SOLIDARITY STATEMENTS FROM
U.S. POLITICAL PRISONERS TO
THE PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE

from the 2016 prisoner delegation to Palestine
‘The original pamphlet can be found at:
hitps//wwie recdomarchives org/Pal/PP Booklet AR Eng Web pdf

‘Another pamphit from the delegation, itled “For the Love of Palstine Stories of
‘Women, Imprisonment nd Resistance,”edited by Disna Block and Anna Henry,
can be found here: htps://ww frecdomarchives.org/Pal womenprisoners pdf

22016 satement on the Aprl 17 Day of Solidariy with Palestiian Political
Prisoners by the delegation, “We Stand with Palestine n the Spiit of Sumud
‘The U Prisoner, Labor and Academic Soldarity Delegation to Palestine
March 24 10 April 2,2016" can be found here:

hitpsy/wwiefrecdomarchives org/Pal/Delegation WeStand.pdr

Claude Masks, Jake Conroy, Eric King, “Post-Prison Activism & Archiving
Resistance,”
Prisoners panl, Firestorm Books, hitps://wwiwyoutube.com,watch?

aling the Cages: Oral Histories of North American Poiccal
eegjaleVsE

‘Sheiki Khader Adnan, “Khader Adnan expresses soldarity with 30,000 hunger

strikers in Clifornia prisors,”hitps/electronicintifada et blogs/nora-barrows-
Friedman/Khader-adnan-expresses-soldatity-20000-hunger-strikers-calfornia

with whatever weapons at hand

3 sohdanty statements
“Iwas part of forming and participating in a delegation of people
involved in challenging imprisonment in the U.S. and former
political prisoners that traveled to Palestine. Part of what we did in
advance of actually going was putting together a pamphlet of
solidarity statements from people imprisoned in the US with the
Palestinian struggle, which got translated into Arabic and printed so
that we didn't have to carry it into the country through Israeli
security. We were able to distribute and talk about ways in which
isimportant to understand building solidarity between prisoners
in various struggles around the world. Al of these kinds of things, to
‘me, constitute not breaking stride [after release], so I feellike that’s
‘not uncommon for people getting out, and I think it's something
that should be uplifted. There’s different ways of doingit, but to me
it'sintegral to how I identify in the world, not only having
experienced it but maintaining a connection to abolitionist politics,
‘to supporting political prisoners, as well, and to an understanding
that political imprisonment, for sure, is part of a global experience of
‘people who choose to participate in some liberatory politics and
resistance against genocide.”

- Claude Marks, Rattling the Cages panel, “Post-Prison Activism &
Archiving Resistance,” October 13, 2024

“The delegation was convened by Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, professor at
San Francisco State University, and was the first from the US. to
focus specifically on political imprisonment and solidarity between
Palestinian and U.S. prisoners. The idea for the delegation had been
‘sparked in 2013 when prisoners at Pelican Bay in California
‘undertook an historic hunger strike to protest long term solitary
confinement at the same time as Palestinian prisoners were on
‘hunger strike against Israel’s llegal policies of administrative
detention. Khader Adnan, a former Palestinian political prisoner
‘who had waged a hunger strike in Israeli prisons for 66 days, sent a
‘message of solidarity to the California hunger strikers.”

- Diana Block & Anna Henry, “Cultivating Solidarity with
Palestinian Women Prisoners,” For the Love of Palestine Stories of
Women, Imprisonment, & Resistance

solitarty statements 3
Inthe United States, there are hundreds of political prisoners who
are incarcerated, awaiting trial, serving a sentence or otherwise
detained for acts, beliefs, or associations in opposition to the US
government or corporations. Many were active in the Black,
Chican@ and Native Liberation movements, identify as New
Afrikans and/or were members of anti-imperialist organizations in
solidarity with national liberation movements. These are people
from diverse communities who have committed to struggling
against racism, the continued dispossession of indigenous land,
patriarchy, colonialism, militarism, and other forms of oppression.
‘This packet represents a selection of solidarity statements from
political prisoners in the United States to prisoners in Palestine.

