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Palestinian worker Musa Abu Mahameid’s life taken by colonial imprisonment and exploitation

On Saturday, 3 September, another Palestinian prisoner’s life was taken by the Israeli occupation regime’s policy of medical neglect targeting the Palestinian people, particularly Palestinian detainees. Musa Abu Mahameid, 40, from Bethlehem, died in Assaf Harofeh hospital early this morning after his health had significantly deteriorated. Before his arrest, his family told Palestinian media that he had already suffered from neurological problems and other physical ailments.

Abu Mahameid was a Palestinian worker who was detained approximately two months ago for being in occupied Jerusalem “without a permit” granted by the occupation regime, as he is a Palestinian from Beit Tamar, east of Bethlehem. 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 labeled as “security prisoners,” jailed for their role in defending Palestine politically, from a child throwing a stone to a student organizer holding events on campus to a fighter engaged in armed struggle.

Palestinian workers imprisoned for “entering Palestine without a permit” are not classified as security prisoners; instead, they are jailed for “violating” the occupier’s regulations preventing the free movement of indigenous Palestinians throughout their homeland. Palestinian workers who enter Jerusalem and occupied Palestine ’48 without a permit in order to work to support their families also often face threats and superexploitation by Israeli employers, due to their particularly vulnerable status.

The imprisonment of these Palestinian workers is a deeply colonial project based on the colonizer’s control of Palestinian land and the barring of indigenous Palestinians from accessing various parts of their land, much as the siege on Gaza and the construction of the apartheid wall serve this function. Simultaneously, the permit regime created by the colonial project is another path for ultra-exploitation of Palestinian workers. Workers seeking permits may be coerced into paying for permits or taking jobs for low pay or in unacceptable conditions, all because of the colonial fragmentation and segmentation imposed on Palestinian land.

Permitting for Palestinian workers is also linked to the Palestinian Authority’s “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation — namely, attacking and imprisoning Palestinians for involvement in the resistance — and trumpeted by the U.S. and other imperialist powers as a form of “economic peace.” Meanwhile, Palestinian workers excluded by the system are subject to severe exploitation, colonial violence from soldiers and settlers, and imprisonment, medical neglect and death, as in the case of Musa Abu Mahameid.

Abu Mahameid was himself a former political prisoner jailed by the occupation for five years over various arrest periods and shot by occupation forces in the foot in 2013, reflecting the continuity between Palestinian workers and the Palestinian resistance. The vast majority of Palestinian political prisoners are from the Palestinian working and popular classes, and workers have been particularly targeted by Zionist colonialism from its inception in Palestine, from the forced labor camps created during and after the Nakba to the exploitation of Palestinian labor to construct colonial settlements.

Abu Mahameid’s case is not an isolated example. Medical neglect and negligence is an ongoing tactic of the occupier against Palestinian prisoners, with detained Palestinians receiving poor treatment or no treatment, denied tests or delayed medical attention for urgent conditions. In July of this year, Saadia Farajallah Matar’s life was taken by medical neglect.

As we mourn Musa Abu Mahameid, we also call upon the labor movement of the world to take action and support Palestinian workers against the system of permitting, targeting and repression that is part and parcel of the colonization of Palestine. A growing number of labor unions have already taken positions in support of Palestinian rights and in opposition to Zionist war crimes and Israeli occupation and colonization. Palestinian workers facing a colonial permit system, imprisonment and death at the hands of the occupier must receive solidarity from workers’ movements around the world to confront this system — and to struggle for the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

New victory for Palestinian prisoners’ movement as occupation retreats from repressive measures

The Palestinian prisoners’ movement announced a new victory on Thursday, 1 September 2022, in which the occupation prison administration retreated from its new repressive measures imposed upon the prisoners. In light of this achievement, the united prisoners’ movement announced that they would not head into a collective mass hunger strike, saluting the prisoners, the Palestinian people and all forces of support and solidarity who had pledged to stand with them in their escalating battle with the occupier.

