Al Jazeera - The Holy Land Five Documentary (2016)

Noor Elashi: Home. It's a beautiful concept that occupies a special place in our hearts. But for my father, his heart has been torn apart since he was uprooted from his Palestinian home in 1967. After rediscovering a place where he can call home, a place dearly attached within his heart, he now faces the possibility of being uprooted once more. I'm Nora Elashi, and I am the daughter of Ghassan Elashi, a co-defendant in the Holy In July 2004, a federal grand jury released a 42-count indictment that accused the organization of providing money to entities linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Speaker 2: I do not apologize for feeding orphans and needy families.

Noor Elashi: America is the only home that my siblings and I have ever known, from my youngest brother, who enjoys surfing on nickjr.com, to my other brothers, who have served in the U.S. military. Brother, who loves football, to my 12-year-old brother, who lives and breathes skateboarding, and even to my teenage sisters, whose favorite shows include One Tree Hill and Gilmore Girls.

Speaker 2: I know what the government's goal was about all this, is just to make an example of me. But they failed, because I felt a love from the community that I couldn't imagine.

Speaker 3: The government, after months of trial and years of preparation for this case—

Speaker 4: Prosecutors say A huge fundraiser for Hamas.

Speaker 5: Convicted of funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Speaker 6: Twelve million dollars to Hamas. ووجهت إلى المسؤولين الخمسة مئة وثمانية.

Speaker 7: The government had to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury. This involved a conspiracy that spanned a thirteen-year period to support the terrorist organization Hamas.

Speaker 2: لم يتم انتهاك للقوانين والمعايير القانونية والإنسانية. كما جرى في قضية غلام فادي شين.

Speaker 5: We are hunting down the murderers you support, and we will hunt you down.

Speaker 8: This case is unjust and unfair to not only the individuals that involved in it, but the entire Muslim community in the world.

Nancy Hollander: For years, the Richardson-based charity has been under suspicion, accused of funding terrorists.

John Bryant: To only decide in 2001 that this work was illegal. It didn't make any sense.

Speaker 5: This time with sentences ranging from 15 to 65 years in prison for 5 HLF members.

Speaker 11: I definitely said that this was a political trial and that these were political prisoners, and that it was based on association, not based on fact.

Nancy Hollander: He was the only one willing to speak out, and he said the government's case was full of macaroni. This was clearly a political trial, and it was a shame.

Mufeed Abdelkader: It was a shame on the Americans, and we should not have let it happen, and we should Should not let it continue.

Speaker 13: زوجي كان يشتغل مدير مكتب رابط الشباب المسلم العربي في إنديانا، فهناك أنا اجتنا سنابل بنتي. فلما ولدت الولدت كانت عندها الثلاثيميا مرت ثلاثيميا ومرت تاني اسمه سستيك فيبروسيس.

Speaker 8: And cystic fibrosis is a lung disease, and his daughter needed surgery just to live. And Shukri was able to find a charity who funded his daughter's surgery. But Shukri said that changed his life. He said, "I am a Muslim and I love to give." So he left his job. He quit. He founded a charity. He put his heart and soul into a charity that grew to be the largest Muslim charity in the United States.

Speaker 14: المؤسسة تأسست بعام ألف تسعمائة وتسعة وثمانين من كاليفورنيا والمؤسسين الرئيسين كانوا ثلاث أعضاء هم الأخ شكري أبو بكر. الأخ غسان العشي والأخ محمد إبراهيم المزين.

Speaker 15: في عام ألف وتسعمائة واحد وتسعين قررنا كعائلات ومؤسسة قرروا الانتقال إلى تكسس.

Noor Elashi: They were mainly giving humanitarian aid to Palestinians. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the refugee populations in Lebanon and Jordan. And then they also gave to other needy populations across the world.

Mufeed Abdelkader: المساعدات المقدمة لمستشفى الرازي من الأرض المقدسة.