In memory of these US political prisoners who passed away in
prison or within days of their release:

Merle Africa
Phil Africa
Kuwasi Balagoon
Marilyn Buck
Angel Rodriguez Cristobal
Bashir Hameed
Teddy Jah Heath
George Jackson
Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa
Sam Melville
Hugo Pinell
Herman Wallace
Albert Nuh Washington Warren Wells
Richard Williams

4 sohdanty statoments
March 2016 - Anonymous

All the progressives and revolutionaries in the world dedicate their
lives to the same hopes and dreams. We all stand for social justice
and liberation in Palestine, the U.S., and the entire world. We all
stand for freedom for Palestinian political prisoners and all political
prisoners!

In addition, anyone who has spent any time incarcerated in the U.S,
fully understands the oppression that people of color, and especially
Black people, face in this society. We recognize the racism that they
face, the dehumanization, the fact that so many were incarcerated
for non-violent crimes, the poverty, the refusal of this government
to understand the socio-economic and psychological conditions that
are the cause of the vast majority of alleged crimes in this country.
‘The Israeli government portrays the Palestinian political activist as
a criminal and a terrorist, which makes incarceration doubly hard;
but in Palestine, at least prisoners have a shared national liberation
struggle when facing the prison guards and administration. Here in
the U, the political prisoner has to work very hard with other
prisoners to build a shared struggle. When relationships are built
with other incarcerated people, the prison authorities move you
away to isolation in a freezing cold cell, extremely small, with no
access to blankets, warm clothes, or human contact. The only thing
visible from the isolation cellsis the light bulb outside. The door is
‘made of thick glass with only a small opening for food to be sent
through. Itis hard to choose the worst thing about isolation, because
the whole experience is bad. The most frightening thing is the
feeling that they truly want to destroy you or turn you into a tool,
like a remote control that responds to their requests and their
orders,

‘The whole system of incarceration is designed to destroy people’s
‘humanity and make them despair and feel hopeless. Humans are
social, so to be in isolation not only cuts you off from other people,
but also affects you by cutting you off from yourself It destroys you

solidarty sttements 5
emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually, and makes you feel as
ifyou are no longer whole—this is the deadliest thing.

‘That is the toughest challenge being a political prisoner, ora
prisoner of any kind in the U.S. But challenges are not frightening,
because as long as we believe in our rights and the principles that we
stand for, have confidence in ourselves, and rise up together, we
become stronger and more effective. Then we can achieve miracles.
People in the U.S. and all across the world support our Palestinian
rights of return, self- determination, independence, and freedom for
Palestinian political prisoners. Prisoners in the U.S. especially send
their love, respect, and honor to prisoners in Palestine. Despite all
challenges, collective victory for U.S. prisoners and Palestinian
prisoners s in our future.

€ soldanty statoments
Palestine

‘The Palestinian Freedom Movement is in many

ways similar to the Black Freedom Movement in

the US in that prison is an inescapable part of

the struggle ¥

Here we are the naked face of the empire - raw, racist, violent and
unerringly destructive. For, in an imperial system, the very notion of
freedom is not just oppositional - it is an anathema.

Itis heresy. It is from the statist, Zionist perspective - treason.
Think of that: Freedom is Treason.

Wow!

For Palestinians, under the Zionist fever of mass incarceration, their
very existence is a threat to the Zionist project.

For the two are not compatible - and never will be.
‘That said, can we suppress freedom for expediency?
Put quite another way, how can we ever suppress freedom?

‘That s the essence of the Palestinian freedom struggle - freedom or
repression? Liberation or death?

We must opt for freedom. Always. Always.
Tam always on the side of freedom. Always. And forever.
Always.

