The chairman of the Political Bureau and overall leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement or Hamas, Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar, fell in battle in the Tel al-Sultan refugee camp in Rafah, Gaza Strip on October 16, 2024. It had been speculated that Sinwar was in an underground bunker, with many Israeli hostages as human shields, but he was killed while travelling on foot, as a uniformed, and injured, soldier, armed with an AK-47 and grenades. It is being reported that he died of a gunshot to the head, not from tank fire -- how did that happen, assuming that the Israelis are being truthful? Even BBC coverage at 9am on October 17th seemed very respectful. Did Biden, Harris, the UK, NATO, etc. praise the killing highly to get Israel to agree to a ceasefire, or were they just voicing their shared war aims? Netanyahu quickly denied that it was a stopping point for the war, though it was played up as a great victory and very damaging for Hamas. "Yahya" is apparently the Arabic form of "John:" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahya_Sinwar , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Yahya_Sinwar , and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahya_(name) Yahya Sinwar was born October 29, 1962 in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, at the time controlled by Egypt. samidoun.net/2024/10/prisoner-leader-martyr-yahya-sinwar-the-great-hero-of-palestine/ and mpr21.info/el-hombre-que-fue-asesinado-por-casualidad-yahya-sinwar/ On the Time magazine red X cover: diario-octubre.com/2024/10/19/degenerados/ ]
I'll try to add some of the images after posting the text. I plan further posts on these topics in November and as events occur.
Related posts: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/11/unac-end-attacks-on-samidoun-and-all.html
There was a problem with the coding here and I re-posted some of it in the current post: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/11/on-blacklisting-of-samidoun-palestinian.html ]
[An irregular arrest the morning of November 16th in Canada: diario-octubre.com/2024/11/17/policia-canadiense-allana-de-manera-violenta-casa-de-activista-antisionista-en-vancouver/ ]
Take action: Follow our new Telegram channel after imperialist censorship!
Posted by Samidoun on October 31st at: samidoun.net/2024/10/take-action-follow-our-new-telegram-channel-after-imperialist-censorship/
From Spain — Liberate Palestine, confront repression: Samidoun is under attack
Posted October 28th at: samidoun.net/2024/10/from-spain-liberate-palestine-confront-repression-samidoun-is-under-attack/
A second Samidoun article posted October 28th: samidoun.net/2024/10/far-right-spanish-party-vox-tries-to-silence-activists-for-palestine-in-the-spanish-high-court/
Resistance Organizations Continue Courageous and Steadfast Actions to Defeat
U.S./Israeli Zionists
cpcml.ca/ITN2024/TI5442.HTM#1 ]
Worldwide Opposition to U.S./Zionist Genocide Continues Undeterred
cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/MS5451.HTM ]
The Sacrifice of the Resistance Forces Knows No Limits
cpcml.ca/ITN2024/TI5436.HTM#1 ]
September 9th, but came to light October 27th, and more: samidoun.net/2024/10/the-attack-on-marwan-barghouti-and-the-leaders-of-the-prisoners-movement-act-and-organize/
robertjprince.net/2024/09/30/sayed-hassan-nasrallah-presente-and-he-was-a-teacher-la-lutta-continua/
The unfolding failure of US, EU, NATO, Israel, etc. strategies to dominate the Middle East, revealed by the resisting Palestinian forces, etc.? -- herecomeschina.substack.com/p/israel-china-and-the-world
On the assassination of Yahya Sinwar and afterward:
November 4th: mpr21.info/testamento-del-martir-yahya-sinwar-para-el-pueblo-palestino/
mpr21.info/el-hombre-que-fue-asesinado-por-casualidad-yahya-sinwar/
diario-octubre.com/2024/10/19/degenerados/
October 26th report, with many photos: samidoun.net/2024/10/northern-gaza-will-not-kneel-take-action-in-days-of-rage-against-zionist-massacres-and-starvation-policy-in-gaza/
This was originally posted October 18th at: samidoun.net/2024/10/prisoner-leader-martyr-yahya-sinwar-the-great-hero-of-palestine/
Prisoner, Leader, Martyr: Yahya Sinwar, the great hero of Palestine
[A photo/meme, to be added later.]
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes the leadership, martyrdom and heroism of the great Palestinian leader, Yahya Sinwar, Abu Ibrahim, martyred in battle against occupation forces on 17 October 2024. Sinwar, who was martyred as he fought until the last breath alongside his comrades, advancing and not retreating, wounded, forcing a whole battalion of occupation soldiers to retreat, resisting still as they fired tank shells at him, throwing debris at a drone targeting him even though he had already lost an arm, epitomized the courage, heroism and bravery of the resistance fighter in battle against the colonialist, imperialist oppressor.