Specifically, the Israeli occupation prison administration retracted its announcement that prisoners with life sentences and lengthy sentences would be transferred from one prison to another every six months. This repressive policy, along with a series of raids and invasions of the prisoners’ rooms, was launched by the prison administration after the 2021 Freedom Tunnel, in which six Palestinian prisoners liberated themselves from Gilboa prison, highlighting both Palestinians’ dedication to achieve freedom in the most difficult circumstances and the failure of the Israeli occupation’s much-heralded “high-security” system.

In March of 2022, the prisoners’ movement once again came close to launching a mass hunger strike against these repressive policies, but the occupation retreated in advance of the strike’s planned launch. However, they once again announced that they would implement this policy of transfer, with the heaviest impact on those prisoners with lengthy sentences, continually disrupting their lives. In the lead-up to the announced strike, prisoners from all Palestinian political parties and factions returned meals on several days, dissolved their official representative bodies and closed their sections as the protest grew among the prisoners.

If the demands of the prisoners’ movement had not been met, 1,200 prisoners had planned to launch an open hunger strike on 1 September, to be followed by future batches of strikers. The prisoners’ movement declared in a statement (below) that “We decided to stop the open hunger strike after the prison administration retracted its order to periodically arbitrarily transfer prisoners with life sentences.”

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the prisoners’ movement on this important achievement, coming one day after the victory of Khalil Awawdeh after 182 days of hunger strike.

The Palestinian prisoners are engaged in a daily confrontation with the jailer and the occupier and are leaders of the Palestinian resistance movement, reflecting a true unity without compromise or corruption. The steadfastness of the prisoners themselves, their united front, and the strong support of the Palestinian resistance all made it clear that this was a confrontation in which the occupier had no route forward and was forced to retreat by the unbreakable will of the prisoners’ movement.

This moment must also be an occasion for all supporters of justice and liberation for Palestine and the Palestinian people to build on this accomplishment to escalate the campaign for the liberation of all of the nearly 5,000 Palestinian prisoners, part and parcel of the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

**

Statement No. 6

Issued by the Higher National Emergency Committee of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement

Dear people of our great nation…
Greetings of victory and loyalty to you and to all the free people of the world…

God Almighty has honored us with a new victory, that is accomplished for the principled people of the cause, the people of steadfastness and pride in confronting the forces of aggression and violation of agreements.

The Zionist enemy and its prison management agents realized that the prisoners are ready to pay the highest price for their dignity and rights. And that, behind them, is a people and a resistance willing to pay the highest price in order to support their fighters in the prisons of the Zionist occupation. This is why the enemy decided to retract its unjust decisions and arbitrary measures against your imprisoned sons and daughters, and to give in to their demands.

In this regard, we are sending you the following messages from behind bars, from the arenas of confrontation in the dungeons of imprisonment:

First: We decided to stop the open hunger strike after the prison administration retracted its order to periodically arbitrarily transfer prisoners with life sentences.

Second: We extend our heartfelt thanks to all of our people and to all the free people of the world who supported us in these steps, and our thanks are also extended to our factions for their high level of willingness to support our struggle.

Third: If the enemy retreats from its measures, if this indicates anything, it is that this enemy does not retreat from its aggression except when it sees our steadfastness and unity that is continually embodied within the dungeons of imprisonment, and we hope that this unity will be extended and realized in all arenas of the homeland in confrontation of the occupation.

Fourth: We salute the prisoners for their patient steadfastness and constant readiness to confront aggression, who have shown the highest degree of willingness to sacrifice in order to preserve their dignity and rights.

Glory and mercy to the martyrs, freedom to the prisoners
Victory for our people and their just cause
It is jihad, victory or martyrdom
It is a revolution until victory

Higher National Emergency Committee of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement

Thursday evening, 1 September 2022

Victory for Khalil Awawdeh: Palestinian prisoner suspends hunger strike, to be released 2 October

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Khalil Awawdeh, Palestinian prisoner jailed without charge or trial, who suspended his hunger strike today, 31 August, on the occasion of his victory that confirms his upcoming liberation. Awawdeh will be released on 2 October 2022 and his administrative detention will not be renewed. In a video message filmed in his hospital room in Assaf Harofeh hospital, Awawdeh salutes the Palestinian people and the free people of the world for their support throughout his lengthy strike.

