Saturday, 22 January
2:00 pm
7114 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/606999367027932/
Today, Monday 17 January, Samidoun Deutschland, along with comrades from the Freedom for All Political Prisoners Network, organized a rally in front of the French Embassy in Berlin, Germany, to demand the freedom of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab struggler for Palestine who has been jailed in French prisons for 37 years.
Participants carried Palestinian flags and Samidoun banners, as well as signs calling for the immediate release of Georges Abdallah. They chanted slogans and gave speeches in support of the Palestinian resistance in Al-Naqab fighting back against land confiscation and colonization by the Israeli state and the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and called for the freedom of Nasser Abu Hmaid, severely ill Palestinian prisoner subjected to Israeli medical neglect. This event was organized as part of the International Week of Solidarity to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners.
Samidoun’s speech
Today, Georges Abdallah, your comrades are here! We have come together as part of the International Week of Action to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners.
Today, outside the doors of this embassy, we reaffirm loud and clear that resistance to imperialism and Zionism is legitimate!
The resistance is legitimate; like the resistance led by the leaders and fighters of the Palestinian revolution: Georges Habash, Ghassan Kanafani, Wadie Haddad, Shadia Abu Ghazaleh, Abu Ali Mustafa and the tens of thousands of fedayeen who sacrificed their lives for this cause!
Resistance is legitimate; like the resistance put up by the 4,600 Palestinian prisoners from the dungeons of the Zionist occupation. To Ahmad Sa’adat, Khitam Saafin, Israa Jaabis, Walid Daqqa and all Palestinians who continue to resist behind bars: Your determination and courage are an example!
Today we want to commemorate the hundreds of martyrs and thousands of wounded who fought for return and liberation. We also greet Nasser Abu Hmaid, a leader of the prisoner movement who has been held in Zionist prisons for more than 30 years and, after brutal medical neglect and a battle with cancer, has been in a coma for 13 days after a bacterial infection reached his lungs. We also salute today our staunch Palestinian people of Bir Al Sab’ (Al-Naqab) who have been fighting Zionist ethnic cleansing projects for decades and who now defy heavily armed Zionist troops and settler mobs with nothing more than their will and love for their country to hold fast to their land.
Resistance is legitimate, as is the resistance offered by our comrade Georges Abdallah from the prisons of French imperialism. For 37 years they have tried to silence him and he resists!
37 years later, Georges Abdallah remains true to what he is: an anti-imperialist fighter and a committed Arab communist.
We end our speech with an excerpt from Georges Abdallah’s message on the International Week of Solidarity for the Liberation of Ahmad Sa’adat:
“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”
Saturday, 22 January
12 pm Eastern (9 am Pacific, 6 pm central Europe, 7 pm Palestine)
Register to join: https://tinyurl.com/d8teachin
Info: https://mobile.twitter.com/D8forJustice/status/1482507583663611907
Organized by D8 for Palestine
The crimes of Israeli occupation are many, including medical negligence and wrongful treatment of prisoners who are often detained without charge or trial. Eyad is a detained Palestinian experiencing medical discrimination in occupation prison. So far, Eyad has endured memory loss, paralysis, and gangrened organs.
Join us on January 22 in a conversation with Eyad’s brother to learn about Eyad’s story and find out how we can demand justice for all Palestinian political prisoners!
Tuesday, 18 January
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/
Following the heroic victory of hunger striking political prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash after 141 days, join us as part of the international week of action in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners and for the release of revolutionary leader Ahmad Sa’adat.
This event will feature:
– A screening of Abby Martin’s Empire Files documentary on the struggle inside Zionist jails.
– Analysis of British collaboration in the imprisonment of Ahmad Sa’adat.
– Discussion on how we can build effective solidarity in Britain.
Funds raised will go towards supporting the Samidoun campaign and Hakoura refugees cooperative.
Donate what you can via the Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/free-palestinian-political-prisoners-film-discussion-and-fundraiser-tickets-238647128987
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This event is part of a series of organising meetings run by Manchester Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! with the aim of building a revolutionary, socialist and anti-imperialist movement in Britain.
