On the evening of Friday, April 17th, Al-Ahrar Palestinian Prisoner Support’s Toronto chapter hosted an event to commemorate Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. We are happy to report that it was a tremendous success that enriched the struggle for the liberation of Palestinian prisoners’ locally and beyond.
We were extremely honoured to host the family of martyred Palestinian fighter and political prisoner Walid Daqqa as our special guests for that evening. The nephew of the martyr, his wife, and their daughter opened up our event with important words about their martyr, Walid, and shared some of his teachings and poetry.
Alaa, Walid’s nephew, shared insights from his uncle’s writing that remain relevant in today’s liberation struggle. Alaa shared that his uncle stressed the importance of not allowing the physical prison walls the enemy imposes on Palestinian prisoners to imprison their minds and their will to resist. Alaa also urged us in the imperial core to look to Palestinians in Gaza, Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian Resistance for inspiration and guidance on how to commit to the struggle and not allow the psychological warfare of the imperialist axis to exhaust us into compliance. Khulood, Alaa’s wife, shared a poem by Walid in Arabic, and their daughter, Habiba, read the translation of the poem in English:
“Ignorance is our fiercest enemy and ignorance is the most dangerous prison because it turns your mind into a cell where your future and the future of upcoming generations are held captive. My motivation for writing “Secret of the Oil” was not creativity, but resilience within captivity, and the resilience would not have been possible all these long years without gradually freeing my mind from its cell.”
After this special presentation, Al-Ahrar members facilitated an educational presentation on the role prisons and prisoners play in Palestinian society, the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, and how we can defend the struggle through our support of the Axis of Resistance who have been instrumental in facilitating the freedom of thousands of Palestinians from Zionist prisons.
After our presentation, attendees broke out into small discussion groups for further discussion on the shared learning. Groups discussed the importance of combatting the propaganda against the Axis of Resistance that is being fuelled in the imperial core to villify resistance to imperialist domination. Groups also reflected on the teachings of Walid Daqqa and how they can guide us in our solidarity with prisoners in the imperial core, whether it be prisoners for the Palestinian cause, or political prisoners targeted by the Canadian settler-colonial state.
After breaking for food, we concluded the evening with letter writing to prisoners of the Palestinian struggle who are incarcerated outside of occupied Palestine, but nevertheless remain part of the prisoners movement. Comrades like Anan Yaeesh, Jakhi McCray, Tarek Bazrouk, Mohammad Hannoun, Casey Goonan, and others who face charges, suppression and imprisonment for their brave and unapologetic support for Palestine and their resistance to imperial violence within the imperial core.
Al-Ahrar extends our deepest gratitude to our guests of honour and all who attended our event to commemorate this important day. The moral clarity and dedication to supporting the Palestinian struggle for liberation expressed by all who attended this event fuel our dedication to continue amplifying the prisoners’ struggle without compromising our principled anti-imperialist stance to appease liberal sensibilities and imperialist hostilities.
Long live Palestine!
Free all Palestinian political prisoners!
Glory to the martyrs!
Long live armed resistance!
