Events around the world for Days of Action for Ahmad Sa’adat and Palestinian Prisoners – 13-15 January

Activists around the world are gearing up for international days of action to free imprisoned Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners.

Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is currently imprisoned in Israeli jails serving a 30-year sentence for “incitement” and membership and leadership of a prohibited organization, his political party. On 15 January 2002, Sa’adat was arrested by Palestinian Authority security forces after attending a private meeting; the PA arrested Sa’adat and his comrades at the behest of Israel, the United States and the UK under the policy of “security cooperation.”

Sa’adat was imprisoned in a Palestinian Authority jail in Jericho until March 2006, when the prison itself was attacked in a violent Israeli occupation military raid and Sa’adat and his comrades abducted.

The call to action was endorsed by over 60 organizations around the world. A series of events and actions are being planned in occupied Palestine and in cities around the world, including New York, London, Manchester, Toulouse, Paris, Berlin, Milan, Padua, Florence, Brussels, Albuquerque, Hilton Head and Copenhagen, as well as events coming up in Canada, Ireland and elsewhere.

Materials and resources for use are available for download.

Original Call from the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat: Read in English | Arabic | French | Italian

We invite your organizations, groups and coalition to endorse this call to action and participate in the events of January 13-15, 2017. Thank you! Please use the form or email samidoun@samidoun.net to sign on.

Events are already being scheduled in cities around the world. Please share your event with us or email samidoun@samidoun.net.

Endorsers | Events

January 13-15, 2017 marks the 15th anniversary of the seizure of Palestinian political leader, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmad Sa’adat, by the Palestinian Authority under the policy of “security cooperation,” at the behest of Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom. Today, after a 2006 attack on the Jericho prison by Israeli occupation forces, Sa’adat is serving a 30-year sentence in occupation prisons, convicted in a military court of leading a prohibited organization and incitement.

Ahmad Sa’adat is a leader of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and a leader of the Palestinian national liberation movement, held behind bars with 7,000 fellow leaders of the Palestinian people. There are thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, on the front line of the struggle for freedom. In the past year, over 6,000 Palestinians were arrested by Israeli occupation forces. These Palestinian political prisoners are the leaders of resistance to occupation, targeted for their role in refusing racism, colonialism, apartheid and occupation.

The imprisonment of Ahmad Sa’adat and his fellow Palestinian political prisoners is aided and assisted by the complicity of international states and major corporations. The United States and United Kingdom guarded Sa’adat in a Palestinian Authority prison and cleared the way for an Israeli attack, ensuring Sa’adat and his comrades came under fire. And the political, military and economic support these and other states, including the European Union and Canada, provide to the Israeli occupation allows the continued imprisonment and extrajudicial execution of Palestinians with impunity. Further, corporations like Hewlett Packard (HP) profit from the imprisonment of Palestinians by selling their services to the Israeli Prison Service.

On January 13-15, 2017, we join in a collective call for international action for the freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners. We demand an end to the internationally-mandated policy of Palestinian Authority “security coordination” that undermines the Palestinian struggle for freedom. And we urge the escalation of the campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against the Israeli state and complicit institutions and corporations, including HP, to create, as Sa’adat said, “a real economic cost for the industries of colonization.”

We echo the call to organize events, actions and protests in cities, town squares, campuses and public spaces to break the isolation of the prisoners, and demand freedom now for Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners.

Endorsing organizations:

We invite your organizations, groups and coalition to endorse this call to action and participate in the events of January 13-15, 2017. Thank you! Please use the form or email samidoun@samidoun.net to sign on.

Scheduled Events:

New York City – Thursday, January 12, Meeting on anti-inauguration marches, Palestinian political prisoners. 7:00 pm, Solidarity Center, 147 W. 24th St., NYC

New York City – Friday, January 13, Protest to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and Stop HP! 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm, Best Buy Union Square (53 E. 14th St.) , NYC. Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/362798944095466/. Organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Albuquerque – Friday, January 13, Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners.  6:00 pm, SouthWest Organizing Project,  211 10th St SW, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1917752155121856/. Organized by Irish Americans for Socialism and Liberation

Brussels – Friday, January 13. Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat! 7:30 pm, Local Sacco Vanzetti, 54 chaussee de Forest, Brussels 1060. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1334357123293510/. Organized by Secours Rouge and Samidoun, endorsed by Mouvement Citoyen Palestine

Copenhagen – Friday, January 13. Solidarity with Ahmad Sa’adat, PFLP’s general secretary,
and all Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Prisons. 5 pm, Solidaritetshuset, Griffenfeldsgade 41, Nørrebro (the shop)

Toulouse – Friday, January 13. Table of Information for Ahmad Sa’adat and Palestinian Prisoners.  6:00 pm, Metro Jean Jaures, 31000 Toulouse, France, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/996856710418892/

Manchester – Saturday, January 14. Boycott Barclays Protest! 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester. Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1279998228726828/. Organized by Manchester Boycott Israel Group

Hilton Head – Saturday January 14. Vigil for Ahmad Sa’adat. 10 am, Highway 278 at HH Library, Hilton Head, South Carolina

London – Saturday, 14 January. Tabling to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and Palestinian Prisoners. 12:00 pm, Court Street, Whitechapel, E1, London. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1750880001895240/  Organized by the East London Revolutionary Communist Group

Milan – Saturday, 14 January. Vigil under the prison of Opera, in solidarity with all prisoners, against isolation (in Italy named 41 Bis), for the liberation of Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners. Organized by Fronte Palestina – Details to come

Florence – Saturday, 14 January. Campi Bisenzio – leafleting for the release of Palestinian prisoners and Ahmad Sa’adat, during the vigil to remember Operation Cast Lead. Organized by Fronte Palestina – Details to come

Padova – Saturday, 14 January. display of banners in the city and a radio broadcast about the Palestinian prisoners situation and Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat in the evening broadcast of Radiazione Web radio. Organized by Fronte Palestina – Details to come

Berlin – Sunday, January 15. Palestinian Contingent in the Liebknecht-Luxemburg-Lenin March. 9:30 am, gather at U-Bahnhof Frankfurter Tor. Organized by the Democratic Palestine Committees-Berlin.

Paris – Sunday, January 15. Protest gathering for freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat. 3:00 pm,
Ménilmontant (Paris Métro), 75020 Paris, France, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/252049355226418/

MORE EVENTS TBA in Italy – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1739069739753137/, Ireland, and more.  We urge you to organize events and please share your event with us or email samidoun@samidoun.net.