Ahmad Sa'adat, as a national leader of the Palestinian people, a hero of the prisoners' movement, and an international symbol of resistance and freedom, inspires many to write, organize, and take action to defend the lives and rights of Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners, and take up their struggle for freedom.
The following article was written by Hussin Ramadan, a Palestinian youth activist from Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem. It was published on several leading Palestinian blogs and solidarity websites. Palestine Think Tank was first to publish the article, and has continually provided tremendous support to the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat, the cause of all Palestinian political prisoners and the Palestinian liberation struggle. The article is presented in full below.
Please send your own articles about Ahmad Sa'adat and the Palestinian prisoners' movement to the Campaign at info@freeahmadsaadat.org. We look forward to reading more strong voices raised in support of the prisoners and their struggle for freedom and justice.
For Humanity
by Hussin Ramadan
Palestinians identify with one another through not only our mutual identity, but also through our common experiences, for example, our situation under occupation, our economic conditions, our lives as refugees, the lives and conditions of our prisoners. When we go to sleep, we are unable to do so like ‘normal people’, undisturbed by these realities. We do not live in ‘normal conditions’ for human beings. Every family in Palestine has at least one member in prison, or a former prisoner; imprisonment is one of those experiences shared among our people.
Many Palestinians have died for Palestine, and many more will do so as well, but the prisoners suffer every day. They accept an inhumane life for the Palestinian cause, for freedom, for the return of the refugees, and they pay the price every day for their struggle substandard living conditions, immoral and unjust treatment, the willful neglect of their health by the occupation authorities.
Ahmad Sa’adat is an elected leader of the Palestinian people. He is not a ‘terrorist,’ he is a defender of the cause of all Palestinian people. He is a leader who believes in freedom, dignity, humanity, a state without occupation, the return of refugees and all of the fundamentals of the Palestinian people the principles in which all Palestinians believe. He carries our message as Palestinians and as Arabs and as people committed to justice around the world, and we should support him until the end.
For these reasons, we here in Palestine reject these conditions and policies, and demand freedom and justice for our prisoners, and we are determined to inform the people of the world about what exactly is happening here.
And for these reasons, we are involved in the campaign to free Ahmad Sa’adat.
Ahmad Sa’adat refuses to accept the occupation orders of the prison and the mistreatment of prisoners; he refuses to accept the illegitimate courts, trials and prisons of the occupier. He launched a hunger strike to demand that the occupation receive the message loudly and clearly: that we are humans, not animals to be treated in this way.
We cannot leave him alone to face the darkness of the prison. We must feel what he feels and support him in every way we must find our dignity and humanity under the rubble of occupation.
We know that we have rights, we believe in our cause, and we will stand for it and we are willing to suffer for it, like Ahmad Sa’adat suffers every day to let us live as full human beings. It is very important to let the world know what we think and we are determined to let the people know the costs the prisoners pay every day from their lives for freedom and for us. No one would want to live in the conditions that Ahmad faces every day, but Ahmad continues to struggle he gives us hope, and we will stay on this path of justice and freedom, because we will not let him and all of our prisoners down.
Because we have Ahmad’s faith, and Ahmad’s soul, we will continue to struggle until the end, to free all of the prisoners from the jails and detention centers. This is the path we choose, and this is why it is so important that we take up the campaign to free Ahmad Sa’adat.
Freedom for Ahmad Sa’adat and all of the prisoners, and for all of the defenders of liberty!
*Hussin Ramadan is a Palestinian youth who lives in Dheisheh Refugee Camp, in occupied Palestine. He may be contacted via email at: the.godfather87@hotmail.com. He is currently active with the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat.
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The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
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