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International statement: Israel out of the Tour de France!

To add your organizational signature to this call, please email collectifpalestinevaincra@gmail.com.

From July 1 to 24, 2022, the 109th edition of the Tour de France will launch from Copenhagen, Denmark, and then proceed through several cities in Belgium and France. For the third consecutive year, the biggest cycling competition in the world is welcoming the Israel Premier Tech team, formerly known as Israel Start-Up Nation, to the starting line.

Founded by Israeli-Canadian businessman Sylvan Adams, this team aims to promote Israeli apartheid. Indeed, “the members of the team are ambassadors of the country of Israel, which is the basis of the team. We use sport to create links and promote the image of the country,” as the team openly underlines in a quote to a French newspaper.

The presence of this team with openly political ambitions is all the more scandalous when we see that the International Cycling Union is currently sanctioning several Russian and Belarusian teams because of the policies of their respective States, but becomes incapable of doing so when it comes to denouncing Israeli policy. This demonstrates once again that what is in question is not the legitimacy of the sports boycott but the targets it is addressing.

As Israel continues its policy of colonialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, we call for the intensification of the boycott of Israel as an anti-colonialist and anti-racist tool in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance which fights for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. In this context, we call for a boycott of the team Israel Premier Tech and for increased actions and organizing during this competition. The flag of Palestine must fly everywhere in order to make it clear that we do not accept the presence of a team representing the executioners of the Palestinian people.

Boycott Israel – Free Palestine Israel out of the Tour de France!

Initial signatories:

  • AFD International (FR)
  • AFPS 14-6 (FR)
  • AFPS 63 (FR)
  • AFPS Albertville (FR)
  • AFPS Nîmes (FR)
  • AFPS Paris-Sud (FR)
  • Africa 4 Palestine (ZA)
  • Al Awda – The Palestine Right of Return Coalition (US)
  • Al Yudur – Mouvement de la jeunesse palestinienne (ES)
  • Alkarama – Mouvement des femmes palestiniennes (ES)
  • Amis de la Palestine contre l’impérialisme et le sionisme (TR)
  • Association Belgo-palestinienne – régional de Liège (BE)
  • Association Démocratique des Tunisiens en France – ADTF (FR)
  • BACBI – Belgian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BE)
  • BDS Boston (US)
  • BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish (CA)
  • Bruxelles Panthères (BE)
  • Campagne de boycott des supporters d’Israël au Liban (LB)
  • Campagne tunisienne contre la normalisation avec l’entité sioniste (TN)
  • Campagne Unitaire pour la Libération de Georges Abdallah (FR)
  • Canada Palestine Association (CA)
  • Canadian BDS Coalition (CA)
  • CAPJPO-Europalestine (FR)
  • Car t’y es libre – Istres (FR)
  • Centro Culturale Handala Ali (IT)
  • Collectif 65 pour la libération de Georges Abdallah (FR)
  • Collectif 69 de soutien au peuple palestinien (FR)
  • Collectif Boycott Apartheid Israël – Paris Banlieue (FR)
  • Collectif de soutien à la résistance palestinienne 59 (FR)
  • Collectif Palestine Vaincra (FR)
  • Comité BDS ULB (BE)
  • Comité tunisien pour la libération de Georges Abdallah (TN)
  • Comité Verviers Palestine (BE)
  • Communauté palestinienne en Belgique et au Luxembourg (BE – LU)
  • Couserans-Palestine (FR)
  • De-Colonizer (BE)
  • EFVE (Entr’Aide et Fraternité / Action Vivre Ensemble) Hainaut (BE)
  • Eritrea Tour for Friendship (BE)
  • Forum Démocratique palestinien en Europe (EU)
  • Free Palestine Maastricht (NL)
  • Front Mahasiswa Nasional (ID)
  • FUIQP – Paris Banlieue (FR)
  • Giovani e Palestina (IT)
  • Giovani Palestinesi d’Italia (IT)
  • IJAN – International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (INT)
  • Indonesian Palestine Alliance (ID)
  • International Solidarity Movement – ISM-France (FR)
  • Jeunes pour la Palestine – Nantes (FR)
  • Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste (CA)
  • Liga Argentina por los Derechos Humanos (AR)
  • Marseille Gaza Palestine (FR)
  • Masar Badil (INT)
  • Mouvement Citoyen Palestine (BE)
  • New Weapons Research Group (IT)
  • Orléans Loiret Palestine (FR)
  • PAJU – Palestiniens et Juifs unis (CA)
  • Plateforme Charleroi-Palestine (BE)
  • Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (INT)
  • Samidoun Région Parisienne (FR)
  • SLAI Cobas Marghera (IT)
  • Société bahreïnite contre la normalisation avec l’ennemi sioniste (BH)
  • Unione Democratica Arabo-Palestinese (IT)
  • Union Juive Française pour la Paix (FR)
  • Victory to the Intifada (GB)
  • Voci nel Silenzio Palermo (IT)
  • Within our lifetime – United for Palestine (US)

To add your organizational signature to this call, please email collectifpalestinevaincra@gmail.com.