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“Today, it is critical to besiege the racist, settler-colonial Zionist project, and indeed, to delegitimize this project, and to support the struggle of our people for liberation, self-determination and return as the pathway to a democratic political solution for Palestine. Our people will not bow to the governments of “Israel,” including the current government which represents the will of the colonizers and the ultra-extremist Zionist terror. 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.” – Ahmad Sa’adat
As we mark the 12th anniversary of the Israeli sentencing of Palestinian national liberation and international Left leader Ahmad Sa’adat, and the 12th anniversary of the brutal Israeli assault on Gaza, “Operation Cast Lead,” Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all who stand with Palestine and justice for the Palestinian people to join us between 15 and 23 January 2021 in a week of action to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners.
www.frfi.co.uk
www.samidoun.net
https://freeahmadsaadat.org/
www.masarbadil.org
On Saturday, 15 January, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, a member organization of the Samidoun Network, organized a Palestine Stand outside the Capitole metro station in Toulouse, France, as part of the International Week of Action to Free Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, unjustly imprisoned by the Israeli occupation.
This initiative coincided with the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the arrest of the Palestinian leader by the Palestinian Authority on 15 January 2002 as part of its “security coordination” with Israel.
Supporting the immediate release of Ahmad Sa’adat is part of supporting the release of all Palestinian prisoners, but it is also supporting the legitimacy of the resistance of the Palestinian people against the Zionist state while denouncing the criminal complicity of the Palestinian Authority with the occupation regime.
https://twitter.com/CollectifPV/status/1482372156558393345
In a crowded pedestrian street under a beautiful winter sun, organizers unfurled Palestinian flags and a large banner, reading “Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat — Freedom for Palestine.” They displayed Boycott Israel posters and set up a stand, drawing attention from many people. For over two hours, participants distributed hundreds of flyers explaining the life and struggle of Ahmad Sa’adat, and conducted many discussions about the situation of over 4,600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Many people came to the stand to write letters addressed to Ahmad Sa’adat to show their solidarity. One little girl named Lina told organizers that she had looked on a map of the world to see where Palestine was, but couldn’t find it. Her mother told us: “She asked me where Palestine was but I didn’t know how to explain it to her. Thank you for all these materials which will help me to tell her the story of the Palestinian people.”
People from France, Algeria, Italy and Turkey wrote messages of solidarity to the Palestinian people.
Dozens also posed for solidarity photos calling for the release of Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners:
Every month, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra organizes stands in different parts of Toulouse 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.
On Saturday, 15 January, Samidoun Région Parisienne organized its monthly solidarity stand for Palestine at the Aubervilliers market near Paris, France. This month, the Palestine Stand was convened as part of the International Week of Action to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners. The week of action was initated by the Samidoun Network and endorsed by dozens of organizations around the world.
Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was arrested and imprisoned on 15 January 2002 by the Palestinian Authority, within the framework of “security coordination” with the Israeli occupation. Kidnapped in 2006 by the Israeli occupation army, he was then sentenced by a military court — which he boycotted throughout the process — to 30 years in prison for his role in the Palestinian resistance on 25 December 2008.
Activists and supporters of Samidoun distributed flyers for two hours on the importance of supporting the Palestinian people and the Palestinian prisoners. Many people stopped by to show their solidarity with the just Paletinian struggle against colonialism, racism and apartheid. Many people also took photos to show their support for the campaign to free Ahmad Sa’adat.
Samidoun Région Parisienne regularly organizes Palestine Stands at the Aubervilliers market. To get involved, please reach out via email to samidoun.rp@gmail.com or via social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram)
The day before, on 14 January, the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah organized a rally in the Ménilmontant district of Paris as part of the International Week of Action. Dozens gathered to show solidarity with Ahmad Sa’adat, Georges Abdallah, and over 4,600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. They chanted slogans in support of the Palestinian resistance and carried Palestinian flags, banners and posters, showing solidarity with the revolt in the occupied Naqab and support for the sick prisoner Nasser Abu Hmaid.
On Sunday, 16 January, the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network hosted a webinar for the International Week of Solidarity to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners. The webinar provided an overview of the case of the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and his leading role in the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and liberation struggle from behind Israeli bars.
