Mass mobilization for the liberation of Georges Abdallah marches to the prison gates

30 October 2022

On Saturday, 22 October, over 1,000 people marched to Lannemezan prison to demand the immediate release of Georges Abdallah, the imprisoned Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine imprisoned in France since 1984. This mass demonstration, the 12th annual march, was a great success that followed extensive work by many organizations, collectives, campaigns, associations, unions and political parties during a month of action for Abdallah’s freedom.

The Collectif Palestine Vaincra — a member organization of the Samidoun Network — organized a collective bus from Toulouse, accompanied by a mini-bus and multiple carpools to accommodate over 100 people seeking to travel to Lannemezan to show solidarity with the man who has become a symbol of Palestinian resistance. This mobilization was reinforced thanks to the mobilization of more than 30 local organizations uniting their voice around a common call for action.

https://twitter.com/Collectif_PV/status/1583768717867220992

Many committees and campaigns for Palestine and for the liberation of Georges Abdallah participated in the march, including the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, Samidoun Paris Banlieue, Samidoun Spain, Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil), Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah, Couserans-Palestine, Palestine Volvestre, the French Jewish Union for Peace, CAPJPO-EuroPalestine, Collectif Boycott Apartheid Israel Paris Banlieue, BDS committees, AFPS sections including its president Bertrand Heilbronn, Collectif 65 for the liberation of Georges Abdallah, Liberons Georges 33, CLGA 74, Comite Action Palestine and Liberons Georges 38.

Political organizations from across the left participated, including EELV, the French Communist Party, France Insoumise, Union Populaire, NPA, Revolution Permanente, UCL, PCRF, LO, PRCF, PCOF, LJR, JR, Popular Front of Turkey, PEPS, MJCF, Young Communists 13, Communist Party of Belgium, and others, as well as trade unions (SUD/Solidaires sections, the CNT and several CGT departments), associations like the League for Human Rights, anti-racist and anti-fascist organizations (FUIQP, Toulouse AntiCRA, AFA Tolosa, MRAP, Collectif unitaire franco-Algerienne, BRIC), and support committees for political prisoners like Secours Rouge Arabe and campaigns for Musa Asoglu and Basque prisoners.

This diversity of organizations supporting Georges Abdallah highlights the growing, dynamic and multifaceted campaign that has increased support for the imprisoned Lebanese communist growing each year.

The Collectif Palestine Vaincra organized a bloc in the demonstration around the slogan “Freedom for Georges Abdallah! Freedom for Palestine!” together with Samidoun Spain, the Masar Badil and the Samidoun Paris Banlieue. Many people joined the contingent to chant in French and Arabic in support of the Palestinian resistance, against Zionism and imperialism, rushing through the streets of Lannemezan displaying Palestinian flags and placards in support of Georges Abdallah, the Palestinian resistance and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. The demonstrators urged the boycott of Israel and the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, including Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Salah Hammouri, the French-Palestinian lawyer held without charge or trial under administrative detention and who recently carried out a 19-day hunger strike.

As the marchers arrived at Lannemezan prison, they chanted, “Georges Abdallah, your comrades are here!” lighting sparklers to be seen and heard even from inside the prison walls. Suzanne LeManceau read out Georges Abdallah’s statement for the occasion underlining his revolutionary commitment to the Palestinian resistance:

“The warmth of your mobilization and the enthusiasm of your commitment make light of these abominable walls, this barbed wire and the watchtowers. They collide with the deadly everydayness of the cells and allow us to glimpse glimmers of victory emerging on the horizon. Comrades and friends, your various solidarity initiatives that you have developed in this international campaign month reveals a scathing denial to those who bet on the breathlessness of your mobilization. In this campaign, Ofer prison and all the Zionist jails have all your attention and, quite naturally, the expression of your active solidarity is always more invigorating for those who have been imprisoned there for so many years…Faced with the emergence and affirmation of a new generation of resistance fighters, particularly in the West Bank, the Zionist military indulges in the worst excesses: killing young and old alike every day, destroying homes, confiscating new lands under spurious pretenses and lately encircling towns for complete blockage. Resistance confronts! It is up to men and women of good will to do the same at the regional and international level.”

LeManceau, a longtime activist for Georges Abdallah’s liberation, concluded the reading of the Lebanese communist’s statement with a tribute to the young Palestinian martyr Oday al-Tamimi, who resisted with arms in hand until his last breath against the Zionist colonial forces.

Then, many declarations were read by various solidarity organizations, including by an activist from the Collectif Palestine Vaincra. In her speech, she affirmed: “Today, we are happy to be by your side to demand the immediate release of Georges Abdallah! We are all the more so since Macron and his government have tried to silence us by dissolving the Collectif, as well as the CAP and many anti-fascist, anti-racist and Muslim organizations. Thanks to your exemplary solidarity, we are still here, still determined to build a broad movement of solidarity for the immediate release of Georges Abdallah and more broadly for the release of all 4,650 Palestinian prisoners.”

She concluded the Collectif’s statement with a call to the March for Return and Liberation of Palestine organized on 29 October toward the European Parliament in Brussels, by the Palestinian, Arab and international Masar Badil movement, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path movement. The day concluded with drinks and snacks offered by various associations, including the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, as well as the renewed commitment to continue the mobilization. Once again, Grup Yorum offered a concert of anti-imperialist songs. Supporters of the LJR, Ligue des Jeunes Revolutionnaires, organized a collection in support of the activists who invaded a football field during a match in Lyon to raise awareness of the cause of Georges Abdallah.