Chair of the Political Bureau of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, commander of the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood, son of the Palestinian popular classes and Khan Younis refugee camp, liberated prisoner and leader of the prisoners’ movement, struggling mujahid, refugee denied his right to return home, resistance fighter and organizational and grassroots leader, Sinwar was and remains renowned on the Palestinian, Arab and international level for his brilliance, strategic thinking, and deep commitment to the liberation of Palestine, its prisoners, its people and its land.
We extend our condolences and congratulations to the Palestinian people, Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement and its leadership, members and supporters, the resistance fighters on the front lines, all of the forces of resistance in the region, the revolutionary movements of the world, and his family and loved ones on the martyrdom of Yahya Sinwar, the hero of Palestine. He arose as a leader from the prisoners’ movement, through 23 years in Zionist prisons, and liberated by the resistance exactly 13 years ago today. In his strategic approach, his unremitting courage and heroism, his broad national approach and his refusal to abandon or compromise the principles of Palestinian liberation, he represented the promise and the role of the prisoners as leaders of the resistance and of the liberation struggle as a whole.
[A video, see Samidoun's website.]
Yahya Sinwar was born on 29 October 1962 in Khan Younis, a Palestinian refugee from Majdal Asqelan, whose parents were forced from their homes and lands in al-Nakba, one of the over 70% of the Palestinian people in Gaza who are themselves refugees denied their right to return home. He grew up in Gaza, a cradle of resistance throughout the years and decades, where in the 1960s and early 1970s, Mohammed al-Aswad, “Guevara Gaza,” and his resistance fighters protected and controlled the Strip by night even as occupation forces aimed at control it by day; on his road to leading the resistance in Gaza to a great battle that has already changed the world.
[Photo]
Sinwar was part of the founding generation of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, in Gaza, from his student days in the early 1980s, when he first became active in the Islamic Bloc at the then-new Islamic University of Gaza, the first higher education institution founded in the Gaza Strip. He was Secretary of the Bloc’s Technical Committee, then the Sports Committee of the Student Council, before becoming Vice-President and then President of the Council. It was for his student activities and leadership that he was first arrested by the Zionist regime at the age of 20; he was ordered to administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial, for four months. After he was released, he was abducted once again only one week later and ordered again to six months of administrative detention. This is the same policy of pursuit of the leadership of the student movement that the occupation continues to pursue, 40 years later, on campuses throughout occupied Palestine, seeing the student movement as a site of development of the future national leadership of the Palestinian liberation movement. Again in 1985, he was arrested and held for 8 months in Zionist prisons.
In 1986, prior to the launch of the Hamas movement in December 1987, he founded Majd alongside Khaled al-Hindi and Rawhi Mushtaha, at the behest of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the leading founder of Hamas. Majd was a security framework that would develop into the movement’s internal security, tracking Zionist intelligence officers, security services, and collaborators and agents engaged in dealings with the enemy, in order to protect the people and the resistance.
He was once again seized by occupation forces on 20 January 1988, less than two months after the announcement of the formation of the Islamic Resistance Movement and some of its early operations, including the liquidation of two occupation soldiers. Sinwar was accused of leading and directing the operation to attack and kill the soldiers as well as four collaborators arrested by the resistance for spying and conspiring against the Palestinian resistance.
At that time, a zionist interrogator who was tasked with questioning Sinwar remarked that he was told defiantly, “You know that one day you will be the one under interrogation, and I will stand here as the government, as the interrogator. I will interrogate you.” After the launch of the battle of Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October 2023, Ha’aretz published a self-congratulatory interview with one of Sinwar’s former torturers. While it, as always, aims to demonize Sinwar as a confident, brave leader of the resistance who refused to crumble in the face of the interrogators, the reality of anti-colonial revolutionary consciousness nonetheless shines through in the narrative:
“He was not in awe of the interrogator – on the contrary: He was defiant all the time. I can read you what I wrote about him in the first interrogation. I kept it. ‘Definitely an anomalous figure in his personality, wisdom and level of intelligence. Religiously extreme, a believer, one who is at peace with his words and his deeds.’…He is super-intelligent…The fact that he was placed behind bars didn’t undermine his leadership abilities or affect his determination to take action against the Zionist enemy. On the contrary: In prison he simply kept working. He activated people, recruited militants.”
Sinwar endured decades of torture and brutality in the zionist prisons. Rather than allowing his soul and spirit to be crushed by the abhorrent circumstances in which he found himself in, Sinwar turned prison into a trench of combat. He withstood interrogation, torture and took the opportunity to study the enemy. During his time in prison, Sinwar achieved the remarkable feat of teaching himself Hebrew, and engaging in an extensive study of the enemy’s security system and repression apparatus. He knew well the tactics of the colonizer and its vulnerabilities and was determined to share this knowledge to develop the resistance movement as a whole. Deeply dedicated to the advancement of the Hamas movement on the structural, political and military level, he was also deeply committed to Palestinian, Arab and Islamic national unity in confronting the occupation, pursuing the development of joint resistance across all factions and advancing the relationship of Hamas with all of the resistance forces in the region, primarily those that make up the Camp of Resistance: Hezbollah and the Lebanese Resistance, the Iraqi Resistance, Yemen and its people, government, armed forces and the AnsarAllah movement, Syria and Iran. His commitment to unity in resistance and in the liberation struggle was partially developed through his time as a leader in the prisoners’ movement across political lines in confrontation with the colonizer.