Speaker 14: بدأت من دعام 1994 أساساً صرفت على إنشاء بنية تحتية إنفراستركتشر طبية لمحافظة لا تملك أي مكونات العمل الطبي كانت مؤسسة الهولي لن تقدم خدماتها للجمعية الخيرية الإسلامية ولأيتامها بين عامي 1998 وحتى عام 2001 وهذه الأموال التي كانت تقدمها مؤسسة الهولي لاند كانت تقدم بشكل متواصل إلى هؤلاء الأيتام شهدت تطور المؤسسة من عام 1997 كانت بحدود مليون إلى اثنين مليون سنويا وكانت بتطور بحيث وصلت في 2001 لحوالي 6 إلى 7 مليون 10% كانت تصرف المصاريف التشغيلية للمؤسسة أكبر برنامج تقريباً بحوالي ما يعادل مليون إلى 2 مليون دولار كانت في برامج الطرود الغذائية التي توزع في شهر رمضان المبارك Throughout the 1990s, there were many claims by Israeli lobby groups, like the ADL and the Anti-Defamation League, and politicians like Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner and Chuck Schumer.

Noor Elashi: A lot of these politicians went to Clinton administration and begged Clinton and tried to pressure him to shut down the charity, but Clinton refused to shut down the charity.

Speaker 11: Israel is against anybody who supports the Palestinian people. And it doesn't mean support in terms of money or arms or anything like that. If you just say, I don't like what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people, you're an enemy to the state. The U.S. government after 9/11 was willing to give up every right it had. I'm ready to give up my civil rights. I'm ready to give up my freedom of speech. I'm ready to give up my privacy. Do whatever you need if it's going to keep some of these crazy terrorists from coming over here killing us.

Speaker 17: And one of the things it led to was the adoption of a kind of aggressive preventive law enforcement paradigm. In which we used every tool available to go after not just terrorists, but people who we thought or suspected might be engaged in, supporting, connected to, associated with terrorists. And often the basis for that might be, you know, associated with terrorists was they're Arab Muslim male.

Speaker 7: The Treasury Department froze the assets and accounts Of the Holy Land Foundation in Richardson, Texas, whose money is used to support the Hamas terror organization.

Speaker 2: قرار الإغلاق تم في أربعة ماش ألفين واحد الذي جرى في ذلك الوقت أن أن أن رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي الأسبق إرائيل شارون كان في الولايات المتحدة جاء في زيارة سميت للتعزية وللتضامن مع أمريكا فيما أسميه في ذلك الحين الحرب على إرهابها زمن إدارة الرئيس.

Speaker 14: جورج بوش الابن في واحد اتناش اتصل علي رئيس مؤسسة الارض المقدسة الاستاذ شكر يا ابو بكر وقال لي بان لدينا معلومات مؤكدة بانه سيصدر قرار باغلاق مؤسسة الارض المقدسة وبان شارون جاء بملف كامل عن هذه المؤسسة وطلب من الرئيس بوش ان يغلق هذه المؤسسة لانها داعمة بين قوسين للارهاب في يوم إطلاق المؤسسة كل موظف المؤسسة أجزاروه الـ FBI في بيوتهم وكانت تدور بعض الأسئلة حول ما إذا كانت مثلا المؤسسة أو أعضاء المؤسسة بينتفع شخصيا من أموال تنتجميعها أو أنه كانت هاي الأموال مثلا تذهب إلى المؤسسة مساعدة حركة حماس أو أو أي جناح عسكري في حماس وهذا ما تم نفي من قبلي شخصياً.

Nancy Hollander: David Aufhauser, who was general counsel to the Treasury at the time, said, "Quote, it was almost comical." End quote. Quote, "We just listed out as many of the usual suspects as we could and said, 'Let's go freeze some of their assets.'" I have my suspicions that Israel was involved in that, but I don't know that. But I do know, because it's been written about and is public now, that the Treasury Department literally created scapegoats and said, we have these Palestinians. Let's just go out and seize their assets. And that's what they did. There was no hearing. There was no due process. There was nothing. They went in and seized everything. Down to the plants.

Speaker 5: In 2002, the Holy Land Foundation, represented by me and my law partners, filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., to challenge the designation as a terrorist organization.

Nancy Hollander: There was a huge record that the government had. Created, an administrative record, that we had to read. And it was mostly basically garbage. It was newspaper articles, interviews that were translated from Arabic to Hebrew to English. And we discovered, when we did our own translations, that the translations were completely wrong, that the government was relying on information that was completely, completely false. But it didn't matter.

Speaker 5: The lawsuit was dismissed by the district court in Washington, D.C., after much briefing and argument. We took an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. It's the court of appeals that sits in the District of Columbia. And on appeal to the D.C. Circuit, we lost again, based on secret evidence.

Nancy Hollander: Even though we had security clearances at the time, so we should have been able to see this, what the government said was secret evidence, we never saw it.

