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Thursday, June 19, 2025
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Two mobilizations for Palestinian prisoners in Brussels and Charleroi

April 17 marks Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, the annual international day dedicated to the struggle for and liberation of Palestinian prisoners. To mark this occasion, among others, an impressive evening event took place in Brussels and an action was organized in the center of Charleroi.

A delegation from the Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine attended the excellent public meeting,  “Palestinian Prisoners – Current Issues and Prospects for Release” on Friday, April 18.

We are publishing here the testimony that a friend from Brussels sent us, which perfectly reflects our feelings. Thanks to him:

“On April 18, I participated in the conference organized by Samidoun  and other collectives in Brussels (Pianofabriek – Saint-Gilles) on the occasion of Palestinian Political Prisoners’ Day. 

It was a very high-level evening, both in substance and in form. There were over 100 participants, 95% of whom were young people and 80% of whom were motivated young women. It was a remarkable and hopeful turnout.

The two comrades who hosted the evening are young Palestinian women studying at the VUB, one from Gaza and the other from the Ain al-Helweh refugee camp  (Saida, Lebanon). They were fluent in French and English (as well as Arabic and Dutch) and led the discussion excellently, focusing on the central themes of resistance and the struggle for the liberation of Palestine.

Five people were invited to speak:  Hadeel Shatara and Fadia Barghouti, two Palestinians freed by the resistance in the Toufan al Ahrar exchange; Adel, a comrade from Samidoun Paris Banlieue;  Nathan, a comrade active within the Université Populaire de Bruxelles (the student occupation of the ULB in spring 2024); as well as a comrade from the  Getting the Voice Out collective, which fights against the imprisonment of undocumented migrants, to highlight the convergence of struggles.

The former prisoners, who joined us on Zoom, denounced the repression and described the misery in prison. But their words were neither complaints nor lamentations; their testimonies were full of dignity and illustrated the will and strength of an entire people, which can be characterized by the term ‘sumud’.

The speech by the comrade from Samidoun Paris was very interesting. He explained the immense political importance of the prisoners’ struggle, their central role in the liberation struggle (“prisoners are our compass”), and how their existence and actions accompany us in our struggles beyond the prison walls. In particular, he mentioned Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and Walid Daqqah (and the latter’s work, an example of the importance of literature produced by prisoners in understanding the colonial prison system). He also recalled the place of  Toufan al Aqsa  (October 7) in a context where the liberation of prisoners is at the heart of the Palestinian struggle. Finally, he spoke of all these other struggles, to remind us of the strength of peoples when they rise up against the oppressor, from Haiti (a people of enslaved prisoners who wrested their freedom from the French colonial power 200 years ago) to Algeria.  This slogan illustrates it: Haiti has won, Vietnam has won, Algeria has won, Palestine will win too.

The comrade who participated in the ULB encampment/occupation for Palestine explained how he and his comrades held in-depth discussions and developed an anti-colonial political position, which was not limited to  “liberating Palestine”,“stopping the genocide” and achieving a “ceasefire”, but supported the struggle, including armed struggle, of the Palestinians to regain the integrity of their homeland. Therefore, this occupation went much further than the courageous occupation of Ghent.

The comrade from the Getting the Voice Out collective , which defends detained undocumented immigrants, testified to how these defenseless people are humiliated and isolated without any prospect of finding the freedom and protection they sought in our country.

The evening ended with the call from liberated prisoner Hadeel Shatara :

“Let us continue to weaken the Zionist entity and its imperialist backers, wherever and however we can.”

Action in Charleroi city center

The following day, Saturday, April 19, a team from the Platform set up camp at Place Verte in Charleroi. An arbor was erected, decorated with photos of Palestinian prisoners and martyred prisoners, as well as banners for the release of Georges Abdallah, Ahmad Sa’adat, and all Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian flags flew in the square, and passersby also discovered messages against the ongoing genocide, for the boycott of Israel, and in support of Palestinian resistance.

At the stand, passersby found scarves and bracelets in support of Palestine, T-shirts and books, and could also send cards to Palestinian prisoners.

Two participants read a text written by several Palestinian resistance fighters who had experienced Zionist jails.

They wrote this text on November 25th in support of their imprisoned sisters. Since then, some of them have been released thanks to the exchange agreement reached by the Resistance and the people of Gaza at the beginning of this year .

Currently, 29 Palestinian women prisoners remain incarcerated. This text was sent to us by the  Dismantle Damon campaign.

Here is the text:

Dear comrades,

From Palestine, I write to you with my voice, with the voice of all the oppressed prisoners in Damon Prison, with the voice of Khalida Jarrar from her solitary confinement cell, and with the voice of all the women of Palestine, who constantly suffer various forms of oppression and violence – whether at the hands of the so-called  local “Palestinian Authority”  or the Zionist colonial army.

They are targeted on several levels: first because they are Palestinian, second because they are women. Their bodies then become instruments of pressure and violence—a constant reality that will only end with
total and complete liberation.

In a sealed, freezing iron box, without food, without treatment for illnesses, without clothing or blankets, Damon’s daughters are suffering today. There are now nearly a hundred of them. In these harsh and inhumane conditions, each one is deprived of her children, her mother, or her loved one: these are all stories the world must hear.

One of the most difficult aspects of their detention is the separation from their families, the complete lack of contact with the outside world, and the neglect of institutions and lawyers, who act like merchants in this war. Another crucial point is the lack of any privacy, with the jailers monitoring the prisoners 24 hours a day.

Although the women prisoners describe Damon as a graveyard for the living, they resist with patience and resilience, knowing with certainty that one day they will be free. They do not let the occupation, with all its tools (explicit or implicit), break their souls. Political prisons were designed to break us, but we transform them into
learning spaces where we become stronger.

Today, the masks are falling: all colonizers and oppressors identify with Israel, and all the colonized and oppressed identify with Palestine. The oppressors believe their voice is the loudest, but ours, that of the people, is more powerful.

Many countries are complicit in the genocide: they continue to support Israel not only financially, but also militarily. These same countries that claim to be defenders of human rights and international law revealed their double standards and double standards by reacting to the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against two brutal Zionist criminals, even though the matter was to enforce equal rights and international law.

The world continues to ignore the lives of two million people in Gaza. We witness the violence of colonialism in the West Bank every day, with no accountability or accountability. The number of Palestinian captives in Israeli prisons is growing rapidly, particularly those under administrative detention.

Palestinians in Zionist prisons face deliberate starvation, disease and epidemics.

We promise not to leave our women alone with Damon! We will never bow
to oppression, ethnic cleansing, or genocide!

To abusive governments and regimes, we say: Your violence will not silence our voices. We
will not be on the wrong side of history!

As Khalida Jarrar said,
“They are trying to silence our voices, but they will not succeed, and we will continue to
raise their voices loud and clear.”

Free our women from Damon Prison and all women victims of enforced disappearance by the Zionist state.
Free our beloved fathers, brothers, and husbands from all Israeli colonial prisons.
And remember: where there is oppression, resistance is a duty.
Generation after generation, until total liberation!

Join us at our next Place Verte event: Saturday, May 17, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Source: Charleroi for Palestine

Torture of Palestinian leaders: Abdullah Barghouti repeatedly beaten and starved in Zionist prisons

Tala Barghouti, the daughter of imprisoned Palestinian leader Abdullah Barghouti, serving the longest sentence in Zionist jails, 67 life sentences, reported revelations from his most recent lawyer visit: held in Gilboa prison, he has undergone ongoing, severe torture including multiple beatings with belts and iron batons.

The lawyer reported that Barghouti has bruises and open wounds all over his body; his fellow prisoners in the occupation jails help him to disinfect his wounds with dishwashing liquid, as they are denied sanitary products and he is actively being denied access to healthcare. He has lost dozens of kilograms of weight in the past 18 months, highlighting the severe medical neglect as well as the policy of starvation and malnutrition used as a weapon against the Palestinian prisoners.

“The lawyer left the visit with tears in her eyes, unable to convey the shock and anguish she witnessed. It encapsulated the daily torment of a prisoner whose dignity is being crushed without mercy,” Tala reported. He struggles to stand or to sleep due to his multiple injuries, including boils and bone fractures. He reported that occupation soldiers threatened Barghouti: “We will kill you as we killed Sinwar, all of you, one by one!” Multiple liberated prisoners have reported specific demands to curse the martyred Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other major national figures under torture inside the Zionist jails.

This mirrors the overall and ongoing physical and psychological torture imposed upon the Palestinian prisoners. At least 65 Palestinian prisoners — including 40 from Gaza — have been martyred in the past 18 months, amid the imperialist-Zionist genocide in Gaza and the battle of Al-Aqsa Flood, of over 302 martyrs of the prisoners’ movement since 1967. This number is incomplete because the occupation has continued to refuse to release information about Palestinians abducted from Gaza and subjected to the most severe forms of torture, including beating, sexual assault and rape, sleep deprivation and starvation, inside the Sde Teiman and other prison camps of the occupation.

When Palestinian prisoners were liberated by the Palestinian resistance in the Toufan al-Ahrar exchange, the prisoners reported that not only were they beaten before their release, they were forced to wear sweatshirts, T-shirts and bracelets with racist and threatening messages (that they later publicly burned). They were shown videos and images of the devastation caused by the genocidal occupation forces in Gaza and told that everyone had been killed and no one remained; now, the occupation prison authority is reportedly hanging large pictures of their carnage and devastation in Gaza in the prisons in order to further torment the imprisoned Palestinians.

Abdullah Barghouti is a Jordanian-Palestinian citizen who was the leading engineer of the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, following the assassination of Yahya Ayyash.

His release, along with that of other imprisoned resistance leaders, like Ibrahim Hamed, Hassan Salameh, Abbas al-Sayyed, Ahmad Sa’adat and Marwan Barghouti, is one of the top priorities of the Palestinian resistance in a prisoner exchange. Inside the prisons, he wrote the novel/memoir, “Prince of the Shadow: Engineer on the Road” in 2012, presenting a fictionalized work based on his life story in prison, his resistance to the occupation, and his emergence within the resistance. He spent 10 continuous years in solitary confinement in the occupation prisons and has been repeatedly held in isolation; he has had less than 10 family visits during his 23 years of imprisonment.

On 20 July 2024, Barghouti was severely beaten in isolation in Shatta prison. He was then transferred from Shatta prison to an unknown and undisclosed location — later revealed as Gilboa prison — rather than receiving treatment for the severe assault.

**

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 Abdullah 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 throughout occupied Palestine, 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!

Honoring the martyrs, advocating for the resistance: Charlotte Kates at the Athens conference on Imperialism and Law

Charlotte Kates, co-founder of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, spoke in Athens, Greece, on 6 April as part of the 2nd International Conference on Imperialism and Law, convened by the People’s Law Office: International. The two-day program, which honored martyred lawyer Ebru Timtik,  included lawyers and advocates from around the world, including Turkey, Greece, Mexico, Peru, India, the Philippines, Palestine, Germany, the United States, and elsewhere. The conference, which focused on “Increasing imperialist and fascist aggression in the Middle East and the world, and the role of law,” included a session on Palestinian resistance, occupation and the genocidal attacks of imperialism and Zionism. The conference was convened at the Athens Bar Association between 5 and 6 April 2025.

Charlotte Kates’ speech text is below:

Imperialism, Resistance, and the Role of Revolutionary and Peoples’ Lawyers

Thank you to all of the organizers and to the People’s Law Office for holding this important convening, specifically, to focus on imperialism and the need for an anti-imperialist alliance of lawyers and legal workers, in an explicit sense. 

