Durham, NC — Protesters gathered at a busy intersection outside the Durham Public Library, Nov 4, to show solidarity with Rasmea Odeh. The action coincided with the opening of Odeh’s trial in Detroit.

Hundreds of commuters and passers-by on their way to the polling station at the library saw the protest. The demonstrators held a large banner reading “Justice for Rasmea, Free Palestine!”, and distributed literature to those who stopped by.

The newly-formed Durham Antiwar Committee organized the protest.

#DurhamNC #HolyLandFive #RasmeaOdeh #PoliticalPrisoners

Minneapolis, MN – On April 15, Noor Elashi, daughter of wrongfully imprisoned Holy Land 5 defendant Ghassan Elashi, spoke to a packed room of over 50 people, mostly students from the University of Minnesota, about her father’s case. John Cline, Ghassan Elashi’s lawyer, also spoke of the injustice brought upon the five men who founded and built the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. George W. Bush shut down The Holy Land Foundation, falsely claiming its charity work for Palestine had ties to terrorism.

Elashi spoke passionately about the enduring spirit of her father despite being sentenced to 65 years. He is now in a Communications Management Unit prison in southern Illinois. “He’s told me that when he’s exonerated he will carry a sign saying ‘Free Palestine’ as he leaves prison,” Elashi said.

John Cline talked about the legal aspects of the case. Despite the government presenting many pieces of ‘evidence’ meant to scare the jury, the first trial of the Holy Land 5 resulted in a hung jury. All (but one) of the jurors thought the government had a faulty case. But the government’s Barry Jonas, and the other prosecutors, decided to try the men again. At the second trial, they used additional ‘evidence’ to guarantee a guilty verdict, including unverifiable evidence put forward by a witness testifying under anonymity and wild claims by so-called experts threatening a second 9-11-style attack.

A Federal Appeals court later found that it was a mistake to admit the new evidence but allowed the verdicts to stand.

Mick Kelly, of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, ended the program by connecting the injustice brought against the Holy Land defendants to the attacks on those who speak out for justice, like himself and the other 22 anti-war and international solidarity activists who were subpoenaed and raided two and half years ago.

At this point, the legal remedies for the Holy Land 5 have been exhausted. But Elashi, Cline and Kelly made it clear that we should continue to speak out against the injustice of the Holy Land 5 case and speak against government repression like the ongoing case of the Anti-war 23.

This event was part of several events in Minneapolis, including one the previous night with local peace and justice activists. The event on April 15 was sponsored by Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Minnesota, Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Women's Student Activist Collective.

#MinneapolisMN #Palestine #PoliticalPrisoners #NoorElashi #IsraeliOccupation #AntiWar23 #GhassanElashi #HolyLandFive #FBIRepression #HolyLand5

The event was organized by the newly-formed Tallahassee chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Cecelia O'Brien, one of the founders of the chapter, introduced the speakers and contextualized this new wave of government repression for students. “Student groups in Florida recently faced repression from their university administration, which is part of a larger attack on the rights of activists,” said O'Brien. She continued, “The way we fight back against this repression is by supporting each other and sharing our stories at events like this one.”

Noor Elashi spoke as the daughter of Ghassan Elashi, a founder of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development who was raided by the FBI in 2001 and imprisoned by the U.S. government in 2008. As the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., the Holy Land Foundation provided housing and scholarships for poor students in Palestine and around the world. The Bush administration shut down the Foundation in 2001 and later indicted its founders on bogus charges of material support for terrorist groups. Ghassan Elashi remains imprisoned, along with four other Foundation members, for providing charity to the Palestinian people.

After reading an excerpt from her upcoming book about her father's experience with repression and how it affected her family, Elashi spoke about the awful conditions her father experienced in federal prison. The U.S. government currently incarcerates Ghassan Elashi in the so-called “Communications Management Unit” in a Marion, Illinois prison.