Speaker 5: Because we weren't able to see the secret evidence, we weren't able to challenge it. We weren't able to point out ways that it was untrue or incomplete. The district court, the— that's the trial-level court, said that it didn't rely on the secret evidence. But in the appellate court, when we challenged the ruling of the district court, That court did rely on the secret evidence, found it persuasive, said that it was incontrovertible, and ruled against us.

Speaker 13: تقريباً لما أجي ياخد الشكري كانت تقريباً. الساعة سبعة الصبح أو قبل هيك شيء كنت أنا مصلي الفجر وأعدى وكأني بانتظر في شيء يعني ما بعرف عندي كان شعر غريب غسان راح المسجد يصلي الفجر ورجع على أساس ينام لسه يعني مدد السرير حضرات فجأة سمع دق يعني رهيب على الباب مفزع.

Speaker 18: FBI open the door.

Noor Elashi: I'm a very light sleeper, so I I. Jumped out of bed, and I rushed to my father's room, and he was already wide awake.

Speaker 18: ما خلوا الميلات الحجاب ولا تطيح على غنشين فتحوا الباب.

Speaker 19: وحتى ضرب الباب على إيدها عادوني أنا وأمي في الصلون ودخلوا البيت وانهبت الأول ما فتح شكر الباب مسكوا على الطفطة اللي عبرة حطوا الهاندكاف بإيديه وحكوا لها ودخلوا البيت المفروض ما يدخلوا البيت هم بيطلعوا في أنا كتير حركات فبدي أروح يعني أحكي مع بعض فا يعني واحد كتير كتير كان كبير هيك زي جوار فمسكني وصار يوجه فيه بحكيت له you know let go take your hands off of me مين أنت يعني شفت عودة إيفن حدا عمره هيك مسكني.

Noor Elashi: So I ran after my father, and I and I and I yelled his name Baba. He managed right before he was going to be pushed into the car. He managed to stop and look back at me and say Baba, keep your head up high because your father did nothing wrong.

Speaker 20: تاخدوا أبوي وأنا كنت قاعدة وأنا شفت كان حطوا الكفص على يديه وهو كان مبتسم كان مبتسم وحكى لي ما تخاف يا بابا إن شاء الله حجر ما عرفنا عن.

Speaker 13: هم شيء لعشر أيام بعد عشر أيام تمنى اتصل علينا حكينا أنا هيني أمك يعني وبالسجن طبعا أفرجوا أن طلعوا المحميين راحوا محميين طلعوا هن على أساس أنهم هم أمريكان وما في أي إثباتات عليهم.

Speaker 20: فمن حكم يطلعوا يتحاكموا هم برا فبس حطوا بإجريهم زي البريسلت هاي لحتى يكون إقامة إيجابية طردوهم الشغل اللي كان فيه سريع في داود على التهم مع إنه لا برأوه ولا حكوه عليه قلت يعني قبل ما عرفوا أصلا القرار طردوه على السريع وقاعد فترة من دون شغل استمر يمكن ستة أشهر سبعة أشهر لحد ما قدر يعني يلاقي شيء مشي حاله بعدين فتحوا شركة لإله في الهندسة في عمله الخاصة حجم يعني بشكل كبير لأنه كان لازم يقضي وقت طويل مع المحاميين لحسن الحظ أنا كنت مدرسة فكان لدي عمل يعني أقطعت أنا وأولادي منه For the next 3 years, the FBI, the CIA, you know, government officials, prosecutors, they spent almost 3 or 4 years looking into the case.

Speaker 7: The allegation was that there was essentially material support being provided by the Holy Land Foundation to Hamas. And we had to prove that. And you have to— essentially, it's a form which we call in the United States money laundering.

Speaker 5: Material support charges were alleged against all of the individuals. Mr. Odeh, Mr. El-Masayen, Mr. Abu Bakr, Mr. Abu Khadr and Mr. Elashi, and also against the organization itself.

Nancy Hollander: There were over 40 charges, as I recall, but primarily it was material support to terrorism and then tax charges. All rise.

Speaker 2: Please be seated. الحكومة جاءت بشخص اسمه ماثيو ليفيت. ماثيو ليفيت هذا كان مستشار أو عامل في وزارة المالية فيما يسمى مكافحة الإرهاب المصرفي. مارثي ماثيو ليفيت يهودي صهيوني مرتبط باللوب الصهيوني في الولايات المتحدة وهو أحد أقطاب الم يسمى الإسلاموفوبيا والعداء للإسلام ورهاب الإسلام.

