[Ppnews] International Campaign in Support of Palestinian Political Prisoners

[Political Prisoner News]

International Campaign in Support of Palestinian Political Prisoners

By 
<http://palestinethinktank.com/author/yousef-abudayyeh/>Yousef 
Abudayyeh • Mar 24th, 2010 at 10:41
http://palestinethinktank.com/2010/03/24/international-campaign-in-support-of-palestinian-political-prisoners/

The Free Palestine Alliance and Addameer are 
calling for days of action during the week of 
April 11 – 17 in support of Palestinian Political Prisoners.

(Arabic translation follows) April 17, 2010 marks 
the 34th anniversary of Palestinian Political 
Prisoners Day.  As this historic and important 
day approaches, several Palestinian organizations 
and solidarity partners feel it is a critical 
time, now more than ever, to shed light on the 
unsung and sometimes forgotten heroes of the 
ongoing struggle to liberate Palestine.  There 
are a total of 7,300 Arab prisoners.  Among them 
are 33 women and 300 children.  400 are from 
Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied Palestinian 
areas, 745 from Gaza Strip, and 6,155 from the West Bank.

Commemorate Palestinian Political Prisoners Day April 17, 2010

We encourage all to organize local events to 
spread awareness on this critical issue by 
holding workshops, teach-ins, film screenings and 
various activities throughout the week.

On Saturday April 17, 2010, bring together 
community and allies to fly kites in support of 
the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners.

For more information visit:

<http://www.freepalestinianprisoners.com>www.freepalestinianprisoners.com

***********************************************************

More on Prisoners' Day from PFLP's 2008 
appeal: 
<http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=editorial-palestinian-prisoners-national-and-inter>http://www.pflp.ps/english/?q=editorial-palestinian-prisoners-national-and-inter

Prisoners' Day, a day of respect, honor and 
support and solidarity for Palestinian and Arab 
political prisoners imprisoned for their 
commitment to their cause, their homeland and 
their people. Today, the Popular Front for the 
Liberation of Palestine bows in salute to these 
brave prisoners – men, women and children, from 
the newborn babies of women prisoners to Said 
al-Atabah and his decades of imprisonment – who 
today number more than 11,000, inside the torture 
cells, interrogation rooms and the prisons of the occupation.

These prisoners are over 11,000 hostages to the 
occupation forces whose situation is exploited by 
the so-called "peace process," and as the 
occupation forces attempt to barter concessions 
by negotiating small "releases" according to 
criteria set by the occupation and revocable at 
any time by the same occupier who abducted them, 
imprisoned them, held a mockery of a trial for 
them, tortured them. Today, we remember the 
martyrs of the prisoner movement, and the many 
injured. It is worth noting that this year, as in 
many years past, Israel has carried out massacres 
to prevent Palestinians from carrying out 
campaigns for prisoners and against Israel's torture policies.

Israel knows that these Palestinian and Arab 
prisoners are an integral part of the Palestinian 
national movement. Among them are workers, 
students, activists, teachers, of all ages. Among 
them are national leaders – comrade General 
Secretary Ahmad Sa'adat, Marwan Barghouthi, 
Abdelaziz Dweik, Hussam Khadr, Samir Kuntar. 
Israel engages in its policy of mass imprisonment 
as a means of attempting to hold our people as a 
whole hostage, and as an attempt to break our 
people and our cause by subjecting them to 
massive detention and imprisonment, rounding up 
our organizers, our leaders, our young people and 
our teachers, removing them from society and 
holding them away. Yet, despite these attempts, 
the prisoners are in fact central to and at the 
forefront of the Palestinian national movement. 
Every day, they carry on the struggle against the 
occupier on the front lines – inside his prisons, 
face-to-face. It is the Palestinian and Arab 
political prisoners who pay the first price for 
our struggle to stay alive. Despite Israel's best 
efforts, they are not isolated from the struggle, 
and they are not isolated from their people. They 
lead all of us as they stand in the front lines 
of struggle, inside the jails, continuing to 
fight for their – and all of our – freedom.