Revolutionary journalist undergoing hunger strike in German prisons

On 16th of May 2022, Revolutionary Journalist Özgül Emre was arrested by German police in Mannheim. On the next day, the police raided the house of İhsan Cibelik, a member of the revolutionary music band Grup Yorum. He was forcibly detained and heavily assaulted. Both of them were taken to respective courts and in a matter of seconds, these courts decided on their case. Özgül Emre was taken to JVA Rohrbach and İhsan Cibelik was taken to JVA Köln-Ossendorf. On the 18th of May 2022, another anti-fascist, Serkan Küpeli, was detained in Hamburg.

The German state performed these raids, detentions and arrests based on Article 129-b of the German law. Article 129-b is specifically designed to suppress revolutionaries from Turkey and designate them as “terrorists”. Previously, in Stuttgart, 5 anti-fascists from Turkey were sentenced to multiple years of prison for organizing Grup Yorum concerts, distributing magazines, organizing picnics, and supporting the resistance.

The German state is attempting to enforce a prison uniform on Özgül Emre in JVA Rohrbach, knowing very well that four revolutionary prisoners in Turkey died during their hunger strike in 1984 in opposition of enforcing a prisons uniform. Their sacrifice has resulted in the retraction of the law and to this day, Turkish prisons can not enforce prison uniforms.

Özgül Emre comes from this uncompromising tradition to keep up the identity, integrity and dignity of revolutionary political prisoners. Starting from the day of her detention 39 days ago, she has been undergoing a hunger strike. Her demand is simple: to access to her own clothes.

Samidoun Network stands firmly on the side of Özgül Emre, who has been on hunger strike in JVA – Rohrbach for 39 days to fight for her basic needs and to protect her and all people’s dignity in the German repressive and imperial prison system.

Following is the statement published by the anti-imperialist struggle committee, explaining in detail the current situation of Özgül Emre:

Özgül Emre, a revolutionary and journalist from Turkey, has been detained in Germany since May 17, 2022, at the request of the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office and by order of the Federal Supreme Court (BGH).

Özgül Emre is arbitrarily and unlawfully forced by the Rohrbach prison administration to wear prison uniform clothing and is not given any clothing of her own.

Özgül Emre, who refuses to accept the arbitrary and unlawful imposition of a prison uniform on flimsy grounds, has been on hunger strike since May 16, 2022, i.e. for 39 days.

According to her family and her lawyer, Özgül Emre’s health has deteriorated to the point where her life is in danger. Özgül Emre has not received sugar and salt from Rohrbach Prison for a month, which she absolutely must use during the hunger strike.

Özgül Emre has been having serious problems with fluid intake in recent days, stating that she vomits the fluids she ingests and that she has severe pain in her groin area both when taking fluids and when vomiting.

Because Özgül Emre is currently unable to ingest fluids, she is also unable to ingest sugar and salt, so her physical resistance is rapidly decreasing. In other words, Özgül’s health has rapidly deteriorated due to her inability to consume fluids, and thus sugar and salt, and it has become a serious threat to her life.

We reiterate:

Özgül Emre’s demands are justified and legitimate. The imposition of institutional clothing, despite the presumption of innocence is unlawful and illegal and must be stopped immediately. Otherwise, the Rohrbach prison administration and the federal court are responsible for all negative consequences and endangering the life of Özgül Emre.

The justified and legitimate demands of Özgül Emre must be accepted!

Stop the enforcement of the prison clothing!

Reject Repression: Support the Mapping Project

We, the undersigned organizations, reaffirm our support for the Mapping Project out of Boston. The project identifies hundreds of policing institutions, universities, weapons manufacturers, and explicitly political Zionist organizations that collaborate with one another to further systems of oppression.

We reject any attempts to isolate or ostracize segments of our movement that are doing this critical work, especially in the face of backlash and repression. The work to uncover the relationships between policing, Zionism, and imperialism is critical movement work that should be uplifted.

Visit mapliberation.org to explore the project. Click here to fill out the form to add your organizational endorsement.

