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Tuesday, July 1, 2025
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Samidoun in the Paris Region organizes to #BoycottPuma and confront state racism in France

On the morning of Saturday, 12 February, Samidoun Région Parisienne organized a solidarity Palestine stand during the Aubervilliers market in the suburb of Paris, France. The stand this month was organized as part of the global call to boycott PUMA, the German sportswear brand that sponsors the Israel Football Association. The IFA is an institution rooted in Zionist colonialism that even includes six teams in illegal colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank of Palestine.

Through its sponsorship of the IFA, PUMA participates in the sportswashing of Israeli apartheid. Among the teams it sponsors are these six settlement teams as well as Beitar Jerusalem, known for its refusal to recruit Arab Palestinian players and the supremacist chants and songs of its fans and supporters. Through its sponsorship of colonialism and apartheid, PUMA is complicit in these policies just as Zionist colonialim is expanding its attacks in the Naqab, Jerusalem and throughout occupied Palestine.

Members and supporters of Samidoun distributed flyers for two hours, hearing many expressions of solidarity with Palestine and expressions of disapproval and distaste for PUMA’s sponsorship of these apartheid policies. As in the previous action for the release of Ahmad Sa’adat, many people showed solidarity by taking photos calling for the boycott of PUMA.

After the Palestine stand, activists and supporters of Samidoun then went to the anti-racist march organized by the La Vérité Pour Adama collective. State-sponsored racism, which is a constant and violent presence in working-class neighborhoods in France, draws its source from France’s colonial reality. We joined the rally and march underlining our resolute commitment to anti-racism and anti-colonialism.

On this occasion, Assa Traoré, anti-racist organizer and the sister of Adama Traoré, killed in French police custody in 2016, reaffirmed her support for the Lebanese communist and Palestinian resistance fighter Georges Abdallah, imprisoned in France for more than 37 years.

https://twitter.com/FreeGIAbdallah/status/1492604359158423552

Samidoun Région Parisienne plans to organize stalls regularly at the Aubervilliers market and other actions for Palestine. Do not hesitate to contact us by email or on our various social networks (Facebook , Twitter and Instagram) if you wish to participate!

 

#BoycottPuma campaign receives widespread support in central Toulouse

On Saturday, 12 February, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra organized a Palestine Stand in the heart of downtown Toulouse, France, as part of the international day of action to boycott PUMA. The German athletic wear brand is the sponsor of the Israel Football Association, which includes six teams in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank of Palestine.

A broad global campaign is demanding a boycott of the company so long as it maintains this economic sponsorship and political support of Israeli apartheid, occupation and colonialism.

https://twitter.com/CollectifPV/status/1492438079826767880

For over two hours, activists displayed a banner with the slogan: “Boycott PUMA: Red card for the sponsors of Israeli apartheid football teams” along with Palestinian flags and banners. A large information table offered free stickers, flyers and leaflets as well as the #Palestine2022 campaign petition, signed by over 70 people. Participants distributed over 1,000 flyers, educating passers-by about PUMA’s complicity with Zionist colonialism. Hundreds of people expressed that they would never buy PUMA brand products again.

Dozens of people showed their support for the campaign by taking solidarity photos with the demand to boycott PUMA. By building and intensifying this mobilization, we can make clear that PUMA’s sponsorship of Israeli apartheid is not welcome!

Every month, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra organizes stands in different parts of the city to support campaigns for the Palestinian people and their resistance for the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. Contact the Collectif to get involved, or reach out to Samidoun Network to get involved in your local area outside of France.

 

Justice for Palestine in Germany! Support Khaled Barakat’s Legal Case

The case of Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat will be heard in a German court on 11 March 2022. Barakat is fighting back against the Berlin immigration office’s imposition of a political ban on him, barring him from participating in political and social events and activities, and their order that he be expelled from the country for four years. Barakat was deported from Germany in August 2019, and has appealed the action of the immigration office. Click here to make a donation to support this important legal battle.