The day before the march, on Friday, 21 October, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra organized a public event at the Toulouse Bourse du Travail, which displayed a large banner calling for Georges Abdallah’s freedom on the front of the building. The event began with an intervention by Robert Abdallah, brother and spokesperson of the Lebanese Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah, who denounced the French government and its neo-colonial, imperialist policy towards Lebanon at the same time that France continues to imprison a Lebanese Communist struggle for 38 years, despite his eligibility for release since 1999.

The event continued with a presentation by Jaldia Abubakra, a Palestinian activist from Samidoun Spain and Masar Badil. She highlighted the work by many support committees that have publicized the case of Georges Abdallah and discussed the work of Samidoun in Spain to connect struggles for justice, in particular challenging the VBare company, an Israeli real estate company involved in gentrification and displacement in Madrid. She emphasized that through ongoing struggle and accumulation of forces, the Zionist colonization of Palestine will be defeated.

Next, Pierre Stambul of the French Jewish Union for Peace spoke about the historical complicity between France and the Zionist project. He noted that “it is not only due to Hillary Clinton’s intervention that Georges Abdallah remains in prison. It is the expression of French complicity,” recalling that this “is very old. Remember that Guy Mollet’s SFIO took part with Israel in the imperialist attack on Suez and that it transferred to Israel the technology allowing it to possess nuclear weapons.” He highlighted the criminalization of the Palestine solidarity movement and the instrumentalization of anti-Semitism, he concluded his intervention by affirming, “Israel was born out of a premeditated ethnic cleansing that has nothing legitimate about it. Anti-semitism is a crime, but anti-Zionism is a duty. We will continue to fight for the liberation of Palestine, of Salah Hammouri and of Georges Abdallah.”

The event concluded with a remote intervention over videoconference by Elsa Lefort, the wife of Salah Hammouri and spokesperson for his solidarity committee. She noted that her husband has been the target of a relentless campaign of repression for 20 years by the Israeli occupation regime. He has been imprisoned since 7 March 2022 without charge or trial under administrative detention and recently took part in a collective hunger strike to demand an end to this practice, first introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate. She concluded by emphasizing the importance of the support campaign at all levels, from the streets to Parliament, in order to expose and challenge the passivity of the French authorities in the face of an arbitrarily detained French citizen being threatened with expulsion from his native city, Jerusalem.

https://twitter.com/Collectif_PV/status/1583560462112677888

The evening ended with an audience discussion and a concert by Grup Yorum in honor of international solidarity. The Collectif Palestine Vaincra thanked the UD CGT 21 for the welcome as well as the numerous attendees at the crowded event.

The mass march at Lannemezan was a strong conclusion to a successful month of mobilization for Georges Abdallah. As part of the mobilization, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra carried out an information and mobilization campaign in Toulouse, organizing multiple Palestine stands to distribute information in popular neighborhoods and the city center, hosting a new screening of Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight, participating in various solidarity initiatives and distributing over 12,000 flyers, hundreds of posters and thousands of stickers. The growth of the mobilization in Toulouse and elsewhere calls upon us all to increase our efforts to continue and intensify the campaign for the liberation of Georges Abdallah and his return to his homeland, Lebanon.

Source: Collectif Palestine Vaincra

Demonstrators fill the streets of Brussels in the March for Return and Liberation for Palestine

30 October 2022

Thousands of Palestinians, Arabs and internationals marched through the streets of Brussels, Belgium — the capital of the European Union — on Saturday, 29 October in the March for Liberation and Return. Organized by the Masar Badil (Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement), the march demanded the implementation of return for Palestinian refugees expelled from their homes and homeland since the Nakba, the total liberation of all of Palestine from the river to the sea, stood in firm support of the Palestinian people and their Resistance, called for the freedom of the prisoners and the defeat of Zionism, imperialism and the forces collaborating with them.

Over 100 organizations endorsed the protest, which wound its way to the European Parliament as participants highlighted the martyrs, the prisoners and the founders of the Palestinian revolutionary movement.

The rally enjoyed strong participation from a range of organizations, including a mass bloc organized by CAPJPO-EuroPalestine to demand an end to the siege on Gaza, as well as Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network chapters and affiliates in Germany, Netherlands, Spain, France, Sweden and elsewhere, Collectif Palestine Vaincra, Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine, Secours Rouge, Classe Contre Classe, the Anti-Imperialist Front, Revolutionary Youth of Zurich, Lotta, Dar al Janub, AFPS Lille and 63, Collectif Boycott Apartheid Israel and many more. Participants came from throughout Belgium as well as the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and elsewhere to participate in the mass demonstration.

A wide range of Belgian groups participated, including Classe Contre Classe, Secours Rouge Belgique, Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine, Raj’een Dabkeh Group, Black Panthers Bruxelles, Mouvement Citoyen pour la Paix, Comité BDS-ULB, Comité Verviers Palestine, LEF-FGE (Links Ecologisch Forum – Forum Gauche Ecologie), Eritrea Tours for Friendship, la Ligue Haïtienne Anti-Impérialiste (LHAI), the Belgian Communist Party and the Coordination Namuroise Belgo-Palestinienne (CNB-P).

