Political Prisoner Jalil Muntaqim:

Message of Solidarity to the Committee for the families of Political Prisoners and Detainees in the West Bank

As Salaam Alaikum-

Inshallah, this statement will find all of you in the best of Allah (SWT) health and mercy. I wish to extend my solidarity and my support for the political prisoners and detainees in the West Bank and throughout the occupied territory of Palestine.

I am a former member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army who has been in prison since August 28, 1971, when I was first arrested at the age of nineteen. I was accused and convicted of engaging in underground activities against the then President Richard Nixon government, opposing racism and imperialism. I have always stood in support of the Palestinian people to be self-governed and to establish an independent, sovereign nation. As the founder of the Jericho Amnesty Movement, I have always equated Zionism as a racist apartheid system supported by US imperialism. Therefore, the task for those of us who understand the extent of US support of Zionism is to provide our support to those who suffer under such racist oppression.

However, the greatest solidarity we can extend is to build and strengthen the struggle here opposing white supremacy and US imperialism. The best support I can provide Palestine is to continue to contribute to the struggle opposing national oppression in this country. The parallels between our peoples' struggle are numerous, just as the opposition to a sovereign Palestine is the same opposition to a free and independent Black nation.

Inshallah, this message of solidarity will be accepted in the spirit of a Muslim and a political prisoner, who after 33 years of imprisonment, continues to seek the means to contribute to the overall struggle opposing US imperialism and its Zionist cohorts.

Mas Salaam- Jalil Muntaqim