On February 28, 2021, the Israeli Defense Minister and war criminal Benny Gantz designated the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network as a “terrorist organization.” This is just the latest in an ongoing delegitimization campaign by the Israeli apartheid regime against Samdioun.
The announcement by apartheid Israel to designate Samidoun a “terrorist” organization came days after 300 international organizations joined in a collective campaign to free Palestinian student prisoners.
Gantz’s baseless accusations are grotesque and intended to defame Samidoun and to suppress their work of drawing attention to the struggle of Palestinian prisoners. It is also meant to intimidate organizations working to uphold the right of Palestinians to resist occupation, apartheid and oppression, and to support the Palestinian refugees’ right of return to their homes and lands under international law.
There are currently 5,000 Palestinians detained by Israeli Occupation Forces without justice in Israeli military prisons, including women, children, university students, community leaders and politicians. The Israeli apartheid regime’s effort to suppress Samidoun is further meant to isolate Palestinian prisoners from their communities and from international support and solidarity.
The Canadian BDS Coalition, composed of twenty-five Canadian solidarity organizations, condemns this attack on Samidoun, the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, and Palestinian and international human right defenders.
Organizations, movements and even individual activists who stand for Palestinian freedom are targeted by the Israeli regime, its lobbyists, and its leading war criminals for harassment, threats and use of state power to suppress the global movement for justice and liberation.
The Canadian BDS Coalition stands with Samidoun and those who face the Israeli apartheid regime’s smear campaigns and repressive attacks against our grassroots organizations. We strengthen our resolve to work together to oppose Israeli apartheid, military occupation, war crimes, human rights abuses, land theft, extrajudicial killing of civilians, politically motivated detentions without trial, the ongoing illegal colonization of Palestine and the persecution of the Palestinian people.
We consider Benny Gantz and his apartheid regime’s libel of Samidoun outrageous and unacceptable,,as we assert that it is Gantz and the Israeli regime who are facing prosecution for war crimes and crimes against humanity — the ultimate in terrorism — in the Hague.
Political Advocacy and National Liberation are not “Terrorism” statement initiated by Canada Palestine Association. The Canadian BDS Coalition along with many member groups of the Coalition have signed the statement.
Canadian statement condemns anti-Palestinian attacks: Political Advocacy and National Liberation are not “Terrorism”,statement initiated by Canada Palestine Association, the Canadian BDS Coliation has signed on to this statement.
#FreeThemAll
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#StandWithSamidoun
“We consider Benny Gantz and his apartheid regime’s libel of Samidoun outrageous and unacceptable,”