France: CUPLGIA – Defend Palestine is not a crime! Solidarity is our weapon!
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a statement by the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (CUPLGIA) that we have received. We already reported on this repressive case, by translating a statement by the National Bureau of the LJR and JR:
Demand the release of the comrade arrested for defending the Palestinian resistance!
Attacking one of us is attacking all of us, and defending one of us is defending all of us! We strongly condemn the arrest and we demand the release of the comrade – defender of the Palestinian cause, its heroic resistance, and one of its historical fighters, Georges Abdallah – who was arbitrarily arrested yesterday, Tuesday, March 4, 2025, and has since been placed under police custody.
This new arrest once again targets a voice of the solidarity movement with Palestine, which, through demonstration after demonstration and initiative after initiative, has taken on the responsibility of making our collective cry denouncing the crime of colonization, and of providing unconditional support to the liberation struggles of oppressed peoples for victory or victory, particularly in the national liberation struggle of the Palestinian people. As Georges Abdallah stated, “Naturally, the Palestinian people’s masses and their revolutionary vanguards can always count on our mobilization and active solidarity in favor of Palestine and its promising resistance.”
This voice – like all those that rise from our camp and whose courage is recognized by all in these times of unprecedented repression, censorship, and self-censorship – has been the one that, on our behalf, has tirelessly reminded us of the just and legitimate right to revolt, for “wherever hope blossoms, the long journey of resistance is displayed on the background.” (Georges Abdallah).
This voice, in the face of all these anonymous solidarian supporters, has risen to demand the release of all the torches of resistance, which also include the Palestinian political prisoners – “these indomitable resistance heroes captive in the Zionist jails” (Georges Abdallah) – and the release of one of them, one of ours, who is Georges Abdallah, because he is part of our struggles and we are part of his combat!
This voice has risen with strength and determination, without hesitation or concession, for “there are moments when silence means becoming complicit…” (Georges Abdallah). It is precisely for this reason that the French State seeks to silence it today, just as it has done with all those who have spoken out, particularly in recent times, who have been and remain on the front lines of the combat, and thus also of State’s harassment and repression.
This exponential repression, today labeled “anti-terrorist” is firing on all fronts with arbitrary bans on solidarity initiatives and demonstrations, systematic fines, police custody and summonses by the anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office, criminal convictions, frozen financial accounts, dissolution of associations and collectives, violent evictions from campuses, and outrageous and slanderous media campaigns—all within a logic of collective intimidation and obstruction of any expression of support for the Palestinian people and its resistance. The State knows well: if “resistance is victory, without resistance, there is no victory!”. And it is precisely this expression of support for Palestine—’Algeria has triumphed! Vietnam has triumphed! Palestine will triumph!’—that must be criminalized and silenced.
So yes, we all who are part of this movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people, who are aware of the centrality of this cause and who work day after day for the liberation of Georges Abdallah, of all prisoners and the repressed, we shout it right here: Defend Palestine is not a crime! Solidarity is our weapon! And for this reason, we demand the release of the comrade arrested for defending the Palestinian resistance! For attacking one of us is attacking all of us, and defending one of us is defending all of us!
Together, let us mobilize for his release and, more broadly, stand against the repression and criminalization of all forms and expressions of solidarity with Palestine and its heroic resistance.
“Shame on all those who, in the face of genocidal Zionist barbarism, call to look the other way!” In this sense, honor to all those who, despite the repression, act to ensure that a thousand initiatives flourish in favor of Palestine, its glorious resistance, and in support of the torches of this resistance, which are all the Palestinian prisoners, including Georges Abdallah!
Let us free them! Let us free him! For victory or victory!
Palestine will win! Free Georges Abdallah!
Solidarity is our weapon! We will win!
Paris, March 5, 2025
Campagne unitaire pour la libération de Georges Ibrahim Abdallah
Campagne.unitaire.gabdallah@gmail.com
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