“This victory is an extension of the victories achieved by the great Palestinian people,” Awawdeh declared in the video, where he confirmed he will remain in Assaf Harofeh hospital until his health recovers and he can stand and walk.

Awawdeh’s strike persisted for six months as he refused to end his strike without a firm commitment to his liberation. The images of his body reaching an extreme level of emaciation and his message to Palestinians and the world only a few days ago propelled even greater levels of outrage and action, with even the European Union calling for his release as his health condition became increasingly critical.

Centrally, the Palestinian resistance continually prioritized Awawdeh’s release, with an agreement for his liberation a major part of the “Unity of the Fields” battle in Gaza earlier this month, in which the Palestinian armed resistance defended Gaza from a series of massacres and assassinations perpetrated by the occupation. The agreement also comes as the Palestinian prisoners’ movement approaches a collective hunger strike to reject ongoing Zionist repression and attacks on the prisoners throughout the prison system.

Around the world, Awawdeh’s strike inspired people to take to the streets in cities from New York, Toronto and Vancouver to Berlin, Toulouse, Paris and Amsterdam, in Belgium Manchester, Madrid, Stockholm, and Madison, while Palestinians throughout occupied Palestine from the river to the sea raised their voices to join with Awawdeh’s for liberation.

Awawdeh’s victory is another blow struck by the Palestinian people and their resistance — at the heart, the prisoners’ movement — for the end of administrative detention. Administrative detention orders are issued for up to six months at a time on the basis of alleged “secret evidence,” and they are indefinitely renewable. Originally introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate before being adopted by the Zionist regime, administrative detention orders are frequently used against community leaders and organizers, and there is a growing campaign to force a permanent end to this policy. Currently, there are nearly 700 Palestinians held without charge or trial in occupation prisons of approximately 4,500 Palestinian prisoners, the largest number of administrative detainees in 14 years.

Awawdeh, 40, from Ithna, al-Khalil, is married and the father of four daughters. Throughout his strike, his wife, daughters, mother and father have done all they can to highlight his struggle and draw attention to the prisoners’ cause. He briefly stopped his strike on the 111th day, when he was told an agreement had been reached to secure his release. Instead of releasing him, however, the occupation forces instead extended his detention, and he re-launched his hunger strike. Today, he and his loved ones, the Palestinian people and all strugglers for justice mark his victory.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Khalil Awawdeh on his victory over the jailer, a victory of steadfastness and resistance that points a compass not only toward his liberation but the liberation of all of Palestine, from the river to the sea. We urge all those who have supported Awawdeh in this victory to remain alert and ready to act in support of the just struggle of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in the coming days. 

 

Khalil Awawdeh’s message to the world: “Our cause is just, regardless of the high price paid”

Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh, on his 180th day of hunger strike, issued a video message to the people of the world, where he speaks slowly and laboriously, with his emaciated body visible, highlighting the justice of the Palestinian cause:

“Oh, free people of the world, this suffering body, of which nothing remains but skin and bones, does not reflect a weakness and vulnerability of the Palestinian people, but rather is a mirror reflecting the true face of the occupation, which claims to be a ‘democratic state’, at a time when it holds a prisoner without any charges in the brutal administrative detention, saying with his body and his blood: No to administrative detention! No to administrative detention!

We are a people who have a just cause that will remain a just cause, and we will always stand against administrative detention, this injustice, even if the skin is gone, even if the bone deteriorates, even if the soul is gone.

Be assured, be confident, that we have the right and our cause is just, regardless of the high price paid.

Bless you and peace be upon you.”

The sight of Awawdeh’s frail body, almost a skeleton after six months of hunger strike, has prompted outrage and demands for action for his immediate release.

Awawdeh has pledged to continue his hunger strike until freedom. He is jailed without charge or trial under Israeli “administrative detention,” which is indefinitely renewable. The occupation military commander “suspended” his administrative detention while he is held in Assaf Harofeh hospital due to his severe medical condition — however, this detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, would be reimposed as soon as his health improves. Israeli occupation military courts have already denied Awawdeh’s appeals on multiple occasions, but have scheduled another hearing on Tuesday, 30 August in his case.

