[wvns] Charges dropped against last of 'Los Angeles Eight'
Charges dropped against last of 'Los Angeles Eight'
By Michel Shehadeh
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18729.htm
11/15/07 "ICH" -- -- For the last 20 years, the U.S. government has
accused me of being a terrorist. Along with six other Palestinians and
a Kenyan, we were dubbed the "Los Angeles Eight" by the media. Our
case even made it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Oct. 30 - 20 grueling years after the early morning raid in which
armed federal agents barged into my apartment, brutally arrested me
before my 3-year-old son's eyes, incarcerated me in maximum security
cells in San Pedro State Prison for 23 days without bond, and
attempted to deport me - the government dropped all charges fabricated
against me. The charges involved accusations of aiding a member group
of the Palestine Liberation Organization that the government alleged
aided terrorism. But Los Angeles immigration Judge Bruce J. Einhorn
had ordered an end to the deportation proceedings against us last
January because the government failed to comply with his order to
disclose evidence that supported our innocence. He called their
behavior "an embarrassment to the rule of law."
Why did the U.S. government spend 20 years trying to ban us from this
country? Because we tried to educate Americans about the situation
facing millions of Palestinians living in apartheid-like conditions
under Israeli military occupation. Because we organized fundraisers to
provide Palestinians with humanitarian support. And because we
attended demonstrations to urge a shift in U.S. policy away from
unconditional financial and diplomatic support of Israel.
The government robbed us and our families of the best and most
productive years of our lives. For more than 20 years, they vilified
us in public without recourse. We'll never be able to entirely erase
the negative words and images they manufactured about us. Our case is
a stark example, and is different only in degree, from what routinely
befalls those who call for equal rights for Palestinians and press for
a fair Middle East U.S. policy consistent with international law. In
February of this year, two others who advocated equal rights for
Palestinians - Mohammed Salah and Abdelhaleem Ashqar - were found not
guilty of terrorism charges based in part on evidence provided by
Israel and obtained through the use of torture.
President Carter, university professors John J. Mearsheimer and
Stephen M. Walt and Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu face
charges of anti-Semitism and shoddy scholarship meant to intimidate,
discredit and silence them.
And it may be surprising, but I don't hold a grudge. Throughout this
20-year plus ordeal, we never lost faith that we would win against
this political and legal oppression. Not only because of our
innocence, but because of the tremendous, unfaltering support that we
enjoyed all these years across religious, ethnic and civic
communities, and a legal team that did not waver once in its
commitment to justice. This incredible support has taught us more
about America than we could have learned in two lifetimes; the support
of such people who are a living example and a role model for
immigrants - to positively engage with the issues facing the country
on a daily basis. Struggling to make the place a bit better than when
we arrived is what made America home to us. We made that choice, and
we're the better for it.
My two American-born sons learned though this experience the meaning
of establishing a strong grassroots connection and of getting involved
with their community. The words justice, freedom, equality and civil
liberties are not words they learned in school that will become empty
clichés as they grow older. They are concepts that have real meaning
to them, that affect their family and community. They know that they
must be vigilantly protected, especially when the issues they advocate
are not popular, or at times of war, and conflict, when the first
causalities are our basic freedoms - free speech, the right to dissent
and to disagree with the government - the very basis of democracy.
From the beginning, we said that our case was a political one and that
the government made us victims of a political witch-hunt. We
persevered all these years and defeated the attempt to uproot us from
our communities, break our families apart, and deport us, because we
were innocent. Free at last, we are finally exonerated and it tastes
sweet. We will savor the sweetness. And we will use it to fuel our
determination to defend the same issues that our supporters defended
through us: justice, civil liberties, freedom and immigrant rights. We
believe that this is the America for which we continually aspire, the
America that is just, here at home and in faraway places - with
policies based on fairness, equality, and a shared humanity.
Michel Shehadeh is a research associate in the Arab and Muslim
Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative in the College of Ethnic Studies
at San Francisco State University.
*********************************************************************
WORLD VIEW NEWS SERVICE
To subscribe to this group, send an email to:
wvns-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
NEWS ARCHIVE IS OPEN TO PUBLIC VIEW
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/
Need some good karma? Appreciate the service?
Please consider donating to WVNS today.
Email ummyakoub@yahoo.com for instructions.
To leave this list, send an email to:
wvns-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:wvns-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:wvns-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
wvns-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
No comments:
Post a Comment