Israel aggression on Palestine waged on ‘behalf of the US corporate ruling class’

written by Struggle – La Lucha
May 13, 2021

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City near Barcelona Park and multiple government places, one of the biggest airstrikes on the enclave, early on May 12, 2021.

Press TV

A political commentator says the Israeli regime’s war on Palestine is waged on “behalf of the U.S. corporate ruling class.”

Bill Dores made the comments in an interview with Press TV on Wednesday as Tel Aviv continued crackdown on Palestinians’ demand for an end to land grab by the Zionist regime.

“Washington’s expression of ‘concern’ over the crimes being committed against the people of Jerusalem (al-Ques) is sheer hypocrisy’” the analyst said. “It is hypocrisy because the racist Israeli state is completely funded by the United States, from the teargas and sound bombs Israeli cops fire at people praying in the holy mosque of al-Aqsa to the planes and missiles murdering Palestinian children in Gaza, they are all made in the U.S.A and supplied by for free to Israeli police and war machine.”

The latest round of tensions have spiked since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, when the Israeli regime frequently steps up aggression in the face of U.S. inaction.

“U.S. and Israeli cops train together. Israeli pilots train in the United States. Many of the bigoted settlers rampaging in East Jerusalem (al-Quds) and stealing Palestinian families homes are U.S. citizens. U.S. citizens freely serve in the Israeli occupation forces,” Dores explained.

At the core of the latest round of aggression is the planned forced expulsions of Palestinians by illegal Israeli settlers, looking to take over Palestinian lands.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that the Zionist regime of Israel only “understands the language of force,” urging Palestinians to grow in power and resistance capacity to confront the enemy.

Dores reacted to the Leader’s remarks by asserting that, “The settlers’ chants of ‘Death to Arabs’ and ‘We’ll burn your village down,’ reflect the very nature of” Israel.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and the UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

The political commentator further concluded that, “The way to stop the violence in Palestine is to end all forms of U.S. aid, all arms and dollars, to the racist entity that has been erected on stolen Palestinian land. That includes canceling the U.S.-Israeli trade agreement.”

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Los Angeles protesters condemn Israeli war on Palestinians

written by Struggle – La Lucha
May 13, 2021

About 300 people gathered at the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles May 11 to protest the genocidal war against Palestinian worshipers and homeowners soon to be evicted by racist, violent Zionist occupiers in areas of Jerusalem. 

Palestinian organizations mobilized for the emergency action. The Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice and the Socialist Unity Party participated in this demonstration, which included a takeover of the street in front of the consulate.

International outrage has been reflected in the worldwide demonstrations. Today’s protest in Los Angeles will be followed up with a demonstration on Saturday, May 15, starting at 12 noon at 11000 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 

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Brooklyn rally declares: Palestine will win!

written by Struggle – La Lucha
May 13, 2021

Hundreds of people rallied in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., on May 8 to denounce the latest atrocities against the Palestinian people. Mobs of Zionist settlers screaming “death to Arabs” are trying to drive Palestinians out of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Al-Quds, the capital of Palestine. 

The day before, 80,000 Palestinians gathered in the city, also known as Jerusalem, for the last Friday of Ramadan, despite the racist attacks.  

The demonstration was called by Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine. It was supported by American Muslims for Palestine, Al Awda NY-Palestine Right to Return Coalition, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network and other members of NY4Palestine coalition. The rally was held on Brooklyn’s Fifth Avenue, lined with Palestinian shops. Drivers going by honked their horns in support.

People chanted, “We don’t want two states, we want ‘48!” The powerful slogan means all of Palestine belongs to the Palestinian people. It rejects phony peace plans that allow for a settler presence.

The old apartheid regime in South Africa also called for a “two-state solution” that was rightfully rejected by Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress. Palestinian people are forced to live in ghettos like the Bantustans that existed in South Africa.

Among the speakers at the rally was Nerdeen Kiswani from Within Our Lifetime, who pointed out how the Zionist settler colony occupying Palestine gets over $10 million a day from its masters on Wall Street and the Pentagon. She emphasized the viciousness of the racist mobs attacking Palestinians during the holy month of Ramadan.

Kiswani herself has been the target of Zionist organizations. She spoke of how Palestinians in Al-Quds double and triple check that their doors are locked so settlers don’t seize their home. 

Longtime Palestinian activist and human rights attorney Lamis Deek spoke of the courage of Palestinian people, particularly the youth. Other speakers represented the Black Alliance for Peace and Jews for Palestinian Right of Return.

People were urged to return to Bay Ridge on May 15, the 73rd anniversary of the catastrophe called Al-Nakba. That’s when hundreds of Palestinians were killed and hundreds of thousands of people were driven out of their homes by Zionist settlers in 1948.

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Palestinians defy Israeli repression to save homes

written by Struggle – La Lucha
May 13, 2021

On May 7, 80,000 Palestinians congregated at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of  Jerusalem to mark the last Friday of Ramadan. Palestinians call the ancient city Al-Quds, the Holy. 

