- Detailed information about him can be accessed through
the following link:
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- http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/bg.html
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- He's the 1967-founded Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine's (PFLP) General Secretary, one of thousands of Palestinian
political prisoners, sentenced in 2002 to 30 years in prison "for
a range of 'security-related' political offenses,' " including his
prominence in a prohibited organization, a 1993 document stating that:
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- "The strategic aim of the PFLP's struggle alongside
the other forces of the Palestinian revolution is to liberate Palestine
from Zionist colonial occupation. The PFLP aims for the establishment of
a democratic state on the entire Palestinian land, with its capital in
Jerusalem. This state would guarantee legal rights and equality of opportunity
to all citizens, without discrimination on the grounds of religion, sex,
belief or color. It would oppose Zionism and imperialism and be oriented
towards democratic unity with other Arab countries."
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- "Achieving this aim presupposes a radical solution
for the Palestinian national cause and readiness to wage a prolonged, complicated
and difficult struggle (against Zionism), a racist, aggressive, expansionist,
settler-colonial entity which aims at elimination of our people."
Great sacrifices are needed to prevent it.
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- Sa'adat's Background
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- Born in 1953 in Deir Tarif village near Ramallah in the
West Bank, the son of dispossessed refugees, he became activist after the
1967 Six Day War. In 2001, he was elected PFLP General Secretary, replacing
Abu Ali Mustafa, assassinated by Israel on August 27 that year.
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- In February 1969, Israel first arrested him for PFLP
activities, detaining for three months - then for 28 months in 1970, 10
months in 1973, and 45 days in 1975. That year, he graduated from UNWRA's
Ramallah Teaching Training College, specializing in math. In 1976, he was
arrested again and held four years. In April 1981, he was elected to PLFP's
Central Committee. In 1989, he was arrested and detained nine months, again
in 1992 for 13 months, then released but declared a "wanted person,"
subject to re-arrest without cause.
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- In 1994, he became the PFLP's West Bank leader, arrested
again in 1995, briefly detained by the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 1996,
then arrested by the PA with other PFLP members. On February 27, 1997,
following a hunger strike, he was released without charge, authorities
fearing he might die in prison. In fact, he collapsed, became comatose
and needed emergency treatment in Ramallah Hospital.
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- Arrested again in 2002, the PA held him at Jericho Prison
for over four years. On August 20, 2002, Israeli forces assassinated his
brother, Mohammed. On January 25, 2006, he was elected to the Palestinian
Legislative Council on the Abu Ali Mustafa slate. On March 14, 2006, the
IDF stormed the prison, abducting Sa'adat and five others, incarcerating
them in Israeli military prisons.
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- He committed no crime, was given a military trial by
three military judges, with no legal training, in a military court, charged
with organizing the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister, Rehavam
Zeevi on October 17, 2001, and was convicted by "an illegitimate manifestation
of an illegitimate system...."
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- In June 2002, Amnesty International called for his immediate
release after a Palestinian court ordered it, Fatah's cabinet overriding
the decision the same day, abiding by a US-brokered deal ending Israel's
34-day siege on PA Chairman Yasser Arafet's Ramallah headquarters on May
1.
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- After Israel abducted him, a Sa'adat wrote:
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- "The Quartet (US, EU, Russia and the UN) provide
a cover for occupation. What happened at Jericho Prison has made the British
and US governments an integral part of the conflict and forever buried
any illusions (of) their neutrality" - referring to American and UK
guards abandoning their posts, letting Israeli forces storm the prison,
abduct Sa'adat and others, kill two detainees, and injure 23 more.
-
- On December 25, 2008, he was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment,
Israel's harshest political punishment, illegal under international law.
According to a PFLP statement, he was "sentenced to 30 years in Israeli
jails for political reasons and not for any other crime," Sa'adat
refusing to recognize the court's legitimacy, calling himself "a prisoner
for freedom."
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- His alleged crimes included a laundry list of "security
offenses," among them belonging to a forbidden organization, holding
a post in it, and "incitement" in a speech condemning Israel's
assassination of the man he succeeded, Abu Ali Mustafa.
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- On March 18, 2009, he was transferred from Hadarim to
Asqelan Prison solitary confinement, a punishment repeatedly used against
him. In June, he went on hunger strike for nine days in protest. On August
10, he was moved to Ramon Prison isolation in the Naqab desert. He's been
denied family visits, outside communication, books, newspapers, magazines,
television, and cigarettes, and has been systematically harassed and abused,
including painful shackling and handcuffing outside his cell.
-
- In October, a Bir Saba military court gave him six additional
isolation months, what Sa'adat calls a "living death."
-
- Palestinian political prisoners include men, women and
children against Israel's illegal occupation, held not for crimes, but
for "organiz(ing), act(ing), or f(ighting) for the freedom of their
land."
-
- They're now "a highly organized group, operating
prisoners' associations, political organizations within the prisons and
representative committees, and engaging in protests and hunger strikes
that have drawn the attention of the world to their cause."
-
- They're honored for having sacrificed to liberate their
people and land, enduring extreme hardships including torture, other abuses
and humiliations, long imprisonments, solitary confinement, and, for some,
death, assassinated for devotion to their cause.
-
- "The imprisonment of Palestinian political prisoners
- some of the strongest organizers, activists and leaders of Palestinian
society - is a deeply felt wound in the Palestinian community. The freedom
of these prisoners, imprisoned because of their desire to see their homeland
free, is a necessary part of achieving justice for the Palestinian people."
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- Sa'adat's wife, Abla, also a political activist, faced
Israeli harshness numerous times, including her January 23, 2003 Allenby
Bridge border crossing arrest, preventing her from addressing the Porto
Alegre, Brazil World Social Forum.
-
- On June 22, 2010, the Bir Saba District Court for Administrative
Affairs again denied Sa'adat family visits and affirmed other hardships,
claiming "secret evidence" for justification.
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- Also on June 22, he sent a message to supporters at the
June 22 - 26 US Social Forum, this year in Detroit, saying:
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- "I greet you from inside the walls of the prisons
of the occupation, with the voices of thousands of Palestinian and Arab
political prisoners. On behalf of the Palestinian prisoners' movement,
the Palestinian national movement, and the Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine, I carry our salutes to the US Social Forum, this coming together
of movements of oppressed peoples to organize and stand together against
racism, colonialism, oppression and imperialism."
-
- Sa'adat explained that Palestine's struggle is theirs
also, united for "liberation, international racial and economic justice,
and an end to occupation, colonialism and imperialism....Our struggle is
your struggle, and (your's) is ours."
-
- He highlighted US complicity in Israel's crimes, collaborating
Arab regimes, and lamented the fallout - thousands of political prisoners,
millions of refugees denied the right of return, ethnic cleansing, home
demolitions, occupation, targeted killings, mass arrests and imprisonments,
apartheid, and entrenched racism, ongoing against Palestinians for over
62 years.
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- He commended the courageous Flotilla activists and others
to follow, those killed martyrs "who will inspire us all to struggle
in their path of courage, strength, indomitable solidarity and commitment
to justice in the face of brutal oppression."
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- He concluded calling for "a global left front -
for socialism, equality, justice and liberation! We join in your call:
Another World is Possible! Another US is Necessary!"
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- Ahmad Sa'adat
- General Secretary
- Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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