Opinion Editorials, September 2007
|
|
The Holy Land Charitable Foundation: A Victim of a US Anti-Muslim Backlash After September 11
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
ccun.org, September 8, 2007
Prosecutors rely on on FBI and Israeli Intelligence testimony to make their case against Holy Land Foundation
The defense in the Holy Land Foundation charity trial has begun presenting its evidence as the Justice Department decided not to call additional witnesses in its prosecution of the charity for alleged ties to the Palestinian organization Hamas that has been declared a “terrorist” group by the United States. The Justice Department move suggests that prosecution is resting its case on the strength of contested documents and the testimony of FBI agents and Israeli intelligence officials.
Countering government witnesses who say that the charity committees are filled with Hamas operatives, Edward Abington, former US consul general in Jerusalem, described them as being staffed by "pious Muslims." He said that they gather religious contributions, known as zakat, and help the needy in various ways, including "buying a cow, setting up a small business or giving money so that people can buy food." More than a quarter of the 3.5 million Palestinian refugees under Israeli military occupation are in need of food assistance, he told the jury.
He also testified about key chains and posters lauding Hamas suicide bombers that were found inside some zakat offices by the Israeli military. The government argues that the propaganda is evidence of the HLF’s “terrorist” affiliations. Mr. Abington said that such propaganda is "plastered all over light posts and in people's offices" in the West Bank and Gaza. It does "not necessarily mean the person supported that political party. These are seen as signs of resistance to the Israeli occupation in general”, he said.
The former diplomat also told the jury that the
Israeli roundup that included the suspicious posters, key chains and
financial documents, which are key to the prosecution’s case, were
considered by the State Department to be "a propaganda exercise by the
Israelis to undermine the Palestinian Authority." The Israelis
"seized tens of thousands of pages. You don't know where they came
from, how they are related to each other. If you are an American analyst,
you can't rely on those documents as showing a true picture," he
testified.
Over the last six weeks, prosecutors have presented a mountain of financial
records seized from offices of the Holy Land Foundation in the U.S. and
Zakat Committees in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The records,
authorities alleged, show that the foundation and five of its former
officials knowingly sent millions of dollars overseas to support terrorism,
not to help the needy. The prosecution also alleged that the money went to
organizations under the control of Hamas militants.
The charge has been denied by the defendants, Shukri Abu Baker, the charity's president; Ghassan Elashi, its chairman; Abdulrahman Odeh; Mohammad El-Mezain; and Mufid Abdulqader.
In addition to hundreds of exhibits, the government took the extraordinary step of allowing two Israeli agents to testify anonymously in a closed courtroom to buttress claims that the Zakat Committees were widely known as fundraising fronts for Hamas. The most important testimony to date has been from an officer of the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency. Identified only as Avi, he claimed that Hamas' financial survival relied on the worldwide fundraising of such organizations as Holy Land Foundation.
However, in the cross examination, the agent acknowledged that none of the overseas charities Holy Land supported has appeared among hundreds of names on U.S. government terrorist lists. The Los Angeles Times says that the testimony seemed to cast doubt on a central element of the government's criminal case against former officials of the Holy Land.
According to court documents, defense attorneys expect to call several former U.S. officials to testify that Holy Land officials either had no links to Hamas or could not have known that any money being sent overseas might go to extremists, if it even did.
Former Congressman John Bryant, Holy Land's lobbyist for three years, is to testify that the organization spent years trying unsuccessfully to have the government identify which overseas organizations should not receive funds because of connections to “terrorism”.
The trial of the Holy Land Foundation, founded in 1989, began on July 24 in Dallas after a probe of more than a decade. It was one of the largest Muslim charities in the nation before it was shut down under executive orders in December 2001. It is one of six Muslim major charities in the country that have been shut in recent years as the Muslim charities were scrutinized and persecuted as part of a broader backlash against Muslims after the 9/11 attacks.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor of the online magazine the American Muslim Perespective: www.amperspective.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
||||||
