BY DIANA BLOCK – CCWP/FIRESTORM
April 17th was Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. This year in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, abolitionists in Palestine and the U.S. came together to make clear the connections between the carceral regimes in the U.S. and Israel and demand the freedom of prisoners across borders.
The Palestinian Youth Movement, US Palestinian Community Network, and Jewish Voice for Peace all held successful webinars (linked above) which provided critical information about the history of Palestinian Prisoners Day. They exposed the genocidal conditions in prisons which are currently threatening the lives of over 5,000 Palestinian prisoners and the 2 million + incarcerated people in the U.S., a majority of whom are Black and Brown. Each webinar included action items calling for freedom that participants could take at the completion of the event.
CCWP’s FireStorm project was glad to participate in these webinars. FireStorm has worked in a variety of ways since 2016 to expose and oppose the coordinated strategies of repression and imprisonment that Israel and the U.S. have used to maintain political control. We have also focused on the similar ways in which gendered violence is used as a tool of repression. Our goal is to build awareness of and solidarity between movements that are fighting the global carceral system. Look for more about our slide shows, pamphlets, research and other work in future blogs.