Khaled Barakat’s case is not only an individual case of repression. It is part of the systematic attack on Palestinian organizing, political expression and thought in Germany. Germany is home to one of the largest Palestinian communities in Europe, but its official policies not only provide support to the Israeli colonization of Palestine but also harshly target Palestinian and pro-Palestinian expression inside Germany.

Since Barakat’s expulsion, multiple Palestinians in Germany have been subjected to similar actions by the immigration office, targeting public or even private political expression in support of Palestinian rights. Palestinian and pro-Palestinian academics continue to face systematic attempts to silence them and strip them of access to public space. Most recently, Deutsche Welle – the German state broadcasting agency – has fired Palestinian and Arab journalists based on their social media posts about Palestine or opposition to the threats to freedom of expression in Europe.

There have been important victories when people fight back in court! Most recently, Germany’s highest administrative court ruled that the city of Munich could not deny public space to groups for programs because they advocate for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. The Humboldt 3 fought back and won against attempts to criminalize them for protesting against an Israeli official at the Berlin university.

Now, after nearly three years, Khaled Barakat’s case is going to court in Germany. Please help support this important effort to fight back against political repression. We must pay for legal fees, translation and court expenses. Click here to make a donation. All funds raised in excess of what is needed for this case will go to support other Palestinians and activists for Palestine facing similar repressive immigration cases.

Learn more about the case:

Who is Khaled Barakat?

Khaled Barakat is a Palestinian writer and activist whose writings have been widely published in English and Arabic. He describes why he was targeted:

“The main reason that the German authorities took this decision of banning me for four years from entering Germany is to silence and suppress the Palestinian and Arab communities inside Germany more broadly. This case began with the confiscation of the right to speak, with the political ban on my speech at the event on June 22, 2019, shutting down an event that was organized by three Arab community organizations. My planned speech at this event was a discussion of Trump’s so-called “deal of the century,” and they found it so unacceptable that I would address this, that they sent the police to prevent it from happening.

This began as an attack on speech and expression, and it remains an attack on speech and expression. Germany is attempting to create an “example” of me, to show that those who oppose Israeli policies and the German political position in support of the occupier and the colonizer, will be subjected to silencing and repression. They do not want Israel – or Germany – to face this type of open criticism.”

Read more about the case:

Watch this video from Redfish to learn more about the case:

What other cases of anti-Palestinian racism are taking place in Germany?

In the three years since the political ban on Barakat, anti-Palestinian racism and repression has only continued to grow. Several other Palestinians were delivered similar immigration notices, denying their visas or seeking to exclude them from the country for attending demonstrations or meetings in support of Palestine. Most recently, Arab and Palestinian journalists from Deutsche Welle were fired because of social media posts on Palestine.

This attack on freedom of expression comes alongside:

Legal action has won some important victories in Germany’s administrative courts, and this case is important to pushing back against the escalating attempts to silence the Palestinian community and people who stand for justice in Palestine.

How can you support?

1. Make a donation to support the legal expenses of fighting back! After nearly three years, Khaled Barakat’s case is going to court in Germany. Please help support this important effort to fight back against political repression. We must pay for legal fees, translation and court expenses.Click here to make a donation. All funds raised in excess of what is needed for this case will go to support other Palestinians and activists for Palestine facing similar repressive immigration cases.

2. Support Palestinian rights in Germany with a statement, picket or action. Write a statement from your organization about these cases and share the appeal with your members. Raise these issues at demonstrations for justice in your community, or protest at a German embassy or consulate.  Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net or contact us on Facebook about your statement, event or action.

