Link
"Rafah, Gaza
A mass rally took place on June 18, 2009 in Rafah Governorate, in solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat.
The participants carried Palestinian flags and posters of Sa'adat, and chanted for the lives of Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners in the Zionist jails.
Iyad Awadallah of the PFLP spoke at the rally. He praised the strength of the prisoners and their example of national unity, calling for national unity to confront the occupier and struggle for the rights of the Palestinian people. He closed by paying tribute to Sa'adat and all prisoners."
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FRIENDS OF AHMAD SA'ADAT
We are asking for your endorsement and that of your organization to the below letter, inspired by the hunger strike of imprisoned Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa'adat, calling upon United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to uphold his responsibilities and take action to protect the rights, health and lives of Palestinian prisoners and demand the freedom of all 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners.
We welcome endorsements from all organizations, individuals, coalitions and institutions in support of the goals of this letter and the rights and freedom of Palestinian prisoners.
Dear Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon;
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, call upon you to immediately take action in defense of the lives, health and rights of the over 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners held inside Israeli occupation jails. This number includes numerous elected members of Palestinian Legislative Council, among them Ahmad Sa'adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; Marwan al-Barghouthi, Fateh leader; Abdel-Aziz Dweik, Hamas leader and President of the Council, just freed after three years in prison, and dozens of other elected political leaders, in addition to thousands of other Palestinian activists, union members, community organizers, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.
Palestinian prisoners suffer in conditions that violate international standards and norms, and are imprisoned because they refuse to accept a brutal occupation of their land and their people. Ahmad Sa'adat recently waged a nine-day hunger strike in protest of the policy of isolation and solitary confinement that has recently been escalated against Palestinian prisoners. Palestinian prisoners have been denied family visits, at times for years, denied access to all books and magazines, and denied even communication with their fellow prisoners in the isolation units. Palestinian prisoners, including Sa'adat, are currently denied necessary health care and medical treatment.
Palestinian prisoners are placed into isolation because they are national leaders and because the Palestinian prisoner movement has been an inspiration to all Palestinians and all who struggle for freedom. Ahmad Sa'adat's hunger strike has sparked thousands of people around the world to appeal for his release, as a living example who symbolizes the steadfastness and strength of the Palestinian prisoners amid isolation and dire conditions, and it must compel all of those outside the prisons to act. Many Palestinian and international human rights and social justice organizations have called for the release of Sa'adat and to ensure the safety of his life and health, as well as for freedom and protection for all Palestinian prisoners.
The fate of these 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners is a fundamental issue of justice. Palestinians, in Palestine and in exile, are denied their rights - to return home,to self-determination, and to freedom, and those who seek to secure those rights are subject to imprisonment, whether within the open-air prisons of Gaza under siege or the walled-in West Bank, or the jails of the occupation. The silent, and at times, active, complicity of international agencies, particularly the United Nations, in the denial of Palestinian rights must not continue.
We call upon you to uphold your responsibilities and exert all pressure to end torture, cruel and inhuman treatment of Palestinian prisoners, and to free every Palestinian political prisoner from Israel's occupation jails.
