Abby Martin 2018 - Middle East Eye online -
US Empire holds countless political prisoners in its vast prison network, from black power to national liberation movements, people deemed threats to the system languish for decades behind bars. Among those are five Palestinian men. Known as the Holy Land 5, victims of George Bush’s massive repression operation against Muslims living in the US. These men Abu Baker, Elashi, Mufid Abdulqader, Abdelrahman Odeh & El Mezain and their organisation the Holy Land Foundation were simply a charity for Palestinian refugees. Charged with aiding terrorism, their sentences range from 15 to 65 years. Abby Martin, The Empire Files: Life Sentences for Charity Work: Free the 5! 2018
A coalition of advocacy groups have called for the release of the Holy Land Five, a group of Palestinian-American men who were convicted of funding terrorism in a case civil liberties groups say highlights the disproportionate targeting of Muslim charities post-9/11.
The campaign launched on Thursday by Within Our Lifetime, the Coalition for Civil Freedoms, and the Samidoun Prisoner Network, comes as families of the accused marked the aniversary of their conviction.
‘November 24th 2022 marks 14 years since the Holy Land Foundation 5 were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned in the US for the crime of sending food and medicine to orphans in Palestine’, the Palestinian-led Within Our Lifetime said in a statement.
‘Three of them remain imprisoned today. It’s time to bring them home’, the group added.
The five men were arrested in 2004 on accusations that the Holy Land Foundation was both a terrorist organisation and was funnelling funds to Hamas, the Palestinian political movement designated a terrorist group by the US since 1995. Middle East Eye onlin article 24 November 2022, ‘Holy Land Five: Rights groups, families demand release over ‘miscarriage of justice’