Freedom Road Socialist Organization condemns the Israeli occupation for the abduction of Abla Sa’adat from her home in the West Bank. Abla Sa’adat is a steadfast opponent of apartheid Israel and the wife of Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

As resistance has intensified, so has repression. Israel currently holds about 10,000 Palestinians in prison, many without charges or anything resembling due process. Israeli prisons are hellscapes where torture is routine and the murder of prisoners by their jailers is commonplace. Zionist newspapers quote Israeli politicians calling for mass executions of those being held, and yet have the nerve to boast of their “values and morality.”

The genocide of Palestinians has been going on for close to a year. More than 41,000 are confirmed dead and many more are unaccounted for. This crime against humanity is facilitated by the U.S., by Biden and Harris, who send the money and weapons to make it happen.

Last year, on October 7, the world witnessed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, a bold move by the Palestinian resistance to strike a blow for liberation. Since then, the power and tenacity of the Palestinian liberation movement has inspired people around the world. It is a beacon of hope to oppressed people everywhere.

In the coming weeks, there will be many protests and events in solidarity with Palestine, demanding an end to U.S. aid to Israel and that institutions of higher education cut all ties with Israeli apartheid. Progressives and revolutionaries should go all-out in building these demonstrations. They are absolutely needed. Authorities may try to interfere and respond with repression—those who do should be viewed with contempt and met with defiance.

The prisoners of Palestine are heroes. They are behind bars because they dare to fight for freedom.

Stand with the prisoners and demand their release!

Free Abla and Ahmad Sa’adat!

#International #Palestine #AntiWarMovement #PFLP #PoliticalPrisoners #AhmadSaadat #FRSO #Statement #Feature

For nearly 20 years, the steadfast fighter for Palestinian liberation and general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmad Sa’adat, has endured imprisonment. Freedom Road Socialist Organization is proud to add its voice to the worldwide movement demanding the Israeli occupiers immediately release Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners.

PFLP leader Ahmad Sa’adat is a hero who has committed his entire life to freeing all of Palestine. He is an outstanding revolutionary and Marxist-Leninist. His courage and commitment stand as an example to everyone who yearns for a future free of oppression and exploitation.

The U.S. government and the Israeli occupiers attempt to criminalize the movement for the liberation of Palestine; they put the tag of “terrorists” on freedom fighters. We reject this. The real terrorists here are the Zionist occupiers and their U.S. backers. Furthermore, we demand the U.S. government scrap the “material support of terrorism” law that treats the supporters and members of PFLP and other organizations struggling to free Palestine as “terrorists.”

The struggle in Palestine is intensifying. The movement for national liberation is doing what is right and necessary to end the occupation. The reactionary government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is using repression and torture. They are even banning the Palestinian flag.

The Palestinian revolution will continue until victory. The Zionist regime exists on stolen land and borrowed time. We demand and end to all U.S. aid to Israel, and we stand in solidarity with all those struggling for a liberated Palestine.

Freedom now for PFLP leader Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners!

#UnitedStates #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #Palestine #AhmadSaadat #MiddleEast

It’s time to step up the struggle to free Ahmad Sa’adat, a noted Palestinian political prisoner and General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Sa’adat, who has been imprisoned for nearly 20 years, first by the corrupt and occupation-complicit Palestinian Authority, and now by the Israelis, has come to symbolize the resistance of the Palestinian people. He is a brilliant Marxist and advocate for socialism, who stands for liberation of every inch of Palestine. Sa’adat’s courage in the face of the Israel’s brutality shines as an example to everyone who yearns for a just world.

Today, there are nearly 6000 Palestinian prisoners locked in Zionist jails. Their ranks include men, women and children. They face torture and isolation and they have nothing wrong. It is not surprising that Ahmad Sa’adat has emerged as one of the key leaders of Palestinian’s behind bars.

The Israeli occupation of Palestine continues because of the backing it receives from U.S. The occupiers are rightfully hated throughout the Middle East. U.S. aid and military commitments function as Israel’s life-support system. It’s important to press the demand of “No U.S. Aid to Israel.”

Standing reality on its head, the U.S. government and its Israeli allies have tried to stick the ‘terrorist’ tag on Ahmad Sa’adat and the PFLP. Nothing could be further from the truth. Resistance to occupation and injustice is not terrorism; it’s the right of the oppressed and a necessity for liberation.

In an interview with Fight Back!, Ahmad Sa’adat correctly stated, “The American globalization of war established the conditions for its antithesis – globalizing the popular struggle.” All of us need to contribute to this globalized struggle for the emancipation of the exploited and oppressed.

The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat have called for an International Week of Actions for the Freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat this January 15-22. We urge all anti-war and international solidary activists to do what they can to support this effort.

As long as it continues to exist, Israel will be a prison for the Palestinian people. But the day of liberation is coming, and we can help bring it closer.

Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat!

End All U.S. Aid to Israel!

Free Palestine – From the River to the Sea!

#Palestine #AntiwarMovement #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #SamidounPalestinianPrisonerSolidarityNetworkAndCampaignToFreeAhmadSaadat #InternationalWeekOfActionsForTheFreedomOfAhmadSaadat

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine salutes the legendary steadfastness of the revolutionary, the imprisoned General Secretary Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, continuing on his open hunger strike and presenting a solid model of struggle even in the most difficult of circumstances.

The Front confirmed that it stands with its leader, the leadership of the strike, and the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in the battle for freedom and dignity that they are waging in order to achieve their just collective demands. The occupation is attempting to abort the strike by imposing collective punishment on the striking prisoners in an attempt to exhaust them and undermine their resolve. These attempts will not achieve their goal, and the prisoners are determined to continue in this battle.

The Front also praised the spirit of national unity represented by Comrade Sa’adat during his legal visit today, including his confidence in his fellow strike leaders, in particular the leader Marwan Barghouthi. Sa’adat emphasized the tricks of the Zionist forces as desperate attempts to break the prisoners’ steadfastness and morale, and called all to beware of tricks and rumors marketed by parties, especially the occupation, in order to stop the strike.