Mumia Abu-Jamal (in prison since 1951)

solidarty statements 7
Rememberinga 15 Year Old Palestinian Woman in Prison Chained to
the Bed Springs - She Had Refused to Stop Singing

by Marilyn Buck - Summer 1985

chained for singing
clear minor notes
still her song soars
skyward

women sing songs
lullabies lovesongs
blues songs
chants of exiled lives
and martyrs’ death

voices search out sounds

not yet noted on bars

not yet ordered on scales

tobring down walls

to raise Palestine, free

Marilyn lived most of her adult life in controlled, restrictive spac
from elandestinity, to prisons, to control units within prisons. Yet

within those spaces, she developed a richly imaginative, expansive
view of human liberation, and built a bridge to a world we hunger
forbut have yet to create. She died just days after being released
from federal prison in 2010.

5 soldanty statoments
AsaJew born at the end of World War I, the event that loomed over
the very formation of my consciousness was the Holocaust. For me,
for many of s, there was a paramount lesson carved deeply into the
twin tablets of morality and history: racism is the greatest evil that
leads to the most hideous inhumanity. Others drew the opposite
conclusion and embraced Zionism on the basis that Jews need a
state of our own regardless of the cost to others. While Jews had
good reasons to build a foundation for survival and development,
the necessary concessions were due from the imperial anti-Semitic
powers. Never should such security be achieved by oppressing other
people. Never. Identifying with the West, Isracl, from its inception,
has served as an aggressive forward military base for U,
imperialism in the oil-rich Middle East--a spearhead for keeping
reactionary regimes in power and promoting chaos and divisions
throughout the region.

Zionism has been an ongoing process of occupation and colonization
of Palestine. As the examples of the U.S. and apartheid South Africa
show, settler colonialism generates the most fulsome forms and
practices of racism. For Palestine that includes the over 5 million
persons, half of their nation, living in exile; the thousands of people
Killed and wounded by the Israeli military; the eriminal
strangulation of the Palestinian economy and public health
infrastructure; the turning of Gaza into essentially an open-air
prison for 18 million people; the widespread illegal practice of
preventive detentions; and more.

Iean't even begin to grasp the results in terms of pervasive and
‘mounting humanitarian crises that are so horribly painful. At the
same time Palestine is an incredible inspiration as people have
found creative and courageous ways to build resistance, including
the brave resilience of the youth; the local demonstrations to tear
down the apartheid wall erected to cut off Palestinian villages; and
the resonating call by some 175 organizations of Palestinian civil
society that initiated the Boyeott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
of sraeli colonialism. This now global campaign includes demands

solidarty statements 9
tostop Isracli racism, end the occupation, and uphold the right of all
Palestinians to return to their homeland.

‘The Palestinian struggle for self-determination and sovereignty is a
‘matter of the most urgent and fundamental solidarity; it is also a

front- line struggle for justice for all of us

David Gilbert, January 2016
(David released 2021 after 38 years of imprisonment)

1 sodanty statements
Even though we have been in prison for over 37 years, we have never
and will never give up the fight for freedom.

Our fight is your fight because we want all of ife to be free from the
restricting confines of this system that causes so much pain and
suffering,

We feel the tide is turning in the right direction every time we see
‘groups of people working together for the common good of all living
beings.

‘The power is in the people and the people have to realize this and
use this power to free life, protect life. Life is the force that keep us
alive.

Stay strong and we're doing the same.

Ona Move

Janet, Janine and Debbie Africa - for all the MOVE 9

(Debbie released in 2018, Janine & Janet released
in 2019 after 40 & 41 years of imprisonment)

soidarty sttements 11
To Comrades, from a comrade...
Revolutionary Greetings,

My name is Robert Seth Hayes, a former member of the Black
Panther Party (1969-1971) and a captured and convicted member of
the Black Liberation Army (1971-1975). 1 reside and have spent the
better part of 42 years incarcerated as a Political Prisoner, Prisoner
of War.

‘The beat goes on as injustice prevals. Like you, I remain committed
to the struggle - to introduce change that develops, prospers, and
enhances - freedom, justice, universal love, unity, equality and
liberation to all as we all strive for the future.

Sorry to appear as if I were making a speech. But I wanted to be
clear.