He aimed to translate some of the books of the occupiers, particularly on security and intelligence into Arabic, such as “Shabak Among the Ruins” by Carmi Gillon, and “Israeli Parties in 1992,” which introduced Zionist political parties. He wrote “Hamas: Trial and Error” on the development of the Hamas Movement, and the book “Al-Majd”, detailing the occupation’s security apparatus and intelligence efforts. It is in this book he also wrote about methods of interrogation of Palestinian political prisoners and the role of colonial intelligence agencies in planting and recruitng agents, in order to develop the level of knowledge and resilience within the liberation movement to resist such efforts. Sinwar was a shining example of the struggle for freedom of political prisoners. His freedom from zionist prisons was a result of his incredible will behind the bars of occupation, and the political victories brought by the resistance.
In 2004, he published his novel while in Bir al-Saba prison, “Thorns of Carnations,” which told a fictionalized personal narrative of the Palestinian struggle between 1967 and the development of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, amid the rise of the Hamas movement in its social context. Haneen Odetallah writes:
“The choice of the writer, primarily a political and military figure, to document this pivotal stage in the history of armed resistance and transmit it in this creative, novelistic form indicates that it is an attempt that goes beyond merely recounting history and its events. The historical novel is not just a reflection of the events of the past; it is a deep exploration of the philosophical and moral forces that shape historical movements….As for the writer, he is one of the pioneering figures in Hamas who witnessed its inception and contributed to its formation and development from youth to the present day. His departure from the confines of traditional historiography to address innovative dramatic struggles in history allows him to explore its philosophical dimensions; specifically, the impact of beliefs on history. In the context of the history of Hamas, this enables him to formulate a philosophy for the Islamic Resistance Movement.”
When he exited the Zionist prisons, he was greeted with a hero’s welcome, and resumed his leadership role in the resistance, directly from his leadership in the prisoners’ movement. Upon his release, he married Samar Mohammed Abu Zamar and had one son, Ibrahim, and immediately took up tasks of leadership. In 2012, he was elected member of the Political Bureau of Hamas, with responsibility for its military wing, the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and coordinating between the political and military leadership of the movement, playing a particularly distinguished role in resisting the 2014 zionist assault on Gaza. In 2017, he was elected as the chair of the Hamas movement in Gaza, and re-elected in 2021. His home was bombed and destroyed by occupation airstrikes in 2012, 2014 and again in 2021, yet he refused to retreat in his positions in any way and frequently spoke publicly about his commitment to remain on the front lines of struggle and his welcoming of martyrdom for Palestine. As was befitting of his status as a son of the popular classes of Palestine, he lived a modest life like that of his people. He was filled with compassion for his people and all of the oppressed of the world at the same time that he confronted the oppressors with fiery speeches and escalating military developments.
[Photo]
Sinwar was one of the leaders and originators of the Great March of Return in 2018-2019, the mass marches of Palestinians to the colonially imposed “border” to demand their natural and internationally recognized right of return. As demonstrated in his commitment to the liberation of the prisoners, here he once again emphasized the fundamental principles of the Palestinian cause — breaking the siege on Gaza, yes, but inextricably linked to the return of Palestinian refugees expelled from their lands during al-Nakba (the catastrophe), the liberation of the people and the land. This popular mobilization also emphasized his commitment to the unity of resistance, including popular mass mobilization and led by the armed struggle, in a comprehensive resistance and revolutionary effort for the liberation of Palestine and the defeat of Zionism and imperialism.
In 2021, in the Battle of Seif al-Quds/the Unity of the Fields, Sinwar, his movement, and the Palestinian people in Gaza joined the battle taking place in Jerusalem to defend the land against settlers and to defend Al-Aqsa Mosque against repeated attacks and incursions. The resistance in Gaza responded to the call of the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and were joined by an uprising in occupied Palestine ’48, marches of return from Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria approaching Palestinian borders, and worldwide mobilization of the Palestinian refugees in the diaspora and supporters of the Palestinian struggle, in a heroic moment of the battle that reaffirmed once more the unity of the Palestinian people and land despite over seven decades of occupation and colonialism.