3. Call the German embassy or consulate in your area and speak up about the ongoing attack on Palestinian rights in Germany. Use this link to find the German embassy or consulate in your area! For easy reference, the German embassy in the US can be reached at +1 (202) 298-4000; the German embassy in Canada at +1 (613) 232 1101; and the German embassy to the UK at +44 20 78 24 13 00. Find the German embassy or consulate near you at: https://embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-of/germany

When you call, say, “My name is _____ and I am calling from _____. I am calling about the ongoing attacks on advocacy for justice in Palestine in Germany. In particular, the political ban and expulsion of Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat in Berlin. His case will be in court on 11 March in Berlin, and Germany’s actions are  clearly undemocratic and a direct violation of fundamental human rights. Palestinians must have the right to speak.”

4. Write a letter to the German embassy or consulate in your area on behalf of yourself or your organization against the repression and deportation of Khaled Barakat and in support of Palestinian rights. Here is a quick sample letter that you can use or adapt as you wish:

Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany
ADDRESS

To whom it may concern;

We are writing to express our deepest concern about the ongoing repression of Palestinian rights and advocacy in Germany. We are very concerned that a police state atmosphere is being developed to silence Palestinian activism, an atmosphere that reflects racism, repression and discrimination.

We are particularly concerned about the case of Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat, which will be heard in court in Berlin on 11 March. The allegations against his speeches and writings are false and inaccurate; his writings challenge colonialism and injustice and present a vision of universal justice and liberation. For this, he was subjected to a political ban and deported from Germany for four years.

Once again, we are appalled by the ongoing silencing and suppression being directed at Palestinians and advocates for Palestine in Germany, and we see that fundamental human rights are at risk and already being violated.

Further, we also urge the Federal Republic of Germany to uphold human rights in international forums and take meaningful action to stop ongoing Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people, including supporting a military embargo on Israel.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXX

A list of German embassies and consulates is available here: https://embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-of/germany

5. Take an individual or group photo or video with the campaign poster (below), make your own sign and share on social media! Tag us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to show us your solidarity with Khaled Barakat and support for Palestinian rights!

You can show your solidarity with the graphics below! Print the signs and posters and bring them to a demonstration, or take a selfie and post on social media. You can use the cover photo on your Facebook or elsewhere to show your support for Khaled Barakat and your opposition to the escalating attempts to criminalize support for justice in Palestine in Germany and around the world. Download the images below:

Poster: (download at full size)

Social media cover or banner image (download here)


List of organizations and statements in support of Khaled Barakat (under construction)

Here are some of the solidarity statements we have received, as well as articles covering the situation:

French administrative court refuses to order expulsion of Georges Abdallah: Continue the struggle for freedom!

We republish the following statement of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra in response to the ruling of a French administrative court, which rejected a legal request to order the expulsion of Georges Abdallah from France to Lebanon. Abdallah, a Lebanese Arab Communist struggler for Palestine, has been imprisoned in France for over 37 years. The struggle continues for the liberation of Georges and all Palestinian prisoners! 

Today, Thursday 10 February, the Administrative Court of Paris rendered its judgment and rejected the request to order the expulsion of Georges Abdallah from French territory. This appeal was filed more than a year ago by Abdallah’s lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset, because Abdallah’s release has been conditioned on the signing of an expulsion order by the French Interior Minister. Abdallah has been eligible for release for nearly 23 years, since 1999. During that time, he made eight requests for parole, the last of which (in 2013) was accepted by the Sentence Enforcement Court at first instance and on appeal. This was conditioned on the signing of an expulsion order which was to be signed by the Minister of the Interior, Manuel Valls. Unsurprisingly, he refused to do so.

This new court decision confirms the political nature of the imprisonment of Georges Abdallah. If Georges Abdallah is the target of such relentless attacks, it is because he remains what he has always been: a Lebanese communist and a Palestinian resistance fighter. Engaged in the resistance against the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in the 1980s, he has today become a symbol of the struggle against imperialism, Zionism and the reactionary Arab regimes.