The large attendance was in spite of Israeli blockades in the West Bank, which made it impossible for many Palestinians to reach Jerusalem. 

After Friday prayers, almost the entire crowd stayed to protest Israeli plans to evict Palestinian families from their homes in the city’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Sheikh Jarrah was built in 1954 by Palestinians forced from their homes in western Jerusalem by the Israeli army. Now the Israeli state wants to give these homes to settlers from the United States and Europe.

Without warning, Israeli troops assaulted Al-Aqsa Mosque. Stun grenades, sound bombs, tear gas and rubber-plated metal bullets rained down on the people inside. Videos recorded inside the mosque paint a picture of terror and chaos. 

Over 200 people were wounded, and 88 were hospitalized. At least one man lost an eye and several people are in critical condition. Palestinians fought back with bare hands, and a number of border police were also injured. 

If only this repression wasn’t the norm in occupied Palestine.

The May 7 attack came on the heels of Israeli troops murdering two Palestinians in the West Bank: a 60-year-old woman named Rihab Zaoul in Bethlehem and a 16-year-old boy named Said Odeh in Huwara. 

Odeh was shot twice in the back during a raid by the Israeli “Defense” Forces on his village. His murder is evoking comparisons to those of Michael Brown and Adam Toledo in the U.S. The “deadly exchange” of training between the IDF and U.S. police departments is well-documented.

Racist mob attacks

Israeli attacks on Palestinians have been a constant during this year’s observance of Ramadan. 

On the night of April 23, a mob of white-shirted Western settlers invaded the Old City, chanting “Death to Arabs” and “We’ll burn your village down!” Gangs of white shirts attacked Palestinian families breaking their daytime fast. Youth who mobilized to defend their community were attacked, shot at and gassed by the IDF.

Settler gangs have also invaded Sheikh Jarrah to harass and intimidate the families resisting eviction. These families report being censored by Instagram when they attempt to post about the attacks. 

However, across Palestine people have risen up in solidarity with Jerusalem. In the West Bank, Palestinian land defenders clashed with settlers and occupying troops. On May 8, thousands of Palestinians living inside Israel’s 1948 borders broke through an Israeli blockade to come to Al-Aqsa. 

As this article is written, the fascist, Zionist forces continue their attacks on Al-Quds, while the Israeli government quibbles over which racist to appoint prime minister. Even the European Union has condemned Israeli advances into Arab East Jerusalem. 

Joe Biden’s State Department has called for “deescalation.” But Washington continues to pour in weapons and billions of dollars to the racist Israeli regime. It is this massive financial and military support that makes Israel’s crimes possible. 

The European Union’s condemnation of Israel’s actions, along with Human Rights Watch and the U.N., is a significant development. Historically, both the EU and HRW turned a blind eye to Israel’s apartheid regime. There is no doubt that the strength of the Palestinian mass movement, along with international solidarity, have pushed these historically pro-Zionist institutions to criticize the racist Israeli state.

Mainstream Western media has been mostly silent about the events now playing out in Jerusalem. But that won’t stop the Palestinian struggle for independence and the right to return. 

Across the U.S. and the world, people are demonstrating in support of Palestine even as these events are unfolding. More protests will take place on May 15, the 73rd anniversary of Al-Nakba (the Catastrophe), the 1948 exile and dispossession of the Palestinian people from their land. The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and other organizations have named May 15-22 a week of international action in support of Palestine. 

The global working class must support Palestinian liberation in any way it can. We must shine a light on Israel for what it is: an apartheid settler state built on stolen land. We must demand an end to all U.S. military and financial aid to the racist settler state that illegally occupies Palestine. 

Lev Koufax is a young Jewish activist based in Baltimore.

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Take action! #SaveSheikhJarrah and defend Jerusalem: Boycott Israel, support Palestinian resistance

written by Struggle – La Lucha
May 13, 2021

As we approach the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba, the Zionist colonization of Palestine and the forced expulsion of Palestinians, the Nakba is continuing. This is apparent everywhere in Palestine, but perhaps is most clear in the heart of Jerusalem, Palestine’s capital: in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, where Palestinian families are being threatened with imminent expulsion from their homes and lands by the Israeli regime and its colonial settlers, as they refuse to concede their lives to racist Zionist colonialism.

Palestinians in Jerusalem are under attack on multiple levels, defending their land, city and identity from erasure and colonialism for 73 years. They face the stripping of their identity and residence — even from their place of birth — severe repression, land confiscations, home demolitions and ongoing Zionist attempts to erase the Palestinian and Arab presence and nature of the city.

Right-wing settler mobs have rampaged through Sheikh Jarrah in the past days, screaming “Death to Arabs” and attacking Palestinians. Settlers attacked Palestinians breaking the Ramadan fast during Iftar, pepper spraying them and throwing rocks at them. Working hand in hand with these violent settlers, the Israeli military has attacked residents, sprayed skunk water and tear gas throughout the neighborhood, invaded homes, assaulted women, children and elders and seized dozens of Palestinian youth defending their own homes.

