Khalil Awawdeh and Raed Rayan, Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention in Israeli occupation prisons, are continuing their hunger strikes for the 102nd and 67th days, respectively. They have been joined by four more Palestinian prisoners — Hani Bisharat, also jailed without charge or trial; Freedom Tunnel heroes Zakaria Zubaidi and Yaqoub Qadri; and resistance leader Abdullah Barghouthi. Their health situation is increasingly dire, and action and mobilization is needed to win their liberation!
Free Khalil Awawdeh and Raed Rayan!
Awawdeh, 40, from Ithna near al-Khalil, has been repeatedly transferred back and forth between civilian hospitals and the Ramle prison clinic. In an attempt to pressure him to end his strike, Israeli occupation forces have put his body under further stress with frequent transfers in an attempt to force him to accept medical treatment, including nutrition, in exchange for keeping him in the hospital. He is experiencing severe joint pain, headache, dizziness, blurred vision, and must move using a wheelchair.
Awawdeh originally intended to pursue medical school abroad but enrolled in an engineering course in al-Khalil at Palestine Polytechnic University before his studies were interrupted in 2002. Jailed for five years by the Israeli occupation, he was released in 2007. Later that year, he was once again seized and held without charge or trial under administrative detention for nearly three years. He has since been repeatedly detained. He launched studies at economics at Al-Quds Open University, which were again interrupted on 27 December 2021, when he was thrown in administrative detention without charge or trial once again.
Awawdeh is the father of four daughters. On Sunday, 10 June, the people of Ithna announced a comprehensive strike in all business activities to show solidarity with him and call for his liberation, a strike joined officially by the Ithna municipality.
Rayan, 27, from Beit Duqqu near Jerusalem, has continually been held in solitary confinement in Ofer prison in another effort to pressure him to end his hunger strike by denying a proper medical environment. He is severely fatigued and vomits water after drinking it, and must move in a wheelchair.
Palestinian Prisoners Join the Hunger Strike
Hani Bisharat, also jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, launched his own hunger strike 20 days ago to demand his liberation.
Zakaria Zubaidi, one of the six Freedom Tunnel heroes who liberated themelves from Gilboa prison in September 2021, has been on hunger strike for 13 days in solidarity with Awawdeh and Rayan.
Two more Palestinian prisoners have joined open-ended hunger strikes against ongoing mistreatment and repression inside occupation prisons. Yaqoub Qadri, another of the six heroes of the Freedom Tunnel, is on hunger strike for the 11th day against repressive actions against him by the Ohli Kedar prison administration, reported the Muhjat al-Quds organization. The repressive measures include a ban on family visits, the closing of his “canteen” (prison store) account and the removal of electricity from his isolation cell. His room is invaded every three days and ransacked by repressive special units in addition to daily inspections, and the room is infested with cockroaches, mosquitoes and bedbugs, Qadri said, calling for action.
Abdullah Barghouthi, 50, one of the most prominent prisoners and a leader in the Palestinian resistance, is on his fourth day of hunger strike after he was barred from family visits and moved into isolation.
The Collective Struggle Against Administrative Detention
Awawdeh, Rayan and Bisharat are all jailed without charge or trial under Israeli administrative detention. Administrative detention orders are issued on the basis of secret evidence denied to both the Palestinian detainee and their lawyer and are indefinitely renewable. As a result, Palestinians are jailed for years at a time without ever being charged or tried – even in the illegitimate military courts – or even knowing when or if they will be released.
Administrative detention was first used in Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist regime; it is now used routinely to target Palestinians, especially community leaders, activists, and influential people in their towns, camps and villages.
All 600 administrative detainees — out of approximately 4,500 Palestinian political prisoners in total — are engaged in a collective boycott of the occupation military courts in rejection of the illegitimate policy of administrative detention. The complete boycott was launched by Bashir al-Khairy, 80, Palestinian lawyer, leftist and longtime leader, who announced his own boycott of the military courts upon his detention without charge or trial, leading to the collective protest that has been ongoing since January 1, 2022, for 163 days.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of Palestine to take action to support these Palestinian hunger strikers and all Palestinian prisoners struggling for freedom, for their own lives and for the Palestinian people. They are confronting the system of Israeli oppression on the front lines, with their bodies and their lives, to bring the system of administrative detention to an end. Take these actions below to stand with the hunger strikers and the struggle for liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea!
TAKE ACTION:
Join the Social Media Campaign!
There is a growing social media campaign to #FreeRaed and #FreeKhalil. Use these hashtags and to post on Twitter and Instagram. Post in all languages! Take action and join the social media outrage and break the isolation imposed upon Raed and Khalil by the Israeli occupation! Follow the Instagram accounts of their campaigns to Free Khalil and Free Raed
Protest in your city or country!
Join the many protests taking place around the world — confront, isolate and besiege the Israeli embassy or consulate in your city or country of residence. Or take to the streets in your neighborhood, on your campus or at a government building in your area. Make it clear that the people are with Palestine! Send us your events at samidoun@samidoun.net. Demonstrations have already been organized in Montreal, London, Manchester, Paris, Toulouse, Berlin and elsewhere.
Boycott Israel!
The international, Arab and Palestinian campaign to boycott Israel can play an important role at this critical time. Local boycott groups can protest and label Israeli produce and groceries, while many complicit corporations – including HP, G4S, Puma, Teva and others, profit from their role in support Zionist colonialism throughout occupied Palestine. By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism.
Use these Posters and Signs:
Spread awareness by posting these signs and posters in your community or carrying them during your demonstrations:
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in solidarity with Palestinian activist and law graduate Nerdeen Kiswani, Within Our Lifetime, and the movement for Palestinian liberation at the City University of New York (CUNY).
Kiswani was elected by her graduating class as the student commencement speaker at her law school graduation, where she delivered a powerful message about Palestine, social justice and liberation. Despite a media smear campaign, Zionist organizations and right-wing forces failed to stop Kiswani from presenting her speech, which was shared widely on social media.
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) June 8, 2022
The speech followed ongoing strong organizing for Palestine at CUNY and particularly its law school, where the student body adopted resolutions endorsing the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel in support of Palestinian liberation. At the same time, the chancellor of CUNY went on a junket to occupied Palestine sponsored by Zionist organizations and then cancelled the Palestine Lives conference, organized by WOL and Existence is Resistance, only days after his return. However, the same week, CUNY Law’s faculty adopted the BDS resolution, calling for justice in Palestine and an end to CUNY complicity.
NYC Councilwoman Inna Vernikov violated the First Amendment by blocking $50K in funding for CUNY Law School after its faculty unanimously voted to endorse a student BDS resolution. This unconstitutional defunding of CUNY Law should immediately be reversed.
Zionist organizations, right-wing media and City Councillor Inna Vernikov then unleashed an escalated racist smear campaign targeting Kiswani and the student movement, calling for hearings on the adoption of resolutions supporting Palestine and pulling $50,000 in funding to support legal services for New York residents living in poverty, an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment. Kiswani has been subjected to racist attacks online, death threats and harassment due to this smear campaign.
It is clear that this campaign is targeting the successful organizing for Palestine taking place at CUNY. We urge all supporters of Palestinian liberation to stand with Nerdeen Kiswani, WOL and the entire movement at CUNY that is substantially challenging complicity and expressing a clear position for Palestinian liberation from the river to the sea.
Take the actions below, recommended by CUNY organizers, against this campaign:
Hello, my name is [INSERT NAME] and I am calling as a concerned NYC Resident [OR CONCERNED INDIVIDUAL FOR OUT-OF-STATERS]. I am appalled at Councilwoman Inna Vernikov’s behavior. Her racist, Islamaphobic smear campaign against Nerdeen Kiswani and CUNY Law is nothing but an attempt to chill and silence CUNY students and workers organizing in solidarity with Palestine under the guise of antisemitism. This manufactured backlash with zero evidence is not only a clear threat to First Amendment rights to free speech and academic freedom but a failed attempt to punish organizers for the extraordinary victories for Palestinian liberation on CUNY Law’s campus. You do not represent us. We stand firmly with Nerdeen Kiswani, Within Our Lifetime, CUNY Law, and all organizers fighting for Palestinian liberation and we demand that you stop your smear campaign immediately.
Hello, my name is [INSERT NAME] and I am calling as a disturbed CUNY community member of the CUNY community. It is of grave concern to myself and other CUNY community members that you continue to contribute through your inactions to the defamation; harassment and violent repression of Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and other CUNY students and workers organizing in solidarity with Palestine. As you continue to deny CUNY’s complicity, even while you take funded trips to the settler-colonial entity, CUNY plans to partake in a meeting masquerading as a “hearing” on antisemitism. This hearing is nothing but an attempt to probe on how to censor and chill organizing efforts for Palestine. It is ironic that no such hearing has been organized for the rampant anti-Black or anti-Palestinian racism on campus. Your participation in such hearing would demonstrate your continued complicity in anti-Palestinian racism and your complicity in actively perpetuating violence against CUNY students and alumni like Nerdeen Kiswani. For that reason, we demand that you refuse to participate and that you condemn the hearing for the sham that it is. We stand firmly with Nerdeen Kiswani, CUNY Law, and all CUNY organizers fighting for Palestinian liberation and we demand that you take action immediately.