John Cline, who was Ghassan's attorney, spoke about the outrageous case that the U.S. government brought against the Holy Land Foundation. He talked about the government's use of anonymous witnesses. He also talked about the specious evidence brought against Ghassan and the four other founders that lower courts determined was inadmissible and flawed. Students were visibly outraged at this injustice and spoke about it during the question and comment section at the end.

Finally, Mick Kelly spoke about his experience with government repression when he was raided by the FBI on Sept. 24, 2010. Kelly talked about receiving a call from his spouse while at work, who told him ominously, “They're here.” After returning home, he found his home had been raided by a machine gun-wielding FBI SWAT Team, who had used a battering ram to break down the door to his apartment. The agents carrying out the raid came heavily armed with two extra clips, as if expecting a confrontation. Kelly reiterated that he was raided because of his anti-war and solidarity work, particularly with regards to Colombia and Palestine.

After a 30-minute question and answer session, students stuck around afterwards to talk with the three speakers about the Holy Land 5 case and ways of fighting repression.

Tallahassee SDS will continue organizing against government repression and looks forward to building on this successful event, according to organizers.

#TallahasseeFL #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #PalestineSolidarity #PoliticalPrisoners #HolyLandFive #GhassanElashi #FBIRepression

John Cline of the Holy Land legal team described how the government first shut down the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), the largest Islamic charity in the U.S., in 2001, and then in 2004 charged five of their officers with aiding Hamas, a Palestine Islamic group. These five included the president of the HLF, Shukri Abu Baker, chairman of the board Ghassan Elashi, and Mohammad El-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulraham Odeh.

Despite years of wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping, the government had no convincing evidence that the HLF was funding Hamas. Instead the government argued that the HLF aid to local Zakat (Islamic Charity) Committees in Palestine improved the lives of the people and thus helped Hamas. But these same committees also received aid from the U.S. government, the United Nations and the Red Crescent (Islamic Red Cross) and were not on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. Despite the use of an anonymous witness who worked for Israeli intelligence and testimony about Hamas, the jury did not convict any of the defendants and there was a mistrial.

The government came back and charged them again. In the second trial the prosecutors, including the notorious Barry Jonas, had a witness testify that “everybody knew” that the Holy Land Foundation was Hamas – which is hearsay and generally not admissible in trials. Another witness from the U.S. Treasury Department said that the official U.S. terrorist list doesn’t matter. A third witness testified that the HLF charity “could lead to another 911.” Last but not least, an anonymous witness testified who claimed to be a Israeli military officer. This witness further claimed to have documents from the Israeli attack on the Palestinian Authority headquarters, saying that the HLF was the fundraising arm of Hamas. With this, the government was able to win a conviction on material aid to terrorism and sentence the defendants to 15 to 65 years in jail.

While an appeals court found that the four testimonies in the second trial should not have been allowed, it upheld the conviction. A later appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was turned down, ending the legal fight. The Holy Land Foundation 5 are now being held in a Communication Management Unit or CMU, where inmates are not allowed contact with each other and very limited contact with the outside world. About 70% of the CMU inmates are Muslim, reflecting the government’s campaign of harassment and repression against American Muslims.

The next speaker was Ling Wu Lee, director of the Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education. Ms. Lee told the audience how in the days after Pearl Harbor, the government rounded up thousands of Japanese immigrant men who were religious, business and cultural leaders in the community and sent them to prison camps. With the established leadership of the community in prison, President Roosevelt issued executive order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942 that led to the roundup and incarceration into concentration camps of 120,000 Japanese Americans on the west coast.

Fred Korematsu was a young Nisei (second generation American of Japanese descent) who tried to evade the roundup but was caught and convicted. Korematsu appealed his conviction with the help of the Northern California ACLU (the national ACLU leadership refused to help) but in the end the U.S. Supreme Court, on a six to three vote, upheld the concentration camps.

40 years later, a team of lawyers from the San Francisco Asian Law Caucus, along with professor Peter Irons, proved that government prosecutors had lied and withheld evidence that Japanese Americans were not supporting Japan. This led to Fred Korematsu and other concentration camp resistors – Gordon Hirabayashi and Min Yasui – having their convictions overturned.*

Fred Korematsu, before he passed away in 2005, and the Korematsu Institute today, opposed the treatment of American Muslims after 911.

