Holy Land Foundation Case
THE HOLY LAND FIVE: U.S. POLITICAL PRISONERS SINCE NOV. 24, 2008
"As I stand here in Dallas, I have to say it's one of the most monstrous injustices in modern times in America.” — George Galloway on HLF case (06/15/2009)
"....It’s remarkable. My client was convicted of providing charity. There was not, in ten years of wiretapping his home, his office, looking at his faxes, listening to everything he said, there was not one word out of his mouth about violence to anyone or about support for Hamas. He provided charity. That’s what he was convicted of. And to say that someone or these people who provide charity should get a sentence six, you know, four or five times longer than someone who professes to come to the United States with a purpose in mind that’s clearly violence shows essentially that these people were convicted because they were Palestinians...."
Nancy Hollander, attorney for the former Holy Land CEO, Shukri Abu Baker. Source: Democracy Now!
Welcome to the Freedom to Give website where we, the family members and friends of the defendants, give you the long-awaited truth about the Holy Land Foundation trial.
Is it a crime to feed these children?
Fellow Americans, our freedom to give charity has vanished!
Our message
The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) — once the largest American Muslim charity — never funded violence. It simply provided food, clothes, shelter, medical supplies and education to the suffering people in Palestine and other countries.
HLF: A victim of 9/11 hysteria
On December 4, 2001, the United States government shut down the HLF, accusing it of financially supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Prosecutors never found a single piece of evidence linking HLF to Hamas. So they changed their accusations. Nearly 3 years later, the U.S. Attorney released an indictment claiming that the HLF supported Palestinian charities called zakat committees that were somehow linked to Hamas. The closure of the HLF was clearly motivated by politics and fear.
About the trial
The HLF trial began on July 16, 2007. The five defendants — Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu-Baker, Mufid Abdulqader, Abdulrahman Odeh and Mohammad El-Mezain — are noble Palestinian-American men who are tried for helping ease the plight of the Palestinians.
On October 22, 2007, U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish declared a mistrial because jurors deadlocked on all of the counts against four defendants. One defendant, Mohammad El-Mezain, was aquitted on all but the first charge.
Prosecutors insisted on retrying the case, which ended with guilty verdicts on November 24, 2008. Unfortunately, the jury fell for the prosecution's fear tactics and convicted the five defendants on all counts against them. The Holy Land Five were instantly added to America's shameful pile of political prisoners. On May 27, 2009, the Holy Land Five received 15–65 year sentences. The defense attorneys have all filed their notices for appeal.
Are we repeating history?
Something is very familiar about the HLF case, but that doesn’t make it right. Did Japanese-Americans deserve to be thrown in internment camps? Nope. Did African-Americans deserve to eat at segregated restaurants, sleep in segregated hotels or drink from segregated water fountains? Nope. Does the HLF deserve to be persecuted for feeding Palestinian orphans and widows? Again, nope.
Who should really be on trial?
For nearly half a century, Israel has occupied Palestine and denied Palestinians their basic human rights. The occupation has caused numerous tragic outcomes such as the destruction of homes, the killing of innocent children and even the establishment of checkpoints around the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. So we ask: If occupation obviously shatters lives, while charity builds them and charity feeds children, while occupation kills them, why is a charity organization — not the occupiers — paying the price?