Speaker 4: Can you tell us again what is the overall purpose for Hamas having a social wing?

Matthew Levitt: It builds grassroots support for the organization. It provides for the families of its operatives. It provides operatives with day jobs. It provides a cover of legitimacy for their activities. Certainly no one is going to question the need for charity. Charity is a good thing, except that the operatives are sometimes charity by day and terrorists by night. And it provides an ideal mechanism not only for raising under the radar, the cover of charity, but then transferring and laundering money, not just for the social activities, but for all the activities of the organization.

Speaker 4: Does Hamas also use it as a tool of recruitment, as well? Absolutely.

Matthew Levitt: As we mentioned earlier, you know, you get people in the front door, you have an opportunity to interact with them, to spot them, to radicalize and recruit them.

Speaker 7: Levitt testified as an expert witness, opining on, essentially, given background to the jury on terrorist organizations and also his view of activity taking place in Palestine and Israel.

Speaker 4: Is that recruitment for the military wing only? No. And what sort of services does the social wing provide for the Palestinian population?

Matthew Levitt: Medical services, food, Education, a variety of social welfare-type services, women's groups, soccer clubs, certainly mosques, you know, study groups, a place to go, a wide range of activities.

Speaker 4: And would you say they use a social welfare activity to win the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people? Exactly what they do.

Speaker 8: One of the laws that was passed is a law referred to as the material support statute. And the material support statute says that it's against the law for any U.S. citizen or any resident who lives in the United States to provide material support to a designated terrorist. For example, if Khalil Meek left Dallas, Texas, today, after this interview, and I got on a plane and I flew to Somalia, and tomorrow I feed over 200 people, Alhamdulillah. But after I feed them, somebody comes up to me and says, Khalil, did you know that 3 people who came today and ate your food, they're associated with a group called al-Shabaab? Well, al-Shabaab is designated as a terrorist organization. So technically, I just fed 3 terrorists. Is that material support? That question was not answered in the statute.

Speaker 7: It says anything. That's true. But providing material support, in my estimation, is just as important, or more important, in being able to advance the goals of a terrorist organization.

Noor Elashi: Now, you have also lectured for an organization called the Jewish Federation. Correct. That is right. And that is a fundraising organization for AIPAC. Correct. That would be news to me.

Matthew Levitt: The Jewish Federation is the organization that coordinates fundraising of the Jewish community for everything from local services, Jewish and non-Jewish. They do fundraising for Israel also, but I also lecture for Arab think tanks and others as well.

Noor Elashi: My question was, have you spoken at AIPAC? Is the answer yes or no?

Matthew Levitt: I think it's pretty clear the answer is yes.

Noor Elashi: And you have spoken at several of their conferences, haven't you?

Matthew Levitt: I have, and often said things they didn't like.

Nancy Hollander: The United States put on evidence over and over again of buses being blown up in Israel, which had violent acts by Hamas, which Holy Land had nothing to do with. But they would try to— and try to develop an atmosphere for the jury of fear about Hamas.

Noor Elashi: There was a time where the jury left the room and the judge left the room, and my father yelled, this is an extension of the Israeli occupation, the Zionist occupation. Occupation of Palestine. And he was yelling, and he was infuriated. And he was yelling because the judge refused, continuously refused, to enter evidence that would have shown the kind of work that the Holy Land Foundation was doing.

Speaker 11: Imagine if you're a juror in Texas and your president from Texas had already told you that this is a terrorist group, and they're training kids to come kill you. What kind of an impact would that have? Yes, it had an impact.

Nancy Hollander: The judge was so much on the government side that at one point in the first trial, I said to the judge— and I can't remember my exact words, but it was something to the effect of, the prosecutor's sitting over there, Your Honor. We don't need a second prosecutor. And everyone thought that I was going to go to jail that day.

Speaker 18: All rise. Please be seated.

Speaker 7: I mean, there was no evidence to establish that the Holy Land Foundation itself was a terrorist organization. That was not the allegation. The allegation was that they were providing material support to a terrorist organization.