Tweet Samples
@ChancellorCUNY refuses to listen to Palestinian voices yet takes trips to israel and entertains the zionist lobby seeking to threaten and silence his own students.@CUNY voices are proudly pro-Palestine. You do not represent us!#ZionismOutOfCUNY#WestandwithNerdeen
The failed hearing on antisemitism is a ruse in which @ChancellorRodriguez & @InnaVernikov seek to silence Palestinian students who rightfully criticize Israel for its state-sanctioned genocide. @CUNY When will you stand up for your students? #ZionismOutOfCUNY#WeStandWithNerdeen
@ChancellorCUNY ignores Palestinian students & workers but chooses to platform @InnaVernikov an anti-Palestinian racist. This planned hearing was just an example of trying to silence @CUNY anti-Zionist voices but we grow stronger every day! #ZionismOutOfCUNY#WeChargeDefamation
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the incisive work of The Mapping Project, a newly announced initiative that makes clear the links between repressive institutions in the Boston area. As the Mapping Project notes, it is “a project created by activists and organizers in eastern Massachusetts, investigating local links between entities responsible for the colonization of Palestine, for colonialism and dispossession here where we live, and for the economy of imperialism and war.” The Mapping Project’s work presents a clear view of the connections between imperialism, Zionism and associated reactionary forces and how this global analysis is manifested practically on a local level — providing necessary information for challenging and dismantling these structures.
Below, we are republishing content from The Mapping Project, including one of the Project’s articles, “Mapping US Imperialism.” We encourage all supporters to visit the Mapping Project and use its interactive tools and resources:
The Mapping Project landing page can be found here: mapliberation.org
“The Mapping Project arose through conversations we’ve been having over the years about the limitations of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) efforts which focus upon one corporation or institution at a time, often demanding that an entity act “more ethically” by ending one contract or partnership with Israel without accounting for the breadth of its support for zionism and other interlocking systems of oppression – e.g., appealing to Amazon to end its participation in Project Nimbus, without addressing the the breadth of Amazon’s support for racism and violence in Palestine, the US and elsewhere in the world, and its role in the broader system of racial capitalism. Moreover, we felt that BDS efforts often missed the full picture of how the corporations, institutions, and other entities sustaining zionism and other oppressions operate: not in isolation from one another, but through the web of connections they establish with one another to more effectively carry out their oppressive agendas – e.g., Raytheon establishing research centers at MIT (while Boeing leases space from MIT); or the Brookline Police coordinating with the Consulate General of Israel to New England to repress a Palestinian-led protest.”
The Mapping Project is a multi-generational collective of activists and organizers; we are unpaid and don’t report to any donors. Email us at mapliberation@protonmail.com
The Mapping Project Collective is a multi-generational collective of activists and organizers in the Boston area who are deeply engaged in Palestine solidarity/BDS work. For over a year, The Mapping Project has been tracing Greater Boston’s networks of support for the colonization of Palestine – and how these networks participate in other oppressions, from policing to US imperialism to medical apartheid and privatization.
The goal in pursuing this collective mapping was to reveal the local entities and networks that enact devastation, so they can be dismantled.
** This article is a snapshot from the Mapping Project: a project created by activists and organizers in eastern Massachusetts, investigating local links between entities responsible for the colonization of Palestine, for colonialism and dispossession here where we live, and for the economy of imperialism and war.
“The greatest threat looming over our planet, the hegemonistic pretentions of the American Empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger, and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads.”
-Hugo Chavez
“The United States Military is arguably the largest force of ecological devastation the world has ever known.”
-–Xoài Pham
“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, and fulfill it or betray it.”
–Frantz Fanon
US imperialism is the greatest threat to life on the planet, a force of ecological devastation and disaster impacting not only human beings, but also our non-human relatives. How can we organize to dismantle the vast and complicated network of US imperialism which includes US war and militarism, CIA intervention, US weapons/technology/surveillance corporations, political and economic support for dictatorships, military juntas, death squads and US trained global police forces favorable to US geopolitical interests, US imposed sanctions, so-called “humanitarian interventions,” genetically modified grassroots organizations, corporate media’s manipulation of spontaneous protest, and US corporate sponsorship of political repression and regime change favorable to US corporate interests?
This article deals with US imperialism since World War 2. It is critical to acknowledge that US imperialism emanates both ideologically and materially from the crime of colonialism on this continent which has killed over 100 million indigenous people and approximately 150 million African people over the past 500 years
The exact death toll of US imperialism is both staggering and impossible to know. What we do know is that since World War 2, US imperialism has killed at least 36 million people globally in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, the Congo, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Chad, Libya, East Timor, Grenada, Honduras, Iran, Pakistan, Panama, the Philippines, Sudan, Greece, Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Somalia, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Palestine (see Appendix).
This list does not include other aspects of US imperialist aggression which have had a devastating and lasting impact on communities worldwide, including torture, imprisonment, rape, and the ecological devastation wrought by the US military through atomic bombs, toxic waste and untreated sewage dumping by over 750 military bases in over 80 countries. The US Department of Defense consumes more petroleum than any institution in the world. In the year of 2017 alone, the US military emitted 59 million metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, a carbon footprint greater than that of most nations worldwide. This list also does not include the impact of US fossil fuel consumption and US corporate fossil fuel extraction, fracking, agribusiness, mining, and mono-cropping, all of which are part and parcel of the extractive economy of US imperialism.
US military bases around the world (figure from Al Jazeera).
One central mechanism of US imperialism is “dollar hegemony” which forces countries around the world to conduct international trade in US dollars. US dollars are backed by US bonds (instead of gold or industrial stocks) which means a country can only cash in one American IOU for another. When the US offers military aid to friendly nations, this aid is circulated back to US weapons corporations and returns to US banks. In addition, US dollars are also backed by US bombs: any nation that threatens to nationalize resources or go off the dollar (i.e. Iraq or Libya) is threatened with a military invasion and/or a US backed coup.
US imperialism has also been built through “soft power” organizations like USAID, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the Organization of American States (OAS). These nominally international bodies are practically unilateral in their subservience to the interests of the US state and US corporations. In the 1950s and ‘60s, USAID (and its precursor organizations) made “development aid” to Asian, African, and South American countries conditional on those countries’ legal formalization of capitalist property relations, and reorganization of their economies around homeownership debt. The goal was to enclose Indigenous land, and land shared through alternate economic systems, as a method of “combatting Communism with homeownership” and creating dependency and buy-in to US capitalist hegemony (Nancy Kwak, A World of Homeowners). In order to retain access to desperately needed streams of resources (e.g. IMF “loans”), Global South governments are forced to accept resource-extraction by the US, while at the same time denying their own people popularly supported policies such as land reform, economic diversification, and food sovereignty. It is also important to note that Global South nations have never received reparations or compensation for the resources that have been stolen from them – this makes the idea of “loans” by global monetary institutions even more outrageous.
The US also uses USAID and other similarly functioning international bodies to suppress and to undermine anti-imperialist struggle inside “friendly” countries. Starting in the 1960s, USAID funded police training programs across the globe under a counterinsurgency model, training foreign police as a “first line of defense against subversion and insurgency.” These USAID-funded police training programs involved surveillance and the creation of biometric databases to map entire populations, as well as programs of mass imprisonment, torture, and assassination. After experimenting with these methods in other countries, US police departments integrated many of them into US policing, especially the policing of BIPOC communities here (see our entry on the Boston Police Department). At the same time, the US uses USAID and other soft power funding bodies to undermine revolutionary, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and anti-capitalist movements, by funding “safe” reformist alternatives, including a global network of AFL-CIO managed “training centers” aimed at fostering a bureaucratic union culture similar to the one in the US, which keeps labor organizing loyal to capitalism and to US global dominance. (See our entries on the AFL-CIO and the Harvard Trade Union Program.)
US imperialism intentionally fosters divisions between different peoples and nations, offering (relative) rewards to those who choose to cooperate with US dictates (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Colombia), while brutally punishing those who do not (e.g. Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela). In this way, US imperialism creates material conditions in which peoples and governments face a choice: 1. accommodate the interests of US Empire and allow the US to develop your nation’s land and sovereign resources in ways which enrich the West; or, 2. attempt to use your land and your sovereign resources to meet the needs of your own people and suffer the brutality of US economic and military violence.
The Harvard Kennedy School: Training Ground for US Empire and the Security State
The Mapping Project set out to map local US imperialist actors (involved in both material and ideological support for US imperialism) on the land of Massachusett, Pawtucket, Naumkeag, and other tribal nations (Boston, Cambridge, and surrounding areas) and to analyze how these institutions interacted with other oppressive local and global institutions that are driving colonization of indigenous lands here and worldwide, local displacement/ethnic cleansing (“gentrification”), policing, and zionist imperialism.
A look at just one local institution on our map, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, demonstrates the level of ideological and material cooperation required for the machinery of US imperialism to function. (All information outlined below is taken from The Mapping Project entries and links regarding the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Please see this link for hyperlinked source material.)
In How Harvard Rules, John Trumpbour documents the central role Harvard played in the establishment of the Cold War academic-military-industrial complex and US imperialism post-WWII (How Harvard Rules, 51). Trumpbour highlights the role of the Harvard Kennedy School under Dean Graham Allison (1977-1989), in particular, recounting that Dean Allison ran an executive education program for Pentagon officials at Harvard Kennedy (HHR 68). Harvard Kennedy School’s support for the US military and US empire continues to this day. HKS states on its website:
Harvard Kennedy School, because of its mission to train public leaders and its depth of expertise in the study of defense and international security, has always had a particularly strong relationship with the U.S. Armed Forces. This relationship is mutually beneficial. The School has provided its expertise to branches of the US military, and it has given military personnel (active and veteran) access to Harvard’s education and training.
