Join Samidoun Ottawa, together with the Palestinian Youth Movement and OPIRG Carleton for a screening of “1948: Creation and Catastrophe.”
This film reveals the shocking events of a pivotal year to the Palestinian struggle, 1948. For the eyewitnesses featured, this documentary was a last chance to narrate their first-hand accounts of the violence that ensued during the transition from British to Zionist occupation in 1948.
We hope to see you there!
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
6:30 PM
SAW GALLERY, 67 NICHOLAS ST, OTTAWA
Thirty Palestinian prisoners jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention have announced they will launch a hunger strike on 25 September 2022. The strike, under the slogan, “Our decision is freedom…our strike is freedom,” will demand an end to imprisonment without charge or trial.
There are currently over 740 Palestinian prisoners jailed under administrative detention orders out of a total of approximately 4,650 total Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails. Administrative detention was first introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate before being adopted by the Zionist project. Detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable, with many Palestinians spending years at a time jailed under administrative detention, and neither they nor their families and communities are ever sure when they will be released, an additional form of collective punishment and psychological torture.
The Prison Branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a statement saying that “These 30 prisoners have spent nearly 200 years in administrative detention taken together. Two hundred years of captivity without charge or trial at the whim of the occupation intelligence officers….hundreds of years, during which the occupation prevented us from embracing our families or seeing our children as they were born or growing up. We never celebrated their birthdays, we did not accompany them on their first school day. We did not share the memories of their graduation celebration, and the intelligence officers then come to tell us, ‘We will deprive you of the joy of the marriage of your sons and daughters.’ Two hundred years in which we lost fathers, mothers and brothers, and our wives learned that they had married a ghost living in the darkness of the cells at the request of a fascist jailer.”
The administrative detainees further drew attention to the repeated imposition of administrative detention on prisoners who had been released, noting that many are released for only a few months before once again being thrown into arbitrary detention without charge or trial. Indeed, on Wednesday, 21 September, former administrative detainee Hisham Abu Hawash, who won his freedom in February 2022 after a lengthy hunger strike, was seized once again by occupation forces, as well as two other former long-term hunger strikers who won their freedom from administrative detention, Ayman al-Tabeesh and Adel Hreibat.
The detainees’ statement noted “It is in fact a life sentence, intersperssed with periods of freedom at a rate of two months or perhaps a bit more between two arrests of two years each, i.e., between four years of detention and four months of freedom and perhaps less, so we have a month of freedom for each year of detention.”
“We will give up our crumbs of bread and tighten our belts against our stomachs. We are nourished by dignity, and the tools of oppression cannot take this away. We breathe freedom in the face of injustice, racism and the policy of slow killing. We raise our voices and our fists, and declare: ‘Take our flesh and clench your brutal fist, torture us, bind us and spread the smell of death around us, kill us and seize the bodies of our martyrs, steal everything…but know that our struggle continues, and we will sow joy, life and hope, and our struggle for freedom and humanity free of torment will not stop.'”
They urged Palestinians, Arabs and international forces to come together to build support for the battle of the administrative detainees and the prisoners’ movement. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine and the prisoners’ struggle to join the campaign to end administrative detention and to support these valiant prisoners putting their bodies and lives on the line to resist and struggle for a liberated Palestine, through their hunger strike for freedom.
Download these distributable flyers and posters to highlight the struggle to free Palestinian prisoners:
1. Mobilize actions, demonstrations and creative interventions – Take to the streets to defend the Palestinian people and their resistance! As was made clear during the Unity Intifada/Seif al-Quds in May 2021, there is a vast depth of support for the Palestinian people everywhere around the world, including inside the imperialist powers. It is our responsibility to act and make it impossible to continue their support for the crimes against the Palestinian people.
2. Build the boycott of Israel – This is a critical moment to escalate the campaign to isolate the Israeli regime at all levels, including through boycott campaigns that target the occupation’s economic exploitation of the Palestinian land, people and resources as well as those international corporations, like HP and G4S, that profit from the ongoing colonization of Palestine.
From Turtle Island to Palestine! Join us for an in-depth panel discussion on settler colonialism and indigenous liberation.
Panelists will discuss questions like the relationship between settler colonialism and imperialism, the Canadian state’s support for colonialism in Palestine, and future directions for indigenous liberation movements on this land and in Palestine.
This event is taking place on the unceded and occupied territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples. The organizers stand in full solidarity and support of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination and with the ongoing movements to defend land, water and Indigenous peoples from plunder and settler colonialism.
