammed Nidal Ali Arman – Ein Yabroud – 6 months
100. Khaled Omar Hussein Ba’irat – Kafr Malik – 6 months
In the latest assault of the leaders of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement — and of the Palestinian resistance behind bars — Marwan Barghouti, a member of the Central Committee of the Fateh movement serving five life sentences plus 40 years in Zionist jails, and a widely recognized leader of the prisoners’ movement whose release is a high priority in a prisoner exchange with the resistance, was beaten by occupation forces on 9 September 2024.
While the assault took place nearly two months ago, the news was revealed only on 27 October. Marwan Barghouti, like other leaders of the prisoners’ movement, is being held in isolation in Megiddo prison, where he was transferred as part of the attack on the prisoners following the Al-Aqsa Flood operation and as the Zionist regime carries out a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. He has been held in isolation in various prisons, including two prisons in the Ayalon-Ramla prison complex, Ohli Kedar and Megiddo prisons.
Marwan Barghouti and Yahya Sinwar.
Barghouti’s cell, and that of several prisoners also held in the isolation section, was invaded by the repressive forces of the occupation, which beat him on the head, ears, ribs and limbs. He was bleeding from his right ear and injured in the right arms and ribs, chest and back. He has since endured suffered from ongoing complications with his ear — including an infection caused by a blood clot — as well as severe pain, limited mobility and open, untreated wounds, particularly as he was denied proper medical care after the attack.
In an interview with Al-Mayadeen, Arab Barghouti, Marwan’s son, emphasized that “My father confirms to the Palestinian people and the world that he is steadfast in the face of the occupation, and his only concern is to unify the people,” noting his full confidence in the Palestininan resistance to complete a prisoner exchange, affirming that “the prisoners will be outside the jails, including my father.” He emphasized that despite his father’s physical pain, he came to see his lawyer with his head held high and that his morale was not affected.
This is the latest assault on the leadership of the prisoners’ movement, a series of attacks that can only be interpreted as an open threat — and a potential attempt – of assassination against some of the longest-serving and most prominent Palestinian prisoners.
On 20 July 2024, family sources reported that Abdullah Barghouti, the longest-sentenced Palestinian prisoner with 67 life sentences or 5,200 years in prison, was severely beaten in isolation in Shatta prison. He was then transferred from Shatta prison to an unknown and undisclosed location, rather than receiving treatment for the severe assault. Abdullah Barghouti, a leader and engineer in the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas, is also one of the prisoners with a very high priority in a prisoner exchange — and one of the leaders that the occupation has repeatedly refused to release.
In May 2024, Adeeb Mustafa Samoudi, a released Palestinian prisoner who had been held in Gilboa prison prior to his liberation, spoke out about a brutal assault by repressive forces on fellow Palestinian prisoners’ movement leader and prominent Al-Qassam Brigades struggler, Ibrahim Hamed. Ibrahim Hamed is serving 54 life sentences in occupation prisons and like both Marwan and Abdullah Barghouti, is a key priority in a prisoner exchange for the Palestinian resistance.
Samoudi said, “Hamed was assaulted in Gilboa prison, and no part of his body is free from bruises, scratches or injuries, and he lost a lot of blood from a head injury. After the guards raided our cell, he was unable to stand and his health condition is very critical. Even if I try to describe the condition in which I left prisoner Hamed, it would not be enough to describe how much his life is in danger due to the violence of the beatings he and other prisoners received in Gilboa prison.” Ibrahim Hamed, one of the most prominent military leaders of the Palestinian resistance of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was held in solitary confinement for 7 years and is serving the second-longest sentence in Zionist jails, after Abdullah Barghouti.
The full propaganda piece, from Ofer Concentration Camp, as aired on Israeli TV, on Channel 13. Now with subtitles.
Psychopath propagandist Yossi Eli doesn’t even try to hide the satisfaction he gets from watching abducted Palestinians in Israeli torture camps, being beaten and… https://t.co/pGTsEdrYTzpic.twitter.com/NH457x3R5U
On 7 October 2024, on the anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation — which, of course, held the liberation of Palestinian prisoners through an exchange of captives with the Resistance as one of its objectives — occupation forces engaged in widespread assaults against captive Palestinians and published photos of their inhuman treatment under the direct supervision of the notorious fascist Zionist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
“We affirm that broadcasting these scenes in conjunction with the first anniversary of the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 is a failed attempt to erase the humiliation and defeat that the occupation has suffered at the hands of our courageous resistance.
