October 18, 2024

The Bronx Anti-War Coalition posted the following statement on Oct. 16, 2024.

The Bronx Anti-War Coalition stands in unwavering solidarity with the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and recognizes that the U.S. and Canadian governments’ designation of the organization as a terrorist entity is baseless and politically motivated.

By targeting Samidoun with government sanctions, the U.S. and Canadian governments are escalating their Zionist counterinsurgency, weaponizing terrorist designations against the Palestinian liberation movement. The sanctions aim to silence the most influential group that exposes the illegal abduction and torture of Palestinians by Israeli prison authorities in concentration camps.

We demand the immediate removal of all sanctions against Samidoun and urge all anti-imperialist organizations to defend Samidoun and their just cause.

Samidoun, an activist organization founded in 2011, raises consciousness about Palestinian prisoners, the majority of whom Israel Occupation Forces kidnapped and have held without charge, trial or explanation in Zionist dungeons. Samidoun works to build solidarity with over 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, including children, who are suffering heinous physical, sexual and psychological torture at the hands of Israeli soldiers.

Before being abducted, imprisoned and tortured, many Palestinians were leaders in their communities working toward the liberation of their people and land. Among them are teachers, students, doctors, nurses, organizers and family members of resistance leaders. Prisons are a tool of the Zionist colonizer used to punish and retaliate against the steadfast resistance to occupation.

Samidoun was one of the first organizations to offer Western audiences historical context and analysis of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation. While Western mainstream media deliberately framed the October 7, 2023, operation as a senseless and unprovoked act of terrorism, leaning on Islamophobia and Anti-Arab racism to propagate this narrative, Samidoun has held teach-ins to help people in Western countries like the U.S. understand the resistance and its objectives.

Through Samidoun’s political education and street demonstrations, people in the West understood that the Al-Aqsa Flood operation was a heroic act of liberation. Palestinians in Gaza broke through the open-air prison in which they’ve been held hostage in an operation that aimed to liberate Palestinian prisoners from Zionist torture camps through prisoner exchanges. Political prisoner Khalida Jarrar describes it as “the revolution of prisoners who long for their freedom and to break through the bars of their prison cells.”

Samidoun – steadfast people

Samidoun has kept the struggle to liberate Palestinian prisoners at the forefront of people’s hearts and minds around the world. As their name suggests — Samidoun, meaning “steadfast people” in Arabic — this new designation will not frighten nor deter the prisoner solidarity movement from continuing this critical work.

These sanctions are an effort by imperialists and Zionists to silence Samidoun and to suppress stories of Israeli torture and abuse against Palestinians from reaching the public, which they believe will curb criticism of Israel and shield it from accountability. Defending Samidoun is crucial as the U.S. State Department rhetorically demands Israel improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza — a testament to the impact of their work. By sanctioning a major organization that reports on these horrific conditions, U.S. officials are attempting to engineer the appearance of improvement. This political persecution by reactionary governments shows their desperation as they lose the public narrative on the U.S./Israeli genocide against Palestinians.

The contradictions and hypocrisy of the U.S. and Canada are stark. While labeling Samidoun as financiers of terrorism, they actively finance and arm Israeli terrorism in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Yemen and beyond. This hypocrisy is glaring when the U.S. invites [Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to address Congress, where he received standing ovations as he executes genocide, and Canada invites a literal Nazi to address its parliament.

Labeling exposes imperialist hypocrisy

Western liberal democracies have rendered the “terrorist” and “terrorism” labels as meaningless as “antisemite” and “antisemitism.” Classifying Samidoun as a terrorist entity while supporting a state that terrorizes and massacres civilians throughout West Asia is hypocritical. It highlights the West’s weaponization of “terrorism” as a racializing category meant to justify the settler state’s monopoly on violence.

As Ansarallah’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said, “American classifications have no significance and only defend Israel’s crimes.” People in the imperial core see through and oppose these fraudulent classifications, chanting in the streets: “U.S. imperialists, number one terrorists!”

This is yet another reminder of the fascist repression against activists opposing the U.S./Israeli genocide occurring under the Biden-Harris administration. From the Uhuru 3 and student encampments to “Stop Cop City” organizers and now Samidoun, designating anti-imperialists as “terrorists” demonstrates the historical refuge liberalism provides for fascism. The danger of fascism is not solely tied to any particular individual or political party, but rather it is foundational to the systems created by the settler colonies of Israel, the U.S. and Canada.

We reiterate our solidarity with Samidoun, Khaled Barakat and the just cause of the Palestinian people. We are proud to have collaborated with them on a teach-in on defending Palestinian resistance. We denounce all sanctions penalizing activists fighting for liberation and sovereign nations resisting U.S. hegemony.

Samidoun is a leader of Palestinian solidarity work worldwide, standing unabashedly with the heroic Palestinian prisoners and resistance. The time is now to stand in solidarity with Samidoun against these attacks by the state. Now is the time to mobilize fully in defense of Palestinian resistance.