Palestinian Prisoners’ Day 2020: Week of Action for Palestinian Liberation

Call to Action | Suggested Actions |
Days of Solidarity | Visuals 

Call to Action in: Dutch | French | Italian | Swedish

Palestinian Prisoners’ Day 2020 approaches as 5,000 Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails face the ongoing threat of settler colonialism, apartheid and occupation, accompanied by the new threat to their health and lives posed by the global pandemic of coronavirus (COVID-19), accentuated by institutionalized Israeli medical negligence. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all supporters of justice and liberation in Palestine to join us between 10 and 17 April for a week of action to free all Palestinian prisoners! 

Today, there are approximately 5,000 Palestinians jailed by Zionist colonialism, including over 180 children, 430 administrative detainees jailed without charge or trial and 700 sick and ill prisoners, 200 with chronic and serious diseases that place them at even greater risk should COVID-19 spread throughout the prisons.

The imprisonment of Palestinians is a colonial attack on the Palestinian people. Imprisonment affects nearly every Palestinian family, including Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine ’48 and even in exile and diaspora. Palestinian prisoners are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, students and teachers, labor organizers, women’s leaders, student activists, community builders, freedom fighters.

Defending Palestinian prisoners and demanding their immediate release is not only a humanitarian necessity at a time when their lives are at great risk due to COVID-19, it is also a political imperative for all concerned with justice in Palestine. Palestinian prisoners represent the Palestinian resistance and the true leadership of the Palestinian liberation struggle, locked away in an attempt to preserve colonial control. Their liberation is critical to the victory of the Palestinian people and the freedom of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

The struggle of the Palestinian prisoners – and the Palestinian people – is an internationalist one. They are on the front lines of struggle every day behind bars for liberation, confronting not only Zionism and the Israeli state but also imperialism and reactionary regimes. The struggle to free Georges Ibrahim Abdallah from French prison is a critical part of this movement. The Palestinian prisoners’ liberation struggle is also linked to the fight of Irish republican prisoners, political prisoners in the United States, the Philippines, Turkey, Egypt and everywhere around the world for justice and liberation, and to the struggle to end racist and colonial incarceration.

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has presented new challenges for organizing everywhere, and the Palestinian prisoners – and, indeed, the Palestinian people – are also facing a severe attack. It is more necessary than ever to organize for Palestinian freedom and build our links of struggle, becoming more socially connected even as we are physically distant.

Samidoun calls on all friends of the Palestinian people, organizations concerned with justice in Palestine and Palestinian and Arab communities to join us in this week of action. A series of events that you can participate in is listed below. We encourage you to add your own! Please send your campaigns, virtual meetings and events to Samidoun at samidoun@samidoun.net or to our Facebook page for inclusion in this list or tag us on Twitter at @SamidounPP; now, more than ever, it is critical to unite our efforts to support the prisoners and fight together for the liberation of Palestine.

Please use the graphics here (in English, French, Arabic, Dutch, Swedish and German) to show your support for Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian liberation struggle! We will be sharing graphics, videos, written content and more throughout the week and we encourage you to amplify and re-share these materials. Translations are welcome: please send to samidoun@samidoun.net.

For each day of the week, we have emphasized themes to highlight. Follow @SamidounPP on Twitter, Samidoun on Facebook and @samidounnetwork on Instagram to share content about these aspects of the Palestinian struggle and the prisoners’ cause. However, we urge you to share any and all information and action steps for Palestine and the prisoners on every day throughout the week!

Suggested Actions

  1. Videos and selfies are a great way to express solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners! Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association in Palestine issued a call for short video clips, and they have been pouring in from around the world. Share your video or selfie online using the hashtag #FreeOurPrisoners. Tag @Addameer to make sure that Addameer sees it, and tag us at @SamidounPP so that we can re-share and boost your solidarity efforts.
  2. Along with many other organizations, we will be announcing a Twitterstorm on 17 April to support Palestinian prisoners. The hashtag will be announced on that day for maximum impact, but your Tweets, Facebook, Instagram and other social media posts throughout the week can emphasize the critical importance of the Palestinian struggle! Tweet with #FreeOurPrisoners and #LiberatePalestinianPrisoners to join people around the world in expressing your solidarity with imprisoned Palestinians.
  3. If you cannot hold an in-person demonstration or action during this week, you can still support the prisoners with an online action or event! Several online meetings are listed below. Host a webinar or online meeting about Palestine and the prisoners’ struggle over Zoom, Facebook live or a platform of your choice. Send your event details – in any language – to Samidoun at samidoun@samidoun.net and we will include them in our list of activities.
  4. Demand the Red Cross act. Call on the International Committee of the Red Cross to uphold its responsibility and urge the immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Sign the online petition initiated by War on Want: https://secure.waronwant.org/page/58733/
  5. Call in for action. Governments around the world, specifically imperialist powers and reactionary regimes, are fully complicit in Israeli crimes against humanity, including the mass imprisonment of Palestinians. Even if you have to leave a message, call your government officials and demand they pressure Israel to free Palestinian prisoners. Express your disgust at these governments’ ongoing support for Israeli colonialism:

Call during your country’s regular office hours:

    • Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne: + 61 2 6277 7500
    • Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne: +1-613-995-4895
    • European Union Commissioner Josep Borrell Fontelles: +32(0) 470 18 24 05
    • New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters: +64 4 439 8000
    • United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab: +44 20 7008 1500
    • United States President Donald Trump: 1-202-456-1111
  1. Boycott, Divest and Sanction. It’s just as important to boycott Israel when buying online! Join the BDS campaign to highlight the complicity of corporations like Hewlett-Packard and the continuing involvement of G4S in Israeli policing and prisons. Build a campaign to boycott Israeli goods, impose a military embargo on Israel, or organize around the academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

Days of Solidarity

Friday, 10 April
Theme: Day of action for sick and ill prisoners: Fighting Coronavirus and Israeli Medical Neglect

  • Join the online actions and keep tweeting and posting with #FreeOurPrisoners and #LiberatePalestinianPrisoners. Share your videos and selfies of solidarity!
  • Join the Twitterstorm to Free Georges Abdallah! 9 am Pacific/12 pm Eastern/6 pm Europe/7 pm Palestine and Lebanon. Use the hashtag #FreeGeorgesAbdallah and tag @NBelloubet @EmmanuelMacron and @General_Aoun

Saturday, 11 April
Theme: Day of action to free Khalida Jarrar and Palestinian women prisoners

  • Join the online actions and keep tweeting and posting with #FreeOurPrisoners and #LiberatePalestinianPrisoners. Share your videos and selfies of solidarity!

Sunday, 12 April
Theme: Day of action to free Mays Abu Ghosh, Tareq Mattar and Palestinian student prisoners

  • Join the online actions and keep tweeting and posting with #FreeOurPrisoners and #LiberatePalestinianPrisoners. Share your videos and selfies of solidarity!

Monday, 13 April
Theme: Day of action to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners

  • Join the online actions and keep tweeting and posting with #FreeOurPrisoners and #LiberatePalestinianPrisoners. Share your videos and selfies of solidarity!

Tuesday, 14 April
Theme: Day of Action against Home Demolitions and Collective Punishment
Day of Action for International and Arab Prisoners, including prisoners in Egypt, Turkey, the Philippines and the United States 

  • Join the online actions and keep tweeting and posting with #FreeOurPrisoners and #LiberatePalestinianPrisoners. Share your videos and selfies of solidarity!

Wednesday, 15 April
Theme: Day of Action for Prisoners for Palestine in Arab and International Jails: Free Georges Abdallah, the Holy Land Five and fellow Palestinian prisoners

  • Join the online actions and keep tweeting and posting with #FreeOurPrisoners and #LiberatePalestinianPrisoners. Share your videos and selfies of solidarity!
  • Participate in an online event: The International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the NLG International Committee will hold a webinar on economic sanctions and COVID-19, including among other speakers Raji Sourani of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. This will take place at 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern/7 pm Europe/8 pm Palestine. Register online here:  https://bit.ly/SanctionsWarWebinar

Thursday, 16 April
Theme: Day of Action to free Palestinian Child Prisoners
Day of Action Against Torture and Ill-Treatment

  • Join the online actions and keep tweeting and posting with #FreeOurPrisoners and #LiberatePalestinianPrisoners. Share your videos and selfies of solidarity!
  • Participate in an online event: Yafa Jarrar, Ghassan Abu Sitta and Tarek Loubani will speak on a webinar about COVID-19 and Palestine. 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern/7 pm Europe/8 pm Palestine. Event organized by University of Toronto Divest. Register online here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/contain-the-pandemic-free-palestine-tickets-101936476746

Friday, 17 April
Palestinian Prisoners’ Day

Saturday, 18 April

  • Samidoun will be holding a webinar on Palestinian prisoners and the struggle for freedom. 12 pm Pacific/3 pm Eastern/9 pm Europe/10 pm Palestine. Speakers TBA! Register online here: http://bit.ly/palestinianprisonersevent

Sunday, 19 April

  • NY4Palestine will host a webinar on the case of Ubai Aboudi and child prisoners in occupied Palestine at 11 am Pacific, 2 pm Eastern, 8 pm Europe, 9 pm Palestine. Register online to attend:  http://bit.ly/ImprisonedPalestiniansWebinar

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