Anan Yaeesh is a 37-year-old Palestinian activist from Tulkarem in the West Bank of occupied Palestine. Active in the liberation movement during the Second, Al-Aqsa, Intifada, he was imprisoned for 4 years in Zionist prisons and seriously injured after an ambush by colonial special forces in 2006. In 2013, he left Palestine for Norway before settling in Italy in 2017 and obtaining a residence permit there in 2019. At the end of January 2024, he was arrested by the Italian police in the city of L’Aquila, where he resides, then transferred to detention in the high-security prison of Terni for alleged collaboration with the Tulkarem Brigades, an organization linked to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (one of the armed groups of Fatah, that continue to uphold Palestinian liberation rather than “security coordination” with the occupier.)
On 2 April 2025, his trial in Italy will begin, and we encourage all organizations, supporters, activists and people in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their resistance to support Anan Yaeesh through actions, banner drops, posters, videos of support, etc. On the same day, Georges Abdallah, Lebanese communist and Palestinian resistance fighter imprisoned in France since 1984 although he has been eligible for release since 1999, will celebrate his 74th birthday. Let’s make this date a broad mobilization, calling for the release of Georges Abdallah, Anan Yaeesh, the Holy Land 5, Mahmoud Khalil, the Filton 18 and all our comrades incarcerated in imperialist, normalizing and reactionary prisons, for their participation in or support for the resistance of the Palestinian people!
Below we share with you Anan Yaeesh’s statement from Wednesday, 26 February, during the preliminary hearing for his trial.
Statement by Anan Yaeesh on Wednesday, February 26, during the preliminary hearing for his trial at the Court of L’Aquila:
I wish to begin by greeting the Court and all present.
There is always the letter of the law, but also the spirit of the law; therefore, I would like to ask the honorable judge to grant me the minimum human right of respect toward my country, by observing a minute of silence for the souls of the children, women and martyrs of Palestine.
First of all, I wish to affirm my confidence in the Italian judicial system and recognize its legitimacy. However, I object to being tried in Italy because I am Palestinian and have not committed any crime in Italy or in any other country. My case, as a Palestinian, is known to the Italian security authorities, and I was granted a residence permit in Italy and special protection after my asylum application was rejected by the Foggia court. Therefore, esteemed judge, I consider my arrest and trial here to be illegitimate, because the arrest itself, from the very beginning, was carried out in contradiction with international humanitarian law, the United Nations Charter, the Geneva Convention and the two Additional Protocols, and everything that flows from it is also illegal; anything based on illegitimacy is indeed illegitimate. If you recognize the legitimacy of the State of Palestine, then the extradition request made against me in January of last year should have been submitted by my country’s government. If, on the other hand, you consider Palestine to be a territory illegally occupied by a colonial power, then resistance is a legitimate right, and you should not arrest me here for that reason.
Unfortunately, Your Honor, I have read your observations on the case and, with regret, I have concluded that you consider Palestinians terrorists not only because of the legitimate resistance they are waging against an occupying state, but because you recognize Israel as a friendly state. If the occupying country in question had been another, for example Russia, you would have recognized the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance. You are not judging me according to international law, but according to your diplomatic relations, simply because Israel is considered an ally of the Italian government, a trading partner, and you consider all its actions legitimate. It would then be better to change the name of the international and humanitarian courts to “Courts of Friends.”
You want me to defend myself against the accusations against me, but I am ashamed to seek acquittal on charges that, for me, represent a source of honor. I do not want to defend myself against the accusation of having rights and having claimed them, or of having tried to liberate my people and my country from colonial oppression. I swear that I have no intention of being acquitted of the legitimate resistance against the Zionist occupation. The Palestinian resistance is one of the noblest phenomena known to history. On the contrary, I am ashamed to find myself in a warm room, even in prison, while children in Gaza die of cold, hunger, and thirst. I am ashamed of the humane treatment received from the prison authorities here, while my fellow prisoners in Israeli jails suffer the worst torture, oppression, and abuse.
Your Honor, all my documents issued in Italy do not mention the name “Palestine,” but “Occupied Territories.” Therefore, you know that this land is occupied and, consequently, under the conventions signed by your country, you must consider resistance against the occupying entity legitimate. Why, then, do I find myself detained today?
As a Palestinian supporter, I am forced to note that in political terms, the world adopts double standards: the one that is stronger and supported by the United States prevails. But does justice, the law, also use the same criteria of judgment, double standards, or will the law prevail in the courtroom?