We affirm our support for the Mapping Project out of Boston, and condemn attempts to censor this useful educational tool.

The mischaracterization of the project by the ADL and other Zionist organizations is meant to distract from what the project exposes: the connections between policing, imperialism, and Zionist colonialism.

The attempt by Zionist organizations to vilify and criminalize this project reflects their apprehensions over growing awareness of the links between domestic militarized policing, surveillance programs and support for Zionist colonization in Palestine. Indeed, the project identifies over 270 policing institutions, which reflect the vast majority of the project’s entries. It traces universities, weapons manufacturers, and Zionist organizations who collaborate with one another to further these very systems. It highlights the connection between gentrification, dispossession, and US imperialism. It critiques Zionist NGOs that fuel settlement expansion on Palestinian land.

For years, organizers have highlighted how Zionist organizations, such as the ADL, are self-admittedly invested in institutions of policing and militarism, including through facilitating exchange programs that bring together police, ICE, border patrol, and FBI from the US with Israeli soldiers, police, and border agents. The growing movement to dismantle racist policing in the US undermines these efforts. It should come as no surprise that those groups attempt to discredit this project–they are fighting relentlessly to prevent people from seeing how intertwined the struggles against racist policing and Zionist colonialism are.

We must not retreat in the face of smears and criminalization. Instead, we must continue to provide the public with the information necessary, as the Mapping Project does, to understand these connections so that we can dismantle these very systems.

Finally, we reject any attempts to isolate or ostracize segments of our movement that are doing this critical work, especially in the face of backlash and repression. We reject any attempts to prevent organizers from confronting the interconnectedness of systems of oppression. No one in our movement has a monopoly on movement tactics, including BDS. The work to uncover the relationships between policing, Zionism, and imperialism is critical movement work that should be uplifted.

Signed,

  • Palestinian Youth Movement
  • Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine
  • Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
  • Masar Badil – Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement
  • Center for the Study and Preservation of Palestine
  • Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
  • Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
  • Falastiniyat
  • U.S. Palestinian Community Network
  • Canadian BDS Coalition
  • Palestine House – Palestinian Canadian Community Centre
  • DSA and the Palestine Solidarity Working Group Steering Committee
  • National Students for Justice in Palestine
  • Collectif Palestine Vaincra
  • Africa for Palestine
  • Campaign to Boycott Supporters of “Israel” in Lebanon
  • Free Democratic Palestine Movement
  • Palestine Action
  • Canada Palestine Association
  • Palestinian American Women’s Association
  • Palestinian and Jewish Unity

Click here to fill out the form to add your organizational endorsement.

“Fedayin” screening in Vancouver highlights struggle of Georges Abdallah

On Saturday evening, 18 June, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Vancouver organized a screening of “Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight” at the Centre for Socialist Education. The film chronicles the life and struggle of Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France since 1984, despite being eligible for release since 1999.

The event was attended by members of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, BDS Vancouver, the Communist Party of Canada and interested residents of the area. The event follows several outdoor actions campaigning for the release of Georges Abdallah, including pickets at the French consulate in Vancouver.

The screening also comes after the administration of the University of British Columbia acceded to Zionist organizations’ demand to delay a screening of the film in December 2021. Despite  this repression, the AMS student government at UBC voted for a strong divestment policy against Israeli apartheid in March 2022, joining three other campuses across the country with major votes in support of Palestinian liberation (Simon Fraser University, McGill and Concordia.)

After the film screening, attendees discussed the struggle of Georges Abdallah and the movement for his release with Palestinian leftist writer Khaled Barakat and Samidoun international coordinator Charlotte Kates. They discussed the status of the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance and liberation movements today, the work of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra in building solidarity with Georges Abdallah and the leading role of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, including Georges Abdallah.

The film “Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight” addresses the life and struggle of the longest-held political prisoner in Europe. It is available with appropriate subtitles in French, Arabic, English, German, Turkish, Italian, Catalan and Castilian Spanish. If you want to show Fedayin in your area, email us at samidoun@samidoun.net and contact the directors at vacarmesfilms@gmail.com. We will help you to get your screening organized, and the directors are available to attend your events in person or to join your in-person events via video link.

