Syria Today | Palestinian protestors picket EU offices in Damascus

Palestinian protestors picket EU offices in Damascus

Representatives and sympathisers of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) gathered outside the offices of the European Commission Delegation in Damascus on October 22, calling on the international community to pressure Israel to release PFLP Secretary-General Ahmad Sa’adat.

Protestors said they also wanted to highlight the plight of all Palestinian political prisoners, presenting the EU with a petition which calls on the European bloc, as well as other international organisations such as the Red Cross, to pressure Israel on the issue.

The protest coincided with an Israeli court ruling which extended Sa’adat’s six-month spell in solitary confinement by another six months.

Maher al-Taher, a member of the organisation’s leadership in exile said Israel is behaving as if it is above international law.

“Israel is occupying Palestinian land and holding more than 1,000 people in prison solely for resisting this occupation which is contrary to international law,” Taher told Syria Today. “We believe that governments, international organisations and NGOs can exercise real pressure on Israel and we are calling on them to live up to this responsibility.”

Abu Sami Marwan, a member of the PFLP’s political bureau, said Sa’adat was kidnapped in 2006 and has been held in solitary confinement without access to lawyers or visits from his family. He also said Sa’adat has been subject to torture. He called upon both the EU and its individual member states to put pressure on Israel to release all political prisoners held by the Jewish state.

In a separate development, the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy High Representative Javier Solana reiterated that the EU was committed to establishing a Palestinian state based on the 1967 border.