The Palestinian resistance and the prisoners’ movement as a whole — moving into a wide-scale confrontation, with the potential for an open hunger strike to begin 1 September — have identified Awawdeh’s struggle against administrative detention as a key priority. His situation has drawn growing international outrage and there is a demonstration scheduled today, 29 August, at 5 pm in Washington Square Park in New York City to demand his release:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Chz6truO-Gy/

Awawdeh is among approximately 700 administrative detainees out of nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners in total; two brothers, Ahmad and Adel Musa, have now joined Awawdeh on hunger strike against their administrative detention for the past 22 days. Administrative detention orders are issued for up to six months at a time on the basis of alleged “secret evidence,” and they are indefinitely renewable. Originally introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate before being adopted by the Zionist regime, administrative detention orders are frequently used against community leaders and organizers, and there is a growing campaign to force an end to this policy.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all to organize, speak out, protest and demand the immediate release of Khalil Awawdeh and all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons. 

Khalil Awawdeh is confronting the Zionist occupation forces with his body and life on the line. We urge action to free Awawdeh and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom, for themselves and for Palestine and its people, from the river to the sea.

A note on the strike dates of Khalil Awawdeh: Some media sites report that this is the 80th day of Khalil Awawdeh’s strike while others report it as the 170th day. By saying 180 days, we are following the lead of Awawdeh’s family and loved ones, who do not recognize and cannot confirm the interruption in his hunger strike when he was told an agreement had been reached for his release on 21 June. Both of these are valid dates and both emphasize the importance of urging his freedom. Notably, his family never confirmed a suspension or end of his hunger strike at that time. Instead, his administrative detention was extended and he officially reported resuming his strike to his lawyer on 2 July.

Download these distributable flyers and posters to highlight the case of Khalil Awawdeh and 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.

 

Solidarity with Khalil Awawdeh and all Palestinian prisoners in Toulouse, France

On Friday, 26 August, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra organized a Palestine Stand at the Bagatelle metro station in Toulouse, France. This action took place amid a day of mobilization called for by the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in support of the growing struggle behind occupation bars. Since 22 August, the struggle has escalated to confront Israeli occupation prison authorities’ attacks on the prisoners and to demand the release of Khalil Awawdeh, a Palestinian administrative detainee on hunger strike for 178 days.

Accompanied by a banner and many posters highlighting the Collectif’s commitment to the liberation of all 4,450 Palestinian prisoners, participants in the Stand distributed hundreds of flyers highlighting the urgent situation of Awawdeh, whose life is at risk. He weighs only 35 kg and has vowed to continue his hunger strike until his release, while the occupation has been forced to “suspend” his administrative detention as he is hospitalized.

Posters also denounced the criminalization and raids on Palestinian civil society and popular organizations in occupied Palestine and internationally through the use of Israeli “terrorist” designations attempting to suppress the Palestinian cause and all attempts to uphold Palestinian rights.

https://twitter.com/Collectif_PV/status/1563088275597692928

Many people visited the stand to learn more about and discuss the current situation in Palestine, including the centrality of organizing for the release of Palestinian prisoners. The prisoners embody the front lines of the Palestinian resistance fighting Zionist colonialism and for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.

Dozens of people participated in taking solidarity photos with the slogan “Free them all!” in solidarity with the Palestinians spending years behind bars due to their commitment to defend their people and their land.

Later in the day, several large mural posters were put up in the Bagatelle neighborhood calling for the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners.

https://twitter.com/Collectif_PV/status/1563209699981668358

The Collectif Palestine Vaincra regularly 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 the Collectif on our various social networks (Facebook,  Twitter,  Instagram,  TikTok and  Telegram).

Abu Ali Mustafa: A life in struggle for the liberation of Palestine

The 21st anniversary of the martyrdom of Abu Ali Mustafa

This Saturday 27 August we mark 21 years since the martyrdom of Abu Ali Mustafa, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, targeted for an Israeli assassination raid with a U.S-made and -provided missile in occupied Al-Bireh, Palestine, in 2001. 

As Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, we remember and honor Abu Ali Mustafa’s legacy as a popular and revolutionary leader of the Palestinian liberation movement, a principled struggler who organized, upheld and defended the Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian people until his last breath.

Abu Ali was born in 1938 in Arraba, Jenin, Palestine. At the age of 17, he joined the Arab Nationalist Movement, the Arab liberation movement founded by Al-Hakim, Dr. George Habash, Wadie Haddad, Abu Maher al-Yamani, Basil al-Kubaisi, Ahmad al-Khatib, Hani al-Hindi and their comrades. He played a leading role in the Arab Nationalist Movement in the 1950s and 1960s and confronted the repression of the Jordanian regime, which banned political parties; in fact, he was arrested and imprisoned for five years in Jordanian prison, sentenced by a military court for his organizing. Throughout his life in struggle, he consistently upheld the centrality of the liberation of the political prisoners from Zionist, imperialist and reactionary regime prisons. 

The PFLP prison branch issued a statement from behind Zionist bars connecting the anniversary to the struggle taking place inside the prisons today:

“The 21st anniversary of the martyrdom of the leader Abu Ali Mustafa comes at a sensitive moment in the history of our people, in which the Zionist enemy continues its comprehensive war against our people. It comes at a shameful moment for the normalizing Arab reactionary forces in a U.S. plot against our people and our cause. These aggressions and schemes are being met with steadfastness and resistance, and amid this battle, the prisoners are confronting the so-called ‘Prison Authority’ with legendary steadfastness, to teach it lesson after lesson despite all of the forms of oppression and abuse, the confiscation of the prisoners’ rights and the barest necessities of life…In your memory, Abu Ali, we raise our fists in the face of the occupier, announcing the continuation of our resistance. We raise our fists as a greeting from Palestine to all Palestinian, Arab and international resisters. We raise our fists in salute to the masses of our people who are united with the resistance.”

After his release from Jordanian prison in 1961, Abu Ali continued to work with the Arab Nationalist Movement. He became responsible for the northern district of the West Bank of Palestine before joining with Habash and his comrades in co-founding the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The founding of the PFLP followed al-Naksa in 1967, the occupation of the remainder of Palestine as well as the Syrian Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai. 

Abu Ali Mustafa played a key role within the PFLP and, thus, within the Palestinian revolutionary movement as a whole. He was renowned for his humbleness, sincerity and dedication; he did not like to be the center of attention. Amid his dedication to establishing the underground organizations of the Front, he consistently listened to his comrades and, indeed, the Palestinian people, sharing their experiences and ideas in order to deepen his understanding and leadership. 

As Khaled Barakat explains:

“Abu Ali Mustafa treated the Popular Front as his ‘daily workshop’ that does not rest and does not sleep. […] Abu Ali Mustafa was not only fighting for the rights of his people to liberation and return, but he was equally as strongly building the revolutionary tools that could create the act of liberation and help people to extract their confiscated rights: from the women’s institutions to the youth organizations, to the institutions for students, workers and charity, and for military action. These tools are the vehicles of revolutionary organization.”

Upon his return to the occupied West Bank of Palestine in 1999, Abu Ali Mustafa stated: “We return to the homeland to resist, not to compromise.” It was this commitment to resistance, including the armed resistance, that led the occupation to plan for his assassination. The occupation viewed his role as a principled national leader as a threat to its continued military domination throughout occupied Palestine, as well as to the Oslo so-called “peace process” and the “Palestinian Authority” acting as a subcontractor for the occupier.. 

On 27 August 2001, only two years after his return to Palestine, Abu Ali Mustafa was killed by occupation forces firing two missiles, produced and provided by the United States, into his office in occupied Al-Bireh. His martyrdom was saluted by over 50,000 people attending Abu Ali’s funeral. 

As a response to the targeted assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa, the PFLP targeted the notoriously racist Zionist tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi several weeks later on 17 October. Ze’evi was widely known for his demands for the complete ethnic cleansing of Palestine. This response sent a clear message from the Palestinian resistance – that the Israeli assassination policy would not be tolerated and that an assassination of Palestinian leaders would be met with an equal response.

