Free Georges Abdallah!

Written by: Campagne Unitaire G Abdallah on 21 May 2024

At the request of our French comrades, the CPA (M-L) has signed an appeal for the release of imprisoned Lebanese communist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah (born 2 April 1951), the longest held prisoner in Europe. 

Abdallah was arrested in 1984 by French police and convicted of the killing of a US military attache and an Israeli diplomat in retaliation for the Israeli Zionist regime’s 1982 invasion and occupation of Lebanon.
 

In 1999, Abdallah completed the minimum portion of his life sentence, but several requests for parole were denied. In 2003, the court granted him parole but the US Department of State objected to the court decision. Again, in 2013, Abdallah was granted parole. The US State Department’s Victoria Nuland intervened to stop his release.

The appeal reads:

At a time when the Zionist entity relentlessly pursues its genocidal historical project of annihilation of the Palestinian people from the sea to the Jordan; at a time when Western imperialists are working today as yesterday, and for more than 76 years, to politically and militarily support this entity – their organic arm in the region – and to tirelessly justify the unjustifiable; at a time when the French State is not a mere ‘accomplice’ but a fully involved player in its support for this ethnic cleansing of the land of Palestine; at a time when this same State is using all the means of its liberticidal violence to gag and criminalise any expression of denunciation of this crime against humanity and all forms of solidarity with the Palestinian people; finally, at a time when, in the very camp of this legitimate solidarity with Palestine, some are still hesitating about the form of resistance to support or are censoring themselves, Georges Abdallah - from behind the walls and after 39 years of detention at the hands of the enemy - and with him all the Palestinians involved in or alongside the Resistance are proclaiming forcefully and unambiguously: ‘Gaza will never carry the white flag of surrender! 

Georges Abdallah himself always refused to make this white flag his own, choosing never to leave the camp that was and remains his: that of the ‘historic Resistance’, of all the Resistance, of the ‘promise of the Fedayeen’. It is for this unwavering support for the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people, but also of all peoples who have joined the resistance against oppression and for their emancipation, that Georges Abdallah remains in detention today. It is for this unwavering support, this refusal to give up and this determination to stand firm that Georges Abdallah remains in the hands of the enemy - for the symbol of resistance that he remains in Lebanon but also for the example that he has always been and remains even more so today for all his supporters in France and internationally.

Today, this support is ever more massive, and ever more people are taking action to ensure that any solidarity with Palestine must also include the demand for the release of one of its most loyal fighters. Just as we did so brilliantly at the 14th demonstration in Lannemezan on 6 April in support of our comrade and the prisoners incarcerated with him, we, the signatories of this appeal, pledge once again to coordinate all our forces in support of the heroic resistance of the Palestinian people and of Georges Abdallah during the next international week of action from 8 to 15 June and to mobilise massively for the new national demonstration organised on 15 June in Lyon to support the 10th request for the conditional release of Georges Abdallah and to demand his release.

The aim of this year's demonstration will also be to express our active solidarity with two comrades from the Ligue de la Jeunesse Révolutionnaire who are supporting Georges Abdallah and who will stand trial in Lyon on 18 June for having displayed the Palestinian flag and a T-shirt calling for the release of Georges Abdallah on 7 October 2022 on the pitch of the Olympique Lyonnais stadium during a football match with the Toulouse club, which was interrupted for several minutes and broadcast on every screen. 

‘Gaza will never carry the white flag of surrender... Neither the Zionists nor any criminal force will ever succeed in breaking the will of the Resistance in Gaza’ (Georges Abdallah). 

Neither the French state nor any criminal force will ever succeed in breaking our determination to snatch our comrade from the hands of the enemy. Free them! Let us free him!

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