Israeli occupation agrees to trade stolen Palestinian gas with European Union and Egypt

The latest effort to trade stolen Palestinian gas between the European Union and the Israeli occupation includes a tripartite agreement signed with the Egyptian regime on the sidelines of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum. The agreement is valid for a period of 3 years and renewable for 2 more years. Among the members of the Gas Forum, where the agreement was signed, are the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Israeli occupation regime, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Italy and France. Under the agreement, gas will be transferred from Israel to Egypt via an existing gas pipeline, after which Egypt will liquify it and re-export it, due to the current absence of a pipeline connecting the Israeli occupation with Europe directly. This, of course, is the goal of the EastMed pipeline project, which aims to link the Israeli occupation through Cyprus and Greece, to be commissioned in 2027.

As Samidoun noted in 2021, the project is ” an imperialist endeavor of resource extraction, great power competition and immiseration of the world’s masses…The existential question for all of humanity of climate change and environmental destruction cannot be separated from and cannot be addressed without the liberation of Palestine and its exploited and oppressed masses from Zionist occupation, without the success of progressive, radical and revolutionary forces in the region and internationally against the forces of imperialism and reaction.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a tweet : “With this EU-Israel-Egypt agreement, we will work on the stable delivery of natural gas to the EU from the Eastern Mediterranean region. This will contribute to our energy security.” Indeed, this agreement comes at the height of the war in Ukraine in order to allow EU countries to depend less on Russian gas, which in 2021 represented more than 40% of EU natural gas imports. On the other hand, there seems to be no concern on the part of the European Commission when it comes to reaching an agreement with the Israeli apartheid regime for stolen Palestinian gas, and one of the most notorious dictatorships in the region, the Sisi regime in Egypt.

For the Israeli occupation, the agreement reflects a strategic opportunity to open markets for the gas it aims to siphon from the Palestinian and Lebanese coastlines. Indeed, the Israeli occupation aim to secure its own economic development following the discovery in 2010 of gas deposits off the coast of occupied Palestine. For example, the “Leviathan” deposit is located 130km west of occupied Haifa and contains reserves of around 500 billion cubic meters, i.e. the equivalent of more than 10 years of French consumption in gas. It is also in this context that the recent provocations of Israel must be understood, specifically the decision to transport a drilling platform to the “Karish” gas field.located in the Lebanese maritime zone.

While the Lebanese people are suffocating due to sanctions and the economic crisis and the Palestinian people are confronting the theft of their land, water, and resources for over 74 years of Zionist colonialism, the Israeli occupation is stealing these resources with the complicity and concealment of EU countries and Arab reactionary regimes. More than ever, we must denounce the theft of Palestinian natural resources and develop the international campaign to boycott Israel.

Original: Collectif Palestine Vaincra

Read more: No to EastMed, Stand with Palestine: The EastMed fossil imperialist project and solidarity with the Palestinian resistance

Gaza football teams denounce the Champions Trophy in Tel Aviv

On 31 July, the next Champions Trophy competition between leading football teams Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and FC Nantes will take place in Tel Aviv for the second consecutive year. As a statement co-signed by many groups — including the Collectif Palestine Vaincra and Samidoun Region Parisienne — affirms, “This is a sportwashing event, aiming to whitewash the military occupation, the colonisation, the apartheid system of the Israeli State and its crimes.”

In a statement, the Gaza Democratic Sports Forum “condemns and deplores the decision of the French Football Association to organize the final of the Champions Cup on Palestinian land occupied by the Zionist entity… The Democratic Sports Forum calls on all sports federations to fight this decision and to send a message to Arab and international clubs to take a stand against the holding of this event on Palestinian land… France, which claims to brandish the slogans of freedom and human rights, must not engage in such behaviour which only encourages the occupation in its increasing brutality and oppression against our people.”

During a football match between the Nuseirat Club and Al-Jalaa Club on 19 July in the Gaza Strip, both teams held banners against the Champions Trophy in Tel Aviv. They emphasized that Palestinian lives and futures in sports are being constantly hampered and suppressed by the occupation supported by the French Football Federation. Palestinian football players in Gaza cannot travel to matches, while local clubs struggle to survive due to the economic situation caused by the illegal blockade that has persisted for over 15 years. In addition, many Palestinian athletes are injured or killed in Israeli occupation attacks, while other promising athletes are imprisoned and detained, like professional footballer Mahmoud Sarsak, imprisoned and then released in 2012 following a lengthy hunger strike.

More than ever, we strongly condemn the holding of the Champions Trophy in Tel Aviv and pledge to develop the boycott of Israel in all areas against colonialism, racism and apartheid. 

