Charlotte Kates is the coordinator of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. She is a graduate of Rutgers School of Law and coordinator of the US National Lawyers Guild’s International Committee. Mrs. Kates is an organizer with the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. Charlotte Kate Hamas Hezbollah
The following is a partial transcript of her speech at al-Quds in Toronto 2023.
We stand with Marwan Bargouthi [founder of Al-Aqsa Brigades serving a life sentence for involvement of killing Israeli citizens]. We stand with Nael Bargouthi [Hamas operative]. We stand with Israa Jaabis [Palestinian woman serving 11-year sentence for blowing up a gas cylinder near a checkpoint]. We stand with George Abdullah [Lebanese communist militant serving a life sentence for a murder in France].
We stand with Khadr Adnan [Islamic Jihad operative], and every Palestinian prisoner, and the Palestinian resistance, the Lebanese resistance, and all of the resistance forces, who hold the future for humanity in their hands, in their arms, in their strengths, in their struggle, until liberation and return. Free free Palestine. Long Live Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] Sea Palestine will be free.
Fight for Palestine goes global
Today, when we stand with the Palestinian prisoners, we say we stand with the resistance, that these are our leaders, and we will not abandon them. They are not only the leaders of the Palestinian people, they are the leaders of our international social justice movement.
And here in Canada, once again we see everything from students and Halifax going to high school being told not to wear a kuffiya [Palestinian scarf], to denunciations of the boycott of Israel from the highest political levels in this country.
But we also know that these same Zionist organizations are issuing calls for Samidoun to be listed as a terrorist entity here in Canada. Now, we know this is nonsense. It has no chance of succeeding here. But what we do have to say is that it’s time to get the Palestinian resistance organizations off the so-called terror list of Canada. It’s time to get the Lebanese resistance [Hezbollah] off the so-called list of of terror here in Canada.
So, we stand today with the resistance of the Palestinian people. We stand today with the Palestinian prisoners. We stand with the resistance from Venezuela and Cuba to Lebanon and Syria to Yemen and Iran.
Ghassan Kanafani [former leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-PFLP] said the Palestinian cause is not a cause for Palestinians only. It is the cause of every revolutionary. It is the cause of the oppressed and exploited masses in our era.
Charlotte Kate Hamas Hezbollah