#PalestinianPrisonersDay April 17: Virtual teach-in with Addameer’s Sahar Francis & social media storm to #FreeOurPrisoners / #FreeThemAll

#PalestinianPrisonersDay April 17^th: USPCN hosts virtual teach-in with Addameer’s Sahar Francis & social media storm to #FreeOurPrisoners

On Friday, April 17^th, 2020, the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) and the entire world will mark the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners. Join us on the 17^th at 1 PM Central / 2 PM Eastern / 9 PM in Palestine for a special live teach-in with Sahar Francis, Director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, the most important political prisoner advocacy institution in Palestine.

Francis will discuss the current state of Palestinian prisoners, their organizing demands, and what can be done to support them. Immediately following her talk on the 17^th, we ask all to join us from 2-4 PM Central / 3-5 PM Eastern for a Twitter and other social media storm using the hashtags #PalestinianPrisonersDay and #FreeOurPrisoners.

*** Check out our social media tool kit at https://bit.ly/USPCNPrisonersDay2020 for sample tweets and art you can use for the social media storm. ***

USPCN’s defense of Palestinian political prisoners is a defense of the right to resist occupation and colonization, a defense of the right to self-determination, a defense of the struggle for national liberation. And regardless of the allegations against them, ALL political prisoners are national heroes to the Palestinian people and our supporters.

Currently, there are over 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails – including 180 children, 700 who are ill, 200 with chronic diseases, and 430 administrative detainees, the latter imprisoned without charge by the apartheid state.

All these prisoners live in unhealthy and unsanitary conditions, and are regularly subjected to psychological and physical torture. And although Israel and its U.S. benefactor are fully responsible for the health and safety of all our people living under Israel’s occupation and colonization, political prisoners are the most vulnerable sector of Palestinian society in the time of the coronavirus, when Covid-19 will almost certainly spread dangerously fast in Israeli prisons. This is especially why we raise the call to #FreeOurPrisoners now.

As an organization based in the U.S., we understand the importance of also demanding that U.S. authorities release its own prisoners, who are disproportionately Black and Latinx – especially political prisoners, the infirm, those held pretrial because they cannot afford bail, survivors of police torture, and others who were wrongfully convicted.

Just as we defend Palestinian political prisoners, we defend the right of Black, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Native, and other oppressed people and nationalities in the U.S. to independence, self-determination, sovereignty, and liberation. Together with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), USPCN calls to #FreeThemAll – from Palestine to the U.S.

Take Action on Friday, April 17^th, 2020:

• Selfie in Support of Prisoners
  • Take a selfie with the hashtag #FreeOurPrisoners and post it on your social media with a short statement supporting Palestinian political prisoners.
  • Do the same with #FreeThemAll and a short statement supporting Black, Latinx, and other people in U.S. prisons.
  • Tag @USPCN, @Addameer, and @CAARPRNow in your posts.
• Social Media Tool Kit
  • Check out our social media tool kit at https://bit.ly/USPCNPrisonersDay2020 for sample tweets and art you can use for the social media storm.

Until Liberation and Return,

U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)

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