18 June 2009
Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America (www.irscna.org)
Solidarity with Hunger Striker Ahmad Sa’adat
On behalf of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, the Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America send solidarity greetings to Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who is now on the second week of a hunger strike in protest of the Israel Prison Service’s policies of abuse and isolation of Palestinian political prisoners guilty of nothing more than legitimate resistance to a brutal occupation.
Around 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners are incarcerated in Zionist prisons, and since the Zionist military’s criminal assaults in Gaza late last year and early this year, the prisoners have come under increased mistreatment. The attacks on the rights of Palestinian prisoners include the imposition of fines, prevention of rest periods, denial of family visits, confiscation of prisoners’ belongings, denial of household items, and the regular use of solitary confinement and isolation cells, particularly against those identified as leaders.
Since 18 March, Comrade Sa’adat has been held in solitary confinement in Shikma Prison in Ashkelon (Asqalan), leading to a worsening of existing health issues. He suffers from back problems that require treatment by a specialist, but the Zionist authorities refuse to allow him to see such a specialist. We call on the Zionist prison authorities to immediately release Comrade Sa’adat from solitary confinement and provide the medical treatment that he requires.
Further, we call for an immediate end to the abuse and isolation of all Palestinian political prisoners, and demand that the Zionist government release Sa’adat and all other political prisoners. The occupiers have no right to judge or imprison men and women moved by their conscience to fight against the occupation and for a Palestinian state.
The IRSM–comprised principally in Ireland of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and the Irish National Liberation Army, and represented in North America by the IRSCNA–know all too well about how an occupying power criminalizes those who oppose it, and three of our INLA comrades died on hunger strike in 1981, along with seven members of the Irish Republican Army, protesting the denial of their rights as prisoners of war by the British state.
Thus, we give our full support to the struggle for Palestinian national liberation and the struggle within Zionist prisons by Palestinian political prisoners, and we lend our strength to Comrade Sa’adat in his time of need on hunger strike.
Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners now!
