Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

O sons of our Palestinian people, sons of our Arab nation, free people of the world:

Palestinian prisoners’ day falls on the seventeenth of April this year, with more than 4,900 male and female prisoners still languishing in the prisons of the zionist enemy. Among them are children, the sick, the elderly, and those who are about to spend more than 40 continuous years in their prisons, in extremely miserable human conditions and psychological suffering. They are subjected to torture by various material means, denial of treatment, solitary confinement, the withdrawal of the rights and privileges that they obtained through their relentless struggle and courageous confrontation of the policies of the zionist prisons administration. In addition, they are subjected to other repressive measures and practices to deprive them of their freedom, and the work to legalize these procedures and practices has lead to the adoption of the “Execution of Prisoners” law, which was approved in the first reading in a blatant attempt to stigmatize their struggle with terrorism and remove them from the category of being essentially prisoners for freedom.

The repressive and intimidating measures and practices undertaken by successive zionist governments against the prisoners, leading to their escalation to much higher levels under the fascist Netanyahu-Ben Gvir-Smotrich government, did not diminish the support, cohesion, and unity of the prisoners national movement, through upward struggle measures and counter-steps by announcing preparations for a hunger strike with the beginning of the month of Ramadan. This prompted the administration of the Prisons Authority to submit to their will, and to fulfill many of the demands set by the prisoners movement as they conveyed to us a clear message from their advanced front of struggle in the fight against the enemy: that adhering to the objectives, uniting behind them, and striving to achieve them, all constitute one of the most important factors in victory over the enemy, regardless of the many forms of its superiority, and whatever the level of its aggression, brutality, and terror.

The male and female prisoners have recorded – and still record – an honorable history full of giving, sacrifice and altruism in the journey of our continuous national struggle. Their case intensifies the dialectic of the relationship between man and freedom, in which the freedom of the individual merges with the freedom of his people on the path to achieving his major national and historical goals of independence, return and self-determination. At a time when we salute them with pride, honor and appreciation, this calls for the Palestinian national movement to rise to the level of the challenges facing the prisoners’ movement and its rights.

The first is the right to freedom, as well as their human rights, and this requires that their cause be at the top of our national agenda as humanitarian and human rights forces, factions, institutions and centers, and those specialized in their cause. This takes [the prisoners’ movement] out of seasonal circles and reactions to continuous daily work and puts it before international human rights, legal ,and humanitarian institutions and forums, in defense of them in the face of zionist measures and practices and their natural right to freedom.

O Sons of our people, our nation, and the free people of the world:

There is no separation in waging the battle of freedom and emancipation, through the struggle against the existence of zionism and the zionist project in the heart of the Arab world, Palestine. Zionism has an organic connection with the Western imperialist colonial project, which pursued – and is still pursuing – the revolutionaries striving for freedom in various parts of the world, countries, peoples and individuals.

Here, after paying tribute to the internationalist comrade Georges Abdallah, who is about to enter his fortieth year in the prisons of French imperialism, the continuation of his detention throughout these years, and the rejection of all demands for his release clearly affirms and exposes the falsity of the theorizing claims of the so-called “free world” that calls for human rights, democracy and peace.

These can only be snatched by the free will of the people and their unity in the various arenas of struggle, in order to establish the true concepts of the aspired free world, away from occupation, domination, theft of peoples’ wealth and rights, and the deprivation of their freedom and self-determination.

The Palestinian Prisoner's Day is a day of freedom, not only for Palestinian prisoners. The dimensions of their national, popular, and international cause make it a day for all prisoners of freedom in this world. Accordingly, we call for placing their cause in the position it deserves politically by all available and possible means and methods and for broad participation in commemorating this day in the activities to be implemented inside and outside Palestine by national forces and factions, and institutions and committees concerned with their cause and in solidarity with our people.

Freedom and justice for the prisoners of freedom. Victory is definitely the ally of our people and all the struggling peoples.

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