Other speakers on the panel included Zahra Billoo, Executive Director of the Bay Area Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) who called for “compassion, inspiration and indignation,” from those there that night. Dan Carpenter of the National Lawyers Guild, and on the legal team for the Irvine 11 (eleven college students who were prosecuted for protesting a speech by the Israeli ambassador), called for people to organize together to make change.

In the question and answer session that followed, John Cline stressed that while the U.S. legal path seemed to be closed for the Holy Land Foundation 5, there is a need to speak out and affect political change in the country.

*[editor’s note: While their convictions were overturned, this was done on procedural grounds, and there was not a judgment that the World War II concentration camps were unconstitutional. Thus, legally, there is not a ban on the U.S. setting up concentration camps again.]

#SantaClaraCA #AsianNationalities #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #HolyLandFive #FredKorematsu #HolyLand5

New Britain, CT – 200-plus anti-war activists, lawyers, religious leaders, labor unionists, journalists and family members of the wrongfully prosecuted and imprisoned met at a civil liberties conference at Central Connecticut State University, Dec. 8. The conference theme was “An injury to one is an injury to all!” Civil rights legal scholar Sahar F. Aziz introduced the keynote speaker, journalist Glenn Greenwald. Tracy Molm of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression also spoke.

Aziz zeroed in on the aggressive FBI sting operations targeting mainly Arab-American and Muslim men, especially operations that use informants or agents to create phony ‘terrorism plots’ and then arrest, prosecute and imprison the men. There is no actual crime committed in these cases; the FBI creates a scenario and pressures the men into it over time. They imprison them for long prison terms upwards of 15 years with “intent to commit a criminal act.” Oftentimes, the men are lonely, isolated or vulnerable. Aziz also spoke on the inability of lawyers to challenge secret evidence and torture in the U.S. court system due to ‘national security’ claims.

Glen Greenwald argues the erosion of civil liberties by the Bush administration is not just continuing, but accelerating under President Obama. Political repression is broadening and deepening, and is being cemented in legal decisions. The Guardian journalist is troubled that the broad array of voices opposing repression under Bush is now quiet with Obama in office. Greenwald expressed grave concern for the use of charges like “material support for terrorism” to prosecute American Muslims who are “targeted and prosecuted not based on acts they have undertaken, but on beliefs they have expressed.” He opposed U.S. government use of indefinite detention in Guantanamo and targeted executions without any charges or judicial process.

Tracy Molm of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression spoke on the “Creating New Ties of Solidarity” panel. Molm livened up the room, speaking about the fightback organized in response to the raids on the 23 anti-war, Palestine and Colombia solidarity activists in the Midwest. She explained that the Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas, who prosecuted the Holy Land Five and put them in prison, is refusing to return the belongings of one of the 23, Hatem Abudayyeh of Chicago, and is pursuing an ongoing investigation in the case. She asked people to remain vigilant and continue building solidarity. The room applauded the victory in the Carlos Montes case, which was won after an intense national campaign.

Molm ended her talk on a positive note, “I took a trip to Palestine in 2004. I wanted to give people back home a first-hand account of Israeli occupation and U.S. funding for it. I am proud of the work that myself and the other 22 activists do in solidarity with the peoples of Palestine and Colombia. We continue to organize and speak out against U.S. imperialism. We call on everyone of conscience to join us and join the fight to drop the federal investigation of the Anti-War 23.”

Tom Burke, another of the Anti-War 23, spoke at a workshop with United National Antiwar Coalition leaders. The UNAC speakers all agree that to justify wars abroad, the U.S. government needs to create fear at home. The U.S. government is expanding and deepening state repression against Arab-Americans, Muslims, immigrants, African-American, Chicano and Latino youth and anti-war and Occupy Wall Street activists. Burke finished his talk saying, “With the economy so unstable, the rulers on Wall Street are growing more afraid of the people, so they are using political repression more and more. In response, we are building a stronger movement with leaders who trust each other more and more, while working to end U.S. wars.”