In Silwan, Palestinians are being threatened with violent expulsion from their Jerusalem homes in order to make way for a “David-themed” tourist attraction to produce income for the Zionist settler colonial project, built atop the homes and lives of the indigenous Palestinian people.

Palestinians in Jerusalem — and throughout occupied Palestine and in exile — continue to resist and to prove that the Palestinian struggle continues and that organizing and resistance is the road to liberation. We know that it is this resistance that will defeat the attacks of Zionism and imperialism, and our actions and organizing around the world can work to build support for the Palestinian people and their resistance in Jerusalem, Gaza, throughout occupied Palestine and in exile and diaspora.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all friends of Palestine around the world to join the campaign to #SaveSheikhJarrah. Boycott Israel, take the streets and take action, organize direct actions and speak out to defend Jerusalem, defend Palestine and support the Palestinian resistance and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea!

Join us in the Week of Palestinian Struggle from 15-22 May — and before the week officially begins — to escalate our organizing, resistance and action to support the Palestinians struggling, resisting, fighting and facing the most severe, brutal and deadly colonial violence on the front lines of liberation struggle.

READ THE FULL CALL TO ACTION in English — Arabic — German — French — Swedish

Here are some ways that you can take action:

Boycott Israel

The international, Arab and Palestinian campaign to boycott Israel can play an important role at this critical time. Local boycott groups can protest and label Israeli produce and groceries. During Ramadan, Israeli dates from stolen Palestinian land are marketed around the world while Israel attempts to force Palestinians from Jerusalem, demolish homes, and imprisons thousands more. By participating in the boycott of Israel, you can directly help to throw a wrench in the economy of settler colonialism. Download our Boycott Flyerto distribute at supermarkets, stores and other venues in your community!

Take the Streets

On the Week of Palestinian Struggle, join us to defend Jerusalem, #SaveSheikhJarrah and continue on their path of resistance, steadfastness and solidarity. There are more actions on 8 and 9 May to stand with Palestine in New York, London, Berlin, Columbus, Chicago, Milan and elsewhere. It’s time to make our voices heard loudly and clearly for justice for Palestine. Take to the streets and join these actions below — and see our full list of events!

Our comrades at Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine developed a useful toolkit that you can use when planning your own event! Check it out here: https://wolpalestine.com/resources/rally-toolkit/

Source: Samidoun

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Al Quds Day: Palestinian resistance can never be defeated!

written by Struggle – La Lucha
May 13, 2021

Statement on behalf of Struggle-La Lucha for the International Day of Quds Online Event.

On this International Day of Al Quds, May 7, 2021, we stand in solidarity with the heroic people of Palestine in their century-long battle to defend their rights, their land and their very existence against a twisted, racist, colonial project conceived in the imperial capitals of Europe in the 19th century and funded since 1948 by Washington and Wall Street. 

We stand with the Palestinian people in their struggle for independence and return, for the right of every Palestinian to live in peace and freedom in every inch of the land of Palestine. We honor Rehab Zaoul and all the martyrs of that struggle, who will be remembered forever in a free Palestine. 

Today the city of Al Quds itself, also called Jerusalem, is the front line of that battle. Her people are fighting to defend their ancient city from Ku Klux Klan-like lynch mobs of hate-filled settlers, many from the United States and Europe, who chant “Death to Arabs” and “We’ll burn your village down!” 

The media call these rightwing Zionist gangs extremists. But their slogans express in words what the racist Israeli state has done in deeds since it was created in 1948 by Western powers on the stolen soil of Palestine. And they are backed by the full might of the U.S.-armed Israeli state, which now seeks to evict Palestinian families in East Jerusalem from homes they have lived in for centuries.  

The Zionist dream, the very goal of the Israeli state’s existence, is the eradication of the Palestinian people from their homeland. But they will never achieve this goal. 

This year, the Day of Quds falls little more than a week before the 73rd anniversary of what Palestinian people call Al Nakba, the catastrophe of exile and occupation that continues to this day.

73 years of catastrophe

Seventy-three years ago, the majority of the people of Palestine were expelled from their homes. Thousands were executed in cold blood for the “crime” of being born Palestinian. Entire cities were depopulated and 530 villages were destroyed so that a Western settler state could be erected on their ruins. 

Today that state, which declared its so-called “independence” on May 15, 1948, directly occupies 85 percent of the land of Palestine and part of Syria. 

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem live under a daily reign of terror from Israeli troops and settlers, who murder and kidnap them and destroy their crops and animals in an effort to drive them from their land. Every year more families see their homes demolished or stolen by settlers from the U.S. 

In the Gaza Strip, nearly 2 million Palestinians live under a constant state of siege, locked inside a giant open-air prison where water is not fit to drink, electricity runs only a few hours a day and people die from lack of medicine. They are subject to regular bombardment by the latest weapons in Israel’s U.S.-supplied arsenal.

On any given day, nearly 5,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, languish in Israeli prisons, many of them under “administrative detention,” denied the right to trial.

The very existence of “Israel” has been a 73-year-long war against the people of Palestine and the neighboring countries of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan — and now Yemen and Iran as well. For 73 years this war has been subsidized by the U.S., which provides an endless flow of arms and dollars to the settler fortress in Palestine. 

