November 3, 2003

Harassment Fails to Break Jailed Palestinian

by Stephen Durham, New York City

In a recent phone interview from York County Jail in Pennsylvania, political prisoner Farouk Abdel-Muhti declared: "The only reason I am locked up is because I oppose injustice against other detainees like myself jailed in the wake of September 11 and that I continue to fight for justice for my Palestinian people."

Incarcerated since the spring of 2002, Abdel-Muhti still has not been charged with any crime. Now is a crucial time for him, as he faces the increasing likelihood of being included in one of the mass deportations conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE), a division of the Department of Homeland Security and successor to the INS. Even in the face of this, he has not been broken.

A combined force of New York police and FBI and INS agents arrested Abdel-Muhti in an early morning raid in April 2002. Taken into custody on the pretext of immigration-status problems, he has since been sent to four prison facilities, intimidated, beaten, and threatened with deportation into the hands of Israeli intelligence. In three of the institutions, he has effectively organized other detainees in protests against appalling jail conditions. Physical mistreatment of immigrant detainees post-9/11 and abuse of their rights has been documented in a recent report from the inspector general's office of the Justice Department (see "Report on USA Patriot Act Alleges Civil Rights Violations" at www.truthout.org).

Following his role in a hunger strike at Passaic County Jail in New Jersey, immigration officials retaliated, moving him to rural Pennsylvania, with its history of white-supremacist and neo-Nazi organizing. Since February, he has been kept in solitary confinement in a six- by seven-foot cell for over 23 hours a day. When outside his cell, Abdel-Muhti is chained and shackled. He is accompanied by guards who harangue him about his politics, arbitrarily terminate his phone calls, and refuse him access to the fresh air of outdoors. Suffering from high blood pressure, asthma and diabetes, he continues to be denied adequate food and medical care.

The transfer to York County Jail was a calculated move to sever ties between Abdel-Muhti and his defense committee in New York City, where he is known as a grassroots opponent of Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories. However, the BICE has not achieved its goal. Local anti-racist youth organizers in York maintain regular contact with him, and the work of his defense committee has spread from its base in New York City across the country and internationally.

In an interview with the Freedom Socialist newspaper, Abdel-Muhti said: "I will not be silenced because I know that, though my situation of isolation and psychological torture on a personal level is macabre, I know also that what is happening to me is unacceptable to millions of people in the U.S. and worldwide who oppose the policies of Bush and the actions of Attorney General John Ashcroft, the man directly responsible for trampling on my human rights and those of hundreds of others."

The wholesale expulsions of Muslim and Arab immigrants began in late July. Public support for Abdel-Muhti is a main reason why he has not yet been included on any of those flights. As these deportations continue, however, his situation becomes more urgent.

You can help by calling or sending messages protesting the mass deportations and Abdel-Muhti's detention to David J. Venturella at the BICE Office of Detention and Removal; phone 202-514-8663 or fax 202-353-9435. Donations for Abdel-Muhti's defense are also needed. Checks may be made out to "Nicaragua Solidarity Network," with "Farouk Defense" written in the memo line, and sent to Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti, PO Box 20587, Tompkins Square Station, New York, NY 10009.