The PFLP warns against attempts by some parties to circumvent the strike and open a dialogue with the occupation, emphasizing that the leadership of the hunger strike, as expressed repeatedly by the prisoners, is the only body authorized to represent the strike.

The Front also demanded the International Committee of the Red Cross carry out its humanitarian responsibilities in following up on the prisoners’ situation, especially the conditions of the strikers, and to clearly stand against the occupation’s violation of the prisoners’ rights, saying that the ICRC has abandoned its necessary role.

Further, the PFLP urged all of its branches and organizations in occupied Palestine and in exile that the battle of the prisoners is the number one priority until we achieve victory.

The Front concluded by emphasizing the need to continue to escalate this struggle and the popular national movement at all levels in support of the prisoners’ cause and this battle of dignity. On the anniversary of the Nakba and the displacement of the Palestinian people, the Front urges all to march and organize under the banner of “Return and Liberation.”

#Palestine #AhmadSaadat #PFLP #MiddleEast

As the imprisoned leader Bilal Kayed enters his 47th day of hunger strike, representing the meaning of steadfastness and pride despite his pain and deteriorating health, he is determined to defeat the oppressor, the killer, and achieve his date with freedom. At the same time, the prisoners of the Front who are engaged in the battle in support of their comrade Kayed, are being hit by Zionist repression. They emphasize that no matter what forms of terror and repression are used against them by the prison administration, the jailer will not be able to stop the march toward victory in this battle and the achievement of freedom for Bilal.

To the steadfast Palestinian masses,

We have previously stated and we do once again, before the prisons and intelligence services of the occupation, that the continued imprisonment of Comrade Bilal Kayed and his transfer to administrative detention, including his suffering now in the hospital under harsh repression, will be met with the escalation of struggle by the prisoners of the Front. From the leaders of the Front to the youngest imprisoned children, the prisoners will not leave their comrade Kayed alone in isolation, transfer, or sanctions and repression. The prisoners confirm that they are in the struggle against time to achieve freedom for their comrade, and that in light of the ongoing struggle with the prison administration, they have succeeded in destabilizing the prison administration. We have seen this in its failure to confront or suppress this struggle despite its attempts to impose all forms of sanctions and punishment against the prisoners of the Front. Those who are marching toward the continuation and conclusion of this battle declare that we are entering a new era of the march toward victory, in which tyranny and terror are defeated by will and determination.

We in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine organization in Israeli jails emphasize the following amid the escalation of the battle for freedom of our Comrade Kayed:

1) With his position of high responsibility, the General Secretary, Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat is launching a hunger strike from Sunday, 31 July. This is a strategic decision of a leader who is fighting this battle alongside his fellow strugglers. The commander does not leave his soldiers but joins in the battle, and emphasizes that his participation in the battle will continue until Comrade Bilal achieves his freedom.

2) A new group of leaders of the Front, including the prominent leader Comrade Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, and a new batch of prisoners in Ramon and Ofer prisons, are joining the open hunger strike.

3) The step being taken by the General Secretary to join the hunger strike alongside a group of PFLP leaders is a new escalation step that sends several messages to the occupation. The prisoners will not stand by as the health of Comrade Bilal Kayed deteriorates. They are all determined to fight this battle and continue to escalate the struggle toward an overall strategic strike of all prisoners in all prisons. And they carry another message to the masses of the Palestinian people and the people of the world to continue to keep up the pressure and escalate the struggle to release Bilal and expose the occupation practices against the prisoners, especially the policy of administrative detention against hundreds of prisoners.

To the masses of our people, we are fighting this battle beside you. We are determined not to back down or to weaken. The fascist procedures and policies of the prison will do nothing but increase our determination to achieve freedom for our comrade Bilal Kayed.

Freedom for the prisoners! Victory is inevitable! The leadership of the PFLP in Israeli jails July 31, 2016

#Palestine #AhmadSaadat #PFLP #MiddleEast

The following message in honor of the martyr Samir Kuntar was issued by imprisoned PFLP General Secretary, Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, from Ramon Prison:

On behalf of my Comrades in the Political Bureau and the Central Committee, and the branch of the Front in the occupation prisons, and the cadres and members of the Front, I extend to the Lebanese and Palestinian people, the Arab nation, and the international movements for liberation my deepest condolences, revolutionary anger and solidarity in struggle as we bid farewell to the Arab struggler, the martyr Samir Kuntar, who was always loyal to the cause of Palestine.

He set his compass early to Palestine. Despite decades of imprisonment and physical injury he was for all of his life a solid struggler, armed with will, determination and resolve, believing in resistance in thought, word and deed, and committed to the inevitability of victory, true to the principles of liberation in which he was trained.

The martyr, through his loyalty and sacrifice, took a well-deserved place in the hearts and consciences of the Palestinian and Arab peoples, and his brothers and comrades in all factions, the national and Islamic forces who lived with him inside the prisons of the occupation.

Once again we send our warmest condolences to the family of the martyr, the fighters in the resistance, and the adoptive mother of prisoners, Um Jaber Wishah, on the departure of this leader and revolutionary commando. We renew our confidence in the resistance to avenge this crime, and to proceed on the same line of march.

Glory to the martyrs, victory to our people!

Ahmad Sa’adat Ramon Prison 20 December 2015

#Palestine #Lebanon #PFLP #Syria #AhmadSaadat #SamirKuntar #MiddleEast

The Popular Front’s prison branch reported that the Zionist prison authority has transferred the Front’s General Secretary, Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, from Shata prison to Gilboa prison.

The Prison Branch said that this is aimed to distract and obstruct the efforts of Sa’adat as a leader in the prisons to unify the national prisoners’ movement and build the struggle within the prisons. The Branch noted that Sa’adat and other leaders of the prisoners’ movement are always subject to vindictive measures and are closely monitored by the Zionist prison authorities in attempts to obstruct their leadership and influence within the prisons.

