By the editorial team of the Republic of Palestine
Paris, July 17, 2025
On Thursday, the French judiciary issued a decision to release Lebanese activist George Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been imprisoned in France for nearly four decades on charges of participating in the assassination of two diplomats, one American and the other Israeli, in 1982.
The appeals court’s decision came during a closed session held at the Palais de Justice in Paris, in the absence of Abdallah, 74, one of France’s longest-serving political prisoners. He is scheduled to be officially released on July 25, following a long legal journey that began with his 1987 conviction and included more than 11 requests for parole, all of which were rejected amid intense political pressure, particularly from the United States and the Israeli occupation authorities.
A life of struggle and resistance
George Abdallah was born in 1951 in the town of Qubayat in northern Lebanon. From a young age, he stood out as a political activist with revolutionary Marxist leanings.
In 1978, he moved to southern Lebanon to participate in the resistance against the Israeli invasion, where he was wounded before later joining the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Abdullah’s relationship with the prominent leader Wadih Haddad, considered one of the most prominent theorists of armed struggle outside the occupied territories, grew stronger. Abdullah was influenced by revolutionary Marxist anti-imperialist ideology, which shaped his political and ideological orientation. In 1979, Abdullah broke away from the Popular Front and founded the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions, adopting the confrontation with imperialism and Zionism as his central approach.
A freedom fighter, not a criminal
Last year, for the eleventh time, Georges Abdallah stood before a French court demanding his freedom. He said with steadfastness and courage:
“I am a freedom fighter, not a criminal. What I did was in response to the violation of human rights in Palestine. What I did: resistance.”
The decision to release him today is a victory for the will of resistance he embodies, and represents a rare break from the American and Israeli pressure that has long influenced the French decision on his case.
Justice Taken, Not Given
Since 1999, Abdallah has been legally eligible for parole, but French authorities have repeatedly refused to release him, despite his fulfillment of the legal conditions, under blatant external pressure. The decision to release him does not represent legal justice as much as it embodies the fruit of a long and organized struggle, waged by Abdallah as a result of his own struggle, not as a grant, thereby overcoming political constraints and imperialist hegemony over Western justice.
Freedom deserved
The release of Georges Abdallah, after 40 years of imprisonment, is a symbolic moment in the history of the Arab and global struggle against colonialism and Zionism. It confirms that justice is not granted, but rather won through struggle, patience, and steadfastness.
What has been achieved today is a victory for the resistance, with its voice and historical legitimacy, not merely a French court decision.