One Love Revolutionaries.
Robert Seth Hayes

(Robert released in 2015 after 45+ years of imprisonment.
He passed away in 2019)

2 sodanty statements
“They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not giveit to
them.” - Gandhi

Abrief statement of solidarity to our sisters and brothers in
Palestine

‘There are many people worldwide who do not realize that, unlike
Nelson Mandela, i spent more than 27 tortuous years on Indiana’s
death row. Even though i am no longer laboring under a court
judgment of death, i am indeed still fighting for my dignity and
economic security.

Not once have i allowed my rights of actual freedom (free mind) and
physical liberation slip away from my vision. i am not only focused
on myself or my narrow personal goals, but also on the greater
responsibility that essential knowledge gives me to make a
qualitative difference in the lives of people.

Just war is permitted only for self-defense and defending basic
human rights. By all accounts, i must continue striving full steam

ahead for turning stumbling blocks into stepping stones.

i would like for you to continue advocating for me, as i am
advocating for you - the Palestinian people.

Zolo Agona Azania
(Zolo released in 2015, after 35 years of imprisonment)

solidarty sttements 13
To the Palestinian Independence Movement

From Jalil Abdul Muntagim - BPP/BLA Political Prisoner
Solidarity in the Face of Adversity

March 2016

As Salaam Alaikum

It gives me great pleasure to be able to share a few
words of solidarity based on our mutual struggle opposing racism
and colonial oppression.

I'have been in U, prisons for 44 years, one of the longest held
political prisoners in the world, for activities and involvement in the
former Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. Since my
imprisonment in 1971, I continue to be active in terms of educating
prisoners, writing books, essays and articles, and finding innovative
ways to contribute in exposing U.S. imperialism and its insidious
support of Zionism. Naturally, I support the movement for Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions challenging Israel’s occupation of
Palestine that should be equated as Apartheid.

Iwas captured at the age of 19 years old, an expectant father, and
now a 64 year old great grandfather. I have been before the parole
board 8 times, and each time denied release because of “the nature
of the crime” - the death of two police officers, a situation that time
will never alter. While I was sentenced to 25 years to Life in 1975, the
continued denials are tantamount to life without parole. Obviously,
the prison and parole system operates with impunity, and in
violation of its own mandates. Hence, it s the political nature of the
conviction that is the principal reason for these denials. I share
these insights in my case in order to let you know my life struggle in
‘many ways parallels the struggles of your own political prisoners.

W soldanty statements
Furthermore, as a revolutionary Muslim (note: 1 oppose the
indiseriminate killing by ISIS and Al-Qaeda, et al), the foundation of
our solidarity bridges ideological and national boundaries of our
struggles. We are mutual allies. Therefore, it is only natural for me to
express solidarity, as we forge our common humanity to oppose
racist and colonial oppression wherever it may be found.

May Allah (SWT) grant you mercy and success from your
tormentors, strengthening your resolve to build a future of peace
andlove for the next generations.

Mas Salaam - Revolutionary Love and Unity,

Jalil Abdul Muntagim
(alil released in 2020, after 49 years of imprisonment)

soidarty sttements 15
Dear Brothers and Sisters of the ancient land of Palestine,
Osiyo (hello)

Inthe 1990s I studied theology for four years. I read all the ancient
holy books/texts. I studied many world views and religions. I
studied about the false state of Israel. I read about their secret Nuke
program. That the people occupying “my land” helped the Zionists
build. And lie about and hide.

Ibelieve that Israel is doing to your people what the Americans did
tomy people. They are infected with an evil very much alike. (a very
similar evil)

We must be positive and focus on the faith to overcome these
hypoeritical monsters as well as their lies. These monsters who hurt
us, then lie to the world and falsely claim we hurt them. And so
that’s why they attack us. That’s what they do to us Native,
Indigenous peoples here in Turtle Island - the real name of this
sacred land. This is not America ~ that is one of the lies of the
occupier - just a small reality of the vast pile of their deceptions.

Yes, we must be positive. We are truly good people, fighting tooth
and nail against a monstrous system of destruction and genocide.