The same webpage further notes that after the removal of ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) from Harvard Kennedy School in 1969, “under the leadership of Harvard President Drew Faust, the ROTC program was reinstated in 2011, and the Kennedy School’s relationship with the military continues to grow more robust each year.”
In particular, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs provides broad support to the US military and the objectives of US empire. The Belfer Center is co-directed by former US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter (a war hawk who has advocated for a US invasion of North Korea and US military build ups against Russia and Iran) and former Pentagon Chief of Staff Eric Rosenbach. Programs within HKS Belfer Center include the Center’s “Intelligence Program,” which boasts that it “acquaints students and Fellows with the intelligence community and its strengths and weaknesses for policy making,” further noting, “Discussions with active and retired intelligence practitioners, scholars of intelligence history, law, and other disciplines, help students and Fellows prepare to best use the information available through intelligence agencies.” Alongside HKS Belfer’s Intelligence Program, is the Belfer Center’s “Recanati-Kaplan Foundation Fellowship.” The Belfer Center claims that, under the direction of Belfer Center co-directors Ashton Carter and Eric Rosenbach, the Recanati-Kaplan Foundation Fellowship “educates the next generation of thought leaders in national and international intelligence.”
As noted above, the Harvard Kennedy School serves as an institutional training ground for future servants of US empire and the US national security state. HKS also maintains a close relationship with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). As reported by Inside Higher Ed in their 2017 review of Spy Schools by Daniel Golden:
[Harvard Kennedy School] currently allows the agency [the CIA] to send officers to the midcareer program at the Kennedy School of Government while continuing to act undercover, with the school’s knowledge. When the officers apply – often with fudged credentials that are part of their CIA cover – the university doesn’t know they’re CIA agents, but once they’re in, Golden writes, Harvard allows them to tell the university that they’re undercover. Their fellow students, however – often high-profile or soon-to-be-high-profile actors in the world of international diplomacy — are kept in the dark.
Kenneth Moskow is one of a long line of CIA officers who have enrolled undercover at the Kennedy School, generally with Harvard’s knowledge and approval, gaining access to up-and-comers worldwide,” Golden writes. “For four decades the CIA and Harvard have concealed this practice, which raises larger questions about academic boundaries, the integrity of class discussions and student interactions, and whether an American university has a responsibility to accommodate U.S. intelligence.”
In addition to the CIA, HKS has direct relationships with the FBI, the US Pentagon, US Department of Homeland Security, NERAC, and numerous branches of the US Armed Forces:
Chris Combs, a Senior Fellow with HKS’s Program on Crisis Leadership has held numerous positions within the FBI;
Jeffrey A. Tricoli, who serves as Section Chief of the FBI’s Cyber Division since December 2016 (prior to which he held several other positions within the FBI) was a keynote speaker at “multiple sessions” of the HKS’s Cybersecurity Executive Education program;
Jeff Fields, who is Fellow at both the Cyber Project and the Intelligence Project of HKS’s Belfer Center currently serves as a Supervisory Special Agent within the National Security Division of the FBI;
HKS hosted former FBI director James Comey for a conversation with HKS Belfer Center’s Co-Director (and former Pentagon Chief of Staff) Eric Rosenbach in 2020;
Government spending records show yearly tuition payments from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for Homeland Security personnel attending special HKS seminars on Homeland Security under HKS’s Program on Crisis Leadership;
Northeast Homeland Security Regional Advisory Council meeting minutes from February 2022 list “Edward Chao: Analyst, Harvard Kennedy School,” as a NERAC “Council Member”; and
Harvard Kennedy School and the US Air force have created multiple fellowships aimed at recruiting US Air Force service members to pursue degrees at HKS. The Air Force’s CSAF Scholars Master Fellowship, for example, aims to “prepare mid-career, experienced professionals to return to the Air Force ready to assume significant leadership positions in an increasingly complex environment.” In 2016, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Doug Elmendorf welcomed Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James to Harvard Kennedy School, in a speech in which Elmendorf highlighted his satisfaction that the ROTC program, including Air Force ROTC, had been reinstated at Harvard (ROTC had been removed from campus following mass faculty protests in 1969).
HKS’s direct support of US imperialism does not limit itself to ideological and educational support. It is deeply enmeshed in the war economy driven by the interests of the US weapons industry.
Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, L3 Harris, General Dynamics, and Northrup Grumman are global corporations who supply the United States government with broad scale military weaponry and war and surveillance technologies. All these companies have corporate leadership who are either alumni of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (HKS), who are currently contributing to HKS as lecturers/professors, and/or who have held leadership positions in US federal government.
Lockheed Martin Vice President for Corporate Business Development Leo Mackay is a Harvard Kennedy School alumnus (MPP ’91), was a Fellow in the HKS Belfer Center International Security Program (1991-92) and served as the “military assistant” to then US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy Ashton Carter, who would soon go on to become co-director of the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center. Following this stint at the US Pentagon, Mackay landed in the US weapons industry at Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin Vice President Marcel Lettre is an HKS alumni and prior to joining Lockheed Martin, Lettre spent eight years in the US Department of Defense (DoD). The US DoD has dished out a whopping $540.82 billion to date in contracts with Lockheed Martin for the provision of products and services to the US Army, Navy, Air Force, and other branches of the US military. Lockheed Martin Board of Directors member Jeh Johnson has lectured at Harvard Kennedy School and is the former Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, the agency responsible for carrying out the US federal government’s regime of tracking, detentions, and deportations of Black and Brown migrants. (Retired) General Joseph F. Dunford is currently a member of two Lockheed Martin Board of Director Committees and a Senior Fellow with HKS’s Belfer Center. Dunford was a US military leader, serving as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Commander of all US and NATO Forces in Afghanistan. Dunford also serves on the board of the Atlantic Council, itself a cutout organization of NATO and the US security state which crassly promotes the interests of US empire. Mackay, Lettre, Johnson, and Dunford’s respective career trajectories provide an emblematic illustration of the grotesque revolving door which exists between elite institutions of knowledge production like the Harvard Kennedy School, the US security state (which feeds its people into those elite institutions and vice versa), and the US weapons industry (which seeks business from the US security state).
Similar revolving door phenomena are notable among the Harvard Kennedy School and Raytheon, Boeing, and Northrup Grumman. HKS Professor Meghan O’Sullivan currently serves on the board of Massachusetts-based weapons manufacturer Raytheon. O’Sullivan is also deeply enmeshed within America’s security state, currently sitting on the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations and has served as “special assistant” to President George W. Bush (2004-07) where she was “Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan,” helping oversee the US invasions and occupations of these nations during the so-called “War on Terror.” O’Sullivan has openly attempted to leverage her position as Harvard Kennedy School to funnel US state dollars into Raytheon: In April 2021, O’Sullivan penned an article in the Washington Post entitled “It’s Wrong to Pull Troops Out of Afghanistan. But We Can Minimize the Damage.” As reported in the Harvard Crimson, O’Sullivan’s author bio in this article highlighted her position as a faculty member of Harvard Kennedy (with the perceived “expertise” affiliation with HKS grants) but failed to acknowledge her position on the Board of Raytheon, a company which had “a $145 million contract to train Afghan Air Force pilots and is a major supplier of weapons to the U.S. military.” Donn Yates who works in Domestic and International Business Development at Boeing’s T-7A Redhawk Program was a National Security Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2015-16. Don Yates also spent 23 years in the U.S. Air Force. Former Northrop Grumman Director for Strategy and Global Relations John Johns is a graduate of Harvard Kennedy’s National and International Security Program. Johns also spent “seven years as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Maintenance establishing policy for, and leading oversight of the Department’s annual $80B weapon system maintenance program and deployed twice in support of security operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The largest US oil firms are also closely interlocked with these top weapons companies, which have also diversified their technological production for the security industry – providing services for pipeline and energy facility security, as well as border security. This means that the same companies are profiting at every stage in the cycle of climate devastation: they profit from wars for extraction; from extraction; and from the militarized policing of people forced to migrate by climate disaster. Exxon Mobil (the 4th largest fossil fuel firm) contracts with General Dynamics, L3 Harris, and Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin, the top weapons company in the world, shares board members with Chevron, and other global fossil fuel companies. (See Global Climate Wall: How the world’s wealthiest nations prioritise borders over climate action.)
The Harvard Kennedy School and US Support for Israel
Harvard Kennedy School is home to the Wexner Foundation. Through its “Israel Fellowship,” The Wexner Foundation awards ten scholarships annually to “outstanding public sector directors and leaders from Israel,” helping these individuals to pursue a Master’s in Public Administration at the Kennedy School. Past Wexner fellows include more than 25 Israeli generals and other high-ranking military and police officials. Among them is the Israeli Defense Force’s current chief of general staff, Aviv Kochavi, who is directly responsible for the bombardment of Gaza in May 2021. Kochavi also is believed to be one of the 200 to 300 Israeli officials identified by Tel Aviv as likely to be indicted by the International Criminal Court’s probe into alleged Israeli war crimes committed in Gaza in 2014. The Wexner Foundation also paid former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak — himself accused of war crimes in connection with Israel’s 2009 Operation Cast Lead that killed over 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza — $2.3 million for two studies, one of which he did not complete.