This new refusal to release Georges Abdallah reaffirms the need to continue the mobilization and to intensify it in France, in Lebanon and everywhere in the world. Year after year, the campaign grows and with it the struggle of Georges Abdallah. As the French presidential election approaches, we must put at the heart of this campaign the demand for the release of the man who has become the longest-held political prisoner in Europe. This is the meaning of the #Palestine2022 campaign that we invite you to join.

Palestine will win! Freedom for Georges Abdallah!


10 February 2022
Collectif Palestine Vaincra, member of the international Samidoun Network

#BiebsStay4Justice: Artists & civil society organizations ask Justin Bieber to say NO to Apartheid

Samidoun supports the following campaign by the Canadian BDS Coalition:

Dozens of artists and organizations from around the world say #BiebsStay4Justice

Fellow artists and civil society organizations ask Justin Bieber to say NO to Apartheid

Justice Bieber is scheduled to play in Tel Aviv in October 2022 as part of his “The Justice World Tour”

This is his third time performing in apartheid Israel. In 20011, fellow-Canadians called on Stratford Ontario born Bieber to honour the Palestine civil society boycott call. Check out the parody (used with permission by John Greyson) created at the time.  Bieber went on to again perform in the zionist state in 2017, even as Snoop Dogg, Lauryn Hill and U2 were cancelling their gigs!

Let’s see if “The Biebs” can get with the anti-apartheid program on his third try!  Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Reem Kelani, and many other join to send this message, along with organizations from Palestine to Europe, and from Australia to Africa to the Americas.

All those who wish to sign the petition can do so HERE.

Message to Justin Bieber from dozens of Artists about his Justice World Tour 2022.

It is admirable you are focusing on “Justice”. However, there is a country on the tour whose actions undermine the values we as fellow artists espouse very deeply. We are dismayed that you have chosen to schedule performances in Israel, a state that practices apartheid.

We write to ask you to cancel your October 2022 concert performance in Israel.

In 2018, Israel proclaimed the Nation State Law to officially enshrine ethnic/racial discrimination in Israel’s Basic Law — the state’s constitutional equivalent. The legislation stipulates that “Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people, and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it.” It also establishes Hebrew as Israel’s official language, and downgrades Arabic — a language widely spoken by Arab Israelis — to a “special status.” It also enshrines “Jewish settlement as a national value” and mandates that the state “will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development.” In addition, there are over 65 additional laws that discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinian citizens in Israel and/or Palestinian residents of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) on the basis of their national belonging.

In January 2021, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem cited the bill as one of the many reasons for their conclusion that Israel is an apartheid state that “promotes and perpetuates Jewish supremacy between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.”

On October 23, 2019, Michael Lynk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the OPT told the United Nations General Assembly that decisive international action was needed, and the “international community has a responsibility and legal obligation to compel Israel to end its 52 year-long “occu-annexation” of Palestinian territory and to remove barriers preventing Palestinian self-determination.” We call on you to join fellow Canadian, Michael Lynk, in leading the way by showing this decisive international leadership against Israeli settler-colonialism and war crimes.

When international artists perform in Israel, they help to create the false impression that Israel is a “normal” country like any other. This is the call from Palestinian writers, artists and cultural centers. There is a growing number of anti-colonial Israelis and people worldwide who support the Palestinian civil society BDS call including the cultural boycott of Israel. We are glad to be part of this support and urge you to join by canceling your concerts in Israel.

Don’t be used by Israel to “artist-wash” its brutality and crimes against entire populations.

Join with those who stand with “justice” and “stay” away from apartheid and war crimes.

