An estimated 4,500 people arrived at Lannemezan Prison in France on Saturday to call for the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese terrorist responsible for the killing of an Israeli diplomat.
Abdallah, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP), was arrested in France on October 24, 1984, and sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in the execution of two diplomats, one of whom was Israeli and the other a US military attaché. He has been in prison for 40 years.
Israeli diplomat Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov was shot in front of his children.
A protest calling for Abdallah’s release has been held every year for 15 years. This year, the protest was organized by Collectif Palestine Vaincra (the Palestinian collective will win), Secours Rouge (Red Aid), Samidoun, and the Fédération Syndicale Étudiante (Student Trade Union Federation).
The groups joined together to form the United Campaign for the Release of Georges Abdallah.
The Student Trade Union brought about 70 students to the prison on buses from various French states, including Lille, Limoges, Nanterre, Strasbourg, and Rennes.
Politicians join the masses
Samidoun’s branch in the Basque autonomous region of Spain also organized buses to the prison, and separate protests were held on the streets of Italy, France, Switzerland, and Belgium that were organized by Secours Rouge, a Communist organization.
French politician Andrée Taurinya, from the France Insoumise party, wrote on her X account that she had attended the rally to “oppose the slow death sentence inflicted on comrade Georges Ibrahim Abdallah,” whom she said was the “oldest political prisoner in Europe” at 73.
Taurinya was responsible for writing and organizing an open letter in June that called for Abdallah’s release and was signed by influential French personalities.
More than130 organizations and personalities from France signed an appeal launched by Campagne Unitaire for an international month of action to take place after the large demonstration outside Lannemezan Prison.
Last Friday in Toulouse, France, 200 people took part in a meeting for the release of Abdallah, according to Collectif Palestine Vaincra. They were supported by Abdallah’s brother, Robert, and his lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset. The meeting also called for solidarity “with the resistance of the Palestinian and Lebanese... following the atrocities committed by the Zionist state.”
According to the protest groups, Abdallah is set to receive a new sentence on November 15. While the protesters hope he will be released, his lawyer was quoted as saying, “He continues to claim to be a communist, and psychiatrists consider it a pathology.”