[Ppnews] Today is Palestinian Prisoners' Day, Support Palestinian Prisoners' Struggle for Freedom!

[Political Prisoner News]

From: Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat <info at freeahmadsaadat.org>

  <http://freeahmadsaadat.org/prisoners-day-2011.html>On Palestinian 
Prisoners' Day, Support Palestinian Prisoners' Struggle for Freedom!

April 17, 2011

On Palestinian Prisoners' Day, April 17, 2011, the 
<http://freeahmadsaadat.org>Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat salutes 
all of the over 5,700 Palestinian prisoners inside the Israeli 
occupation's jails, and calls upon all those concerned for justice 
and freedom to join and build the largest possible international 
movement to secure the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners, and of 
the entire Palestinian people.

Palestinian prisoners have always stood as the backbone of the 
Palestinian national movement. Their continued steadfastness in the 
face of torture, isolation, denial of medical care and family visits, 
and their continual willingness to confront the occupation, engaging 
in hunger strikes and protests and demanding their rights, is an 
inspiration to all.

In moments of Palestinian national division or despair, the voice of 
prisoners has remained a clarion call and a beacon: an example of 
national unity, forged in struggle, and full commitment not only to 
the liberation of all Palestinian prisoners, but also to the 
liberation of Palestine, to the resistance, to self-determination, to 
freedom, to the return of Palestinian refugees. The valiant struggle 
of Palestine's political prisoners is central to the Palestinian 
movement for national liberation; it is the struggle of the Palestinian people.

We also note today the Palestinian and Arab political prisoners held 
in jails around the world, many for their own support of the 
Palestinian struggle and the Palestinian cause, and call for the 
freedom of all of those prisoners, and of all political prisoners in 
the jails of their oppressors around the world. We demand that 
governments end their investigations of and repression against 
activists supporting Palestine - from the U.S., where 23 activists 
face grand jury subpoenas and FBI raids for their public activity in 
support of Palestine, to France, where boycott, divestment and 
sanctions activists have been threatened with charges for boycotting 
Israeli goods, to Argentina, where an activist was arrested for 
organizing a Nakba commemoration - to everywhere around the world. 
Instead of attempting to suppress and silence voices of justice and 
solidarity, these governments must act to end their complicity and 
support for Israeli war crimes and occupation against the Palestinian people.

On Palestinian Prisoners' Day, we urge the new Egypt to mark this day 
by releasing all remaining Palestinian prisoners in Egyptian jails. 
We greet the Arab popular movements with solidarity and call for the 
freedom of all Arab political prisoners in Arab jails.

Furthermore, we also spotlight today the village of Awarta, which has 
been subject to closure, home invasions, mass kidnappings, 
detentions, forced DNA testing of hundreds of women, lengthy 
imprisonment of children, and interrogation of thousands of 
Palestinians. Awarta is under siege, and we stand today with the 
people of Awarta subject to massive and arbitrary detention and call 
for international attention and solidarity with the people of Awarta.

We also stand with the people of Gaza struggling to break their own 
siege, and note that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails from Gaza 
have been denied family visits for years. We demand an end to the 
siege of Gaza and the siege of its prisoners!

<http://freeahmadsaadat.org/isolationoct24.html>For over two years, 
Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the 
Liberation of Palestine, has been held in isolation in the occupation 
prisons. He has been regularly denied family visits, denied access to 
books or reading material, and denied basic exercise and medical 
care. Sa'adat was kidnapped by the Israeli occupation army on March 
14, 2006 from where he and his comrades, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Majdi 
Rimawi, Basil al-Asmar, and Hamdi Qur'an, were imprisoned in the 
Palestinian Authority's Jericho Prison under U.S. and British guards. 
The U.S. and British guards removed themselves immediately prior to 
the Israeli attack, making clear that the U.S. and the U.K. were 
directly complicit in the attack on Jericho. Sa'adat, the leader of a 
major Palestinian political party and an elected member of the 
Palestinian Legislative Council, had been held in Israeli prisons for 
nearly six years at various times, held repeatedly in "administrative 
detention," where Palestinians are held without charge or trial under 
secret evidence. He was held in PA prisons for four years before his 
kidnapping and has now been held in the occupation's prisons for five years.

Ahmad Sa'adat is not only a national leader of the Palestinian 
people, he is a recognized leader and symbol of the Palestinian 
prisoners' movement - a symbol of steadfastness and commitment to 
Palestine and its people in the face of all forms of abuse and 
violation. And it is because Sa'adat represents that voice - the 
voice of the prisoners - that he has been placed in isolation, in an 
attempt to silence not only Sa'adat himself, but the Palestinian 
prisoners' movement, and through that, the conscience of the 
Palestinian revolution.

However, neither Ahmad Sa'adat, nor the Palestinian prisoners, nor 
the Palestinian people, have been compelled into silence or 
submission by isolation and torture. Rather, their voice is heard, 
more clearly than ever, calling for justice, freedom, and liberation. 
<http://freeahmadsaadat.org/prisoners-day-2011.html>Today, and every 
day, we stand beside Ahmad Sa'adat and the prisoners of freedom, and 
encourage all around the world to join us in building the call to 
free Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners!

On Palestinian Prisoners' Day, please write us at 
<mailto:info at freeahmadsaadat.org>info at freeahmadsaadat.org to inform 
us about actions or events in support of Palestinian political 
prisoners. We encourage you to hold educational events, 
demonstrations and activities in support of Palestinian prisoners and 
distribute information about Ahmad Sa'adat, Palestinian prisoners, 
and the Palestinian cause.


The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
<http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/>http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/
<mailto:info at freeahmadsaadat.org>info at freeahmadsaadat.org
Twitter:<http://twitter.com/freeahmadsaadat>http://twitter.com/freeahmadsaadat




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20110417/1b31878d/attachment.htm>