Speaker 4: Does the name of the Kalkilya Zakat Committee appear on the Treasury Department list today? No. The Islamic Charity Society of Hebron. Does that name appear on the list? Did it appear on the list as of June 14th, 2001? No. And it doesn't appear there today either, correct? No. I will, uh, go through the rest of them collectively, and let's see if the answers are the same. Okay. The Tulkarm Zakat Committee, the Nablus Zakat Committee, the Ramallah Zakat Committee, the Jenin Zakat Committee and the Islamic Science and Culture Committee. Is it fair to say that the names of none of those organizations appeared on the Treasury Department list as of June 14th, 2001?

Matthew Levitt: Those names do not.

Speaker 4: And today they don't appear on that list either, correct? Correct. The names of any board members of those ACAD committees appear on the Treasury Department list as of June 14th, 2001?

Matthew Levitt: Not to my knowledge, but as you said, it is a very big list, but I don't think so. And today?

Speaker 4: Same. Not to your knowledge? Correct.

Nancy Hollander: In Holy Land, the government had this anonymous witness who had the name Avi, fake name Avi. And to my knowledge, there's never been an expert witness in a case, in a criminal case, who was secret the way he was. This was a new event. There sometimes have been witnesses who have been secret, but not experts. And have you reviewed records in the course of preparation for your testimony to suggest that the Holy Land Foundation gave money to these same organizations that we've been talking about? Yes. All of them?

Speaker 22: The question is, where is this charity going? And how it supports the Hamas organization and its objective, I can find several levels. One level is that it supports the population, supports all the population to win the hearts and minds. We see how they do this. Many examples. There is no secret in the territories who controls these committees. The posters, the ceremonies, they're not hiding this. The opposite. They're trying to suppress the fact that they're part of Hamas, and they're showing it. And the person who comes for support of the food knows who supports him, and he's obligated to the organization. This is how they win the hearts and minds, the most simple way, but the most sophisticated way.

Speaker 5: And he testified that each of these zakat committees to which the Holy Land Foundation gave money was associated in some fashion with Hamas. He also testified about terrorist attacks that Hamas had conducted inside Israel. He presented photographs, gory photographs, of the aftermath of some of those bombings, none of which the Holy Land Foundation had anything to do with.

Nancy Hollander: Mr.

Edward Abington: Dreidel, do you have any questions for Mr.

Speaker 3: Abbe? I do, Your Honor. Thank you. What is your rank in the ISA, Israeli Security Agency? My rank is manager. What is your specific title?

Speaker 22: I'm the legal adviser of the counterterrorism division.

Speaker 3: Now, in your work as someone who has researched in this area, have you taken any courses concerning Hamas in any Learning centers, universities, or anywhere else? Not in the university, no.

Speaker 22: I wish there were some.

Speaker 3: So have you taken a course outside of ISA?

Speaker 22: Hamas out of the ISA?

Speaker 3: No. What books have you read on Hamas?

Speaker 22: I read books. Time of Hamas by Salah Mishal, From the Way of Allah to the Jihad, and another book by Shakib. And another author I don't remember. A few articles from the universities.

Speaker 3: Have you written any works on the subject outside of the ISA that may have been published?

Speaker 22: Well, I'm not allowed to do that. I wish I could.

Speaker 3: And you're not part of any university? You don't hold a position as a professor or anything like that? No. And then the Raed Saleh prosecution that started at the end of 2000, the investigation. Yes. That was the beginning of your involvement in this subject. That's correct. So all the things we're talking about that included before 2000, you've done by research.

Speaker 22: Most of it, most by research, self-research.

Speaker 3: Have you Have you ever read a book about zakat committees?

Speaker 22: I didn't read a book. I assume maybe there is. I would like to read it.

Speaker 17: If the defense is unaware of the identity of the individual and is unable to do the kind of investigation that you would want to do to determine whether the witness has any biases or has other past experiences that might undermine his or her credibility, and you're not able to do that work, that's a real cost to a fair defense.

Speaker 7: That's a very fair question. And it's a very difficult issue. And we wrestled with that in the trial. And— but we felt like we could give them everything about this witness that they needed to be able to cross-examine the witness, but for the name.

Speaker 5: The second anonymous witness as well, who went by the name of Major Lior, they were there as representatives of the Israeli security apparatus to make the case against people who were supporting needy Palestinians. Those weren't the only witnesses.

Speaker 7: In my estimation, they provided more flavor than substantive testimony in the case. And I think— but I think it was part of the evidence. I think the evidence in total establish that these defendants knew that the money they were providing were actually material support, providing material support to Hamas.

Speaker 3: So I, I couldn't Google you and find out anything about your work or your background, is that correct?

Speaker 22: I Googled this morning. I found myself.

