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. Join Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and organizers for justice and liberation in Palestine around the world for the International Week of Action to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners, 15 January to 22 January 2022.
- Click here to endorse the week of action!
- Download posters/graphics in English, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Swedish and Danish
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.
On 15 January 2022, we will mark the 20th anniversary of Sa’adat’s arrest by the Palestinian Authority in the context of “security cooperation” with the Israeli occupation. After Israeli forces violently abducted him from the PA’s Jericho Prison, he was sentenced to 30 years in Israeli prison on 25 December 2008, accused of leading a prohibited organization and of “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 Zionism, capitalism, racism, apartheid and colonization. Targeted for his political role and clarity of vision, he remains unsilenced and unbroken, despite the oppression imposed upon him and 4,650 fellow Palestinian political prisoners.
On 15-22 January 2022, join our collective call for the freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners. Take action to escalate the boycott of Israel, end aid and support to Israel, organize for justice in Palestine and resist imperialism and colonialism.
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, Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades are now serving lengthy sentences in Israeli prisons.
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 the Palestinian liberation movement.
Join us to demand freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons. Prisoners of the Palestinian liberation movement continue to be held in international jails as well, especially Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed in France for 37 years despite being eligible for release since 1999; the Holy Land Foundation 5 in the U.S.; and Issam Hijjawi Bassalat in British jails; and we join the call for their liberation.
Also, just 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. “Terror” labels are used as a colonial weapon against resistance movements, and we affirm: Resistance is a right!
“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
Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea!
Click here to endorse the week of action!
TAKE ACTION:
- Organize events, actions and protests to demand freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners! Protest in public squares, campuses and community spaces. Organize a Palestine Stand or a letter writing event to write to Sa’adat and his fellow Palestinian prisoners. These dates also mark the anniversary of Israel’s bloody “Cast Lead” attack on Gaza in 2008-2009. Email us at samidoun@samidoun.net to inform us about your events or actions.
- Screen the film “Fedayin”, on the life and struggle of Georges Abdallah. Ahmad Sa’adat and Georges Abdallah are comrades who constantly salute each others’ struggles and maintain a political correspondence despite miles of distance and prison walls. To organize a screening, email samidoun@samidoun.net and vacarmesfilms@gmail.com
- #ShutElbitDown: Palestine Action won an important victory against British repression of the courageous activists who have confronted Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems with red paint and creative direct action. The next trial – in Crown Court – is coming up in January. Help support the campaign by organizing actions to #ShutElbitDown in your area. Learn more at https://palestineaction.com/
- Join the social media campaign. Post a photo or a video with a message calling for freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and his fellow Palestinian prisoners and the hashtag #FreeAhmadSaadat. You can use the posters below. Send us your photo by emailing us at samidoun@samidoun.net or contacting us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
- Boycott Israel! Ahmad Sa’adat says: “I call on all forces of progress, freedom and democracy to stand by the struggle of our people through all forms of boycott: political, economic, academic and cultural of the occupation state and the creation of a real economic cost for its industries of colonization and settlement and escalating the global campaigns for boycott of all corporations that support and invest in the occupation militarily and economically.” Don’t buy Israeli goods, and campaign to end investments in corporations that profit from the occupation. Join direct actions to challenge war profiteers and boycott complicit corporations like Puma and HP.
Click here to endorse the week of action!
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