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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://samidoun.net/2018/11/palestinian-prisoners-a-battleground-for-international-solidarity-by-charlotte-kates/">https://samidoun.net/2018/11/palestinian-prisoners-a-battleground-for-international-solidarity-by-charlotte-kates/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Palestinian prisoners: A battleground
for international solidarity by Charlotte Kates</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">November 3, 2018samidoun</div>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time">13-16 minutes</div>
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<p><em>The following article, by Charlotte Kates, the
international coordinator of Samidoun, initially
appeared in Arabic in Al-Adab magazine, published on
November 2, 2018. The Arabic text can be read online <a
href="http://al-adab.com/article/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D8%B1%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8C-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B6%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%91">at
the Al-Adab website</a>. The article appeared in an
issue with a special focus on Palestinian prisoners,
including testimonies from current and former
political prisoners and their families.</em></p>
<p>Ghassan Kanafani’s quote that “Palestine today is not a
cause for Palestinians only; it is the cause of every
revolutionary, the cause of the oppressed and exploited
masses in our era”<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a>
has not dulled in its accuracy over time. Perhaps it
resonates more clearly than ever before, when U.S.
imperialism and its European partners appear as an
ongoing threat to Palestinian existence and
self-determination as well as to any form of Arab unity
or even truly independent policy.</p>
<p>There are many campaigns that capture the attention of
the international solidarity movement, all of them
worthwhile and challenging some aspect of the Zionist
project in occupied Palestine – from the campaign to
break the siege on Gaza, to building boycott campaigns
against Israeli corporations, state entities or academic
and cultural institutions, to working with Palestinian
communities in countries of exile to fight back against
racism and repression. The struggle to defend
Palestinian political prisoners and seek their freedom
is central to building solidarity with the Palestinian
people, their national liberation movement and their
revolution.</p>
<p>The Zionist movement and state certainly recognize the
centrality of this issue; it should be noted that Gilad
Erdan, the minister who carries the file of “public
security,” including the Israel Prison Service, is also
responsible for the “anti-boycott” initiatives of the
Israeli state in his role as the Minister of Strategic
Affairs<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2">[2]</a>. The
Zionist campaigns against the Palestinian prisoners –
both the propaganda campaigns in international media and
the campaigns of repression and misery that aim to break
the spirit of the prisoners – recognize just how central
these men and women, children and elders are in the
struggle for Palestinian liberation.</p>
<p>Palestinian prisoners, both to the occupier and to the
occupied, to those who would build solidarity and those
who would criminalize, represent the implacable will of
Palestinians to resist occupation and oppression, by all
means necessary. The very act of posting on social media
about Palestinian armed resistance has been labeled
incitement; hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested
and jailed for their statements on social media in
support of Palestinian resistance<a href="#_ftn3"
name="_ftnref3">[3]</a>. And any involvement at all
with the organized liberation movement – from the most
common charge of membership in a prohibited organization
to those who directly take up armed struggle – can be
met by years and decades behind Israeli bars.</p>
<p>Defending the Palestinian prisoners and campaigning for
their freedom is an inseparable aspect of defending the
Palestinian resistance and the right to armed struggle.
Even in the cases of Palestinian child prisoners, the
most common charge is “throwing stones” – direct
resistance to the occupier<a href="#_ftn4"
name="_ftnref4">[4]</a>. The imprisonment of
Palestinians is an attempt to isolate the Palestinian
resistance; thus, the defense of Palestinian prisoners
is a means to break that isolation and turn it instead
toward the isolation of Israel.</p>
<p>There are, of course, many organizations on the ground
in Palestine doing excellent and important work to
defend the prisoners legally and politically and seek
their freedom. However, this work has not been exempted
from the framework that Oslo has imposed on the
Palestinian movement as a whole. Increasingly, the
political aspect of Palestinian prisoners’ cases has
been replaced with a purely humanitarian or human
rights-based approach. The prisoners’ cause, like many
other aspects of the Palestinian struggle, has been
professionalized into an area of work and commentary for
lawyers and other legal experts. Palestinian prisoners
are addressed primarily and mainly as victims rather
than protagonists in a revolutionary struggle for
liberation.</p>
<p>In reality, every Palestinian prisoner’s case is far
less of a legal battle than it is a political one; yet
our strategies are increasingly directed toward legal
defense, even while acknowledging politically that the
entire system is invalid and illegitimate. It is not
possible to win the freedom of Palestinian political
prisoners by presenting the perfect legal argument, as –
whether they face military courts or Israeli “civil”
courts – they face a system that is based on the
complete negation of their existence and, particularly,
their organization and resistance.</p>
<p>This situation is also reflected in the violent
response of the prison system to any and all attempts by
the Palestinian prisoners’ movement to exert their
intellectual and political leadership in the Palestinian
national liberation struggle. It has been said that the
Palestinian leadership that is not compromised or
liquidated in the Oslo process can best be found behind
bars. In response to their statements and interviews,
conveyed through secret messages, smuggled cell phones
and other technologies that defy Israeli isolation,
Palestinian prisoners are subject to raids, violence,
forced transfers and isolation. The recent interview of
Palestinian political leader, PFLP General Secretary
Ahmad Sa’adat, published in El-Masry al-Youm<a
href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5">[5]</a>, sparked harsh
raids and repression against Palestinian prisoners in
Ramon prison<a href="#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6">[6]</a>.