Last May 22, while millions of workers in the U.S. worried about their next meal, the U.S. Senate Foreign Aid Committee approved a new $38-billion aid package to Israel. 

Enforcer for U.S. oil profits

For the corporate agents in Washington, D.C., the racist state of Israel is a critical instrument in their war machine, a weapon in their bloody quest to keep the wealth of the world flowing to the U.S. ruling class. 

Israel is an apartheid state, but it is also part of a global system of apartheid that divides the world into rich and poor. It is an enforcer in a giant protection racket run from Washington that has extorted trillions of dollars from the oil-rich countries of the region. Keeping those petrodollars flowing has been the object of U.S. intervention in West Asia and North Africa since 1945. 

Regimes like the monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula that pay their oil revenues in tribute to U.S. banks, oil companies and the military-financial complex get protection. Those that refuse get attacked. That’s why Israel attacked Egypt and Syria in 1967; that’s why it wages covert war against Syria, Yemen and Iran today. Meanwhile, Chevron plans to use gas stolen from Palestinian waters in its battle for the European energy market.

Let us also be clear: The racist state in Palestine in no way represents or benefits the vast majority of Jewish people on this planet, many of whom stand in solidarity with Palestine. It only serves the interest of an elite ruling class of bankers and billionaires, very few of whom are Jewish.

Forty years ago, Reagan’s Secretary of State Alexander Haig called Israel “the largest U.S. aircraft carrier in the world, and the only one that can’t be sunk.” In 2017, aboard the USS George Bush, moored in Palestinian waters, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “A few miles from here, there is another aircraft carrier for our common civilization — it’s called the State of Israel.” 

When Netanyahu speaks of “common civilization,” he speaks of a commonality of racism, oppression and dispossession. The scenes of Israeli occupiers beating and brutalizing Palestinians in Jerusalem today are so much like the scenes of racist police violence against Black and Brown and Indigenous people in the United States. 

Many U.S. police departments have joint training programs with Israeli occupation forces in Palestine. The NYPD even has a branch in the Israeli settlement of Kfar Saba. 

The rock of resistance 

The creation of the racist state of Israel was a re-creation of the Trail of Tears and the many other massacres and land thefts of the Native peoples of North America. 

And today, in Al Quds and the West Bank, the settlers seek to recreate the horrors of Rosewood, Tulsa, Elaine and many other Black communities in the U.S. destroyed by racist terror. 

But racist oppression is foundering on the rock of people’s resistance, from Black America to Palestine. 

Seventy-three years of murder, terror and repression have not broken the resistance of the Palestinian people, their will or their determination to live free on their own land. We see that today in the streets of Jerusalem and Nablus and Bethlehem, where the occupation’s genocidal schemes are provoking a new Intifada. And the world has changed much since 1948 and 1988. 

In Washington, politicians claim they will end “forever wars” and “endless wars.” Yet they still vote endless funds to the monstrous Pentagon war machine and its giant base in occupied Palestine. 

It will take a huge fight by the people to get the war machine off our backs. And you cannot end “endless war” without ending the flow of U.S. arms and dollars to the Israeli occupation state. 

The week of May 15-22 has been proclaimed an international week of action for the liberation of all Palestinians. Here in the United States, we need to be on the streets on those days. In New York and New Jersey, there will be rallies in Brooklyn and Paterson on May 15 and May 16. If you are in the area, please join us on those days. 

We need money for human needs, not racist wars!
End all aid to the racist state of Israel!
Free Jerusalem!
Free Palestine! 

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Action call from Occupied Palestine: Palestinian Prisoners’ Week – 17-23 April 2021

written by Struggle – La Lucha
May 13, 2021

The Call for Liberation and Steadfastness

17-23 April 2021

A week of action to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and to liberate the detainees from Israeli occupation prisons

We, in the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Occupied Palestine, today call upon all the democratic and progressive forces of the world and all friends of the Palestinian people, liberation movements, solidarity organizations and movements, to join us in this call for rights and justice. We call upon you today with a free Palestinian cry to the global conscience to stand firmly and clearly with the Palestinian people’s struggle and their legitimate and continuous resistance until victory and liberation. 

This is the call of the prisoners of freedom in the prisons of Zionist colonialism, the first line of the Palestinian resistance in occupied Palestine. The prisoners and detainees are a revolutionary corps engaged in the struggle on the front lines, every day, every hour, minute, and second, confronting with their bodies and their voices the Israeli brutality and Zionist crimes that are fully supported by the United States and its imperialist allies.

Nevertheless, the Palestinian prisoners continue to struggle with exceptional determination and steadfastness, despite the siege, isolation and military force of colonialism. This is a call to support the steadfastness and leadership of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, stand with the Palestinian struggle within the prisons of the occupation, and urge the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners. We urge all to organize the widest international popular movement to stand with the Palestinian people, the Palestinian prisoners and their valiant resistance on Palestinian Prisoners’ Week, which takes place between 17 and 23 April each year. 

