The Young Communist League, in solidarity with the Palestinian Democratic Youth Union (PDYU), demands the apartheid, genocidal state of Israel immediately release comrade Hassan Shehadeh, leader of the PDYU in Jerusalem and the West Bank and central committee for the Democratic Front for The Liberation of Palestine.
The kidnap of Hassan from Abu Dis, occupied East Jerusalem is yet another flagrant breach of international law by the occupying Israeli state and an attack on the Palestinian youth’s political and national rights. The comrade has been imprisoned before under the policy of administrative detention, in which Palestinians are held for a minimum of 6 months up to years without sentence, trial or even charge. The increasingly harsh conditions of Israeli prisons, under the pressure of fascist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, pose a direct threat to Comrade Hassan’s health and indeed life owing to the respiratory issues he suffers from.
The Young Communist League also notes that comrade Hassan has previously received YCL delegations to the occupied territories, and his arrest comes mere hours after the release of a joint statement of the YCL and PDYU condemning the terrorist settler violence and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. Given this, the Young Communist League considers this not just an attack on the rights of the Palestinian youth, but a direct attack on British youth exercising their solidarity with fraternal comrades in Palestine and a fascistic retaliation measure by the Israeli state.
We reaffirm our commitment to the Palestinian struggle for liberation and the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state on the borders of June 4th 1967, and for the freedom of the over 10,000 prisoners currently held in Israeli prisons. We urge Britain’s Anti-Imperialist and Freedom loving youth to raise the case of comrade Hassan Shehadeh on the streets, in trade unions and in the Palestine Solidarity movement.
International solidarity and attention are crucial in this moment, and we encourage all statements or actions to be published online or sent to international@ycl.org.uk
Freedom for the Comrade and leader Hassan Shehadeh! Victory to the Palestinian Struggle!
International Department,
London,
Young Communist League
21 September 2026
