Saturday, October 5, 2024
Home Blog Page 86

16 January: Webinar – The Palestinian Cause, the Prisoners’ Movement and the Case of Ahmad Sa’adat

Join the webinar for the week of action to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners.

Sunday, January 16
12 pm Pacific – 3 pm Eastern – 9 pm Europe – 10 pm Palestine
Register to attend on Zoom: https://bit.ly/saadatevent
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1373940159708393

Hear from:
SAMIDOUN NETWORK on the struggle of Palestinian prisoners
KHALED BARAKAT, Palestinian writer and activist

This webinar will take place in English with French translation.

Ahmad Sa’adat is the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Palestinian national liberation movement leader and a symbol of the international left and revolutionary movements.

We will mark the 20th anniversary of Sa’adat’s arrest by the Palestinian Authority in the context of “security cooperation” with the Israeli occupation. After Israeli forces violently abducted him from the PA’s Jericho Prison, he was sentenced to 30 years in Israeli prison on 25 December 2008, accused of leading a prohibited organization and of “incitement.” The PFLP, like all Palestinian political parties and resistance organizations, is labeled a “prohibited organization” by the Israeli occupation authorities.

Sa’adat is a leader in the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the Palestinian national liberation movement and a Palestinian, Arab and international symbol of resistance to Zionism, capitalism, racism, apartheid and colonization. Targeted for his political role and clarity of vision, he remains unsilenced and unbroken, despite the oppression imposed upon him and 4,650 fellow Palestinian political prisoners.

On 15-22 January 2022, join our collective call for the freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners. Take action to escalate the boycott of Israel, end aid and support to Israel, organize for justice in Palestine and resist imperialism and colonialism.

Register to attend on Zoom: https://bit.ly/saadatevent

Georges Abdallah’s message to the International Week of Solidarity to Free Ahmad Sa’adat

Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine imprisoned in French jails for over 37 years, sent the following message to people participating in the international week of solidarity to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners. We invite all supporters of justice in Palestine to endorse the week of action and participate in the events scheduled around the world. To send us your event, email samidoun@samidoun.net.

Comrades and friends participating in the International Week of Solidarity with our comrade, the imprisoned leader Ahmed Sa’adat

Dear ones,

Twenty years have passed since the arrest of our leader, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Twenty years have passed since the deal of shame between the Palestinian Authority and the Zionist occupation authorities, under the auspices of the United States and Britain, which referred our comrade, the leader Ahmed Sa’adat, before a military court and imprisoned him in the Palestinian Authority prison of Jericho after a mock trial, with the responsibility of guarding this prison entrusted to an American-British force.

Twenty years have passed since the decision, deemed unconstitutional by the “Palestinian Supreme Court,” which, despite its powerlessness, ordered the immediate release of the captive leader, but the Palestinian Authority flouted the decision of the “Supreme Court” and was instead content with implementing the humiliating deal with the Zionist occupation authorities. And when the American-British force decided to give up the responsibility of guarding Jericho prison and withdrew in early March 2006, Mahmoud Abbas’ authority did not move a finger, nor did it release the Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and his fellow prisoners, leaving them to the occupation forces. On 14 March, the occupation forces stormed the prison, killing two martyrs and wounding twenty after an unequal confrontation between the Palestinian prisoners and guards on one side and the occupation forces on the other.

Twenty years, comrades, and the captive leader, Ahmed Saadat, and his fellow male and female prisoners, face all mechanisms of repression inside the prisons of the Zionists. Nevertheless, they act without a moment’s hesitation to take the appropriate decisions to push the movement of struggle forward. They strive to keep the flame of resistance going, despite all the obstacles, and serve as a beacon to the unity of the “social bloc” with a historical interest in revolution and liberation.

Twenty years of the most wonderful embodiment of the will to steadfastness! This represents the truest expression of adherence to the historical postulates of the masses of our committed people, to activate all energies for the sake of national unity, the necessary condition for accumulating initiatives of struggle in order to change the balance of power between the paths of the revolution and the miserable labyrinths of abject submersion in and around the treacherous negotiations, their “security coordination,” and the betrayal of the resistance fighters and the righteous martyrs.

Comrades, comrades!

Perhaps we can say that “security coordination” is the labyrinth of the path of “negotiations” with the occupier. Perhaps the arrest of our comrade, the captive leader, Ahmed Saadat, by the Palestinian Authority was the greatest of the achievements of “security coordination” between this sector that monopolizes the official Palestinian decision and the authorities of the Zionist entity. And now the importance of this “security coordination” is no longer a secret to anyone, not only for the Zionist entity, but even for all the reactionary bourgeois forces in Palestine and all over the Arab region.

In the end, the main goal of “security coordination” became, apart from the active role in suppressing all forms of resistance, especially armed ones in Palestine, to spread the “culture” of coordination, making it so that dealing with the enemy is no longer viewed as criminal and official normalization with the usurper and colonizer is simply one viewpoint among many. And within this approach, the “Palestinian Authority” and even some other Palestinian organizations condone the ongoing normalization processes between some Arab countries and “Israel.” Also, along this path we see the response of the “Palestinian Authority” to U.S. and Israeli pressures regarding support funds for the prisoners and the families of martyrs, and the measures taken against Gaza and its heroic population.