Sincerely,

Roger Waters, musician
Barbara Collier, classical singer
John King, composer/musician
Reem Kelani, singer/musician/broadcaster
Alisa Gayle-Deutsch, pianist
Larry B Harder, professor of landscape architecture (retired)
Raymond Deane, composer
Cathy Gulkin, film maker
Prof. Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, filmmaker, photographer, author
Jord Samolesky, drummer – Propagandhi
David Peters, musician
Sara avMaat, visual artist
S.L. Bondarchuk, artist and community organizer
Jessica Ball, professor and author
Zaina Arekat, musician, Bahrain
Huda Salha, visual artist/ PhD student
Richard Fung, artist
Maryem Tollar, musician
Thurston Moore, musician
Eva Manly, retired documentary maker
Leon Rosselson, singer/songwriter/children’s author
Shameema Soni, singer/musician
Ernest Tollar, musician/composer
Abu Parker, Musician Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Waleed Abdulhamid, multi-instrumentalist, composer, vocalist, music and film producer,
Wally Brooker, musician, journalist (retired)
Kaushalya Bannerji, visual artist, poet
Carmen Aguirre, theatre artist/author
Chris Hannah, musician: Propagandhi
Faith Nolan, singer/ songwriter, Turtle Island
Sameena Amien, Undiscovered Country South Africa
Nathania Rodman, art therapist
Sarah Abu-Sharar, storyteller
Kathy Wazana, filmmaker
Checkpoint 303 Sound Art Collective – Beats for justice and human rights, Canada/Tunisia/Palestine
Tom Ballard, Comedian, Melbourne Australia
John Greyson, Director, videomaker, curator, writer, performance artist, teacher, activist.
Bob Farrow, flaming-eck.com
Brian Eno, musician
Taqi Spateen, artist, working include George Floyd mural on the Separation Wall
Mohammad Ali: Progressive Hip Hop Artist
Rehab Nazzal, visual artist, photographer
Michal Sapir, musician and writer, Tel Aviv
Lia Tarachansky, Israeli-Canadian filmmaker
Timna Rose, Israeli artist, Neve Ilan
Nirit Sommerfeld, actress, singer, author, Germany
Guy Elhanan, theatre director, Haifa Palestine
Paul Salvatori, journalist, musician, activist

Other artists are invited to join the statement HERE.

Dozens of Civil Organizations from across Canada and around the world join to say #BiebsStay4Justice

We write to ask you to cancel your October 2022 concert performance in Israel.

In 2018, Israel proclaimed the Nation State Law to officially enshrine ethnic/racial discrimination in Israel’s Basic Law — the state’s constitutional equivalent. The legislation stipulates that “Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people, and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it.” It also establishes Hebrew as Israel’s official language, and downgrades Arabic — a language widely spoken by Arab Israelis — to a “special status.” It also enshrines “Jewish settlement as a national value” and mandates that the state “will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development.” In addition, there are over 65 additional laws that discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinian citizens in Israel and/or Palestinian residents of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) on the basis of their national belonging.

In January 2021, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem cited the bill as one of the many reasons for their conclusion that Israel is an apartheid state that “promotes and perpetuates Jewish supremacy between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.”

On October 23, 2019, Michael Lynk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the OPT told the United Nations General Assembly that decisive international action was needed, and the “international community has a responsibility and legal obligation to compel Israel to end its 52 year-long “occu-annexation” of Palestinian territory and to remove barriers preventing Palestinian self-determination.” We call on you to join fellow Canadian, Michael Lynk, in leading the way by showing this decisive international leadership against Israeli settler-colonialism and war crimes.

When international artists perform in Israel, they help to create the false impression that Israel is a “normal” country like any other. This is the call from Palestinian writers, artists and cultural centers. There is a growing number of anti-colonial Israelis and people worldwide who support the Palestinian civil society BDS call including the cultural boycott of Israel. We are glad to be part of this support and urge you to join by cancelling your concerts in Israel.

We ask you to not allow your tour to be used by Israel to “artist-wash” its brutality and crimes against entire populations.

Join with those who stand with “justice” and “stay” away from apartheid and war crimes.

