May 11, 2008
Ahmad Sa’adat was brought to a new hearing of the illegitimate Israeli military court on Sunday, May 11, 2008, in the military prison at Ofer near Ramallah, Palestine. He was surrounded by occupation soldiers as he was brought into the courtroom. The next hearing in his case was scheduled to take place on May 14, but he was brought to the illegitimate court on May 11.
At the hearing, Ahmad Sa’adat began to speak. He saluted the Palestinian people on the sixtieth anniversary of Al-Nakba and stressed upon the importance of the right to return for all Palestinian refugees, calling it a bridge between the national rights and the historical rights of the Palestinian people. He also called for continued struggle until the establishment of the democratic Palestinian state on all of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.
In his comments, Sa’adat further called on all Palestinian factions, particularly Hamas and Fatah, to return to a comprehensive national dialogue aimed at an end to the division and the establishment of national unity to confront the occupation. He called also upon the Arab states to withdraw the so-called “Arab initiative,” and instead to take up their responsibility to support the Palestinian people in the international arena, and to draw attention to the crimes of the occupation, and address Israel as a racist, aggressive state, and called upon Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to immediately end negotiations with the occupation state, emphasizing that these negotiations serve as a cover for the expansion of settlements and the crimes of the occupation.
Finally, Ahmad Sa’adat saluted all of the friends and allies of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause around the world, and greeted the progressive and revolutionary forces around the world, pledging to remain on the front lines and continue in the common struggle against imperialism.
When he attempted to speak further about the situation in Lebanon, he was prevented from doing so by the occupation soldiers, and was also prevented from addressing his conditions while imprisoned.
In his comments, he emphasized again, as he has many times, the illegitimate nature of the military courts, emphasizing that they have no power against him and that not only are these courts illegitimate, every occupier in the courtroom was also illegitimate and there only as a function of occupation and the theft of Palestinian land. He stressed that he was not there as an individual, but rather because everything he did was under the banner of the Palestinian people and the just cause of the Palestinian people. He emphasized that he would be willing at any time to talk about the Palestinian people and their just cause, but never to be a witness in this illegitimate court.
The court cancelled the May 14 scheduled hearing. The occupation military authorities have repeatedly barred visitors, including his family, from visiting him, and this was the first time in months that he was able to be seen by his wife Abla and his son Yassar. They were forced to sit far away from him in the courtroom and not to come close to hug him. When asked what he needed in prison, he replied that he wanted more books to read.
