
Stop the repression of Mariam Abu Daqqa! Stop the criminalization of the just struggle of the Palestinian people!
Here you can find the french version of this document.
Mariam Abu Daqqa, an activist and leader who is a member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), is the target of repeated attacks by both the government and a number of political figures. The PFLP, and its military branch the “Abu Ali Mustafa Martyr Brigades”, named after the second Secretary General of the PFLP who was cowardly murdered in 2001 by Israeli troops, is part of the Palestinian National Resistance and declares:
“This is the day when the nature of the struggle and the dignity of the Arab nation were recovered. The steadfast rocks from the ranks of the resistance have united to answer the call of Palestine, the call of Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa, in which the essence of the conflict is recovered and the honor of the Arab nation restored. They are determined to win a strategic victory over the enemy in a battle that will open the door of return and redefine the history of Palestine and the region.”
Extract from PFLP press release, 08 October 2023 on the subject of the Flood of Al-Aqsa
The 72-year-old, who has been in France since the end of September, is a renowned activist who has been fighting for the rights of Palestinians for decades, for the liberation of Palestine from the sea to the Jordan River, and is an active and recognised figure in the Palestinian national liberation struggle.
Her 50-day trip to France was to be an opportunity to speak out loud and clear for the pro-Palestinian cause through a series of 15 conferences. She was also due to address French MPs in the chamber of deputies, following an invitation from the France Insoumise MP, Ersilia Soudais, at the screening of the documentary “Yallah Gaza” on 9 November.
Even before the intensification of the conflict in Palestine and the Resistance offensive, Mariam Abu Daqqa suffered repression from the French imperialist regime: she was banned from speaking at the conference organized by the Collectif 69 Palestine at the University of Lyon 2 on the 5th of October. After the cancellation of a conference that should have been given by the Franco-Palestinian lawyer and Jerusalem resident Salah Hamouri last January, this is not the first time that pro-Palestinian activists have been targeted in Lyon by the ‘left-wing’ mayor. Despite this, the resistance fighter was able to speak in the audience and at the end took part in a photo in support of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.
After the blow received by the Israeli army on 7 October, Mariam Abu Daqqa was hit by repression from the French regime. Several conferences were canceled, and on the morning of 16 October, as she was leaving Marseilles for Toulouse, she was served with an OQTF (Obligation to leave french territory) signed the day before by the Ministry of the Interior and bound for Gaza. The government considers that Mariam Abu Daqqa is “a member of the PFLP’s political bureau in Gaza”, and that “in the current context, [the tour of 15 lectures] is likely to constitute a disturbance of public order that must be prevented”. Following this notification, Mariam Abu Daqqa was placed under house arrest in her hotel in Marseilles, with a ban on going out between 10pm and 7am, and a requirement to report to a local police station at 12.30pm every day. The house arrest was imposed for 45 days, until the end of November, and therefore covered the entire duration of Miriam Abu Daqqa’s visa, forcing her into silence and passivity. At a time when the resistance fighter of Gaza has lost 28 members of her family in the indiscriminate and terrorist bombardments by the Israeli colonial entity, the French state is preventing critics and human rights activists from expressing themselves and speaking out on behalf of the oppressed. After announcing that she would challenge the expulsion order, Mariam Abu Daqqa had her house arrest and expulsion order lifted by the Paris Administrative Court on 20 October. The interim relief judge ruled that “the Ministry of the Interior has seriously and manifestly illegally infringed Mariam Abu Daqqa’s freedom of expression and freedom of movement”.
This attack follows on from the various attacks by reaction against supporters of the Palestinian people, including the systematic ban on demonstrations, followed by fines, the raid of the trade union leader of the CGT Nord departmental union for having leafleted in favor of peace in Palestine, by the witch hunt of supporters of the struggle of the Palestinian people, in the bourgeois press and finally the deployment of the police against demonstrators. We should also remember that the Minister of the Interior has announced that he has launched 11 legal proceedings to dissolve organisations and individuals for having shown their support for the Palestinian Resistance, including Hamas. French imperialism, is seeing its external and internal situation complicate, and is trying to save itself, particularly at home, by increasing reaction and trampling on basic democratic rights. It knows that every situation can lead to an explosion of the proletariat and therefore tries to stem the tide before it rises, without knowing that it is only strengthening it. We must nevertheless denounce these attacks on fundamental freedoms and democracy, and call on all those who love justice and democracy to denounce them too and to stand up against them.
While Israel commits numerous war crimes and does not respect international law, in particular through the use of chemical weapons, the total blockade of Gaza leading to power cuts in hospitals, the bombardment of residential areas, the bombardment of hospitals and places of worship leading to the death of more than 8000 Palestinians, they would have us believe that the terrorists are members of the Resistance. The terrorists have always been the imperialists, led by the United States, and in Palestine they are the Zionists, a veritable appendage of US imperialism supported by the whole rotten clique of imperialists.
We strongly denounce the relentless repression of a spokeswoman for the Palestinian National Resistance, who has been silenced for her willingness to denounce the crimes and breaches of international law that Israel has repeatedly committed over the last 75 years.
We denounce the blind and unconditional support shown by the French imperialist state and the vast majority of the bourgeoisie to a criminal and genocidal power.
We denounce the condemnations of the unified Resistance under the leadership of the joint chamber of factions. The United States, the imperialist and all those who follow them have no right to condemn those who fight against them.
We denounce the complicity of the French state with the genocidal policy at work in Gaza, a state that wants to knowingly send women and children back under the bombs for the sole crime of having denounced the barbaric and fascist colonization of the State of Israel.
We salute the entire Palestinian National Resistance, which despite the crimes and massacres of the occupation is continuing its just struggle for the liberation of Palestine.
We salute the broad Palestinian masses who refuse to abandon their legitimate demands and hold high the flag of the peoples’ struggle for emancipation, as well as the Arab masses who rise up against their Zionist-subjugated governments in support of their Palestinian brothers and sisters.
We particularly salute Mariam Abu Daqqa, who continues to struggle, in France as in Gaza, in the midst of turmoil and repression, but with the Palestinian flag held high!
We salute the masses in France and around the world who are rising up in the face of injustice in support of the glorious Palestinian struggle!
Anti-Imperialist Action (France)