Sincerely,
Canadian BDS Coalition

along with

AFPS, ACAT France, UJFP
Africa4Palestine
Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians
Australian Palestinian Professionals Association
Australians for Palestine
BACBI – Belgian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
Boycott from Within (Israeli citizens for BDS)
Canada Palestine Association
Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
CJPME Okanagan
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid Victoria
Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine
CUPE 3903 Executive Committee
Daily tous les jours
Edmonton Small Press Association
Educators for Justice (Waterloo Catholic School Board))
Football Against Apartheid
Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
Global Peace Alliance Society
GT4BDS
Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War
HR4A Saskatchewan
Independent Jewish Voices – University of Toronto
Independent Jewish Voices – Winnipeg
International League of Peoples’ Struggle in Canada (ILPS-Canada)
Jews for Boycotting israeli Goods J-BIG
Just Peace Advocates
Just Peace Committee
Lambeth & Wandsworth Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Let Kashmir Decide
Mid-Islanders for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
Oakville Palestinian Rights Association (OPRA)
OPIRG Carleton
PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity)
Palestine Network Shining Waters Region
Palestine Solidarity Network – Edmonton
Palestine Solidarity, St. John’s NL
Palestinian Youth Movement – Toronto
Regina Peace Council
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Socialist Action
United Australian Palestinian Workers
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
Women for Palestine

Organizations are invited to sign the statement HERE

Others:
Bruce R. Allen Paralegal
Ed Corrigan Law Office
El Hafi Holdings Inc.

Israeli representative confronted by protesters at the University of Amsterdam

Read the original report/statement in Dutch

On the evening of 7 February 2022, Samidoun Netherlands took action to protest an Israeli diplomat at the Roeterseiland complex at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in the Netherlands’ capital.

The association of international relations student organized an event on “Israel’s Foreign Policy,” inviting career Israeli diplomat Karin Eliyahu-Pery to speak. She currently is the head of media and public relations at the Israeli embassy in the Netherlands.

It is outrageous that an educational institution like the UvA offers a warm welcome and open platform to a representative of the Israeli apartheid state in order to promote its propaganda.

In addition, student associations and organizations have a responsibility to reject normalization of settler colonialism, racism and apartheid. There is no “constructive discussion” to be had with official representatives of the Israeli occupation while they continue to colonize Palestine. Instead, stand for justice: boycott Israel!

Samidoun NL made clear with flags, slogans and a strong presence of confrontation that such events will always be met with protest, rejection and response. This type of showcase for a representative of colonialism must not be repeated.

Boycott Israel!

Free Palestine from the river to the sea!

12 February, NYC: #BoycottPuma Speak Out

Saturday, 12 February
3:00 pm
PUMA Flagship Store
609 5th Ave, NYC
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/898450857498907/

Join us on Saturday, February 12th, outside the PUMA Flagship store in Manhattan, as we demand that PUMA ceases its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association.

This event is part of of the international day of action to #BoycottPUMA. In New York City, we stand in solidarity with Palestinian football players and global sports justice activists who have called on the company, which purports to follow a human rights mandate, to end its support for Israeli colonialism and apartheid.

Samidoun Hungary rallies in Budapest to #FreePalestinianStudents

On Sunday, 30 January, activists with the new Samidoun Hungary chapter organized a vigil in central Budapest to call for the freedom of imprisoned Palestinian students. Participants carried signs and pictures of Palestinian students locked behind bars in Israeli jails, calling for their immediate liberation.


Students in Hungary set up their display of information on Palestinian students and delivered speeches about the situation of Palestinian prisoners outside St. Stephen’s Basilica, the most well-known basilica in Budapest and a central gathering point in the capital city. As the new academic semester begins, over 300 Palestinian students are being denied access to their education due to the Zionist settler colonial occupation.

The protest aims to raise awareness about Palestinians’ right to education and the use of imprisonment as a colonial weapon against Palestinian students and youth. This is only the first event for Samidoun Hungary, and organizers are planning to expand the campaign and hold more demonstrations in the near future. Please contact Samidoun Hungary for more information about how you can get involved!

Hundreds of organizations have joined the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign, which calls for:

  • 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.

