Fight Back News Service is circulating the following resolution of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)

On the occasion of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on 17th of April, the World Federation of Trade Unions, representing 92 million workers in 126 countries all over the world, expresses its firm internationalist solidarity with the more than 6700 Palestinians, including 389 children and 56 women, currently imprisoned by the Israeli occupation forces.

We strongly denounce the imprisonment of the Palestinian people by Israel, the inhumane detention conditions and the acts of abuse like the violent beatings against our Palestinian brothers and sisters and we demand the immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners and the end of Israel’s arrest campaigns, aggressiveness and occupation of the Palestinian territories.

#Palestine #InternationalPalestinianPrisonersDay #WFTU #MiddleEast

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement by the Prison Branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day.

Raise the issue of the prisoners in all international arenas

To the masses of our struggling people, in the streets and squares of Palestine, in the camps and in exile and diaspora, from behind bars and high walls,

Your imprisoned children and comrades greet you in the struggle for our homeland and our cause. We bow our heads before the martyrs whose blood has been shed every day in the struggle for Palestine, our people, our rights, our land and holy sites. We salute the mothers of the martyrs and the prisoners, and applaud and embrace our resisting Palestinian people and their strugglers, and we salute proud Jerusalem whose people stand day and night in defense of their freedom, dignity and identity.

Our valiant Palestinian people renew their struggle and continue the march of revolution and resistance to free our land of the occupation and achieve freedom, liberation and return.

We stand with you today to mark Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, in which our people stand every year and every day, united in support of the prisoners and their just cause. Let us also take this opportunity to salute the martyrs of the prisoners’ movement whose lives were taken by Zionist torturers and in the miserable prison clinics as a result of deliberate medical neglect.

And we salute the brothers and comrades struggling in Ramle prison clinic, the sisters and comrades in Hasharon and Damon prisons, the elderly prisoners and our imprisoned children and youth.

On this occasion, we in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine branch in the prisons of the occupation, led by Comrade leader Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of our Front, and the struggling Comrade Khalida Jarrar, we salute the struggling masses of our people everywhere with greatest pride and appreciation. Your spirit of struggle is authentic, passionate and determined, with a precious spirit of sacrifice, and you struggle and suffer along with your children, your brothers and sisters, the prisoners.

Palestinian Prisoners’ Day is the day of the Palestinian people who have struggled for nearly a century, defying oppression and tyranny and confronting the occupier, seeking freedom and liberation. It is the day of our people who have created a bright and honorable history that challenges the arrogance of the jailer, turning the cells into spaces of struggle, where prisoners and their families struggle together, in one struggle with all of our people in every village, town, refugee camp, and city, in every street and square and field.

On this day, we emphasize the importance of strengthening national unity and forming a unified national leadership to support our people and their steadfastness, and to support the intifada on the road to defeating the occupation and liberating the land and people of Palestine.

As part of the events of support, we underline the need to focus on the issue of prisoners who are sick and ill and exposed to the worst practices that demonstrate the racist, hateful nature of the occupation institutions, the elderly and the children prisoners, and those who are subject to harassment daily at the hands of the jailers.

We renew our call to internationalize the issue of Palestinian prisoners and to raise the issue everywhere in all international arenas: in the International Criminal Court, in the Human Rights Council of the United Nations and elsewhere, demanding investigation and accountability for the practices and abuses of the Zionist state against the prisoners over the past decades, and the ongoing crimes committed against the prisoners.

The issue of Palestinian prisoners should be a major concern of international public opinion, as a moral, human and political issue that addresses the conscience of humanity.

Glory to the martyrs of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian revolution. Freedom for the prisoners of freedom. Victory for our resisting people!

#Palestine #AntiwarMovement #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #Israel #InternationalPalestinianPrisonersDay

Chicago, IL – During the week of International Palestinian Prisoners Day, over 20 activists from the Palestine Solidarity Group, United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Students for Justice in Palestine and other organizations braved the bitter cold to stage “Intifada Theater” at the Bean in Millennium Park, April 19.

The performance included scenes that Palestinians know all too well – being detained for taking part in a peaceful protest, being harassed by Israeli soldiers on the way to school and being tortured by Israeli prison guards who threaten your family. And while the actors performed their parts, the chorus rang out – “Freedom to protest? Not for Palestinians! Freedom from racist harassment? Not for Palestinians! Freedom from arrest without charge? Not for Palestinians! Freedom from torture? Not for Palestinians!”

Chicago's action was one of dozens of worldwide protests for the over 4900 Palestinian political prisoners, including children and administrative detainees (jailed without charge or trial), who are held in Israeli jails.

Amongst the most prominent of them to make international news, one is Samer Issawi, who has been on hunger strike for over 250 days, refusing to end it until he wins freedom without conditions. Another is Arafat Jaradat, tortured to death in an Israeli prison; and Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, who died of cancer after being refused proper medical treatment by the Israeli prison service.

The Israelis, with the support from the U.S. government, continue unabated their illegal policies of jailing Palestinians without charge or trial, jailing children in violation of all international laws and torturing prisoners regardless of their age or gender.

But we have also seen the resistance of Palestinian prisoners to this repression, with waves of hunger strikes throughout the prisons, reminding many of the H Block Martyrs in the north of Ireland. We've seen Palestinians taking to the streets to protest the treatment of the men and women who resist the occupation of their land. And we've seen the protests by Palestinians and solidarity activists across the world – supporting the demands of freedom and justice for all Palestinian political prisoners, the end of Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestinian and Arab land, self-determination for the Palestinian people, and the Right of Return for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

As we go to press, there is an initial agreement with the Israelis for Samer Issawi to remain in prison for eight months and then to be released to his hometown of al-Issawia in the East Jerusalem district. The worldwide protests for Samer Issawi have supported his refusal to be deported and to be returned to his homeland, a right shared by all Palestinians.

#ChicagoIL #Palestine #PoliticalPrisoners #SamerIssawi #InternationalPalestinianPrisonersDay