Al-Ahrar, الأحرار (The Free People), is a new international organization working to support Palestinian prisoners through political education and building solidarity. Inspired by Toufan Al-Ahrar, طوفان الأحرار (The Flood of The Free), the prisoner exchange secured by the Resistance that freed thousands of Palestinians this year, we work to amplify the struggle of Palestinian political prisoners, their conditions, and demands as they work to achieve justice and liberation for all of Palestine. We do this through organizing campaigns, hosting events, creating resources, building coalitions, and advocating for the rights of Palestinian prisoners and their families.
While our Toronto chapter and our international organization is a nascent group, our members have engaged in prisoner solidarity work internationally for years. Our focus is with Palestinian prisoners and liberation, but our work is always in solidarity with political prisoners across the globe– especially with prisoners in the imperial core where we are based. It is essential that we recognize the connections between incarceration and settler-colonialism in occupied Palestine and in so-called Canada where we see the daily criminalization of poverty, migrants, refugees, Indigenous land defence, Black life, anti-policing movements, and more. From Turtle Island to Palestine, Free Them All!
Palestinian prisoners are the heart of the Palestinian struggle for freedom. The prisoners consist of all ages, all factions of the Resistance, and all aspects of Palestinian society. Each one represents the imprisonment of the entire nation of Palestine. Our role in the fight for justice and liberation is to uplift and support the prisoners, spread awareness, and take action.
In the words of the great revolutionary and former prisoner Ghassan Kanafani,
“Fighting for freedom is as important as fighting for life itself.”