However, their vicious and bloody assault has done nothing to erase the Palestinian people and their commitment to struggle and to liberation. Their assassinations of great leaders like Saleh al-Arouri, Ismail Haniyeh, Fouad Shukr, Ibrahim Aqil, Ali Karaki, and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has failed to achieve their military goals and kill the resistance; instead, their martyrdom has inspired and urged onward a new generation of resistance fighters confronting the occupier, burning their tanks, and repelling their assaults. Hezbollah, leading the Lebanese resistance, is once again creating a graveyard for Merkava tanks, even as Germany shoots down its drones and the US sends over THAAD missiles, joining even more overtly the battle for the imperialist outpost in the region.
[Photo]
The assassinations of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Dr. Abdel-Aziz al-Rantisi, Yahya Ayyash, Abu Ali Mustafa, Ghassan Kanafani, Fathi Shiqaqi, Samir Kuntar, Abbas al-Musawi, Imad Mughniyyeh, Sheik Khader Adnan, Kamal Nasser, Mohammed al-Najjar and Wadie Haddad did not kill their cause nor the Palestinian and Arab liberation movement; the resistance is more deeply rooted than ever before, while the Zionist project remains a fragile implantation, imposed at the force of billions of dollars in colonial weaponry on a daily basis. Of course, we know also that his martyrdom came on 17 October 2024, 23 years after the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine assassinated the infamous racist tourism minister of the occupation, Rehavam Ze’evi, in response to the assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa, to impose a mechanism of justice and accountability — and the prisoners of the 17 October operation are among those that the Resistance is currently seeking to liberate in a prisoner exchange.
[Photo]
As in all anti-colonial resistance struggles, assassinations can never kill the resistance, but only confirm the immortality of great leaders who give their lives in struggle. Yahya Sinwar’s martyrdom was unique, joining his comrades and fellow resistance fighters on the front lines of struggle, advancing to confront the genocidal invaders, wearing a kuffiyeh and military gear, his gun in his hand, a legendary image and material manifestation of the collective unyielding will to liberate Palestine.
Yahya Sinwar was martyred like Sheikh Izz el-Din al-Qassam himself in November 1935, in a firefight with the occupier — then the British, now the Zionist colonizer. Today’s Qassam, will, too, inspire generations to rise, until the defeat of zionism and imperialism and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.
The zionist entity and the imperialists have released images of Sinwar in his final hours in hopes of demoralizing the Palestinian resistance and its people. From “Genocide Joe” Biden and “Holocaust” Kamala Harris, to Justin Trudeau, to Anthony Albanese, Keir Starmer, Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron, imperialist officials saluted, praised and boasted about Sinwar’s death, making clear once again that the genocide in Palestine is a US-led imperialist priority.
The image of a great political and military leader, fighting on the front lines for his people, living to fight again despite their bullets, their drones and their tank shells, engaged as a field commander until his last breath, stands before the Palestinian people, the Arab people, and all free people of the world, as one of unparalleled courage, self-sacrifice and bravery.
These images will serve as a beacon of heroism and inspiration for the resistance of today and future generations. Unlike the cowardice that marks the leaders of the zionist entity and the imperialists who cower at the face of the resistance, Sinwar was unyielding in facing the enemy head-on. Shattering all myths that the resistance “hides behind civilians”, the images and circumstances of Sinwar’s martyrdom proves that the resistance is on the frontlines against the enemy, acting as the first barrier between genocidal forces and the whole Palestinian people. Sinwar’s martyrdom proved beyond doubt his incredible courage and will, fighting with blood and soul until the very end.
He is an international icon of resistance, of refusal to submit to colonialism, of readiness to act in all circumstances, of commitment to sacrifice for God, the people and liberation, of the march of martyrs, from Che Guevara to Chris Hani to Sayyed Nasrallah to Yahya Sinwar.
The al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement issued today:
“When the resistance factions, with Hamas at the forefront, decided to enter this major, decisive battle in the history of the Palestinian people’s struggle and our nation’s journey, they knew the price of liberation was very high, a price all nations paid before freeing themselves from their occupiers. They were ready to lead the ranks of the sacrificers, offering both leaders and soldiers, refusing to submit to the enemy or remain silent about its oppression and theft of our people’s legitimate rights….This criminal enemy is delusional if it thinks that by assassinating the great leaders of the resistance such as Sinwar, Haniyeh, Nasrallah, Al-Arouri and others, it can extinguish the flame of the resistance or push it to retreat. Rather, it will continue and escalate until the legitimate goals of our people are achieved. Martyrdom is the highest thing our leaders desire, and their blood will be a beacon that lights the path to liberation and a fire that burns the aggressors.”
Yahya Sinwar’s life, struggle and commitment live on, until the defeat of the Zionist regime and its imperialist partners and sponsors, and until victory: the liberation of Palestine, and the liberation of the Arab people and the region from Zionism, imperialism and their agents and collaborators.
Glory to the martyr Yahya Sinwar and all the martyrs of Palestine and the Resistance. Return, liberation and victory to Lebanon, to Yemen, to all of the forces of the Resistance. Victory for Palestine, all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.