The escalating abuse of prisoners, depriving them of their rights, and the continued aggressive policies against them will not break their resolve and iron will. The darkness of the prison will soon give way to the dawn of freedom. Our people and resistance remain loyal to the brave prisoners, no matter the cost.”
In addition to the publicly filmed propaganda assaults, openly using torture and abuse to promote Zionist officials for fascist popular support, repressive units invaded the solitary confinement section of Ramon prison on 7 October and brutally beat and assaulted multiple prominent leaders of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, including Hassan Salameh, Muammar Shahrour, Ammar Mardi and Mahmoud al-Ardah. All four were then transferred to solitary confinement in Nafha prison.
Hassan Salameh, born in 1971 in Khan Younis in Gaza, is a Palestinian refugee from al-Kheima, Ramla. A leader in the Al-Qassam Brigades, he is serving the third-highest sentence in Zionist prisons, with 48 life sentences, following only Abdullah Barghouti and Ibrahim Hamed. Like his fellow prisoner leaders, he has been isolated since 7 October 2023, and he previously spent 13 years in solitary confinement, only returned to his brothers and comrades among the Palestinian prisoners after the Karameh hunger strike of 2012.
Muammar Shahrour, from Tulkarem, was also among those attacked in Nafha prison. Sentenced to 29 life sentences plus 20 years in prison, he is a representative of the Hamas movement to the prisoners’ leadership and representation committees. He comes from a long line of resistance through his family, who have contributed to all of the streams of historical and present-day Palestinian resistance to colonialism and occupation. His grandfather, Hajj Sharif Shahrour, was arrested by the British and served 4 years in prison for his role in the 1936-1939 revolution in Palestine; his uncle, Shawqi Shahrour, established PLO military bases and organized fedayeen brigades transporting ammunition, weapons and fighters between Jordan and Palestine. He served 18 years in Zionist prisons, and young Muammar visited him from an early age. His other uncle, Bassem Shahrour, was martyred in Tunis when the Zionist forces bombed the PLO headquarters there in 1985. He participated in the great popular Intifada as a child from the age of 8, and as a young man joined the resistance with the Al-Qassam Brigades. He was seized by the occupation forces in 2002 after an ongoing battle as he refused to turn himself in; he had previously been pursued by both the Zionist forces as well as the Palestinian Authority “security” forces under their “coordination” with the occupation.
Ammar Mardi, 43, from Ramallah, is, like Marwan Barghouti, a representative of the prisoners of the Fateh movement inside the Zionist prisons, and played an important role in the collective hunger strikes of 2022 and 2023. He served as the Coordinator of the National Higher Committee of the Prisoners’ Movement directing these actions and bringing together all Palestinian forces. He was seized by the occupation on 9 June 2002, while still a political science student at Birzeit University, and sentenced to life imprisonment plus 20 years in prisons. As an influential prisoner and a leader in coordinating with all Palestinian prisoners, he has been held in solitary confinement since 5 November 2023.
Mahmoud al-Ardah, 48, from Arraba, Jenin, is the leader of the Freedom Tunnel operation, in which six Palestinian prisoners escaped from the occupation’s high-security Gilboa prison in September 2021. He and his comrades have been held in solitary confinement since their re-arrest following their escape. A leader in the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, he was first arrested by the occupation in 1992 and was released in 1996. Eight months later, he was arrested again for shooting an occupation military officer invading Salfit and sheltering Saleh Tahayneh, one of the military leaders of the Jihad movement, who had himself escaped from the occupation prisons.
