Hands off Samidoun

Statement from the Philadelphia Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) in solidarity with Samidoun, a support organization for Palestinian political prisoners. For more background on repressive moves against pro-Palestinian organizations, see here.

Philly ABC extends our solidarity to Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, in response to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) falsely-premised sanctions against the organization announced on October 15th. As anarchists and abolitionists attuned to organizing against prisons and policing, we recognize this as the latest attempt to employ the tactic of fabrication to repress powerful social movements. Samidoun affirmed their commitment to remain steadfast in the struggle to free Palestinians from the atrocities of colonization and state-sponsored fascism:

As Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, we reiterate our support for the Palestinian people, the prisoners and the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic resistance, who are confronting the genocide and occupation on a daily basis. … Our response to this designation is clear: we will keep struggling to stop the genocide, stop imperialist support for Israel, until the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea. … The repression is a sign of strength for the Palestinian movement and the international solidarity movement. This movement has mobilized the largest demonstrations for Palestine in history, has costed Israeli and Zionist companies billions of dollars in losses, it has united millions of people from across the world, and it has united virtually all social movements in every country for the Palestinian liberation struggle. …We affirm that we shall remain steadfast and committed to the Palestinian people, until victory, return and liberation.

We concur that this repression is a sign of strength. It’s a clear reaction to the surge of global support for resistance movements and efforts to confront Israel’s blatant fascism, in which both the U.S. and Canadian governments are complicit. It’s the type of flailing they do when shit is getting hot; when solidarity is getting real.

In light of their fascist agenda in Palestine, in response to international calls for solidarity, around 400 of us came together in Philly (and remotely) on the 25th anniversary of #RunningDownTheWalls to support mutual aid in Gaza. Not only does Gaza qualify as the world’s largest open air prison, but every Palestinian held by the Zionist entity can be considered an anti-colonial political prisoner. It was the biggest crowd in the history of RDTW. A comrade from Samidoun spoke about the importance of amplifying the voices of Palestinian prisoners, to bolster our collective movements for their freedom as well as liberation more broadly. Just as we support Indigenous and Black liberation movements on Turtle Island and recognize captured combatants as prisoners of war, Palestinians have every right to fight for self-determination.

While hundreds of thousands across the globe continue to mobilize to stop the genocide of Palestinians―and continue to take action day after day to confront imperialist complicity in fascism and colonization―our enemies are deploying their bookies to collect on lost profits and find the next leg to break. We know that these sanctions are just one of many attempts, to quell the groundswell rising for the freedom of Palestine and the right to return. We know that these tactics aim to scare us away from supporting resistance movements and freedom fighters, and we know that it never works! It only ignites us. We know that solidarity is a threat, and threat it shall be, because no one is free until all are free.

Until every cage is empty,
Philadelphia Anarchist Black Cross 🏴