Today, the Israeli assassination policy continues to target Palestinian leaders. Indeed, the Palestinian resistance’s battle for the Unity of the Fields, fought just weeks ago and centred in Gaza, emphasized the response to the assassination of Palestinian leaders such as Tayseer al-Jabari and Khaled Mansour, of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement. 

Abu Ali Mustafa was known throughout his life as an organizer and a builder of organizations. Thus, it is appropriate that many institutions have been named to honor him after his martyrdom, from schools and sports clubs to the armed wing of the Popular Front, reflecting his wide-ranging legacy in the Palestinian liberation struggle.

This legacy lives on in the Palestinian, Arab and international revolutionary organizations and movements, and the people, always his compass, who continue to struggle for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, for the return of the refugees, for the defeat of Zionism. These strugglers lead and fight so heroically from behind bars, under siege and in exile, despite all the internal and external difficulties that are being imposed upon them, confronting the forces of imperialism, Zionism and Arab reaction, as Abu Ali Mustafa did throughout his life.

He said: “We are all targets as soon as we start mobilizing. We do our best to avoid their weapons but we live under the brutal Zionist occupation of our lands and their army is only a few meters away from us…We have a job to do, and nothing will stop us.”

Today, Palestinian prisoners are engaged in a collective struggle behind bars, putting their bodies and lives on the line for justice and liberation, on hunger strike and in resistance. The assassination policy that targeted Abu Ali Mustafa, with the armament and backing of the imperialist powers, continues today, aiming to deprive the Palestinian people of their beloved leaders and courageous fighters, even as the resistance grows. The legacy of Abu Ali Mustafa must inspire us all to action: to support the prisoners in their struggle, to fight back against imperialism, and to organize to bring an end to the assassination policy. Most fundamentally, Abu Ali Mustafa, a truly revolutionary Palestinian national leader, firmly upheld the Palestinian and Arab resistance, making clear that the people say “No” to normalization and negotiations, their eyes fixed on return and liberation. 

When we act and organize on the path of Abu Ali Mustafa and his fellow Palestinian leaders targeted for assassination and imprisonment, we make clear that the assassination policy will never succeed in defeating the Palestinian people and the Palestinian, Arab and international liberation movement. This anniversary is not merely a historical occasion, but a call to action – to act together with the Palestinian prisoners, to support the Palestinian people and their resistance, and  to realize the vision of Abu Ali Mustafa and of the Palestinian people – for victory, and for the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

More resources:

An unstoppable optimist for the Palestinian cause

Raja Eghbarieh in the offices of Proletären

The following article and interview of Raja Eghbarieh is republished from Proletären newspaper. The article, written by Marcus Jönsson, was translated to English by Samidoun Sweden. Eghbarieh is a former Palestinian political prisoner who recently spoke at public events in Sweden.

– I’m sad that all the Europeans who support Ukraine don’t care as much about the children of Palestine, Raja Eghbarieh of the Abna’a al-Balad organisation tells Proletären.

Last Thursday, the Israeli military attacked seven human rights and aid organisations in the West Bank. Israeli forces struck their offices in Ramallah, confiscated their belongings and shut them down.

Six of the organisations were labelled terrorists by Israel last autumn, accused without evidence of links with the terrorist-designated Marxist party PFLP, a decision even the Swedish government has objected to.

Just the day before the Israeli attack, Proletären meets Raja Eghbarieh from the organisation Abna’a al-Balad (Movement for the People of the Homeland), who is still involved in a trial with the same accusations.

The now retired teacher from the town of Umm al-Fahm, which lies within the 1948 borders, i.e. inside Israel, has spent several years under house arrest and in prison for his political activism, but this is the first time he has actually been prosecuted. Because of some comments on Facebook, where lawyers are arguing over the correct translation from Arabic to Hebrew.

– Israel has always used these methods, and now even more so. 20-30 years ago they used them against political leaders. But now they use military laws against any young person they think might take militant action, just because of something they wrote on Facebook, and put them under arrest.