On Sunday, 28 August, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Vancouver organized an event on the Israeli assassination policy in Palestine historically and at present. From the August assassinations of Tayseer al-Jabari and Khaled Mansour in the Unity of the Fields battle in Gaza to the historical assassinations of Abu Ali Mustafa and Naji al-Ali (on 27 August 2001 and 29 August 1987), this assassination policy has aimed to undermine the Palestinian resistance and revolutionary movement by targeting its political, artistic, civil and military leadership.
The event included presentations by Javid of Samidoun Vancouver, who spoke about the constellation of forces that the Palestinian resistance confronts, including the Zionist project, imperialist powers and Arab reactionary forces, including the Palestinian Authority, and their relation to the assassination project targeting Palestinian revolutionaries.
Nelli of BAYAN Canada spoke about the policy of extrajudicial killings and assassinations targeting the Filipino national democratic movement, including lawyers, health workers and student organizers. She underlined the connections between imperialism and the policy of extrajudicial killing in the Philippines, connecting it to the Palestinian struggle.
Khaled Barakat of the Masar Badil, Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, gave the main presentation of the evening, providing a historical look at the assassination policy as well as a political analysis of its goals and the ongoing responses and evolution of the Palestinian resistance to confront this policy. He discussed the contributions and role of many Palestinian leaders who had been targeted by the occupation, from Ghassan Kanafani and Wadie’ Haddad to Fathi Shiqaqi and Ahmad al-Jabari, and stressed that in order to bring this policy to an end once and for all, it must be made costly for the occupier.
Posters of martyrs of the Palestinian struggle who had been targeted for assassination were hung around the room, while participants received buttons honouring the martyrs. Participants discussed the importance of taking action to hold the occupation accountable as well as challenging the criminalization of resistance, such as demanding the Canadian government scrap its so-called “terrorist entities” list, which designates Palestinian resistance organizations as “terrorist” for defending their land and people.
Samidoun Vancouver will organize its next event on Monday, 26 September, a panel discussion on settler colonialism, indigenous resistance and liberation struggle, from Turtle Island to Palestine, with Palestinian and Indigenous strugglers and solidarity activists. The event will take place at 7 pm at 1803 E. 1st Ave in Vancouver, and all are welcome to attend.
On 12 September 2022, Hafez Huraini, along with one other local resident of the small Palestinian village of Atuwani and one international, were attacked by armed Israeli settlers while working in the community garden. During the attack, Hafez sustained multiple fractures to his arms and hands. Despite his severe injuries, he was seized and detained by occupation forces and accused of injuring one of the settlers who had been physically attacking him, by defending himself. Hafez Huraini is scheduled to be brought back before an occupation military court on Wednesday, 21 September.
Atuwani, and the larger area of Masafer Yatta, have long been the target of Israel’s settler-colonial movement. On May 4th, 2022, the Israeli High Court gave its approval for the ethnic cleansing of 8 villages across Masafer Yatta, consisting of 1,200 people — the majority of which are children.
Hafez is currently in Ofer, Military Detention Center, Ramallah district, under interrogation. On Thursday, September 15, the Israeli Ofer Military Court extended his detention for five more days in interrogation. On September 19 his detention was extended for three days with a court date tomorrow, September 21.
Huraini is one of the most prominent land defenders fighting to protect Masafer Yatta, and he and his fellow villagers are regularly attacked by settlers and soldiers. The arrest of Hafez Huraini is not only an attempt to imprison one of the leaders of the land defense movement in Masafer Yatta but to further the confiscation of Palestinian land.
Ask him to take all actions at his disposal to ensure Israel’s immediate and unconditional release of Palestinian human rights defender Hafez Huraini.
Ask him to take part as observer at the hearings of Hafez Huraini’s trial by the military courts.
Call on him to publicly condemn Israel for its policy of persecution and arbitrary arrest of human rights defenders, like Hafez Huraini, and to condemn the May 4th, 2022 ruling from the Israeli High Court for the ethnic cleansing of 8 villages across Masafer Yatta, consisting of 1,200 people — the majority of which are children.
On Friday, September 16, Israeli occupation forces seized 23 Palestinian students — part of the Progressive Democratic Student Pole, the leftist student organization at Bir Zeit University, while they were on a group trip to Aboud village west of Ramallah. Occupation forces then kept 11 jailed and under interrogation for several days until Monday, 19 September, when eight of the remaining students were released, while two leaders of the Progressive Democratic Student Pole, Muath Botmeh, the Coordinator of the Student Pole, and Zaid Qaddoumi , the Secretary of the Student Pole, were ordered jailed without trial under “administrative detention.”
Meanwhile, fellow Palestinian student Ibrahim al-Nabali remains detained and will be brought before an occupation military court on Wednesday, 21 September.