Posters and images of George Habash, the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, a leader in Palestinian women’s resistance through armed struggle; and Houcine Benyahia, a Moroccan revolutionary martyr who fought for Palestinian liberation, were raised high alongside those of Palestinian prisoners struggling for liberation, including Ahmad Sa’adat, French-Palestinian lawyer Salah Hammouri, and Georges Abdallah, jailed for over 38 years in French prisons. The Brussels march came one week after the mass march outside Lannemezan prison to demand Abdallah’s liberation; the Collectif Palestine Vaincra delegation traveled to Brussels only days after organizing that march.

Marchers remembered the Palestinian and Arab leaders who had been targeted for assassination, particularly in Europe, for their leadership in the liberation struggle, from Mahmoud Hamshari and Basil al-Kubeisi to Fathi Shiqaqi, the founder of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, assassinated in Malta on 26 October 1995. Participants also received a message from Bechir Ben Barka, the son of Moroccan revolutionary Mehdi Ben Barka, who was forcibly disappeared in Paris on 29 October 1965.

Participants saluted the Palestinian resistance, including Mohammed Deif, leader of the Palestinian armed resistance in Gaza, and the resistance movements in Nablus, Jenin and throughout occupied Palestine, emphasizing the legitimacy and leadership of the Palestinian resistance, especially in contrast with the so-called “Palestinian Authority,” which engages in security coordination with and acts as an agent of the occupation against the Palestinian people.

The colorful, enthusiastic march, with a strong participation of Palestinian, Arab and internationalist youth, wound through the streets of Brussels, waving Palestinian flags and banners of the organizations and movements participating in the mass demonstration.

A strong spirit of solidarity prevailed as the crowd filled the Place du Luxembourg in front of the European Parliament. Mohammed Khatib, Samidoun coordinator in Europe and the coordinator of the March, delivered the main message in Arabic and English on behalf of the Masar Badil, with a strong statement of support for Palestinian resistance, who continue to uphold and fight for liberation for the Palestinian people and for all who struggle against imperialism and colonialism.

Participants strongly denounced the role of European states in Palestine, from their colonization of the Arab homeland to their persistent support for Zionism. They demanded an end to the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which gives preferential treatment to occupation goods and institutions, as well as the ongoing military and security coordination with the occupation. They highlighted European gas deals with Israel based on the exploitation of Palestinian natural resources as well as the criminalization of Palestinian resistance organizations as “terrorist,” demanding accountability for European crimes in occupied Palestine. They demanded the liberation of Georges Abdallah and further denounced the deportation of Khaled Barakat, Palestinian writer and co-founder of the Masar, and Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun, to prevent them from attending the March.

Speakers from organizations included representatives of Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization, Samidoun internationally, the Masar Badil, Classe Contre Classe, Secours Rouge, Dar al Janub, the Neturei Karta Jewish anti-Zionist group, the Anti-Imperialist Front, Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine and others.

The EuroPalestine bloc emphasized the call to break the siege on Gaza after over 15 years of brutal siege, and speakers highlighted this demand, accompanied by two group songs, Mawtini and Unadikum, joined by the crowd.

The strong focus on Gaza at the demonstration was met in Gaza by a demonstration at the colonially imposed “borders” echoing the call for the breaking of the siege, where participants carried signs reading “One land, one people, one cause” and “From Gaza to Brussels, the March for Return and Liberation continues.”

Demonstrations and solidarity actions also took place in Vancouver, Vienna and other cities, including a lecture event in Beirut, while the images and speeches at the Brussels march were widely shared on social media.

The march was the capstone of the Week for Liberation and Return, a week of activities organized by the Masar Badil, Classe Contre Classe, Secours Rouge and Samidoun throughout Brussels, including lectures, meetings and events that highlighted various aspects of the Palestinian struggle. These included book events, an event with 200 people with European and international strugglers who had participated historically in the Palestinian struggle, a presentation on Fathi Shiqaqi and revolutionary thought by Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat, an evening forum on political prisoners with Samidoun and a briefing at the European Parliament on Palestinian refugees.

The Mapping Project Stands with Palestinian Political Prisoners

26 October 2022

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is republishing the following statement from the Mapping Project, a multi-generational collective of activists and organizers on the land of the Massachusett, Pawtucket, Naumkeag, and other tribal nations (Boston, Cambridge, and surrounding areas) who wanted to develop a deeper understanding of local institutional support for the colonization of Palestine and harms that they see as linked, such as policing, US imperialism, and displacement/ethnic cleansing. Read more about the Mapping Project here.

The Mapping Project Stands with Palestinian Political Prisoners

Political prisoners are the oxygen of all liberation movements.

They are political prisoners because they have exacted a meaningful cost on the oppressor and because they have worked tirelessly to materially decolonize the land and organize for liberation.

In Palestine, the primary genocidal force is the settler. Settlers, backed by the military, wage daily colonial war: theft of land, water, and resources, restriction of movement, restrictions on speech and political activity, and the murder of our people. As in all anti-colonial struggles, settlers and the soldiers who protect them must be confronted. And as with all colonial entities, self-defense, protection of community, and liberation of land are criminalized.

One of the tactics the zionist entity uses in its colonial war on Palestinians is so-called “administrative detention,” in which Palestinians are kidnapped from their homes, incarcerated, and held without charge or trial. These detentions can last years and can be renewed indefinitely.

