Call to Action: Endorse 14-24 January 2023 Days of Action to Free Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian Prisoners
This call out is open for ORGANIZATIONAL endorsements. Thank you! Please use the form or email samidoun@samidoun.net to sign on.

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

As we mark the 14th anniversary of the Israeli sentencing of Palestinian national liberation and international Left leader Ahmad Sa'adat, and the 14th 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 14 and 24 January 2023 in a week of action to free Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners. 

Ahmad Sa’adat, his comrades, and their fellow Palestinian prisoners are resistance leaders, on the front lines for justice and liberation, enduring hunger strikes and struggling relentlessly with an unbreakable will toward freedom.

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. He was sentenced to 30 years in Israeli prison on 25 December 2008 after being violently abducted from the Palestinian Authority's Jericho prison in 2006, accused of leading a prohibited organization and "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 capitalism, racism, apartheid and colonization. Targeted for his political role and clarity of vision, he remains unable to be silenced despite the oppression imposed upon him and 4,750 fellow Palestinian political prisoners. 

As we organize this week of action, the Palestinian prisoners’ movement is confronting several priorities: Challenging medical neglect, which led to the December death of longtime Palestinian resistance leader Nasser Abu Hmaid, and against which Palestinian thinker Walid Daqqa now struggles. Confronting forced deportation, especially following the forcible expulsion and stripping of Jerusalem identity from Palestinian lawyer Salah Hamouri, now expelled to France. Fighting administrative detention, arbitrary imprisonment without charge or trial under which 820 Palestinian prisoners – out of 4,750 in total – are currently held. Liberating the bodies of the martyrs, including Abu Hmeid and 11 more Palestinians whose bodies remain imprisoned even after their death, a form of collective punishment and torture targeting their families. All of these are key to the ongoing fight to liberate all Palestinian prisoners and all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

On 15 January 2023, we will mark the 21st anniversary of Sa’adat’s arrest by the Palestinian Authority in the context of "security cooperation" with the Israeli occupation, a practice that continues to this day, despite broad Palestinian rejection. The Palestinian Authority kidnapped Sa’adat and his comrades under false pretenses and imprisoned them for four years before its prison was attacked by the Israeli occupation. This is just one of the devastating consequences for Palestinians of the Madrid-Oslo path and the creation of the Palestinian Authority in the so-called "peace process" that has been in reality a project for the liquidation of Palestine.

Today, Palestinian resistance fighters and strugglers continue to be pursued by the PA, working as an agent of the Israeli occupation, imprisoned in PA jails in a "revolving door" with the Israeli occupation and subjected to torture akin to that from the occupation interrogators.

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

While held in the PA’s Jericho Prison, Sa’adat and his comrades were held under U.S, British, Canadian and other foreign guards. Some of those same British guards previously served to guard Irish Republican prisoners in the occupied North of Ireland. After a violent Israeli attack in 2006 designed to prevent new Palestinian leaders from freeing the prisoners, Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades are now serving lengthy sentences in Israeli prisons. 

The direct involvement of the US, Canada and Britain in his imprisonment illustrates why international action in this case is so necessary. The support of these imperialist countries, the European Union, Australia and others for the Israeli colonial project continues to perpetuate its impunity as it carries out land confiscations, home demolitions, mass imprisonment, extrajudicial executions, the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, the siege on Gaza and further crimes against humanity and war crimes. 

We also note that prisoners of the Palestinian liberation movement continue to be held in international jails as well, especially Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed in France for 38 years despite being eligible for release since 1999, and Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu Baker and Mufid Abdulqader of the Holy Land Five, jailed in the U.S. since 2008 for their charitable work for Palestinians, and we join the call for their liberation.

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

On 14-24 January 2023, join our collective call for the freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners, with action and global solidarity to escalate the boycott of Israel, end aid and support to Israel, organize for justice in Palestine and resist imperialism and colonialism. 

Events are already being scheduled in New York City, Albuquerque, Brussels, Berlin, Manchester, Italy and elsewhere. Please share your event with us or email samidoun@samidoun.net.

To join the call, please email samidoun@samidoun.net or sign on to the form below. This call is open to ORGANIZATIONAL endorsements.
 
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