Botmeh and Qaddoumi are now among over 740 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of a total of 4,650 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons. Currently, 30 administrative detainees have announced that they plan to launch a collective hunger strike in the coming days to bring an end to this policy of detention without charge or trial.
Administrative detention was first introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate before being adopted by the Zionist project. Detention orders can be issued for up to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable, with many Palestinians spending years at a time jailed under administrative detention, and neither they nor their families and communities are ever sure when they will be released, an additional form of collective punishment and psychological torture.
Botmeh and Qaddoumi are among hundreds of Palestinian students, including dozens from Bir Zeit University alone, jailed by the Israeli occupation.
On Tuesday, 20 September, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra — a member organization of the Samidoun Network — held a Palestine stand at the campus of Jean Jaurès University in Toulouse, France, to welcome students back to school.
The stand included a large banner calling for the release of all imprisoned Palestinian students as well as a sign calling for the release of Botmeh and Qaddoumi. Organizers distributed hundreds of flyers and stickers to students, receiving an enthusiastic welcome.
Almost 40 students came to the stand to write cards of support to be sent to the imprisoned students, their families and fellow students. One young Algerian woman wrote, “Militant greetings and love to our heroes, you are the symbols of sumoud and strength. You will soon be victorious inshAllah, may God make my children heroes like you.”
Another student wrote, “Continue your fight to obtain your freedom with all courage and with all of our support from the University of Toulouse.” A young Syrian student wrote: “We are with Palestine, even if we do not have Palestinian blood: Palestine is our homeland.”
As noted in the Free Palestinian Students campaign supported by hundreds of Palestinian, Arab and international organizations,
“The work of student organizing, from holding book fairs to organizing events and participating in student elections, is criminalized by the Israeli occupation. Still more students are detained for joining demonstrations or posting on their social media profiles.
Palestinian students have been seized by Israeli occupation forces and abducted for their participation in the student movement in their homes, at their workplaces and on their campuses.
Once arrested, Palestinian students are routinely subjected to torture under interrogation — subjected to stress positions and stretched out over chairs, suspended from walls and forced to stand on tiptoe, deprived of sleep, cuffed and pressured on injured limbs, and beaten.
Palestinian students may be sent to administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial, indefinitely renewable in six-month periods. Palestinians routinely spend years jailed with no charges, no trial and no real challenge to the deprivation of their rights. They may be brought before Israeli military courts, which convict over 99% of the Palestinians charged there.
One of the most common charges is “membership in a prohibited organization,” typically referring to the student blocs. These represent the full spectrum of Palestinian politics. They organize lectures, book fairs, rallies and other campus events and participate in student elections. The charge sheets often refer to these standard activities of campus life, which are widely interpreted as a barometer for broader Palestinian political opinion.
The targeting Palestinian students is an attack on Palestinian futures. It is a systematic attempt to undermine the capacity of young Palestinians to organize with one another for a liberated future for their people: One free of colonization, apartheid and occupation.”
Take action to support imprisoned Palestinian students:
Writing Solidarity Letters
Palestinian prisoners and detainees repeatedly report that receiving letters from supporters around the world boosts morale and provides them with support. Israel wants to isolate Palestinian student leaders by keeping them behind bars, and letters help to break their isolation. This is a simple activity that can be done with physical distancing or combined with other prisoner support efforts. Contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net for a physical mailing address, or send us your letters — Samidoun in Occupied Palestine will share directly with the families and lawyers of detained students.
Adopt a Prisoner
Share the stories of Palestinian student detainees with your community by “adopting” a prisoner. Share their stories, write letters to them and include their name and photo in your activities. Above, we’ve presented 25 student prisoners, and we’ll be continuing to share their stories and photos throughout this campaign. Please contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net for even more info on your organization’s adopted prisoner.
Boycott Israel! Build the Academic Boycott
The academic boycott of Israel is a global call from Palestinian organizations, including student and faculty unions. As noted by the American Studies Association, “Israeli academic institutions function as a central part of a system that has denied Palestinians their basic rights. Palestinian students face ongoing discrimination, including the suppression of Palestinian cultural events, and there is sanctioning and ongoing surveillance of Palestinian students and faculty who protest Israeli policies. Israeli universities have been a direct party to the annexation of Palestinian land. Armed soldiers patrol Israeli university campuses, and some have been trained at Israeli universities in techniques to suppress protestors.”
As noted by the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, “The academic boycott calls for an end to collaboration with and normalization of Israeli academic institutions, which are mostly state-controlled as well as complicit with Israeli occupation and apartheid. The overwhelming majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence. No Israeli academic institution or organization has ever taken an official collective stance in opposition to the Israeli state’s occupation and wars.