Veteran prisoner and struggler from ’48, Walid Daqqa,
was thrown into solitary confinement when he published a
new children’s book; this followed the defunding of a
Haifa Palestinian theater that exhibited a play based on
his work<a href="#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7">[7]</a>.</p>
<p>The international aspect of the Palestinian prisoners’
struggle is not one that can or should be relegated to
the corridors of the United Nations and international
legal bodies. It must be noted that this is something
that the Zionist movement clearly recognizes as well.
The imperialist countries like the United States, France
and other states of the European Union are full partners
in the imprisonment of Palestinians and the legitimation
of the charges against them through their campaigns
against the resistance.</p>
<p>Today’s “anti-terrorism” laws have various legal
precedents – most commonly in the laws used to suppress
anti-colonial and liberation movements in the Western
powers – but they stem directly from laws that were
passed in the United States in the mid-1990s. Those laws
were then exported around the world with the 11
September 2001 attacks. The original U.S. laws were
explicitly justified as a means of supporting the
“Middle East peace process,” i.e. the Oslo process, and
criminalizing all of those parties that rejected Oslo<a
href="#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8">[8]</a>. Thus, we see
the “terror lists” of the United States, Canada, the
European Union, the UK, Australia, packed with the names
of Palestinian organizations seeking national
liberation, who rejected the trap of Oslo – the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Hamas; Islamic
Jihad; and even those fighters of Fateh who resisted
pacification.</p>
<p>These “anti-terror” laws are used to justify the
persecution of Palestinians inside these countries –
see, for example, the case of the Holy Land Five, five
Palestinians serving sentences of up to 65 years in
prison in U.S. jails for their fundraising and
charitable work for Palestine<a href="#_ftn9"
name="_ftnref9">[9]</a>. Reflecting the fact that
these are only the newest gloss on an existing strategic
alliance, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah has been jailed for
34 years in France for his involvement in actions to
support the Palestinian and Lebanese liberation
struggles. In Palestine itself, U.S. and British guards
– including those previously stationed in the colonized
north of Ireland – surrounded the Palestinian
Authority’s Jericho prison where Sa’adat and his
comrades were held from 2002 to 2006. Those guards moved
aside in a coordinated fashion to allow for the violent
assault of the Israeli military in March 2016.</p>
<p>Just as upholding the Palestinian prisoners, their
names, lives and politics, is a contribution to the
defense of the resistance in the battle of ideas, the
European Union and the Zionist state have also
recognized the importance of this battle from the
opposing perspective. Thus, we have seen the defunding
of Palestinian schools that bear the names of martyrs
and strugglers who gave their lives for Palestinian
liberation by participating actively in resistance. From
Dalal Mughrabi (targeted by Norway and Belgium) to the
campaigns against schools and squares honoring Shadia
Abu Ghazaleh and Khaled Nazzal, there is not only a
battle over the names of schools and institutions but a
battle for Palestinian memory and history<a
href="#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10">[10]</a>. It is our
responsibility to fight back by upholding Palestinian
resistance leaders as the international social justice
leaders for which they should be recognized.</p>
<p>This very battle of ideas is the reason why Erdan, in
his campaign against the growing boycott movement,
included Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity
Network among dozens of other international groups in
his latest propaganda alert against international
solidarity with Palestine<a href="#_ftn11"
name="_ftnref11">[11]</a>. Erdan connected Samidoun
and others with a “red line” on his graphic to the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The
illustration is not a random choice but reflects the
Zionist project’s concern about a closer linkage between
what the Reut Institute, a Zionist strategic center,
referred to as the “delegitimization” network and the
“resistance” network<a href="#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12">[12]</a>.</p>
<p>Through public exhortations and campaigns about dubious
alleged linkages with resistance organizations, Erdan
and the Israeli state aim to spread fear and
intimidation among solidarity organizations. These
attacks aim to push such organizations to alter their
rhetoric, polices and campaigns in an attempt to avoid
such allegations and their potentially criminalizing
consequences. It is not simply propaganda against
Palestine solidarity – this project aims to undermine
the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance and its
association with global struggle and, therefore, to
isolate the issue of the prisoners from its political
context.</p>
<p>In the struggle of the Palestinian prisoners for
freedom – an indivisible aspect of the Palestinian