#NewBritainCT #civilLiberties #HolyLandFive #AntiWar23 #FBIRepression

Gainesville, FL – 70 student activists from all over the country arrived in sunny Gainesville, Florida to attend the annual Students for a Democratic Society National Convention Oct. 27-28. The activists arrived from as far as Utah and Minnesota.

The convention began bright and early with opening statements by Robbey Hayes and Skye Schmelzer from the host Gainesville Chapter.

Stephanie Taylor, a national leader of SDS, reported, “It was awesome. SDS continues to be the largest anti-war student group, to organize for education rights, and there is a growing trend of struggle supporting women’s and LGBTQ issues. SDS invited the Dream Defenders who spoke about immigrant rights, justice for Trayvon Martin and exposing the Republican Party’s voter suppression in Florida. A Gainesville member of Students for Justice in Palestine spoke about boycott, divestment, and sanctions of Israel.”

Students attended different workshops, such as “Bad Acting Theater” and “Basic Organizing Skills.” SDS affiliate the Revolutionary Students Union presented “Turning Red States Red.” Other workshops included “Organizing Immigrant and Farmworker Rights Campaigns on Campus” and “Combating Male Chauvinism within Your SDS Chapter.” These workshops aimed to offer progressive solutions or evolve a political direction that SDS activists can take.

The plenaries were designed to address issues that are vital for every SDS activist. SDSers learned about the struggle of the LGBQ and trans community in “Gender & Sexuality: Further Than the Binary” and heard from different campus campaigns in “Voices from the Left Student Movement and Continuing the Fight for Education Rights.”

Noor Elashi, an award winning author, journalist and an advocate for her father and the Holy Land 5, spoke on the SDS plenary “Fighting Back Against Political Repression.” Elashi went through a timeline of the Holy Land 5 trial and how she had dealt with the repression – both politically and personally. Elashi read a touching excerpt from her father-daughter memoir where she described the time she visited her father and the harsh and cold treatment she received from the prison guards.

Tom Burke, of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, was also on the panel. Burke is one of the 23 anti-war activists raided by the FBI in 2010. He echoed Elashi’s point about how the FBI targeted the anti-war 23 and The Holy Land 5 for political reasons.

Afterwards, Burke said, “Speaking to the SDS Convention was a powerful experience. I spoke about the FBI raids and grand jury repression, including members of SDS. I relayed my student experience with the Divest Now! campaign to smash racist Apartheid in South Africa. Then, with the Progressive Student Network in the 1980s, we organized campus protests against CIA recruitment. We acted in solidarity with the revolutionary movements of Nicaragua and El Salvador. In 1991, the PSN helped organize mass rallies to oppose the first U.S. Gulf War on Iraq.”

Burke continued, “Today’s student activists have known nothing but the U.S. always being at war. I spoke and emphasized the importance of supporting liberation struggles in Colombia and Palestine today, to stop U.S. intervention. Our effective organizing to stop U.S. funding of war and oppression is the reason Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas is continuing his investigation of the 23 anti-war activists, especially focused on Hatem Abudayyeh in Chicago.”

The second day of the SDS convention began by remembering Laura Elizabeth Langley from Alabama SDS and Andrew Stapleton from Tampa Bay SDS who died during the previous year. The room was quiet as emotional speeches were made to commemorate their dedication and commitment to activism, to create a better world.

To guide each chapter in the year head, SDS passed resolutions. Most were a call to action, like “Close the School of the Americas” (the U.S. school that trains military death squads), and vowing to join the protest Nov. 16-18 at Fort Benning in Georgia. Another one, “Education Rights Days of Action,” plans to demand funding and access for education in the first week of March 2013. “SDS – Demand an End to All Wars and Occupations” calls for the end of U.S. war and occupation in Afghanistan and an end to the covert war and U.S. sanctions against Syria and Iran. It also demands an end to U.S. drone attacks. Another unanimously supported resolution, called for “Justice for Trayvon Martin.” Lastly, the SDS passed a resolution “Oppose U.S. Government Political Repression,” as part of the push back against the growing political repression by the U.S. government and police forces.