Students and faculty can play an important role in supporting the academic boycott and standing in solidarity with Palestinian students and academics whose right to education and academic freedom is denied by Israel. They can do so by organizing a range of activities and campaigns; for example:
Opposing Study Abroad in Israel programs that are based in Israeli academic institutions and in doing so, exposing the complicity of Israeli universities with occupation and apartheid. Palestinian students in Israeli universities are also routinely subjected to racial harassment, surveillance, censorship,and disciplining .Such campaigns can highlight the restrictions on the freedom of travel and violations of academic freedom of Palestinian scholars and students as well as the lack of freedom experienced by Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim international students and scholars, who face restrictions when attempting to travel through Israeli borders for study, research, or academic exchange.
Passing a resolution in your academic association or student government society or faculty or graduate student union in support of the academic boycott.
Challenging the collaboration between academic programs at UScampuses and Israeli academic institutions and research institutes as a violation of the academic boycott.
Asking your university to support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.
Protesting talks by Israeli state officials or official representatives of Israeli academic institutions such as presidents, rectors or deans.
Opposing programs on campus to address the “Middle East conflict” that contract with anti-Palestinian organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) or the Simon Wiesenthal Center (Museum of Tolerance).Such organizations are also often involved in diversity and dialogue programs on campus and partner with student affairs offices.
Asking your administration or President/Chancellor to issue a public statement censuring Israeli destruction of Palestinian schools and universities and interference with Palestinian education, archives and re-search centers, for example, during the many wars on Gaza, and on an ongoing basis throughout occupied Palestine.
Organizing teach-ins or events with campus and community organizations at which the campaign for the economic, cultural and academic boy–cott of Israel can be fully and openly discussed, in addition to divestment.”
Protest, Rally and Organize
Organize a protest or direct action! The United States, Canada, EU states, Australia and Britain, among others, provide ongoing military, economic, diplomatic and political support to Israel to continue the repression of Palestinian students. Protest on your campus or in your city, highlighting government and media complicity, or act and organize at Israeli embassies, corporations and institutions in your area. Bring our materials to highlight the student prisoners’ situation while rallying for Palestinian liberation. We will be producing stickers and postcards for this campaign – email samidoun@samidoun.net to order some for your organization!
Join the Social Media March to #FreePalestinianStudents
You can support Palestinian students on social media as well. Use our materials and student prisoner photos on your individual or group social media pages, on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. Take a selfie or a group photo with our posters or just post these images with a message of your own. Use the hashtag #FreePalestinianStudents.
Pass a Resolution
Academic associations, labor unions and student governments have passed resolutions calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, including divestment from complicit corporations and the academic boycott of Israel. Large student coalitions have been built to oppose racist police and investment in arms dealers and environmental destruction. Include the student prisoners in your resolution or pass a resolution specifically calling for freedom for imprisoned Palestinian students. Use the information in the call and resources to build your resolution! For further support, email samidoun@samidoun.net.
In the early morning hours of Tuesday, 20 September, Palestinian Authority “security” forces — working in line with the policy of “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation – abducted two Palestinian strugglers, both labeled as “wanted” by the occupation forces, Musab Shtayyeh and Amid Tabileh, in occupied Nablus. As the Palestinian people rose up to confront these attacks, the same PA “security” forces shot dead Firas Fares Yaish, 53. Now, Musab Shtayyeh has been transferred to the PA’s infamous Jericho Prison (where numerous political detainees and resistance fighters targeted by security coordination have been and currently are held), passing through occupation checkpoints and indicating that Shtayyeh’s detention has clearly been coordinated by the occupation. In response, Shtayyeh has already launched an open hunger strike.
The arrest of Shtayyeh (a former prisoner of the Israeli occupation) and Tabileh and the killing of Yaish has sparked tremendous outrage among Palestinians, who have taken to the streets against the PA and its policies of security coordination — essentially, collaboration with the Zionist occupation. Palestinian Authority security forces receive various forms of funding and training from the United States, the European Union and Canada precisely because of their role in suppressing and undermining Palestinian resistance in the interests of the occupation. The Palestinian resistance organizations throughout occupied Palestine and in diaspora have demanded the immediate release of Shtayyeh and Tabileh. The national and Islamic forces in Jenin announced a general strike on Wednesday to bring an end to the PA’s collaboration with the Zionist regime, and resistance mobilizations and grassroots actions stretched from Qalandiya camp to Gaza to Silwad to Tulkarem.