HKS’s Belfer Center has hosted Israeli generals, politicians, and other officials to give talks at Harvard Kennedy School. Ehud Barak, mentioned above, was himself a “Belfer fellow” at HKS in 2016. The Belfer Center also hosts crassly pro-Israel events for HKS students, such as: The Abraham Accords – A conversation on the historic normalization of relations between the UAE, Bahrain and Israel,” “A Discussion with Former Mossad Director Tamir Pardo,” “The Future of Modern Warfare” (which Belfer describes as “a lunch seminar with Yair Golan, former Deputy Chief of the General Staff for the Israel Defense Forces”), and “The Future of Israel’s National Security.”
As of 2022, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center is hosting former Israel military general and war criminal Amos Yadlin as a Senior Fellow at the Belfer’s Middle East Initiative. Furthermore, HKS is allowing Yadlin to lead a weekly study group of HKS students entitled “Israeli National Security in a Shifting Middle East: Historical and Strategic Perspectives for an Uncertain Future.” Harvard University students wrote an open letter demanding HKS “sever all association with Amos Yadlin and immediately suspend his study group.” Yadlin had defended Israel’s assassination policy through which the Israeli state has extrajudicially killed hundreds of Palestinians since 2000, writing that the “the laws and ethics of conventional war did not apply” vis-á-vis Palestinians under zionist occupation.
Harvard Kennedy School also plays host to the Harvard Kennedy School Israel Caucus. The HKS Israel Caucus coordinates “heavily subsidized” trips to Israel for 50 HKS students annually. According to HKS Israel Caucus’s website, students who attend these trips “meet the leading decision makers and influencers in Israeli politics, regional security and intelligence, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, [and] the next big Tech companies.” The HKS Israel Caucus also regularly hosts events which celebrate “Israel’s culture and history.” Like the trips to Israel they coordinate, HKS Israel Caucus events consistently whitewash over the reality of Israel’s colonial war against the Palestinian people through normalizing land theft, forced displacement, and resource theft.
Harvard Kennedy School also has numerous ties to local pro-Israel organizations: the ADL, the JCRC, and CJP.
The Harvard Kennedy School’s Support for Saudi Arabia
In 2017, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center announced the launch of “The Project on Saudi and Gulf Cooperation Council Security,” which Belfer stated was “made possible through a gift from HRH Prince Turki bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.” Through this project, Harvard Kennedy School and the HKS Belfer Center have hosted numerous events at HKS which have promoted Saudi Arabia as a liberalizing and positive force for security and stability in the region, whitewashing over the realities of the Saudi-led and US-backed campaign of airstrikes and blockade against Yemen which has precipitated conditions of mass starvation and an epidemic of cholera amongst the Yemeni people.
The Belfer Center’s Project on Saudi and Gulf Cooperation Council Security further normalizes and whitewashes Saudi Arabia’s crimes through its “HKS Student Delegation to Saudi Arabia.” This delegation brings 11 Harvard Kennedy School students annually on two-week trips to Saudi Arabia, where students “exchange research, engage in cultural dialogue, and witness the changes going on in the Kingdom firsthand.” Not unlike the student trips to Israel Harvard Kennedy School’s Israel Caucus coordinates, these trips to Saudi Arabia present HKS students with a crassly propagandized impression of Saudi Arabia, shoring up support for the “Kingdom” amongst the future leaders of the U.S. security state which HKS seeks to nurture.
Finding Our Mission
The vast network outlined above between the Harvard Kennedy School, the US federal government, the US Armed Forces, and the US weapons industry constitutes only a small portion of what is known about HKS and its role in US imperialism, but it is enough.
The Mapping Project demonstrates that the Harvard Kennedy School of Government is a nexus of US imperialist planning and cooperation, with an address. The Mapping Project also links HKS to harms locally, including, but not limited to colonialism, violence against migrants, ethnic cleansing/displacement of Black and Brown Boston area residents from their communities (“gentrification”), health harm, policing, the prison-industrial complex, zionism, and surveillance. The Harvard Kennedy School’s super-oppressor status – the sheer number of separate communities feeling its global impact in their daily lives through these multiple and various mechanisms of oppression and harm – as it turns out, is its greatest weakness.
A movement that can identify super-oppressors like the Harvard Kennedy School of Government can use this information to identify strategic vulnerabilities of key hubs of power and effectively organize different communities towards common purpose. This is what the Mapping Project aims to do – to move away from traditionally siloed work towards coordination across communities and struggles in order to build strategic oppositional community power.
Appendix: The Death Toll of US Imperialism Since World War 2
A critical disclaimer: Figures relating to the death toll of US Imperialism are often grossly underestimated due to the US government’s lack of transparency and often purposeful coverup and miscounts of death tolls. In some cases, this can lead to ranges of figures that include millions of human lives – as in the figure for Indonesia below with estimates of 500,000 to 3 million people. We have tried to provide the upward ranges in these cases since we suspect the upward ranges to be more accurate if not still significantly underestimated. These figures were obtained from multiple sources including but not limited to indigenous scholar Ward Churchill’s Pacifism as Pathology as well as Countercurrents’ article Deaths in Other Nations Since WWII Due to US Interventions (please note that my use of Countercurrents’ statistics isn’t an endorsement of the site’s politics).
Afghanistan: at least 176,000 people
Bosnia: 20,000 to 30,000 people
Bosnia and Krajina: 250,000 people
Cambodia: 2-3 million people
Chad: 40,000 people and as many as 200,000 tortured
Chile: 10,000 people (the US sponsored Pinochet coup in Chile)
Colombia: 60,000 people
Congo: 10 million people (Belgian imperialism supported by US corporations and the US sponsored assassination of Patrice Lumumba)
Croatia: 15,000 people
Cuba: 1,800 people
Dominican Republic: at least 3,000 people
East Timor: 200,000 people
El Salvador: More than 75,000 people (U.S. support of the Salvadoran oligarchy and death squads)
Greece: More than 50,000 people
Grenada: 277 people
Guatemala: 140,000 to 200,000 people killed or forcefully disappeared (U.S. support of the Guatemalan junta)
Haiti: 100,000 people
Honduras: hundreds of people (CIA supported Battalion kidnapped, tortured and killed at least 316 people)
Indonesia: Estimates of 500,000 to 3 million people
Iran: 262,000 people
Iraq: 2.4 million people in Iraq war, 576, 000 Iraqi children by US sanctions, and over 100,000 people in Gulf War
Japan: 2.6-3.1 million people
Korea: 5 million people
Kosovo: 500 to 5,000
Laos: 50,000 people
Libya: at least 2500 people
Nicaragua: at least 30,000 people (US backed Contras’ destabilization of the Sandinista government in Nicaragua)
Operation Condor: at least 10,000 people (By governments of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru. US govt/CIA coordinated training on torture, technical support, and supplied military aid to the Juntas)
Pakistan: at least 1.5 million people
Palestine: estimated more than 200,000 people killed by military but this does not include death from blockade/siege/settler violence
Panama: between 500 and 4000 people
Philippines: over 100,000 people executed or disappeared
Puerto Rico: 4,645-8,000 people
Somalia: at least 2,000 people
Sudan: 2 million people
Syria: at least 350,000 people
Vietnam: 3 million people
Yemen: over 377,000 people
Yugoslavia: 107,000 people
The Mapping Project is a multi-generational collective of activists and organizers; we are unpaid and don’t report to any donors. Email us at mapliberation@protonmail.com
The following translation of Fusako Shigenobu‘s last newsletter from prison was published by translator Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda at Medium. We are honored to republish this important translation and once again salute Fusako Shigenobu upon her liberation, her daughter Mai and all of her comrades in struggle.
Fusako Shigenobu is the former leader of the Japanese Red Army, a communist guerrilla organization which carried out attacks against the embassies of various Western states, the US military, and multinational corporations from the 1970’s until the late 1980s. Fusako was born to a lower-middle class family in Tokyo in 1945, and began her activism in the late 60’s protesting student fee hikes at Meiji University, where she was taking night classes. From there, she became involved in the Japanese student movement, which was protesting both the Vietnam War and Japan’s collusion with the American empire in the form of the US-Japan Security Treaty.
During the early 1970s, she and several comrades traveled to Lebanon to take up armed struggle in solidarity with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), eventually leading to the creation of the Japanese Red Army. In 1972, three Japanese volunteers for the PFLP executed an attack on Israel’s Lod Airport (later known as the Lydda Struggle) in an attempt to assassinate an Israeli scientist who was responsible for developing biochemical weapons for use against the Palestinian people. Although Fusako was not present at the attack, she was forced to go into hiding after the JRA was designated a “terrorist” organization and PFLP and JRA members became targeted for assassination by Israeli death squads.
The Japanese Red Army (JRA) is mostly known in Japan and elsewhere for its armed struggle and military operations against capitalist and imperialist interests around the world, which often took the form of hijacks and hostage-taking. However, it is much lesser known that the JRA undertook consistent and effective solidarity with the Palestinian people through humanitarian, artistic, and grassroots efforts. For example, some Japanese medics went to Lebanon to open clinics in refugee camps, or to train people in acupuncture; artists contributed artwork or co-produced plays, while writers wrote about or translated the writings of prominent Palestinians such as Ghassan Kanafani.
Fusako also fulfilled a crucial role as an editor at Al Hadaf magazine, the public relations office of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Her role there strengthened Japanese support for the Palestinian cause by keeping Japanese leftist activists informed of what was happening on the ground in the Palestinian struggle and the Middle East. She also provided logistical support to Japanese volunteers who arrived, connecting them to Palestinian partners.