When we meet, it’s less than two weeks since Israel’s last bloody attack on the Gaza Strip, where they struck at the armed group Islamic Jihad, and as usual didn’t care that women and children were also murdered. Raja Eghbarieh says the main purpose was for Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who unlike other Israeli leaders has no military background, to show that he too is a tough man who can lead military operations.

– It was a war for the Israeli election campaign, says Raja Eghbarieh, and the Israelis achieved all their goals. They were the ones preparing for war. They moved Jews from southern Israel two or three days before, and they carried out their attack. They killed Islamic Jihad leaders, but also their children.

– I’m sad that all the Europeans and others who support Ukraine don’t care as much about the children of Palestine, he adds.

Raja Eghbarieh laments the lack of a united response from all Palestinians this time, unlike last summer when Palestinians inside Israel went on a general strike when Israel bombed Gaza indiscriminately.

– But there is unity. Throughout historic Palestine, we are under occupation, within the 1948 borders, in Gaza and in the West Bank. The entire Palestinian people are united in struggle – or the majority of the people, to be honest. For there are Palestinians who recognise Israel as a Jewish state and who hope for equality and democracy inside Israel.

A pure illusion, say Raja Eghbarieh and Abna’a al-Balad.

– We as a movement do not believe that an occupying apartheid state can create equality and democracy.

He says the Arab party that is even in the government, the United Arab List, did not say a word about the Israeli attack in Gaza.

For Abna’a al-Balad, which is essentially an organisation for strengthening both Palestinian identity and class consciousness for Palestinians inside Israel, it is obvious not to stand in the elections for the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, which will be held on November 1. They refuse to normalize the Israeli state by standing for election.

– We boycott the elections and stand together with everyone in the world who fights against imperialism, Zionism and the reactionary Islamist forces in the Arab world. We are a Marxist and socialist left organisation. A liberation movement, because we are under occupation. All of Palestine is occupied.

Raja Egbarieh calls for more international solidarity with the Palestinians, at a time when several Arab states have normalised relations with Israel and the so-called international community turns a blind eye to Israel’s abuses.

The situation of the Palestinians may seem bleak and almost hopeless, but Raja Eghbarieh is not prepared to accept that.

– I’m an optimist, he says with a smile. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.

29 August, NYC: Emergency rally to free Khalil Awawdeh and all Palestinian Prisoners

Monday, 29 August
5 pm
Washington Square Park, NYC
Meet under the Arch
Info: https://twitter.com/samidounnynj/status/1562945466777899011

Come show your support for Khalil Awawdeh, on hunger strike for over 177 days, and all Palestinian prisoners!

Down with Oslo! Join us to demonstrate at the Norwegian Parliament on 10 September 2022

Join us on September 10, 2022 in Oslo, Norway, as we demonstrate outside the Norwegian Parliament at Stortinget to march against the so-called “peace process,” the infamous Oslo Accords, on their 29th anniversary. After 29 years of Oslo, it is critically urgent to bring the devastating repercussions of this project to an end. Once again, it is clear: the Palestinian people, inside and outside Palestine, and throughout historic Palestine from the river to the sea, are one people struggling for liberation, not a powerless puppet Authority providing security to the occupier. It has also made very clear that the legitimate leadership of the Palestinian people is the Palestinian resistance, including the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.

Samidoun’s Jaldia Abubakra and Mohammed Khatib will be participating in and speaking at the demonstration at 4 pm on Saturday, September 10 in Oslo, called by the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement. This demonstration calls for:

  • the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea
  • the clear repudiation of the Oslo Accords and their repercussions and corollaries
  • confronting Israeli colonialism and normalization with Zionism
  • escalating the international boycott and isolation of the Zionist regime
  • standing with the Palestinian people and their Resistance, including the Palestinian prisoners

As the call for the demonstration emphasizes, “The Norwegian government, through spearheading the process of these accords, participated in this crime against the Palestinian people and their rights, alongside imperialist, Zionist and Arab reactionary forces. 29 years later, it is more clear than ever: it is time to bring down this failed agreement aiming to liquidate the Palestinian cause and all of its outcomes…The so-called ‘peace process’ launched from the 1991 Madrid conference and 1993 Oslo agreement was nothing but a tactic of deception of international public opinion. This deception was used by the United States and ‘Israel’ to steal more Palestinian land and perpetuate a system of colonialism, racism, exploitation and apartheid throughout Palestine, from the river to the sea.”

