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 | Materials and Resources
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.
Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Handala Center for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners
Palestinian Prisoners’ Committee
Coup Pour Coup 31
International Red Aid / Secours Rouge International
Collectif pour la Libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah – Paris
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. This call is open to organizational endorsements.
Original Call from the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat: Read in English | Arabic | French | Italian
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. Further details TBA. Organized by Secours Rouge and Samidoun.
Italy – Friday, January 13 through Sunday, January 15. Specific events TBA. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1739069739753137/
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
Berlin – Sunday, January 15. Palestinian Contingent in the Liebknecht-Luxemburg-Lenin March. 10:00 am, gather at U-Bahnhof Frankfurter Tor. Organized by the Democratic Palestine Committees-Berlin.