Within this framework, we also see the escalating repressive measures inside the Zionist prisons and the attacks upon the resisting people of Jenin, the assaults on the institutions working to defend the prisoners of the Palestinian revolution, and the children holding on to hot coals in the castles of dignity, our steadfast and heroic prisoners. The issue of their liberation, and not only solidarity with them despite its importance, must be placed at the top of any list of urgent tasks.

In this context, it is necessary to seriously consider how international solidarity can play its role in acting to liberate our fellow prisoners. Undoubtedly, the task of liberating the prisoners of the Palestinian revolution remains more than ever the gateway to building a comprehensive Arab resistance front to confront the crisis-ridden bourgeois regimes and imperialist propaganda.

Greetings and appreciation to the leaders of the Palestinian revolution, our steadfast and heroic prisoners, at the forefront of which is our comrade and leader Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Yes to building a comprehensive Arab resistance front to confront normalization in all forms!

Glory and eternity to the martyrs! Victory to the masses and the struggling peoples.

Down with imperialism and its agents, the Zionists and Arab reactionaries!

Best regards to all of you.

Your friend,

Georges Abdallah

15 January, Vancouver: Palestinian Liberation: A New Path Forward

Saturday, January 15
2:00 pm
Grandview Church, 1803 E. 1st Ave
Vancouver, BC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/209641671382697/

In November 2021, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path movement was formed at a conference in Madrid (and simultaneously in Beirut and Sao Paulo) that brought together Palestinian, Arab and international activists and organizations struggling for a free Palestine from the river to the sea.

Hear from Vancouver participants in the conference about the goals of the movement, next steps in organizing, and a vision of a liberated Palestine. Find out how you can get involved and take action.

Join us:
SATURDAY, JANUARY 15
2:00 PM
GRANDVIEW CHURCH, 1803 E. 1st Ave, VANCOUVER

Speakers: Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat; student organizer Hanan; Samidoun coordinator Charlotte Kates

This event is part of the International Week of Action to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners

Please note: All public health restrictions are in place, including capacity limits

To reserve a space: email vancouver@samidoun.net — you are welcome to just come to the door!

Events and Endorsers: Join the Week of Action to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners, 15-22 January 2022

Palestinian prisoners are resistance leaders, on the front lines for justice and liberation, enduring hunger strikes and struggling relentlessly with an unbreakable will toward freedom. Join Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and organizers for justice and liberation in Palestine around the world for the International Week of Action to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners, 15 January to 22 January 2022. 

Ahmad Sa’adat is the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Palestinian national liberation movement leader and a symbol of the international left and revolutionary movements.

On 15 January 2022, we will mark the 20th anniversary of Sa’adat’s arrest by the Palestinian Authority in the context of “security cooperation” with the Israeli occupation. After Israeli forces violently abducted him from the PA’s Jericho Prison, he was sentenced to 30 years in Israeli prison on 25 December 2008, accused of leading a prohibited organization and of “incitement.” The PFLP, like all Palestinian political parties and resistance organizations, is labeled a “prohibited organization” by the Israeli occupation authorities.

Sa’adat is a leader in the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the Palestinian national liberation movement and a Palestinian, Arab and international symbol of resistance to Zionism, capitalism, racism, apartheid and colonization. Targeted for his political role and clarity of vision, he remains unsilenced and unbroken, despite the oppression imposed upon him and 4,650 fellow Palestinian political prisoners.

On 15-22 January 2022, join our collective call for the freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners. Take action to escalate the boycott of Israel, end aid and support to Israel, organize for justice in Palestine and resist imperialism and colonialism.

EVENTS   ||  ENDORSERS  || CALL TO ACTION ||  ACTION ITEMS  || GRAPHICS  || RESOURCES

EVENTS

Organize your own event for the week of action! Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net to give us the time, date and details. Stay tuned for more announcements, including from Marseille and Tarbes!

Friday, 14 January

Paris
Demonstration for the liberation of Ahmad Sa’adat, Georges Abdallah and all Palestinian Prisoners
5:00 pm
Place Jean Ferrat – Metro 2 Menilmontant
Organized by the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/663303068178155/ 

Saturday, 15 January

Paris/Aubervilliers
Stand Palestine: Free Ahmad Sa’adat
10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Aubervilliers market, 25 rue Ferragus
Organized by Samidoun Région Parisienne
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/520542302405739/ 

Toulouse
Palestine Stand: Free Ahmad Sa’adat!
From 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Metro Capitole – Toulouse, France
Organized by Collectif Palestine Vaincra
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/487125332932047/

Gothenburg
Film screening – KOFIA: A Revolution Through Music
POSTPONED due to public health restrictions — check the ticketing site and FB for updates!
Tickets: https://kulturpunkten.nu/evenemang/kofia-a-revolution-through-music/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/233967842213835/ 

Vancouver
Panel: Palestinian Liberation – a New Path Forward
2:00 pm
1803 E 1st Ave
Vancouver, BC
Organized by Samidoun Vancouver, Palestinian Youth Movement, Canada Palestine Association, ILPS Canada, BDS Vancouver Coast Salish
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/209641671382697/ 

Sunday, 16 January

Berlin
Film Screening: Fedayin, Georges Abdallah’s Fight
6:15 pm
Ratiborstraße 14C, 10999 Berlin, Deutschland
Organized by Samidoun Deutschland
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/478608360356073/ 

Online Event
Webinar: The Palestinian Cause, the Prisoners’ Movement and the Case of Ahmad Sa’adat
12 pm Pacific, 3 pm Eastern, 9 pm central Europe, 10 pm Palestine
Register to join online: https://bit.ly/saadatevent
Organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1373940159708393/ 