Shtayyeh’s family issued a statement holding the PA security forces fully accountable for his life and safety, making it clear that the PA forces set up an ambush to seize him near Al-Rawda College and firmly rejecting any insinuations that his family had handed him over or allowed the PA to arrest him as some sort of “protection” from the occupation. (The PA has previously made this claim about its political detainees in the past, including Zakaria Zubaidi and PFLP General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades in the early 2000s). Shtayyeh’s family further told Palestinian media that he had been beaten upon his arrest.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins the broad call of Palestinian parties, resistance organizations and grassroots movements in mourning for Firas Yaish and in demanding the immediate release of Shtayyeh and Tabileh and a complete end to “security coordination” with the occupation, which is a stab in the back of the Palestinian resistance movement. The policy of “security coordination” is part and parcel of the nature of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which was established through the Oslo Accords in order to serve as a mechanism to repress the Palestinian struggle on behalf of the Israeli occupation and its imperialist backers.
The Palestinian Authority is based on the institutionalization of collaboration and normalization with the occupier and the replacement of Palestinian popular and resistance institutions with the agencies of the Authority. National unity is necessary for a national liberation movement, but it must and can only be achieved through the unity of forces engaged in resisting the occupation, not in collaborating with it. The persecution of Palestinian strugglers is the very reason for the existence of the “Authority,” in order to dismantle and weaken the Palestinian cause rather than to sustain and support the Palestinian people and their resistance. We demand the immediate release of all the Palestinian political detainees who continue to be jailed by the Authority, which operates hand in hand as a subordinate force to the systemic Zionist incarceration and targeting of the Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.
Further, this attack comes as Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas prepares to address the United Nations General Assembly in the coming days, sending a clear message that, for the PA, the path of Oslo, capitulation and criminalization of the resistance is the one it wishes to pursue. As the resistance has clearly become stronger throughout the occupied West Bank and throughout Palestine, the PA’s response is clear: criminalization and repression on behalf of the occupier. This is a message to the imperialist powers and backers of the PA that rather than turning toward unity with resistance forces, the PA is committed to its role as a collaborator with the Israeli occupation regime.
This is not an isolated incident. It follows upon the imprisonment by the PA of Basil al-Araj and his comrades; Al-Araj was later assassinated by the occupation as he fought back until the last moment. Even though the PA originally claimed to be “protecting” Al-Araj and his comrades — even as they launched a hunger strike for their release — it pursued criminal charges against them which continued even after Al-Araj’s assassination.
Palestinian activist and struggler against corruption Nizar Banat was assassinated by Palestinian Authority security forces on 24 June 2021 as they invaded his home in al-Khalil. Banat was a tireless advocate of the Palestinian and Arab resistance who was targeted by PA security forces after demanding the PA’s accountability for its ongoing collaboration with the Israeli occupation.
Palestinian liberated prisoner Omar Nayef Zayed, who escaped from occupation prisons in 1990 and made his way to Bulgaria, where he lived for 22 years. The Israeli occupation sought to extradite him from Bulgaria in 2016 and he took refuge in the Palestinian Authority’s embassy, where rather than being given security, he was repeatedly subjected to pressure about his situation. On 26 February 2016, he was suddenly found dead outside the embassy, having plunged to the ground from a great height.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Majdi Rimawi, Hamdi Qur’an and Basil al-Asmar, along with longtime Fateh struggler Fuad Shobaki, were imprisoned by the PA in Jericho prison — where they were held under foreign guard that included U.S., British, Canadian and Turkish forces — from 2002 until 2006, when occupation forces invaded Jericho prison and abducted all of them. Today, all six remain political prisoners of the Israeli occupation, a crime in which the PA was and remains fully complicit.
The situation in Nablus and beyond continues to develop on an ongoing and moment-by-moment basis. For months, the families of political detainees have been taking to the streets to expose the escalated repression by the PA and the “revolving door” policy of imprisonment by the PA and the Israeli occupation. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority for the lives and safety of Shtayyeh and Tabileh, and that these crimes have taken place in full collaboration with the Israeli occupation. Freeing all of the Palestinian political prisoners in Palestinian Authority jails is part and parcel of the demand to liberate all Palestinian political prisoners in Zionist, imperialist and reactionary jails — on the road to the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
On Friday, 16 September, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra — a member of the Samidoun Network — organized a Palestine Stand in Toulouse, France commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the massacres of Sabra and Shatila. Organizers distributed numerous flyers with information about the massacre, stating:
“From September 16 to 18, 1982, thousands of Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps were massacred by far-right Lebanese militias, allowed to enter the camp and monitored by the Israeli army which occupied Beirut. This massacre was not an isolated act, it was at the heart of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 which claimed more than 30,000 victims. Confronting this invasion and occupation, thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese joined in the resistance, such as Lebanese communist Georges Abdallah [today imprisoned in France for 38 years].”