How fitting that this event takes place under the name and the call of Ebru Timtik, a dedicated fighter for the people, a lawyer who loved and upheld the popular movements, the resistance and the revolution, a martyr who lives on in the work that all of you continue to do today in the face of fascism, repression, and imperialism. I had the honour of meeting her in Istanbul, and many of our comrades had the same in a variety of movement events and struggles, always with her eyes fixed on the goal and her anti-imperialist compass clear.

I want to begin by saluting all of the martyrs, from the great leaders of our global anti-imperialist movement and movement for justice, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and every doctor, health worker and nurse, every laborer, engineer, electrician and aid worker, every baker, teacher, and student, every beloved child and youth, every mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin and grandparent slaughtered by the US-Zionist genocide, and every heroic resistance fighter, every martyr on the road to al-Quds, whose lives have been taken by the malign forces of imperialism and Zionism,

And the wounded, the hundreds of thousands whose limbs have been taken, whose health has been destroyed, whose environment has been poisoned, whose homes have been demolished, by the invader and the occupier seeking to uproot them from their land,

The prisoners, the 10,000 resistance fighters and leaders behind bars, undergoing the most severe and unimaginable forms of torture and abuse from the notorious dungeons of Sde Teiman to the starving of children in Megiddo prison, whose freedom is so precious to the Palestinian people that they undertook the largest military operation in their history in large part to win their liberation, and who continue to win that liberation with every battle, and

The armed resistance, the fighters of Hamas and the Al-Qassam Brigades, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement and Saraya al-Quds, the PFLP and the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades and all the factions of the Resistance, the warriors of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the armed forces, the people, and the AnsarAllah movement of Yemen, the resistance fighters of Iraq and the revolutionary forces of Iran who continue to resist imperialism in the region…at the center of our global movement.

The vast destruction imposed upon humanity, upon the global majority, by imperialism, led by the United States but accompanied by the imperialist powers from Britain to the European Union countries to Canada to Australia and New Zealand — NATO, the Five Eyes and similar aggressive alliances –  is immense and terrible, and cannot be confronted except by confronting those directly responsible and the systems that they profit from. At the same time that we are living in a time of genocide, of destruction, warmongering, the extraction of the resources and wealth of the people of the world for the benefit of imperialist powers and their ruling classes, we are also living in a time of great and heroic resistance that is, indeed, changing the world and pointing toward not only a multipolar but a revolutionary order. 

So, for us as people’s lawyers, as revolutionary lawyers, as anti-imperialists, there is always the question to ask, and, indeed, to answer: why are we here? What is our role? There are many roles that people can play and many kinds of harm reduction, defending those most vulnerable and most attacked by the state. At the same time, we must address this by being clear about the purpose of “law” particularly bourgeois law, which is not to protect us nor to defend us but to repress us. If we have revolutionary movements, they will not be protected by the systems of bourgeois law, because that is not the purpose of this legal system. And so the question is, will we use what we have of a law as a weapon in this struggle and be part of and serve the resistance, or will we instead seek to take the guidelines of bourgeois law and impose them on the people’s movements, demanding their compliance rather than defending their noncompliance? What we see today is the facade of freedoms of expression and association falling before the crisis of imperialism and a revolutionary upsurge which bears the name Al-Aqsa Flood. 

As we speak about Palestine, of course, we must be clear – the genocide in Palestine did not begin on 7 October 2023. It did not even begin in 1947-1948 and the illegitimate establishment of the so-called “state of Israel,” the Zionist regime, on Palestinian land; the genocide was inherent in the Balfour declaration and the imperial gift of Palestinian land to the Zionist movement in an explicit alliance with British imperialism, then the leading imperialist force in the world. As Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, said in seeking a meeting with Cecil Rhodes, “This is something colonial.” And of course, as Indian lawyer Niloufer Bhagwat noted yesterday, the colonization and genocide of Palestine has worked hand in hand with the division and colonization of the Arab people and of all the peoples of the region, setting up this Zionist colonial project, a tool and mechanism of imperialism, in the heart of the Arab world, to prevent Arab national unity and true liberation and self-determination. So from al-Nakba to the ongoing ethnic cleansing and destruction of the Palestinian people, this has been an ongoing process of genocide. 

The great, heroic operation on October 7, 2023 was an organized, strategic operation by the Palestinian resistance, which holds a deep relationship and alliance with the other forces of the Axis of Resistance, or, more broadly, what we might call the global camp of resistance, centered in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, and, of course, Syria, where we are today witnessing a great tragedy and crime created by the machinations and the killing sanctions of US Imperialism. It was a brilliantly planned military action that surprised even the fighters and leaders when they encountered the inability and unpreparedness of the zionist soldiers in their military bases to actually fight against an attack, a tactical offensive. To use the terminology of the Philippines revolution, the Palestinian liberation movement has been on the strategic defensive for some time, and the Al-Aqsa Flood was a way of shifting this moment. The leadership of the Al-Qassam Brigades, including the martyrs Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa, and of course Yahya Sinwar, clearly viewed this action as, as Deif said in video footage released after his martyrdom was announced on 30 January 2025, one that would change the world, and they were correct to do so. 

When we speak now, after 18 months of genocide, and after 18 months of resistance, we must be clear: October 7, the great Al-Aqsa Flood, changed the world, irreversibly. This day made clear before the world that it is quite possible to envision a Palestine free of Zionism and a region free of imperialism, and that this resistance camp is capable of achieving that goal with its own hands. 

And this was utterly unacceptable to the Zionist project and to the imperialist powers themselves, already beset by the crisis of capitalism, the conflict in Ukraine, the growth in de-dollarization and de-linking, and so their response, their only response to the shifting of the field: genocide, mass murder and massive bombing and destruction, the unleashing of all the most brutal and reactionary forces and elements, in order to make such action, such revolution – indeed, the date of the beginning of the new Palestinian, Arab and international revolution – unimaginable due to the river and ocean of blood and rubble they intend to create over that heroic memory. 

And every day since then, the unified Resistance has continued to defend and uphold humanity against genocide. The unified resistance front, stretching from Palestine to Lebanon, where the Lebanese Resistance cleared northern occupied Palestine of occupation soldiers and settlers and sacrificed its beloved leaders in order to uphold Palestine; to Yemen, where the Yemeni people, government, armed forces and AnsarAllah movement have shut down the supply lines of genocide in the Red Sea, causing the port of Eilat to declare bankruptcy; to Iraq, to Iran, and stretching around the world to all who confront imperialism, Zionism and reaction. 

When we speak about the movement for Palestinian liberation, it is important for us to have a clear and solid understanding: this movement does indeed have a leadership. Many of the crises and contradictions of the movement in solidarity with Palestine in the West and in the imperial core come from the refusal – often-times, imposed by so-called “anti-terror laws” and the mass terror and fear they create among the people – to recognize and acknowledge this leadership, which is those who are leading the armed struggle and those imprisoned for fighting for the liberation of Palestine. We know that armed struggle is a legal right under international law and upheld by UN resolutions, but it would be a legitimate right even without that as a basic framework for humanity defending itself against occupiers and destructive forces that come to exploit and plunder by force of arms. We certainly know that the imperialist powers do not value peace or nonviolence; indeed, their massive military budget and industry does everything possible to ensure that the majority of people in the world can never live in peace. Our societies in the imperial core venerate violence, but excoriate revolutionary violence. And one of the things that has happened since 7 October at a popular level is a wide-scale, popular support and recognition, even in the heart of the imperial core, after a campaign of lies and propaganda aimed to smear the Palestinian resistance and its fighters, is that of the justice of the Palestinian cause and the heroism of its fighters. 

In 1968, the Palestinian National Charter affirmed: “Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine. This is the overall strategy, not merely a tactical phase. The Palestinian Arab people assert their absolute determination and firm resolution to continue their armed struggle and to work for an armed popular revolution for the liberation of their country and their return to it . They also assert their right to normal life in Palestine and to exercise their right to self-determination and sovereignty over it.” At that time, the Palestinian revolution was led by the armed factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and today, it is led by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, with a broad alliance of forces. But the compass to liberation remains the same, without substitution, as popular action is a stream that flows alongside and together with the resistance, not an alternative or a replacement.

It is within this context that it is important to discuss multiple mechanisms by which genocide is carried out. Certainly, it is carried out by F-16s, by two-ton bombs dropped on residential buildings, hospitals, mosques, and churches, and refugee camps and schools, by missiles signed by “Israeli” schoolchildren and politicians and visiting imperialist officials, by intelligence operations and boobytrapped pagers, by aircraft carriers, by weaponry shipped through Irish, and Greek, and Spanish ports, by AI software provided by Microsoft, Google and Amazon. But it is also carried out through multiple strategies that aim to empower and assist these weaponry in achieving their goals, because they target not only the physical characteristics of life, but also the popular cradle of the resistance and the strength of the internal front of the people under attack. These include but are not limited to: 

  • The assassination policy
  • Anti-terror laws and designations
  • Sanctions and unilateral coercive measures

The assassination policy has been a core tactic of Zionist strategy for decades and is a policy pursued around the world, including here in Greece, where in the 1970s and 1980s, Khaled Nazzal, Ziad Nukhasi, Munther Abu Ghazaleh and Mamoun Muraish were assassinated by Zionist forces, with shootings and car bombs. The assassination policy has always targeted not only military leaders, but writers, poets and intellectuals such as Ghassan Kanafani, Wael Zuaiter, Mahmoud Hamshari, Kamal Nasser, strategists, political leaders; those who make the liberation movement and Palestinian society function under the unbearable pressure of genocide. 

From Sayyed Nasrallah to Sayyed Safieddine, from Ibrahim Aqil to Fouad Shukr to Abbas al-Mussawi, from Ismail Haniyeh to Saleh al-Arouri to Fathi Shiqaqi, Abu Ali Mustafa, Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Imad Mughniyyeh, Yahya Ayyash, Abu Jihad, Kamal ‘Udwan, Mohammed al-Najjar, Basil al-Kubaisi, Wadie Haddad, Mohammed Boudia, Basil al-Araj, Tariq Izzedine to Samir Kuntar; the Zionist regime relies on the assassination weapon against the liberation movement. We see this also with the US assassination of General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, part of the same strategy.

Tareq Izzedine said, “Whenever a leader ascends, ten will emerge to replace them. When a martyr ascends, 100 martyrs will emerge to replace them. The march continues, and it does not stop until the defeat of the occupation.” And as Saleh al-Arouri said, “We are martyred like our people, we are arrested as they are arrested, our homes are demolished and we are being chased and pursued. We fight because we must.”