Monday, 17 January

Berlin
Kundgebung: Freiheit für Georges Abdullah
Am 17.01.2022 um 15 Uhr
Französische Botschaft
Am Pariser Platz 5
10117 Berlin
Info: https://www.instagram.com/p/CYy0sBzsWRi/

Tuesday, 18 January

Manchester – Online Event
Free Palestinian Political Prisoners – film, discussion, fundraiser
7:30 pm British time (11:30 am Pacific, 2:30 pm Eastern, 8:30 pm Europe, 9:30 Palestine)
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/free-palestinian-political-prisoners-film-discussion-and-fundraiser-tickets-238647128987?fbclid=IwAR0UxiKemtBkuZ-zvyy-1R_TsWOP-64rdWBt0PLK2DQvWbu3uN2VTPP1Mzk
Organized by Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1165846640486121/ 

Wednesday, 19 January

Jersey City
Palestinian Prisoner Letter-writing Social
6:00 pm
Samia Grill, 680 NJ-440, Jersey City
Organized by Samidoun NY/NJ
More info: https://twitter.com/samidounnynj 

Thursday, 20 January

Marseille
Palestine Solidarity: Free all Palestinian Prisoners
6:00 pm
Préfecture des Bouches du Rhône
Marseille
Organized by Rouges Vifs / ANC 13 and PCF 13
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/325854319407399/ 

London
Picket for Palestine – Free Palestinian Prisoners!
6:30 pm
M&S
458 Oxford Street, London
Info: https://www.instagram.com/p/CY6rnsZoSaa/

Friday, 21 January

Athens
Rally to defend Al-Naqab
6:00 pm
Kapnikareas Square
Athens

Saturday, 22 January

Brooklyn/New York City
Speak out to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners!
2:00 pm
7114 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/606999367027932/ 

Vancouver
Rally and postering to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners
2:00 pm
Commercial/Broadway Skytrain Station, Vancouver
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1084097665709757/ 

Amsterdam
Stand for Palestine
12 pm to 4:00 pm
Plein ’40 – ’45
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Info: https://www.instagram.com/samidoun.nl/

London
Free Palestine Rolling Picket
1:00 pm
Ealing Broadway, W5
Meet Outside HSBC
Organized by West London FRFI
Info: https://www.instagram.com/p/CYydBvLou1B/

Milano
3:00 pm
Via Padova and Via Giacosa
Milano, Italy
Info: https://samidoun.net/it/2022/01/22-gennaio-milano-liberta-per-ahmad-saadat-e-tutti-i-prigionieri-palestinesi/

Canberra
2:00 pm
Garema Place, Civic
Canberra, Australia
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2021889451321806

Hamburg
3:00 pm
Bahnhof Altona (vor dem Mercado, Ottenser Hauptstraße 10)
Hamburg, Germany
Info: http://political-prisoners.net/hh-kundgebung-am-22-januar-2022-um-15-uhr-am-bahnhof-altona-vor-dem-mercado-ottenser-hauptstrasse-10/15608/

Tarbes
Rally for Palestinian prisoners
2:00 pm
outside the Mairie de Tarbes
Tarbes, France
Organized by Collectif 65 pour la libération de Georges Abdallah

Marseille
Screening of Fedayin and discussion with Collectif Palestine Vaincra
5:00 pm
26 rue d’Isoard Marseille (local JC)
Marseille, France
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/s/soiree-du-peuple-projection-de/297815745649789/

Sunday, 23 January

Stockholm
Film Screening: Fedayin, Georges Abdallah’s Fight
3:30 pm
Kafé 44,  Tjärhovsgatan 46, 116 28 Stockholm, Sweden
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/182672827385341/

Montreal
Protest to free Nasser Abu Hamid, Ahmad Sa’adat and Palestinian Prisoners
1:00 pm
Israeli Consulate/Consulat d’Israel Montreal
1 Westmount Square
Montreal, QC
Info: https://www.facebook.com/events/345793843763271

 

ENDORSERS

Your organizational endorsement is welcome! Click here to add your endorsement for the Week of Action.

FULL CALL TO ACTION

Sa’adat’s case represents the colonial nature of Israeli imprisonment that aims to target the legitimate leadership of the Palestinian people. His boycott of the Zionist military courts reflects his principled commitment to reject colonization in all forms. His case also reflects the role of imperialist powers like the United States, Britain and Canada, and the collusion of the Palestinian Authority and its “security coordination” regime in the oppression of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance.

While held in the PA’s Jericho Prison, Sa’adat and his comrades were held under U.S, British, Canadian and other foreign guards. Some of those same British guards previously served to guard Irish Republican prisoners in the occupied North of Ireland. After a violent Israeli attack, Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades are now serving lengthy sentences in Israeli prisons.

This is just one of the devastating consequences for Palestinians of the Madrid-Oslo path and the creation of the Palestinian Authority in the so-called “peace process” that has been in reality a project for the liquidation of the Palestinian liberation movement.

Join us to demand freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons. Prisoners of the Palestinian liberation movement continue to be held in international jails as well, especially Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed in France for 37 years despite being eligible for release since 1999; the Holy Land Foundation 5 in the U.S.; and Issam Hijjawi Bassalat in British jails; and we join the call for their liberation.

