Statement: Supporting the Palestinian Right is Not a Crime!
The organizations and associations listed below follow with deep concern and worry the issuance of pretrial detention orders against the activists of the Sumud Flotilla and the movement supporting the Palestinian right in Tunisia: Wael Nawar, Nabil Chennoufi, Mohamed Amine Bennour, Ghassen Henchiri, Ghassen Boughdiri, Sana Msahli, and Jawaher Channa. This is under the pretext of suspected money laundering. This comes following preparations to launch the Sumud Flotilla 2 to break the siege on Gaza, and as a translation of a political decision to stop it, which appeared through the banning of two activities by the Sumud Flotilla Committee, at the Sidi Bou Said port and then at the Rio space.
While we recall that the authorities pursue a policy of banning, restricting, and criminalizing every civil, social, or political movement that disturbs or embarrasses them, starting with banning political and associational activities based on the state of emergency, leading to the arrest of activists and their prosecution based on flimsy files and ready-made charges, relying on a compliant criminal judiciary under the sword of intimidation,
And that the charge of money laundering has been used arbitrarily without meeting its simplest elements in numerous political trials, either to settle scores with political opponents, to strike freedom of expression and imprison journalists, or to criminalize humanitarian solidarity with migrants and civil work in general,
And that the organized online campaign to smear the flotilla and its activists, which began since the two Zionist drone attacks on Tunisian territory and the flotilla ships docked in its ports, included suspicious parties aligned with the authorities and known for their racist and pro-authoritarianism positions,
And that the current regime, which offered up migrants and those in solidarity with them as a sacrifice for its loyalty to the Italian neo-fascist government and the rest of the European Union countries, coinciding with tightening its border surveillance, and which for years contented itself with slogans and rhetoric about the Palestinian right while refraining from any practical step to support it, including in the judicial path to stop the genocide, and at the last moment prevented the ratification of a law criminalizing normalization with the Zionist entity, will not hesitate to sacrifice the leaders of the Sumud Flotilla to prove its loyalty to American hegemony,
Therefore, we, the undersigned associations and organizations:
Strongly condemn these arrests, hold the regime directly responsible for them, demand the release of all those detained, and call for an end to the intimidation of the activist movement for Palestine, Affirm that these arrests are a new chapter in imposing the authoritarian nature of the regime and striking all spaces for expression, solidarity, and resistance, and that the trials undertaken by a subservient judiciary lack any credibility. Consider that the goal of these arrests is not limited to preventing ships from leaving Tunisia to break the siege on Gaza, but extends to dismantling the activist movement for Palestine and turning it into a criminal case, similar to what Arab normalization regimes are doing. This aims to prepare public opinion to accept an official position complicit in the genocide, wars, and domination over the destiny and independent decision of the Palestinian people and the peoples of the region and the world. Call on Tunisians to continue their solidarity, support, boycott, and protest, and not to retreat in the face of the policies of intimidation and criminalization practiced by the regime.1. Tunisian General Labor Union
2. Tunisian National Bar Association
3. Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights
4. Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights
5. Tunisian Association of Democratic Women
6. National Union of Tunisian Journalists
7. Al-Bousla
8. Legal Agenda – Tunisia
9. Damj Association for Justice and Equality
10. Tunisian Organization of Young Doctors
11. Women’s Voices
12. Campaign Against the Criminalization of Civil Action
13. Beiti
14. Nawaat Journalists’ Association
15. Tunisian Association for Rights and Freedoms
16. Euro-Mediterranean Rights
17. Union of Unemployed Graduates
18. We Are the Youth Organization
19. Nashaz Association
20. African Association
21. Lina Ben Mhenni Association
22. Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia
23. Federation of Tunisians for Citizenship Across the Two Shores
24. Land for All Association
25. Sumud Coalition