40 years later, the Collectif was present in the streets to underline its commitment to Palestinian people, in homage to the martyrs and to demand the right of return of all Palestinian refugees to their land.
For over two hours, participants discussed the history of the massacres and the struggle for justice in Palestine today with neighborhood residents. For many, the memory of Sabra and Shatila remains alive and well. Many remember the terrible images of the barbaric massacre carried out by the Lebanese fascists and their Israeli partners.
As the Samidoun statement affirms, “Despite the passage of time, the calls of the victims and of the Palestinian people remain clear: a demand for justice and accountability, and, above all, the implementation of the right to return to Palestine and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.” Dozens of people of all generations took photos to pay tribute to the thousands of martyrs of Sabra and Shatila.
Highlighting recent urgent developments in the Palestinian struggle, organizers displayed several posters urging freedom for Hafez Huraini. Since 12 September, this Palestinian farmer and activist has been imprisoned for defending his land in At-Tuwani village in Masafer Yatta, a Palestinian region subjected to a policy of ethnic cleansing by the Israeli occupation. We join many around the world to affirm the urgency of freeing Hafez Huraini and #DefendMasaferYatta!
The Collectif Palestine Vaincra thanks all the people who came to pay tribute to the martyrs of the Palestinian cause and show their solidarity! The Collectif organizes information stands and various initiatives to support the Palestinian people in Toulouse. Do not hesitate to contact the Collectif if you wish to participate and to follow them on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Telegram).
16 September 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of the infamous massacres of Sabra and Shatila, which took the lives of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese, in the pinnacle of the criminal alliance of U.S. imperialism, Zionism and Arab ultra-reactionary forces. Today, we remember and honor the martyrs and demand justice and accountability for the perpetrators, a real justice that can only come with the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
On this anniversary, we are republishing a slightly edited version of our prior statement on the Sabra and Shatila massacres, the continuing Nakba, and the continuing resistance and revolutionary struggle for liberation and return:
Forty years ago this September 16-18, Palestinians in Lebanon — and everywhere inside Palestine and in exile and diaspora — faced the horrors of the Sabra and Shatila massacres of 1982. Thousands of Palestinian refugees in the Shatila refugee camp and the Sabra neighborhood of Beirut were slaughtered by the fascist Lebanese Phalangist militia, the killing overseen by the invading Israeli occupation forces that surrounded the camps on all sides, firing flares into the air to light up the night sky for the massacring forces.
The Sabra and Shatila massacres were part and parcel of the 1982 Israeli invasion with Lebanon, which aimed to destroy the Palestinian revolutionary forces and their Lebanese allies by all means, including immense brutality targeting the civilian population.
The Palestinian defense forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the fighters of the Palestinian revolution, were compelled to leave Lebanon in a so-called “ceasefire” agreement brokered by the United States. This U.S-brokered so-called “peace plan” purported to protect Palestinian refugees.
Days after the defenders of the camps withdrew, shortly followed by the assassination of Phalangist leader Bechir Gemayel, Israeli occupation forces and their Phalangist allies invaded Beirut and surrounded the Shatila refugee camp, now home largely to women, children and elders alone, on 15 September 1982. Israeli forces set up checkpoints at every entrance to the camp, blocking Palestinian civilians from leaving and controlling all points of entry.
Poster: Marc Rudin, 1983
These invading Israeli occupation forces welcomed, directed and cleared the path for the fascist militias to enter the camps and “clear out PLO members,” providing the military support and encirclement for the massacre of thousands of Palestinian refugees left without their resistance fighters and defensive arms.
Up to 4,000 Palestinians and Lebanese were slaughtered, from elders to babies. The exact numbers remain unknown but are upwards of 3,000, with many victims still missing today. The violence of the attack was immense, as women were raped, tortured and brutalized and children shot down in cold blood. The Israeli occupation forces surrounding the camp provided free passage to even more fascist militiamen to enter the camp, even as they blocked Palestinian and Lebanese residents from fleeing. Ariel Sharon, then the Zionist minister of war, was directly informed of the massacre and oversaw the ongoing encirclement of the camps.
Palestinian women and children resisted with only small arms and their bodies and breath. Despite their lack of protection and the overwhelming force exerted by the encircling Israeli army and the fascist militia, the resistance of the Palestinian people inside Sabra and Shatila saved hundreds of civilian lives.
Poster: Marc Rudin, 1983
Despite the passage of time, the calls of the victims and of the Palestinian people remains clear: a demand for justice and accountability, and, above all, for the implementation of the right to return to Palestine and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.