Also, just as Sa’adat was persecuted by the Israeli occupation for leading an “illegal organization”, the PFLP and other Palestinian resistance groups are listed in the U.S., Europe, Canada and elsewhere on so-called “terrorist lists”. These designations are used to criminalize resistance, much as the Palestinian prisoners are criminalized. Now, the Israeli occupation is attempting to use terror designations to suppress organizing and activism from grassroots organizations and civil society groups. “Terror” labels are used as a colonial weapon against resistance movements, and we affirm: Resistance is a right!

“The Palestinian struggle for national liberation is part and parcel of the international movement of peoples for national liberation, international racial and economic justice, and an end to occupation, colonialism and imperialism.” – Ahmad Sa’adat

Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea! 

Click here to endorse the week of action!

TAKE ACTION 

  1. Organize events, actions and protests to demand freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners! Protest in public squares, campuses and community spaces. Organize a Palestine Stand or a letter writing event to write to Sa’adat and his fellow Palestinian prisoners. Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net to inform us about your events or actions.
  2. Screen the film “Fedayin”, on the life and struggle of Georges Abdallah. Ahmad Sa’adat and Georges Abdallah are comrades who constantly salute each others’ struggles and maintain a political correspondence despite miles of distance and prison walls. To organize a screening, email samidoun@samidoun.net and vacarmesfilms@gmail.com
  3. #ShutElbitDown: Palestine Action won an important victory against British repression of the courageous activists who have confronted Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems with red paint and creative direct action. Elbit in Oldham is shutting down! Help support the campaign by organizing actions to #ShutElbitDown in your area. Learn more at https://palestineaction.com/
  4. Join the social media campaign. Post a photo or a video with a message calling for freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and his fellow Palestinian prisoners and the hashtag #FreeAhmadSaadat. You can use the posters below. Send us your photo by emailing us at samidoun@samidoun.net or contacting us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
  5. Boycott Israel! Ahmad Sa’adat says: “I call on all forces of progress, freedom and democracy to stand by the struggle of our people through all forms of boycott: political, economic, academic and cultural of the occupation state and the creation of a real economic cost for its industries of colonization and settlement and escalating the global campaigns for boycott of all corporations that support and invest in the occupation militarily and economically.” Don’t buy Israeli goods, and campaign to end investments in corporations that profit from the occupation. Join direct actions to challenge war profiteers and boycott complicit corporations like Puma and HP.

GRAPHICS

English: 

French:

Farsi:

Arabic:

Dutch: 

German:

Spanish:

Swedish:

Danish:

Portuguese:

Italian:

RESOURCES

Statements and Writings by Ahmad Sa’adat

Resources and Articles on Ahmad Sa’adat

Sixteen Palestinians detained in the occupied Naqab as they resist land confiscation and colonialism

Photo: Walid al-Abra/Arabs48

The occupied Naqab of Palestine is rising up to reject the colonial plans of the occupation, with the launch of a general strike in the villages of the occupied Naqab to protest against village and home demolitions.

Occupation forces attacked Palestinian protesters in the southern part of occupied Palestine, in the Naqab. Palestinians are striking to reject the Israeli occupation’s plan for ongoing ethnic cleansing and forced Judaization of the area.

Occupation forces razed a tent as heavily armed Israeli police forces surrounded the villages of Al-Atrash and Al-Ruwais, preventing residents from entering the area. The police protected bulldozers and the KKF (Jewish National Fund), which began bulldozing the land for the second consecutive day.

The continuing attacks against the people of the Naqab and their land are part of the ongoing Zionist colonial plans for ethnic cleansing and an attempt to erase the Palestinian presence, as the Israeli regime views the Naqab as a strategic location for its colonial projects. Indeed, members of the Likud party arrived at the area where the land was being razed, making clear the intention of the project. The politicians present included former ministers, war criminal Avi Dichter and Miri Regev, known for her frequent anti-Palestinian incitement and attacks on Palestinian cultural institutions. Dichter planted the first tree in the razed area, as a symbol of the seizure of the land.

Palestinian youth have risen up in recent days against the Israeli occupation police in order to confront the scheme aiming at the confiscation of 800,000 to 1 million dunums of land in the Naqab. The ongoing colonization throughout occupied Palestine is reflected in these crimes against Palestinians in the Naqab, including demolitions and forced transfer.

There is no infrastructure in the Naqab area, no hospitals or institutions, and the children of the Naqab walk dozens of kilometers daily to reach their schools. The Zionist government is racing against time to consolidate the Judaization and militarization plan for the Naqab, attracting and recruiting Jewish colonial settlers to settle on the lands plundered from Palestinian villages, which have been stripped of recognition, displacing their residents and gathering them on the smallest possible area of land, while the residents of the “fence” area in the Naqab face a further danger of displacement.

The number of the Arab Bedouin population in the Naqab before the Palestinian Nakba, perpetrated by Zionist armed forces in 1947-48 was approximately 90,000, and they were organized into 95 tribes. Most of the Bedouins in the Naqab were expelled during and after the Nakba in 1948 and became refugees in the surrounding Arab countries and in Palestinian areas that were not occupied by Israel in 1948. Therefore, only 11,000 people remained in the Negev in 1952.

As of today, a general strike called in the villages of Naqa’ Bir al-Saba, al-Atrash and Khirbet al-Watan schools began, while a sit-in was set up on the lands to be demolished. The school strike expanded to include the villages of al-Atrash, Sa’wa, Bir Hadaj, al-Zarnouk, al-Ruwais and Khirbet al-Watan.