We, with our comrades in Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network inside and outside occupied Palestine, carry the message of the prisoners’ movement inside the Israeli occupation prisons, and call upon you to participate and join with us in organizing a week of popular and solidarity activities, campaigns, actions and movements in support of the Palestinian prisoners and their just struggle for freedom and liberation. We call upon you to expose the daily Zionist crimes to which they are constantly subjected, including the policies of repression, isolation, collective punishment and deprivation practiced by the prison administration against them.

These systematic policies include the denial of family visits, denial of visits and communication with lawyers, isolation and solitary confinement, collective punishment, torture, administrative detention without charge or trial, violent raids of prisoners’ rooms, confiscation of books, and the continued detention of children and ill patients, a situation that has been intensified in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the threat it poses to the lives of all Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons.

At the same time, the Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem are continuing their popular struggle and steadfastness, confronting the bulldozers of the occupation and the policy of comprehensive ethnic cleansing, uprooting and systematic dispossession of the Palestinian people. This is an official, declared Zionist policy taking place before the eyes of the world since 1947 that has not ceased for one day. Entire Arab residential neigbourhoods are being targeted for displacement, as is the case in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Suhafat, Issawiya, and the neighborhoods and areas of the Palestinian people throughout occupied Jerusalem. At the same time, the occupation forces continue their policy of repression, persecution and arbitrary arrests throughout occupied Jerusalem. Hardly a day passes without violent nighttime arrests and raids that target women, men, students, workers and even children.

It is clear that the policy of arrests practiced by the Zionist colonial authority targets the Palestinian people throughout occupied Palestine, in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and occupied Palestine ’48, and in the besieged Gaza Strip, where aggression, siege and arrests target even fishermen and farmers in Gaza. This reality confirms that the Zionist occupation has encroached upon our entire Palestinian land, from the river to the sea, and targets our entire Palestinian people, every man, woman, youth, elder and child throughout our occupied homeland. And that is why our Palestinian people, inside occupied Palestine and in exile and diaspora, stand firmly with the struggling prisoners’ movement that fights and sacrifices for their rights, because it is a true national leadership that reflects the essence and goal of the Palestinian struggle and the meanings and values of resistance, liberation, equality, self-sacrifice and dedication.

Confronting the silence and inaction of the so-called “international community,” which is well-aware of these facts and the documented details of the crimes committed against our Palestinian people and their liberation movement, and in light of the unprecedented levels of oppression and Israeli occupation crimes, and the collusion of institutions and reactionary states in the region and beyond in seeking normalization and alliance with Israel, we make this global appeal to our friends and comrades, the democratic forces and free people of the world everywhere, to be part of this freedom struggle waged by the Palestinian people and to stand with the spearhead of Palestinian resistance, the struggling prisoners’ movement, confronting imperialism, racism and reactionary forces and their proxies in occupied Palestine and throughout the region.

We carry to you today the message of the prisoners struggling inside the prisons of the Zionist occupation. We extend our salutes to all of the activists, strugglers and freedom fighters detained in the prisons of the world. We stand with their just and legitimate struggles to achieve their goals and salute their sacrifices. We remind ourselves and the world of the suffering of our fellow political prisoners in the prisons of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Greece, the Philippines, Colombia, the United States and elsewhere, and we call for support for their resistance and liberation This week of solidarity with our Palestinian prisoners is also a week of solidarity with every prisoner fighting for liberation, social justice and victory over the systems of oppression, exploitation and persecution wherever they are.

On this day, we send our deepest greetings of steadfastness and honour to comrade Georges Ibrahim Abdallah in French prisons. He is an exceptional revolutionary figure, one of the symbols of our resistance and a leader of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement. We also demand the liberation of all political detainees in US prisons, including the veteran leaders of the Black Panther movement, and we affirm the depth of the relationship of joint struggle between our Palestinian people and the Black Liberation Movement in the United States. The distance between us does not undermine the realities of our joint struggle, shared goals and common enemy.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Week between 17-23 April 2021 must be a global occasion for joint struggle confronting colonialism, racism, Zionism, exploitation and imperialism, for a better world, a humane society and an alternative directed by the values of solidarity, collective good and popular liberation. 

Long live the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation and return! 

Long live the struggle of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement! 

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

Take Action: Suggested Action Items

Please join us in taking action of the Week of Struggle! Your local actions are incredibly important in building the movement that is so necessary for the cause. With the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have been forced to organize indoors and online. We encourage activists and organizers to consider public, outdoor actions that you can take that are safe, creative and mobilizing, as well as letter-writing campaigns to support the prisoners. Here are a few action items. Please share yours with us at samidoun@samidoun.net.

1. Demonstrations, rallies and street actions – including actions to boycott Israel!

Have a protest or action to free Palestinian prisoners, support the Palestinian struggle for liberation, stand with the Palestinian resistance and boycott Israel and its complicit corporations. There are many different kinds of actions that you can take that are safe while still getting out on the streets – check out the Stand Palestine organized by Collectif Palestine Vaincra in Toulouse, France; or the outdoor informational gatherings in Aachen and Dusseldorf, Germany, organized by Samidoun Deutschland for Land Day and the Free Palestinian Students campaign. With Ramadan approaching, it’s important to highlight the campaign to boycott Israeli dates in particular! Include he Palestinian prisoners in your campaign against the agriculture of apartheid.