#Palestine #PFLP #PoliticalPrisoners #AhmadSaadat #MiddleEast

To the struggling masses of our people…

On January 15, 2002, the Palestinian Authority security apparatus committed the crime of arresting Comrade General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Majdi Rimawi, Hamdi Quran and Basil al-Asmar, in compliance with the requirements of security coordination. This did not stop the attacks on the resistance, the escalation of settlements and the building of the segregation wall.

The Authority’s crime was completed by the enemy’s attack and abduction of the comrades from Jericho prison, when all agreements were disregarded in U.S. and British collusion with the attack, which exposed the inability of the Authority to protect even its prisons, while our comrades were taken to spend long years in isolation – for which the occupation is not solely responsible.

We honour these heroic comrades – at their forefront, Comrade leader Ahmad Sa’adat, and affirm today that he was unanimously re-elected with full confidence in his leadership as General Secretary by the Central Committee and the Seventh National Conference of the Front. This is a well-deserved trust that he has earned, demonstrating steadfastness, clarity and unwavering commitment to struggle, principled and ready for struggle, with a broad political vision and carrying a high level of national respect. He and his imprisoned comrades, and all of the prisoners of our people together are at the forefront of the struggle, insisting on Palestinian national goals and rights in their totality on the ground, without prejudice, compromise, negligence, or barter.

To the masses of our resisting people…

The courage shown by the people of Qusra village and its area are a brilliant example of the struggling steadfastness of our people and their willingness to continue in all circumstances to confront and resist the enemy and their settlers. As we call on all to be inspired and learn from the steadfastness of our farmers and our prisoners, we are fully aligned with the alternative they present to relying on the futile negotiations. It is clear that the goal of the negotiations is the liquidation of the national liberation cause of our people, enhancing the status of the Zionist entity in the Arab world, and opening the doors to the official Arab regimes to normalize relations with it.

Today, we confront the ongoing lessons of Oslo and all subsequent agreements and negotiations, while the Palestinian Authority continues to drive the PLO into relying upon this absurd and devastating process, attempting to close the door on a popular option while yielding to U.S. and Arab reactionary pressure.

To our people and our nation…

This date shares an appropriate coincidence with the shuttle diplomacy tours of the Secretary of State of the U.S. imperialists, between Palestine and the Arab countries, in order to liquidate our national cause and replace it with the issue of exchanges of land and population, drawing borders, and in support of the Israeli demand for recognition of the enemy state as the “state of the Jewish people.” This is an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian right of return and to whet the appetite for ethnic cleansing against the rights of our people in the areas of Palestine occupied in 1948.

All of this comes with total disregard of international legitimacy and United Nations resolutions on Palestine, and of the United Nations as a reference, to implement the U.S./Zionist vision.

What is happening now requires popular confrontation of any party who seeks to negotiate a temporary or permanent solution that detracts from fundamental Palestinian national rights. This moment requires of all national and social forces among the Palestinian people to mobilize to thwart this new scheme, to protect the resistance option, and return the Palestinian issue to the UN as a reference, with its resolutions to be implemented – not negotiated.

Our cause is in danger from this heated American pursuit to enforce upon us the terms of the enemy. It seeks to take advantage of the state of demobilization and national division, and the resulting confusion about events in the Arab world. It is clear that the leadership of the Authority is unable to confront, and its options have been reduced to negotiations, negotiations, and then more negotiations.

It is urgent to move past the era of division and return to the clear Palestinian national constants, build our movement and abandon once and for all the illusions that have proved thorny and dangerous. It is our people’s right to know what is going on in the corridors and back-rooms of negotiations, and it is their right to decide and judge on the basis of that reality.

To the masses of our great people…

On this occasion, we re-confirm our emphatic commitment to our pledge to the heroic comrades and all of the martyrs and prisoners. We renew our rejection of security coordination and we demand to put an end to the continuing illusions of negotiations amidst a frenzy of settlements and settler violence. We call for an end to the devastating division and the rebuilding of the Palestine Liberation Organization on the basis of a principled political strategy and a national democratic movement to restore the political unity of our people in the homeland, diaspora and exile, to rise and march again in the national liberation struggle.

Salutes and tributes to our comrade General Secretary and his comrades Glory to the martyrs, freedom for the prisoners Unite to confront Kerry’s plan for the liquidation of our national cause

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – Political Bureau January 15, 2014

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #PoliticalPrisoners #IsraeliOccupation #MiddleEast

Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, urged Palestinians to “break the barriers of silence and bang on the walls of the tank” to defend Palestinian rights under threat from new negotiations between the Palestinian Authority in a letter leaked from prison on July 26, 2013.

He called for wide participation among Palestinians in the Sunday demonstrations called by the PFLP in Ramallah and Gaza against the negotiations, emphasizing that those who claim to represent Palestinians must respect the will of our people.

Sa’adat said that Palestinians in Palestine and in the diaspora must strengthen popular consensus and unity to protect the Palestinian national project and lay the foundations for a new stage of struggle, and resistance in all forms.

Sa’adat earlier told lawyer Buthaina Duqmaq that “the return to negotiations is a violation of the Palestinian national consensus” and “undermine Palestinian reconciliation efforts, and threaten the destruction of the Palestine Liberation Organization.”

He demanded that all Palestinian officials refuse negotiations with the occupation state, saying that negotiating with this criminal state puts the Palestinian cause, and Palestinian internal unity, at significant risk. “It is clear that the negotiating team ignored these conditions, violated national consensus, and instead chose to rely on US guarantees. This has been done previously again and again and never has yielded any results that have compelled the occupying power to respect international law.”

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #Zionism #MiddleEast

Taher noted that Sa’adat had been transferred to Ramleh prison hospital after 13 days on hunger strike alongside thousands of his fellow prisoners to confront the rule of terror by the occupation authorities. Taher saluted the brave and steadfast prisoners and affirmed that the occupation bears full responsibility for the life of the General Secretary, and the lives of thousands of prisoners bravely fighting the battle of the empty stomachs, and warned the occupation of the consequences of its oppression.