He was sentenced to 99 years in prison, and attempted to escape on multiple occasions, in 2001, 2011, and 2014, before being held in solitary confinement. In 2021, he led the Freedom Tunnel escape, together with Mohammed al-Ardah, Yaqoub Qadri, Ayham Kamamji, Munadil Nafa’at and Zakaria Zubeidi; they were assisted by Iyad Jaradat, Mahmoud Abu Shreim, Ali Abu Bakr, Mohammed Abu Bakr and Qusai Mara’i, all 11 are held in isolation or solitary confinement. Al-Ardah and his fellow Freedom Tunnel prisoners, are like their fellow prisoners’ movement leaders, high priorities for the Palestinian resistance in a prisoner exchange.
Fellow Palestinian prisoners’ movement leaders, like Ahmad Sa’adat, imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, serving a 30-year sentence in Zionist jails, and Khalida Jarrar, Palestinian leftist and feminist held in administrative detention, have also been transferred to isolation and solitary confinement as a form of disruption of the prisoners’ movement and collective resistance, as well as a form of torture and abuse aimed at breaking the will of the prisoners.
Of course, all of these attacks come alongside the various manifestations of the genocidal Zionist program in occupation prisons, including the documented martyrdom of 41 Palestinian prisoners inside the occupation jails, with prisoners being beaten to death and deliberately denied medical treatment, from Omar Daraghmeh to Walid Daqqa. This number does not include the multiple reported martyrs who were kidnapped and forcibly disappeared from Gaza and taken to torture and detention camps such as the notorious Sde Teiman.
Over 5,000 Palestinians have been kidnapped from Gaza, where they have been subjected to severe beating, various methods of physical and psychological torture, sexual assault and rape, sleep deprivation, starvation and other forms of abuse and inhuman treatment. They join over 10,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Zionist jails, whose testimonies — as well as the marks on their thin, emaciated bodies — bear witness to the systematic abuse imposed upon them by the Zionist jailers.
The abuse, beating and torture of Palestinian prisoners — and the targeting of leaders of the prisoners’ movement who are widely identified as prominent leaders and symbols of the Palestinian resistance whose release is a high priority in a prisoner exchange — is part and parcel of Zionist genocide and an attempt to continue the assassination policy inside prisons, a policy that has already taken the lives of Sheikh Khader Adnan, Walid Daqqah, Nasser Abu Hmeid, Bassam Sayeh, Ibrahim al-Rai, Saadia Farajallah Matar and over 200 fellow prisoners. The systemic torture and assault of Palestinian prisoners has failed to break the will of the prisoners’ movement and of the Palestinian resistance — and all of the forces of resistance in the region — over decades of Zionist colonialism and, before that, British colonialism.
We urge all supporters of Palestine and the Palestinian cause to speak out actively and take action through demonstrations, mass actions and direct actions to confront the abuse of Palestinian prisoners, including Marwan Barghouti and fellow Palestinian leaders. The imperialist powers, like the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands, that continue to arm, support and provide cover for the Zionist genocide in Gaza and its assault on Lebanon, are fully implicated in these inhuman actions.
Indeed, repressive acts by imperialist powers — such as the US’ and Canada’s sanctions on Samidoun on 15 October — are meant to deprive the Palestinian prisoners’ movement of external support and solidarity, to hide the crimes being committed against them and prevent the perpetrators from being held accountable, and to limit, chill and suppress the growing movement for the liberation of Palestinian prisoners as part and parcel of the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. They especially seek to repress this movement as the Palestinian resistance has made clear that it insists upon and is committed to a proper prisoner exchange with dignity to release Palestinian leaders and all Palestinian prisoners in the Zionist jails. The repression in the imperial core is also meant as a mechanism of pressure against the Palestinian people, their prisoners and their Resistance.
Our entire movement must respond collectively to such repression by organizing even more loudly, clearly and effectively to shut down the imperialist-Zionist war machine, to support the Palestinian resistance and all forces of resistance in the region, and to ensure that the Palestinian prisoners are not now and will never be isolated from the Palestinian people, the Arab, Islamic and regional liberation causes, and the international movement for justice.
Freedom for all Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails! Victory to the Resistance!
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
We are republishing the following article, which has been translated from Arabic to English for open publication online, by Fairouz Salameh, the liberated Palestinian prisoner, activist and journalist who is currently hosting the “Prisoners of War” series on Free Palestine TV, interviewing fellow released Palestinian prisoners. This is an article of particular importance to all those involved in the student movement for Palestinian liberation. Much thanks to the translator for their important work!