Would it be fair, if we consider the settlers who occupy the land of Palestine without right or legitimacy as civilians, simply because they do not wear the uniform of the Israeli army, to have the same judgment regarding the Palestinian resistance, which is also composed of civilians and not soldiers, because Palestine has neither a state nor an army to defend itself against aggressors? Both use weapons and kill; the only difference is that the Palestinian resistance defends its land, its people, and its denied rights, and does not kill children, women, or civilians, except by mistake. Over the years, these mistakes have never exceeded one percent, while the settlers systematically attack defenseless civilians. For years, they have been killing women and children, even burning them in their homes, as they did in al-Khalil by killing more than thirty worshippers in the Ibrahimi Mosque, or as they did with the Dawabsheh family, with Iman Hajju, with Mohammad al-Durrah, or as they did in the village of Jatt on 16 August and on many other occasions, with the aim of inciting terror among the Palestinians and forcing them to leave their land; the settlers follow the teachings of the Haganah and the Irgun. Nothing can testify to this better than what was recently stated in a letter by the director of the Israeli Shin Bet, who acknowledged that the settlers are terrorist groups and that the Israeli authorities should arrest and suppress them. However, Benjamin Netanyahu’s response was to provide the settlers with more than 10,000 additional rifles.
But after all, what can we expect from Netanyahu, recognized by the International Criminal Court as a war criminal for the massacres committed against Palestinians? The Hague Court issued an arrest warrant for him if he came to Europe, but despite this, the Italian government declared that he would be welcome in Italy and rejected the Court’s decision, denying its legitimacy. It was the government that decided to arrest me at the Israeli request, calling me a terrorist. In light of this, I can say that I see no law in this country that is not that of the stronger party; everything else is fiction, forcibly imposed on the weaker.
At the first extradition hearing in February 2024, I asked the Court of Appeals and the Attorney General not to hand over the contents of my cell phones to the Israelis, as they contained confidential information that I possessed as a Palestinian resistance fighter, as a partisan commander. I was told that this would not happen, as they were aware that we were at war and that Italy was neutral. However, I was surprised to learn that last April, all the information contained in my phones was handed over to the Israelis. In this way, you have violated all security principles and international law itself, thus becoming de facto accomplices of the Israelis in this war, helping them suppress the legitimate aspirations of an oppressed people. Women throughout the world have not been capable of giving birth to resistance fighters like the Palestinian people.
Your Honor, all the nations and armies of the world have aligned themselves against us, thinking they will liquidate our cause. But our cause will never end as long as a single Palestinian child is alive. We will regain our rights. We ask for pity from no one, we bow to no one, even at the cost of being all killed, arrested, or deported. The Palestinians will not bow their heads or beg for pity, for we have reason on our side. And while no one will restore our rights while we are alive, we believe that after death, we will face a judgment that will be the most just: that of God, who will deny no one’s right and will restore to every oppressed person their rights, whether strong or weak, for all, on the Day of Judgment, will be equal.
Your Honor, in the past, I have been subjected to torture dozens of times. I have also been the victim of assassination attempts by Israel, both in Palestine and abroad. My body bears eleven bullets and more than forty shrapnel wounds; I do not have a single bone that is not broken. I have no past, except for a few memories and photos of friends killed by the occupation, and of a friend executed in cold blood before my eyes. I have a family I have not seen for many years and two parents who died without having fulfilled their dream of seeing us one last time. I have a devastated homeland, a displaced people, even our homes have been demolished by Israeli bulldozers. However, I have never taken a step back or hesitated to demand my country’s right to freedom, and I have never bowed my head to anyone. This is because I firmly believe in this cause. What could it be like to be killed for the freedom of my country and my people? What could it be like to spend years in prison for my cause? Especially considering that there are more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and that I am an integral part of them. If there is anything that makes me sad, it is that all my companions had the honor of falling as martyrs, fighting for Palestine, nourishing with their blood this land of peace and love, violated by the Zionist occupation. And I was not at their side.
We do not love death; on the contrary, we are a people who love life more than anything. However, we prefer death with dignity and honor to life in humiliation, with our rights denied. Your Honor, we believe that Palestine deserves it and that our beloved Jerusalem has a high price that every Palestinian is willing to pay with their soul.