He called for the prisoners’ struggle to be internationalized and taken up by the United Nations at all levels, from the General Assembly to the Security Council, and for Israel to be held accountable by the International Court of Justice for its policies against the prisoners. He called for emergency meetings of the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to take appropriate measures to protect Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the prisons of the occupation. He called upon the Arab masses and popular forces, and all democratic and progressive forces around the world, to build the broadest solidarity with the prisoners and to condemn the barbaric practices of the brutal occupation authorities.

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #HungerStrike #IsraeliOccupation #MiddleEast

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat. Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is a political prisoner who is being held in an Israeli jail.

10 Years in Prison, 10 Years of Struggle: On the Anniversary of the Abduction of Ahmad Sa'adat

January 15, 2012 is the 10th anniversary of the abduction of Palestinian political leader Ahmad Sa'adat by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah at the hands of the PA intelligence services headed by Tawfiq Tirawi. Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been imprisoned for ten years – first by PA security, then under US and British guard in a PA prison in Jericho, and now, for the past six years, inside Israeli jails alongside thousands of other Palestinian political prisoners after a siege on Jericho and the kidnapping of Sa'adat and his comrades in 2006.

The kidnapping of Ahmad Sa'adat on January 15, 2002, was emblematic of the deep damage of the crime of “security cooperation” to the Palestinian people and their national cause. “Security cooperation” has meant nothing but attacks on the Palestinian resistance at the behest of Israel, committed by Palestinian Authority hands. The abduction of Ahmad Sa'adat, and his imprisonment – and that of his comrades – in the PA prison in Jericho, under U.S. and British guard, was a clear example of the PA's status as fundamentally beholden to the interests of Israel, the U.S. and other international powers, at the expense of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance.

The abduction of Ahmad Sa'adat has come to symbolize the thousands of Palestinians who have gone through the jails of the PA because of their loyalty to the Palestinian people, cause and resistance, and the impunity of PA officials – like Tawfiq Tirawi – who continue to find lucrative and influential positions within the Authority despite their shameless acts of betrayal, imprisoning, and abducting Palestinian leaders and activists.

This complicity with Israeli demands for the subjugation and suppression of the Palestinian people led directly to the Israeli assault on Jericho prison in 2006, where Ahmad Sa'adat and his comrades were immobilized in the face of Israeli occupation aggression. Sa'adat had never been charged with a crime throughout his four years in PA prison; his release had been ordered by the PA's highest court. Yet the PA refused to release Sa'adat, respecting the dictates of Israel, the US and Britain above Palestinian legitimacy; it claimed that it “could not guarantee his safety” outside the prison. Yet it simultaneously guaranteed that he and his comrades could not be safe from Israeli aggression, their locations known at all times by Israel and under the watchful eyes of U.S. and British guards, directly in collusion with Israel. (It should be noted that, forewarned of the attack, the U.S. and British guards absented Jericho prison at the request of the Israeli occupation army.)

Since his second kidnapping, from a PA prison to the heart of the occupation's jails, Ahmad Sa'adat has remained a leader of the prisoners' movement. Today, he has spent nearly three full years in isolation at the hands of the occupation. He was an inspiration – and his release from isolation a key demand of the prisoners' hunger strike that galvanized the Palestinian prisoners' movement and the prisoners' cause in October 2011.

Just as Sa'adat's kidnapping is a symbol of the crime of security cooperation, Sa'adat's imprisonment in the hands of the occupation is a symbol of the steadfastness of the nearly 5,000 prisoners inside the jails of the occupation – like his fellow prisoners, resisting isolation, refusing rights violations, and not allowing their will and strength to be broken by the actions of the occupation jailers.

Ten years after the abduction of Ahmad Sa'adat, this anniversary is a reminder that we must continue to organize, act, and demand the freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners, and expose the complicity of the U.S., British, Canadian and other international governments in the enforcement of “security cooperation” and the abuse and mass imprisonment of Palestinian political leaders and activists by the Israeli occupation. While the Quartet pushes the Palestinian Authority to return to bogus negotiations with the occupation (while the occupation continues settlement expansion, ethnic cleansing, land confiscation, home demolitions, isolation, solitary confinement, and mass imprisonment), it is urgent that we form an international popular basis of support for the Palestinian people and their activists and leaders inside the jails of the occupation, rather than those complicit with the occupation at the table of negotiations.

Take Action!

1. Picket, protest or call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners.
2. Distribute the free downloadable Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat flyer in your community at local events.
3. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that prisoners' rights are recognized. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at JER_jerusalem@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situation of Ahmad Sa'adat. Make it clear that isolation is a human rights violation and a form of torture, and that the ICRC must stand up and play its role to defend prisoners' rights.
4. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at campaign@freeahmadsaadat.org with announcements, reports and information about your local events, activities and flyer distributions.

WHO IS AHMAD SA'ADAT?

Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was elected to his position in 2001 following the assassination of the previous General Secretary, Abu Ali Mustafa, on August 27, 2001 by a U.S.-made Apache missile shot from an Israeli military helicopter as he sat in his office in Ramallah. PFLP fighters retaliated by assassinating Rehavam Ze'evi, the racist extremist Israeli tourism minister and head of the Moledet party, notorious for his political platform based on the “transfer” or ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, on October 17, 2001.

Sa'adat was abducted by Palestinian Authority security forces after engaging in a meeting with PA officials under false pretenses in February 2002, and was held in the Muqata' PA presidential building in Ramallah until April 2002, when in an agreement with Israel, the U.S. and Britain, he and four of his comrades were held in the Palestinian Authority's Jericho prison, under U.S. and British guard.

He remained in the PA jails, without trial or charge, an imprisonment that was internationally condemned, until March 14, 2006, when the prison itself was besieged by the occupation army and he and his comrades were kidnapped. While imprisoned in the PA jail in Jericho, he was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council. Since that time, he has been held in the prisons of the occupation and continually refused to recognize the illegitimate military courts of the Israeli occupation. He was sentenced to thirty years in prison on December 25, 2008 solely for his political activity, and has spent nearly three years in isolation at the present time.

Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat January 15, 2012

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/ campaign@freeahmadsaadat.org Twitter: @FreeAhmadSaadat

#Palestine #AhmadSaadat #CampaignToFreeAhmadSaadat #PoliticalPrisoners #MiddleEast

Call to Action: Support Palestinian Prisoners on Hunger Strike!

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons issued a statement on Sunday, September 25, 2011, stating that they plan to begin an open-ended hunger strike on September 27, 2011, demanding an end to the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat, an end to isolation for all Palestinian political prisoners, and an end to the policies of repression and humiliation against visitors to the prisoners, including denial of family visits and visitors being stopped, searched and impeded at Israeli occupation checkpoints. The prisoners are also demanding an end to abuse and humiliation of prisoners while they are transferred from one prison to another.

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat stands in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners' hunger strike and calls for people around the world to join their voices to the prisoners' call for justice.

Ahmad Sa'adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a Palestinian national leader, has been imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces since his kidnapping in March 13, 2006. He was abducted in a violent Israeli military raid from a Palestinian Authority prison where he had been unjustly held without charge or trial for over four years under U.S. and British guard. He has been in isolation for over two years following his calls for resistance to the Israeli assault on Gaza in winter 2009.

The prisoners' statement follows:

“We, the comrades of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the Zionist prisons and detention centers, declare to the steadfast, struggling brave masses of the Palestinian people and to all free people in the world:

We announce that we will begin an open-ended hunger strike on Tuesday morning, September 27, 2011, in response to the official policies of the Zionist government and its fascist prison administration. We demand our rights and our dignity, as we struggle for the victory of our values and ideals.

Our goals for this hunger strike:

1. End the solitary confinement and isolation of our comrade, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the PLO Central Council, Ahmad Sa'adat, Abu Ghassan.

2. End the policy of isolation for all prisoners;

3. End the policy of systematic humiliation by the occupation army against the Palestinian people at checkpoints and crossings, particularly targeting visitors to prisons, and end the arbitrary denial of visits to the prisoners, especially the prisoners from the Gaza Strip. End the humiliation and abuse of prisoners during transfer.

The principles of our revolution include the rejection of all forms of injustice, and for us to struggle and confront the occupier in all areas and places in our own manner. Accordingly, we call upon all of the Palestinian and Arab people, political forces and institutions, human rights and civil society organizations, to raise their voices for us, so that we do not become easy prey for a vicious occupier. We promise to all of our people, and to the legacy of the martyrs of Palestine, that we will continue on our path until victory.

Great glory to the martyrs ... Victory to the revolution ... Victory is inevitable.”

TAKE ACTION TO SUPPORT AHMAD SA'ADAT AND ALL PALESTINIAN PRISONERS!

1. Picket, protest or call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners.

2. Distribute the free downloadable Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat flyer in your community at local events.

3. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the Israelis ensure that Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners are freed from punitive isolation. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at jerusalem.jer@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situation of Ahmad Sa'adat.

4. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at info@freeahmadsaadat.org with announcements, reports and information about your local events, activities and flyer distributions.

#Palestine #AhmadSaadat #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PoliticalPrisoner #PoliticalPrisoners #HungerStrike

Occupation Courts Extend Sa'adat Isolation Again After 775 Days – Take Action

The Israeli occupation courts have, once again, extended the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat. On May 3, 2011, at a hearing in Beersheba prison, the court issued an extended isolation order until November 3, 2011. Ahmad Sa'adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian national leader, has been held in isolation since March 19, 2009 – for over two full years, over 775 days.

It is well-established that solitary confinement and isolation are dangerous and detrimental to the physical and mental health of prisoners. It is a technique frequently used against political prisoners, from the U.S.'s Guantanamo Bay and Communications Management Units, to Ben Ali's isolation cells in Tunisia, to the prisons of the occupation. Israel is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, whose articles 10 states that “All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.” On the contrary, isolation cells deprive prisoners of human contact, recreation, and mental stimulation. Sa'adat is regularly denied family visits, newspapers, books, and information in Arabic. While Israel's utter contempt for international law is visible in every aspect of its behaviour, from its war crimes against Palestinians, to its denial of the Palestinian rig ht to return, to its apartheid regime targeting Palestinian citizens, the situation of Palestinian prisoners is a glaring example of Israel's flouting of international law and human rights standards.

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) – the expert body associated with the Council of Europe – has noted, “It is generally acknowledged that all forms of solitary confinement without appropriate mental and physical stimulation are likely, in the long-term, to have damaging effects resulting in deterioration of mental faculties and social abilities.” Those prisoners targeted for isolation, including Ahmad Sa'adat, are long-time Palestinian leaders. Sa'adat has always been a leader among his fellow prisoners and a voice of conscience of the Palestinian people – and it is for that reason that he is being targeted under cover of secret evidence for isolation and deprivation.

Sa'adat refused to attend the hearing, as an illegal manifestation of an illegitimate occupation and abduction, and due to its reliance on secret evidence, saying that he refused to legitimize what was clearly a mockery of justice.

This extension of isolation comes as Palestinian prisoners have launched hunger strikes in protest against the use of isolation. The strikes began on May 3 at Ramon, Ashkelon and Nafha prisons and will also take place on May 7, 11, 14, 18, 21, 25, and 28. Palestinian prisoners – inside the jails of the occupation – are taking action against isolation and demanding freedom. It is imperative that we echo their voices and demand an end to isolation and freedom for Palestinian prisoners.

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat also notes that Dr. Ahmad Qatamesh, long-time Palestinian activist and writer, has been subject to the imposition of arbitrary administrative detention and demands his freedom. As Addameer reveals, his administrative detention order – extended minutes before he was to be released from was merely copied from another Palestinian prisoner – bearing witness once again to the fact that administrative detention is nothing more than an arbitrary kidnapping and imprisonment of Palestinians, without charge or trial, for six months at a time. Administrative detention, based on nothing more than secret evidence, has been used to target and silence Palestinian activists when even the flimsy standards of Israeli military courts cannot be used to imprison Palestinian writers, activists and community organizers. The Campaign demands the freedom of Ahmad Qatamesh and an end to the horror that is administrative detention, a mechanism of terror against the Palestinian population.