Between Two Fields: Jihad Mughniyeh, the Student Fighter
by Fairouz Salameh
“Any thought without power remains theories eroded by books, and any power without thought remains a reaction without continuity and impact.” [1]
As the Zionist genocidal war on the Gaza Strip continues, which came in response to the resistance’s breakthrough in the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7, 2023, the question “What is to be done?” opens as an inquiry into the role of various components of Palestinian society in this war and their position on it. This is especially true for students in Palestinian and Arab universities, coinciding with the extension of the confrontation with Zionist colonialism to university campuses around the world at the present time. This question leads us to an Arab figure who addressed it through both thought and action on the campus of the Lebanese American University in Beirut: the martyr Jihad Mughniyeh. From the moment he joined the university, Mughniyeh set out to define the role of the university student in confronting the Zionist enemy, wherever it exists and has established itself, without resorting to idle talk or theorizing. In academic circles, including the university Mughniyeh attended, the prevailing view treated resistance work and study as separate pursuits. Mughniyeh, however, strove to connect and balance these two aspects, ensuring neither overshadowed the other. There is no resistance work without effective education, and no effective education without resistance work.
Without Introductions
Jihad Imad Mughniyeh was born on May 2, 1991, in the town of Tair Debba, Tyre district, southern Lebanon. He is the son of the martyr commander Imad Mughniyeh (known as Hajj Radwan) who was martyred on February 12, 2008. Mughniyeh Jr. enrolled in the Lebanese American University in Beirut (LAU) in 2009 to study business administration. His goal for university education was clear and specific. The martyr Mughniyeh possessed a unique mindset that set him apart from his peers, due to the influence of the Islamic Resistance movement on his development which contrasted sharply with the conventional atmosphere at the Lebanese American University.
Mughniyeh’s choice of business administration likely stemmed from the leadership and organizational qualities prominent in his personality. This specialization also offered an opportunity to refine his leadership skills for a future role in field work. Throughout his time at university, Mughniyeh constantly reflected on the role of university students in resistance activities and how to deepen their involvement. Unlike his peers, who were primarily concerned with course registration and adapting to the new social environment during the transition from school to university, Mughniyeh’s focus was broader. He strived to balance his commitment to academic pursuits with his dedication to the national and religious duty of resistance, while also recognizing the educational role of the university. Mughniyeh viewed the university as a crucial arena for action and influence within the framework of liberating resistance thought. Consequently, he leveraged his presence to serve as a networking link between two worlds: the arena of academic study and the arena of jihad.
Movement in the University Arena: Mobilization and Spreading Resistance Thought
Mughniyeh began his work in the Lebanese American University a year after enrolling. He established a student association affiliated with the Islamic Resistance Movement in Lebanon – Hezbollah. This association comprised several committees, each addressing a different facet of university life: political work, cultural activities, and student clubs. Each committee had its own student representative. Jihad himself took on the role of overseeing these committees’ activities, both on and off campus, working in direct coordination with the resistance’s educational mobilization apparatus.
Mughniyeh’s enrollment marked a qualitative shift in student activism at the university, establishing a representative presence for the Islamic Resistance and creating for it a student base that had previously been absent. Leveraging his unique position as the son of a martyred resistance leader and the connections he inherited, Mughniyeh networked with students to catalyze change. He focused on building a student base at this university because of its unique demographic: students from elite social circles, often connected to prominent figures or wealthy businessmen, who had little to no prior engagement with resistance ideology or its programs. These students typically prioritized spending summer vacations in European countries and pursuing careers abroad after graduation. Mughniyeh saw an opportunity to connect this group with the resistance movement, viewing their potential role as university students as a qualitative addition to the cause. He believed these students, armed with knowledge, argumentation skills, and evidence, could become conscious elements within the resistance. Mughniyeh was firmly convinced of the need for awareness, understanding, and commitment to the resistance’s principles based on rational conviction rather than mere emotion. In this way, he envisioned student fighters who could actively contribute to shaping the daily discourse of resistance and confronting narratives of surrender and submission.
