Sunday, October 18, 2015

PFLP urges broader popular mobilization to support striking Palestinian prisoners


Comrade Jamil Mizher, member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and leader of its branch in Gaza, urged a comprehensive popular campaign to support the brave Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails, in particular the administrative detainees who have been on hunger strike for over 15 days in rejection of the policy of administrative detention.

Mizher said that the strikers are fighting a critical battle under the slogan, “Battle of Breaking the Chains,” which requires popular and insitutional support, as it is a battle of the entire Palestinian people and not just the prisoners.

He praised the striking prisoners: Nidal Abu Aker, Badr al-Ruzza, Ghassan Zawahreh, Shadi Ma’ali, Munir Abu Sharar, Bilal Saifi and the other prisoners who have joined and will join the strike, expressing confidence in their victory in this battle. He noted that over the years of imprisonment they have only strengthened their will, saying that the Front will not abandon them and will organize to support them inside and outside Palestine.

Mizher noted that the Front will hold a Press Conference on Monday, September 7, in front of the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza City to announce a series of events throughout Gaza in support of the striking prisoners, and emphasized the need for a unified media strategy to support the struggling prisoners and expose the crimes of the occupation against them.

In addition, the Prison Branch of the Front issued a statement in support of the strikers, urging action:

The Palestinian people are facing an overall attack at the hands of the Zionist occupation regime: siege, killing and arrest, aimed at liquidating the will to resist, struggle and sacrifice for the sake of freedom, dignity and recovering our rights. Within the framework of this attack comes attempts to target the prisoners’ movement, through daily harassment, raids, attacks and the creation of instability, which includes the situation of administrative detainees who are facing daily oppression in addition to the continuous extention of their detention.

This situation prompted strugglers like Khader Adnan and Muhammad Allan to confront the arbitrary administrative detention policy and to make these confrontations a critical site of struggle, which is now being engaged in by five Palestinian prisoners: Nidal Abu Aker, Badr al-Ruzza, Ghassan Zawahreh, Shadi Ma’ali, Munir Abu Sharar, and the others who will join them in the coming days to confront this policy.

We will support the strike of our comrades in administrative detention by all methods, and we shal soon proceed to take steps to struggle on the ground, up to and including the open hunger strike if necessary: we will not leave our comrades to struggle alone.

In this context, we call for:

1. Work to launch a wider public campaign of support that is continuous and escalating, and the best form is to confront the Zionist occupation forces at the checkpoints and other points of contact.

2. Confronting the policy of administrative detention is a path toward the formulation of a national vision to resist imprisonment in its totality, not to surrender to it to but to resist.

3. To move the official Palestinian political forces at all levels to support the administrative detainees, the sick prisoners, and advocate for the internationalization of the prisoners’ struggle.

4. We call on the Palestinian and Arab media to highlight the administrative detainees’ struggle and amplify their voice and their suffering to the world.

5. We call for enhanced coordination with the international boycott movement and for international activities to support the administrative detainees’ strike and the issue of prisoners in general.

Finally, we are highly confident in the determination of the masses of the Palestinian people and their freedom fighters, and the revolutionary school formed in the path of struggle. We are confident of the role and responsibility of the national and Islamic forces and factions, and all of the Palestinian national institutions to work to support the prisoners’ struggle in general, and in particular the pioneers of revolutionary initiative, the administrative detainees confronting imprisonment.

Victory is inevitable.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – Prison Branch

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