The German authorities want to set an example of our comrade Zaid Abdulnasser, a member of the Palestinian prisoner solidarity network Samidoun. They have withdrawn the right of residence of the young Palestinian, who fled from Syria to Germany and has been waiting here for years for his naturalisation. He is defending himself legally and politically. We and many others are behind him.
Upswing of the Palestinian liberation struggle
The comrades of Samidoun have been the focus of state repression and anti-Palestinian agitation in Germany for a long time: again and again their demonstrations are banned and stopped by force, the media spread lies against them and in June this year the German-Israeli Society demanded the banning of the organization according to paragraph 129b (an “anti-Terror-Paragraph”). We see the main reason for these attacks in the fact that Samidoun, as a young organization with young activists who did not grow up in the West but mostly in the Arab Diaspora, most strongly embodies the Palestinians’ and especially the younger generations’ urge for unity of resistance and for uncompromising against Zionist colonialism.
This urge is also the Palestinians’ greatest hope and is currently fuelling the struggle for liberation in Palestine to an extent that we have not seen since the Second Intifada: In Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarem and other places in the West Bank, cross-organisational and cross-currents of brigades have formed, which have taken up the armed struggle against the occupation regime and are carrying it out on a daily basis. In Gaza, too, the factions of the resistance are cooperating ever more closely. While the Gaza Strip has been a no-go area for the Zionists for a decade and a half, the West Bank has now also turned into a dangerous terrain for settlers and soldiers, and resistance actions are also taking place again and again in the 48 Areas, i.e. in Israel.
Imperialist asylum system
Even though the “postmodern” bourgeois discourse likes to proclaim that migration is something “quite normal” that has always existed: most people do not voluntarily leave their homes, families and friends, and many “migrants” are refugees, whether they flee because of war, displacement, persecution or poverty. At the same time, the European asylum system was indeed a consequence of the Second World War and thus an achievement. But it was also a treaty between the colonial powers and the other imperialist states of Western Europe and North America, and therefore never intended for the colonized peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Nevertheless, it is above all millions of people from the poor countries who have had to make use of the right to asylum and the right to stay in the last 75 years – and who have fought for it even against the will of the rulers! Hundreds of thousands have paid for this with their lives.
The reason why especially people from the South and East had to lay claim to this right is, of course, that the imperialist West covered and still covers their countries with war and (neo)colonial exploitation. In Palestine in particular, with the onset of the ongoing Nakba in 1947, a large part of the indigenous population was turned into refugees, who to this day live in camps inside and outside Palestine and have no citizenship.
These people from Asia, Africa and Latin America are pushing into the centers of global exploitation and oppression in Europe and North America to enjoy some of the wealth stolen from their countries and the relative peace based on that wealth. In doing so, they are rebelling, whether consciously or unconsciously, against the basic laws of imperialism, which are: The over-exploited have to stay in the periphery, except when they are called to the center as cheap labor. If these people then also speak out politically here, denounce the injustice of the imperialist world system, name the reasons for their flight and attack the imperialist state, they become the enemy that must be fought and smashed.
It is therefore no wonder that state repression in Germany hits migrant revolutionary organizations particularly hard. Palestine, as the last colony openly occupied by Europeans, where the indigenous people bitterly resist, where the imperialism of the West is most openly revealed, must seem particularly dangerous to the ruling class in this country. In addition, the pro-Zionist raison d’état is an enormously important part of the legitimisation of the ruling class in Germany. And finally: the Palestinians enjoy great sympathy among the peoples of the so-called Third World and especially the Muslim world. On the issue of Palestine, therefore, most migrant communities in Germany, which can otherwise unfortunately all too often be played off against each other according to the divide and rule principle, are united.
For the right to stay and the right to return!
The Zaid case impressively shows how the German authorities use migration and asylum law as a political weapon: They can apparently neither simply ban Samidoun nor prove that comrade Zaid has committed a concrete crime. Instead, they use his “status” as a refugee, which is ultimately nothing more than a racist legal construct that deprives him of his basic rights. As with all repression, it is not about him alone, but above all about intimidating all of us. The message is clear: Palestinians are not allowed to express themselves politically in the FRG, they are not allowed to denounce colonialism in their home country and they are not allowed to fight against it. Those who do risk not only never being naturalized and thus being able to live here with equal rights, but even losing their asylum and being deported. We advocate that the Palestinians’ struggle for their national liberation in all its forms can be openly supported and propagated in this country, that Palestinians not only get security and residence, but that they can fully exercise their political rights!
The political oppression of the Palestinians in Germany by means of criminal and migration law is the counterpart of their oppression and expulsion in their homeland, they are two edges of the same sword, that of the imperialists and colonial masters. Accordingly, both sides must also be fought by us: The struggle for the right to stay for Zaid and all other Palestinians and their right to naturalization in Germany does not contradict the struggle for the liberation of their homeland and the right of return of the Palestinians, but is rather its flip side! In both cases, it is about the very concrete rights of the Palestinians: the freedom to stay here and the freedom to return to Palestine. And in both cases, victory means a blow against imperialism, which wants the Palestinians neither there nor here.
At the same time, the attack on the democratic rights of the Palestinians is an attack on the democratic rights of all: all those who fight against oppression and occupation, against imperialism, exploitation and war are to be intimidated. Zaid is hit, but all those who fight for the liberation of Palestine, who fight against (neo)colonial oppression, against racism, are meant! They are using Zaid’s precarious legal situation to isolate and break him. Let’s show that he is not alone, not isolated. Let’s show that an attack on him is an attack on all of us! Solidarity is our strongest weapon against their repression, their racism, their terror!
Solidarity with Zaid! Fight state racism! Down with imperialism!
Solidarity with Samidoun! Freedom for Palestine – from the river to the sea!