S0 be strong my Brothers and sacred Sisters of Palestine. Be
endlessly vigilant.

Love and power,

0so Blanco, Byron Shane Chubbuck
(in prison since 1999)

=

6 sodanty statements
1Am Oso Blanco

Freedom - power -~ movement
Lam the river, I am the land.

1am the moment in a blood-soaked land.

1am Native and the moment is ancient, our burial mounds are
10,000 years old, before the occupation of our land.

1am native, Aniyunwiy
not.

or Cherokee to the world who know me

Freedom - power - movement
1am the living river that destroys the Mexican family.

1am the bloody Rio Grande, the sacred mud in my veins, the line
through the sand.

1am the sacred river that rips, separates and imprisons family and
culture.

Yet Lam the womb water that rebirths the endless warrior Eagle
Knight Who will not accept this border, who will not give up the
fight.

soidarty satements

v
‘To the Palestinian people:
Greetings and solidarity!

From Herman Bell, U.S. Political
Prisoner, since 1973

You don't fight alone! e

Ihave followed, supported, and I continue to follow and support
your heroie struggle to rid israeli occupation of your homeland.
Almost daily we hear of isracli tank shells and missiles firing into
your homes, your hospitals, and school buildings; we see pictures of
broken bodies being dug from the rubble. Whole neighborhoods and
vital resources: food, water, electricity are decimated. So much
death, bloodshed, and destruction when seizing and occupying
other people’s land, an old narrative that Indigenous people the
world over know so well

‘The international community does nothing throughout this
occupation of your land it sits on its hands, laments the destruction
andloss of life and does nothing. I feel the beat of your seething
heart. And during periodic lulls throughout this decades-long
occupation, when even the occupiers seem sated from their
bloodlust, you rise up from your magnificently dug tunnels firing off
salvos of your own bootleg missiles into the towns and hamlets of
the occupiers. Your creative resistance to this occupation is so
reminiscent of the Vietnamese people’s spirited resistance to u.s.
occupation during their war of national liberation. When having
shot down a heavy u.s. B-52 bomber, they built iron bars around it
with a sign saying: “We caged this beast!”

Freedom loving people the world over support your struggle,
support your courage and fortitude in resisting this occupation. For
we know that while heads of governments in the international
community posture, gesture, and pronounce empathetic words,
they speak but one language, the language of the occupier, which is
why they will neither condemn nor prevent this ongoing carnage

B soldanty statements
and continued israeli occupation of your land. For that, the
Palestinian people have to look to themselves. But you don't fight
alone.

Afrikan-American people here in North America support you and
Know occupation well. Here the local and national police force are
our occupiers. Throughout some three-hundred years of tyrannizing
the soul and body of the Black community, america’s pervasive
racism and cultural domination has overworked itself, yet our spirit
remains unbowed. And we've been enslaved longer than we've been
free. We suffer mass-incarceration, racial profiling and unrelenting
police violence. We endure; we bide our time. For we know nothing
lasts forever. Thus we affirm that no daylight exists between the

Afrikan-American and Palestinian struggle in resisting the racist,
oppressive violence that occupies, that kills, that imprisons us here
and you over there. Our struggle is one.

According

s we go forward, as you speak comparatively of isracli
social policies that resemble the racist South African apartheid
regime’s social policies, I would urge that you speak also of the
similarity between the Afrikan-American and Palestinian struggle.
‘The comparison is effective; it resonates. Both our hardship and
casualties originate from the same source; our communities are
stressed; our men and women have been captured, tortured,
imprisoned, or killed. Our families suffer; our children experience
uncertain tomorrows. You don't fight alone; our struggle is one, and
we build to win.

Solidarity forever, Herman Bell
(Herman released in 2015, after 45 years of imprisonment)

soidarty sttements 19
A e

Critical Resistance stands in deep solidarity with those fighting for
Palestinian liberation, and particularly with Palestinian political
prisoners. As an organization that seeks to build an international
movement to abolish the prison industrial complex, we understand
that our struggle is one against oppression, colonization, and state
violence globally.