For the past weeks, since the overt resumption of genocidal bombing on 18 March, we have witnessed the assassination policy in extreme escalation in Gaza, clearly relying on intelligence obtained during the ceasefire period, because these are by and large political and social leaders being targeted for assassination, with the exception of Naji Abu Saif, known as Abu Hamza, the spokesperson of Saraya al-Quds: 

  • Issam Al-Da’alis, Chairman of the Government Work Follow-Up Committee.
  • Yasser Harb, member of the Political Bureau of Hamas.
  • Ahmad Al-Hatta, Deputy Minister of Justice.
  • Mahmoud Abu Watfa, Deputy Minister of Interior.
  • Bahjat Abu Sultan, Director General of the Internal Security Service.
  • Mohammed Al-Jamasi, Chairman of the Emergency Committee
  • Salah al-Bardawil, member of the Political Bureau of Hamas
  • Ismail Barhoum, member of the Political Bureau of Hamas and responsible for social and charity affairs
  • Abdel-Latif al-Qanou, spokesperson of Hamas

There is so much to say about each one of these people, and it must be noted here, their wives and children assassinated alongside them – indeed, the Zionist regime has recently claimed victory in assassinating the 6- and 8-year-old grandchildren of head Palestinian negotiator Khalil al-Hayya – not to mention the 15 paramedics and civil defense workers, the journalists like Hossam Shabat and Wafa al-Udaini, the writers like Refaat Al-Areer, all deliberately targeted. These assassinations were followed just hours and days later by attempts to undermine the social fabric in Gaza, with the Zionist war minister openly calling on people to protest against the resistance in Gaza, with the collaboration of the so-called Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

In a Zionist media article boasting about the “success” of these assassinations, the author notes about the assassination of Mahmoud Abu Watfa, “His death is considered a significant loss …due to his prominent role in enhancing security and stability in the Strip,” noting that he was recorded telling a Palestinian woman in Gaza, “We will rebuild it stronger than ever” after the January ceasefire. Mahmoud Abu Watfa was martyred alongside his wife Manal Abu Hussein, his sons Muhammad, Ahmed, and Zein, his daughters Shahd, Hala, Elin, and Aya, and her child Muhammad and her unborn child. His son Salah el-Din was martyred on 7 October 2023.

Assassinating those responsible for justice, security, charity and aid distribution, and those who document Zionist crimes, is a central tactic meant to allow the genocide to continue. On too many occasions, we discuss the crimes of the zionist regime and assure listeners that the victims were “not Hamas.” Or we say that the presence of one of the men above “does not justify” the killing of children, families and entire residential buildings or refugee camp blocks. All of these things are true, but the killing of these men is itself a crime – it is quite clearly the international crime of extrajudicial killing and execution, and it is also a key mechanism to disrupt society and enable genocide. The assassination policy is one of the key strategies of the Zionist regime and we must confront it head-on; rather than minimizing the effects of the assassinations or refusing to speak about these great leaders sacrificing for Palestine because we fear it “justifies” the Zionist attack, the Zionist regime and the US – whose intelligence is almost certainly responsible, along with the British whose reconnaissance planes routinely fly over Gaza – must be held accountable under the law and through popular action for each one of these assassinations.

Yes, the popular cradle of the resistance is strong and the resistance movements are resilient and powerful and have the ability to recover from assassinations and martyrdom, even of beloved leaders of almost legendary character. However, every one of these assassinations is also a serious blow, a serious injury to the body and the mind of the movement and the people. 

It should be noted here that they also seek to make it impossible even to memorialize the martyrs. The turnout of over 1.5 million people in the streets of Beirut to honour and remember the martyrs Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hashem Safieddine sparked the Zionists to fly warplanes over the crowd and bomb several locations in Lebanon, while multiple people have been targeted for questioning, arrest, deportation and firings from their jobs in the imperial core for attending the funeral or expressing mourning for Sayyed Nasrallah, the great anti-imperialist leader of our era. 

They aim not only to assassinate the leaders of the Resistance movement but to assassinate their legacy and memory. Unable to defeat the Resistance through assassination, they bomb the hospital named after the assassinated Kamal ‘Udwan, they bomb the school founded by the assassinated Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, they cut the funding and support of a women’s institution named after the martyr and fighter Dalal al-Mughrabi, they intimidate, threaten  activists and students over holding a poster of Yahya Sinwar or Ismail Haniyeh. 

This of course, goes hand in hand with the use of anti-terror laws and “terrorist” designations, organization bans and the like, to suppress support for the resistance. It is meant as a form of moral, political and social assassination, especially in areas where it is difficult for the Zionist regime to carry out a physical assassination. In short: anti-terror laws and terrorist designations exist not only to persecute and imprison people for supporting the resistance. They also aim to entirely reshape the way that the movement and the people themselves think about, speak about and perceive Palestine, while denying those at the heart of the movement itself – the armed resistance – solidarity and support on a global level. This is somewhere that it is necessary for people’s lawyers to critically examine our engagement with fighting such designations. We must clearly call for an end to the terrorist designation of Palestinian Lebanese Yemeni, Iraqi, Iranian forces, and for that matter, organizations in solidarity like Samidoun, which was itself designated a “terrorist entity” by Canada, a “specially designated global terrorist” by the US, banned by Germany and designated a “terrorist” group by the Zionist entity. It is clear that this definition is ever-shifting: as we discussed yesterday, Germany banned the phrase, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” both as a “slogan of Hamas” and a “slogan of Samidoun.” 

We must very clearly call to abolish these lists in imperialist countries, which are designed to create arbitrary mechanisms of repression – even if they sometimes list reactionary or criminal organizations – and to de-list Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, Al-Aqsa Brigades, Hezbollah, AnsarAllah and indeed Samidoun. 

I urge people’s lawyers to avoid using their influence to tell activists for Palestine, for example, that they must not say the name Yahya Sinwar, the great leader and symbol of Palestinian resistance, the martyr and commander, the liberated prisoner, who died fighting until his last breath on the front lines of battle, and instead to consider how they might help to protect those who uphold Sinwar’s path and work to achieve his goals. Anti-terror laws serve as a form of psychological warfare that aims to unroot the “solidarity” framework from the leadership of the revolutionary movement. Certainly we must defend those unjustly targeted and accused, yet we must also be clear that the “accusation” of “supporting Hamas, supporting the PFLP, supporting Hezbollah” is no accusation at all except under an entirely unjust framework of bourgeois imperialist law. 

In a sense, anti-terror laws are a form of sanctions and unilateral coercive measures applied to organizations as well as states, where we see forms of confluence between the two particularly in the cases of Gaza and the siege on Gaza, the siege upon Yemen, and the sanctions and war threats on Iran alongside the “terror” listing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – literally a state military! Sanctions are worthy of their own discussion, but these mechanisms of imperialist war on the people must be central to our struggle, particularly in the imperial core. It is, fundamentally, the siege that is killing Palestinians in Gaza through starvation, not only through bombs. We need only look north to Syria for a clear example of the destruction wrought by imperialist sanctions. From Cuba to Venezuela, to Iran, to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, we need a strong movement to confront sanctions legally, politically and by all means necessary, which includes a fundamental de-linking from US domination of the global economy. 

There is much more to be said about this, but we will certainly be over time. However, I want to close with a call to action and a call, at least, to legal arms. We must have no illusions about the institutions of the imperialist system, although we should and must use all mechanisms available to defend our peoples and liberation movements. We must fight sanctions and unilateral coercive measures and defend peoples and nations under attack by imperialism. We must refuse to leave our liberation movements alone and further encourage the use of anti-terror listings by abandoning those who are designated. We must fight the assassination policy. When we file lawsuits to hold the Zionist regime accountable, extrajudicial killings is one of those crimes and it is also fully a mechanism to impose genocide by weakening the ability of the people to resist and to protect their internal front. We have a role to play in the global popular cradle of the resistance, that extends beyond the heart of the struggle to our communities, to advance the resistance and the revolution, and we have a choice to make: is it our role to advance bourgeois law and restrictions and ensure compliance, or is it our role to do everything possible to break down that system and advance the liberation movement?

Al-Aqsa Flood is a flood of the people, for liberation, an end to colonialism and Zionism, and a head-on confrontation with imperialism. Let us play our role and join the flood, in the name of the martyrs and the prisoners, in support of those fighters, for a free Palestine from the river to the sea. For a liberated Arab nation free of imperialism. For a self-determined, revolutionary Iran continuing its revolution after 40 years free of war threats, and for a world liberated from US imperialism and Zionism. 

As the martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in his last speech, “The end of this battle will be a historic victory.” Let us do everything in our power to bring about that victory and play our unique role as anti-imperialist lawyers, with and as part of the global camp of Resistance and revolution.

**

The following images, shown as a slideshow during Charlotte Kates’ presentation, highlight just a few of the most recent martyrs at the time of the presentation (early April 2025) targeted for assassination and some of the highest profile leaders targeted throughout the ongoing genocide and the battle of Al-Aqsa Flood:

Prisoners’ movement under attack: Assault and transfer of Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh

Occupation forces inside the Zionist prisons have been continuing to attack Palestinian prisoners, including a number of leaders of the prisoners’ movement. The “Israeli” abuse, torture and mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners, including the ongoing denial of medical care, has already caused the martyrdom of over 65 Palestinian prisoners, only since 7 October 2023, amid the ongoing genocide in occupied Palestine.

Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, a member of the political bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and head of its prison branch, was transferred from Ofer to Gilboa prison and beaten by Zionist prison guards, a situation revealed by Palestinians freed from Gilboa prison in recent days.

Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh and his wife Wafa’ have two children, Qais and Rita. He was born in 1968 in Beit Furik, near Nablus, and was elected as the head of the prison branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in June of 2022. He is serving a life sentence plus 5 years after being jailed by an occupation military court, for directing the assassination of the notoriously racist tourism minister of the occupation, Rehavam Ze’evi, in October 2001, in retaliation for the Israeli assassination of PFLP General Secretary Abu Ali Mustafa in August 2001. Abu Ghoulmeh was the leader of the PFLP’s military wing in the West Bank at the time.

As a high school student, he founded the Union of Secondary Student Committees in his village in 1982 and was first arrested in 1984 for organizing demonstrations to commemorate the anniversary of the PFLP’s launch. In 1986, he began to attend Bir Zeit University, but his education was repeatedly disrupted due to repeated arrests and detention. He was heavily involved in the great popular intifada, organizing popular committees and action groups in the Nablus area. After being arrested in 1990, he was transferred to administrative detention for a year. When he returned to university, he became a leader of the Progressive Student Action Front.

As a leader of the Popular Front throughout the 1990s, he was repeatedly pursued by the Israeli occupation, even as he completed his university degree, married and had two children. He was particularly active in defense of the Palestinian prisoners, representing the PFLP in the committee of National and Islamic Forces on prisoners and detainees.

He was repeatedly imprisoned and arrested by the Palestinian Authority under “security coordination” with Israeli occupation, in both January and December 1996, when he was jailed for five months, and again in May 2000. With the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, Abu Ghoulmeh played a leading role and he was publicly announced as a target for Israeli assassination in April 2001. After the assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa and the response of the PFLP in assassinating Ze’evi, he, along with Majdi Rimawi, Hamdi Qur’an and Basil al-Asmar — and then, PFLP General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat — was imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority in Jericho prison in a security coordination agreement, where he was held under U.S., British, Canadian and Turkish guards.

During this time, Wafa’, his wife, was subjected to house arrest four times in a row for six month periods in an effort to prevent her and their children from visiting Abu Ghoulmeh in Jericho prison. On 13 March 2006, the occupation forces attacked Jericho prison after the withdrawal of the US and British guards, kidnapping Sa’adat, Abu Ghoulmeh, Qur’an, al-Asmar, Rimawi and fellow political prisoner Fouad al-Shoubaki. This attack was timed just weeks before Ismail Haniyeh and was to be sworn in as PA Prime Minister following the PLC elections, during which the victorious Change and Reform Party team (associated with Hamas) had pledged to release Sa’adat, Abu Ghoulmeh and all other PA political prisoners and end “security coordination” with the Zionist regime.

He was subjected to military interrogation for over two months, during which he was subjected to extensive physical and psychological torture as he refused to confess, and on 1 January 2008, he was sentenced by the occupation military court to a life sentence plus 5 years. He has remained a major leader of the prisoners’ movement and has been repeatedly subjected to isolation and solitary confinement, and his family have been banned on numerous occasions from visiting him. He was held in solitary confinement until 2012, when he and 19 fellow leaders of the prisoners’ movement, including Ahmad Sa’adat and Marwan Barghouti, were returned to the general population after the mass Karameh hunger strike.