On September 25th 2022 thirty Palestinian prisoners in “administrative detention” began an indefinite hunger strike. On October 9th twenty more prisoners joined them. On October 13th, these prisoners suspended their strike. In a statement issued by the Higher Emergency Committee of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, which includes all factions and political forces, the prisoners declared that “the strikers made their voices heard to all of the free people of the world. This latest strike, which lasted for 19 days, represents a cry of rejection and intifada in the face of the unjust administrative detention that steals lives as well as land and history.” In this statement, the prisoners also reaffirmed their commitment to boycotting the zionist courts at all levels.

We stand in solidarity with these Palestinian political prisoners and all Palestinian prisoners. They are our leaders and our teachers.

We, in the Mapping Project, have focused our work on analyzing the infrastructures of oppression where we live. In that spirit, we recognize that individuals and institutions in our region sustain and profit from the colonial infrastructure of administrative detention in Palestine, as well as the caging of Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples on this continent, and as such bear responsibility for harm done to Palestinians and to all colonized and incarcerated peoples.

At Harvard University Law School, Alan Dershowitz is a professor emeritus. Besides engaging with and defending sex trafficking, Alan Dershowitz has made a career of justifying administrative detention and advocating for the force feeding of prisoners. Dershowitz also infamously argued that judges be empowered to issue warrants authorizing torture and has called for the destruction of entire Palestinian villages as collective punishment. Alan Dershowitz has done and continues to do such repulsive “work” as a Harvard professor — just one of many examples of how Harvard serves as a platform for honoring and amplifying the most egregious promotors of colonial violence and incarceration.

Hewlett Packard (HP), a company with corporate offices in downtown Boston, provides critical infrastructure to Israel’s prisons, facilitating Israel’s administrative detention of Palestinian political prisoners. Hewlett Packard and its connected companies have provided a variety of data management and computing services to Israel’s prison system since at least 2015. HP and its connected companies have also received a contract in 2017 (through 2023) to provide computing servers for Israel’s police who throw Palestinians into prison. HP and its connected companies have also previously provided “tracking” technologies to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and broad technological support to the California Department of Corrections’ “Offender Management System.”

Across the Charles River from HP’s Boston office, Israel’s largest private weapons developer Elbit Systems just opened a new office in Cambridge MA. Elbit Systems manufactures drones, large weapon systems, surveillance towers, ammunition, and other weapons and technologies, which facilitate Israel’s surveillance and incarceration of Palestinian people. Elbit’s weapons and technologies similarly facilitate the US government’s tracking and incarceration of Black and Brown migrants: US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is a favorite customer of Elbit’s “Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT),” 80 to 160-foot tall structures equipped with cameras and radar systems capable of identifying migrants from as far as 7.5 miles away. As of September 2020, US CBP had 50 of Elbit’s Integrated Fixed Towers in operation along the US-Mexico border, which it utilizes in coordination with its fleet of Elbit Hermes 450 drones to track the movements of Black and Brown migrants in order to detain them.

Not far from Elbit’s new office is Microsoft’s “New England Research and Development Center,” also located in Cambridge MA. Microsoft equips the Israeli state, army, and police — each responsible for the incarceration of Palestinians — with an array of products and services so extensive that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once remarked “Microsoft is as much an Israeli company as an American company.” Like Elbit Systems, Microsoft also bears extensive culpability for racist criminalization and incarceration across Turtle Island, providing services to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US police forces. Microsoft also develops software products such as “Youth 360,” specifically for criminalizing youth.

Also in Cambridge is Google, which provides a variety of computing technologies to the zionist state, while investing in zionist companies and surveillance products. Google bought Waze for $1.1 billion in 2013. Waze is a navigation software that grew out of the IOF’s efforts to navigate Palestinian cities in order to attack and incarcerate Palestinians. Google’s recent Project Nimbus enables surveillance and data collection on Palestinians, which also contributes to arrest/detention of Palestinian people. On this continent, Google is closely connected to the US military, FBI, and CIA, and has been complicit in the NSA’s mass surveillance program. Google itself colonizes Palestinian land, on which it builds computing facilities and offices, and in our area too, Google is a colonizer. Google accumulates real estate and contributes to increasing rents and property values, which displace poor and working-class people, especially Black and Brown people and migrants.

Also in Cambridge is IBM. IBM has helped several racist regimes keep records, from the German Nazis to the South African apartheid regime. Today, IBM powers the zionist entity’s population registry, which it uses to issue racist ID cards and to implement a colonial “divide-and-conquer” strategy in which Palestinians are differentially oppressed based on where they reside (e.g., ’48 Palestinians who have Israeli passports versus Palestinians who don’t). Moreover, IBM’s population registry enables the zionist entity to organize demographic information on a large scale, in order to streamline the mass detention of Palestinians in its prisons: as reported by Samidoun, “At any given time, there are hundreds to 1,000 of Palestinian workers who are detained simply for being in another part of their own homeland, occupied Palestine, without the permits of the occupier. These Palestinian workers are not included in the counts of Palestinian political prisoners most frequently used — currently approximately 4,450 — because that number refers to those labled as security prisoners.” IBM also supports Israeli companies through its “Alpha Zone” initiative, which has supported 103 Israeli start-ups. One of these companies, DigitalOwl, collaborates with the Shabak, Israel’s secret police, through a Tel-Aviv University program meant to create relationships between start-up companies and Shabak. Since administrative detention is not reviewed by courts, Shabak’s “approval” is needed for Palestinian detainees to be released. This secret police force, which IBM-backed companies collaborate with, not only keeps Palestinian political prisoners in captivity but is also known to torture them. IBM also enables racist incarceration on this continent: IBM helped develop COPLINK, a platform used by US police departments to share and analyze records, which is regularly monitored by ICE agents. As many as 25 Massachusetts police departments automatically feed most of their data into COPLINK.

