We interviewed comrade Tom Martin, spokesperson for the Palestine Will Triumph Collective, whom we met in Toulouse. This collective is an organization in France that supports the Palestinian resistance and is part of the Samidoun international network.
Hi Tom. Israeli forces have committed a new massacre in the city of Jenin, with nine Palestinians killed and twenty wounded. What prospects do you see with the new Netanyahu government?
On January 26, Israeli forces carried out a massacre in the center of Jenin, killing at least 9 Palestinians as residents bravely resisted the military incursion. Unfortunately, this new crime is not an isolated incident. Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli army has killed 30 Palestinians, most in the occupied West Bank.
As the far-right Israeli government has just come to power, the prospects of the Palestinian people can only lie in their ability to develop their self-organization and resilience in the face of Zionist colonial brutality, supported by the imperialist powers and reactionary Arab regimes. And against this, the Palestinian solidarity movement has a particular responsibility to support this struggle, which is fundamentally anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist.
The Palestine Will Triumph Collective has just completed a campaign of actions, which we adhere to, for the freedom of comrade Ahmad Sa’aadat of the Palestine Liberation Popular Front. Can you explain his situation?
From January 14 to 24, the Palestine Will Triumph Collective participated together with more than 220 organizations from some 30 countries -including the Argentine MST- in an International Week of Action for the release of Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners, launched by Samidoun. Secretary General of the PFLP, he was imprisoned on January 15, 2002 by the Palestinian Authority in the framework of its security coordination with the Israeli occupation. In 2006 he was kidnapped by Israel and sentenced on December 25, 2008 to 30 years in prison for his political role in the PFLP, an organization classified as “terrorist” by the Zionists and imperialists.
Along with a group of 4,700 Palestinian prisoners, Ahmad Sa’adat is a leader of the Palestinian resistance. To demand his immediate release is to stand with the resistance. Demanding his immediate release also means supporting political prisoners in imperialist jails, such as the Lebanese communist Georges Abdallah imprisoned in France since 1984. In addition, supporting him also means denouncing the complicity of the Palestinian Authority and defending the prospect of a free and democratic Palestine. for everyone, from the sea to the Jordan River.
In Argentina, our leader Alejandro Bodart has been sued by the DAIA for “anti-Semitism” because of his tweets against Zionism and the State of Israel for the murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. What do you think about this?
First of all, we want to express our full solidarity with comrade Alejandro Bodart. All over the world, supporters of the Israeli occupation try to criminalize solidarity with Palestine, especially using the despicable maneuver that tries to confuse anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.
This tactic is based on the IHRA’s definition of anti-Semitism, which mentions in its examples that it is anti-Semitic to say that Israel is a “racist undertaking,” which it is. It is outrageous! That is why we must unite around the world in a common front to fight this criminalization and affirm loud and clear that Zionism is racism and Israel is an illegitimate colonial entity!
Interview by Pablo Vasco