The Sabra and Shatila massacres were not a random act of violence; they were central to the U.S.-supported Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which took upwards of 30,000 lives. Thousands more are still missing today. These massacres were intended as an act of genocide, designed to clear Lebanon of its Palestinian population, facilitated by the same forces responsible for the ongoing Nakba and genocidal ethnic cleansing inside occupied Palestine.
Poster: Marc Rudin, 1982
The Sabra and Shatila massacres echoed not only with the cries of Deir Yassin, Kafr Qasem, Dawaymeh and al-Lid, but also with those of the September massacres in Jordan 10 years prior. As in Sabra and Shatila, they aligned the most reactionary Arab forces with imperialist backing and Zionist military support. The massacre was an attempt to wipe out Palestinian resistance and, despite its brutal violence, an attempt that failed alongside all other such colonial violence for over 100 years.
The Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian people were not defeated at Sabra and Shatila, nor was the Lebanese resistance. The flame of the Palestinian revolution continued to burn, and it was five years later, with the rise of the Intifada in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip of Palestine, that the siege on the Palestinian refugee camps was broken.
Poster: Marc Rudin, 1989
16 September 1982 was the beginning of the Sabra and Shatila massacres; it was also the birth of Jammoul, the Lebanese National Resistance Front, comprised of multiple Lebanese and Palestinian leftist organizations fighting back against Israeli occupation and invasion.
Through years of resistance and struggle, taking multiple forms and political directions, the Lebanese resistance, and particularly the Islamic resistance led by Hezbollah, was able to uproot the Israeli occupation from its land, forcing the Zionist occupation forces from Lebanon in May 2000.
Lebanese and Arab strugglers who recognized the role of the imperialist powers, such as the United States, Britain, and France, in the ongoing occupation and destruction of Lebanon, Palestine and the Arab region more broadly, took up the battle against Zionism and imperialism on an international level in response to Sabra and Shatila. The Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Fraction (FARL), of Georges Abdallah – today imprisoned in French jails for over 37 years – was one such response.
Poster: Marc Rudin, 1984
The international popular response to the invasion of Lebanon and the Sabra and Shatila massacres, including the mobilization of Palestinian communities in exile around the world and the significant growth of Palestine solidarity organizing, was also part of this continuing resistance. Rallies and marches took to the streets around the world, with 29 November, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, as a focal point, shattering the walls that had excluded Palestinian struggle from the official left in the United States and other Western countries.
This mobilization of Palestinian communities and international solidarity is just as vital today, to confront the Oslo project — another infamous and devastating U.S.-brokered “peace plan” — and the continuing Nakba inside and outside Palestine.
The PLO of the 1980s were the defenders of the camps — but today’s Palestinian Authority, which has largely taken over and dismembered the PLO, is engaged in “security cooperation” with the butchers of Sabra and Shatila. Today as then, it is the Palestinian Resistance that defends the land and the people from massacres. It is the Lebanese Resistance that liberated the South of Lebanon and protects it from Zionist invasion today. The armed resistance is what provides protection from imperialist, Zionist and fascist crimes, never cooperation or submission to those criminal forces.
The Palestinian, Arab and international resistance art of Sabra and Shatila repeated the image of the flower of Palestine blossoming from the blood of the martyrs, the irrepressible spirit of resistance and the deep mourning and memory of those whose lives were taken by the fascist-Zionist-imperialist alliance in the streets of Beirut.
Poster: Abdel Aziz Ibrahim, 1982
Today, Palestinian refugees have been denied their right to return home to their lands, homes and properties in occupied Palestine for over 74 years. In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees are also denied basic civil and human rights, including the right to work in over 70 professions. However, the refugee camps have been and remain popular incubators for Palestinian resistance and a core of the Palestinian movement, a compass pointing towards liberation and return. The Palestinian resistance – and the Lebanese resistance – continue to present hope for the world, a defense of humanity and justice against the brutality of colonialism and exploitation.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network mourns the martyrs of Sabra and Shatila and salutes all of the Palestinian refugees who continue to struggle for return and liberation. We demand the freedom of Georges Abdallah and all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli, reactionary and imperialist prisons, and we emphasize that this anniversary must also be an occasion to stand with the continuing Palestinian resistance.
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, alongside the Lebanese people, face a devastating economic crisis created by capitalist exploitation, financial confiscation of popular resources, and imperialist domination and sanctions. In many ways, Palestinian refugees’ suffering in the economic crisis has been made invisible — they also go without oil, gas, electricity and water, often in worse conditions than the Lebanese population as a whole. Meanwhile, Israeli forces are attempting to steal Lebanese (and Palestinian) natural gas resources and undermine Lebanese sovereignty on its coast.