The prevailing Lebanese popular discourse about the resistance (Hezbollah) celebrates it as a strong and victorious force, and allegiance to it often stems from this image of success. Mughniyeh, however, diverged from this narrative in his interactions with students. He emphasized that university students should support the resistance not merely for its strength or victories, but because it represented the only viable path to genuine freedom. Mughniyeh cultivated this rational perspective among the youth he recruited for the resistance. He was dedicated to developing students both politically and culturally, aiming to transform their journey from one of apolitical academic achievement across various disciplines to one where they applied their knowledge and expertise in service of a society embracing resistance. Mughniyeh often stated, “If we could elevate every youth group in every neighborhood to an elite status, we would be able to engage with all societal segments, thanks to students’ capacity for both horizontal and vertical interaction within their communities.” This statement reflected the martyr’s conviction that students constituted society’s elite and could provide crucial support to the resistance and its base.
The university was a necessity for him, and his perception of its role is clear in his statement: “There is an abundance of weapons, but the problem is in the person who will stand behind it; the battle today is a battle of minds, weapons, and technology. If we are not educated, who will carry the weapon? Who will develop this weapon and who will develop and keep up with technology? And who will represent the resistance in conferences and on media platforms? As resistance and liberation movements, we need individuals from various fields, just like those who fight with weapons on the front, so being in university is part of my mission in the liberation movement I belong to, whether the Islamic Resistance or others.”
Mughniyeh embodied the unity of words and actions, living out the principles he espoused. His call for “educated people who work” was not mere rhetoric; he led by example, excelling both in his studies and in resistance activities. He frequently reminded his peers, “I’m not telling you what you should do, but what we all must do. And I’ll be the first among you to do it.” This consistency set Mughniyeh apart and drew others to him, as his relationships were built on a foundation of fraternal camaraderie.
Mughniyeh built his relationships on a solid foundation of trust and honesty, building enduring bonds rather than passing acquaintanceships during a temporary stage. He dedicated most of his time to students, engaging with them both on and off campus, during and after class hours. His goal was to forge a sustained movement rather than just an administrative framework for student activism. While many of his university peers were solely focused on academic pursuits, Mughniyeh centered his efforts on the resistance cause, particularly the Palestinian struggle. Palestine was a constant theme in every gathering or discussion he held with his peers. During a 2011 session with students, as Mughniyeh mourned his father with tears, he realized he was mourning in the wrong way. He understood that true mourning and loyalty were not expressed through grief alone, but through actual fieldwork, of which he saw student activism as one of its noblest forms. Mughniyeh often shared this personal story with his fellow students, using it to strengthen their connection with those who had become martyrs, whether they had a direct relationship to them or not. His message was clear: honoring the martyrs meant activating their role within the resistance movement for which the martyrs had made these sacrifices.
From Individual Salvation to Collective Salvation
Mughniyeh recognized that resistance work encompassed multiple dimensions extending across various fields. He understood that the resistance movement required fighters on diverse fronts: engineers to develop weapons, media professionals capable of conveying the cause, politically savvy administrators, and programmers to keep the resistance technologically competitive on a global scale. Consequently, Mughniyeh strove to strengthen the connection between students from various disciplines and political issues, particularly those concerning the oppressed. His aim was to make this engagement an integral part of their future professional lives, rekindling a sense of social responsibility among them. Mughniyeh’s approach was rooted in what he termed a “collective societal inclination” – his belief that people are inherently inclined to support the oppressed, but often need guidance from a leader who is close to them and can initiate change. In the student environment, Mughniyeh emerged as such a leader, addressing his peers in rational, scientific language that could accommodate their differences while building on their shared experiences. During that period, Lebanon’s political landscape was not as sharply divided as it is today, and opposition to the Zionist entity was largely uncontested. The discourse of resistance was prevalent, and Mughniyeh leveraged these commonalities.
Mughniyeh’s impact on student field work changed student’s orientations from individual concerns to the broader issues of resistance and realizing their role in its continuity and success. The university environment became an effective and influential base in both the political and scientific paths. What was once absent from campus life became indispensable, with the youth of the Islamic Resistance and their activities serving as a model for the broader student body. During his time at university, Mughniyeh successfully established a foothold for the Islamic Resistance, which was once a distant dream. He reshaped student perspectives, moving them beyond mere theoretical understanding to a viewpoint that merged theory with practical action; thus, he was able to bring new groups of students closer to the thought and path of resistance.