Sincerely,
Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
Al-Awda NY
Al-Awda Omaha
American Iranian Friendship Committee
Arab American Union Members Council
Arab Muslim American Federation
Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine
BAYAN USA
The Freedom Archives
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Hammerhard MediaWorks
International Action Center
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
International Socialist Organization
Jericho Movement - NYC
National Lawyers Guild
New Jersey Solidarity - Activists for the Liberation of Palestine
New Orleans Palestine Solidarity
NYC Labor Against the War
NY Committee For Human Rights in the PhilippinesPalestineFreeVoice
Palestine House
Palestinian Youth Network
PATOIS: New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival
Socialist Action
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) (Popular Conference)
War Times/Tiempo De Guerra
WESPAC Foundation
MP George Galloway, UK Parliament Member and coordinator of Viva Palestina USA medical aid caravan to Gaza
Prof. Bashir Abu Manneh, Columbia University
Musa al-Hindi, Omaha, NE
Susan Abulhawa, author, Pennsylvania
Yousef Abudayyeh, California
Abdelwahab Amri Secretary-General of the Federation of PDP, Gabes, Tunisia
Prof. Emeritus Naseer Aruri, University of Massachussetts at Dartmouth
Boniardi Ambrogio, Milano, Italy
Pawel Michal Bartolik, journalist, Poland
Abdul-Nasser J.G. Baston, London, UK
Dr.C.J. Burns-Cox MD FRCP, Gloucester UK
Professor Seif Da'Na, University of Wisconsin-Parkside
James C. Faris, Director Emeritus, University of Connecticut Program in Middle East Languages and Area Studies
Enrique Ferro, Brussels, Belgium
Sara Flounders, co-director, International Action Center
Prof. Emerita Sherna Berger Gluck, California State University Long Beach
Prof. Emerita Elaine Hagopian, Simmons College
Paul Hubbard, Providence, RI
Monadel Herzallah, San Francisco, CA
Sana Kassem, Athens, Greece
Charlotte Kates, attorney
Prof. Mujid S. Kazimi, Massachusetts Institiute of Technology
Basem Khader, Chappaqua, NY
Peter Klosterman, Ph.D. Oakland, CA
Zbigniew Marcin Kowalewski, researcher and editor, Poland
Michael Letwin, Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War; Former President, Assn. of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325
Dr. Renee Levant, Instructor, Master of Liberal Studies Program, Fort Hays State University
Professor Moshé Machover, London School of Economics
Patrick MacManus, Rebellion, Denmark
Dr. Bruce J. Malina, Dept of Theology, Creighton University
Ali Mili, Phillipsburg, NJ
Harald Molgaard, Twickenham, UK
Marlene Newesri, New York City, USA
Dr. Marcy Newman, Associate Professor of English, An Najah University, Nablus, Palestine
Hiyam Noir, PalestineFreeVoice.org, USA/Palestine
Ardeshir and Eleanor Ommani, Founders, AIFC
Daniel Perez Creus, Ingenio {Gran Canaria} Spain
Dr. Nagesh Rao, Assistant Professor of English, The College of New Jersey
Dick Reilly, Chicago, IL, US
Samia Saleh, northern Virginia, US
Dr. Ahdaf Soueif, author
Professor Mustapha Soueif, University of Cairo
Stan Squires, Canada
Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, M.D., USA
Tony Whelan, London, UK
Katherine Wilson, CUNY, New York City
This letter will be delivered to Ban Ki-Moon's office on July 8, 2009. Please send your endorsement as quickly as possible in order to ensure it is included, preferably before July 5, 2009. This initiative is being supported by the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat. Please send endorsements to info@freeahmadsaadat.org.
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Intellectual Rights Retained
June 1, 2009
Ahmad Sa'adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said in a letter issued from isolation in Asqelan prison where he is held by the Israeli occupation, that the so-called "two state solution" is dangerous, threatens the right of return and the very existence of the Palestinian people in the occupied lands of Palestine '48.
The letter was sent on May 30, 2009 to the Preparatory Committee for the Palestinian National Day in Sweden. Sa'adat stated in the letter, which greeted the Palestinian and Arab communities and their consistent work to defend our rights, that the only termination of the historical and substantive conflict with the occupation is the end of Zionist rule in Palestine, the establishment of democracy and the achievement of the right of return. He noted that ending the Zionist project was the only real solution for the Palestinian people, while the so-called "two state solution" only opens the door for the acceptance of the "Jewish state," a racist concept based on the expulsion of our people.
Sa'adat also greeted the people of European countries who stood beside the Palestinian people in the face of the recent war on Gaza, and other international solidarity forces, particularly noting the leadership of Venezuelan Bolivarian president Hugo Chavez.