In 1973, Fusako gave birth to her daughter, Mei Shigenobu. They lived underground for decades before Fusako was arrested in Japan on November 8, 2000, and sentenced to twenty years in prison on charges of passport forgery. While in prison, Fusako disbanded the Red Army, reconsidering their former tactics towards a liberation movement.
During her time in prison, Fusako was supported by a small but steadfast group of Japanese comrades who called themselves “The Olive Tree.” For over twenty years, this group published a monthly newsletter that allowed Fusako to communicate her thoughts to the outside world, including her reflections on current affairs, particularly the geopolitical situation in the Middle East; daily diary entries detailing her observations from prison; original tanka poems; as well as letter exchanges she had with those who wrote to her from the outside.
After twenty years incarcerated Fusako was released last month. The letter below is from the last newsletter she wrote from prison, in December of 2021. In it, she reflects on all that has changed in the world over the past twenty years, and what she hopes to accomplish after her release.
— Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda, translator
From the cover of The Olive Tree Newsletter, №156. The Japanese text beneath reads: “Release her now! Let’s support Shigenobu-san, and reject this unfair sentence!”
Toward the New Year
The Olive Tree Newsletters, No.156
by Fusako Shigenobu
2021: At long last, I’ve made it to my final December in prison.
When I was young, I took my life for granted, treating it as something to be thrown away carelessly at will. Then, in prison, I developed cancer and had to undergo multiple surgeries. Needless to say, I never imagined I would live this long.
I’ve walked this life with a sense of purpose, passion, curiosity, and a tenacious desire to live as myself — even as I made countless mistakes. Nevertheless, I’m deeply grateful that I’ve been able to live my life according to my own intentions.
Next year, 2022, is also the year I’ll finally be released from prison — on May 28th, to be exact. I remember the poem that poured out of me when I first heard the court’s decision all those years ago: “This sentence isn’t the end / It’s only the beginning / My disobedient will bubbles up, boils over.” Thinking back on it, it feels as though my time in prison since then has gone by in the blink of an eye. To those of you who have sustained and encouraged me — my friends, comrades, family, lawyer, doctor, and finally, you, readers of “The Olive Tree,” who have silently and steadfastly supported me over the years, I express my profoundest gratitude. Thank you, all of you — truly!
When I think back to the period of my arrest, it seems clear in hindsight that it marked the beginning of a period of immense inequality that continues today. On September 28, 2000, Palestinians began protesting Israel’s atrocities in what would come to be known as the Second Intifada (The People’s Revolt) — an intense and violent battle. Then, in 2001, the Sharon regime took power, and the Palestinian Authority under President Arafat began to crumble. Shortly after, the chairman of the PFLP was killed by a missile attack, and then 9/11 happened. The rapid changes brought about by the technological revolution, as well as the thorough marketization of human society and the natural world by neoliberal forces, increased inequality and disparity everywhere under the guise of “democracy,” “human rights” and even “environmentalism.”
9/11 ushered in a new era characterized by the normalization of wars of aggression. Under the twin banners of “anti-terrorism” and “democracy,” the Middle East — from Iraq to Afghanistan — was utterly destroyed. Of course, it was innocent people who suffered most, and continue to suffer, from the effects of those wars. The 21st century has thus become “the century of war and refugees.” And now, on top of all of that, it has had to face the many challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet we still live in a world where the richest 1% of people are protected, rather than the 99% that comprise the majority of human society; and this disparity between rich and poor only continues to grow, while everywhere authoritarian political regimes are on the rise.
Meanwhile, the constitution of Japan has been continually under assault: the “right to collective defense” is, for many reasons, functioning in exactly the way one would expect, and increases to defense spending, as well as “the right to attack enemy bases” are now being discussed as a matter of course.
By the same token, plans for the “Henoko base relocation,” which were already unreasonable, are now being pushed through with an iron fist — a reality which shows us a clear picture of Japan’s future. With rhetoric so flowery as to mock the Japanese language itself, the power of the state is ever so carefully invading and infiltrating the heart of society. From my perspective here in prison, Japanese society continues to have an outdated, insensitive attitude toward civil rights. As is evident from its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, it has no capacity to adapt to new circumstances. It shows political favoritism to the world’s most powerful monopoly corporations, and it is clear that Japan’s social structures — in everything from social security to agriculture — have been made to sacrifice for the sake of these corporations. And yet, despite it all, ordinary people continue to seek peace and happiness, doing their best to live honest lives.
What will the coming year of 2022 bring for the Japan I have just described? Next year is the 50th anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion to Japan. Fifty years ago, on May 15th, Okinawa sought to eliminate all military bases on its territory by demanding that it be returned to Japanese jurisdiction; but, ironically, far from being eliminated, these military bases have only proliferated since that reversion, and the Okinawan people have been made to suffer continuously under an ever-more blatant carrot-and-stick policy. Of course, 2022 also marks the 50th anniversary of the United Red Army Incident. Lately, I have been thinking back to this time, when countless young people and citizens tirelessly advocated for peace and an end to war. Even the opposition party took the government to task, and residents in major regions and districts of Japan elected a progressive governor. I, too, was seeking revolution then. But the United Red Army incident exposed the contradictions of factional politics: it was a setback that displaced the hope and meaning that could have been gained from a social revolution. I was living in the Arab world at the time, and was one of many who reacted to the events with a deep sense of shock, regret, and self-reproach, since I was inevitably connected to them.
Next year is also the 50th anniversary of the Lydda incident, which was fought under the leadership of the PFLP. Even now, from the vantage point of 50 years, I am struck anew by how admirably they fought.
As I look out over the expanse of this new year, many different feelings arise in me. I can sense that a new order is coming into being as the world demands greater civil liberties and fights for climate justice. Since 9/11, conditions in societies everywhere — from Palestine to the Arab world to Japan — have been worsening, and it seems that the coronavirus pandemic is stirring up discontent. For my part, I’m sure that 2022 will be a year of reflecting on the significance of the political movement that began 50 years ago.
Then too, when I reflect on my own imprisonment, I cannot help but think about how many of my former comrades are still imprisoned and internationally wanted, including Comrade Okamoto. Even as I look forward to the beginning of a new movement, I know that I am severely limited in both my abilities as well as the short time I have left to live. But as long as there is still life left in me, I vow in my heart to continue living the way I always have, with the will to make the world a better place. In a world that is rapidly changing due to constant developments in technology, smartphones, and the internet, I must first of all search for a way to live that has value for me as a human being. By rehabilitating my mind and body, by studying, by taking things one step at a time and enjoying my own sense of curiosity, I plan to continue living again. From there, perhaps, a certain hope for the world and an everyday sense of solidarity will emerge.
With a heart brimming with gratitude for your friendship, steadfast support, and heartfelt sentiments, I am dreaming of the reunions and encounters I will have in the coming year. May next year be a good one — for all of us, together!
December 15, 2021
An original drawing and tanka poem by Fusako Shigenobu, on the cover of The Olive Tree Newsletter, №156. In October of 2021, an underwater volcano erupted off the coast of Okinawa near Henoko base, causing a mass of pumice stones to clog offshore waters. Fusako composed this poem after learning of the event (she kept close tabs on current events from prison), interpreting the volcano’s eruption as nature’s own revolt against the American militarization of Okinawa. The poem in Japanese reads: “Pumice stones buried in the waters off of Okinawa’s Henoko base — nature, too, revolts against the power of the state”
Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda is a writer and translator. Born in Tokyo, raised in Texas, she holds degrees from Wesleyan University and the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently translating Fusako Shigenobu’s memoir, Season of Revolution: From the Battlefield of Palestine, among other works. She can be contacted at www.lhkuroda.com
The coalition is calling for a demonstration on Friday, 10 June to commemorate the 1967 Naksa, the occupation of the remaining 22% of Palestine, including the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the eastern part of Jerusalem, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. The demonstration will launch at 5 pm from Rathaus Neukölln and proceed to Kottbusser Tor.
As the organizers note, “We do not just want to recall the Zionist crimes and the role of imperialist powers in the oppression of the Palestinian people and the peoples of the world. Rather, we also want to emphasize that for more than 100 years, despite every aggression and setback, the Palestinian people have continued to resist colonialism and imperialism, until the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
The demonstration will be followed on Sunday, 12 June with an Arabic-language panel discussion about Palestinian and Arab women in the liberation struggle. Jaldia Abubakra of the Alkarama Palestinian Women’s Mobilization, based in Madrid, Spain, will speak along with Leila of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, based in Toulouse, France. They will lead a discussion about the leadership and organizing of women in the struggle, the campaign to free imprisoned women, and the movement for the liberation of Palestine.
These events highlight that despite the repression meted out against the Palestinian community, the solidarity movement and anti-imperialist organizers in Berlin, the movement continues to grow on a principled, clear basis for the liberation of Palestine.
The right-wing Postmedia are once again escalating their ongoing attacks on Palestinian writer and activist, our comrade Khaled Barakat, and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Canada. In the latest incarnation of the smear campaign published today in the National Post and the Ottawa Citizen, the Israeli embassy, together with Zionist pro-apartheid organizations, lines up to declare that Canadians, particularly Palestinian-Canadians, should not have the right to speak in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, about the struggle for Palestinian liberation.
Israel lobby organizations like CIJA and B’nai Brith — joined by the Israeli Embassy — attempted to shut down the International League of Peoples’ Struggle conference last weekend in the Canadian capital. However, they failed to do so, and the assembly brought together hundreds of people in marches, meetings and assemblies highlighting anti-imperialist unity and struggle. The assembly passed multiple resolutions in support of Palestinian liberation and against the use of so-called “terror” designations to repress people’s liberation movements.