His wife Wafa’ continued to be denied visits, and she saw him for the first time in 10 years in 2018. In June 2022, the PFLP announced that he had been elected the leader of its prison branch, following decades of his leadership. In May 2023, he was ordered to solitary confinement, and in February 2024, his mother, Sebtia, passed away, and he was denied the ability to bid farewell to her.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses our firm solidarity with Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, a leader of the prisoners’ movement and a renowned example of resistance and steadfastness behind the bars of the occupation. We urge all supporters of Palestine to highlight Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh — and his fellow political prisoners — as we struggle to bring the Zionist-imperialist genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine to an end.

Video: “Twisted Laws: Mumia, Universities and Palestine”

On Thursday, 24 April, organizers hosted a panel, “Twisted Laws: Mumia, Universities and Palestine,” part of the commemorations of the 71st birthday of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther, journalist and current political prisoner in U.S. prisons. The event, featuring activists, law students and community organizers — including Mohammed Khatib, the Europe coordinator of Samidoun — highlighted the situation of political prisoners in U.S. jails, repression of the Black liberation movement, and its connection to U.S. imperialism and genocide in Palestine and internationally.

The event began with a phone call from prison from Mumia Abu-Jamal himself, who focused in his talk on the Palestinian struggle and the student movement in the United States, particularly amid the ongoing state and administrative repression (including the arrest and attempts to deport Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, Leqaa Kordia, Yunseo Chung, Rumeysa Ozturk, Badar Khan Suri, Momodou Taal and other students advocating for their universities to cease complicity in genocide).

His participation from behind prison bars further reinforced imprisoned Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa’adat’s comments: “The political prisoner is not weak and is not broken, despite all of their best efforts. The responsibility of the political prisoner is to safeguard the flame. This is not a role that we have sought out or worked for. But now that we are in this position we must hold our position to set an example, not to our people, who are rooted and steadfast, but to the enemy, to show that imprisonment will not work to defeat us or our people. We carry a cause, not simply an individual search for freedom. Israel or France or the U.S. would free us, or Georges Abdallah, or Mumia Abu-Jamal, if we were willing to become tools of the system or betray our people….It is not an individual experience but a collective one; the heroism of a prisoner is not simply to be in prison but to understand that they carry with them the leadership of a movement and a continuing struggle in a new location that continues to have international reverberations. Georges Ibrahim Abdallah today is struggling in Lannemezan prison just as Mumia Abu-Jamal is struggling in Mahanoy. The heroism also does not come simply in that one has spent years in prison and now has been released; but in being a veteran of struggle who continues to carry the message of liberation for those who remain.”

Watch the full video: https://www.youtube.com/live/LD7OL8X9PMM

Ali al-Sarafiti: The martyrdom of a struggling liberated prisoner

On Thursday, 24 April 2025, the liberated prisoner and lifelong struggler, Ali Nidal al-Sarafiti, 44, was martyred, alongside his wife, Nermeen, and their three children, Nidal, Hosni and Sarah, in a Zionist attack on their home in Sheikh Radwan, north of Gaza City — part of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza. Al-Sarafiti is the latest in a large number of liberated prisoners in Gaza who have been targeted for assassination and massacre by the Zionist regime.

Born in 1981 in Gaza, he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1997 at the age of 16. An active participant in the Al-Aqsa Intifada that erupted in 2000 amid widespread rejection of the devastation caused by the Oslo Accords and the so-called “peace process,” he was arrested by the occupation on 17 July 2002 and accused of attempting a martyrdom operation. After spending 13 years in Zionist prisons, he was released in 2015 and continued to advocate and speak for the Palestinian prisoners and their liberation.

Fellow liberated prisoner Wael Jaghoub, freed as part of the Toufan al-Ahrar prisoner exchange achieved by the Palestinian resistance and a long-time leader of the prisoners’ movement, said:

Another day of freedom steeped in blood. The very breezes of freedom lower their banner in homage to the martyrs of this tragic morning: Ali, Nermeen, and their children. Forgive me, beautiful Sarah; time did not grant me the chance to bring the gift I had promised you. We stand at the peak of our helplessness.

O brother and friend, how can I eulogize you? What words could possibly cool the blaze of this treacherous death, ravenous for the spilled Palestinian blood? Words themselves have grown dumb, unable to absorb our wound or voice our sorrow!

How many paths of pain we tread alone! How shamelessly our blood is displayed on the tables of every scoundrel conspiring against our steadfastness.

Twenty years of true friendship, in an age where everything else in it is false.

Ali Nidal Al-Sarafiti and his family… the martyrs of this morning: just another headline, passing naturally from death to death in this harsh era of genocide.

Love to you, always, all the love this earth can hold. Glory to the martyrs.

Ali al-Sarafiti was the brother of two other martyrs: Hosni, martyred in an earlier Zionist attack on Gaza, and Mohammed, martyred in 1994 in a confrontation with Zionist occupation forces on the eastern side of the Gaza Strip. His father, Nidal al-Sarafiti, was also a former prisoner held captive by the colonial regime.

He was involved in the prisoners’ movement during his time inside occupation prisons. In 2013, he was held in isolation for over 1.5 months after attacking an occupation prison guard in Nafha prison. For 9 years of his imprisonment, his family was prohibited from visiting him.

Upon his release on 6 July 2015, he was welcomed by his people, family and community in a joyous celebration. Speaking at his reception, he affirmed: “The prisoners will remain true to the same covenant and path of struggle… We stand firmly with our brothers, the men of the Resistance… The Resistance is the spearhead of every Palestinian fighter… Therefore, we call upon all the masses of our Palestinian people to rally around the Resistance, not around futile negotiations.”

He continued his activity as part of the prisoners’ movement; in 2018, he highlighted the activities of the Prisoners’ Committee of the PFLP in Gaza for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, linked with the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege and calling for campaigns to end administrative detention (imprisonment without charge or trial) and to liberate the sick prisoners denied proper medical care. In 2016, he highlighted the case of Bilal Kayed, ordered to administrative detention at the end of his sentence, amid his 71-day hunger strike, calling for “action by the resistance to force the enemy to stop its brutal attack and concede to the legitimate demands of the hunger strikers.” In 2021, he became a spokesperson for the Handala Center for Prisoners and spoke frequently in 2021 and 2022 about the ongoing movements and hunger strikes inside the prisons confronting attacks by the colonial Zionist regime aiming to roll back rights achieved by past decades of struggle by the prisoners’ movement.

In 2023, he once again spoke about the struggles of the prisoners’ movement inside the occupation prisons:

 

Upon his martyrdom, the Youth of Revenge and Liberation of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the armed wing of the Fateh movement, issued a statement, saluting al-Sarafiti for his continuous struggle, stating that “Our heroic martyr never left the battlefields with the Zionist enemy throughout Palestine. He was responsible for recruiting and financing several resistance cells in the occupied West Bank, and for directing several qualitative operations that resulted in numerous deaths and injuries among enemy soldiers.

Since the glorious seventh of October, our martyr has been in charge of a group of our fighters in the Gaza Strip, launching rockets at enemy settlements and targeting the Zionist enemy forces advancing from the ground.”

Ali al-Sarafiti is among a number of liberated prisoners who have been targeted for assassination and massacre by the Zionist regime throughout occupied Palestine. In Gaza following 7 October 2023, amid the ongoing genocide alone, the martyred liberated prisoners include (non-comprehensive list):

  • Nashat Ahmad, martyred in the bombing of his family home on 7 April
  • Jaber Ammar (Abu Ali), who spent 14 years in Zionist prisons and released in the 1983 prisoner exchange, on 25 March
  • Jibril Jibril, from Qalqilya, released in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange and deported to Gaza; his body was found on 18 February

  • Ali al-Maghribi, a Palestinian refugee from Dheisheh camp, freed in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange and deported to Gaza, on 15 January
  • Khaled al-Najjar, liberated in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange, from Silwad, east of Ramallah, and a member of the Hamas leadership in the West Bank, martyred on 27 May 2024
  • Rami Abu Mustafa, together with many of his family members, in the bombing of tents sheltering displaced people in Hamad City north of Khan Younis, on 2 January. He spent 20 years in occupation prisons before being released in 2022.

  • Raed Khaled Ghabayen, martyred together with his wife and the severe injury of their infant daughter, when their tent in Az-Zawaydeh, central Gaza, was bombed by the occupation on 8 December 2024
  • Murad Rajoub, from al-Khalil, liberated in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange while serving a 38-year sentence and deported to Gaza; martyred in a Zionist operation in Gaza City on 22 November 2024. Occupation forces attacked his family and prohibited them from opening a mourning house in al-Khalil.
  • Abdul-Aziz Salha, from Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah, deported to Gaza and liberated in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange, assassinated in Deir al-Balah on 3 October 2024. He was part of a resistance operation during the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, where 2 invading occupation soldiers were killed at a Ramallah police station, and he held up bloody hands outside the window.

    The story of the 2000 incident is important to recall in detail; 2 Zionist soldiers invaded Ramallah amid the funeral of Khalil Zahran, the 17-year-old Palestinian child killed by occupation soldiers the previous day, and only days following the martyrdom of Issam Joudeh, who had been kidnapped, set on fire and shot by occupation settlers. While they tried to take refuge in a Palestinian Authority police station, the overwhelming popular anger led several resisters to enter the police station, overwhelm the police, and kill the two occupation soldiers. (17 PA police were reportedly injured as they attempted to protect the occupation soldiers from the overwhelming popular anger of the masses.)

    Since this action, the Zionist regime has repeatedly attempted to demonize the resistant population, referring to it as a “lynching” (when, in fact, occupied and colonized people were targeting the invading military occupation forces, unquestionably their right under international law, leaving this description as a ludicrous attempt to invert reality, when Issam Joudeh was the victim of the only actual lynching in this series of events.) Absurdly, Zionists continue to attack demonstrators around the world for coloring their hands red and holding them up at politicians to indicate the politicians’ complicity in the sea of blood shed by the Zionist regime in the genocide in Gaza, alleging that this is an obscure reference to Abdul-Aziz Salha and the popular, resistant rage of the Palestinian people in 2000. All of this is an indication of why he was targeted for assassination 24 years later.

  • Abu Ali Abu al-Jedian, released prisoner martyred on 15 September in an occupation attack on Beit Lahia;
  • Ahmed Ghoneim, martyred with three of his family members on 10 May 2024 in a Zionist attack on their home in northern Gaza;

  • Nidal Akram Abu Shukheidam, from al-Khalil, liberated in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange and deported to Gaza, martyred on 19 April 2024
  • Akram Salameh, martyred by assassination on 6 April 2024, a leader in the Hamas movement and Gaza’s internal security, sentenced in 1996 to 30 years in prison and liberated in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange. The brother of Hassan Salameh, serving one of the longest sentences in Zionist prison, he was held in the infamous Ramleh prison clinic where he helped and assisted the ill prisoners with their daily needs.

  • Yousef Dheeb Abu Uday, from Kufr Ni’ma near Ramallah, liberated in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange and deported to Gaza, martyred on 14 February 2024 in the bombing of Rafah;

  • Hazem Hassanein, martyred together with his wife and two children in the occupation’s genocidal bombing of Gaza on 12 January 2024, in a case strikingly similar to Ali al-Sarafiti. He spent 16 years in occupation prisons and served as the spokesperson for Asra Media, the Prisoners’ Information Office.