From administrative detention, to military trials, to the isolation cells, Israel shows utter contempt for the human rights and dignity of Palestinian prisoners. In response, it is urgent that supporters of Palestine and justice around the world raise their voices to demand an end to isolation, an end to arbitrary detention – and the freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and every one of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners of freedom, in an occupation's jails for daring to struggle for the freedom of their land and people.

We urge activists to include statements and messages of solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in their events, and as the anniversary of Al-Nakba comes near, to mark the Nakba on May 15 by demanding the right to return and the liberation of Palestine -including the freedom of Palestinian political prisoners. Palestinian prisoners are hunger striking and raising their voices behind bars – we must join their voices and demand their freedom!

Please contact us at info@freeahmadsaadat.org to inform us of your events and actions.

TAKE ACTION TO SUPPORT AHMAD SA'ADAT AND ALL PALESTINIAN PRISONERS!

1. Call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners.

2. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the Israelis ensure that Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners are freed from punitive isolation. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at jerusalem.jer@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situation of Ahmad Sa'adat.

3. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at info@freeahmadsaadat.org with announcements, reports and information about your local events, activities and flyer distributions.

May 4, 2011

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat

http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org

info@freeahmadsaadat.org

Twitter:@freeahmadsaadat

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #PFLP #MiddleEast

On Palestinian Prisoners' Day, April 17, 2011, the 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!

For 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 regularly denied family visits, denied access to books or reading mateial, 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. 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 info@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.

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #PoliticalPrisoners #PFLP #CampaignToFreeAhmadSaadat #MiddleEast

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat. Ahmad Sa'adat, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is imprisoned in an Israeli jail.

On fifth anniversary of Sa'adat's abduction, join the movement to end Oslo

March 15, 2011 marks the fifth anniversary of the storming of Jericho prison and the abduction of Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa'adat and his comrades by the Israeli occupation military. On this anniversary, the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat emphasizes that the strength and determination of the Palestinian people to free all prisoners from the occupation jails has remained steadfast and strong, and calls upon all to support and join in the March 15 protests for Palestinian unity and against the Oslo agreement. Despite the abuse and isolation they have suffered, the Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian people will continue to resist occupation, racism, and settlement in order to obtain their rights to freedom, self-determination and return.

Since his abduction, Ahmad Sa'adat has been subjected to repeated mistreatment, denial of family visits and denial of medical care in occupation prisons. He has been held in isolation since March 19, 2009, with his isolation repeatedly renewed. Despite the occupation prisons' practices, which run contrary to international norms and human rights standards, Sa'adat has continued to stand firm and steadfast with the Palestinian people and their rights, and while the jailers have isolated Sa'adat physically, they have failed to isolate his words or his spirit – the Palestinian people and the world stand with him.

The anniversary this year of Ahmad Sa'adat's abduction comes in conjunction with the March 15, 2011 protests to end Palestinian internal division and overthrow the Oslo agreement and all of its products. Sa'adat's abduction, coming as it did from a Palestinian Authority prison established under the terms of Oslo and its “security cooperation”, was itself a manifestation of Oslo and the fracturing of the Palestinian internal front.

On this anniversary, the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat echoes Sa'adat's call for support for the March 15 demonstrations. Sa'adat's wife, Abla, reported on March 11 that he called for all Palestinians, inside and outside Palestine, to participate in the protests and expressed his “sincere greetings for all of the efforts led by Palestinian youth, and affirmed that all prisoners in the jails of the occupier are with them, support their movement and their demands.”

The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat calls upon all of its supporters around the world to join in and support Palestinian efforts for March 15 demonstrations in all area, including actions and demonstrations called by local Palestinian communities, and to raise the struggle of Palestinian prisoners, one of the central demands of the March 15 protests. We join with Ahmad Sa'adat and share his conviction in the ability of the Palestinian people to take the initiative in their hands and pressure for change, to end the division, and end the destructive era of the Oslo agreements and “negotiations.”

On the fifth anniversary of Ahmad Sa'adat's abduction, it is long past time to end once and for all the dangerous and deeply damaging policy of security coordination, a policy responsible for ongoing political repression, human rights violations and threats to the Palestinian cause. We emphasize that the policy of Palestinian Authority security coordination with the Israeli occupation is the cause not only of Ahmad Sa'adat's imprisonment but also of ongoing arrests, prosecutions, torture and fear for Palestinians in the West Bank. The Palestinian Campaign in Solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat has labeled the policy of security coordination “national treason against the people and the resistance.” The policy of security coordination is a threat to the Palestinian cause and the entire Palestinian people, and is a slap in the face to the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in the occupier's jails and threatens all of the accomplishments of the Palestinian revolution over its decades.

On this anniversary, we reiterate our call to all organizations in solidarity with Palestine, prisoners' rights and human rights to join the Campaign, and for international authorities, including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to take up their responsibility to address the ongoing suffering and abuse of Palestinian political prisoners by occupation forces, including the abuse of child prisoners and the denial of medical care to ill prisoners.

Five years after Ahmad Sa'adat's abduction from Jericho prison alongside his comrades, the Sa'adat, the Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian people remain steadfastly in confrontation of occupation and oppression. On this anniversary, we salute Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners and pledge to continue our work until all Palestinian political prisoners – and all of Palestine – are free.

Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #PFLP #CampaignToFreeAhmadSaadat #MiddleEast

Imprisoned Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa'adat will be returning to court in mid-October 2010 challenging his isolation and the isolation of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons. Write letters today and take action from October 5-15, 2010 in support of Palestinian prisoners' struggle for freedom – demand an end to isolation!

Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has been held in isolation in a series of prisons since March 16, 2009, with his isolation renewed again and again by occupation courts. He has been transferred from prison to prison, and is currently held in the isolation section of Ramon prison in the Naqab desert. Within these isolation units, Sa'adat has been placed further inside a separate isolation unit where he is confined without access even to the other prisoners in isolation, and deprived of basic human rights. His personal books have been confiscated and he is allowed access to newspapers only once or twice weekly. He is denied access to English and Arabic language newspapers and allowed only Hebrew-language media.

He has been repeatedly denied family visits – his wife, Abla, has been allowed only two visits during his entire period in isolation – as well as legal visits, and barred from purchases at the prison canteen, including cigarette purchases. In the prison yard, Sa'adat has been held handcuffed and in ankle shackles and allowed only one-hour of exercise/recreation. The Prison Administration is attempting to criminalize the human and social relationship between fellow Palestinian prisoners, and between the prisoners and their families outside.

Sa'adat has led in the struggle against isolation, engaging in a nine-day hunger strike in 2009 in protest of isolation. Isolation is damaging and destructive to the mental and physical health of Palestinian prisoners, and is being used as a political weapon in order to punish and isolate Palestinian prisoner leaders. Some prisoners have been subject to isolation for years at a time, with severe effects. Take action now to fight isolation and demand the freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners!

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

1. The Campaign in Solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat in Palestine is calling upon all supporters to write letters to the Israeli Prison Service and demand they end the practice of isolation, end human rights violations, and free Palestinian prisoners. Send an email to the Bureau of the Minister of Public Security at sar@mops.gov.il and to the Public Complaints Department at mevaker@mops.gov.il, and copy the following:

Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister, Office of the Prime Minister, 3, Kaplan Street, PO Box 187, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem, Israel, Fax: +972- 2-651 2631, Email: pm_eng@pmo.gov.il

Mr. Menachem Mazuz, Attorney General, Fax: + 972 2 627 4481; + 972 2 628 5438; +972 2 530 3367

Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit, Military Judge Advocate General, 6 David Elazar Street, Hakirya, Tel Aviv, Israel, Fax: +972 3 608 0366, +972 3 569 4526, Email: arbel@mail.idf.il, avimn@idf.gov.il

Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations Office and Specialized Institutions in Geneva, Avenue de la Paix 1-3, 1202 Geneva, Fax: +41 22 716 05 55, Email: mission-israel@geneva.mfa.gov.il

You may use our online form at: http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/action3.html.

2. Write a letter to Ahmad Sa'adat. Letters of support are important and demonstrate solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat and Palestinian prisoners – let him know that the world is demanding his freedom. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at info@freeahmadsaadat.org with your letters, or use our contact form at: http://freeahmadsaadat.org/contact.html. We will send all letters received to Palestine. We also encourage you to write to him directly using this address: Ahmad Sa'adat, Ramon Prison, Ramon area, PO Box 699, Postal Code 80600, Israel.

JOIN THE WEEK OF ACTION, OCTOBER 5-15, 2010!

1. October 5-15, 2010 will be international days of action in support of Ahmad Sa'adat and Palestinian prisoners and against isolation. Join us! Hold an event, protest or action in your city. Email the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat at info@freeahmadsaadat.org to be added to the global list of actions.

2. Distribute the Free Ahmad Sa'adat flyer: http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/saadat-flyer.pdf in your town, city, event or location! Bring the flyers to events and activities, or hold a flyer distribution at a public place.

3. Protest outside the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location( http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Diplomatic+missions/Web+Sites+of+Israeli+Missions+Abroad.htm) and demand the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners.

Ahmad Sa'adat has been imprisoned since 2002 in the prisons of the Palestinian Authority, held under U.S. and British guard, until his abduction by the Israeli occupation forces on March 14, 2006 by an occupation military raid on Jericho prison. On December 25, 2008, he was sentenced to thirty years inside the occupation prisons. He is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and one of the foremost Palestinian national leaders held inside the occupier's jails.

Ahmad Sa'adat and approximately 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are daily on the front lines, confronting Israeli oppression and crimes. Today, it is urgent that we stand with Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners against these abuses, and for freedom for all Palestinian prisoners and for all of Palestine!

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #MiddleEast

PFLP Political Bureau calls for October mobilization for Comrade Sa'adat

The Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued a statement on July 18, 2010, calling for the broadest expression of solidarity and support for Comrade Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the PFLP, in mid-October 2010, when his continued isolation in the jails of the occupation will again come before the court.

The Front's statement said that Comrade Sa'adat has spent over a year and a half in isolation, while the Prisons Service and Zionist security services have declared him an ongoing 'security threat', justifying his continuing isolation away from his fellow prisoners, the continued restriction of his family visits and deprivation of access to news and media, books, and information. The PFLP said that all seventeen Palestinian prisoners suffering from isolation are at risk due to the brutality and cruelty of the Prisons Service, and urged widespread support against the use of isolation targeting Palestinian prisoners.

The PFLP called for a day of action to be a day of struggle and solidarity against isolation and in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, with Comrade Sa'adat at the forefront. It called upon all progressive forces, all Palestinian and Arab parties and liberation movements, and all friends of the Front and the Palestinian people in the world to organize events, media activities and political solidarity actions in support of Comrade Sa'adat, calling for the freedom of Palestinian prisoners, and exposing the horror of isolation. It further called upon all branches of the Front and its supporters in Palestine and outside to regard the day of Comrade Sa'adat's hearing as a day for mobilization and popular solidarity with the prisoners' movement.

Furthermore, the Political Bureau statement demanded that international human rights authorities and in particular, the United Nations and its bodies, including its Secretary-General, to assume their responsibilities to protect Palestinian prisoners and cease their willful blindness to the crimes of the Israeli occupation against the prisoners.

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #PoliticalPrisoners

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on the decision by the Israeli authorities to extend the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat. Ahmad Sa'adat is an important leader of the movement to end the occupation of Palestine.