These forces are outraged about their inability to keep silencing voices calling for justice in Palestine in Canada. It is their failed attempt to cancel the successful ILPS conference that is prompting this continuing smear campaign against Khaled Barakat.
Let us be clear: As we told the National Post (and they severely cut), while Khaled Barakat is not a member of Samidoun, we would be honoured to have him as a member.We look forward to continuing to host his speeches and publish his writing, as we view his voice as one of the most necessary in this movement, with a clear, inspiring, progressive vision of a liberated Palestine and the road of resistance to achieve that goal.
We urge all friends of Palestine to contact us, to invite Khaled Barakat to speak at your events, and to join us in building Samidoun’s campaigns. By standing together, these smear campaigns will once again fail miserably — and we keep our eyes on the goal: the liberation of Palestinian prisoners and the liberation of Palestine.
This is not unique; after Zionist pressure organizations failed to stop CUNY law graduate, Palestinian activist and chair of Within Our Lifetime, Nerdeen Kiswani, from delivering a powerful statement about Palestine, social justice and liberation at her law school graduation after being elected commencement speaker by her fellow students, they have launched a series of smear attacks and even city council hearings targeting Kiswani personally, the movement for Palestine at CUNY broadly and even the legal services provided to people living in poverty by the law school. We urge all supporters of Palestine to stand with Kiswani and the movement for justice at CUNY.
Because these pro-apartheid organizations are so intimidated by the clarity of these Palestinian activists’ and leaders’ expression, they want to have them silenced by force. Because Samidoun highlights the struggle, leadership and resistance of the Palestinian prisoners, they want to ban and suppress us. However, thousands of people have already made clear that they reject these smear campaigns and instead urge Canada to begin respecting Palestinian rights and cut off arms trade and preferential deals with the Israeli regime.
These campaigns are based on the idea that people should not have the right to hear these powerful words for Palestine. Therefore, we want to invite you to hear the words of Khaled Barakat in Ottawa for yourself. Watch the speech at the ILPS conference here:
Watch the “Double Standards” event, featuring Khaled Barakat, Yavar Hameed and Miko Peled, on the use of anti-terror laws to criminalize Palestinians:
Watch Khaled Barakat on the Security in Context podcast discussing smear campaigns:
And watch Khaled Barakat and Nerdeen Kiswani speaking together with Jaldia Abubakra about repression and resistance for Palestine:
The most important response that we can make is to build the movement for Palestine. One of the goals of such campaigns is to divert our compass away from our ongoing campaigns and instill fear in the community. By organizing and building the movement for Palestine, we can show our support for Khaled Barakat and the Palestinian people and cause as a whole. We stand with Khaled Barakat, we stand with the Palestinian prisoners and we stand with Palestinian liberation. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
On Monday, 6 June, Israeli occupation forces once again ordered Palestinian-French lawyer and human rights defender Salah Hamouri to an additional three months jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. Hamouri is a Palestinian Jerusalemite, born to a Palestinian father and a French mother, and has faced relentless persecution by the Israeli regime, locking him behind bars and attempting to strip his Jerusalem residency and force him into exile.
As the Justice for Salah campaign notes, “His unwavering resistance to regular harassment, arrest, and attempted deportation by Israeli authorities makes him one of the most prominent examples of Palestinian steadfastness, a beloved son of the city, and a symbol of anti-colonial struggle globally.”
The renewal of Hamouri’s administrative detention comes shortly after he joined the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and the Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH) to file a criminal complaint in France against the NSO Group, the infamous creator of the Israeli “Pegasus” spyware; Hamouri’s phone was found to have been infiltrated by the notorious spy program, used to target activists and journalists around the world.
Over the years, Salah has been relentlessly targeted by Israeli occupation authorities, subjected to arbitrary arrests, administrative detention without charge or trial, exorbitant fines, travel bans against him and his family, the deportation of his wife and French national Elsa Lefort, and, most recently, the illegal revocation of his permanent residency and forced deportation from Jerusalem on 18 October 2021. Moreover, on 8 November 2021, a Front Line Defenders investigation conducted in collaboration with Citizen Lab and Amnesty International’s Security Lab found that Salah Hammouri had been one of six Palestinian HRDs hacked by Israeli NSO Group’s notorious Pegasus spyware.
Salah Hamouri is a French-Palestinian lawyer and a former Palestinian political prisoner whose case was widely known throughout France as a symbol of injustice and false allegations until his release in 2011 in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange, only a few months before his sentence was to end. He has spoken throughout France and internationally at events like the World Social Forum on Palestinian prisoners and the struggle for freedom.
The Israeli occupation uses the forced revocation of residency for Palestinians from East Jerusalem as a means to displace Palestinians and forcibly create a “Jewish majority” in the occupied city as well as a means to silence Palestinian activists and organizers. As noted by Al-Haq, “Revocation of permanent residency status is the most direct tool used to forcibly transfer Palestinians from East Jerusalem. This policy which has been used by Israel more than 14,500 times between 1967 and 2015, and is illegal under international law.”
Everything Israel’s apartheid regime has done is aimed at silencing me and encouraging me to give up and leave the country, as they do with any Palestinian who refuses to bow their head and submit to ethnic cleansing. Israeli authorities are creating a bespoke plan of harassment for each politically active person, arresting and harassing them, and where this doesn’t work, stripping them of their IDs or health insurance and targeting their family and businesses. They target those that speak out in order to weaken our collective resistance and to more easily expel us.
My own story demonstrates that the Israeli regime is absolutely ruthless, operating with a calculated cruelty that knows no limits. Our family’s enforced separation is intended to inflict suffering, to deny my children a father and the experiences and joys of growing up in their homeland with the love of my extended family. Interactions with my children are limited to stolen moments over video call, attempts to forge and maintain a connection despite the distance.
This isn’t what I want for my children. But it is better they know that I fought for justice rather than passively accepting ethnic cleansing, better that I do all I can to remain steadfast in our land than acquiesce to Israel’s harassment. I am continuing with my struggle because I want all Palestinians to live with freedom and dignity, and I know this will not come without a fight, without sacrifice on the part of those willing to take a stand.
Last year, Palestinians rose in the thousands to defend Jerusalem, sparking an uprising that spread throughout all Palestinians communities in rejection of Israeli colonization. A new generation repeated its commitment to carry forward the struggle for justice, for liberation and for the rights of Palestinian refugees living for decades in exile. As our people have not given up, neither can I, and neither can the millions around the world who support Palestine, and whose commitment to our cause is more important now than ever before.
During his previous imprisonment, Hamouri’s case won wide support among French popular movements and even elected officials, with over 1,000 signing a call for his release. Nevertheless, French official diplomacy continued to drag its feet rather than defend its citizen, attempting to ban the Collectif Palestine Vaincra and other pro-Palestine associations while a French citizen is jailed without charge or trial in occupied Palestine. French Senator Fabien Gay was denied permission only days ago to visit Hamouri for a parliamentary visit; he noted the lack of official reaction to this further affront to the rights of a French citizen.
Hamouri is currently among nearly 600 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, all of whom are currently engaged in a collective boycott of the occupation military courts in a protest against this arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial. Two Palestinian administrative detainees, Khalil Awawdeh and Raed Rayan, are facing critical health conditions after 97 and 62 days on hunger strike, respectively. They are among nearly 4,500 Palestinian political prisoners in total imprisoned by the Israeli occupation.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the ongoing imprisonment of Salah Hamouri, the use of administrative detention to target Palestinian leaders and human rights defenders, and the ongoing Israeli ethnic cleansing project in Jerusalem targeting the Palestinian people and identity of the city, the capital of Palestine. We urge all supporters of Palestine to take action to demand the liberation of Salah Hamouri and every Palestinian prisoner jailed in the occupation prisons.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network participated in the 5th Assembly of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle in Canada, held in Ottawa between 1 June through 4 June, alongside a broad alliance of anti-imperialist, national democratic and mass organizations working to achieve liberation from Turtle Island to Palestine to the Philippines.
Samidoun is an ILPS member organization; the ILPS brings together over 400 participating organizations from around the world. The ILPS Canada Assembly brought together participants from organizations across Canada an the United States for actions, panels, discussions and planning to confront U.S.-led imperialism and activate revolutionary struggle. The conference began on 1 June with a strong, militant protest against the CANSEC 2022 arms fair, where participants blocked the highway leading up to the arms fair and delayed the speech of the Canadian Minister of Defense.
Activities continued on 2 June with a packed meeting on confronting anti-Palestinian racism and repression, where participants shared stories and experiences and strategized for future joint struggle and organizing. Khaled Barakat of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, and Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun, led a conversation about these attacks and how we can resist them through collective struggle and resistance. They discussed the recent Zionist smear campaign targeting Barakat and Samidoun as part of an overall approach that targets organizations and individuals with a principled stand for Palestinian liberation.