  • Mohammed al-Udaini, liberated prisoner released in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange and martyred on 11 January 2024.

  • Abdel-Fattah Maali, from Salfit, liberated in the Wafa’ al-Ahrar exchange and deported to Gaza, and one of the earliest members of the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, assassinated by the occupation, martyred on 30 December 2023.
  • Ahmed al-Fajem, from Bani Suhaila, liberated in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange and martyred in Khan Younis on 24 December 2023
  • Mohammed Ibrahim Hamada, from Sur Baher in Jerusalem, freed in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange and deported to Gaza, the spokesperson for Jerusalem of the Hamas movement, whose martyrdom was announced in November 2023

  • Fursan Khalifa, from the Nour Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem, imprisoned in 2003 and liberated and deported to Gaza in the 2011 Wafa’ al-Ahrar exchange, a leading struggler in Hamas and the al-Qassam Brigades, martyred on 25 November 2023. His brother Fares Khalifa — also a liberated prisoner who spent 14 years in occupation prisons —  was martyred on 15 January 2024 when he was shot dead in cold blood at the Anab checkpoint near Tulkarem; occupation forces blocked ambulances from reaching him until he had already died.

  • Ahmad Abu Jazar, martyred along with 10 members of his family on 13 October 2023 after their home in Rafah was bombed by the occupation. He was released less than one year earlier after 19 years in occupation prisons.
  • Abdul-Rahman Shehab, martyred on 12 October 2023 along with his wife, children and mother after their home in Jabaliya was bombed by occupation forces. The director of the Atlas Center for Studies, he spent 23 years in occupation prisons and published numerous books and studies about the Palestinian cause. During his time in occupation prisons, he was the leader of the Islamic Jihad prisoners.

  • Abdullah Abu Seif, from al-Khalil, liberated in the Wafa al-Ahrar exchange and deported to Gaza, martyred on 9 October 2023 when his home was bombed.

The assassination of Ali al-Sarafiti is the latest example of this ongoing policy of assassination and targeting of the liberated prisoners, amid the targeting of the entire Palestinian population for massacre and genocide. The list above is severely incomplete and does not even attempt to address the dozens of Palestinian liberated prisoners martyred in just the past 18 months in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Like Ali al-Sarafiti, the liberated prisoners represent the continuity of struggle, as generation after generation fights for total liberation. Whether inside or outside prison, he continued to represent the prisoners’ movement and struggle for the liberation of Palestine. As the prisoners inside occupation prisons are being targeted for “slow killing” — assassinations carried out through torture and the denial of medical care — the liberated prisoners are being targeted for assassination in an effort to expedite the genocide and deprive the Palestinian people of their leaders and defenders.

Every imperialist power that continues to arm, fund and support the Zionist regime — the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Canada, etc. — is responsible for these ongoing crimes in full. We urge all supporters of Palestine to act, confront those responsible, and escalate all actions to bring the genocide to an end, impose accountability on those responsible, free all Palestinian prisoners — and, fundamentally, defeat and dismantle zionism and the zionist regime, for a free Palestine from the river to the sea.

Historical tracking: Milestones from the struggle of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement by Ahlam Tamimi

The following article, by liberated prisoner Ahlam Tamimi (under constant threat from the United States) was published in Arabic on April 23, 2025 in Etar Online, examining the history and development of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement over the decades. We are republishing it in English translation below in order to highlight the intellectual contributions and historical record of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement, as documented by the prisoners themselves. 

Ahlam Tamimi is a Palestinian-Jordanian journalist and writer, originally from the village of Nabi Saleh in occupied Palestine and born in Zarqa, Jordan, in 1980. One of the first women to join the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, she escorted the martyr Izz el-Din al-Masri inside occupied al-Quds ’48 to carry out a resistance operation at a Sbarro restaurant. She was arrested and sentenced to 16 life terms in occupation prisons, and was liberated in the Wafa’ al-Ahrar prisoner exchange achieved by the Palestinian Resistance in 2011. She was deported to Jordan; later, in 2017, the U.S. government announced that it was adding her to its most-wanted list and issued a $5 million reward for her capture. The U.S. has repeatedly demanded she be extradited from Jordan, despite Jordanian courts’ ruling that she must not be turned over.

Historical tracking: Milestones from the struggle of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement

Ahlam Tamimi

Introduction

The Palestinian prisoners’ movement is considered to be one of the most important elements of the Palestinian national struggle, as prisoners have, over the last decades, constituted an important dimension in the resistance against Israeli occupation. Israeli prisons have turned into arenas for struggle and confrontation that have led to the formation of a collective consciousness and a culture of resistance inside the prison cells, and have contributed to the elaboration of the concepts of freedom, resilience and national belonging. This article seeks to examine the historical development of the prisoners’ movement since 1967, and analyze its political, organizational and militant role.

Historical Background

Zionist gangs have adopted the policy of summary execution after arrests and violent interrogations during the 40’s. In 1949, five Israeli soldiers arrested a Palestinian girl in her twenties, they then murdered this girl after raping her and subjecting to her to a violent interrogation, and the soldiers have admitted during their trial that the murder and the rape came as a result of clear and explicit orders. [1] And between the years of 1948 and 1967, the Israeli occupation used many of the camps that they inherited from the British mandate, and in it they imprisoned tens of thousands of Palestinians, leading to the spreading of disease and epidemics due to the poor treatment and the overcrowding.[2]

Phases of the History of the Prisoners Movement: The First Phase: 1967-1970

Since the 1967 occupation of the West-Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation authorities started arresting thousands of Palestinians and Arabs after the launch of armed resistance inside and outside the country, which overshadowed the reality of the prisoners’ movement. Researchers started documenting the history of the prisoners’ movement since the year of the Naksa. In an exclusive interview conducted by the researcher during her preparation of her Master’s thesis on March 15, 2019, with Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi, the first Palestinian prisoner to be liberated after having been incarcerated in the isolation cells of al-Ramla prison[3], he talked to her about the detention conditions he was subjected to during his first incarceration. This incarceration lasted from January 17, 1965 to February 21, 1971, and during it, he was completely isolated from the outside world and put under constant surveillance by the jailer who was replaced once every 8 hours. He added: “After my arrest I was subjected to physical torture and mental pressures to push me to snitch on my colleagues, and I was also aching from the wound I sustained while clashing with the Israeli army. With the start of 1967, the number of imprisoned fedayeen increased. I was never allowed to live with them or to meet them, and I used to loudly call to them to raise their morale. I was under constant surveillance and I was not allowed to be in contact with anyone.”[4] The occupation sentenced Mahmoud Hijazi to death, making him the first Palestinian prisoner to be given the death penalty, after the execution of Ata al-Zeer, Mohammad Jamjoum and Fuad Hijazi in Akka prison in 1933, and Sheikh Farhan al Saadi [1937] and Youssef in 1939[5]. Hijazi’s death sentence was subsequently overturned in the appeal hearing and he was liberated on February 28, 1971.

The treatment of female prisoners at that time was not any better than that of the male prisoners. Liberated female prisoner Fatima Bernawi, who was arrested by the occupation forces in October 1967, says that the Prison Services forced female Palestinian prisoners to work in the laundry rooms and in agriculture in the fields of al-Ramla prison. They were put together with the penal female prisoners arrested for prostitution and drug-related charges. It was not easy for female prisoners to extract their rights during the 1960’s, which forced them to wage multiple hunger strike campaigns to gain some basic rights in detention.[6]

We can say that the first conditions of detention were harsh, that they constituted a form of slavery and a tool to practice violence and terror with the objective of cementing its monstrosity in the mind of the Palestinian, and of dissuading any militant action, paving the way for the elimination of the project of liberation struggle before it even started.[7] Liberated prisoner Aisha Odeh, who was arrested on March 1, 1969, documented her experience in prison in her book Dream of Freedom. She described the heinousness of the first conditions of interrogation, characterized by constant physical beating alongside spitting, insults, threats of sexual assault and the use of electro-shock, as well as hearing other prisoners being tortured in neighboring cells, and her seeing corpses dragged on the floor, as she herself was on the verge of dying.[8] She explained that the reason behind all this cruelty was the shock of the occupation at the qualitative and successful participation of women in the resistance efforts, confirming that the year 1969 had seen multiple successive militant operations led by women such as Aida Saad, Mariam al-Shakhshir, Lutfiya el-Hawari and Rasmea Odeh, among others.

In this time period, the prisoners endured the effects of the harsh treatment by the Israeli Prison Service, and their systemic targeting through the policies of starvation and anonymization, in an attempt to erase the militant self and replace it with an exhausted, compliant and surrendered self. They were deprived of sufficient quantities of food that was prepared by the “criminal” prisoners in the worst ways possible, such as the “Goosefoot soup” which consisted of a few leaves of herbs inside a large quantity of water, alongside half of an old boiled egg that was served for breakfast[9]. As for the dress code, there was a single uniform for all inmates, and it was not allowed to bring in one’s own clothes. They also made sure to grant them the least amounts of rights stipulated by the 4th Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of the Prisoners of Wars, such as granting each prisoner two blankets and a thin leather mattress instead of a bed, and they were restricted in their sleep due to the number of times inspections were carried out on a daily basis, starting at 5:30 a.m., and during which the prisoner is forced to tidy his bed and prevented from going back to sleep. The prisoner is also forced to reply with “Yes Sir”. As for the yard time, it did not exceed 30 minutes or at best, an hour a day.

As for forced labor, it was, according to the writings of liberated prisoner William Nassar in his book Taghribat Bani Fatah, characterized by the following: [10]

1- Forced cleaning works; including the cleaning of the cells, the hallways and the jailers’ offices under the threat of punishment or solitary confinement.

2- Workshops; such as furniture maintenance workshops or the manufacture of tank nets used by the soldiers for the purposes of camouflage.

3- Hard labor in prison yards; such as shoveling dirt, moving rocks and tidying up the yards for free.

4- Mandatory Services; such as ironing the military uniforms of the jailers, offering them coffee, tea and food, or executing humiliating personal orders.

There was no presence of factionalism or organizational distinctions in this period because the prisoners considered themselves the upholders of a common revolution. Quietist and regionalistic policies sprang up with covert support from the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) in order to achieve their objective of getting the prisoners’ minds caught up with anything besides the homeland and its liberation.[11]

This phase, despite its harshness, constituted the main focal point of the upcoming rebellious undertakings and instances of disobedience in Israeli prisons, as well as the use of hunger strikes which we will be discussing later on.

The Second Phase: 1970-1973

After the increase in the incarceration rates in the ranks of the revolutionaries with organizational backgrounds, they refused the policy of forced labor imposed upon them. In retaliation, they were subjected to the penalty of solitary confinement, as well as the banning of family visits and constant beating. With the constitution of an organizational nucleus among the prisoners from Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the rebellion against forced labor erupted and the number of those opposed to it increased, and hunger strikes were used as a tool to extract rights under detention.