[Three photos/memes]
This was originally posted October 20th at: masarbadil.org/en/2024/10/5318/
Masar Badil: Our pledge to the leader Yahya Sinwar, to resist Zionism and colonialism until the defeat of the Zionist entity and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea
Masar Badil: Our pledge to the leader Yahya Sinwar, to resist Zionism and colonialism until the defeat of the Zionist entity and the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea
The Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement affirms to the Palestinian people, our Arab and Islamic peoples, and all of the free people of the world, and to the brothers and sisters in the leadership of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, that it will remain in its Palestinian, Arab and international position striving to achieve the goals for which the great national leader, the heroic brother Yahya Sinwar, Abu Ibrahim, was martyred, no matter what difficulties or challenges we face.
As we in our movement mourn this great Palestinian leader, the leader of the Hamas movement, we renew our commitment to this exceptional revolutionary symbol, immortal forever in the conscience of his people, who fought the Zionist enemy for decades, from inside the dungeons and prisons of Zionism until the last bullet and last breath in the Gaza Strip, to remain faithful to the pledge and walk upon the same path, the path of Jerusalem, loyal to his national and revolutionary path, and committed to the rights of the martyrs who marched on the path of al-Quds, of return, and of liberation, refusing to compromise or bargain on the rights of the exiled and displaced refugees and their right to return to their homes and homeland. We will not give up a single grain of soil of Palestine, and we will work with all of our energy with all of the revolutionary forces in Palestine and in the world to confront imperialism and Zionism everywhere and to confront the fascist and reactionary forces that created the tragedy of the Palestinian people, committing massacres and genocide against our people and humanity as a whole.
The great national leader, the martyr Yahya Sinwar, has proven, as he follows the path of Izz al-Din al-Qassam and the martyrs of the Palestinian people, the Arab and Islamic nations and the free people of the world, that the will of the people is not broken and the Palestinian cause will not die, until our great people achieve victory, with all of their national and human goals and aspirations. Our Palestinian people have also proven through their heroic resistance, long struggle, and the launch of the glorious battle of Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October 2023, that resisting the siege, occupation and colonialism is a realistic and possible matter even in the most difficult of circumstances, and that the path to the inevitable and decisive victory over the Zionist entity is inevitable. The overthrow of the system of imperialism, capitalism, plunder and exploitation run in Washington, Berlin, London, Paris and elsewhere is a matter of time. The historic victory of the people is certain and coming, no matter how long it takes.
We are fully confident that the policy of genocide, mass killing, displacement, starvation, siege and assassination practiced by “Israel” against the Palestinian and Lebanese people and our peoples in the Arab region, supported and directed by the United States, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain and others, will not achieve its goals and will be doomed to disappointment and failure. The Palestinian people, who have fought settler colonialism since 1917 and launched popular and armed revolutions and uprisings, have been able to renew their liberation movement and are leading the global front of liberation movements around the world. They present an inspiring revolutionary model for peoples seeking liberation and true self-determination, and create hope for humanity in building an alternative, new world, a world governed by the values of justice, solidarity and liberation, as against the brutal regime that imperialism and Zionism seek to impose through wars, massacres, exploitation, deception, lying and misleadership.
As we enter a new year in building our movement, we in the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, draw lessons from the steadfastness and courage of the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples, the path of the great martyr leader Yahya Sinwar and the international martyr leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and from our loyal brothers in Yemen, Iraq and Syria, from the struggles of our comrades in the Philippines, Bolivia, Venezuela and Iran, the determination of the struggling peoples in Africa and all global liberation forces, foremost among them the liberation movement of Black and Indigenous peoples everywhere.
We reaffirm our rejection of the unjust laws that the United States, Canada, Germany and other Western imperialist regimes are trying to impose on our movement through smear campaigns and the inclusion of our organizations and the names of our comrades on so-called “terrorist lists.” Accordingly, we stand by our comrades in Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which is being targeted by the Zionists and their agents in the imperialist West after Samidoun became the voice of the radical revolutionary movement defending the prisoners’ movement in the Zionist dungeons and supporting the Palestinian and Arab resistance. We also call on all forces and movements in solidarity with our people to express their support for Samidoun and protect its leading role so that it can continue its struggle until return and liberation.
The flag of resistance will not fall: The pledge to the martyr leader Yahya Sinwar and all the martyrs
Down with imperialism, Zionism and reaction
We continue our revolutionary path towards a liberated Palestine from the river to the sea!
This was originally posted October 16th at: samidoun.net/2024/10/we-keep-resisting-us-and-canada-sanction-samidoun/
We keep resisting: US and Canada sanction Samidoun
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On October 15, the United States and Canada sanctioned Samidoun in an attempt to repress political organizing in support of the Palestinian people’s struggle against genocide, colonialism and occupation, and the more than 10.000 Palestinian political prisoners that are being tortured and killed by the Zionist entity. In the US, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the sanctions, while the Canadian governmenthas listed Samidoun as a “terrorist entity” under its criminal code.