We have made strong connections to Palestinian liberation within
our fights against policing, imprisonment, and surveillance. In 2011
and 2013, we supported prisoners who organized historic hunger
strikes in California prisons while Palestinian prisoners, who were
also on hunger strike against their Administrative Detention, sent
powerful messages of solidarity. We have also supported those in
the US who are targeted for US-based Palestine solidarity activism
and we see the ways in which our struggles are international. The
beautiful solidarity between movements in the U.S. and Palestine is
growing exponentially, and we remain committed to building
strength and international support across our borders.

Until Liberation, Critical Resistance

2 soldarity statements
We must always stand together, fearless & unified against any
intruder who tries to take our lives, our families or our freedom!

~ Merle Aftica, a political prisoner from the MOVE organization who
died in a US. prison under suspicious circumstances in 1995

The California Coalition for Women Prisoners wishes to express our
strong solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for self-
determination and sovereignty and with the thousands of
Palestinian men and women prisoners who are on the front lines of
resistance against Israeli occupation. Since 1995, our organization
has been dedicated to challenging the racist and sexist violence of
the US. prison industrial complex, particularly as it impacts women
and transgender prisoners.

Merle Africa’s words, embedded in our logo above, resonate with the
determination we see emanating from Palestinian prisoners. We
reject the shared strategies that Israeli and US prisons utilize to
dehumanize and torture our loved ones, our leaders, and our
communities. The resilience of people forced to live under such
terrible conditions fuels the spirit of resistance in our movements.
We trust that the Palestine Prisoner Solidarity Delegation will
contribute to mutual understanding and invigorate solidarity
walls and borders

'-.-a

solidarty sttements 1
‘The cover drawing is by Marius Mason, a long-time activist in the
environmental and labor movements. In March 2008, he was
arrested by federal authorities for charges related to two acts of
property destruction that occurred in 1999 and 2000; no one was
injured in either of them. He was sentenced to just under 22 years.

2 sty statements
write to Mumia Abu-Jamal

Smart Communications/PA DOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM8335
SCI Mahanoy
Post Office Box 33028
St Petersburg, Florida 53733

write to Oso Blanco

080 Blanco® #07909-051
USP Victorville
Post Office Box 3900
Adelanto, California 92301
*Address envelope to Byron Chubbuck.

write to Marius Mason

Marius Mason #04672-061
EMC Fort Worth
Post Office Box 15330
Fort Worth, Texas 76119

solidarty statements 28
FORMER PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONER SHEIKH KHADER ADNAN
EXPRESSES SOLIDARITY WITH PELICAN BAY HUNGER STRIKERS

JULY 9, 2013

Sheikh Khader Adnan considers the policy of isolation as a cheap weapon in
the hands of those who hold power. The policy of isolation is used against
American citizens who are victims of the political, economic, and social
order/system that thrives on greed, discrimination, and the deprived,
including the African-Americans and Palestinian resistors such as Sameeh
Hamoudeh and Sami Al Aryan.

‘The policy of isolation exposes the ugly fuce of these false democracies that
are guilty of occupation, tyranny, and social repression. Hunger strikes are
a courageous step and a real tool for all those who are deprived of their
rights to lift the existing oppression, and 1 hope that these prisoners will
gain their rights and their demands. Today, the hunger strikes of the
Palestinian prisoners inspires those who are detained to engage in hunger
strikes tro guarantee that they are treated humanely and with respect and
dignity.

1am a former administrative detainee in the Isracli Occupations’ prisons,
who has been subjected to the unjust isolation policy. | fought in a hunger
strike for 66 consecutive days against the policy of administrative
detention, my detention without charge or trial. I announce my full
solidarity with my 30,000 oppressed brothers in the American prisons, and I
ask that the American people and government end the policy of isolation of
the detainces and prisoners, and comply by human rights law that forbids
continuous isolation because of its destructive effects on the mental and
physical health of detainees.