You can also check out the civil disobedience actions organized against Elbit, the arms manufacturer, by Palestine Action in the UK for direct actions targeting the apartheid war machine.

2. Letter Writing Actions

Support the steadfastness of Palestinian prisoners by writing letters to them. You can send them directly to Israeli prisons — making clear not only to the prisoners but also to the prison administration that the world is watching and Palestinian prisoners are not isolated. Click here to download one list of addresses for Palestinian prisoners– part of the #FreePalestinianStudents campaign.

In addition, Samidoun Palestine is in touch directly with the families of Palestinian prisoners. Take photos of your letters and send them to us via email at samidoun@samidoun.net or via WhatsApp at +32466904397. You can even send us a voice note to broadcast on the radio stations transmitted to the prisoners. Letter writing actions can be held in person (even outdoors) or virtually/remotely over any meeting solution.

3. Creative Actions

Creative actions are a wonderful way to spread the word and highlight the struggle of the Palestinian prisoners – even when you are engaging in physical distancing and health precautions. The banner hung by Samidoun España in Madrid at the University metro station highlighted the struggle of Palestinian students, while the campaign to symbolically rename streets after Georges Abdallah internationally commemorated his birthday and amplified the demand for his liberation.

These actions only require one, two or a few people. You can even simply poster and sticker around your neighbourhood. Contact us via email at samidoun@samidoun.net or via WhatsApp at +32466904397 if you are looking for image ideas or resources! 

4. Online/Virtual Events and Webinars

We still have plenty to share with each other via online events and webinars, which can enable us to connect easily and freely across borders and barriers. Host a webinar or event — or a cultural gathering with poetry and music — highlighting the struggle of Palestinian prisoners.

Please note: Samidoun has speakers that can participate in your webinars in Arabic, English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish and other languages. Contact us via email at samidoun@samidoun.net or via WhatsApp at +32466904397 to inquire about a Samidoun speaker! 

Source: Samidoun

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On International Women’s Day, Palestinian women are on the front lines of liberation struggle

written by Struggle – La Lucha
May 13, 2021

“To our colleagues, to Palestinian students and those around the world, from the heart of the Zionist prisons. On the occasion of 8th of March, we long for freedom, justice and equality for all women of the world, including students, inside and outside the prison cells. Our battle is united, as we are all fighting oppression on the basis of gender, fighting class exploitation and fascist colonialism and foremost among which is the occupation on our land. To our female university colleagues, who are at the front lines of the battle for change, our confidence is in your struggle and resistance that illuminates the sky of our homeland and lights the road for freedom. For all Palestinian women, we believe that our social struggle is an inherent part of the struggle of our people, and for the liberation of land and people, we sacrifice, struggle and bring forth strugglers.” – Bir Zeit University student prisoners, Layan Kayed, Elia Abu Hijleh, Ruba Assi, Shatha Tawil, Damon prison, Mount Carmel, 8 March 2021

“On this 8 March, humanity exposed to the devastation of the Corona pandemic on the one hand, and the regime of tyranny, racism and colonialism on the other hand. A thousand greetings to every voice that resists injustice and oppression. May women remain at the forefront of this resistance, and 8 March stand as a symbol of liberation!” – Khalida Jarrar, imprisoned Palestinian leader, feminist and rights advocate, Damon prison, Mount Carmel 7 March 2021

As we commemorate International Working Women’s Day around the world this 8 March, there are 35 Palestinian women in Israeli jails, representing all facets of Palestinian society: students, activists, organizers, parliamentarians, journalists, health workers, mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, strugglers, freedom fighters. Palestinian women have always been at the center of the liberation movement through all aspects of struggle and have led within the prisoners’ movement, organizing hunger strikes and standing on the front lines of struggle even behind bars. On International Working Women’s Day, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the leading role of Palestinian women in struggle and urges the immediate release of all Palestinian women prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons.

Palestinian women prisoners include 11 mothers, six injured women and three jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. They include Khalida Jarrar, Palestinian parliamentarian, feminist, leftist and advocate for Palestinian political prisoners, sentenced to two years in Israeli prison for her public political activities just days prior to International Women’s Day; Khitam Saafin, President of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, jailed without charge or trial, her administrative detention renewed for another four months; Bushra al-Tawil, Palestinian journalist and activist whose detention without charge or trial was also renewed for another four months on 7 March 2021.

They include Palestinian students, like Layan Kayed, Elia Abu Hijleh, Ruba Assi and Shata Tawil of Bir Zeit University. Hundreds of Palestinian students are routinely detained by the Israeli occupation, especially those who are part of student organizations involved with campus political life. At Bir Zeit University alone, approximately 74 students were detained by occupation soldiers during the 2019-2020 academic year.