Speaker 3: We don't know your name. It said Avi. You helped prepare the government witnesses in that case, correct? And you reviewed with the prosecutors which exhibits were to be put in and which were not to be put in?

Speaker 22: Well, not all the exhibits. We had a lot. But as part of them, yes, concerning to the specific issue that I'm dealing with now.

Speaker 3: And all of those documents were seized either in Operation Defensive Shield in the spring of 2002 or later, is that correct?

Speaker 22: Are you talking about the exhibits? Yes.

Speaker 3: Yes, if I am correct. And were the U.S. prosecutors given access to these military bases with the materials Are withdrawn. Those materials that are the exhibits—they were being stored at Israeli military bases, correct? Correct. And were U.S. prosecutors given access to those military bases?

Speaker 22: If U.S. prosecutors أكثر من ثمانية.

Speaker 2: الولايات المتحدة لم يكن عندها وثيقة واحدة أمريكية تدين مؤسسة الهوليلاند فونديشن لا يوجد لا ممكن أن تتكلم عن أدلة ظرفية عن أدلة أو عن معلومات أو شكوك لكن لا يوجد دليل واحد إلا دليل إسرائيلي وهذه الوثائق تم التلاعب بها.

Nancy Hollander: but the U.S. obviously had made a deal with Israel that if he came and testified It would—he would remain secret. His lawyers came with him.

Speaker 3: You are the legal advisor, and yet you have your own legal advisor.

Speaker 22: To be on the safe side.

Speaker 3: Are you looking at your lawyer? Is that what you are doing? Are you looking at your lawyer? Do you need to consult?

Speaker 22: Is it a crime? No.

Speaker 3: But do you need to consult with him? I don't want to get you in trouble.

Edward Abington: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I was asked with respect to Mr.

Nancy Hollander: Avi to allow him to consult with his legal adviser if he felt that answering a question on cross-examination might require the disclosure of a defense secret.

Speaker 22: Disclosure of classified information.

Nancy Hollander: I did grant this request.

Edward Abington: So, because he has a legal adviser seated near the rail in the courtroom, if Mr.

Nancy Hollander: Abiy feels he needs to consult with his legal adviser, I have granted this permission. The government made a big effort to link our clients to anyone in their families who were Hamas supporters. Like Michelle, to Marzouk, who was a Hamas supporter.

Speaker 13: ربطه شكري إنه إلى أخ من حماس أخ الكبير ربطه غسان العشي إنه زوج بنت عمه بيكون موسى أبو مرزوق ربطه مفيد إنه أخوه من أبو خالد مشعل.

Speaker 17: In the communist era in the United States. We made it a crime to be a member of the Communist Party. We were afraid of communism, and we targeted people not for their acts, but for their associations, their membership with the Communist Party. Ultimately, the Supreme Court said that's unconstitutional. You can't punish somebody just because he's associated with the Communist Party. You have to show that he intended to further the illegal ends of the group, not just that he's associated with the group. Well, I think this material support statute, under which the Holy Land Foundation board was prosecuted, is a guilt-by-association statute in modern garb.

Speaker 5: Principal evidence for the defense in the case consisted of testimony from Edward Abington, who had been the U.S. consul in Jerusalem.

Edward Abington: My name is Edward Abington. I'm a former American diplomat. I spent 30 years dealing mainly with the Middle East, specifically Arab-Israeli issues. My last overseas assignment was as the American consul general in Jerusalem from 1993 to 1997. We never received any warnings or caution about dealing with the Holy Land Foundation. They were considered to be a legitimate American charity. And I was familiar with the work— with their work. They had a good reputation for honesty and providing assistance to the people who really needed it. The United States has never labeled zakat committees as controlled by Hamas. Or as being terrorist organizations. And in fact, up until 2007, 2008, AID was channeling assistance through American NGOs working with zakat committees. So the allegation that the Israelis made, that these organizations were basically controlled with Hamas, Was certainly not the view of the United States government at the time I was serving in Jerusalem, or for that matter afterwards. And that was very contradictory. I mean, it was like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand was doing.

Speaker 6: أنا شخصياً زرت فلسطين وعملت زيارة ميدانية لمؤسسات الخيرية المختلفة وكان شروطها واضحة جداً إن إحنا مؤسسة أمريكية وبالتالي لابد كل جمعية نتعاون معها تكون مرخصة حسب القوانين المحلية. لذلك الوقت كانت عمليا كل المؤسسات الفلسطينية مرخصة من قبل الاحتلال اسرائيلي لجان الزكاة والمستشفيات والمداجن.

