A U.S. federal government court in Dallas, Texas, has convicted five leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) on 108 criminal counts.
|
The U.S. government has accused the HLF, once the nation’s largest Muslim charity, of providing financial assistance to Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement. Formed in 1987, Hamas has established hospitals and provided education, medical facilities, libraries and social services in the West Bank and Gaza. Washington considers Hamas to be a terrorist organization for its support of struggle, both armed and unarmed, against the U.S.-backed Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Washington had pushed for the Palestinian parliamentary elections held in January 2006 in hopes that Fatah, more accommodating to U.S. and Israeli interests than Hamas, would emerge victorious. When Hamas gained a majority of the parliamentary seats, U.S.-Israeli hostilities against the Palestinian people quickly intensified.
The reshaping of the Middle East to Washington’s liking has been a major imperative of the “war on terror” launched after Sept. 11, 2001. To that end, witch hunts such as the persecution of HLF leaders have been politically useful tools for promoting U.S. foreign policy to the public at home.
The HLF defense attorneys have said they will appeal the convictions. Mr. Abu-Baker’s attorney, Nancy Hollander, said an appeal would be filed based on a number of issues, including anonymous expert testimony, which she said was a first.
“Our clients were not even allowed to review their own statements because they were classified—statements that they made over the course of many years that the government wiretapped,” Ms. Hollander stated. “They were not allowed to go back and review them. There were statements from alleged co-conspirators that included handwritten notes. Nobody knew who wrote them; nobody knew when they were written. There are a plethora of issues.” (New York Times, Nov. 25)
Established as a 501(c) (3) non-profit charitable organization in 1989 in Richardson, Texas, the HLF has offices in California, Illinois and New Jersey. According to its mission statement, the organization worked to find and implement “practical solutions for human suffering through humanitarian programs that impacted the lives of the disadvantaged, disinherited, and displaced peoples suffering from man-made and natural disasters.”
The charity assisted primarily Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine. There are today more than 6 million Palestinian refugees who are unable to return to their homes because of the continued Israeli occupation. The HLF has also provided support through charity for disasters and wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, Turkey and the United States.
In a March 1999 interview with the New York Times, Odeh, one of the HLF convicted leaders, said: “We have hospitals, we have schools, we have programs to help needy families to work and depend on themselves. We also have a national program in the United States for the homeless. We were the first Muslim organization to help victims of the Oklahoma bombing—we donated money for the city and we donated blood.”
Case built on bigotry
All of the HLF’s offices were shut down Dec. 4, 2001, and searched by the U.S. government during the month of Ramadan. Ramadan, the holiest month in Islam, is a time when Muslims fast and give generously to charity.
In spite of lacking any material evidence to connect the HLF’s charity work with Hamas or any so-called “terrorist” connections, the U.S. government went to court anyway. The prosecution’s argument rested largely on the testimony of one witness: a Shin Bet lawyer whose identity was not revealed. The Shin Bet is the Israeli intelligence organization responsible for the torture and assassination of countless Palestinians, including children under the age of 14. (ynetnews.com, Jan. 14)
In October 2007, the U.S. government’s attempt, along with Israel, to persuade a jury of any illegal activity or ties to terrorism or the funding of any terrorist organizations failed. A mistrial was declared for all five defendants and charges against the HLF were dropped.
“I kept expecting the government to come up with something, and it never did,” said Nanette Scroggins, one of the jurors in the first trial. “From what I saw, this was about Muslims raising money to support Muslims, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.” (Los Angeles Times, Nov. 4, 2007)
Now, after only eight days of deliberations in the retrial, the jury convicted the HLF leadership of the same groundless accusations brought against them one year ago.
Lacking evidence, the prosecution turned to fear-mongering and scare tactics. The courtroom became the stage for the same type of anti-Muslim bigotry that fills the airwaves and pages of U.S. corporate media and pours out of the mouths of capitalist politicians.
The U.S. government touts “humanitarian concerns” to promote military intervention in the oil-rich Sudan, yet it did not hesitate to launch a witch-hunt against a respected charitable organization for the sole purpose of promoting bigotry and racism. Washington’s concerns for human rights only seem to manifest themselves in the form of military aggression and threats against oppressed nations, while those working to provide real relief cannot operate safely to provide assistance to other workers and oppressed people internationally.
Anti-Muslim bigotry and anti-Arab racism are essential components of U.S. foreign policy. By instilling false fears in the minds of U.S. workers, Washington seeks to nip in the bud any solidarity that U.S. workers might extend to oppressed peoples. Similar tactics are used to weaken working-class unity and organization at home on the basis of nationality, gender, religion or sexual orientation. The only beneficiaries are the U.S. corporate interests reaping mega-profits at home and abroad.
The capitalist tactic of pitting workers against one another must be exposed and denounced. U.S. workers must reject Washington’s fear-mongering and saber-rattling, used to rile U.S. workers against one another and against their fellow workers abroad. The so-called war on terrorism is nothing more than global class warfare of the dominant imperialist capitalist class against the impoverished and enslaved workers and oppressed peoples everywhere.
The Palestinian people have been living in exile and under a brutal apartheid racist occupation since 1948. It is imperative for U.S. workers to reject the racism and bigotry promoted by the U.S. government and media, and stand with the Palestinian people in their struggle against occupation and for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their home.