Palestinian women prisoners are among 5,000 total political prisoners, but Palestinian women are broadly affected by the mass incarceration of Palestinian men as well. Palestinian women are the mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, lovers and friends of Palestinian male prisoners. They make homes for themselves and their children, denied access to their husbands and fathers. They lead the movement outside prison to highlight the names, faces, voices and stories of all Palestinian prisoners struggling for liberation.

Since 1948 and before, from the earliest days of the Palestinian national liberation movement, Palestinian women have been expelled from their homes and targeted for repression on multiple levels, their very capacity to reproduce and raise their children labeled as an unacceptable threat to the racist settler-colonial project of Zionism. Since 1967 alone, around 10,000 Palestinian women have been jailed by the Israeli occupation for their political activity and involvement in the Palestinian resistance, including Palestinian women in Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian women holding Israeli citizenship in occupied Palestine ’48. Palestinian women in exile and diaspora have been denied their right to return to Palestine for over 72 years yet continue to struggle, facing political repression, criminalization, deportation and imprisonment.

Palestinian women prisoners are routinely subjected to torture and ill-treatment by Israeli occupation forces, from the moment they are detained — often in violent night raids — and throughout the interrogation process, including beatings, insults, threats, aggressive body searches and sexually explicit harassment. Within Israeli prisons, the official state policy of “worsening the conditions” of Palestinian prisoners has particularly targeted Palestinian women, denied family visits or even phone calls, subjected to intense surveillance that violates their privacy, denied education and held in dangerous and unhealthy conditions. They are transported in the “bosta,” a metal vehicle where women are shackled on a long, circituous trip that takes hours longer than a direct route and often denied access to sanitary facilities.

Damon prison, itself formerly a stable for animals, is located in occupied Palestine ’48 — in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and making it even more difficult for Palestinian women’s family members to visit them. All visits are subjected to an arbitrary permit regime which is often obstructed by the Israeli occupation regime.

However, Palestinian women behind bars continue to resist and to lead. In April 1970, Palestinian women prisoners at Neve Tirza prison launched one of the first collective hunger strikes of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement when they refused food for nine days. They demanded access to women’s sanitary supplies as well as an end to beatings and solitary confinement. Palestinian women have been consistently involved in general hunger strikes and protest actions, including strikes led by women prisoners in 1985, 2004 and 2019 that inspired global women’s solidarity. Despite the denial of formal education by the Israeli colonial regime, Palestinian women prisoners have developed revolutionary education for all prisoners, expanding their knowledge and commitment to struggle.

Palestinian women prisoners are not alone; they struggle alongside fellow women political prisoners in the Philippines, Turkey, India, Egypt and around the world. And their imprisonment is also international: it is funded, backed and supported by the diplomatic, military, economic and political backing given to Israel by the imperialist powers, including the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and the European Union states. Palestinian women also confront the role of the Palestinian Authority’s “security cooperation” regime under Oslo and the normalization politics and repressive attacks of reactionary Arab regimes.

Despite all attempts of the Zionist regime to isolate them from the global movement for the liberation of women and humanity through imprisonment and repression, Palestinian women continue to organize and struggle from behind bars, in the streets and fields of occupied Palestine, and everywhere in exile in diaspora, seeking return and liberation. On International Women’s Day 2021, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the movement of Palestinian women and their leadership in the ongoing and daily struggle for national and social liberation.

We urge women’s organizations, student organizations and people of conscience everywhere to raise their voices and act in solidarity with Palestinian women, and Palestinian women prisoners, targeted by the Israeli occupation – including by building the movement for the boycott of Israel, its institutions and complicit corporations like HP, Puma, Teva Pharmaceuticals and G4S. The Israeli occupation wants to continue its colonization of Palestine unchecked by isolating and detaining the leaders of the Palestinian people’s movement. Now is the time to act and urge their immediate release and the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners, and of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Take Action!

1. Join the Campaign to Free Palestinian Students! Over 325 organizations have already signed on to the campaign to take action to free imprisoned Palestinian students. Get involved at freepalestinianstudents.org.

2. Organize protests, demonstrations creative actions. Ad hacks, postering and other outdoor actions – especially near an Israeli embassy or consulate – can draw a significant amount of attention to the Palestinian women prisoners and the Palestinian cause at this critical time.

3. Build the boycott of Israel! Join the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. 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.

Resources on Palestinian women prisoners

We recommend the following resources for more information on Palestinian women prisoners:

Strugglelalucha256

Samidoun: We will not be silenced by Israel’s “terrorist” designation

written by Struggle – La Lucha
May 13, 2021

In response to Israeli Defense Minister and war criminal Benny Gantz’s designation of Samidoun as a “terrorist organization”, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network affirms that we will continue to organize and mobilize internationally in defense of Palestinian rights and liberation. This is the latest manifestation of a smear campaign that is intended to silence international support for the Palestinian people and especially the nearly 5,000 Palestinians jailed by the Israeli occupation. This is an attack on the Palestinian prisoners’ movement as well as the right of Palestinians in exile and diaspora to organize. We affirm that we will not be silenced or deterred by Israel’s smear campaigns.