A Chapter Completed and Another Still Open
From Jihad as a “name” to Jihad as a “verb”; during Mughniyeh’s study at the university, he did not leave the military jihadist work but reconciled both paths. At the time he was urging students to act, he was, in an undeclared manner, completing chapters of his jihadist work outside the university. During 2012, some circumstances emerged in this arena that forced him to join the training ranks in the arena of jihad. This forced him to postpone his last semester, which he intended to complete after finishing his training and preparation mission. However, during 2015, specifically on December 18, Mughniyeh was in Quneitra with a convoy of mujahideen, when they were targeted by a Zionist air raid, and all were martyred. Jihad Mughniyeh was buried next to his father in the Ghobeiry area in the southern suburb in the Rawdat Al Shahidain cemetery.
With Mughniyeh’s ascension as a martyr, the university chapter remained open, not completed with his graduation from the university grounds where he began his jihadi journey. Jihad did not depart as a young man who chose the path of jihad as an alternative to the academic educational path. Rather, his academic path was part of his jihadi path, which he intended to complete after finishing his mission. However, the treacherous Zionist raids completed his chapter with martyrdom in jihad, rather than university graduation. Jihad ascended before he could climb the graduation stage and deliver his final graduation speech.
The martyr Jihad, a young Lebanese university student who achieved these accomplishments by embracing this mission and working within the framework of his society and environment, became an icon in the minds and hearts of many Arab youth after attaining martyrdom. Mughniyeh was a dynamo for resistance work, with Palestine as its central focus. It was present in his words, lectures, and conscience, not as a mere detail in the course of his work, but for him, it was the resistance itself.
“We will show the entire world how freedom is forged and how victory is crafted with blood.” [2]
“We pride ourselves on being the fruit of those that opened an eye to jihad with choice and sincerity, and closed an eye to martyrdom with will and passion.” [3]
[2] From a speech by the martyr Jihad Imad Mughniyeh on 16-3-2013. https://rb.gy/pvxl4f
[3] From a speech by the martyr Jihad Imad Mughniyeh on 16-3-2013. https://rb.gy/pvxl4f
[4] The article is based on a remote interview conducted by the researcher on May 9, 2024, with a friend and colleague of the martyr at the Lebanese American University.
On 26 October 2024, over 4,500 people marched in the largest-ever demonstration in Lannemezan, calling for the liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese Communist struggler for Palestine jailed in France for 40 years. The annual march proceeds from the Lannemezan train station to the prison, where Georges is held. The demonstration also called for an end to the genocide, solidarity with the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine, and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.
A wide array of organizations participated in the action, including the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah, Samidoun Paris Banlieue, Spain, Basque Country and Sweden; Secours Rouge, labour unions like the CGT, collectives across France for the liberation of Georges Abdallah, Palestine solidarity organizations like Urgence Palestine and the AFPS, political parties and organizations like the NPA, Revolution Permanente, and many others, including parliamentarians from La France Insoumise; antifascist and anarchist groups; Lebanese, Palestinian and Arab communities, Kanak solidarity organizations, leftist Turkish and Kurdish organisations, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle, youth and student groups including Ligue de la Jeunesse Révolutionnaire, Jeunes Révolutionnaires, and Fédération syndicale Étudiante; and many, many others.
This marked the first major action since the passing of Suzanne Le Manceau, lifelong activist and committed struggler for Georges’ freedom. The massive turnout was a tribute to her work — and to the growing, widespread movement for Georges’ release, especially as Lebanon confronts the Zionist war machine and as a growing international movement stands together for an end to genocide, occupation and colonialism in Palestine. A new request for his freedom — the 11th — was made on 7 October 2023, and the court is expected to rule on 15 November. While Georges Abdallah has been eligible for release since 1999 and several of his requests for release have been approved, they have been repeatedly blocked by French officials, working hand in hand with U.S. officials, who, from Condoleeza Rice to Hillary Clinton, have continued to demand his ongoing imprisonment.