On this Prisoners' Day, it is urgent that we call 
for the widest possible campaign on a national 
and international level, in order to put the 
cause of Palestinian prisoners where it belongs, 
not only in the forefront of the Palestinian 
national movement but also the international 
solidarity movement. Every day, our prisoners pay 
the price on the front line for all of our 
struggle for freedom, and it is imperative that 
we take up our responsibility to struggle for freedom for our prisoners.

The rights that our prisoners have achieved only 
through their constant struggle – the history of 
Palestinian political prisoners is a history of 
resistance literature, hunger strikes, 
demonstrations, organizing and constant refusal 
to submit – are being stripped away on a daily 
basis, and further reduced. They are subject to 
torture in the interrogation chambers, and 
subject to illegal occupation courts which make a 
mockery of justice – that is, if they are tried 
at all; at present, one-half of Palestinian 
prisoners have never even had a trial in one of 
these illegitimate military courts. They are 
denied family visits in further attempts to cut 
off Palestinian prisoners from their families and 
their communities. At this time, it is urgent 
that we all stand with the prisoners and draw the 
highest level of attention to the cause of 
freedom for the prisoners, and shine a light on 
the torture and abuse of the occupier.

The prisoners represent all Palestinian trends in 
confrontation with the occupation. It is the 
prisoners' movement that in many ways represents 
the pinnacle of principled and clear national 
unity in practice, a national unity that is a 
lesson and a clarion call to all of us. In honor 
of their struggle and in recognition of its 
important, now is the time and the opportunity to 
raise a unified national campaign to free the 
prisoners – all of our prisoners, united in their 
confrontation with the occupier and their 
struggle for liberation. It is an opportunity to 
reflect the unity and the steadfastness of the 
prisoner movement in our organizing to support 
them. This campaign should take place across all 
of Palestine – in the occupied lands of 1948, the 
West Bank, and Gaza – just as our prisoners in 
the Zionist jails come from all of Palestine.

In addition, this campaign will set the agenda 
for an international call for prisoner support, 
rallying international forces and placing the 
issue of our prisoners on the international 
agenda as a primary Palestinian demand, and 
provide the support needed, on all levels, by the 
families of the prisoners, due to the immediate 
effects suffered by these families, with no 
conditions or discrimination. This campaign can 
be – and must be – a unifying factor in the 
Palestinian national movement, just as our 
prisoners themselves are such a unifying factor.

Our Palestinian people in exile as well must be 
engaged in this campaign, not only to provide 
support for the families of the prisoners and to 
campaign for the freedom of their fellow 
Palestinians inside the Zionist jails, but also 
to engage in providing support and struggling for 
the Palestinian prisoners outside Palestine – in 
jails in Iraq, England, the U.S., Europe and 
elsewhere. Palestinian political imprisonment 
does not only take place inside Palestine, but 
wherever there is a Palestinian national 
movement, engaged in the struggle, and facing 
repression, and our people in exile and our 
communities can lend a clear and loud voice to 
the campaigns for the freedom of these prisoners.

The campaign to support the struggle of 
Palestinian political prisoners, however, should 
not only be a Palestinian campaign. Instead, it 
should be a fundamental part of solidarity work – 
not an obscure issue or a mere corollary to 
occupation – but a central and consistent part of 
solidarity work for Palestine, reflecting the 
front-line, central position of Palestinian 
political prisoners within our national movement. 
In addition, on an international level, this 
campaign can share common cause with other 
movements in order to demand freedom for all of 
our political prisoners, imprisoned around the 
world for their work in struggling for liberation 
for their people. Furthermore, the solidarity 
movement with Palestine can play a very important 
role in involving lawyers, legal associations and 
other institutions in holding international 
tribunals on torture and killings of Palestinian 
prisoners, and taking legal action to pursue on 
an international level those Israeli officials 
responsible for such crimes, and to hold human 
rights organizations accountable to live up to 
their responsibilities in advocating for the 
rights of Palestinian political prisoners. In 
addition, solidarity movements in various 
countries can play a key role in supporting and 
calling for the freedom of Palestinian political 
prisoners in their own countries, supporting the 
Palestinian community in its struggle against repression and imprisonment.

Today, we express our solidarity with all 
political prisoners around the world, take 
inspiration in their leadership and pledge to 
uphold our national and international 
responsibility to struggle for their freedom and 
continue to struggle, in their path of 
resistance, organization and steadfastness, for 
the liberation of our land and our people.




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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