Local police departments – from Boston police to a variety of university police forces – are also trained by the zionist entity in methods of counterinsurgency and criminalization. The tools and justifications for detaining Palestinians end up being used on this continent, while local police forces share their methods of criminalization with the zionist state. These exchanges are arranged by zionist groups such as the Anti-Defamation League of New England.

These are but a fraction of the Boston area actors facilitating Israel’s incarceration of Palestinian political prisoners. We recognize that the entities that constitute the infrastructure of zionist policing, prisons, and repression are the same ones that support carceral systems here on this continent. These entities must be resisted and dismantled.

The Mapping Project stands with the heroic Palestinian resistance and supports the ongoing demand to free all Palestinian political prisoners. Let’s make our support for Palestinian political prisoners and those oppressed by carceral systems here more than just symbolic. Let’s organize ourselves to disrupt the actual work of these oppressor institutions, wherever they are.

Glory to the martyrs!
Free Palestine from the River to the Sea!
Free All Political Prisoners!

https://twitter.com/MappingProj48/status/1583453940888195072/

29 October, Vancouver: March for Return and Liberation – March for Palestine

26 October 2022

Saturday, 29 October
12 noon
Gather at Commercial/Broadway Station, march to Grandview Park
Vancouver
Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1162564018015584/

Join ILPS-Canada, Samidoun, Palestinian Youth Movement, BDS-Vancouver, and CPSHR as we march in solidarity on this International day of action for the Right of Return and Liberation! We’ll be meeting at the Commercial Skytrain Station to Grandview Park.
The march is an internationally coordinated action by the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement and coincides with their march on the European Parliament in Brussels.

The Palestinian liberation movement is a Palestinian, Arab and international movement, with a history of a century of struggle fighting back against imperialism, Zionism and reactionary forces. Today, as the Palestinian people and their resistance continue to struggle for return and liberation, the colonial occupation is continuing its extrajudicial killings and massacres, siege on Gaza, mass imprisonment, home demolition, settlement construction and overall assaults on Palestine.

This event is part of the March for Return and Liberation, with the central march in Brussels (alongside events in Jordan, Beirut, Albuquerque, Ireland and more.)
Info: https://returnandliberation.org/

27 October, Brussels: Samidoun international forum on Palestinian prisoners

26 October 2022

Thursday 27/10: International forum on solidarity with Palestinian prisoners organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. Hear about how Palestinian prisoners are at the heart of resistance, the struggle of Georges Abdallah, and how people can take action to mobilize and build international solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the struggle for the liberation of Palestine.

Thursday, 27 October
7 pm (19h) At the Salle Aurore, rue du Midi 162, 1000 Brussels.

NOTE: This event is part of the Week of Return and Liberation, leading up to the March of Return and Liberation on Saturday, 29 October! For the full schedule of events, endorsers and more, please see: https://returnandliberation.org/

Wednesday 26/10: “Return from Palestine” evening organized by La Grue collective. Two young activists report back on their experiences in Palestine. 7 pm (19h), at Sacco-Vanzetti, 54 chaussée de Forest, 1060 Brussels

Thursday 27/10: European Parliament forum on Palestinian refugees. 11 am at the European Parliament. REGISTRATION REQUIRED IN ADVANCE. To register, email info@returnandliberation.org

Thursday 27/10: International forum on solidarity with Palestinian prisoners organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. 7 pm (19h) At the Salle Aurore, rue du Midi 162, 1000 Brussels.

Friday 28/10: Secours Rouge International conference on the history of the links between the revolutionary movements of Palestine, Europe, the Arab region and elsewhere. More info: https://rhi-sri.org/palestine-internationalism-and-anti-imperialism 7 pm (19h) At DK, 70B rue du Danemark, 1060 Brussels.

Saturday, 29/10: Palestinian Women’s Meeting (before the march) 10 am to 1 pm, Sacco-Vanzetti, 54 chaussée de Forest, 1060 Brussels

Saturday 29/10: March for return and liberation. Departure 2 p.m. Square Lumumba, Porte de Namur, 1050 Brussels; Marching to the European Parliament.

Sunday 30/10: Open Palestinian Youth Forum. Toward a revolutionary youth and student movement. 12 pm, At Sacco-Vanzetti, 54 chaussée de Forest, 1060 Brussels

Sunday 30/10: The Revolutionary Alternative in the Thought of Fathi Shiqaqi. Lecture in Arabic by Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat. 6 pm (18h) At DK, 70B rue du Danemark, 1060 Brussels.

Wednesday 26/10 through Sunday 30/10: Exhibition of posters by Marc Rudin. The Swiss graphic designer Marc Rudin joined the Palestinian revolution in Lebanon and then in Syria., producing dozens of posters for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Exhibition organized by the Revolutionäre Jugend Zürich. 2 pm to 6:30 pm, Steki, 4&6 rue Gustave Defnet, 1060 Brussels

EU complicity with Israel in attack on March of Return and the diaspora

25 October 2022

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the denial of entry of our international Coordinator, Charlotte Kates, and one of the founders of the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, Khaled Barakat to the Netherlands and their deportation from Amsterdam airport to Canada by the Dutch military police. Charlotte and Khaled were on their way to participate in the Week of Action for Return and Liberation of Palestine. We see their denial of entry and deportation as a clear attack carried out by the Netherlands and European Union against Palestinian organising, the Palestinian people, and their struggle for return and liberation.