He stated, "I am honored to participate in these events marking the 61st anniversary of al-Nakba, in defense of our national and historical rights, particularly the right to return to our homeland. These are the rights affirmed by our national leaders and martyrs, including al-Hakim, Dr. George Habash, Abu Ali Mustafa and Sabir Mohieddin. They are not only the essence of the Palestinian cause but also the bridge for our nation and the democratization of all of historic Palestine."
The following is the text of the letter in full:
"I am honored to participate in these events marking the 61st anniversary of al-Nakba, in defense of our national and historical rights, particularly the right to return to our homeland. These are the rights affirmed by our national leaders and martyrs, including al-Hakim, Dr. George Habash, Abu Ali Mustafa and Sabir Mohieddin. They are not only the essence of the Palestinian cause but also the bridge to our nation and the democratization of all of historic Palestine.
I salute you and your valuable efforts, which have filled in the gaps left in the absence of the PLO and the marginalization of a powerful leadership for the Palestinian cause.
I also pay tribute to all Arab and Palestinian groups that work tirelessly to defend our rights and salute all the popular progressive and democratic international forces who stood by our people in their just struggle for their right to independence and return. I would also like to pay tribute to the attitude of some European countries who have taken an independent position in regard to our people, and our right to democracy, and stood beside our people in the face of the recent barbaric war on Gaza, in particular Sweden and Norway, and the Bolivarian nations of Latin America, led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The right of return has not snd will not be extinguished by prescription, and we have maintained our presence in the defense of this right. However, that does not eliminate the risks that beset the right to return, as since Camp David and the dismantlement of most of the Arab national project of confrontation of the Zionist enemy, what has remained is only a "pragmatic" Palestinian policy situated in the context of a "settlement." This course went through Madrid and Oslo, detached from our Palestinian national constants dismantling our project of national liberation.
This caused great damage to our national liberation project, as does the national and Arab impotence displayed by the Arab initiative, which weakened the right of return through the use of ambiguous language that appeared in the text. The stress that is required at the Palestinian and Arab national level is to end any confusion, and to distinguish clearly between the end of the occupation and the end of the conflict.
The end of the historic conflict and the objective can only be an end to the Zionist entity and the establishment of democracy throughout all of Palestine, through the implementation of the Palestinian right of return. The slogan of "two states for two peoples" that are being voiced only opens the door to the acceptance of Israel as a "Jewish state," which threatens not only our right to return, but also the existence of the masses of our people in the occupied part of Palestine 1948 on the ground where they were born and where they have remained firmly rooted and strong in the land.
I am aware that the Palestinian reality at this time of the division of our people does not provide a climate of substantial achievements in terms of correction of Palestinian politics and tactics for managing the conflict with the occupation. However, the common denominators that were agreed upon in Cairo in 2005, and the document of national reconciliation as the basis for Palestinian unity will lead to the rebuilding of the institutions of the Palestinian people, foremost among them the PLO, the political entity of the whole Palestinian people, and the objectives of the unity our our people and our national rights, including the right to return. On this basis, I call on the masses of our people in the diaspora to lift their voices in order to end the Palestinian division and to rebuild the Palestine Liberation Organization a democratic way as a national instrument for the national democratic struggle, qualified to lead our people in their struggle and to take leadership at the strategic level to meet the challenges and maintain our national objectives on the road to their achievement. I have no doubt that those national objectives will be achieved.
I trust you and your ability and energy and the energies of our people and the pan-Arab popular forces of various political colors. They are committed to the project to confront American imperialist hegemony and control of the region and the world as well as to support our allies and their people and the popular and progressive forces on an international level. I am confident that our people and the rest of the marginalized and oppressed peoples of the world, as well as the poor and marginalized countries in the world who are leading the forces of progress today, have their feet firmly placed on the road to defeat all of the projects and plans of imperialism and racism, and will establish the new international order based on justice, equality and brotherhood among peoples, peace and social progress and will renounce all forms of racial discrimination and national and class national oppression. Victory is certain!
Ahmad Sa'adat
General Secretary, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
From the isolation cell in Asqelan prison
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Update:
June 18: Ahmad Sa'adat's isolation extended in retaliation for his defense of prisoners' rights..
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