Georges Abdallah issued the following statement to the demonstration, which was read out to widespread cheers and salutes from the crowd:
Dear comrades, dear friends,
Years, very long years, behind these abhorrent walls, yet the same determination and enthusiasm always echoes in your solidarity-driven mobilization…
Knowing you are gathered here today, confronting these barbed wires and watchtowers just a few meters from my cell, fills me with strength and warms my heart. Yet, what emotion, comrades, friends, to see that, for the first time in so many years, it is not our tireless Suzanne reading this short statement. As you know, our dearly beloved Suzanne passed away a few weeks ago. Certainly she lives on forever in our hearts and memories as a vibrant flame, especially in such circumstances.
Dear comrades, dear friends,
Your solidarity-driven mobilization leaves no one here untouched; you see, the atmosphere in these dismal places, this entire prison environment, changes when the echo of active life strikes the lifeless routine of a deadly prison existence… Thus, some social fellow prisoners discover, as if by magic, even if only for a brief moment, the beauty and strength of inherently selfless human relationships, solidarity despite so many years behind bars… survivors in cultural and emotional deprivation, without real contact with society for years, this awakening of enthusiasm and humanity does not go unnoticed; it is seen in their eyes and revealed in their often sincere yet fleeting spontaneous comments.
Comrades and friends, the echo of your slogans, your songs, and everything else, passes beyond these barbed wires and watchtowers, it resonates in our minds and transports us far from these bleak places.
Dear comrades, dear friends,
At the dawn of this forty-first year of captivity, finding you here, in the diversity of your commitment, offers a resounding rebuke to all those who counted on the waning of your solidarity momentum. It underscores that the shift in the balance of power in favor of incarcerated revolutionary protagonists always depends on the solidarity mobilization on the field of anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist struggle.
Thus, we can say without the slightest hesitation that the most meaningful support we can offer our imprisoned comrades is rooted in real engagement in the ongoing struggle. Only by embracing solidarity on this ground does the imprisonment of our comrades start to weigh heavier than the potential threats tied to their release.
Comrades and friends, in this time of global capitalism’s crisis and the exacerbation of all its contradictions—this era of war, large-scale massacres, repression, fascism, propaganda and manipulation, of great struggles and mobilization, and especially of the inspiring surge of active youth amid the inherent barbarism of dying capitalism… for the first time in human history, millions of people are actively witnessing an ongoing genocide. For over 380 days, the genocidaires continue to wreak havoc in Gaza and the West Bank, now expanding their war to Lebanon with the active support of the main imperialist powers in the West. Yet, thanks to the heroic resistance of the Palestinian popular masses and their fighting vanguards, and thanks also to the massive solidarity mobilization around the world, Palestine resists and, more than ever, reclaims its rightful place at the forefront of the international scene.
With this in mind, dear comrades, dear friends, it may be useful to remember that active international solidarity is proving to be a an indispensable weapon in the fight against the ongoing settler colonialism in Palestine and the genocidal war deeply inherent to it. It is always through this active solidarity that we can participate in changing the balance of power here, in the belly of the imperialist beast, and elsewhere in building the “Historical Bloc,” a global framework and potential subject of the Palestinian national liberation movement.
Dear comrades, dear friends,
Of course, it is urgent to do everything possible to counter and stop the Zionist barbarism under way in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. The fact remains, however, that despite the genocidal, large-scale aggression against Gaza these days, in which tens and tens of thousands of martyrs and wounded have been added to the terrible widespread destruction of Gaza’s entire living space, the resistance remains unshakeable, protected and endorsed by the Palestinian popular masses.
Gaza will never raise the white flag of surrender. Neither the Zionists nor any other criminal force will ever succeed in breaking the will of the resistance in Gaza.
Shame on all those who, in the face of genocidal Zionist barbarism, call for us to look the other way!
May a thousand initiatives flourish in support of Palestine and its glorious resistance!
Capitalism is nothing but barbarism; honor to all those who oppose it in the diversity of their expressions!
Together, and only together, we will win!
Palestine will live, and Palestine will certainly win!
To all of you, comrades and friends, my warm revolutionary greetings.