Jakob of Samidoun Stockholm presented an overview of Sa’adat’s imprisonment and ongoing struggle, from his election as PFLP general secretary to the efforts of the Palestinian resistance to secure his release in a prisoner exchange. He invited those watching to get involved and join Samidoun and other organizations in working for a liberated Palestine.
Khaled Barakat, Palestinian activist and writer and coordinator of the follow-up committee of the Masar Badil, provided a thorough historical look at Sa’adat’s life and struggle, particularly some of the less-frequently discussed aspects of his organizing in the 1980s and 1990s, his steadfastness under interrogation, his role in the underground organizing of the PFLP, and his confrontation with the Palestinian Authority, not only when he was arrested in 2002, but his ongoing rejection of the path of Oslo. He provided insight into Sa’adat’s leadership and character, inside prison and in the larger Palestinian liberation movement. He provided a detailed examination of how the Palestinian Authority’s “security coordination” with Israel and its role as an agent of imperialist powers serves to support colonialism in occupied Palestine, including the development of this over time.
The event concluded with an informative question and answer period discussing topics like campaigns to boycott Israel, the future of a liberated Palestine and the potential of building upon the unity of Palestinians throughout occupied Palestine and in exile and diaspora.
Watch the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3z8HiOShJc
Organizations are invited to endorse, organize events and take action for the International Week of Solidarity to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners. To find out more about how you can get involved, email samidoun@samidoun.net.
Palestinians and supporters of Palestine gathered in Vancouver’s Grandview Church on Saturday, 15 January for a discussion of the Palestinian liberation movement and its next steps forward. The event focused on the development of the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path movement (Masar Badil), which launched in November 2021 after conferences in Madrid, Beirut and Sao Paulo.
The event was organized by the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Vancouver, together with the Palestinian Youth Movement, Canada Palestine Association, BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish and the International League of Peoples’ Struggle. Khaled Barakat, coordinator of the Masar Badil follow-up committee and Palestinian writer and activist, and Hanan, student organizer and activist, spoke about their experiences attending the conference in Madrid as well as the political orientation and framework of the movement, especially its commitment to the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.
Charlotte Kates, Samidoun international coordinator, opened the event, thanking the church for its longstanding commitment to social justice issues and providing space for movements, including the movement for justice in Palestine. She noted that the event is taking place as one of the opening events for the international Week of Solidarity to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners, with events and actions taking place in the U.S., France, Ireland, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Palestine and elsewhere.
Hanan, a Palestinian student organizer, spoke about her experiences attending the conference, connecting with other Palestinian youth and students across borders, and sharing resources for organizing and political education with many other young Palestinians with various experiences of struggle. She noted that the conference was a place for Palestinians inside Palestine, in the refugee camps, in Europe and in North America to come together, especially alongside the parallel events in Beirut and Sao Paulo, expanding the circle of participation. She spoke about the collaborative and committed atmosphere of the event, the lessons participants learned from one another, and the ongoing activities being undertaken by the coordinating group of students and youth following the conferences.
Khaled Barakat discussed the political framework of the movement in the context of the development of the Palestinian liberation movement. Specifically, he reviewed the mass mobilization of Palestinians during the great popular Intifada and the prior development of the Palestinian revolution — and how that progress was forcefully brought to a halt through the so-called “peace process,” including the 1991 Madrid conference and the 1993 Oslo accords signed in Washington, DC.
He discussed the need for a Palestinian alternative path to the domination of Oslo and the Palestinian Authority, to the detriment of the Palestinian people, their land and their rights. In particular, he emphasized that a small class of Palestinian capitalists, seeking benefits from a subservient alliance with the Israeli occupation, were exercising a monopoly over the Palestinian political scene and official institutions, meaning that Palestinian popular classes and the movements that represent them must take an alternative path, centering the right to return and liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. He noted that colonizers had always sought a complicit group from among the oppressed population to serve as their agents, even though this sector does not represent the interests of the people who continue to give their lives for justice, self-determination and liberation.
The event concluded with a discussion about organizing and building upcoming initiatives of the Masar Badil, including a Palestinian student conference and a march for the right to return and freedom of the prisoners in November 2022. All were encouraged to participate in upcoming activities for Palestine in Vancouver, including the demonstration next Saturday, 22 January at 2:00 pm at Commercial-Broadway Skytrain station, calling for freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners.
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, 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
