Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights – SPHR Queen’s is “a non-profit student-based organization” at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario “advocating on a social justice platform to uphold the rights of the Palestinian people.”
On January 19, 2021 SPHR Queen’s posted on Facebook:
Hey everyone! This week is the Week of Action to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Political Prisoners. This week, we will be launching a sticker sale. All proceeds will be donated to Samidoun to be given directly to the families of political prisoners from Palestine. Here is the link to order: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYIdLMdgobSDcVlaYtvaSE5z4N88xdFTGTT_I-2dByZExfDQ/closedform Currently, this link is for Canada wide orders. If you would like to order from outside Canada, please send us a message! Thank you for your support!!
SPHR Queen’s attached to this Facebook post a poster that reads:
SPHR QUEEN’S PRESENTS
STICKER
SALE ORDER NOW FROM JAN 18- JAN 23
ALL PROCEEDS WILL BE DONATED TO SAMIDOUN AND GIVEN TO THE FAMILIES OF THE PRISONERS.
samidoun
PALESTINIAN PRISONER SOLIDARITY NETWORK
On January 16, 2021 SPHR Queen’s posted on Instagram:
From January 15th to the 23rd is International Week of Action to Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners. Ahmad Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, is one of nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails. He was sentenced to 30 years in the occupation prisons on December 25, 2008. On March 18, 2009, Sa’adat was moved into isolation at Asqelan prison, facing serious medical consequences. In June 2009, Sa’adat engaged in a nine-day hunger strike against his isolation.
Sa’adat’s isolation has since been extended repeatedly. He was finally released from isolation following the May 14 agreement to end the mass hunger strike from April-May 2012, in which over 2,500 Palestinian prisoners participated, and transferred to Shata Prison in Gilboa. Sa’adat, with five other Palestinian prisoners, was kidnapped by the Israeli military on March 14, 2006 after a siege upon the prison in Jericho, where he was being held under a U.S. and British guard at a Palestinian Authority prison.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all who stand with Palestine and justice for the Palestinian people to join them between 15 and 23 January 2021 in a week of action to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners. This is a campaign of human rights activists and concerned people from around the world, coming together to address the travesty of justice taking place, and calling for justice and freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners.
On January 15, 2021 Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network posted on Facebook:
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all who stand with Palestine and justice for the Palestinian people to join us between 15 and 23 January 2021 in a week of action to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners.
Ahmad Sa’adat is the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Palestinian national liberation movement leader and a symbol of the international left and revolutionary movements. He was sentenced to 30 years in Israeli prison on 25 December 2008 after being violently abducted from the Palestinian Authority’s Jericho prison in 2006.
Sa’adat is a leader in the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the Palestinian national liberation movement and a Palestinian, Arab and international symbol of resistance to capitalism, racism, apartheid and colonization. Targeted for his political role and clarity of vision, he remains unable to be silenced despite the oppression imposed upon him and 4,500 fellow Palestinian political prisoners.
On 15-23 January 2021, join our collective call for the freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners, with action and global solidarity to escalate the boycott of Israel, end aid and support to Israel, organize for justice in Palestine and resist imperialism and colonialism.
Learn more and join us: samidoun.net/freesaadat
Palestinian Prisoners – Background
The grave majority of the Palestinian prisoners were convicted of involvement in serious security offenses and terrorist activities against Israel. This group include among others suicide bombers captured alive, dispatchers of suicide bombers, mass murderers, leaders of terrorist organizations, terrorists who killed civilians and/soldiers and those who attempted or planned to kill civilians and or soldiers.
Ahmad Sa’adat is the Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist group in Canada. Sa’adat was convicted of the assassination of the Israeli Tourism Minister, Rehavam Ze’evi and other terrorist attacks carried put by PFLP. He was sentenced to 30 years in jail.
In 2003 Canada designated PFLP as a terrorist organization. According to Public Safety Canada:
Formed in 1967, the goals of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) are the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a communist government in Palestine. During the 1970s, the group took part in some of the boldest terrorist attacks of the period, such as hijacking three civilian airliners in one day and storming the Vienna headquarters of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Since 2000, the PFLP has turned increasingly to the use of suicide bombers, guerilla tactics, car bombings, and mortar strikes. The PFLP was also responsible for the first assassination of a cabinet minister in Israel’s history, killing Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001. In 2014, the PFLP claimed responsibility for a November gun and knife attack at an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in West Jerusalem that killed 6 people. More recently, on June 16, 2017, two coordinated attacks targeting Israeli police officers were carried out near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s walled old city.
Other prominent Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jail
Abdullah al-Barghouthi – A Former commander of Hamas’ armed/ terrorist wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in the West Bank. He was also one of the organization’s chief bomb makers (“engineer”). Barghouthi was convicted of involvement in terror attacks including the suicide attacks in Café Moment and Sbarro in Jerusalem, the Sheffield Club in Rishon Lezion, and the bus 4 line in Tel Aviv. In total, Barghouti was found responsible for the murder of 66 Israelis and the injury of around 500. In 2004 he was sentenced to 67 life sentences.
Abbas al-Sayed – Abbas al-Sayed was responsible for the 2001 Sharon shopping mall terror attack, in which 35 Israelis died and hundreds were wounded, and the 2002 Park Hotel bombing in Netanya that left 30 dead and 140 wounded. Al-Sayed was convicted in 2006 in the Tel Aviv District Court and sentenced to 35 consecutive life sentences for premeditated murder, causing grievous bodily harm with aggravated intent, and membership in Hamas, a terrorist organization. Before his arrest, al-Sayed had served as a leader of Hamas’s Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Tulkarem, plotting a series of suicide attacks. His cell obtained explosive belts, recruited men to carry out the bombings and hired drivers to take them to Israel. Prior to dispatching Abd el-Baset Awda to Netanya on March 27, 2002 to blow himself up at the Park Hotel, al-Sayed helped Awda write his “will” and then made a video of him reading it. Awda detonated his explosive belt in Netanya’s Park Hotel as guests gathered for a Passover Seder in one of the deadliest terror attacks of the Second Intifada.
Marwan al-Barghouthi – According to court documents, Barghouti operated under the direct command of Yasser Arafat and was beyond any doubt directly responsible for murderous activity. He was convicted of terror attacks that were performed following his direct orders, in which 5 people were murdered. In addition, the court said that Barghouti was morally responsible for many other terror attacks in which many more Israelis were murdered. Documents captured by the IDF in “Operation Defensive Shield” (April 2002) shed light on Barghouti’s involvement in commanding the terror efforts under Arafat. In those documents, Barghouti asks Arafat to authorize payments to several lists of Fatah terrorists, while he himself was approached by local commanders who asked him to authorize payments to terrorists from their units.
Fuad Shoubaki – Amid (Brig. Gen.) Fuad Hindi Hijazi Shoubaki (“Abu Hazm”) was the head of the accounting administration of the General Security Service and confidant of Yassir Arafat, the former Chairman of Palestinian Authority (PA). In his official capacity, Al-Shobaki stood behind the Karine-A deal with Iran and was involved in a large-scale acquisition of arms from various sources in the Palestinian Authority administered territories and abroad. Those arms were delivered to the Palestinian Authority security apparatuses and to Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist squads. They were subsequently used for perpetrating terrorist attacks against Israel. Shoubaki was sentenced to 20 years in jail.
Thaer Hamad – Hamad was convicted of killing 7 soldiers, 3 civilians and injuring others in shooting attack in March 2002.
Ayman al-Sharabati – Sharabati was convicted of terrorist attacks aimed at Israeli citizen including killing one and injuring another. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Karim Yunes – Yunes was convicted of killing an Israeli soldier in 1981.
Dia Zakaria Shaker al-Agha – Al-Agha was convicted of killing an Israeli citizen.
Yassir Mahmoud Abu Bakr – Abu Bakr, an operative of the terrorist group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was convicted of killing two Israeli citizens, including a nine-month toddler, and an Israeli policeman.
Nael al-Barghouthi – Barghouthi was convicted of killing an Israel officer in 1978 and sentenced to life in jail. He was release in a swap deal with Hamas in 2011 and later was re-arrested after he violated the the conditions of his release.
Walid Daqqa – Israeli Arab member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He is serving a life sentence for being part of the squad that kidnapped and murdered Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984.