As soon as Barakat and Kates arrived in Amsterdam Schiphol airport on Monday morning, 24 October, they were detained by the immigration service operated by the Dutch military police.

Both Barakat and Kates were interrogated about their political views, about Samidoun, Masar Badil, and the week of action for liberation and return, showing that this is a clear political attack against both of them, our organisations and the Palestinian movement, especially in the diaspora.

This is not the first time Barakat and Kates are attacked and repressed by a European state. In 2019, Khaled Barakat was given a political ban while living and organizing the Palestinian shatat (“diaspora”) in Berlin, Germany. He was not allowed to participate in any political event or meet with more than ten people at a time. Barakat and Kates, who are also married to each other, were forced out of Germany and were banned from re-entry for multiple years to this day. This entirely political ban imposed upon them was cited as the reason for their denial of entry to the Schengen zone.

It is worth noting that this occurs as Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte is arriving in the settler colonial Zionist state for two days of talks, amid fierce Palestinian resistance and colonial violence, including the targeted assassination of Palestinian resisters and taking the lives of five Palestinian martyrs just last night.

We emphasize that our response to this attack on our organizing must be to make an even bigger, stronger, louder and more powerful stand with the Palestinian people, their resistance, and the liberation of Palestine. The March for Return and Liberation will gather in Brussels this Saturday 29 October for a clear demonstration that the Palestinian people will accept nothing less than return and liberation, from the river to the sea, and will hold Europe accountable for its colonial crimes and ongoing imperialist exploitation! We urge all Palestinians, Arabs and internationalists to join the march or organize local activities for return and liberation!

The deportation of Barakat and Kates is in line with a long standing policy of Germany, the Netherlands and the European Union, of repressing Palestinian organizing and European solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement. From the banning of (pro-)Palestinian artists to forbidding Nakba demonstrations, and from cutting funding to Palestinian farmers to attacking anti-zionist Jews and internationalist organizations that are in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

It is important to highlight that the European states that are repressing Palestinian organizing, are the same imperialists that unconditionally support the Zionist colonization of Palestine since it’s foundation more than a century ago. The Netherlands and Germany both support the Zionist entity financially, militarily, and politically, even during their countless aggressions and wars against the Palestinian people and the Gaza strip.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemns the deportation of Khaled Barakat and Charlotte Kates, and calls on all supporters of Palestine to defend the right to struggle for return and liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea, and participating in the Week of Return and Liberation and organizing protests and actions in your cities in support of the Palestinian people, and their inalienable right to liberate their land and return to their homes.

Momentum is building for the March for Return and Liberation: Join us in Brussels!

19 October 2022

From the streets of Brussels, to Wuppertal and Berlin, to Paris and Toulouse and Amsterdam, the word is spreading on the streets and in our communities: Join us for the grand march on 29 October 2022 as we raise up our collective voices for Palestinian Liberation!

Join the March for Return and Liberation in Brussels, Belgium on Saturday, 29 October 2022. We will march at 2 pm (14h) from Lumumba Square to the European Parliament.

Our demands include: the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners, the return of Palestinian refugees, total boycott and confrontation of normalization, rejection of imperialism, and defense of the Palestinian people and their resistance. Read our fuller call to action here.

The March is the culmination of the Week for Palestinian Liberation. Events and activities will take place every day in Brussels from 24 October to 29 October.

We need your help to make this series of events successful and large! These are grassroots events being organized without staff, with the voluntary commitment of activists and organizations working to liberate Palestine. From bringing students and youth to attend the march to hosting events and venues to making signs and banners, grassroots donations are critical to success. Click here to make a donation today to support these events.

Visit the website for the March: https://returnandliberation.org

Check out this video from Samaher Mrooj, Palestinian refugee in Jordan, calling for the March for Return and Liberation!

I am Samaher Mrooj, a refugee from the occupied city of Bisan. My message to the march of return and liberation in the shatat (exile/diaspora).

We are calling for the widest participation, to give no concessions of our rights and to uphold the alternative revolutionary path.
We reject all accords with the Zionists, particularly Camp David, Oslo and Wadi Araba. We reject normalization in all of its forms.

The liberation of Palestinian prisoners is a national, Arab and an international task.

We demand the breaking of the siege of our people in Gaza and the unity of all political trends of the Arab nation from the Gulf to the ocean in confronting colonization in all of its forms.

The right of return is a sacred right and it is the essence of the Palestinian cause. It is time for us, refugees, to take our rights and reject marginalization.

Watch all of our videos: from Khaled al-Batsh, Salman Abu Sitta, Sawsan al-Khuli, Father Manuel Musallam, Fr. Atallah Hanna, Dr. Ahmad Bahar, Najah Wakim, Mohammed Hashisho, Simaan Khoury, Olivia Zemor and many more at our website!

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Please note, these are the main events in Brussels! Please visit our website for more events!