Source: Collectif Palestine Vaincra

Action challenges “Israel Premier Tech” cycling team at Route d’Occitanie race

On Sunday, 19 June, a delegation from the Collectif Palestine Vaincra came to Nailloux, France, to confront the “Israel Premier Tech” team at the Route d’Occitanie cycling race. During the stage, which took place between Les Angles and Auterive, the Collectif delegation carried a banner “Boycott Israel: Against Colonialism, Racism and Apartheid” and waved the Palestinian flag high. The Collectif is challenging the participation of this team, which proclaims itself the “ambassador of Israel,” that is to say, propagandists for a colonial and racist state practicing a policy of apartheid that has been widely denounced, including in UN reports and those of international human rights organizations.

In Montreal, Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU) is preparing to confront the Israel Premier Tech team at the 2022 Grand Prix Cycliste of Montreal, and many organizations, including the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, Samidoun Region Parisienne and the Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine, are planning to challenge the team at the Tour de France in a few weeks.

Despite the high temperatures, the protesters received support from many onlookers who appreciated the challenge to Israel’s outrageous sportswashing operation in the cycling field. Police on the scene appeared disconcerted, speaking into their walkie-talkies: “We have a demonstration with a banner hostile to the State of Israel!” However, the demonstrators spread their banner without a hitch and made their message heard loud and clear, chanting “Boycott Israel!” loudly as the cyclists passed. This was clearly audible and visible — as one cyclist from the Israel Premier Tech team made clear when threw his water bottle at the protesters.

As the Tour de France begins in a few weeks, we will make sure that these “ambassadors of Israeli apartheid” will be greeted by anti-racist and anti-colonialist mobilization through the streets of France!

Source: Collectif Palestine Vaincra

Georges Abdallah’s statement to the Paris demonstration on 18 June 2022

The following message from Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine jailed in France since 1984, was delivered to the march in Paris on 18 June 2022. The march, commemorating the Day of Revolutionary Prisoners, called for the liberation of Abdallah.

The film “Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight” addresses the life and struggle of the longest-held political prisoner in Europe. It is available with appropriate subtitles in French, Arabic, English, German, Turkish, Italian, Catalan and Castilian Spanish. If you want to show Fedayin in your area, email us at samidoun@samidoun.net and contact the directors at vacarmesfilms@gmail.com. We will help you to get your screening organized, and the directors are available to attend your events in person or to join your in-person events via video link.

Dear Comrades, Dear Friends,

In this time of crises, war and great struggles, knowing that you are mobilized today, as every year, to commemorate the “International Day of the Revolutionary Prisoner” in the streets fills me with strength and warms my heart too. Your mobilization, Comrades, in the diversity of your commitment, is more than invigorating for those who, for so many years, have expressed themselves mainly from behind bars.

How can we not wonder, Comrades, in this time of global crisis of globalized capitalism and the exacerbation of all its contradictions, if there is not a need to give a more ambitious horizon to the “International Day of the Revolutionary Prisoner!” Perhaps it would be necessary to affirm on this occasion that it is no longer just a question of expressing unwavering solidarity with the Comrades imprisoned in Zionist jails or in Fascist jails in Turkey or elsewhere in the world; that it is no longer just a matter of supporting their just demands with all our might and thereby saluting the ongoing mobilization around the “hunger” strike of our two dear Comrades Khalil Awawdeh and Raed Rayan or our two other dear Comrades Sibel Balaç and Gökhan Yıldırım. Perhaps it would be time to affirm that the celebration of the “International Day of the Revolutionary Prisoner” is henceforth intended, above all else, to challenge and encourage the living forces of the revolution and its fighting vanguards, so that they implement all the necessary measures for the practical expression of their firm determination to rescue our comrades from the claws of their criminal jailers. Of course, Comrades, it is not a question here of affirming loudly and clearly any duty of a moral nature towards our captive Comrades, it is quite simply a question of combining the capacities of the revolutionary forces (at the national, regional and international levels ) and to register in the first priority the liberation of our Comrades, in the global dynamics of the struggles currently taking place.

Indeed, let us remember, Comrades, that on several occasions in the not so distant past, the vanguards of the Palestinian revolutionary struggle took on this task with great courage and abnegation, forcing the enemy to liberate thousands of captive comrades. Certainly the release of revolutionary prisoners has always been a moment of great popular enthusiasm and has always nourished and consolidated the bonds of solidarity on an international scale and thereby participated, in the most significant way, in the influence of the Palestinian revolution, and to the enrichment of the anti-imperialist/anti-capitalist struggle, both at the national and regional level andt therefore at the international level.