Following the discussion, the conference continued with an anti-imperialist march and rally throughout downtown Ottawa, organized by the Anti-Imperialist Alliance, the local host committee and ILPS organization for the conference (also an affiliate member of the Samidoun Network). Proceeding through the streets, the march blocked traffic in front of Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), the organizer of the CANSEC war fair. After arriving at McNabb park, participants gathered for a teach-in on anti-fascist and anti-imperialist resistance, with speakers from Anakbayan Canada, Anti-Imperialist Alliance, NY Boricua Resistance and other organizations, including Samidoun, as well as musical performances. Charlotte Kates of Samidoun spoke at the event on Palestine, anti-imperialist and anti-fascist resistance:
The conference formally opened on 3 June at Foster Farm Community Centre in Ottawa. In the days leading up to the conference, ILPS itself as well as the conference were subjected to a Zionist smear campaign in an unsuccessful attempt to demand the conference be cancelled. In response, the organizers affirmed their strong commitment to Palestinian liberation that will not be silenced by repressive efforts by right-wing forces. In addition to representatives from Filipino mass organizations like Bayan, Anakbayan, Gabriela, Migrante and Sulong, participants included the Canada Philippines Solidarity Organization, Canada Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights, International Women’s Alliance, NY Boricua Resistance, International Migrants Alliance, 32 County Sovereignty Movement and participants in a number of Palestinian and Palestine solidarity organizations, including Samidoun, the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Youth Movement, Students for Justice in Palestine, SPHR, SUPER, and many more organizations and activists.
Aiyanas Ormond, chair of ILPS Canada, opened the conference and introduced the themes and a series of panels to come. Panelists spoke about a range of liberation movements and the struggle against U.S.-led imperialism, including Nina Macapinlac of BAYAN USA, Chris ‘Perry’ Sorio, former political prisoner and BAYAN Canada representative, and author and activist Yves Engler. The second panel of the day began with a strong presentation by Hanna Kawas, chair of the Canada Palestine Association, on Canada’s role in supporting and sustaining the colonization of Palestine. Billie Pierre, Nlaka’pamux organizer and land defender, Marco Luciano, International Migrants Alliance and Steve da Silva, a writer and class struggle organizer, further explored Canadian imperialism and settler-colonialism as a key threat to the peoples of the world.
The following panel featured Khaled Barakat of the Masar Badil alongside Natalie Knight, an urban Indigenous organizer and chair of the Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle – Coast Salish Territories. Their powerful discussion was accompanied by a video on behalf of the Indigenous Peoples’ Movement for Self-determination and Liberation. Barakat’s speech was a strong call to action that brought participants to their feet, calling for the liberation of Palestine.
The next day, 4 June, the conference continued with workshops on confronting imperialism, building the anti-war and anti-fascist movements. Samidoun coordinator Charlotte Kates and ILPS chair Aiyanas Ormond spoke about the vision and practice for continued organizing toward victory and liberation, including the struggles of Palestinian political prisoners and the Palestinian resistance on the front lines.
The conference then proceeded to the business meeting of the ILPS, which elected the new coordinating committee of ILPS in Canada. The conference passed a number of resolutions, including in support of Indigenous land defense, against targeting of poor and Indigenous families by state agents and officials, against deportations targeting migrant workers, for active building of the anti-war movement and in solidarity with the Filipino people’s struggle confronting the new Marcos-Duterte regime. The conference also adopted a number of resolutions highly relevant to the Palestinian liberation movement, many introduced or co-sponsored by Samidoun, including a resolution against the use of so-called “terror lists” or red-tagging to criminalize liberation movements, a resolution in support of upcoming marches for the right to return to Palestine and a resolution in support of the Peoples’ Tribunal on U.S. Imperialism.
The conference passed a strong resolution on Palestinian prisoners, particularly highlighting the cases of long-term hunger strikers Khalil Awawdeh and Raed Rayan. Following the adoption of the resolution, all present joined in a group photo in front of images of Awawdeh and Rayan, demanding their immediate liberation:
Whereas, Khalil Awawdeh, a Palestinian political prisoner jailed without charge or trial, has been on hunger strike against his illegitimate detention by the Israeli regime for the past 94 days, and
Whereas, Raed Rayan, a Palestinian political prisoner jailed without charge or trial, has been on hunger strike against his illegitimate detention for the past 59 days, and
Whereas, the lives of Khalil and Raed are severely endangered as both have already suffered serious health deterioration during their strikes,
Whereas, there are nearly 600 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under indefinitely renewable administrative detention orders, among approximately 4500 Palestinian prisoners, and
Whereas, all 600 administrative detainees are currently boycotting the occupation military courts in a collective demand to end administrative detention, including 80-year-old Palestinian leader and lawyer Bashir Al Khairy and Jerusalemite lawyer Salah Hamouri, threatened with deportation, and
Whereas, there are nearly 200 Palestinian child prisoners and many more Palestinian youth initially imprisoned as children, including Ahmad Manasra, who are denied education and appropriate physical and mental healthcare, and
Whereas, the colonization of Palestine is funded and backed by imperialist powers including Canada, The US, Britain and European states, and
Whereas, the Palestinian prisoners are leaders of the Palestinian people and their resistance, and their liberation is central to the liberation of Palestine,
Therefore be it resolved that the ILPS
1. calls for the immediate liberation of Khalil Awawdeh and Raed Rayan and calls on ILPS organizations to engage in public campaigns for their freedom;
2. Calls for the end of administrative detention and the liberation of all Palestinians jailed without charge or trial, and urges organizations to publicize and support the administrative detainees’ collective boycott by building boycott campaigns against the Israeli regime;
3. Urges the immediate release of Salah Hamouri and Bashir Al Khairy and will work to stand with Palestinians in Jerusalem fighting further displacement, ethnic cleansing and and forced expulsion and to stand with Palestinian lawyers and people’s rights defenders targeted for their work;
4. Calls for the immediate release of Ahmad Manasra and all child prisoners and pledges to organize, publicize and support campaigns for their release;
5. Urges the immediate release of Palestinian prisoners in imperialist jails such as Georges Ibrahim Abdallah in France and the Holy Land Foundation Five in the US; and
6. Reiterates its commitment to organize for the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners and all political and revolutionary prisoners around the world, as part and parcel of the struggle to defeat Zionism, imperialism and reaction and achieve justice and liberation in Palestine.
The conference also passed a resolution to fight the siege on Gaza:
Whereas, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been subjected to a brutal siege by the Israeli occupation regime for the past 15 years, and
Whereas, this siege is fully backed and implemented by imperialist powers, including Canada, the US, Britain, Australia and European states, and
Whereas, the siege is also carried out with the participation of Arab reactionary regimes such as Egypt that act at the behest of imperialist powers while normalizing with Israel, and
Whereas, the siege has been deadly, cutting access to healthcare, travel, education and economic development for Palestinians in Gaza, and
Whereas, the siege is an expression of settler colonialism, apartheid and occupation, attempting to divide Palestinians from one another and their land, and
Whereas, the siege on Gaza has specifically targeted productive sectors of the economy, such as small farmers and fishers, who are central to Palestinian food sovereignty, and
Whereas, the Gaza Strip is a center of Palestinian resistance that has resisted 4 Israeli wars of destruction in the past 13 years..
Therefore be it resolved that the ILPS in Canada will organize to support efforts to break the siege on Gaza and work together with organizations to highlight and oppose Canadian complicity and responsibility for the siege, and
Be it further resolved that the ILPS reiterates its commitment to ending the siege as part and parcel of the road to the liberation of all of Palestine from the river to the sea, the implementation of the right to return for Palestinian refugees, and our support for the Palestinian people inside and outside Palestine and their organizing and resistance by all means to achieve that liberation.
The conference passed a resolution on Zionist attacks targeting the Palestine movement, including the attempts to shut down the ILPS Assembly:
Whereas, the ILPS strongly supports the Palestinian people’s liberation struggle for justice and freedom throughout occupied Palestine from the river to the sea, the right to return of all exiled and displaced Palestinians, and the right to resist by all means necessary, and
Whereas, the ILPS stands with our Palestinian comrades organizing in Palestine and in exile and diaspora to achieve those goals, and
Whereas, the ILPS strongly supports the efforts in trade unions, universities, churches and other institutions to end complicity with Zionist colonialism in Palestine, including through boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns, and
Whereas, pro-apartheid, right-wing and Zionist organizations such as CIJA, Bnai Brith, Canary Mission, the ADL and others are engaged in smear campaigns against Palestinian activists and Palestine solidarity activists in an attempt to criminalize and repress these activities, and
Whereas, the right-wing National Post published a front page article targeting Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat as part of this campaign of attacks against student organizers, labour organizers, Palestinian community organizers and others working for justice in Palestine, and
Whereas, organizations across Canada including Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, the Palestinian Youth Movement and student organizations such as SPHR and SJP chapters, have been targeted by such attacks, and
Whereas, these attacks have been brought to the floor of the Canadian Senate and emboldened by Canadian official support for Zionism and rejection of all efforts to address and confront apartheid and settler colonialism, and
Whereas, similar attacks are rampant in the United States as well as in Britain and Europe, where the French government has attempted to ban the Collectif Palestine Vaincra and othe Palestine solidarity organizations and where the Berlin police in Germany banned all demonstrations commemorating the 74th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, and
Whereas, the ILPS 5th Assembly was subject to such a campaign in an attempt to bar the ILPS from organizing the assembly in public space,
Be it resolved that the ILPS supports the campaign by the Canada Palestine Association against Zionist smear campaigns and will work to publicize and organize with our Palestinian comrades to confront anti-Palestinian repression and right-wing attacks, and that we support Khaled Barakat, Samidoun, the PYM and the many activists and organizations subjected to these attacks. The ILPS understands Zionism as a form of racism and an expression of colonialism and imperialism and firmly opposes Zionism and the attacks generated by Zionist and imperialist forces
Further, we pledge to escalate our activity for Palestinian liberation and support for the Palestinian people and their resistance as the most important way to challenge these repressive campaigns.