These decisions come at a time when the Zionist entity continues its genocide and massacres in Gaza, all of Palestine and Lebanon with full support from the US, Canada and the European Union. It is a coordinated attempt by the enemies of the Palestinian people to stop every form of solidarity with the Palestinian people and political organizing efforts to end Israel’s genocide, crimes against humanity and occupation.
Our response to this designation is clear: we will keep struggling to stop the genocide, stop imperialist support for Israel, until the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.
Besides sending weapons and money to the Zionist entity, imperialist powers are repressing the Palestinian diaspora, Arab community and international activists for Palestine that are resisting these countries’ support for the occupation. Thousands of activists in North-America and Europe have been arrested, their houses raided or imprisoned. Palestinians in various countries have received deportation orders for their political activism. In Germany, a ban has been implemented against the slogan “from the river to sea, Palestine will be free”.
This designation and sanctions should be of serious concern to all who carry out political work, especially for Palestinian liberation, just like the banning of Samidoun in Germany in November 2023. It is meant to introduce a norm in which organizations may be designated as “terrorist” for organizing demonstrations, lectures, publishing posters and engaging in entirely public and political work that challenges imperialist states’ complicity in Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ongoing genocide in Gaza. It comes at a time when more people than ever are speaking out for justice and liberation in Palestine and is meant as an attack on the movement as a whole.
We also express our strongest solidarity with Khaled Barakat, Palestinian writer and executive committee member of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, who was targeted by the US in the same order as a “specially designated global terrorist.” This is meant to silence his effective work and activity in organizing Palestinians in exile and diaspora in the struggle for return and liberation for Palestine.
The repression of Samidoun is part of a larger attack against the Palestinian diaspora, the Arab community and all internationalists that struggle for Palestine. All mainstream political parties, from Democrats to Republicans, and from social democrats to the extreme right-wing, have used the past year to propagate more racist, Islamophobic and repressive measures against the Palestinian people, Arabs, Muslims, refugees, migrants and activists. This repression reflects the interests of the US and Canada, themselves settler-colonial states built on genocide, ethnic cleansing and continued oppression of the Indigenous peoples, and Europe, the birthplace of the Zionist movement.
It is part of the global struggle against colonialism and imperialism that will continue until the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, the right of return for all Palestinian refugees and the liberation of all oppressed peoples and nations.
Like the Zionist entity fears the Palestinian resistance, so do the imperialist powers fear the Palestinian diaspora and their supporters that have been rising up again and again, especially since the start of operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the Zionist genocide. They fear a strong, popular movement that threatens their economic and political interests in Palestine and the region.
The repression is a sign of strength for the Palestinian movement and the international solidarity movement. This movement has mobilized the largest demonstrations for Palestine in history, has costed Israeli and Zionist companies billions of dollars in losses, it has united millions of people from across the world, and it has united virtually all social movements in every country for the Palestinian liberation struggle.
Samidoun is particularly targeted because of our political and vocal support for the Palestinian prisoners movement and the Palestinian people’s right to resistance. While the US and Canada are two of Israel’s biggest material supporters with weapons and money and repress the Palestinian movement in their own countries, their official outposts abroad have frequently sought to influence and direct Palestinian politics through conditional funding and similar colonial enterprises. Through these sanctions, the US and Canada wish not only to support genocide but to criminalize even verbal resistance to that genocide. The Palestinian people, like all colonized and oppressed peoples, have the right to resist to liberate themselves and their land from colonialism and occupation, from the river to the sea. Those who resist occupation and oppression — the Palestinian resistance — are not only heroes of the Palestinian people, they are defenders of all of humanity.
As Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, we reiterate our support for the Palestinian people, the prisoners and the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic resistance, who are confronting the genocide and occupation on a daily basis.
At the same time, we want to stress that Samidoun does not have any material or organizational ties to entities listed on the terrorist lists of the United States, Canada or the European Union.
We reiterate our words upon German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ announcement of the demand to ban Samidoun: In Arabic, the word “Samidoun,” means those who are steadfast. We use this name to refer to the Palestinian prisoners, who remain behind bars, struggling for freedom. Today we affirm that we shall remain steadfast and committed to the Palestinian people, until victory, return and liberation.
This was originally posted October 19th at: samidoun.net/2024/10/palestinian-prisoners-movement-statement-mourning-the-martyr-leader-yahya-sinwar/
Palestinian prisoners’ movement statement mourning the martyr leader Yahya Sinwar
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The Palestinian prisoners’ movement issued a statement in honour of Yahya Sinwar, the martyred leader of the Palestinian movement and liberated prisoner, on 18 October 2023. We are republishing the statement below.
