Free Sa’adat, Free Palestine: 23 Years of Injustice and Resistance

PFLP's Secretary-General Ahmad Sa'adat, who is presently detained by Israel. (Image: Palestine Chronicle)

By Benay Blend

On the 23rd day of Ahmad Sa’adat’s arrest, we bespeak connected his unyielding committedness to Palestinian state and his telephone for unity successful the look of ongoing oppression.

In the rubric quote, Abla Sa’adat describes her husband’s resilience and sumud (steadfastness), qualities that she besides shares.  “We indispensable instrumentality to resistance, arsenic it is the lone enactment to reconstruct our dignity, our freedom, our prisoners and our land,” she said.

January 15, 2025, marks the 23^rd day of Ahmad Sa’adat’s apprehension by the Palestinian Authority (PA) nether the pretext of “security cooperation” with the Israeli occupation. After Zionist forces abducted him from the PA’s Jericho Prison, helium was sentenced to walk 30 years successful Israeli prisons connected December 25, 2008, accused of starring a prohibited organization, the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) of which helium is the General Secretary.

In the upcoming days determination volition beryllium an updated telephone for action to escaped Sa’adat for arsenic good arsenic different Palestinian prisoners held successful Israeli detention.

The systemic assassination, imprisonment, and detention of Palestinian governmental leaders is reflected successful the sentencing of Sa’adat and different members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, including quality rights activistic and feminist Khalida Jarrar.

Those detained contiguous comprise astir 9,440 Palestinians imprisoned connected akin “security” grounds, including 1,761 from the Gaza Strip. These numbers were reported by the Israeli quality rights radical B’Tselem, and are close arsenic of June 2024.

Sa’adat is among the apical 3 connected Hamas’s list that calls for a captive speech woody with Israel. The others are Marwan Barghouti, 64, a subordinate of Fatah’s Central Committee and a favourite to seat the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority aft President Mahmoud Abbas, and Abdullah Barghouti, an important person of Hamas. Both are serving aggregate beingness sentences.

Calling attraction to the lawsuit of Ahmad Sa’adat holds peculiar value this twelvemonth successful airy of the Zionist’s genocidal siege connected Gaza arsenic good arsenic the PA’s accrued enactment connected the West Bank.

As of January 6, the Gaza Health Ministry reports 45, 854 deaths, 109, 139 wounded, and 11,000 missing. According to Palestine Chronicle Staff, these numbers are underestimated due to the fact that the Ministry lone confirms a casualty erstwhile a idiosyncratic arrives astatine a infirmary oregon clinic, frankincense generating an authoritative record. The fig of missing is besides an understatement due to the fact that a idiosyncratic has to beryllium officially registered by a comparative for that fig to beryllium added to the list.

In October 2001, the PFLP assassinated Israeli Tourism Minister, Rehavam Ze’evi, an enactment that provided the PA with a pretext for rounding up PFLP members and holding them successful prison. Against the judgement of the PA’s ain courts, this enactment implied that the PA was acting connected “Israeli” orders to question revenge aft the assassination of its Minister.

For the full play of Sa’adat’s imprisonment successful PA jails, helium had been convicted of nary crime. The Jericho-based situation was allegedly nether the rule of the PA, but aft UK and US observers near the jail, Israeli forces took over.

While the PA surrendered to the Zionist invaders, galore of the prisoners preferred to combat back. The second included Ahmad Sa’adat, who was aboriginal captured by Zionist equipped forces arsenic portion of their “Operation Bringing Home the Goods.”

Sa’adat’s detention successful a PA situation for implicit 4 years, until his abduction by Israeli forces successful 2006, holds relevance today. “Every clip determination is simply a superior effort towards Palestinian unity to face the occupation,” explains Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, “Palestinian Authority ‘security coordination’ forces, successful league with the Zionist occupiers, motorboat arrests and attacks against the Palestinian resistance.”

Then and now, this argumentation aspires to avert absorption successful the West Bank and, supra all, “to forestall Palestinian unity, arsenic it is intolerable to person nationalist unity with forces that are actively engaged successful an confederation with the concern authorities against the resistance.”

Since October 7, 2023, the PA has detained astatine slightest 1,800 Palestinians for “security” reasons, portion failing to supply extortion for Palestinian radical who are facing unit connected a regular ground from amerciable settlers and the occupation.

“It is an irony that has go each excessively familiar,” Ramzy Baroud observes, “the Palestinian entity that was expected to correspond the volition of the radical and pb them towards state has go complicit successful crushing absorption successful 1 of the astir marginalized and impoverished areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, each portion serving the interests of the concern state.”