After 295 days of kidnapping by Israeli apartheid, Juani Rishmawi is free

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network welcomes and rejoices at the release of Juani Rishmawi in the face of the unfounded and pernicious judicial persecution imposed by the apartheid regime and Israeli occupation.

Juani, a Spanish aid worker naturalized as a Palestinian, contributes to the Palestinian cause from the humanitarian perspective and through political activism in the Health Work Committees, and therefore has faced the fabricated charge that the Zionist regime applies when it wants to impose collective punishment and reprisals against all Palestinians and against international solidarity that works for the improvement of the conditions of the Palestinian people — specifically, “financing of illegal organizations.”

As usual, the Israeli military court did not see proof of anything, and her detention resulted in a sentence of 13 months, 3 months of which will be spent under house arrest. There is nothing new here: 99% of Palestinians who pass through Zionist military courts are convicted. Nevertheless, on 7 February 2022, Juani was released from Zionist prisons and able to return home to her family.

On behalf of Samidoun, we congratulate Juani for her victory and release and the Support Group for the Liberation of Juani for their intense commitment and organizing from outside, taking Juani’s struggle to the streets and various institutions, especially in Spain.

However, the struggle continues until all Palestinian prisoners are released from Zionist prisons, especially the 4,500 who remain behind bars, including 180 child prisoners and 500 held in administrative detention without charge or trial and who are currently boycotting the military courts.

Boycott Israeli Wines! Spirited Vancouver protest calls on public stores to stop selling apartheid products

On Saturday, 5 February, activists in Vancouver gathered outside the downtown BC Liquor Store for a picket and literature distribution calling for the publicly owned stores to stop selling Israeli wines, many of which are produced in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian lands of the West Bank and the Golan Heights. Despite repeated calls to provincial officials noting that the sale of these wines means that BC Liquor Stores are directly implicated in war crimes, they have continued to take no action and market these apartheid wines.

The Canada Palestine Association has led the campaign for years to remove these wines from publicly owned liquor stores. Despite the fact that the British Columbia government is headed by the New Democratic Party, and the federal NDP has officially called for an end to trade with Israeli settlements, the NDP-run BC government continues to sell these products in the publicly owned crown corporation stores it is responsible for. Of course, all “Israeli” wines are based on the exploitation of colonized Palestinian land and labor.

Participants in the campaign to boycott Israeli wines distributed hundreds of leaflets to passers-by, many of whom expressed strong support for the campaign or were surprised to learn that these wines are carried in the publicly owned stores. Speakers at the picket also highlighted the settler colonial links between the BC government’s support for and involvement with the ongoing denial of Indigenous sovereignty and RCMP attacks on land and water defenders on Wet’suwet’en land and elsewhere and its ongoing economic ties to Zionist colonialism in Palestine.

Speakers representing Canada Palestine Association, BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urged a boycott of Israeli wines, calling on people to join the campaign and take action by pressuring the BC government to put an end to its complicity in war crimes and colonialism in Palestine.

The Samidoun speech highlighted the struggles of over 4,650 Palestinian prisoners behind Israeli bars, noting that imprisonment and repression are colonial weapons used by the Israeli occupation and by Canadian settler colonialism, and called for solidarity with the 500 administrative detainees boycotting the Israeli military courts. Supporting the boycott of Israel is a meaningful way that people can participate in supporting the Palestinian prisoners, the Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian people, from the river to the sea.

People and organizations in various parts of the country, including Canadian BDS Coalition members, sent selfies in solidarity, and a Boycott Israeli Wines action was also organized in Victoria, on Vancouver Island.

To join the campaign to call for BC Liquor Stores to boycott Israeli wines and stop marketing apartheid, email BC Finance Minister Selina Robinson at FIN.Minister@gov.bc.ca. You can use this statement by the Canada Palestine Association, endorsed by Samidoun and dozens of other organizations including the Vancouver and District Labour Council and the Vancouver Peace Council, as your guide.

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