Whereas, Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh was assassinated by Israeli occupation forces in Jenin refugee camp on May 11, 2022, and
Whereas, Palestinian journalist Ghufran Warasneh was assassinated by Israeli occupation forces as she traveled to work on June 1, 2022, and
Whereas, Ghufran Warasneh was a former political prisoner, and
Whereas, there is a long history of Israeli assassinations of Palestinian journalists, writers and spokespeople, including the assassination on July 8, 1972 of Palestinian writer and revolutionary political leader Ghassan Kanafani, and
Whereas, over 50 Palestinian journalists have been killed by the Israeli occupation in the past 22 years and dozens more imprisoned, and
Whereas, imperialist powers like Canada, the US, Britain and European states continue to support this assassination policy in practice even while expressing words of ‘concern’ unaccompanied by sanctions or any meaningful action,
Be it resolved that the ILPS will act to support campaigns to defend and protect Palestinian journalists and all peoples’ journalists targeted for their exposure of the crimes of the Israeli regime, imperialist powers and other reactionary forces, and will participate in and organize activities remembering Shireen Abu Aqleh and all targeted journalists.
Be it further resolved that the ILPS will support the call by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and the Palestinian Youth Movement to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Ghassan Kanafani on July 8, 2022.
Following the official close of the conference, Samidoun convened a cross-country organizing meeting in Ottawa on Sunday, 5 June, where participants planned actions to build the network and the Palestine movement across the country, with intense political discussions and strong commitment to escalating our work to free Palestinian prisoners.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the ILPS in Canada and all of the participants and organizations who contributed to the success of the 5th Assembly in Ottawa. With multiple strong, explicitly anti-imperialist street actions confronting the war profiteers, meaningful and powerful political discussions and a comprehensive plan of action for the future, the ILPS is well placed for its next steps of struggle. We look forward to organizing together on the road to liberation!
Join Samidoun Vancouver for a public screening of the new and acclaimed film, “Fedayin,” which chronicles the course of a Lebanese communist, imprisoned in 1984 for his involvement in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine — and Lebanon — from Zionist occupation.
From the Palestinian refugee camps that forged his conscience, to the international mobilization for his release, we will discover the man who has become one of the longest-held political prisoners in Europe
Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat, the Palestinian Scottish doctor who had been imprisoned for over 15 months in Britain on political charges — and who is still awaiting trial — was finally released on bail on 13 December 2021. However, he continues to face unjust sanctions and repression in addition to the pending political charges.
During his detention, Issam’s licence to practise medicine was suspended by the General Medical Council (GMC) on 26 October 2020 after the charges filed against him, despite the fact that he has been convicted of nothing and that the charges in no way relate to his fitness to practise medicine or his treatment of his patients.
On Friday, 10 June at 10 am British time (11 am central Europe, 12 noon Palestine, 2 am Pacific time, 5 am Eastern time), the Supreme Court of Scotland in Edinburgh will hold a one-day hearing on the suspension of Issam’s license to practice medicine. This is a public session that is open to public virtual attendance. We urge all supporters of Issam and of Palestine to attend this hearing to show that Issam has support in Scotland, Britain and around the world!
Issam will be representing himself in court and challenging the action of the General Medical Council. While the subject at hand is the medical license suspension, the political nature of the charges against him, the MI6 operation and the targeting of the Palestinian and Irish movements — the reasons for his arrest — are part and parcel of the matter that will be addressed.
Please write to us at samidoun@samidoun.net to receive the link to attend the virtual court hearing on Friday, 10 June. Note that during the court hearing, please keep your sound off and display your name, and do not make an audio or video recording of the hearing. Please make sure to abide by the rules of the court in order to make your support for Issam most effective. Let’s show up in court in solidarity with Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat!
One day before the court hearing, join a Twitterstorm to publicize Issam’s case! Join us to tweet #SupportIssam on Thursday, 9 June at 5 pm British time, 6 pm central Europe, 7 pm Palestine time, 9 am Pacific, 12 noon Eastern! Get sample tweets at http://tinyurl.com/supportissam
TAKE ACTION:
Join a Twitterstorm to publicize Issam’s case! Join us to tweet #SupportIssam on Thursday, 9 June at 5 pm British time, 6 pm central Europe, 7 pm Palestine time, 9 am Pacific, 12 noon Eastern! Get sample tweets at http://tinyurl.com/supportissam
On Friday, 10 June at 10 am British time (11 am central Europe, 12 noon Palestine, 2 am Pacific time, 5 am Eastern time), the Supreme Court of Scotland in Edinburgh will hold a one-day hearing on the suspension of Issam’s license to practice medicine. Please write to us at samidoun@samidoun.net to receive the link to attend the virtual court hearing on Friday, 10 June. Note that during the court hearing, please keep your sound off and display your name, and do not make an audio or video recording of the hearing. Please make sure to abide by the rules of the court in order to make your support for Issam most effective.
Read below for more background on the case:
Who is Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat?
Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat is a Palestinian Scottish doctor facing persecution by the British state. He has been targeted for his commitment to international solidarity and as a political means of repressing both the Palestinian and Irish movements. He was held in British prisons for nearly 16 months and was released on bail, under heavy conditions, on 13 December 2021 after suffering a heart attack behind bars.
Alongside his fellow detainees, the Saoradh 9, he was detained in “Operation Arbacia,” a series of political arrests carried out by British authorities.
He was targeted by an MI5 infiltrator, Dennis McFadden, to attend a bugged meeting with members of Saoradh, an Irish republican socialist political party that advocates for an end to British colonialism and a united Ireland. He was detained on 22 August at Heathrow Airport on the same day that nine members of Saoradh were also arrested by British forces. His bail applications were repeatedly denied before his December 2021 release, despite serious health issues and the damaging effects of incarceration on his and his fellow detainees’ well-being.
Dr. Hijjawi Bassalat, 64, came to the UK in 1995 to work as a doctor, and he is a well-known, respected member of the Palestinian community in Scotland and the father of four. He previously served as chair of the Association of Palestinian Communities in Scotland (today, the Scottish Palestinian Society) and has been active throughout Europe in advocating for Palestinian rights to return, freedom and justice, speaking frequently at meetings, conferences and events.
Infiltration and MI5 Attacks
“Operation Arbacia” sprang from the decades-long infiltration of Irish republican movements by MI5 agent Dennis McFadden, detailed in a Channel 4 News report. Issam was entrapped into a meeting with McFadden on false pretenses after he was told by British officials that he had to pick up his daughter’s passport renewal in Belfast instead of Glasgow. There, he was invited to what was presented to him as a Saoradh meeting to discuss international solidarity and the Palestinian cause; he had previously spoken to a Saoradh Ard Fheis (annual meeting) about Palestine, an open, public event.
Under the emergency laws still in effect in the north of Ireland, his case will be heard by a judge without a jury.
He is charged with “preparatory acts of terrorism” under the 2006 Terrorism Act, based on his attendance at this meeting engineered by MI5. Issam’s solicitor, Gavin Booth, has seen the transcript of the meeting Issam was compelled to attend, noting that “Everything that’s contained within the transcripts and the recordings is about Palestine, is about peaceful and democratic change. There’s nothing in the transcripts from Dr Bassalat that would support violence in any way.” Despite these facts and the presumption of innocence that is supposed to apply, he was held on remand for nearly 16 months as his health deteriorated and his medical license was suspened.
Dr. Issam’s Health Crisis
Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat, Palestinian political prisoner in British jails and a medical doctor, suffered a heart attack inside Maghaberry prison on 9 October. The first judge to hear his renewed bail application after the heart attack said it was not an indication of “changed circumstances,” despite the risk to his life and well-being. It was not until months later that he finally won release.
These delays have added yet more time behind bars to a process in which Dr. Bassalat’s lawyer already declared that the evidence will take him at least 63 weeks to review before a trial could be possible. He already experienced surgery while imprisoned after a hunger strike and repeated protests to spur medical treatment for his injured spine. He did not receive adequate space and time for exercise and physical therapy after his surgery, due to his continued imprisonment.
As he appealed for human rights groups to address his case, Dr. Bassalat said in a statement that “all the might of the British Government” has been used against him, “a single individual [who] dared to challenge the British historic role in creating the Palestinian plight through the Balfour Declaration and the 30 years of the British Mandate in Palestine ending in al Nakba – the catastrophe of the Palestinians in 1948.”
Targeting Issam’s Bank Account and Medical License
In addition to his unjust imprisonment, Dr. Hijjawi Bassalat has suffered further injustice. During his detention, his medical care was initially delayed, and then after he finally received necessary surgery, he was denied pain relief and proper therapy. Despite his condition, he continued to be denied bail.
His bank account was frozen, denying him access to funds and creating even more inconvenience and trauma for his family — again, all while he ostensibly retains the presumption of innocence. Issam’s licence to practise medicine was suspended by the General Medical Council (GMC) on 26 October 2020 after the charges filed against him, despite the fact that he has been convicted of nothing and that the charges in no way relate to his fitness to practise medicine or his treatment of his patients.
Issam is being targeted as a Palestinian in an attempt to justify the MI5 infiltration of public political parties and to smear both the Palestinian and Irish struggles through entrapment and misrepresentation. The presumption of innocence is being cast aside for political gamesmanship. We urge the immediate release of all political prisoners, including the Saoradh 9, detained in British jails, and the dropping of all charges against Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat.
An original drawing and tanka poem by Fusako Shigenobu, on the cover of The Olive Tree Newsletter, №156. In October of 2021, 
Read below for more background on the case: