Statement by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network on the 23 November 2023 raids in Germany

Nov 23, 2023

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces in the strongest terms the raids carried out by German police in four federal states, with a particular focus in Berlin, targeting Palestinians labeled by the German state as members or supporters of Samidoun or of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas. We express our deepest solidarity with all of those subjected to these raids today, and we view these raids as a clear attempt by the German state to terrorize the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities in Germany and, more broadly, the popular sentiment in support of Palestinian liberation. These actions today build upon the ban of Samidoun several weeks ago, the bans on demonstrations, police attacks on communities, racist media incitement and fascist political, social and cultural assaults on all members of these targeted communities.

Further, these raids are an attempt by the German state to advance the Zionist genocide being carried out at this moment in occupied Palestine, which has already taken the lives of over 14,000 Palestinians, displaced over half of the Palestinians of Gaza, destroyed dozens of hospitals, schools, mosques and churches, and wounded tens of thousands more. They are also an attempt to silence all voices who speak out for the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, particularly at this moment, when six prisoners have been martyred in occupation jails in the past month, when prisoners are subjected to daily torture and abuse, and when a prisoner exchange is potentially on the horizon and requires the support of all people of conscience.

Instead of acting as a responsible party – sanctioning the Israeli occupation regime, expelling its ambassador and invoking the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians – the proper activities of any state that claims, as does Germany, to have learned its lessons from Germany’s role as a perpetrator of Nazi genocide – it instead has increased its military support and arms sales to the Israeli occupation tenfold in just the past two months while imposing a level of police repression unprecedented since German reunification on the Palestinian community and supporters of Palestine more broadly.

We assert that these attacks on people who were Samidoun members prior to the 2nd November ban on Samidoun in Germany as well on people who participate in demonstrations and mass actions in defense of Palestine will fail in the attempt to terrorize and silence the community and the rising voice of justice in Palestine. The tens of thousands of people who fill the streets for every call for Palestine will continue to do so, even as they face police assault and arrest for declaring such simple demands as, “End the genocide” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Our energies and efforts around the world are focused on supporting the heroic Palestinian people in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine and organizing everywhere in exile and diaspora, on the international, Arab and Palestinian levels, to bring an end to the genocide, to affirm the legitimacy and leadership of the Palestinian resistance, and to liberate Palestine, all of Palestine. The systemic racist abuse directed at the Palestinian people and the Arab and Muslim communities more broadly will not silence us nor will it suppress our work. Whether the repression is taking place in Germany, France, Britain, Canada or the United States, it is clear that these attacks on strugglers for justice in Palestine reflects only the desperation of the imperialist powers to defend their illegitimate Zionist settler colonial project planted in the heart of the Arab region by all means, including tearing apart all of their proclamations and pledges of democracy, human rights, freedom of expression and freedom of association. We express our clear solidarity with all people and organizations who have been targeted for arrest, detention, police raids, searches, harassment, employer retaliation, official silencing and other forms of persecution for their positions on Palestinian liberation.

Despite all the attacks, the reality is clear: the people stand with Palestine. From the tens, indeed hundreds of thousands that defy state repression in Germany to take to the streets for Palestine, to the masses in France that rise up against police bans on mobilization, to the millions in Britain marching despite attempts to ban the Palestinian flag, to the ongoing actions in Britain, Canada and the United States to materially confront and challenge the war machine through direct actions like those of Palestine Action – and this is just in the heart of the imperial core. In Latin America, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Belize, Bolivia have cut ties, recalled their ambassadors or affirmed their rejection of the Israeli occupation regime, demanding an end to the genocide. South Africa’s parliament has voted to expel the Israeli ambassador. And of course, in the Arab region, the heroic and unparalleled role of the Lebanese, Yemeni and Iraqi resistance is unified with the clear sentiment and spirit of the people to shame every reactionary regime that is complicit in the genocide in Palestine and the imperialist plans for the region.

The images of hundreds of masked and heavily armed police invading the apartments of Palestinian students, workers and refugees in Germany today appears as an imitation of the daily invasions of the Israeli occupation forces in Palestinian homes in occupied Palestine, as well as a disturbing echo of Germany’s own Nazi fascist history. And as Palestinians in occupied Palestine have never stopped struggling despite over 75 years of Zionist occupation and 100 years of colonialism, these attacks will not silence the growing movement in Germany and every other imperialist power involved in attacking Palestine, as new generations refuse their involvement and complicity in genocide.

We affirm: No bans, police raids or criminalization will silence the spirit, the will and the organization of the Palestinian, Arab and internationalist voices confronting imperialism, Zionism and reaction. As Samidoun, we are committed to challenging the ban and these attacks by all legal means, and our eyes will not be turned away from our role in working urgently to end the genocide and free all Palestinian prisoners. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Long live the Palestinian resistance. Victory, return, total liberation and decolonization for all of Palestine.

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