people’s struggle for liberation – we can find the seed
of connection that holds the potential for building the
type of deep alliances – those most feared by Erdan and
the forces he represents – that can truly challenge
Zionism, imperialism, capitalism and their
reactionary-regime allies.</p>
<p>The Palestinian prisoners’ liberation cannot be
disconnected from global struggles for liberation, nor
from the struggle to liberate the political prisoners in
the Philippines, Turkey, Egypt, the United States and
elsewhere. Building the struggle for their freedom
reflects the common interest of revolutionary movements
fighting for justice and liberation, on the front lines
of confrontation with repression, racism, exploitation
and fascism.</p>
<p><em>Charlotte Kates is the International Coordinator of
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. </em></p>
<p><em><br>
</em></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> “Tribute to
Ghassan Kanafani,” in “Ghassan Kanafani,” Tricontinental
Society, London, 1980. <a
href="http://newjerseysolidarity.net/resources/kanafani/kanafani6.html">http://newjerseysolidarity.net/resources/kanafani/kanafani6.html
</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2">[2]</a> “Gilad Erdan,”
<a
href="https://www.gov.il/en/Departments/People/minister_of_public_security">https://www.gov.il/en/Departments/People/minister_of_public_security</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3">[3]</a> “When it comes
to Facebook ‘incitement,’ only Palestinians are
arrested, not Jewish Israelis,” Danielle Alma Ravitzki,
Mondoweiss, May 22, 2018, <a
href="https://mondoweiss.net/2018/05/facebook-incitement-palestinians/">https://mondoweiss.net/2018/05/facebook-incitement-palestinians/</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4">[4]</a> Defence for
Children International – Palestine, “Number of
Palestinian Children (12-17) in Israeli Military
Detention,” July 2018, <a
href="https://www.dci-palestine.org/children_in_israeli_detention">https://www.dci-palestine.org/children_in_israeli_detention</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5">[5]</a> Hussein
Al-Badri with Ahmad Sa’dat, Al-Masry al-Youm, October
20, 2018, <a
href="https://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/1334883">https://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/1334883</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6">[6]</a> Handala Center
for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners, “Repressive forces storm
Ramon prison,” October 23, 2018, <a
href="http://handala.ps/ar/post/2292/">http://handala.ps/ar/post/2292/</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7">[7]</a> Ahmed Melham,
“Jailed Palestinian writer pens story for children of
prisoners,” October 13, 2018, <a
href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/09/palestines-prison-literature.html#ixzz5VDLbkK1U">http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/09/palestines-prison-literature.html#ixzz5VDLbkK1U</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8">[8]</a> Executive
Order 12947, “Prohibiting Transactions With Terrorists
Who Threaten To Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process,”
<a
href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Documents/12947.pdf">https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Documents/12947.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9">[9]</a> Charles Glass,
“The Unjust Prosecution of the Holy Land Five,” August
5, 2018, The Intercept <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/08/05/holy-land-foundation-trial-palestine-israel/">https://theintercept.com/2018/08/05/holy-land-foundation-trial-palestine-israel/</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10">[10]</a> Norwegian
government, “Unacceptable glorification of terrorist
attacks,” <a
href="https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/unacceptable-glorification-of-terrorist-attacks/id2554704/">https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/unacceptable-glorification-of-terrorist-attacks/id2554704/</a>;
Times of Israel, “Belgium halts PA education funding
because West Bank school named for terrorist,’ <a
href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/belgium-halts-pa-education-funding-after-school-named-for-terrorist/">https://www.timesofisrael.com/belgium-halts-pa-education-funding-after-school-named-for-terrorist/</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11">[11]</a> Samidoun,
“Gilad Erdan wants to shut us down while attacking
prisoners,” June 20, 2018; <a
href="https://samidoun.net/2018/06/gilad-erdan-wants-to-shut-us-down-while-attacking-prisoners-well-keep-fighting-for-palestinian-freedom/">https://samidoun.net/2018/06/gilad-erdan-wants-to-shut-us-down-while-attacking-prisoners-well-keep-fighting-for-palestinian-freedom/</a></p>
<p><a href="#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12">[12]</a> Reut
Institute, “ The Delegitimization Challenge: Creating a
Political Firewall,“ 2010; <a
href="http://reut-institute.org/Publication.aspx?PublicationId=3769">http://reut-institute.org/Publication.aspx?PublicationId=3769</a></p>
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