Fight Back! interviewed Charlotte Kates, International Coordinator of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, on the fight to free Palestinian political prisoners in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask that all of our readers to support this important effort.
Minneapolis, MN – The MN Anti-War Committee (AWC) wanted to be a part of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network’s global week of action for Palestinian Land Day but they couldn’t do it as a protest the way they had originally planned. Instead on March 24 the MN AWC reorganized their protest as a call-in day, and then did a five-person social distancing bannering protest.
17-year-old Mohamed Sulaiman Alhddad was shot and killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Hebron, February 5, during a protest responding to President Trump’s “Deal of the Century.” Other protesters have been killed or injured in recent days.
Minneapolis, MN – On January 31, 40 people protested at the Minneapolis Federal Building to stand in solidarity with Palestine. The MN Anti-War Committee and Women Against Military Madness called this emergency response protest after President Trump’s announcement of his ‘peace’ plan which he wants to impose on Palestine. The protest’s message was clear: the “Deal of the Century” proposed by Trump and Netanyahu is a sham and part of an expanding apartheid against the Palestinian people. There can be no deal without the Palestinian right to return, the Palestinian right to exist, and the return of Jerusalem to Palestine as its uncontested capital.
Minneapolis, MN – Amy Klobuchar, a ‘centrist’ who is trying to become the Democratic Party standard-bearer in the upcoming elections for president, states that she will not reverse Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. There has long been a consensus among most Republican and Democratic politicians to support the Zionist occupation of Palestine.
The 52nd anniversary of the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was observed with a December 7 march by tens of thousands of members and supporters in Gaza City. The PFLP is playing a leading role in the struggle to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Over the past week Israeli authorities have arrested 50 Palestinians in the West Bank and accused them of being members of the PFLP.
NY, New York – On the evening of November 15, over 150 people gathered on 42nd and Broadway to demand that Israel, backed by the United States government, stop the murder and occupation of Palestinians.
St. Paul, MN – “In 2017, the Trump administration awarded Elbit a contract to work on the expansion of the Mexico border wall. Elbit System’s CEO has said that the company’s current growth can be attributed to increased U.S. border spending,” said Sarah Martin of Women Against Military Madness. “This last decade has seen the international community divesting from Elbit, including the Norwegian State Pension Fund, Danske Bank. Governor Walz, we Minnesotans refuse to continue to profit from pain, injustice and tragedy at the hands of Elbit. We want you to do what Norway and Denmark did. Divest now!”
Washington, DC – Israel launched a drone attack in Beirut’s southern suburb, Dahiyeh, August 24, targeting the media offices of the national democratic political party Hezbollah. Lebanese politicians denounced the attacks as “acts of war,” and Hezbollah stated it will respond.
St. Paul, MN – On August 22, immigrant rights and Palestine solidarity activists presented over 1000 signatures of Minnesota residents petitioning the State Board of Investments (SBI) to divest state pension funds from the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems. Elbit sells cluster bombs and weaponized white phosphorus to the Israel Defense Forces, whose indiscriminate use on besieged Gaza has been widely condemned by international organizations. Elbit also manufactures surveillance equipment for the Israeli apartheid wall, and drones used in targeted assassinations of Palestinian political leaders.
St. Paul, MN – On August 19, Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) held a press conference in the State Capitol in Saint Paul to a packed room, with an overflow of 100 people, on the human cost of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and travel restrictions.
Minneapolis, MN – U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) have joined the ranks of thousands of human rights activists and millions of diaspora Palestinians who have been denied entry to Palestine by the occupying Israeli regime.
Fight US-Zionist repression of Palestinians in Germany!
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) in solidarity with Khaled Barakat, that was adopted at its 6th International Conference in Hong Kong, June 27.
Freedom Road Socialist Organization joins with people around the globe in condemning the German authorities for trampling on the rights those who fight for the liberation of Palestine. On June 22, the German government banned prominent Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat from speaking at an event against Trump’s “deal of the century.” This outrageous act come on the heels of the German government’s preventing a speech by the Palestinian leader Rasmea Odeh, and her subsequent deportation.
New York, NY – A crowd gathered at The People’s Forum on June 9 to hear Rasmea Odeh and Suzanne Adely speak on the repression of the Palestinian solidarity movement by the United States and Israel. Rasmea Odeh is a famous Palestinian woman leader who has dedicated her life to the Palestinian struggle and liberation of her people. She was a former political prisoner of Israel, and had her human rights violated. Odeh later became the target of political repression in the United States in 2013, after FBI raids and grand jury subpoenas targeting the Antiwar 23 were defeated.
New York, NY – Over 100 people gathered in Times Square on May 31 in honor of the International Day of Al-Quds. This day marks the occupation of Palestine and is in protest of Israel’s apartheid regime.
New York, NY – Over 100 people gathered in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn on May 15 to commemorate 71 years since the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” The Nakba marks the 1948 anniversary of Israel’s expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians from their land.