As you can see Comrades, the inter-imperialist contradictions come to the forefront of the international scene these days. There is nothing to suggest that they will subside anytime soon. Against the background of the global crisis of the globalized capitalist system, these contradictions are destined to become more and more exacerbated and to spread on a planetary level. It is clear that the loss of hegemony of US imperialism at the world level pushes it in a headlong rush towards more aggressiveness vis-à-vis the other imperialist poles and above all towards more criminal hostility towards lives in independent states that are somewhat rebellious for its taste…

Quite naturally imperialist propaganda is in full swing these days. And it seems useless to dwell at length on the pseudo-arguments as to the wicked aggressors and the poor attacked…

Comrades, the inter-imperialist contradictions which are expressed in Europe at the moment remind us all, that in the space of a century, capitalism is throwing humanity on the brink of a world war for the third time… The crisis of this moribund capitalism in its phase of advanced putrefaction is the crisis of truly existing globalized capitalism. There is no way out of the crisis within the framework of capitalism. We can never repeat it enough: war is inscribed in the genetic code of capital. Globalized capitalism is the capitalism that really exists today and the agony of this world will only end in the overthrow of capitalism towards communism.

Comrades, certainly there is room for other futures than submission to the criminal dictates of moribund capitalism and the barbarity of its imperialist and inter-imperialist wars.

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

Quite naturally, the Palestinian popular masses and their revolutionary vanguards can always count on your mobilization and your active solidarity.

Administrative detention must not be ignored. Together Comrades let us denounce and fight these barbaric Zionist crimes!

The detention of the bodies of activists who died in prison is an outrage. Let’s denounce it and fight it by all available means!

May a thousand solidarity initiatives flourish in favor of Palestine and its promising Resistance!

May a thousand solidarity initiatives flourish in favor of Palestinian Flowers and Cubs!

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

Solidarity, all solidarity with the young proletarians of the popular neighborhoods!

Honor to the Martyrs and to the popular masses in struggle!

Down with imperialism and its Zionist watchdogs and other Arab reactionaries!

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

Together Comrades, and only together will we win!

Palestine will live and Palestine will certainly win.

To all of you Comrades and Friends my revolutionary greetings

Your Comrade Georges Abdallah

 

Paris mobilizations demand freedom for Georges Abdallah, support Palestinian resistance

Saturday, 18 June marked an intense day of mobilization to free Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France for the past 38 years, in Paris, France’s capital. The morning began with a Palestine stand at Aubervilliers market organized by Samidoun Région Parisienne, distributing information and material about the case of Georges Abdallah and the Palestinian cause.

https://twitter.com/SamidounRP/status/1538086282915721216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1538086282915721216%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsamidoun.net%2Ffr%2F2022%2F06%2Fa-paris-week-end-de-mobilisation-pour-la-liberation-de-georges-abdallah-et-en-soutien-a-la-resistance-palestinienne%2F

Residents of Aubervilliers visiting the market greeted the stand warmly through several hours of information distribution and outreach. Many people were eager to express solidarity with Palestine and Georges Abdallah. Organizers noted that his name is very well known to passers-by, and that despite the attempts of successive French governments to suppress news of his case, he continues to be recognized and supported.

Contrary to the assertion that working-class communities are politically silent, the people of Aubervilliers express consistent support for Palestine, the Palestinian cause and the resistance. Dozens of people wrote postcards and letters to Palestinian women unjustly imprisoned in Damon prison.

A few hours later, the national march to free Georges Abdallah organized to mark the Day of Revolutionary Prisoners began at the Place des Fêtes in the XXᵉ arrondissement, heading toward the Place de la République. The demonstration was called by  the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and supported by more than 70 organizations.

Organizations endorsing and participating in the demonstration included Collectif Palestine Vaincra,  Samidoun Région Parisienne,  Collectif Boycott Apartheid-Israel Paris-Banlieue,  CAPJPO-Europalestine,  UJFP,  AFPS, Collectif 69 de soutien au peuple palestinien, Ligue de la Jeunesse Révolutionnaire, Jeunes Révolutionnaires, NPA, Révolution Permanente, ANC, Rete dei Comunisti, PIR, OCML VP, FUIQP, Secours Rouge International, Secours Rouge Arabe, Front Anti impérialiste de Turquie, Collectif anti-impérialiste 93, Terre et Liberté pour Arauco …

The demonstration began with a declaration by Georges Abdallah and the call of the Unitary Campaign. The statement from Georges Abdallah from Lannemezan prison affirmed: “Let us remember, Comrades, that on several occasions in the not so distant past, the vanguards of the Palestinian revolutionary struggle took on this task with great courage and self-sacrifice, forcing the enemy to release thousands of captive comrades. Certainly the release of revolutionary prisoners has always been a moment of great popular enthusiasm and has always nourished and consolidated the bonds of solidarity on an international scale and thereby participated, in the most significant way, in the influence of the Palestinian revolution. and to the enrichment of the anti-imperialist/anti-capitalist struggle, both at the national and regional level and therefore at the international level.”