The day ended with each SDS chapter reporting back on the actions they organized in the past year and relaying their lessons and victories to the rest of convention attendees.

The closing of the convention was a boisterous and loud “otro golpe,” a Gainesville SDS tradition, which represents “another strike” against U.S. imperialist war and racism in the U.S. – and looking forward to the next victories for Students for a Democratic Society!

#GainesvilleFL #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #antiwar #September24FBIRaids #HolyLandFive

Washington, DC – The U.S. Supreme Court entered an order declining the appeal of the Holy Land Five, Oct. 29. This rejection comes with no explanation. The judicial appeal process ends here, but the struggle to free the Holy Land Five continues.

In anticipation of the Supreme Court decision, there was a Holy Land Five national day of action on Oct. 25. Solidarity protests involving hundreds raised awareness in Minneapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Tampa, Gainesville, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Albany and Dallas. New York City saw 75 people picket and conduct a successful press conference.

In New York City today, Noor Elashi is dealing with her own personal storm. Noor Elashi’s father, Ghassan Elashi, is one of the imprisoned Holy Land Five. She was hopeful the Supreme Court would at least consider her father’s case. Noor Elashi expressed, “We now know that the courts will not even consider justice. We need to be more determined than ever to move forward and organize people to demand the Holy Land Five’s freedom.”

Tom Burke of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression explains, “The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to look at these issues is an abomination. By not considering an appeal, the Court shows how highly political and unfair the U.S. judicial system is, from top to bottom. People throughout the Middle East understand the Holy Land Five are being punished for giving humanitarian aid to Palestinians. Well Americans can see it too. Just as we organized a massive anti-war movement against the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq, and continue to call for U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, we will organize a movement to win justice for the Holy Land Five. We are organizing to end anti-Arab racism and anti-Muslim bigotry. We raise our voices to say, ‘Free the Holy Land Five!’”

Ghassan Elashi was a director of the largest Muslim charity in the country. The Holy Land Foundation raised funds and provided food, medical care, shelter and education to countless people in need, both in Palestine and the U.S. Instead of being honored for their humanitarianism by the U.S. government, the Holy Land Five were charged under the Bush administration with ‘material support for terrorism.’ Their first trial in Dallas, Texas ended in a hung jury. Jurors were not convinced of links between the health clinics and schools that received donations on the one hand, and the Palestinian Hamas movement that the U.S. government now opposes and criminalizes.

The U.S. government, not satisfied with the hung jury from the first Holy Land Five trial, brought in Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas to conduct the second trial. Jonas won convictions by using secret witnesses never identified to the defense, hearsay evidence and a shock video showing protesters in Palestine burning an American flag. This prejudiced the jurors. The Holy Land Five are imprisoned with sentences ranging from 15 to 65 years. Held in Communication Management Units, which are specially designated punishment prisons for Muslims and Arab-Americans, the conditions violate the prisoners’ human rights.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas is now in Chicago conducting the ongoing investigation of 23 Midwest anti-war and international solidarity activists, including Hatem Abudayyeh. Jonas is a pro-Israel ideologue, politically motivated and willing to trample on people’s rights.

For more information see www.Freedomtogive.com and www.StopFBI.net

#WashingtonDC #HolyLandFoundation #HolyLandFive #PoliticalPrisoners

“We only got positive feedback. Most of the people who knew about the Holy Land Five were from the nationalities their persecution was intended to send a message to. Some drivers yelled out support for Palestine,” said Walt Byars, an organizer with Students for a Democratic Society.

A storm threatened to wash out the event, but the protesters remained at their place. Upon arriving, a police officer attempted to disperse the group. Despite these turns of events, the support from passing drivers and the interest from the local media kept the event running. The Supreme Court is expected to decide whether or not they will hear the Holy Land Five’s final appeal later this month. In the current climate of repression