Saturday 22/10: March for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah. Lannemezan, France. For more info: https://palestinevaincra.com/2022/09/en-octobre-2022-rejoignez-le-mois-de-mobilisation-pour-la-liberation-de-georges-abdallah/

Monday 24/10: Presentation by Luk Vervaet of the anthology, Sumud: Words of resistance from Palestinian prisoners , with Ahmed Frassini, a Palestinian prisoner as a child who is currently working in a campaign to recover the bodies of Palestinian prisoners that Israel refuses to return7 pm (19h) At the Novembre bookstore, 38 rue du Fort, 1060 Brussels.

Tuesday 25/10: Presentation of the Works of Mohamed Boudia. Mohamed Boudia was a fighter for the independence of Algeria; he joined the Palestinian revolution and was assassinated by the Israeli secret services in Paris in 1975. 7 pm (19h) At the Météores bookshop, 207 rue Blaes, 1000 Brussels.

Wednesday 26/10: “Return from Palestine” evening organized by La Grue collective. Two young activists report back on their experiences in Palestine. 7 pm (19h), at Sacco-Vanzetti, 54 chaussée de Forest, 1060 Brussels

Thursday 27/10: European Parliament forum on Palestinian refugees. 11 am at the European Parliament. REGISTRATION REQUIRED IN ADVANCE. To register, email info@returnandliberation.org

Thursday 27/10: International forum on solidarity with Palestinian prisoners organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. 7 pm (19h) At the Salle Aurore, rue du Midi 162, 1000 Brussels.

Friday 28/10: Secours Rouge International conference on the history of the links between the revolutionary movements of Palestine, Europe, the Arab region and elsewhere. More info: https://rhi-sri.org/palestine-internationalism-and-anti-imperialism 7 pm (19h) At DK, 70B rue du Danemark, 1060 Brussels.

Saturday 29/10: CENTRAL EVENT: March for return and liberation. Departure 2 p.m. Square Lumumba, Porte de Namur, 1050 Brussels; Marching to the European Parliament.

Sunday 30/10: Open Palestinian Youth Forum. Toward a revolutionary youth and student movement. 12 pm, At Sacco-Vanetti, 54 chaussée de Forest, 1060 Brussels

Sunday 30/10: The Revolutionary Alternative in the Thought of Fathi Shiqaqi. Lecture in Arabic by Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat. 6 pm (18h) At DK, 70B rue du Danemark, 1060 Brussels.

During this week: Exhibition of posters by Marc Rudin. The Swiss graphic designer Marc Rudin joined the Palestinian revolution in Lebanon and then in Syria., producing dozens of posters for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Exhibition organized by the Revolutionäre Jugend Zürich. Steki, 4&6 rue Gustave Defnet, 1060 Brussels

Dozens of organizations have already endorsed the March for Return and Liberation.
The March for Return and Liberation is organized by the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement (Masar Badil.) The Masar Badil is a Palestinian popular movement that aims for a Palestinian united national front to confront the occupier, bring down collaborationist entities and struggle against Zionism, imperialism and reactionary regimes.

It is being endorsed and organized by Palestinian, Arab and international organizations that support the principles of this action. Check out the growing list on our website! Organizations are invited to endorse: Click here to send your endorsement.

22 October, Montreal: Action to free Georges Abdallah and Palestinian prisoners

17 October 2022

Join us on Saturday October 22 at 2pm in front of the French Consulate to stand in solidarity with Georges Abdallah and Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike since September 25th. We demand Georges Abdallah’s immediate release from Lannemezan prison and recognize that political prisoners — whether they be in Zionist or French jails — are on the frontlines of the Palestinian struggle and we must always amplify their cause.

Embodying the Palestinian ethic of “sumud,” or steadfastedness, Georges Abdallah continues to engage in the very same fight he was targeted for. Indeed, during his detainment, Georges Abdallah has repeatedly participated in hunger strikes and refused meals in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners inside occupation prisons.

October 24, 2022 marks 39 years since Lebanese revolutionary Georges Abdallah was held as a political prisoner in Lannemezan prison in France. He is considered the longest serving political prisoner in Europe and has been eligible for release since 1999. However, his release has been obstructed by the French and American governments at every turn.

Georges Abdallah was targeted for his commitment to the fight for Palestinian liberation, for his role as a revolutionary thinker, and his involvement in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions (LRAF). Georges Abdallah’s trial which sentenced him to life imprisonment in 1987 was marked by irregularities. One of his lawyers – Jean-Paul Mazurier – was revealed to be an agent for a French spy service and some of the evidence against Abdallah was also revealed to have been fabricated retroactively by French, American and Israeli intelligence services. Despite this, the validity of the trial and its results have never been formally contested despite numerous attempts.

The French regime continues to detain Abdallah as they have deemed him to be a threat to Zionism stating that “[his release would] be celebrated [by Lebanon ..] and many different movements engaged in the revolutionary struggle.” Indeed, Abdallah is a threat to the Zionist regime — and by proxy its collaborators, namely the French and American regimes — for what he represents: the unity between Lebanese and Palestinian resistance and its revolutionary potential. That unity was a powerful force that, at the time Abdallah was still free, the Zionist Occupation was actively attempting to sabotage and continues trying to destroy to this day.