When Palestine calls out, wounded, it has only us, its children, ready to defend it with our souls and our blood. He who does not defend his own mother when she needs him will not have the right to be buried tomorrow in his own land, watered with the blood of martyrs. He is an unworthy son, who will be rejected by his own land and will never feel its warmth, either alive or dead.
You all have a homeland in which to live in peace and security, except for us Palestinians. Our homeland lives within us, and we are ready to sacrifice our souls to defend it. It is this homeland that gives us dignity and honor, and this can only be understood by those who are free on this land; we are a people who do not surrender; it is victory or death.
How can you accuse me of terrorism when you recognize the legitimacy of the Fatah movement, which has offices and representations all over the world, including in Italy? Isn’t this a false and hypocritical attitude? Italy has also hosted the leader and founder of our movement in the Italian Parliament on two occasions. On that occasion, he came to Italy dressed in his military uniform and armed, and from Italy, he delivered a speech that was heard around the world. The same was true for the current president, Mahmoud Abbas. If the blind gaze of justice affirms that the Palestinian resistance are terrorists and not partisans, it validates the policy of the strongest, the law of the jungle, where the strongest and most brutal prevail.
Your Honor, the Italian people are not and never will be our enemy; they deserve all the best and our respect; they are a friendly people who have always supported the Palestinian cause. Our enemies are the Israelis who occupy our land, and no one else. The Israeli entity is an occupying and terrorist entity, which does not respect and has never respected, throughout its history, international law. It has a history full of betrayals. Over the years, they have murdered numerous Palestinians all over the world: in Norway, Hungary, Bulgaria, right here in Italy, Malaysia, and many Arab countries. They recognize no law that is not their own, no legitimacy that is not their own, and they consider all those who are not Israelis as their subordinates. Today, they label United Nations organizations, such as UNRWA, as terrorists, and the UN as a den of anti-Semites, and with utter insolence, they also attack the Pope with the same slanderous accusation. Anyone who does not align with them becomes an enemy to be targeted.
We Palestinians are a free people and we will never accept subjugation to anyone. In recent days, before the eyes of the entire world, the Israeli army has displaced more than 40,000 Palestinians from their homes in Tulkarem, burning houses, destroying roads and hospitals, and killing women and children; the same is happening in Jenin. They also continue to occupy now, even as I sit in this room, committing the worst massacres against defenseless civilians, while you call our defense terrorism; why have you become blind and deaf to what is happening? Why don’t you speak out?
Your Honor, the Zionist entity has been killing and destroying in Palestine since 1947, not since October 7. But the world has remained motionless and silent, and the pain is felt only by those who receive the wound.
We are facing a Nazi-fascist, squadron-type violence, just as the Italian people faced Nazi German aggression and violence. However, the difference between us and you is that, after about 20 years, you have managed to free yourselves, while we, after 75 years, still find ourselves resisting. Your Honor, if the Palestinian resistance, legitimized by all international courts, to which Italy has adhered and recognizes its legitimacy, is today considered terrorism, then, by the same principle, the Italian resistance against Mussolini, fascism, and Nazi Germany should also be classified as terrorism.
Your Honor, throughout its history, the Israeli occupation has respected neither Security Council Resolutions nor the decisions of the International Court. Can you tell me where the Oslo and Camp David Accords have gone, and where Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 have gone? Can you count the Palestinians killed during the Israeli aggression from 1947 to the present day? Or the number of refugees expelled? What does your law and your legislation say about this?
Your Honor, the Palestinian mother is like all mothers in this world. Imagine every morning, sending your child to school, preparing food for him, and when you come home, seeing him return wrapped in a white sheet, killed by an Israeli soldier, and having to hold him for the last time. Imagine, in Gaza, a father with his wife and nine children who are without food. The father goes out to look for something to eat; when he returns, he finds his entire family dead under the rubble, killed by a Zionist bombardment.
Can one of you stand up and say that Israel is an occupying, oppressive, and terrorist state? You all know this truth in your hearts, but none of you can say it out loud because you would be accused of anti-Semitism, you would lose your job, or you might find yourself sharing a lunch table with me in prison, facing a terrorism charge. That is why I say again and again that perhaps the Palestinians are the only free people in this enslaved world.
Long live a free and Arab Palestine.
Long live Jerusalem, its eternal capital.
Peace to the souls of the martyrs and children of Palestine.
We will always be the first line of defense until liberation.