The Prisoners’ Institutions and the National Prisoner Movement in Occupation Prisons Mourn the National Leader Martyr Yahya Sinwar
The Prisoners’ Institutions, the National Prisoner Movement in Occupation Prisons, and the freed prisoners at home and abroad mourn to our great people the martyr and national leader Yahya Al-Sinwar (chair of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas), who ascended as a martyr after a life full of struggle and giving until the last moment of his life.
In a statement, the institutions said, “Today, we mourn, on behalf of the prisoner movement in the ‘israeli’ occupation prisons, our companion in imprisonment and leader who dedicated his life to the freedom of his land and people. He is the prisoner, the freed, the martyr, and the martyr whose body remains held, alongside hundreds of martyrs in the cemeteries of numbers and the occupation’s refrigerators.”
The Prisoners’ Institutions pointed out that Al-Sinwar spent more than 23 years of his life in the occupation’s prisons, with his first arrest in 1982, followed by his arrest in 1985, and then again in 1988. He was sentenced to four life terms by the occupation and remained imprisoned until his release in the Loyalty of the Free (Wafa’ al-Ahrar) exchange deal in 2011. Today marks the 13th anniversary of the Loyalty of the Free deal, in which the martyr Al-Sinwar was among those released.
The Prisoners’ Institutions emphasized that the martyrdom of Yahya Sinwar will not deter our people from continuing the path of struggle for their freedom, the freedom of their land, and their right to self-determination.
The institutions also called on our people, wherever they are, to rise in support of the blood of the martyrs and the suffering of the prisoners in occupation prisons, who are facing systematic and unprecedented levels of killing and torture since the start of the ongoing war of genocide.
Glory to the martyrs of Palestine and freedom to the prisoners
18/10/2024
This was originally posted October 26th at: samidoun.net/2024/10/hands-off-palestinian-activists-netherlands-imposes-entry-ban-on-samidouns-europe-coordinator-mohammed-khatib/
Hands off Palestinian activists: Netherlands imposes entry ban on Samidoun’s Europe coordinator Mohammed Khatib
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Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network strongly condemns the Dutch state decision to ban Samidoun’s European Coordinator Mohammed Khatib from entering the Netherlands for a period of two years. We believe this decision has no legal ground, just like civil servants of Dutch anti-terror and immigration institutions who advised against issuing this ban.We are fighting this ban on a legal and political level and we call upon the Palestinian people and their friends and supporters in the Netherlands to continue and intensify the struggle to end the genocide, end the occupation and liberate Palestine from the river to the sea.
The entry ban issued against Mohammed comes while the Zionist genocide in Gaza is killing tens of thousands of Palestinians with unlimited support from the Dutch government. This repression is another form of support for the genocide and an attempt to shut down every voice of opposition to Dutch complicity with the occupation. Furthermore, the ban is a racist and colonial tool used to limit the freedom of movement of a Palestinian refugee who already cannot enter his homeland. It is also intended as an attack on the Palestinian liberation movement as a whole and specifically on the thousands of Palestinian prisoners struggling and organizing under torture and severe abuse from the Zionist regime inside its colonial jails.
The Dutch Minister of Asylum and Migration, Marjolein Faber, belongs to the PVV, the most outspoken Zionist party in the Netherlands and the largest party in the current governing coalition. The PVV is a supporter of implementing occupation-style administrative detention, meaning imprisonment without charge or trial, in the Netherlands. The party has close ties with the most extreme “Israeli” political parties.
The decision to bar Mohammed Khatib from entering the Netherlands is not only an attack against him personally, but against the Palestinian diaspora and people as a whole. It is an attack on refugees and immigrants that speak out against the colonial and imperialist interventions in their home countries. Amid a time that millions of Palestinians, Arabs and internationals around the world are confronting the genocide, the imperialist states feel the need to not only support Israel with money and weapons, but to actively repress any dissenting voice. The repressive attacks on the movement around the world, especially in the imperial core, are part and parcel of the full imperialist participation in the genocide in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
Mohammed Khatib was invited to speak at Radboud University Nijmegen this Monday, 28 October, about “Criminalisation, Diaspora & Starvation,” ironically made even more relevant by the decision to deny him entry to the Netherlands. As Samidoun, we reiterate our support to the Student Intifada and all those who are standing up against genocide, Zionism, colonialism and imperialism. We invite everyone to come to Radboud University this Monday 28 October at 12:15 pm.
From Nijmegen to Palestine: resistance is not a crime!
Hands off Palestinian Activists! Defend Palestinian Resistance!
Sent out by email October 22nd:
NLG Condemns the US Government Attack on Samidoun and the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, Calls for an End to Resurgent McCarthyism
The National Lawyers Guild strongly condemns the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designation of Samidoun as “a sham charity
that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization,” and the listing of long-time Palestinian-
Canadian activist Khaled Barakat “as associated with terrorism.”
