Statement of the ILPS
The International League of People’s Struggle condemns the unbridled escalation in attacks on the people of Palestine, Lebanon, the wider West Asia, and all those who stand in solidarity with them. This includes the recent terror listing of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network, a member of the ILPS, by the Canadian state and the US Department of Treasury on October 15, 2024.
This follows months of mass arrests, surveillance, police brutality, and smear campaigns against people demanding an end to the genocide which is supported politically and militarily by the United States and Canada. Samidoun and many other Palestinian and solidarity organizations have been targeted by the politicians, the right-wing media and Zionist organizations who have, for months, surveilled, used force, arrested, and used violent tactics to suppress people’s opposition to the ongoing genocide and indiscriminate killing of people in Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen. This blatant attack against just people’s organizations also comes in the midst of the further expansionist war escalation by the Zionist regime, provoking attacks across West Asia, backed by the US & Canadian imperialists.
The terror tagging of Samidoun is undoubtedly an attempt to distract the public from both Canada & the US’ complicity in supporting the Zionist entity. This act by the governments is an attempt to instill fear in the hearts of millions of people participating in mass protests and actively defying the imperialist agenda of the ruling class and the government. It is an extension of the use of the “terror” tag placed onto the thousands of resistance fighters taking up arms in an anti-colonial, their right enshrined under international law, against the most terroristic rule of the US and Canadian-backed Zionist regime. The fact that neither imperialist state has condemned the brutality of hospital bombings, forced starvation, systemic prison torture camps, the on-camera use of Palestinian civilians and UN workers as cover in the course of battle, or the use of booby-trapped civilian technology that kills indiscriminately demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt how the term “terrorist” is simply reserved for the adversaries of imperialism and reaction.
As the crisis of the imperialist system continues to worsen, western imperialists like the US resort to unleashing increasing fascism and aggressive military attacks in efforts to quell the growing peoples’ resistance, especially national liberation movements like those in Palestine which are at the forefront of the anti-imperialist struggle.. The so-called “counter terrorism” doctrine of the US is an ideological campaign waged to paint human rights defenders and freedom fighters as criminals to keep the masses divided, confused about who the true common enemy is, and vulnerable to attack. The US utilizes its robust counterinsurgency programs locally while the international relations enshrined in the US’ counterinsurgency programs ensure collaboration with allied and puppet regimes in targeting overseas chapters of national liberation movements and organized solidarity. So-called “counter-terrorism” programs like “Countering Domestic Terrorism” in the US exist only to protect the imperialist ruling class and its near-unlimited access to finance capital. Ways in which these so-called “counter-terrorism” programs have been playing out in the US include legislation listing phrases like “anti-Zionism” and “From the River to the Sea” as illegal hate speech, raiding of activists homes, mass surveillance of workplaces to weed out pro-Palestine sentiments, and much more. In fact, these tactics actively hunt down pro-Palestine activists in the US while protecting Zionist institutions selling stolen Palestinian land to US citizens looking to become settlers in Gaza after the Zionists have wiped out the population.
While the Canadian government has promised to suspend exports of military equipment to the Zionist entity, a recent report from the Department of Foreign Affairs reveals that Canada could export an additional $95 million in military goods to the Zionist entity from now until the end of 2025. Canadian companies have been involved in the production of weapons and explosives destined for the Zionist entity. Furthermore, weapons companies from the Zionist entity, such as Elbit Systems, are invited each year to the CANSEC expo in Ottawa to sell their weapons, advertised as “battle-tested” in Gaza. As the Canadian public continues to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza and an end to Canadian complicity, the terror tagging of Samidoun signals an increased level of repression and intimidation against the Palestine solidarity movement.
Terror tagging has been historically used as a tactic by imperialist and other reactionary states to suppress people’s liberation struggles. The people’s right to resist an occupying force is one which is enshrined in international law, and cannot be considered an act of terrorism under law. While Western states support the terror of the Zionist entity, it has no right to condemn the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people for their self-determination and liberation from the illegal occupation.
It is no surprise that the terror tagging of Samidoun by the US and Canadian states comes so shortly after the assassinations of Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah and Yahya Sinwar of Hamas with no moves towards peace negotiations. The former was killed in an indiscriminate airstrike that killed multiple civilians as well, a blatant violation of international law that was ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu while he addressed the United Nations itself, showing how little the Zionists care for the rule of law. Their wielding of so-called “anti-terror” laws should not be accepted when all of their actions fly in the face of whatever law they want. These actions happening so close to each other demonstrates an increase in the boldness of the Zionist regime, boldness stoked by the carte blanche given to them by the US, Canadian, and all other Western imperialist states.
In just the past weeks we have witnessed children and families burnt alive still attached to the scarce medical equipment that remains in Gaza; hospitals shelled and their medical staff arrested, tortured and executed en mass; schools, banks, government buildings, and UN facilities targeted; children forced to carry and bury their even younger siblings and they themselves starve to death; all while Zionist soldiers make Tik Tok videos mocking the victims of their Holocaust and laughing as they dance and their political and military leaders broadcast their joy at killing the “animals”. Over 900 families have been erased from the Gaza civil registry, every living member killed since October 7, 2023. These acts are beyond terror – they are acts of extermination.
Samidoun has worked tirelessly to expose these facts and the deplorable conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are students, children, and women, in Zionist jails. Samidoun members, along with countless other solidarity activists, have willingly put themselves at great risk to do this. But these attempts to target one organization will not lead to an end of resistance but in fact only strengthen the resolve of those who stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine. The red tagging of a Palestinian solidarity organization has only exposed the ruling government and their attempts to crackdown and silence protestors.
We stand with Samidoun’s right to advocate for the Palestinian people, and condemn all attempts by the Canadian and US state to divide the Palestinian solidarity movement. We stand by them as we stand by all of our members facing brutal attacks from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Pacific, North America and Europe. But most importantly, ILPS stands with all the struggling and fighting peoples of the world, those whose names are known and those whose names are not, sacrificing everything to bring about their people’s liberation and a just and lasting peace for the whole world.
Revolutionaries are not terrorists!
Defend Peoples’ struggle!
US and Western imperialists: #1 terrorists!
Free Palestine! Stop the attacks on Lebanon and West Asia!
Long live international solidarity!
Signed,
Len Cooper, ILPS Chairperson
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