The demonstration also included a tribute to comrades who had recently passed away and who spent many years in struggle to free Georges Abdallah.

Despite the high temperatures, the march was loud and enthusiastic, with slogans including « Vive la lutte armée du peuple Palestinien » (Long live the armed struggle of the Palestinian people), « Georges Abdallah, tes camarades sont là » (Georges Abdallah, your comrades are here), « Palestine Vivra, Palestine Vaincra, Libérez Georges Abdallah » (Palestine lives, Palestine will win, free Georges Abdallah). Participants raised many banners, signs and Palestinian flags high throughout the march. The Collectif Palestine Vaincra , Boycott Apartheid Israel Paris Banlieue and Samidoun Région Parisienne marched together behind a common banner in the demonstration.

The evening ended with a collective meal at the CNT followed by a Grup Yorum concert.

On the following day, Sunday, 19 June, the  FUIQP Paris Banlieue (United Front of Immigrants and Popular Neighbourhoods) organized a Decolonial Walk in support of the Palestinian Resistance. These Decolonial Walks honor the struggles of colonized peoples and challenge the colonial production of memory and the symbols and figures of colonialism displayed prominently in the streets and cities. This year, the Decolonial Walk honoured the Palestinian resistance and key figures and symbols through the symbolic renaming of streets and squares in Paris’ 18th and 19th arrondissements in their honour.

The participants renamed:

– the place of the Saint Bernard church to the “Place of the Palestinian child martyrs” accompanied by a speech of the FUIQP

– “Charles Lienard de l’Olive” street to “Shireen Abu Akleh” street, accompanied by a speech from BDS France

– rue “René Caillé”, to rue “Mahmoud Hamchari”, where the FUIQP also took the floor

– the “Joinville” square to the “Georges Ibrahim Abdallah” square, where the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah took the floor

– rue de Tanger to rue “Fadwa Tuqan”, accompanied by a speech by BDS France

– and finally, rue du Maroc, renamed rue “Ghassan Kanafani”, where Samidoun Région Parisienne spoke.

Below is the translated version of the speech delivered by Samidoun RP in the Decolonial Walk:

July 8, 2022 will mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Ghassan Kanafani, a political and cultural icon of the Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian people. On July 8, 1972, the revolutionary writer was assassinated by a car bomb placed by the Mossad in front of his home in Beirut, along with his niece Lamees Najm.

To honour Kanafani today is to celebrate Palestinian revolutionary arts inside and outside Palestine. It is also to rejoice in the inherent connections between anti-colonial uprisings and the creative spirit, which Kanafani perfectly embodied throughout his life and thought. Fighting for freedom, refusing to succumb to the enslavement of colonialism is a deeply creative process that requires the denial and dismantling of the existing oppressive order, and the audacious lucidity to imagine what awaits us next. He said: “To make the revolution, it is not enough to hate and believe in the past. Hate and faith in the past are only good stimulants for the phase of revolt. If we wish to carry out the revolution, we must love and look to the future”.

Ghassan Kanafani was born on April 9, 1936 in Akka, Palestine. Forcibly exiled with his family during the Nakba in 48, first in Lebanon then in Syria, he studied at the University of Damascus before being expelled for political reasons. He then worked as a teacher in Kuwait before returning to Beirut to devote himself to journalism and cultural and political work within the framework of the Arab Nationalist Movement, founded by George Habash. With him and other comrades, he then co-founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the PFLP, and became one of its international spokespersons. Along with his political involvement, Kanafani worked to collectivize the Palestinian narrative through his literary writings. In his books translated into more than 20 languages, he expressed the reality of the Palestinian people,

Ghassan Kanafani was also a committed internationalist. He considered the struggle against imperialism, including within the imperialist countries, to be at the heart of the struggle for Palestinian and Arab liberation. He said, “Imperialism has spread its body over the world, its head in East Asia, its heart in the Middle East, its arteries reaching Africa and Latin America. Wherever you strike it, you damage it, and you serve the world revolution.”