The Israeli allegations are replete with false, misleading and careless allegations, beginning with listing an incorrect date for the founding of Samidoun (we actually mark our 10-year anniversary this year, in 2021, as is easily learned from our website). Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat has expressed his support for Samidoun’s work on multiple occasions, and we are proud to share his writings and thoughts. However, Israel’s complete disregard for facts once again comes into play here: Khaled Barakat is not now, nor has he ever been, a director or “chief coordinator” of Samidoun.

We are a grassroots organization with no paid full-time staff and that does not fundraise for any organization except for sustaining our advocacy campaigns. We have chapters in the US, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, Greece and occupied Palestine, and a network of member organizations including the Collectif Palestine Vaincra in France. This is a blatant attempt to disrupt and undermine this growing mobilization of support for Palestine around the world.

We conduct our work openly, visibly and publicly, as is visible at our website, samidoun.net, and we are proud to call for the freedom of Palestinian political prisoners like Ahmad Sa’adat, Khalida Jarrar, and thousands of Palestinians of diverse political backgrounds. The entire Israeli campaign is based on a complete disregard for facts and reality.

In fact, most of the listed points appear to come directly from right-wing propaganda organization NGO Monitor, which aims to shield Israel from international accountability for war crimes by smearing human rights defenders in Palestine and around the world./ NGO Monitor’s “baseless claims and factual inaccuracies” are a long-standing feature of their defense of Israeli apartheid, extrajudicial killings, land confiscation, arbitrary detention, military occupation, siege and colonialism.

Samidoun is an independent international, Arab and Palestinian organization that mobilizes for the liberation of nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. We advocate for the boycott of Israel, and we uphold the right of Palestinians to resist occupation, apartheid and oppression, and the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands. We stand for a free Palestine, from the river to the sea.

It is for these reasons and these reasons alone that Israel’s Defense Ministry, engaged in daily war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people under occupation, is attacking Samidoun’s work. This is a further attempt to use repression and threats against the Palestinian people and their international allies as a campaign activity for Benny Gantz’s party in the Israeli elections. This is also an attempt to divert attention from the serious problem facing hundreds of Zionist officials – including Gantz himself – who are afraid from the next steps of the investigations by the International Criminal Court (ICC) after its last announcement on 5 February 2021 affirming that it has the authority to investigate war crimes in the Palestinian occupied territories.

Further, it is no surprise that this public announcement comes only days after 300 international organizations have joined in a collective campaign to free Palestinian student prisoners.

In fact, this should not be conceived of as an attack on Samidoun alone: instead, it comes hand in hand with a series of smear campaigns directed at Palestinian human rights defenders and those who uphold Palestinian rights around the world — and the Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian people themselves. The same designation has been levied against a number of international organizations engaged in public advocacy for Palestinian rights and freedom. This attack is an attempt to isolate the Palestinian prisoners, not only behind bars, but from their international base of support and solidarity. It is further an attempt to silence support for the legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people, targeting opposition to imperialist wars, the Oslo process and the ongoing colonization of Palestine.

We are among many activists and organizations who have been attacked by Israel — many of whom have paid a much higher price, including those Palestinians, Arabs and internationalists who have been jailed, tortured and assassinated by Israel. Always, the goal is the same: an attempt to undermine the growing international support for the Palestinian people and their just cause.

Almost every organization, movement and even individual activist that stands for Palestinian freedom is targeted by the Israeli occupation and its leading war criminals for harassment, threats and attempts to mobilize state power to suppress an anti-colonial, anti-racist movement for justice and liberation. We are proud to stand with all of those who face such smear campaigns and repressive attacks — by intensifying our work and coming together to confront Israeli apartheid, occupation, war crimes and colonization, and organizing for the liberation of Palestine. 

We invite activists and organizations to join the Samidoun Network and build together with us. Contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net. 

Source: Samidoun.net

Strugglelalucha256

Hamburg protest: Free Ahmad Sa’adat, free Palestine!

written by Struggle – La Lucha
May 13, 2021

On Jan. 23, we took part in a rally for the freedom of comrade Commander Ahmad Sa’adat in Hamburg, Germany. Sa’adat, who is general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), is one of more than 4,500 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails. The rally took place as part of the International Week of Action, which was called by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

During his tenure as senator, current U.S. President Joseph Biden said, “It’s about time we stop apologizing for our support for Israel, there’s no apology to be made. It is the best $3 billion investment we make. If there weren’t an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.”

The stringing together of oppression, exploitation and genocide — these are the results of the U.S. settlement policy and that is precisely the goal and practice of the Israeli government. Just as the “headquarters of global democracy” in Washington, D.C., exterminated 95% of the North American Indigenous peoples, so does the so-called “only democracy of the Middle East” want to implement this policy towards the Palestinians.

Given Joe Biden’s honesty and his promise that nothing fundamental will change, we can give an equally sober reply, that there is still only one word to describe such a system and state: apartheid.

Translated by Greg Butterfield

Source: NoPasaranHamburg.com

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https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/palestine/page/44/ 

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