Palestinian Political Prisoners
Palestinians, Native Americans: Linked Struggles
Weekly Occupation Report (Link)
May 11, 2014
Amer Jubran Taken by Secret Police in the Middle of the Night
Palestinian activist Amer Jubran was arrested by the secret intelligence agency of the Jordanian government, the Mukhabarat, in the middle of the night on Monday May 5th. He has not been allowed any contact with a lawyer and we do not know where he is being held. We believe this arrest is the result of intelligence cooperation between Jordan, the United States, and Israel in their attempt to silence dissent and eliminate political support for resistance to the American-Zionist project in the region.
Amer opposed the warmaking policies of the United States and Israel during his 18 year residence in the United States. Shortly after September 2001 he was harassed by US authorities, detained, and finally pushed out of the country (see http://www.amerjubrandefense.org) . He returned to Jordan, his first country of exile, in 2004. This latest arrest is a continuation of the political repression Amer experienced in the United States.
As longtime friends who knew Amer when he was in the US, we urge you to take part in the campaign for his release. Amer is being held in secret detention and needs our support. A web site dedicated to this campaign is now up at http://freeamer.wordpress.com/
To sign a petition to the Jordanian Embassy for Amer's release, go to http://freeamerpetition.wordpress.com
Know Your Rights! A four page pamphlet on how US residents should respond to visits from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Tarek Mehanna, Oxygen, and the "War on Terror"
by Lana Habash
April 23, 2012
On April 12th, Tarek Mehanna, a 29 year old Muslim man from Massachusetts was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison for "material support for terrorism" and other related charges.
The purpose of the current domestic "war on terror"-- the surveillance, the system of informants, and the political arrests of Muslims and Arabs-- is the same as every other US campaign of repression: to demoralize oppressed communities; to convince us that we cannot trust our neighbors and that our oppression is "the way of history," inevitable and hopeless; to make us believe the narrative of "every man for himself;" and to make us accept the unaccceptable-- the systematic oppression and genocide of our people and the colonization of our land.
Tarek Mehanna's statement to Judge O’Toole in Boston federal court prior to his sentencing on April 12th 2012 (excerpt):
"In the name of God the most gracious the most merciful
Exactly four years ago this month I was finishing my work shift at a local hospital. As I was walking to my car I was approached by two federal agents. They said that I had a choice to make: I could do things the easy way, or I could do them the hard way. The “easy “ way, as they explained, was that I would become an informant for the government, and if I did so I would never see the inside of a courtroom or a prison cell. As for the hard way, this is it. Here I am, having spent the majority of the four years since then in a solitary cell the size of a small closet, in which I am locked down for 23 hours each day. The FBI and these prosecutors worked very hard—and the government spent millions of tax dollars – to put me in that cell, keep me there, put me on trial, and finally to have me stand here before you today to be sentenced to even more time in a cell."
Tarek Mehanna's complete statement can be found at http://www.freetarek.com/tareks-sentencing-statement/
NYPD's Police State Stretches All The Way to Boston
by Richard Hugus
March 3, 2012
"Not reported by any of the media so far was an outrageous attempt by an NYPD undercover agent to ensnare a young man as far away as Boston in a plot to undergird the war on terror by actually creating a “terrorist.” The young man was Tarek Mehanna, an Egyptian American and Muslim from Sudbury, Massachusetts, just outside Boston. Tarek wrote a statement about this experience, which was read aloud to a rally on Boston Common on February 25. . . "
NECDP Statement
February 16, 2011
FBI Targeting Palestine Solidarity Activists in New England
"This attention to solidarity activists comes at a moment when zionists are increasingly on the defensive. In 2010, officials at the "Israeli" Foreign Ministry said that they were considering stopping lectures by official representatives around the world because these only provide targets for a rapidly growing protest movement. The Reut Institute--a prominent zionist think tank--suggested in the same year that unless a new strategy were developed against the Palestine solidarity movement (including "legal" intervention, e.g. repression), "Israel" might soon find itself in the position of being an international pariah state. A central strategic recommendation of the Reut report was to distinguish between critics of Israeli policy and those who are committed to "delegitimizing Israel." They suggest that it's important to treat the "critics" as potential allies--and give them more room to express themselves--in order to isolate the "delegitimizers." "
October 15, 2008
Why should movements for social and political change adopt anti-Zionist principles as part of their work?
Zionism must be confronted as a form of white supremacy that exists within our movements for liberation and social change. Zionism has its main base of political, economic and military support in the “United States.” While the vast majority of the world’s people recognize that the Palestinian struggle is a legitimate struggle against genocidal colonial violence, no movement in the US has yet emerged capable of challenging this base of support. One reason for this is the pervasive influence of Zionism across the entire spectrum of US politics.
A Short History of the Colonization of Palestine (pdf) Myth/history fact sheet.
Palestinian political prisoner fact sheet (pdf)
Statements from U.S. Political Prisoners In Support of Palestine
Jericho: information on and activities in support of U.S. political prisoners (external link)
4struggle magazine articles by and for u.s. political prisoners and their supporters (external link)