Occupation prison authority once again extends isolation of Comrade Sa'adat

Comrade Ahmad Sa'adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has, once again, had his isolation and solitary confinement extended by the Zionist prison administration. On April 25, 2010, Comrade Sa'adat's solitary confinement was extended for an additional six months.

The PFLP denounced this continued isolation and emphasized that these violations of Comrade Sa'adat's rights will never deter him, his party nor his people from continuing the revolutionary national struggle for our liberation. In a statement, the Front emphasized that this cowardly decision of the occupation authority is yet another fruitless attempt to undermine the steadfastness of the national leader Ahmad Sa'adat and to prevent him from playing a leading role among the Palestinian and Arab prisoners in the concentration camps of the racist apartheid occupation regime.

The Front emphasized that the occupier is responsible for Comrade Sa'adat's life, stressing that he is suffering illnesses obtained while imprisoned. It called upon all international actors and forces, particularly the International Committee of the Red Cross, to meet their responsibilities to protect the prisoners' rights, and for international solidarity for the struggle of our prisoners', their rights, and their freedom.

The Zionist prison administration also once again extended the solitary confinement on Comrade Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh on April 25, 2010. He has been held in isolation since January 14, 2010 in Nafha prison, and has been subject to a series of violations, including the placing of surveillance cameras inside his cell. He has been prohibited from visits for over five months, and has been subject to constant repressive practices and deprivation of his basic rights. Comrade leader Abu Ghoulmeh was abducted with Comrade Leader Sa'adat and his comrades by the Zionist army on March 14, 2006, from Jericho prison, where they had been held under the PA. The Zionists accuse Comrade Abu Ghoulmeh of being the leader of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the PFLP, in the West Bank, and planning the assassination of racist extremist tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi in retaliation for the occupation army's assassination of PFLP General Secretary Abu Ali Mustafa.

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #PoliticalPrisoners #MiddleEast

Comrade Sa'adat transferred to Eshel prison as PFLP calls for prisoners' freedom

Comrade Ahmad Sa'adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was once again moved from one prison to another, this time to the isolation unit at Eshel prison from the isolation unit in Ramon prison. The PFLP immediately condemned this action as part of an ongoing, and failed, attempt to undermine the morale and steadfastness of Comrade Sa'adat and his fellow Palestinian prisoners.

The PFLP statement, issued on February 16, 2010, said that these arbitrary measures fall within the context of an official policy of pressure, attempted intimidation and reprisals against Comrade Sa'adat that has continued since the moment of his abduction from Jericho prison through his continued forced isolation.

The Front called upon all international institutions, particularly the International Committee of the Red Cross, to act to protect Palestinian prisoners, end isolation and administrative detention, and free the thousands of prisoners of freedom in the jails of the occupier.

Comrade Nasser Kafarneh, member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP, replied to recent remarks by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Zionist prime minister, that Comrade Sa'adat would not be released while he was in office, saying that these remarks come as no surprise. He said that Comrade Sa'adat's imprisonment is a national issue that will be dealt with by all Palestinian factions, particularly those holding the captured occupation soldier Gilad Shalit, saying those factions are committed to breaking Israeli conditions attempting to empty an exchange deal of any substantive value.

Comrade Kafarneh emphasized that Comrade Sa'adat's imprisonment is directed against the entire Palestinian people, and stressed the importance of his release as a national goal. He said that international bodies have a particular responsibility toward Comrade Sa'adat, because of the complicity of the U.S. and Britain in his abduction, stressing that the Front will be struggling to free Comrade Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails.

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #MiddleEast

On the eighth anniversary of the kidnapping of Comrade Sa'adat, PFLP condemns PA security cooperation with occupier

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine denounced the Palestinian Authority and its security forces for the kidnapping of its General Secretary, Comrade Ahmad Sa'adat on January 15, 2002, on the eighth anniversary of that plot to arrest Comrade Sa'adat at the behest of the occupation. On January 13, 2010, the PFLP called upon all to learn from the lessons and experiences of relying on U.S. and Israeli promises and warned against tampering with the Palestinian home front with schemes of security cooperaiton that only serve the occupation and its goals of liquidating proven and reliable national leadership.

The kidnapping of Comrade Sa'adat by PA security forces after luring him to a meeting under false pretenses in Ramallah followed upon occupation demands to imprison the leader after the liquidation by the PFLP of the symbol of extremism, the racist Zionist tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi, in response to the assassination of PFLP General Secretary Abu Ali Mustafa.

The PFLP said at the time and reiterated today that the Palestinian Authority security forces arresting the General Secretary of a Palestinian political party and resistance faction, a leader of the Palestinian national movement and the Palestine Liberation Organization, set an unacceptable and dangerous precedent. The Front emphasized that this action was a departure from all norms of handling internal disputes and crossed all red lines in the internal Palestinian arena, in response to the demands and dictates of the occupation.

The Front statement said that this obedience to enemy forces accompanied by disregard for national unity and partnership, democracy, law and justice, has only led to further dictates from the occupation, undermining of the principles of national partnership and weakening national unity. It said that these actions serve the interest of the occupation and undermine the culture of resistance, aiding the occupation in its goal of liquidating the resistance, its cadres and leaders, and assisting its plans to steal Palestinian land, expel the Palestinian people, and undermine Palestinian rights.

The Front demanded that the Palestinian Authority must shoulder its responsibility – in addition to the U.S. and British responsibility at various levels – as a party to the “Jericho deal” that imprisoned Comrade Sa'adat and his comrades in Jericho prison under U.S. and British control, and led later to the occupation army's siege on the prison and abduction of Sa'adat and his comrades to Zionist prisons. The PFLP said that the Authority is responsible for this imprisonment, as well as the direct complicity of the U.S. and Britain in the occupation attack on the prison, which places them on the same level of the responsibility borne by the occupation for Comrade Sa'adat's imprisonment. It called for freedom for Comrade Sa'adat and all of the prisoners in the jails of the occupation, saluting their steadfastness.

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #AhmadSaadat #PFLP #MiddleEast