Such compradors besides acted successful Argentina during the “dirty war” waged by the subject dictatorship nether Jorge Videla. After the 1976 coup, Argentina’s subject launched to crush immoderate imaginable opposition.

The US-backed junta successful Argentina would proceed until 1983. Given the similarities, it was nary coincidence that Palestine Chronicle and Brazilian paper A Nova Democracia featured an interview with pro-Palestinian filmmaker Norman Briski.

Like Ghassan Kanafani, who saw alliances with planetary struggles arsenic “the lone mode to make a campy that is susceptible of facing and triumphing implicit the imperialist camp” (Ghassan Kanafani: Selected Political Writings, edited by Louis Brehony and Tahrir Hamdi, 2024, p. 111), Briski drew connections betwixt anti-imperialist struggles successful Latin America and the Palestinian liberation question today.

“Today, we person to beryllium Palestinians,” helium said. “Just arsenic we indispensable beryllium Mapuche if we are Argentine, oregon Black if we look the inequalities endured by Black radical successful the United States. We indispensable align ourselves with each emancipatory conflict against oppression.”

Indeed, unity is simply a taxable woven passim each absorption movements, particularly among prisoners successful their struggles. During Argentina’s 7 years of subject regularisation (1976-1983), known arsenic the Processo, determination was a play of state-sponsored repression and unit that resulted successful astir 30,000 deaths and disappearances.

In The Little School (1998), a concealed situation ironically named for its erstwhile status, activist/poet Alicia Partnoy creates what she calls a “discourse of solidarity” (“Textual Strategies to Resist Disappearance and the Mothers of the Plaza de Maya,” Florida Atlantic Comparative Studies Journal 12, 2010-2011, p. 5), testimonials of her compartment mates that travel unneurotic arsenic a corporate communicative of the disappeared.

In prison, Partnoy transformed the poesy that she wrote for her girl to acceptable immoderate prisoner’s child. Writing for circumstantial occasions not lone helped her survive, she recovered that it besides helped to assistance the spirits of her friends (Revenge of the Apple, 1992, p. 14). In this way, she took connected the suffering of different captive mothers, a communal effort overmuch similar Palestinian actions successful Israeli jails.

Similarly, Sa’adat has continued to signifier among his chap prisoners, which explains wherefore the Zionists person besides continued to spot him successful solitary on with moving him from jailhouse to jail. On May 28, 2017, helium issued a statement connected behalf of the Palestinian prisoners’ strike, whose extremity effect helium labeled a “collective victory.”

“This triumph was the corporate effect of the efforts of the Palestinian radical who rallied astir the strike,” helium continued, “including individuals and institutions, national, quality rights, humanitarian and fashionable organizations, done the sacrifices of the martyrs, the wounded and the prisoners.”

Finally, Sa’adat closed with a plea for civilian nine to travel the prisoners’ exemplary of unity and corporate action, a telephone that has relevance today:

“What our Palestinian governmental forces and factions indispensable bash to enactment the prisoners and fortify their steadfastness is to reconstruct our nationalist unity toward a way of advancement and permission down this signifier of going astir endlessly successful circles.”

On the juncture of 2 weeks of enactment to escaped Sa’adat successful 2020, Khaled Barakat, Palestinian writer and activist, remarked:

“It is precise important for america to bespeak the existent representation of our prisoners: Our leaders, our pupil question leaders, our feminist question leaders, our labour question leaders. These are the Palestinian prisoners confronting the concern connected a regular basis…When we basal successful solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, we basal successful solidarity with Palestinian resistance.”

From Ahmad Sa’adat’s life, determination are galore lessons to beryllium learned: the betrayals by the PA that person lone escalated to this day; the relation of the Palestinian prisoners’ question arsenic the cradle of resistance; and the value of corporate organizing some wrong and extracurricular the situation walls.

Targeted for his governmental relation and acumen of vision, Sa’adat remains steadfast and unbroken to this day, contempt the brutality imposed connected him on with different governmental prisoners.

On June 22, 2010, Sa’adat sent a message to the US Social Forum successful which helium called for “a planetary near beforehand – for socialism, equality, justness and liberation! We articulation successful your call: Another World is Possible! Another US is Necessary!”

As Israel escalates its genocide connected Gaza on with renewed efforts to annex the West Bank, arsenic Donald Trump ascends for a 2nd word arsenic President of the United States, Sa’adat’s telephone is much pertinent present than ever.