It is during this phase that the prisoners launched their first hunger strike on February 18, 1969, in al-Ramla prison. The strike lasted for 11 days before it eventually failed because the prisoners were subjected to repression, isolation and sanctions. [12]During this strike, the strike leaders, including Abdulhamid al-Qudsi, Kamel al-Nemri and William Nassar, among others, were placed in solitary confinement, and were subjected to violent beatings by the Ramla prison director until they were moved to Asqelan prison.[13] The Kfar Yona prison hunger strike was simultaneously launched and it lasted for 8 days, and ended up successfully achieving some of the demands such as the prisoners getting writing implements and stationery, and them not having to respond with “yes sir” anymore, something which was exclusive to Kfar Yona.[14]

Liberated prisoner Shawqi Shahrour says: “I was transferred, alongside the leaders of the strike, to Asqelan prison. It is a prison specially designed to break morale and humiliate the prisoner and discipline him. We were welcomed with a series of beatings that we called “al-tashrifah” (the bestowing of honors); we had to walk through a long hallway, with soldiers on both sides holding batons and electric wires. While naked, we were almost beaten to death under the pretext that we are criminals. I remember that my head was swollen and my body was bleeding. We were then sprayed with DDT and were locked up in rooms with twenty prisoners each, without getting treatment or sufficient quantities of food, as we continued getting beaten while inside the rooms depending on the mood of the jailer, whom we were only able to address by saying “yes sir.”[15]

The detention conditions in Asqelan prison were humiliating. Prisoners were forced to launch a hunger strike on July 5, 1970, which lasted for around a week. Thanks to this hunger strike campaign, the prisoners were able to achieve some meagre demands such as the increase of the duration of yard time and allowing the inmates to receive clothes from their families and allowing them to have writing implements and stationery. Despite the extreme difficulties, the prisoners were able to limit the scope of the aggressions that were committed against them.[16]

The Third Phase: 1973 – 1980

This phase was characterized by the effort to consolidate the factional system inside prisons, and its imposition upon the jailers as an internal system of life, turning the prisoners’ life from chaos into order. The prisoners also emphasized the necessity to extract the rights that were stipulated by international charters which pushed them to launch multiple hunger strikes during this phase, including:

  • The strike in Asqelan prison which lasted from April 13, 1973 up until October 7, 1973.
  • An open hunger strike that was launched from Asqelan prison on December 11, 1976, and spread to all other prisons. It lasted around 45 days, after they organized themselves so that each room had its own representatives who spoke at its behalf, and a general representative was elected in every prison to speak on behalf of the prisoners of all factions. Moreover, a list of demands was presented to the Asqelan prison service on top of which was the end of the policy of constant beating. Some of these demands were granted, such as the prisoners managing the library and the replacement of the prisoners’ rotten mattresses with new ones, while the prison administration violated the other agreements which led the prisoners to launch another hunger strike on February 24, 1977, to demand the implementation of these promises, and this strike lasted 20 days. [17]

The Fourth Phase: 1980 – 1985

The IPS realized the impactful role played by the Palestinian organizations inside prisons, and it grew aware of the cultural level that the prisoners developed, as they used to hold cultural sessions and issue monthly magazines written on the back of food packages; these included the Thawra (Revolution) magazine and the Hurriyah (Freedom) journal which gave the prisoners the opportunity to write articles about various topics.[18] Therefore, the IPS decided to open Nafha prison in 1980. In it, the IPS incarcerated the leaders of the prisoners’ movement in harsh conditions including bad food both in terms of quantity and quality. In addition, the highest possible number of prisoners were crammed up in rooms with no ventilation, writing implements and stationery were confiscated and the prisoners were totally isolated from the outside world, leading them to coordinate with the prisoners of Asqelan and Bir al Saba’ to wage a hunger strike campaign that started on July 14, 1980 and lasted for 33 days. [19]

Talking about his hunger strike, liberated prisoner Azmi Mansour says: “During this hunger strike, prisoners Rasim Halawa, Ali al Jaafari, Ishaq Maragha and Anis al Dawla were martyred; Ali was my friend and we were in the same room.[20] They killed him by force feeding him with a laryngeal tube and then claimed that he had committed suicide.”[21] Then, the hunger strike spread into all prisons, and it ended up achieving all the prisoners’ demands, especially that of getting beds and increasing the area of the rooms. This strike was also characterized by the popular and media solidarity movement that followed the martyrdom of the four prisoners.

In 1984, prisoners of the Juneid prison extracted a higher number of demands after waging a 13-day hunger strike that was met with widespread solidarity from the Palestinian population which made it successful. Subsequently, televisions, radios, earphones and cassette tapes were introduced into the  prisons, as well as blankets and pajamas that were given by the families of the prisoners, which significantly impacted their general life, and provided them with a degree of stability that enabled them to prioritize their culture and advance their militancy.

The Fifth Phase: 1985 – 1993

After the al-Jalil operation which oversaw the liberation of over 1000 Palestinian prisoners amonَg those sentenced to long sentences or to life in prison in 1985, the prisoners sought to reconstruct Palestinian organizations, especially after the emergence of Islamic organizations. Thus, the IPS decided to overturn the previous achievements of the prisoners and bring them back to square one, forcing them to launch a hunger strike on March 27, 1987 led by inmates from Juneid prison, which were then followed by those of the other prisons, ultimately lasting 20 days but did not achieve their demands.

Thousands were arrested in the early days of the first Intifada in December 1987, and the battle overshadowed the prisons which saw heavy repression and the overturn of previous achievements. This went on until 1992, after the prisoners had launched a hunger strike on June 23, 1991 that was met with failure, mainly because of the Gulf War and the instability of the general regional political situation.

The prisoners decided to launch a crucial hunger strike on September 25, 1992 which included prisoners from all prisoners that had around 7000 participants in total. This strike saw a great deal of success and restored the balance of life in detention after the prisoners extracted a number of gains, including: The end of strip searches, the closure of the solitary confinement section of Ramla prison, the resumption of visits by family members and the extension of the duration of these visits, as well as allowing private visits, the extension of the list of purchases and introducing cooking tiles and equipment into the rooms [22], as well as allowing the pursuit of university education in the Open Hebrew University. [23]

The Sixth Phase: 1994 – 2000

The signing of the Oslo Accords and the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) impacted the situation of the prisoners in Israeli prisons. The prisoners were divided into sections: one that is comprised of those in support of the accords, thinking it will lead to their release, and another comprised of Marxists and Islamic thinkers who opposed the accords and did not believe that they were going to lead to the emptying of the prisons. [24]

This phase was characterized by the economic stability of the prisoners, in particular after the creation of the Palestinian Prisoners Club and, later on, the Ministry of Detainees and ex-Detainees Affairs. The prisoners gained rights as the general peaceful situation reflected on them. The regular visits of the lawyer of the Palestinian Prisoners Club and the Ministry of Detainees bridged the relationship with the PA which contributed to achieving some of the prisoners’ demands, on top of which was the resumption of university education and the arrangement of the financial support of the prisoners and their families outside and inside the prisons according to a special salary scale, which provided the prisoners with relative stability. Despite this, the question that reoccurred in the minds of the prisoners revolved around the possibility of their release in the light of the Oslo Accords and the peaceful relationship between the PA and the Israelis, which led to a downfall in the internal organizational presence and a decrease in the levels of organizational culture and the general situation. [25]

Some prisoners were liberated after the Oslo accords, under “good will” initiatives, but these releases did not include many of the veteran prisoners or those with long sentences, leading to a decrease in the morale of the prisoners and their disillusionment in the PA leadership. Liberated prisoner Israr Sumrain says he was heavily disappointed after seeing prisoner Ahmad Abu al-Sukkar who was not liberated by the Oslo Accords, leading him to question: “If Abu al-Sukkar was not liberated, then when are we getting liberated?” This led the prisoners to wage a political strike under the slogan of “The Oslo Accords did not liberate them: releasing the male and female prisoners without exception” on March 18, 1995, lasting 18 days. This strike had the aim of delivering a political message to the PA and the Palestinian people in the light of the current quiet state of affairs. [26]

This phase was characterized by political strikes, which delivered multiple messages to the Palestinian Authority. The 1995 strike was followed by another on February 5, 1998, which lasted just 10 days and was only waged by PLO prisoners without the participation of the prisoners from the Islamic movements. Then, yet another strike followed on May 1, 2000, lasting 30 days. This strike started after the opening of the Hadarim prison and the isolation of a number of prisoners and the attempt to replace the dividing net with glass during the family visits to the prisoners. This strike saw a wide-scale popular solidarity movement that led to the martyrdom of some Palestinians. These strikes spread further as prisoners in Asqelan, Nafha and Shatta joined in, increasing the number of prisoners on hunger strike to around 1500, ultimately leading to the granting of the majority of humanitarian demands, such as; removing the prisoners under solitary confinement from isolation, allowing university education and stopping the policy of naked searches. However, all of these achievements were later completely overturned after the eruption of the al-Aqsa Intifada in the year 2000. [27]

The Seventh Phase: 2000 – 2006

After the eruption of the al-Aqsa Intifada on September 28, 2000 and the arrest of large numbers of Palestinians, the IPS opened new prisons and prison sections and even reopened old prisons such as al Ramla, Kfar Yona, Hadarim, Gilboa and Ramon. Most of the achievements of the prisoners were overturned and a policy of daily searches of the prisoners’ rooms was enforced. The situation of female prisoners in Ramla prison worsened, leading them to wage a hunger strike for 8 days starting on June 26, 2001, followed by their participation in the general prison strike on August 15, 2004, which led to the achievement of some basic demands after 19 days on hunger strike.

The arrest of large numbers of Palestinians in the wake of this Intifada led to the deterioration of relations between them and older prisoners, as well as the presence of a gap in their communication and harmony. Liberated prisoner Fakhri al-Barghouti says: “It was a difficult phase, one in which the prisoners of the PA security services didn’t wish to take part in the general organization in prison. This period saw the prioritization of personal interests at the expense of the general interest, and it was said that it exhausted the older prisoners because of the age and intellectual and organizational gap between them and the new prisoners.” [28]

The Eighth Phase: 2007 – 2019

Inter-Palestinian division overshadowed the prisoners movement. The prisoners’ lives in Israeli prisons was divided on the basis of the organization they belonged to, and now, every organization had its representatives and sections and private life, which weakened their position in the face of the IPS. The national ranks of the prisoners were divided, which led a number of prisoners from different Palestinian organizations to launch a conciliatory initiative on June 27, 2007, known as the National Reconciliation Document of the Prisoners. However, this initiative did not succeed in settling the internal disputes of the prisoners. And after the arrest of a large number of children after the 2015 al Quds Intifada, the IPS launched an offensive against the prisoners across all prisons, costing the prisoners a great effort to accommodate and support the new prisoners and safeguard their rights. This phase was characterized by the weakening of the internal unity of the prisoners, as well as weak strategic plans and general position. [29]

The year 2011 saw the release of more than 1000 Palestinian male and female prisoners on October 18, after the exchange agreement between the Israelis and Hamas. And after a few months, the Hamas and PFLP prisoners in solitary confinement led a hunger strike on April 17, 2012, with the goal of putting an end to their isolation and to rejoin other prisoners in the collective cells. This strike saw a state of organizational solidarity which, although it did not include all organizations, ultimately culminated in the success of the endeavor. Nevertheless, the exchange deal also led to a feeling of frustration felt by those who remained in prison for not being included among those released. Liberated prisoner Amjad Abu Latifa says: “After the deal and the implementation of the Shalit law, disciplinary measures were restored and most benefits were terminated, especially when it came to prisoners from the Gaza Strip, who were subjected to measures that were twice as harsh, and were completely deprived of family visits, and were isolated in their sections.” [30]

The effects of the intra-Palestinian division on the general state of the prisoners led the prisoners under administrative detention to decide to launch a hunger strike on April 24, 2014, demanding the abolition of administrative detention. This strike saw a wide solidarity movement, and lasted for 63 days, becoming the longest hunger strike led by prisoners under administrative detention in the history of the prisoners’ movement, and it was subsequently ended after a limit of just one year of administrative detention was set. [31]