Like the Palestinian people as a whole and especially Palestinian refugees, Palestinian prisoners have been betrayed and left behind by the Oslo Accords and the path of negotiations. Once promoted as a road to the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, the Oslo accords instead enabled the use of Palestinian prisoners as bargaining chips in an attempt to extract even more concessions from Palestinian officials.

Dozens of pre-Oslo Palestinian prisoners remain in Israeli jails, as occupation forces refused to recognize Palestinian prisoners from 1948 occupied Palestine and repeatedly rescinded agreements for their release.

Of course, this was not the only outcome of Oslo for the Palestinian prisoners. At the heart of these agreements, and uninterrupted despite declarations and promises, is the Palestinian Authority’s “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation. This “security coordination” has undermined the resilience and social solidarity of the Palestinian movement, chased after and repressed the Palestinian resistance and established a “revolving door” of imprisonment and political detention between P.A. and Israeli prisons. It has firmly established the P.A. as a security subcontractor of the Israeli occupation, trained by the United States with European and British support.

The political repression of Palestinians outside Palestine is also intimately linked to Oslo; U.S. President Bill Clinton issued the executive order listing Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations that rejected Oslo as “terrorists” in January 1995, noting that they “threaten to disrupt the Middle East peace process.” This was shortly followed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which created the “material support” legislation used to persecute Palestinians in the U.S. This was only strengthened by the USA PATRIOT Act and post-September 11 repressive legislation and used in the persecution of Palestinian political prisoners like the Holy Land Foundation Five.

Those “terror lists,” designations and legislation have been marketed around the world after 2001 by the U.S. and adopted in various forms by Canada, the European Union, the U.K. and elsewhere. Of course, Palestinians were never free from persecution by imperialist powers, but the post-Oslo “anti-terror” legislation further institutionalized that persecution while specifically criminalizing and classifying as “terrorist” the rejection of the Oslo project.

We urge all supporters of the Palestinian cause, the Palestinian resistance and the liberation of Palestine, particularly the Palestinian prisoners, to join us to march in Oslo on 10 September for a liberated Palestine from the river to the sea! 

This demonstration is also part of the lead-up to the 29 October Marches for Return and Liberation, which will take place at the European Parliament in Brussels and in locations internationally.

Resources:

Twitterstorm Friday, 26 August: #FreeKhalil #FreeThemAll – Our Social Media Toolkit

#FreeKhalil #FreeThemAll

Twitterstorm

Friday, 26 August 2022

10 am Pacific – 1 pm Eastern – 7 pm central Europe – 8 pm Palestine

Link to sample tweets: https://bit.ly/freekhaliltweet

Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh has continued his hunger strike for the 176th day. Since his detention was “suspended” on Friday, 19 August, he has been held in Assaf Harofeh hospital, where he has been interviewed by journalists and visited by his family members and loved ones. He has repeatedly affirmed that he will only end his strike with a real agreement for his release, and he and his supporters have denounced the attempt of the occupation to evade its responsibility for Awawdeh’s life and health through the fig leaf of “suspended” detention.

At the same time, Palestinian prisoners announced that they will pursue steps of collective struggle inside occupation prisons, which began Monday, 22 August. These collective struggle steps were suspended in March 2022 after an agreement was purportedly reached to improve conditions for Palestinian detainees whose rights are systematically violated by occupation forces, from denial of family visits to constant transfers from prison to prison every six months to aggressive raids and invasions. They have announced that an open hunger strike will begin in 2 weeks if their demands are not met, and occupation forces imposed isolation and raided multiple prison sections on Thursday, 25 August. 

The prisoners’ movement called for a day of action and struggle on 26 August to support their cause. Join us by tweeting the messages below!

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