On the anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacres, we must take action and organize to defend Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their original homes, lands and properties throughout historic Palestine and ensure restitution and reparations.
We also must resist imperialist sanctions levied by the U.S. and other Western powers that aim to isolate and weaken resistance to Israel, Zionism, imperialism, and reaction, and ultimately to liquidate the Palestinian national liberation movement. We must remember Sabra and Shatila by supporting the steadfastness of Palestinian refugees in the camps and everywhere in exile and diaspora, and upholding the right to live, the right to remain and the right to return — and the right to liberate Palestine, from the river to the sea.
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.
Join Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Brussels between 24 and 29 October 2022 as we join the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, for the International Week of Action for Palestinian Liberation, leading up to the March for Return and Liberation on Saturday, 29 October.
The Palestinian prisoners are on the front lines of struggle, confronting the jailers on a daily basis. We will be carrying banners, speaking about and centering the prisoners’ movement throughout these activities and urging the liberation of all Palestinians.
Together, we will organize and march:
For the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea and the right to return of all Palestinians
To support the Palestinian people, their resistance and their liberation movement
For the release of all Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli, PA, Arab reactionary and imperialist prisons, including the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, Lebanese struggler for Palestine jailed in France for 38 years.
To end the blockade and siege on Gaza
To demand and implement the total boycott of the Israeli occupation, including kicking Israel out of the United Nations and bringing an end to the “EU-Israel Association Agreement”
To denounce the responsibility of imperialist powers in forming, funding and arming the Zionist colonial regime in Palestine
To demand an end to the listing of resistance organizations and rights defenders as “terrorists” and the repression of Palestinian organizing by the US, EU and others
To confront the collaborationist role of the Palestinian Authority and the so-called “peace process” and the normalization projects being pursued by reactionary Arab regimes under imperialist auspices.
To honour the activists, leaders, strugglers and organizers assassinated by the occupation forces, especially those in Europe
We invite all who agree with these demands to sign on to endorse the March for Return and Liberation on 29 October and join us in this week of action:
Program of the International Week for Palestinian Liberation (24-29 Oct. Brussels)
The demands of the March are the basis for this week of mobilization organized in Brussels by Classe Contre Class in cooperation with Masar Badil.
We invite you to get involved in the week! Organize artistic, cultural and political events, conferences, art exhibits and direct actions, and join us for the great march on 29 October!
Classe Contre Classe and Masar Badil would like to thank the collectives and structures which have already responded positively to this call and which have made it possible to establish this first program:
Monday 24/10: Presentation by Luk Vervaet of the anthology, Sumud: Words of resistance from Palestinian prisoners . This book includes Lena Meari’s study on the resistance of Palestinians under interrogation. 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 and playwright who directed the National Theater of Algiers at independence. Exiled because of his opposition to the military coup of 1965, he joined the Palestinian revolution and was assassinated by the Israeli secret services in Paris in 1975. 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 and their meetings, visits, participation in demonstrations, amid the daily life of Palestinians under occupation in cities, villages and in refugee camps. Location yet to be determined.
Thursday 27/10: International forum on solidarity with Palestinian prisoners organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. Banned and criminalized by the Israeli authorities, it has several sections in Europe and around the world. At the Salle Aurore, 9 rue Rouppe, 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. In the 1970s, the struggle of the Palestinian people took center stage for internationalism, following Vietnam as the new main front line of struggle. With the participation of activists from Europe and the region who witnessed this period. At DK, 70B rue du Denmark, 1060 Brussels.
During this week: Exhibition of posters by Marc Rudin. In 1977, the Swiss graphic designer Marc Rudin joined the Palestinian revolution in Lebanon and then in Syria. During this period, he produced dozens of posters for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In 1994, he was arrested in Turkey and detained for five years. Exhibition organized by the Revolutionäre Jugend Zürich. Location yet to be determined.
The major event of the week: Saturday 29/10: March for return and liberation. At the call of Masar Badil with the support of the Plate-Forme Charleroi-Palestine and the Classe Contre Classe organization, with the participation of many collectives and associations, including the CAPJPO-EuroPalestine bloc to challenge the siege of Gaza. Departure 2 p.m. Square Lumumba, Porte de Namur, 1050 Brussels; Marching to the European Parliament.
Join Samidoun Ottawa, together with the Palestinian Youth Movement and OPIRG Carleton for a screening of “1948: Creation and Catastrophe.”
The Collectif Palestine Vaincra thanks all the people who came to pay tribute to the martyrs of the Palestinian cause and show their solidarity! The Collectif organizes information stands and various initiatives to support the Palestinian people in Toulouse. Do not hesitate to 