The assassination of Kanafani on July 8, 1972 is a failed attempt to kill the resistance by killing the writer and revolutionary leader who reflected the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people. He was the voice of the fedayeen in the armed struggle. This Zionist policy aimed at liquidating the resistance of the Palestinian people by targeting its leaders has remained a failure. The words, ideas, analysis and legacy of Ghassan Kanafani are more relevant than ever, 50 years after he was stolen from us at the age of 36.

Today, in the prisons of the occupation, the Palestinian prisoners collectively read the works of Kanafani and transform the dungeons of the occupier into schools of the revolution! His cultural and political writings continue to educate and inspire generations of Palestinians, Arabs and internationalists. Thus we make our own the words of Kanafani: “The Palestinian cause is not a cause for the Palestinians only, but a cause for every revolutionary, wherever he is, as a cause of the exploited and oppressed masses in our time.”

Samidoun Région Parisienne would like to warmly thank the people and organizations we were able to meet and with whom we were able to parade over the past two days. Do not hesitate to contact us on our social networks (Instagram , Facebook , Twitter) or by email at samidoun.rp@gmail.com if you wish to participate in our initiatives, such as our stands in Aubervilliers or the sending of letters of support to Palestinian prisoners. Building here and now an anti-imperialist solidarity with Palestine contributes to supporting the Palestinian resistance which continues to fight for liberation and return. Despite more than 74 years of occupation and dispossession, the Palestinian people continue more than ever their fight against imperialism, Zionism and the reactionary Arab regimes. It is up to us to answer his call!

Palestine Action permanently shutters Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit’s London headquarters

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Palestine Action on the shuttering of the second Elbit Systems location in Britain after the Elbit Oldham factory! Elbit Systems is an Israeli arms manufacturing company with multiple locations across Britain. After less than two years of direct actions, Elbit’s London headquarters, the location of numerous and costly actions, has been closed down. This marks a meaningful victory for Palestine, directly cutting the flow of arms and money enabling the ongoing colonization of Palestine. We are republishing the statement from Palestine Action below: 

77 Kingsway has become the second Elbit site permanently shut down by Palestine Action, in less than 2 years of sustained direct action.

As Palestine Action noted, “Recently, police told Palestine Action activists who were under arrest, that Elbit was abandoning its London Headquarters at 77 Kingsway. Security at the company’s entrance told Samantha Asumadu, a freelance journalist, working for the Big Issue, that Elbit was not at the site and they had never heard of them. The front desk also confirmed that the Israeli arms firm were not there and even denied the company ever was, despite it being well known that Elbit was leasing the sixth floor for many years. A separate security guard confirmed to another source that Elbit had indeed left the building.”

Our inaugural action saw activists storm the company’s former central London office, trashing site facilities and spray painting ‘Shut Elbit Down’ and ‘We will be back’ across the walls. As the campaign continued, tactics included disruptive entry, outdoor & indoor occupations, paint throwing and chain-and-lock blockades. The 15 separate actions at Kingsway and simultaneous sister actions against its landlords, have culminated in dozens of arrests — 60 in total, for which many activists still face trial. Elbit’s closure comes after weeks of dramatically-intensified action targeting their Kingsway headquarters.

In August 2020, a sister campaign against Elbit’s London landlord, Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL), was also launched. It demanded that JLL ‘Evict Elbit’. Multiple & systematic actions took place against the real estate firm, who knowingly leased the site to an Israeli company making weapons used to suppress captive populations. JLL’s sites have been routinely defaced, smashed and doused in the Palestine Action iconic red paint, as activists continued to demand that the landlords “Evict Elbit” and cease profiting from the genocide of the Palestinian people.

We have finished what we started at 77 Kingsway, which was the first Elbit Systems site our movement targeted upon launching. Nearly two years on, Elbit have once again been forced to shut down operations and leave another of their British sites — and this comes only five months after the business sold its factory in Oldham at a loss. We will continue to throw a spanner in the works of apartheid, military occupation and dispossession until Palestine is free.

“Elbit’s London Headquarters once played an important role in coordinating the firm’s bloodstained network of British operations, but not anymore,” says a spokesperson for Palestine Action. “After ceaseless direct action at 77 Kingsway and JLL, we have brought Elbit’s London operations to an end. Palestine Action has yet to reach its two-year anniversary, and already we have permanently shut down two sites belonging to Israel’s largest arms company.

“We will build on the success of this closure and we won’t stop until all eight remaining sites follow suit. It’s a victory for all those who sacrificed their liberty and to all those who supported the movement, but most importantly the Palestinian people. It brings us another step closer to the day Israel’s arms trade is out of Britain for good.”

Share the news, donate to build the campaign and support Palestine Action’s work to #ShutElbitDown!

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