This phase saw the emergence of individual hunger strikes, which some prisoners were led to undertake due to the division in the ranks of the national prisoners’ movement. Some of these strikes lasted for hundreds of days and more. The year 2012 saw multiple individual hunger strikes such as that which was led by Khader Adnan throughout 66 days, the hunger strike led by Thaer Halahleh for 76 days, Hana Shalabi who went on hunger strike for 44 days, or Samer Issawi who exceeded all expectations by going on a hunger strike for 265 days, which is considered to be the longest individual hunger strike in the history of the prisoners’ movement. [32]

The Ninth Phase: 2020 – the aftermath of Al Aqsa Flood War

The prisoners of this phase suffered from the coronavirus which spread among their ranks, as they lacked any sterilizers or antiseptics as well as precautionary measures. This led to the increase in the numbers of infected prisoners. This period also saw an attempt by six prisoners to escape from Gilboa prison on September 2021, and these prisoners are: Zakaria Zubeidi, Mahmoud al Ardah, Yacoub Qadri, Ayham Kamamji, Mohammad al Ardah and Munadil Nafa’at. This was followed by a series of heightened security measures after their recapture. This forced the prisoners to wage two hunger strikes in 2022 that culminated in the meeting of their demands after the prisoners threatened to dissolve their organizations and structures and enter a complete rebellion. [33]

In the wake of the Al Aqsa Flood War beginning on October 7, 2023, the number of prisoners increased and exceeded the 16,000 mark, while around 59 prisoners were martyred since the eruption of the flood. [34] The IPS used new and unprecedented torture methods against male and female prisoners, which included rape and sexual harassment, using dogs for intimidation purposes, overturning all the achievements of the prisoners’ movement and bringing it back to square one. It also opened the Sde Teiman prison which it specifically designed to incarcerate prisoners from the Gaza Strip against whom it committed war crimes that violate international law and the Geneva conventions, and it did not reveal the names of the detainees to any legal entity. Lawyer Khaled Mahajneh transmitted the testimonies of multiple prisoners that were locked up in Sde Teiman, which included: The 24h chaining and blindfolding of the prisoner, not allowing prisoners to change their clothes, the spread of diseases and epidemics, skin diseases in particular such as scabies, subjecting the prisoners to maximum security and assaults by armed guards, not allowing the prisoners to communicate between each other or to practice their religion, only allowing them to shower once a week or even less, reducing the food quantity and the continuous and sudden beating of prisoners. [35] As for the other Israeli prisons, the IPS has isolated the veteran leaders of the prisoners’ movement and brutally assaulted them, and denied them treatment and medical operations, while also attempting to assassinate many of the prisoners and the leaders of the prisoners’ movement, confiscating their belongings and dispersing them between the prisons. [36]

And despite the release of Palestinian prisoners in seven successive batches as a result of the first phase agreements of the al Aqsa Flood deal between Hamas and the Israelis, the arrests are still ongoing, and the conditions inside the prisons keep deteriorating day after day as the war rages on.

Conclusion…

 The history of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement boasts of a long record of sacrifices and developments, which reflects the resilience of the Palestinian people and its determination to achieve liberation, and which constitutes a focal point to understand the development of the Palestinian national struggle, as it reflects the scope of the transformation of the concept of resistance inside the prisons. And despite the attempts for repression and exclusion that were exercised by the jailer, the prisoners were able to cement their presence in the national collective conscience. And from here on, it is indispensable to study this movement in order to grasp one of the most important pillars of the modern Palestinian struggle, and to maintain the prisoners’ cause as a priority on a Palestinian and on an international level.

[1] Al-Tamimi, Ahlam Aref, Communication Activities for Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Occupation Prisons: Towards a Theoretical Concept of the Prisoners’ Information Concept, Master’s thesis published, 2019, Middle East University, Jordan.

[2] Liddawi, Mustafa Yousef, the Free Prisoners, Hawks in the Nation’s Sky, First Edition, 2013, Dar Al-Farabi, Beirut, Lebanon.

[3] Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi died on March 22, 2022 in Ramallah.

[4] Al-Tamimi, previous source.

[5] The Prisoners and Editors Affairs Authority website, “The prisoners’ movement origin and development,” was published on 3/29/2019, visiting the site on 4/13/2025, https://2u.pw/6ZiuGML.

[6] Memory of Palestine site, Interview of the freed prisoner Fatima Bernawi, the site was visited on 4/13/2025, https://2u.pw/MCmyl.

[7] Qaraqe, Issa, Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons after Oslo 1993-1999, published Master’s thesis, 2001, Birzeit University, Palestine.

[8] Odeh, Aisha, Dreams of Freedom, 2004, Muwattin: Palestinian Foundation for the Study of Democracy, Ramallah, Palestine.

[9] Memory of Palestine site, Interview of the freed prisoner Shawki Shahrour, the date of visiting the site 4/13/2025, https://2u.pw/iBDHh.

[10] Nassar, William, Ghariba Bani Fath: forty years in the Fathawi maze, 2005, Dar Al Shurouk Publishing and Distribution, Jordan.

[11] Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs, previous source.

[12] Palestinian National Information Center, most famous hunger strike, date of site visit 4/14/2025, https://info.wafa.ps/pages/details/32928.

[13] Memory of Palestine site, Interview of the freed prisoner Abdul Hamid Al-Qudsi, the date of visiting the site 4/14/2025, https://2u.pw/t9lUL.

[14] Palestinian National Information Center, previous source.

[15] Memory of Palestine site, previous source.

[16] Memory of Palestine site, Interview of the freed prisoner Azmi Mansour, the date of visiting the site 4/14/2025, https://2u.pw/UJIBG.

[17] Al-Azza, Muhannad, the date of the hunger strike in the prisons of the Israeli enemy, Al-Adab magazine, the date of visiting the site on 4/14/2025, https://2u.pw/7Eu7o.

[18] Id.

[19] Id.

[20] This tube that enters the prisoner’s stomach through the nose, in a coercive way to force him to break the hunger strike, and pass through it a liquid substance for forced nutrition

[21] Memory of Palestine, previous source.

[22] These cooking implements include the “tile,” a burner used by the prisoners to cook their food.

[23] Hamdouna, Raafat Khalil, Creative aspects of the history of the Palestinian prisoners’ national movement between 1985-2015, a published research study, 2018, Ministry of Information, Palestine.

[24] Ziyad, Ziyad Musa, the impact of the Oslo era on the unity and achievements of the prisoners’ movement in Israeli prisons 1993-2012, published Master’s thesis, 2012, Palestine, https://2u.pw/7ov4x.

[25] Al-Tamimi, Nizar, a phone interview dated 4/15/2025.

[26] Memory of Palestine site, Interview of the freed prisoner, Israr Sumrain, the date of visiting the site 4/15/2025, https://2u.pw/15kTZ.

[27] Al-Tamimi, previous source.

[28] Memory of Palestine site, previous source.

[29] Abu Mohsen, Jamal, History of the Prisoners’ Movement, 2024, published by Arab American University, Palestine.

[30] Memory of Palestine site, Interview of the freed prisoner Amjad Abu Latifa, the date of visiting the site 4/15/2025, https://2u.pw/T3KXI.

[31] Sadiq, Mervat, “Suspension of the prisoners’ strike after an agreement with the Israeli intelligence,” Al-Jazeera website, date of visiting the site 4/15/2025, https://2u.pw/nZr4J.

[32] Rajoub, Awad, “The most prominent individual strikes of Palestinian prisoners,” 2022, Al-Jazeera website, date of visiting the site 4/15/2025, https://2u.pw/ySlcD.

[33] Al-Asa, Fadi, “Palestinian prisoners flee Gilboa Prison,” 2021, Al-Jazeera website, date of visiting the site 4/15/2025, https://2u.pw/sX0JuEh.

[34] Palestinian Prisoner Club Statistics, 2025.

[35] “The first lawyer to visit “Sde Teman”,” a report published on the Arab TV website, 2024, the date of visiting the site 4/15/2025, https://2u.pw/bjJIq.

[36] Abu Mohsen, previous citation.

Families of Palestinian prisoners respond to Abbas’ attack on the resistance

At the opening of the “Palestine Liberation Organization Central Council” meeting this morning, 23 April, Palestinian Authority “President” Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) launched the event with a speech in which he fully adopted the anti-Palestinian narrative and echoed Zionist, US and European demands for the Palestinian Resistance, particularly Hamas and the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, to disarm, to turn over the prisoners of war they hold, and called Hamas “sons of dogs,” amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine.

Of course, in many ways, this comes as no surprise; while doing absolutely nothing to support Palestinians confronting occupation and genocide, either in Gaza or in the West Bank, where tens of thousands have been displaced from the refugee camps, the “Palestinian Authority” has taken the lives of 21 martyrs, arrested hundreds of people for participating in the resistance or even simply speaking and demonstrating for Gaza, and holds dozens of political prisoners under torture, while maintaining “security coordination” with the genocidal occupation regime (which Abbas earlier described as “sacred”). The purpose of the Central Council meeting was not to discuss how to organize a Palestinian united front, nor to confront the genocide, but instead to appoint a “vice president” of the PLO from among Abbas’ allies, with the blessing of the United States and the European Union. The meeting was boycotted in advance by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian National Initiative; following Abbas’ speech and the disastrous first day of the meeting, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine announced it was pulling out of the meeting. (The Resistance News Network has compiled an extensive report on the widespread Palestinian response to and rejection of the meeting and Abbas’ statements.)

As we noted previously: The only true road to Palestinian national unity comes through resistance and confrontation, led by those who fight for Palestinian liberation, and it cannot include those who imprison, assassinate and betray the people and the resistance for the benefit of the occupiers and imperialists.

Several liberated Palestinian prisoners have already spoken out about Abbas’ attack on the resistance, and upon a massive sector of the Palestinian people; liberated prisoner and Fateh revolutionary council member Fakhri Barghouti said that the meeting does not represent the PLO or Palestinian people, but rather “a gang that hijacks Palestinian decision making.”

Nael Barghouti, who was the longest-held Palestinian prisoner until his liberation in the Toufan al-Ahrar prisoner exchange, in which he was deported to Egypt, said: “Abbas’s offensive statements against our people and their resistance have backfired upon him, and his claims of sadness over our deportation abroad is belied by the PA’s treatment of prisoners and released prisoners, including those from the Fateh movement.”

Abbas’ “Palestinian Authority” in Ramallah has refused to issue new Palestinian passports to the liberated prisoners, preventing them from continuing their lives following their release. At the same time that Abbas was attacking the resistance that liberated Barghouti and over 1,700 fellow prisoners in the exchange, occupation forces in the West Bank were spending three hours rampaging through his hometown, Kobar, occupying his family home and turning it into a field interrogation center before taking its measurements, telling his wife, liberated prisoner Iman Nafeh, that they intend to demolish it. Iman has been barred from travel by the occupation, preventing her from reuniting with her husband.

Of course, this comes in addition to the order by the PA to terminate the financial provisions provided to the families of imprisoned Palestinians, long a demand of the Zionist regime, the US and the European Union. This attack on the families of the freedom fighters and imprisoned strugglers caused a widespread reaction from all Palestinian political forces, and Abbas dismissed the head of the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority, Qaddoura Fares, in an attempt to quash the outrage.

