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Vigil For Wrongful Imprisonment of Holy Land Five

251 views · Published 3 November 2015 · 1:02:58 · Indexed 27 October 2026

Channel: Joe Friendly · 2015 · News & Politics

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First Monday Vigil at Metropolitan Correctional Center in NYC, this month observing the Holy Land Five who received long prison sentences for merely charitable work helping Palestinians, particularly Ghassan Elashi who was sentenced to 65 years for his charitable work for Palestinian victims of Zionist occupation.  The prosecution and incarceration of the Holy Land Five underlines a number of pressing issues related to how terrorism suspects are tried and convicted in post 9/11 America. The prosecution alleged that charity commissions in Palestine through which the HL5 used to distribute aid were controlled by Hamas. This enabled the US government to argue the men were guilty of providing material support to a terrorist group, even though the same charity commissions were also used by the United Nations and the Red Cross to distribute aid. Five former employees of the HL5 are currently serving between 15 and 65 years in prison.

The Holy Land Foundation was a charity founded in 1989 that provided aid to people in Palestine and across the world. Without defining what its claim even meant, the prosecution alleged that the  charity commissions in Palestine that the HL5 used to distribute aid through were controlled by Hamas. This enabled the US government to argue the men were guilty of providing material support to a terrorist group, even though the same charity commissions were also used by the UN and the Red Cross to distribute aid. Five former employees of the HL5 are currently serving between 15 and 65 years in prison.

The prosecution and incarceration of the Holy Land Five underlines three pressing issues in how terrorism suspects are tried and convicted in post 9/11 America:

1) The criminalization of Muslims' giving as well as political organizing around the issue of Palestine: The HL5 were prosecuted even though the same charity committees were used by high profile agencies including the UN and USAID to get aid into Palestine.

2) Due process issues: At the HL5 retrial (the first trail resulted in a hung jury), the prosecution used an anonymous expert testimony—believed to be a first in US judicial history—as well as classified evidence which the defendants were not allowed to review.  Also, the government can make an allegation, like one organization "controlling" another, with no specific definition, and without even specifying the requirements to prove its claim.

3) Conditions of confinement: Members of the HL5 are now held in Communication Management Units, which the Center for Constitutional Rights has called an “experiment in social isolation” as prisoners are denied physical contact with family members and phone calls are severely limited.  

The five members of the HL5 include Ghassan Elashi, co-founder and board chairman; Shukri Abu-Baker, president and CEO; Mohammad El-Mezain, co-founder and California HLF office representative; Mufid Abdulqader, volunteer fundraiser and Abdulrahman Odeh, New Jersey office HLF representative. 

- MC'd by Irene Siegel, Arabic Studies scholar, educator and longtime Palestine activist

- Joe Catron, journalist for Electronic Intifada and other outlets
- Nerdeen Kiswani from NYC Students for Justice in Palestine
- Omar Shakir from the Center for Constitutional Rights
- Noor Elashi, Ghassan Elashi's daughter
- Thomas DeAngelis, Brooklyn College Students for Justice in    Palestine


The No Separate Justice vigil is also co-sponsored by NYC Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, Islamic Movement for Justice, Brooklyn College Students for Justice in Palestine, Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, and others.

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