At the same time they announced a series of measures of struggle, including a strike in some villages and a mass demonstration next Thursday.

At this moment there are already 16 Palestinian resisters arrested in the Naqab today, 11 January, by the occupation forces, of whom several are minor children and three are women.

 

 

Palestinian prisoner Nasser Abu Hmaid’s life at risk in intensive care: Freedom now!

Palestinian prisoner Nasser Abu Hmaid is in a coma fighting lung cancer as he remains separated from his loved ones. Abu Hmaid has been held in intensive care in Barzilai hospital for four days. However, his health condition has been deteriorating for a long period of time, while the Israeli occupation refused to transfer him to a civilian hospital. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network demands the immediate release of Nasser Abu Hmaid and full accountability for the ongoing and systematic policy of medical neglect that threatens the lives of imprisoned Palestinian strugglers.

Abu Hmaid. 49, is sentenced to 7 life sentences and 50 years in Israeli prisons; his four brothers, Nasr, Sharif and Mohammed, were arrested with him in 2002, while his fifth brother, Islam, was arrested in 2018. All are serving life sentences for their participation in the resistance to Israeli occupation and Zionist colonialism throughout Palestine. Their sixth brother, Abdel-Moneim Abu Hmaid, was assassinated by Israeli occupation special forces on 31 May 1994.

The Abu Hmaid family, Palestinian refugees from al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah, have been for years a symbol of Palestinian resistance and sacrifice; their home was demolished by the Israeli occupation on five separate occasions as an act of collective punishment and rebuilt each time. Their mother was denied family visits for many years by the Israeli occupation. Abu Hmaid’s mother and siblings have spoken out repeatedly and regularly participate in all activities in defense of Palestinian prisoners and their liberation.

Not only is Nasser Abu Hmaid fighting lung cancer; his lungs shut down due to a bacterial infection, acute inflammation and pneumonia. Last October, he received surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in his lung; however, he was returned to prison before he could fully recover. Palestinian prisoners’ associations report that his access to regular chemotherapy was postponed on multiple occasions since that time. After his surgery, his condition worsened instead of improving.

Today, Abu Hmaid is in a coma, on a ventilator, as he struggles to survive. His family and lawyers have repeatedly noted that up-to-date medical reports are not available, and both his family members and lawyers have been barred from seeing him in the hospital, even as he remains unconscious. His imprisoned brothers have been given little to no information about his situation.

His family point to ongoing medical neglect in Abu Hmaid’s case. His lung cancer was only detected in August 2021 despite already reaching an advanced stage. The surgical procedure was delayed until October, when he received surgery due to the protests of his fellow prisoners and legal organizations.

Protests and solidarity tents have been set up throughout occupied Palestine to support Abu Hmaid throughout occupied Palestine, even as his mother was herself hospitalized in Ramallah on 10 January due to the ongoing trauma of the situation. These demonstrations are demanding Abu Hmaid’s immediate release and that of all of the sick and elderly prisoners being denied proper medical care and connection with their loved ones behind the bars of the Israeli occupation.

Palestinian prisoners have repeatedly denounced a systematic policy of medical neglect by the Israeli occupation against them behind bars. At least 73 of the 227 Palestinians who have lost their lives behind Israeli bars suffered from medical neglect and negligence. There are over 500 sick prisoners among the 4,500 Palestinians jailed in Israeli occupation prisons. These include 200 prisoners with chronic illnesses, at least 10 with active cancer and 85 with a number of serious disabilities and illnesses. 25 Palestinian political prisoners with particularly severe illnesses are held in the Ramle prison clinic, notorious among imprisoned Palestinians for its poor care.

Medical neglect includes the denial of regular medical checkups, delay of treatment or testing, being provided with painkillers instead of proper treatment, poor sanitary conditions and overcrowding in the prisons, infestation with insects and rodents in the prisons, transfers on the “bosta” rather than in ambulances or medical vehicles, lack of supports or medical equipment for prisoners with disabilities, and other forms of mistreatment. Women prisoners are not provided with access to specialized gynecological care. All of these are practiced as a standard policy of the Israeli occupation, amounting to another form of physical and psychological ongoing torture against Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, Israeli occupation prison authorities have a responsibility to provide proper health care without discrimination, to provide suitable premises and access to qualified medical professionals. However, the Israeli prison system, part of the mechanisms of the colonial occupation that aims to suppress and break the Palestinian resistance, violates these responsibilities as a matter of course.

The case of Nasser Abu Hmaid and his fellow ill prisoners is not only a humanitarian outrage but an example of the ongoing attempts to criminalize and isolate the Palestinian resistance through all forms of repression and violence. The “policy of slow death” or “slow killing” through medical negligence is a systemic practice that has been repeatedly identified by the Palestinian prisoners’ movement as a key target of struggle.

Abu Hmaid became active in the great Palestinian intifada of 1987. He joined groups of youth confronting occupation soldiers and settlers. Arrested in 1990 by the Israeli occupation, he was sentenced to life imprisonment before being released in 1994 after the signing of the Cairo Agreement. He continued to resist Israeli colonialism and, along with his brothers, participate actively in the armed resistance and was arrested with his brothers once again in 2002. He was a leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the armed organization of the Fateh movement, in the occupied West Bank of Palestine.