Done in coordination with the government of Canada, this designation will have a broad
chilling effect on Palestine solidarity work in North America. Above all, it is designed to
disrupt the unprecedented global tidal wave of support for the liberation of Palestine.
The crack down on our constitutionally protected speech is a worrisome development at
any moment in time but in particular right now as social movements confront the US-
backed Israeli genocide in Gaza, the Israeli war on Lebanon, and the general global
trend toward fascism.
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) has a proud legacy of defending first amendment
rights, standing against the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Cold
War repression during the McCarthy era. From representing the Hollywood Ten and the
Rosenbergs to supporting the Black Liberation Movement and Landback struggles
waged by Indigenous peoples, the NLG has fought tirelessly against government
repression—an effort we continue today as we confront the latest iteration of
McCarthyism with claims of terrorism being the new anti-communism. Established in
1937, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is the nation’s oldest and largest progressive
bar association and was the first one in the US to be racially integrated. Our mission is
to use law for the people, uniting lawyers, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse
lawyers to function as an effective force in the service of the people by valuing human
rights and the rights of ecosystems over property interests.
As the beating heart of the international anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggle, the
Palestine solidarity movement has faced violent repression in North America since its
inception. A recent report by the Center for Constitutional Rights demonstrates how
U.S. antiterrorism legislation evolved to oppose Palestinian liberation struggles, as early
as the 1960s. The first U.S. federal mention of “terrorism” in 1969 specifically targeted
humanitarian aid to Palestinians, establishing a pattern of associating Palestinian life
and Palestinian existence with terrorism. Subsequent laws and policies, including the
first terrorism blacklist and the unique congressional designation of the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) as a terrorist group in 1987 reinforced this connection.
Financial sanctions against Palestinian factions were instituted in response to Israeli
demands, and Palestinians were a major focus of post-1995 anti-terrorism provisions.
This historical context highlights pre-existing bias against Palestine solidarity
organizations within U.S. anti-terrorism legislation. It also reflects ongoing anti-
Palestinian racism on the part of the U.S. government and its allies, which is used to
drum up support for the genocide of Palestinians; we reject this racist genocidal project
and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement.
The unjust targeting of Samidoun mirrors the Los Angeles 8 case, litigated by NLG and
other organizations. In 1987, eight Palestinian and Palestine solidarity activists were
brutally arrested by the FBI in Los Angeles and held in jail for three weeks before being
released. They too were wrongly accused of association with the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine, and their so-called crimes were distributing Palestinian
magazines and fundraising for humanitarian relief. Mainstream media relentlessly
called them terrorists, causing a chilling effect across left social movements throughout
North America. Shortly thereafter, the National Lawyers Guild and other organizations
filed a lawsuit against the US government for its unconstitutional arrests and bogus
charges. Twenty years later, Judge Bruce Einhorn dismissed the lawsuit, calling the
government’s actions in the prolonged case “an embarrassment to the rule of law.”
The use of the law to criminalize and delegitimize freedom fighters from Indigenous,
Black, Puerto Rican and other liberation struggles has a long history in this country. In
the years following 9/11, US anti-terrorism and related laws have increasingly targeted
not just Palestinian solidarity organizing, but all social movements in the US. The US
government is now using anti-terrorism legislation to target the Indigenous landback
movement and environmental justice movements, and following the George Floyd and
Breonna Taylor uprisings, anti-police brutality activists challenging Cop City in Atlanta
face RICO charges. In 2021, Jessica Reznicek, an environmental activist, was
imprisoned for “sabotaging” construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. She received
an eight-year sentence, which included a terrorism enhancement.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is an international coalition of
activists dedicated to supporting Palestinian prisoners in their fight for freedom,
stemming from the 2011 hunger strike of prisoners in Israeli jails, and has no ties to any
so-called designated terrorists. The organization aims to raise awareness of the
conditions, rights and demands of Palestinian political prisoners. Palestinian prisoners
are at the heart of the broader struggle for Palestinian national liberation, confronting
Israeli oppression daily and leading the movement for justice. The number of
Palestinian held captive in colonial jails has expanded exponentially during the ongoing
genocide, with close to 11,000 Palestinian imprisoned since October 7th, highlighting
the importance of Samidoun’s work.
The National Lawyers Guild is outraged by the expanded use of anti-terrorism laws to
attack social movements. Like the L.A. 8, this targeting of Samidoun, Khaled Barakat
and the Palestinian liberation movement is also an embarrassment to the rule of law,
and we call on all peoples of conscience to stand with us as we defend human rights
advocates and social movements that practice their constitutional right to freedom of
speech, against the genocide of the Palestinian people. We must fight back before it is
too late. An attack on one is an attack on all!
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