The Assembly of the Families of the Prisoners issued a statement condemning Abbas’ attack on the heroic resistance forces defending the Palestinian people against genocide and fighting for the liberation of the prisoners, as follows:

We strongly condemn the dangerous speech issued by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in which he called for the release of “Israeli” prisoners and described the heroes of the resistance with derogatory descriptions that are unbecoming of those who assume responsibility for the people.

Where does the issue of ten thousand Palestinian prisoners in the occupation’s prisons fall within the agenda of Mr. President? And is it appropriate for someone who spent decades in the prisons of the occupation to be disavowed—especially in this sensitive and critical national moment?

Does Mr. Abbas not feel ashamed when comparing himself to the “Israeli” leaders who show utmost concern for their prisoners and exert all their political, military, and international efforts to liberate and free them?

Has President Abbas not followed how the families of “Israeli” prisoners are cared for and escorted to international institutions and entities all over the world?

Why such statements at this particular time, when our cause has never witnessed such attempts at liquidation? And in whose interest is it to portray the heroes of the resistance—who hold the prisoners not for the sake of detention but for a noble and lofty purpose—in such a light?

Does the head of the Authority and the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization not know that working for the release of prisoners is guaranteed by all international laws and conventions? We do not even wish to say that it is one of the most essential national duties—because for someone who delivers such a speech, the homeland holds no value or weight, except as a presidential chair and a motorcade. Yet he forgets that the smallest Israeli soldier can close off his office and halt his movement.

Our prisoners are a crown upon our heads.
Our prisoners are the jewel of the beloved homeland.

Whoever works for their freedom and sheds his blood for them is honored, noble, and genuine. And only a vile, despicable, and disgraceful person would dare speak against them.

The Assembly of Martyrs’ Families also issued a statement in response:

Glory to the martyrs, and shame to the complacent

We follow with deep anger and sorrow what was stated in the speech of the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, during the opening of the Central Council session. His statements constituted a stab in the back of the sacrifices of our people, our martyrs, and our heroic resistance in Gaza and the West Bank—at a time when our people are engaged in an existential battle in the Gaza Strip, where children and women are being bombed and families are being exterminated.

Here, we bitterly ask: Where was the role of the Palestinian leadership throughout the five hundred and sixty-four days of aggression? Where was the Authority when Gaza was besieged, starved, and annihilated?

We, in the Assembly of Martyrs’ Families, affirm that resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right of our people. It is not up for abandonment, and we do not accept its compromise or authorize anyone to relinquish it.

To accuse the Palestinian resistance and its factions—which we consider an integral part of the Palestinian people’s fabric—with vile descriptions in the president’s speech is a moral and political debasement. It is unworthy of the martyrs’ status or the greatness of our people’s steadfastness and highlights the extent of the disconnect between the Authority and the reality of the Palestinian resistance.

We categorically reject the description of the martyrs who rose in the battle of Al-Aqsa Flood as “dead.” Such a description reflects nothing but ignorance of the sanctity of martyrdom in the consciousness of our people and a belittlement of the blood of those who offered their souls as a sacrifice for the homeland.

From our position in the Assembly of Martyrs’ Families, we reject any offense to the dignity of those who gave their lives, or any trivialization of their blood in a political scene that lacks national and moral legitimacy.

Glory to the martyrs… Honor to the resistance… And shame on all who betray the sacrifices of their people.

Assembly of Martyrs’ Families
Gaza – Palestine

The purpose of the Palestinian Authority over which Abbas presides, its security forces and the “security coordination” project under which they carry weapons is to prevent the Palestinian people and their liberation movement from effectively resisting and overthrowing the Zionist regime.

It acts in full service of the interests of Zionism and imperialism, while bearing a Palestinian flag emblem on each agent’s badge, while the resistance forces from Palestine to Yemen to Lebanon and beyond, resist the genocide in Gaza and fight for full liberation of Palestine from Zionism and of the entire region from imperialism.

The PA and its funders and trainers must be held accountable for its ongoing betrayal of the Palestinian people and its collaboration with the occupation regime and Zionist colonialism. The Oslo project is backed by Zionism, imperialism and reactionary regimes – and it must and will fall on the road to the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea, led by the unity of the people and the resistance. 

We urge all to respond with action and mobilization. Student and community organizations around the world have denounced the PA’s role as an imperialist-directed collaborator with Zionist occupation, colonization and genocide. Let us all make it clear in the streets that we stand with the Palestinian people and their heroic Resistance, for a liberated Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Samidoun Europe coordinator Mohammed Khatib released following arrest in Belgium: Stand together against repression and genocide!

On the evening of Monday, 21 April, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Europe coordinator, Palestinian activist Mohammed Khatib, was arrested from the street in central Brussels by Belgian police. He had just left the daily demonstration against the Zionist-imperialist genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine, which gathers each day at 7 pm outside the Bourse in the city center.

During the demonstration, participants noticed a member of the federal police repeatedly photographing Mohammed. When he was later stopped by the Brussels police on the street, they used the excuse of a “threat number” assigned to Mohammed by a state security agency to arrest him from the street and take him to the police station. This “threat score” has also been used on multiple occasions to detain, delay and harass Mohammed while he is traveling or returning to Belgium.

The news of his arrest prompted many friends, concerned community members and supporters of Palestine to call the police station to demand Mohammed’s release and inquire about his health and well-being; meanwhile, dozens gathered outside the police station, holding Palestinian flags and chanting, “Free our comrade!” This spontaneous demonstration in solidarity with Mohammed was forcibly and violently dispersed by the police, who later pursued participants in the gathering through central Brussels.

After being transferred to the federal police and following hours of delay, during which Mohammed never saw his lawyer, he was finally released at around 5 am Brussels time.

This arrest is clearly a form of state harassment targeting a prominent leader, not only of Samidoun, but of the growing movement against the ongoing genocide in occupied Palestine. Mohammed is a visible figure in the movement for justice in Palestine, for the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, and confronting racism and fascism. He has also been repeatedly targeted for repression; most significantly, he is currently facing a clearly politically driven effort to strip him – a Palestinian refugee born in Ein el-Helweh camp – of his asylum in Belgium. He is currently confronting bans on entrance and political activity in both Switzerland (where a 10-year ban was imposed!) and the Netherlands, which were imposed for no other reason than to prevent people from hearing his voice and the clarity of his political perspective. These bans were imposed without even an attempt to present a façade of due legal process and are purely political in nature.

Of course, the attack on Mohammed is not an isolated occurrence. Over the past months, particularly following the rise of the far-right “Arizona” government in Belgium (which also promised in its official program to ban Samidoun, something not currently allowed under Belgian law) as well as the reports from the United States of ongoing fascist attacks and deportations, Belgian police have taken an increasingly aggressive and repressive approach to the Palestine liberation movement, as well as to Arab, Black and other oppressed communities, who have long suffered from police violence and systematic racism. This also mirrors the ongoing and severe repression in many other Western imperialist countries, particularly in Germany, France and the United States. It comes alongside ongoing police training and intelligence sharing between these states and the Zionist regime, at the same time that “Israel” is carrying out a genocide in Gaza and imprisoning over 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners, who are routinely subjected to physical, psychological and sexual torture; starvation; and denial of medical care.

As Palestinians and supporters of Palestine gather daily outside the Bourse to express their outrage against the ongoing Zionist genocide and demand justice for Palestine, they are also facing daily arrests, police violence, and various forms of repression, including an attack by fascists on 12 April. Palestinian youth have been particularly targeted for arbitrary arrests, with, in many cases, detainees noting that they had been called slurs by police or told to “go back where they came from.” On 8 April, two Palestinians were assaulted and arrested at a demonstration outside the Zionist embassy in Brussels, including a Palestinian youth from Gaza demanding an end to the massacre of his family and loved ones. One arrested Palestinian was taken to a closed center (a form of immigration detention) and threatened with deportation before finally being released.

Let us be clear: the targeting, repression and state persecution and harassment of organizers working to stop genocide in Palestine is, in and of itself, aiding and abetting genocide. In addition to the ongoing military trade and alliance, economic support and security cooperation between the European Union and the Zionist regime, this type of repression in and of itself constitutes legally and morally culpable complicity in the ongoing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity being carried out by “Israel” against the Palestinian people in Gaza and throughout Palestine.

We salute all of those who demonstrated and gathered, called the police station from Brussels and around the world, and raised their voices to demand Mohammed’s release. Together, when we mobilize, unite and organize to defend each other, we can confront criminalization and repression, and we can build and strengthen our movement for the defeat of Zionist genocide, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their heroic Resistance, and for the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

We urge all supporters of Palestine to join in the global days of action on April 22, the global strike for Gaza, and April 25, the call to besiege US and Zionist embassies to respond to Gaza’s call for accountability, justice and action. Further, we urge all to participate in the ongoing daily demonstrations at the Bourse in Brussels. The bigger, stronger and more united these actions are, the stronger we will be against repression and for Palestine.

 

Call for Nakba77: Come to Berlin to stand for Palestine!

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is republishing the following public statement from collectives in Berlin, organizing to commemorate the 77th year of al-Nakba with mass action for Palestinian liberation and against zionist-imperialist genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine. In Germany, and especially in Berlin — home to the largest Palestinian and Arab exile and diaspora population in Europe — the repression has been extremely severe, with Palestine protests prohibited from marching and the constant threat and reality of police violence, arrests and imprisonment. Demonstrations commemorating al-Nakba, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day and al-Quds Day have been banned repeatedly. In November 2023, the German government banned Samidoun and Hamas — and even the slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Multiple organizers and demonstrators have been fired from their jobs, arrested, criminalized and imprisoned; four students are threatened with deportation, and Palestinians, among others, have been deported to Greece. To reach the organizers of this call, please email them at: nakba77_berlin@systemli.org

NAKBA 77: Come to Berlin
an invitation to all collectives, groups and organizations and individuals

Dear comrades,

We reach out to you to invite you to make a powerful mass demonstration in rage for Nakba Day, May 15th 2025 in Berlin!

As many of you know, the collaboration of Germany with the Zionist entity is not limited to military and political support, but also shows itself in the repression of Palestine solidarity. From the banning, restrictions and police brutality on the streets, to legal persecution of any active voice for Palestine, to taking away people’s jobs or right to political activity, to the violence of the current and ongoing deportation policy against Palestinians from Gaza and activists, which as of yesterday is going to be enforced by a new coalition contract that enables deportations based on presumed antisemitism and what they call “Volksverhetzung”.

For several months the situation continues to escalate more and more. All pro Palestine demonstrations are prevented from walking, and turned into static rallies, in order to repress them more effectively. Many times the people tried to break those restrictions and fight for our right to take our streets.

Now it is time to show Germany that being on the wrong side of history comes at a cost.
Banned or not, regardless of restrictions, we want to and will make a huge mass demonstration happen in this city, in the belly of the European zionist beast. For this we need you. We invite you to join us in rage, to bring your tactics, your power, and your ideas, in order to fight this fascist German state and society in its streets like never before!

On this 77th anniversary of the ongoing Nakba, let’s fight against the genocide, for a free Palestine from the sea to the river, for the unwavering Resistance, for the Right of Return and for total liberation! We are planning one single, powerful demonstration on May 15th at 4pm in Berlin, and we need you there! We call on all groups from across Germany and Europe to mobilize and converge in Berlin for this mass demonstration to fight colonialism and fascism, to fight occupation and genocide and reclaim our streets. We will also do our best to provide hospitality for all people without accommodation, so you can join our fight.

Please let us know if you are interested and how you would like to contribute.

Let us burn this imperialist system together to ashes, and show them the power of the people!

Please contact us at: nakba77_berlin@systemli.org

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