During his time in the occupation prisons, he has repeatedly participated in collective hunger strikes and protest actions in defense of his fellow Palestinian prisoners. His words from the 2017 collective hunger strike continue to reverberate: “We are still pounding on the cell doors, loudly shouting, chanting and defying the jailer, his brutality and criminality. We still breathe freedom and pride. We walk to death smiling, and we sit on a black blanket, all they left us, around a glass of water and a pinch of salt. We sing for the homeland and for the coming spring of victory. Do not ask about our bodies, for they betrayed us and collapsed for days. As for our souls and our will, we assure you that they are fine, steadfast as the rock in Ebal and Galilee. We took an oath to continue until victory or martyrdom, the path to freedom and independence.”

Nasser Abu Hmaid is among 4,600 Palestinian political prisoners resisting on the front lines for justice and liberation, struggling relentlessly with an unbreakable will toward freedom. We urge all supporters of Palestine to take action to call for freedom for Abu Hmaid and all Palestinian prisoners, especially the ill prisoners who continue to face systemic medical neglect and “slow killing.”

Join Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and organizers for justice and liberation in Palestine around the world for the International Week of Action to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners, 15 January to 22 January 2022. 

  1. Organize events, actions and protests to demand freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat, Nasser Abu Hmaid and all Palestinian prisoners! Protest in public squares, campuses and community spaces for the Palestinian prisoners. Organize a Palestine Stand or a letter writing event to write to Sa’adat and his fellow Palestinian prisoners  Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net to inform us about your events or actions.
  2. Boycott Israel! Ahmad Sa’adat says: “I call on all forces of progress, freedom and democracy to stand by the struggle of our people through all forms of boycott: political, economic, academic and cultural of the occupation state and the creation of a real economic cost for its industries of colonization and settlement and escalating the global campaigns for boycott of all corporations that support and invest in the occupation militarily and economically.” Don’t buy Israeli goods, and campaign to end investments in corporations that profit from the occupation. Join direct actions to challenge war profiteers and boycott complicit corporations like Puma and HP.

Five Palestinian student leaders at Birzeit University seized by Israeli occupation forces

UPDATE as of 10 am Pacific time, 10 January: Abdel-Hafez Sharabati and Waleed Harazneh were released; Mohammed Khatib, Ismail Barghouthi and Qassem Nakhleh remain imprisoned. Free all Palestinian students! 

Israeli occupation forces arrested five Palestinian student leaders outside the East Gate of the Birzeit University campus on Monday, 10 January 2022, sparking protest and outrage at the ongoing attacks on Palestinian student life. Occupation special forces violently stormed the campus with a combined force of undercover/disguised units carrying handguns and fully armed soldiers, opening fire on Palestinian students with live ammunition. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges student organizations and supporters of Palestine everywhere to organize, take action and campaign to free these five students and the hundreds of Palestinian students jailed by the Israeli occupation.

They seized five student leaders: Ismail Barghouthi, coordinator of the Islamic Bloc; Waleed Harazneh, coordinator of the Student Unity Bloc; Abdel-Hafez Sharabati, coordinator of the Progressive Student Union; Mohammed Khatib, representing the Progressive Democratic Student Pole (al Qutob); and Qassem Nakhleh, also of the Islamic Bloc.

Occupation forces came up behind the students as they were arriving at the university and opened fire on them before shoving them to the ground. The disguised soldiers drove what appeared to be a van delivering goods, while soldiers in full gear were concealed in the rear of the van. Ismail Barghouthi was shot in the thigh and taken to the hospital, and Qassem Nakhleh and Abdel-Hafez Sharabati were also injured by the colonialist soldiers’ violent assault.

All five student leaders have been part of the ongoing student mobilizations and protests challenging the university administration over its investigation and sanctioning of Palestinian student leaders and organizations for organizing and participating in campus events in December 2021 in support of the Palestinian resistance.

The university was closed for classes today due to the ongoing student protests demanding changes from the university administration and an end to policies of subservience to the demands of the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian Authority — via “security coordination” — to clamp down on student activism and organizing on campus.

All five of the arrested students are part of the leadership of the student movement. Today, they were specifically heading to campus in order to meet with the Workers’ Union at Birzeit University to discuss the ongoing protests and calls for action. Instead of holding this meeting between the student blocs and the university workers, the student leaders were fired on with live ammunition, injured and seized by Israeli occupation forces.

They traveled together to the university as they had just departed from the solidarity sit-in in Ramallah in support of Palestinian prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid, currently in a coma due to advanced cancer and dying in an Israeli occupation hospital.

The arrests of the five student leaders have sparked outrage at the ongoing policy of the Israeli occupation to attack and suppress Palestinian student organizing, and also at the Birzeit University administration and the Palestinian Authority. The PA’s role in “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation has included widespread recent arrests of Palestinian students, during which they were subjected to torture and questioned about their role in the student movement at Birzeit.

By sanctioning student leaders and bringing them before a special committee for potential discipline after the organizing of Palestinian national events on campus, Birzeit University administration has also been complicit in the criminalization and repression of the students, noted Palestinian student blocs following the arrests. While the university condemned the attack on its campus, the comments below its statement on social media repeatedly noted that the university had failed in its obligation to protect the students and support their rights.

Student blocs demanded that the university implement the demands of the student movement to support Palestinian national organizing on campus and to stop the investigatory committees against student leaders in order to take a clear position against these occupation attacks. The Islamic Bloc noted that the student movement is committed to standing firm against all attempts to weaken the university as a site of Palestinian struggle, by the occupation itself and by those acting in subordination to the demands of the Israeli regime.

Students are currently demonstrating outside the gates of the university and have called for a protest on Tuesday, 11 January in support of the student movement and to free the imprisoned student leaders.

Hundreds of Palestinian university students are detained by the Israeli occupation. At Birzeit University alone, 55 students were arrested in 2021 and there are 66 students currently held in Israeli occupation prisons, including 8 held without charge or trial under administrative detention. They are among over 4,500 total Palestinian political prisoners jailed by the Israeli occupation regime.

The #FreePalestinianStudents campaign mobilizes over 300 organizations around the world to defend Palestinian students from political imprisonment and demand their freedom.

We join together to call for action and support for Palestinian students behind bars, including: 

  • Boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, including Israeli academic institutions, which are fully complicit in the systematic deprivation of Palestinian rights.
  • Ending all military and economic aid, military transactions, joint projects and direct funding to the Israeli occupation regime by governments around the world.
  • Challenging “normalization” programs that aim to legitimize Israeli occupation — this is an attempt to legitimize the criminalization and targeting of Palestinian students.
  • Organizing to build direct links of solidarity with Palestinian students and the Palestinian student movement, to ensure that they will not be isolated from their global community of support despite all attempts by the Israeli occupation.

#ShutElbitDown Victory: Israeli arms maker sells off Oldham facilities

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Palestine Action and all the campaigners who have bravely taken direct action to confront Elbit in Oldham, who have brought about this victory and ensured that this Israeli arms factory will no longer be manufacturing weapons of death in Oldham.

This victory speaks to the successful nature of strong direct action to impose a meaningful and material cost upon the profiteers of the colonization of Palestine and Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people. Palestine Action has pledged to continue and escalate the actions to #ShutElbitDown, and this victory can and must inspire people around the world to intensify our actions to boycott Israel and shut down the merchants of death marketing weaponry “battle-tested” on Palestinians. 

We are republishing the full statement of Palestine Action below:

After 18 months of sustained direct action taken at the Elbit Ferranti site in Oldham, Greater Manchester, with 36 people arrested, Elbit have now sold Ferranti technologies, with its continued operation in Oldham appearing unfeasible. Activists have occupied, blockaded, smashed, disrupted, and protested regularly at the site, ultimately succeeding in ending the factory’s production of specialist military technologies for Israel’s fleet of combat drones.

In December 2021, anonymous sources revealed to Palestine Action that mass redundancy notices had been issued to staff working at the factory, and that premises were being cleared in preparation for Elbit leaving the site. Today, it was publicised that Ferranti has indeed been sold to TT Electronics, a British electronics firm. This major restructuring – selling a subsidiary which Elbit has consistently promoted as a success and which has helped Elbit to land multi-million pound contracts with the British government – suggests that Elbit is under significant pressure to tighten its UK operations. This is most likely due to the impossibility of continuing at the often-occupied site, the massive financial impact of occupations, and an attempt to avoid more bad publicity.

Early in 2021, Elbit attempted to make the Oldham factory a viable production site by improving security. Elbit increased spending massively for round-the-clock security, and also benefitted from a rapid police response for protestor removal. Neither of these measures succeeded in keeping out activists, with the site continuing to be targetted regularly.

The first action taken in Oldham by Palestine Action, in late August 2020, involved spraying premises in blood-red paint, symbolising the Palestinian bloodshed made possible with Elbit Ferranti technologies. Following this, actions accelerated. Windows were smashed in an occupation in November 2020, while an action taken in collaboration with XR North in February 2021 caused over £20,000 in damages. In April 2021, activists not only occupied the site but gained entry to the factoy, smashing the roof, windows, air vents, and undermining future operations by covering equipment and computers in red paint – over £100,000 of damages were caused, and the site remained shut for well over a week. On July 5th, three activists gained entry to the site, allegedly causing £500,000 of damage and closing the factory for a number of weeks. More recently, in August of this year, activists blockaded the factory – blocking roads with vehcles and locking onto gates – and occupied the factory itself again. There have been a number of other actions taken at the Oldham site, with the factory forced to closed for a significant number of weeks in total due to damage caused.

The site has also been subject to regular protests called by Oldham Peace and Justice and Manchester Palestine Action, with large crowds gathering outside the factory on a weekly basis since the massive and brutal bombardments of Gaza by Israel in May. Sustained pressure, through both protests and an extended campaign of effective direct action, has generated immense challenges for Elbit, who have now sold the subsidiary and left the site.

A Palestine Action spokesperson has stated:

“The sale of Ferranti and the closure of the Oldham factory is a huge victory for the movement. So far, our actions have undermined and disrupted operations – but this news vindicates our long-term strategy. Direct action works – the brave individuals who occupied the factory over the past year can proudly say that drone technologies are no longer in production in Oldham. But its not enough that just one of these death-factories shuts down. We want to see Elbit itself shut down for good, and all of their businesses forced out of Britain – we will keep escalating our actions until that happens.”

This site had been targetted due to the crimes committed against Palestinian civilians using Elbit Ferranti products. The Oldham factory was used for the manufacture of specialist military products and technology, including the SkEyepersistent surveillance system aboard Elbit’s Hermes 450 and 900 drones. Ferranti also manufacture the SpectroXR ultra long-range imaging system for Hermes drones. Hermes drones have been used extensively by Israel in bombardments of Gaza, notably during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 in which over 2,200 Palestinians were killed, including 526 children. The site was also used for the production of IronVision helmets for use in battle tanks such as the Carmel – specficially designed for operations in densely built urban areas, such as Gaza.