We must continue to demand the immediate release of Georges Abdallah who consistently resisted against the settler-colonial Zionist regime. We also recognize that political prisoners — whether they be in Zionist or French jails — are on the frontlines of the Palestinian struggle and we must always amplify their cause. Embodying the Palestinian ethic of “sumud,” or steadfastness, Georges Abdallah continues to engage in the very same fight he was targeted for. Indeed, during his detainment, Georges Abdallah has repeatedly participated in hunger strikes and refused meals in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners inside occupation prisons.

We recognize that his arrest and detainment is an attempt to stifle the Palestinian and Lebanese revolutionary spirit. We also condemn the French regime whose detainment of George Abdallah is only possible because of their collaboration with the Zionist and American regimes. We also condemn the Lebanese regime for its shameful inaction which has allowed Georges to remain hostage to France’s collusion with the Zionist regime. As organisations, movements, and individuals in Quebec we affirm our full and complete solidarity with Georges Abdallah and demand his immediate release from Lannemezan prison. We will continue to honour Georges Abdallah’s persistent fight until full liberation and return.

Date 22 October 2022

14 h 00 min – 17 h 00 min

Consulate General of France

1501 Ave. McGill College, Montreal, Quebec H3A 3M8 Canada

29 October, Albuquerque: Monthly Palestine Solidarity Meeting

17 October 2022

We invite all in Albuquerque to join us for our first monthly Albuquerque Palestine Solidarity Meeting. 6pm October 29 at El Chante (804 Park Ave SW). Families and Children welcome!

We will be discussing ongoing prisoner struggles, the March for Return and Liberation in Brussels, local NM news, and more.

Feel free to bring snacks to share.

More info: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjrfKRlj1I9/

The Palestinian prisoners: Historical injustice and a crime against humanity by Munther Khalaf Mufleh

17 October 2022

The following article was originally published in Arabic by the Handala Center. Munther Khalaf Mufleh is a Palestinian political prisoner, a member of the Central Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He is director of the Handala Center for the Prisoners’ Movement Affairs and the spokesperson for the PFLP prison branch. He is a Palestinian writer and journalist, and was issued a membership by the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate while imprisoned in recognition of his work.

The Palestinian prisoners: Historical injustice and a crime against humanity

Munther Khalaf Mufleh

The issue of Palestinian prisoners is one of the most severe injustices in the modern era, as the issue of prisoners i an emergent situation related to a conflict or battle, its circumstances and its particular time. That is, captivity as a temporary state as understood normally by people, or as defined by international conventions, or what you know about the human experiences of prisoners and captives in wars, conflicts and disputes around the world.

It is true that the issue of Palestine in its entirety is a major historical injustice of this era, but those who bear the burden of this issue, and the arbitrariness of the Zionist occupation towards the Palestinians in exchange for international silence and amid the Palestinian inability to confront or bring to an end the oppression of this group of people, are the prisoners themselves. Perhaps this Zionist arbitrariness towards the issue of the prisoners is like a date and time documented on the fronts of confrontation and on the faces and ages of the prisoners. The prisoner Karim Younes is considered the dean of Palestinian prisoners. He has spent 40 years in prison until today continuously, which perhaps indicates a time and date of the beginning of the official Palestinian inability to act and confront this injustice.

At the same time, the Zionists engage in constant violations and attacks against the prisoners, singling them out, and turning them into hostages of the Zionist obsession with “security.” This situation has extended from inside the prison walls to outside them, with the arbitrariness of the occupation constantly growing according to the state of “security” obsession directed against all Palestinians. This further reinforces the policy of so-called “administrative detention,” words that do not convey the severity of the situation. Administrative detention is a war waged by the Zionist occupation against the Palestinian people, affecting all aspects of their social, economic, cultural and political life…etc.

This policy has targeted thousands of families for destruction. It has contributed to the attempted disintegration and weakening of the Palestinian family by arresting the father or the mother. Since the beginning of the 1967 occupation, one million Palestinians have been arrested, including nearly 26,000 women, and since 1948 the number grows further, almost doubling . If we estimate the average of the number of years of imprisonment from the inception of the 1967 occupation, by averaging the minimum and maximum sentences, dividing by two and multiplying the results by the number of arrests, the results reach 20,500,000 years of arrest and imprisonment served by Palestinians since 1967 alone, with the number becoming far greater if they are calculated since 1948.

Twenty million, five hundred thousand years, wasted years in which the capabilities of prisoners, their communication and their development were imprisoned, locked away. Accordingly, detention, including administrative detention, is a war crime and a practice of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people. If an economist looks at this situation in terms of economic feasibility, lost opportunities and wasted energy for work and production, and we realize that this energy can contribute to the development of all of humanity, we must ask: Are these not then crimes against humanity?! This is also an economic war on the Palestinian people. Among those arrested are dozens of writers, journalists, inventors, hundreds of doctors, engineers, graduates, politicians, academics and parliamentarians, all in an effort to squander their efforts to better humanity. Is not this squandering of energy and activity through detention a crime of cultural and ethnic cleansing, and an attempt to eradicate and erase the Palestinian political identity?

The part is a reflection of the whole. Administrative detention is a heinous crime against humanity practiced by the Zionist occupier. It affects all categories and sectors of the Palestinian people, which means the permanent expansion of the struggle to end it and liberate the prisoners to include the entire Palestinian people.

The prisoners’ cause is not a humanitarian issue alone, but instead takes on multiple dimensions. It does not concern only the prisoners themselves and their families; instead, it is an issue of a society, a nation, and one which should concern all of humanity.

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The Mapping Project Stands with Palestinian Political Prisoners

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