 

Samidoun marches in Rosa Luxemburg/Karl Liebknecht memorial demonstration in Berlin

On 9 January 2022, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network marched in the Luxemburg-Liebknecht demonstration in Berlin (also known as the Liebknecht-Luxemburg-Lenin Demo). The annual march brings together revolutionary leftists throughout Germany and parts of Europe to commemorate the assassination of communist revolutionary leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht 103 years ago.

Photo: Redmediakollektiv

Samidoun marched in a bloc of dozens of participants with comrades in the Freedom Network for Political Prisoners and Grup Yorum, calling for solidarity and liberation for all revolutionary prisoners around the world and showing solidarity with Grup Yorum, facing persecution and repression for their music of struggle. The bloc further stood with the Palestinian people in the struggle against Zionism, imperialism and reactionary forces.

Around 2,400 people from many different political organizations participated in the march, which proceeds to the cemetery where Luxemburg and Liebknecht are buried, and red flowers are laid on their graves. The annual event is highly internationalist, with widespread participation from German, European, Turkish, Kurdish and other international communist organizations and parties.

The Samidoun contingent carried Palestinian flags, Samidoun banners and a large banner reading “Boycott Israel: Free Palestine from the river to the sea.” They also invited attendees to participate in an upcoming screening of “Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight,” the film focusing on the life in struggle of Lebanese Arab Communist Georges Abdallah, jailed in France for over 37 years.

The Samidoun statement for the demonstration follows:

We stand today in honor of the workers in struggle throughout the years, who carried the banners of revolution in their era, and in honor of those who suffered and struggled inside the prisons and miserable cells, for the martyrs of the cause of justice everywhere. We carry the message of over 5,000 Palestinian prisoners who are paying the price for the end of colonialism, our prisoners who sleep on the ground of the cells and make their ceilings a sky of freedom. From Palestine and from the harsh refugee camps to here in Germany, we carry forward our dream of revolution and liberation.

We stand with those who struggle for freedom against reactionary forces, imperialism, Zionism and colonialism. We direct our message to them and to the whole world that our common struggle against imperialism is the recipe for inevitable victory; our united revolutionary cause is the path to liberation and return.

Our hope for a liberated world and a clear sky of freedom today places us in the position to take joint action. Imperialism attacks the people around the world and Zionism confiscates our lives in an attempt to kill the hope of revolution inside us. A hundred years have passed, and the Palestinian people are still fighting and willing to sacrifice for freedom. We believe in the inevitability of victory and return to Palestine from the river to the sea, and there can be no just peace in the world without our victory, our return and the defeat of colonialism.

Photo: Redmediakollektiv

There is no freedom without a united confrontation everywhere against forces of reaction, imperialism and colonialism. The freedom of the peoples is all of our duty, and unless we unite our ranks today, the journey of our revolution will be much longer.

Freedom for Palestine! Freedom for all revolutionary prisoners!

Toulouse city council opposition denounces Toulouse town hall’s attempt to censor solidarity with Palestine

For several years, the municipal majority in Toulouse has been escalating  its positions in support of Israeli apartheid. In this context, the mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc, has made multiple attacks on the activities of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, asking for the ban of our Palestine Stands or gatherings organized alongside many associations for justice in Palestine. The Collectif Palestine Vaincra is a member organization of the Samidoun Network.

Faced with these attacks on the rights to demonstrate and freedom of expression, several officials from the municipal opposition parties expressed their indignation at the threats of the Toulouse municipality against Palestine activism in the city.

In a press release published on 4 January, the Groupe Alternative pour une Métropole Citoyenne – Ville Toulouse affirmed:  “Article 100 of the Constitution provides that ‘freedom of expression, including the right to obtain, retain and to distribute information and to express opinions, is guaranteed to all.’ This is why we are contesting the Toulouse town hall’s right to set itself up as a censor.” It goes on to note: “The boycott of a state is a mode of action that has borne fruit, as was the case with South Africa during apartheid. “ This opposition group brings together elected representatives Agathe Roby, Maxime Le Texier, Aymeric Deheurles, Jamal El Arch, Caroline Honvault, Odile Maurin and François Piquemal.

In addition, the opposition municipal councillor Odile Maurin published a tweet on 21 December declaring: “Let’s boycott Israel as we once did South Africa, while denouncing and fighting against anti-Semitism: let’s not mix everything up!”

For his part, the elected city councillor Jamal El Arch also published a supportive tweet denouncing the attacks on freedom of expression on the part of the municipal majority, recalling that “Maxime Boyer [deputy mayor of Toulouse] seems to forget freedom of expression in attacking the Collectif Palestine Vaincra. For the AMC Group, this principle is one of the fundamentals of legally guaranteed democracy. Boycotting a state is a mode of action against apartheid.”

The Collectif Palestine Vaincra welcomes these positions in defense of freedom of expression and the right to boycott Israel and confront colonialism, racism and apartheid.

Source: Collectif Palestine Vaincra

1...858687...677Page 86 of 677

Follow us on Instagram @samidounnetwork

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Contact us: samidoun@samidoun.net
Unless otherwise stated, all content by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them.