Mufeed Abdelkader: إن أعضاء لجنة الزكاة سواء الحاليين أو السابقين لا ينتمون إلى أي تنظيم سياسي كما أن الموافقة على جمعية لجان الزكاة في الضفة الغربية في بدايتها كان يفترض فيه الحصول على موافقة من الأردن وحاليا يجب الموافقة من وزارة الأوقاف التابعة للسلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية فلا يمكن لأي عضو من الأعضاء أن يكون ناشطاً على المستوى السياسي. في نفس الفترة التي كنا نتلقى فيها من مؤسسة الهوليلاند فاونداشن مساعدات، كنا نحصل على مساعدات من مؤسسات أمريكية كاليو أس إيد والأنيرة وإنترناشنال إيد.

Speaker 2: طلقت الجمعية من مؤسسة الجي آيزد الألمانية مبالغ. إلى مئتي ألف يورو وبالإضافة إلى ذلك المشاريع الأخرى التي تلقيناها من مؤسسة الـ UNDP فهي مشاريع كبيرة واضح ما وبلغ حجم هذه المشاريع التي قدمت إلينا مبالغها تصل إلى مليونين دولار أمريكي.

Edward Abington: The defense was trying to say, look, the Justice Department is alleging that the Holy Land Foundation is supporting terrorism because they're working with zakat committees. But we have a long list of projects funded by the U.S. government working with American NGOs who worked with zakat committees. And we have the documentation to show this. The court kept a lot of that documentation out of the trial.

Speaker 7: These defendants, particular defendants, were giving money to the zakat committees knowing that was going to Hamas, whether it's legitimate or not, really isn't at issue. It's whether they knew that the money that was being funneled to the committees were actually going to Hamas. And I think we established that at trial.

Speaker 8: But the United States government was also giving money to zakat committee.

Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, I don't remember that as being the— You know, it's been a long time.

Speaker 17: At a minimum, you shouldn't be prosecuted for providing charitable activity to a group that has not even been put on a list so that you have notice that you're not supposed to be aiding it. I mean, they check the list. They— the board of HLF could check the list, and they would say, OK, here's the groups that are on the list. We're not going to support any of those. Here's groups that are not on the list. We can support those.

Nancy Hollander: In order to fight these allegations, we had to read all of the discovery from the government that we could read. And that raised a big problem, because there were 10 years of wiretaps that were almost all in Arabic. And we couldn't read— hear— we couldn't understand them. Our clients weren't allowed to read them or listen to them, because they were classified.

Speaker 5: We also presented evidence from John Bryant, who was a former congressman, who represented the Holy Land Foundation after he left Congress.

John Bryant: Well, in 1997, the Holy Land Foundation hired me as an attorney to help them with a problem. I personally contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and We met with leaders of the Dallas office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on 2 occasions to say we had seen these articles in the newspaper and wanted to know, are you— are— is the Holy Land Foundation under investigation? And if so, why? And we had those meetings, and in both cases, we were given no guidance, no advice, no confirmation that they were I met with the number 2 man in the Israeli embassy, the chargé d'affaires. I said, look, I don't know what your concerns are, but if you will convey to me what the concerns are, the Hoda Nan Foundation will operate in such a way that you're no longer concerned. He agreed that perhaps this was a good suggestion and he would get back to me. But weeks passed and he did not get back to me. So, I decided to go to the Israeli embassy I contacted him, and he informed me that his government had told him not to communicate any further with the Holodan Foundation.

Speaker 13: كل يوم كنا نسام الصباح نجاهز نفسنا نجاهز بناتنا للمدرسة نوديهم على المدرسة.

Speaker 15: وبعدين هناك من ضمن نازيم على الداونتاون على المحكمة يعني صار وظيفة هاي هوروتين كل يوم المحكمة الأولى دامت قرابة الشهرين وكان ينتهي اليوم في المحكمة حوالي الساعة الخامسة مساءً تعود إلى البيت بنفس يعني مثقلة بأعصاب متعبة.

Nancy Hollander: Today for the government's war on terror, as the Dallas jury failed to reach a verdict against 5 men accused of sending money to Middle East terrorists. The defendants' supporters call it a witch hunt against Muslims in the name of fighting terrorists. 19 days of jury deliberation, the government failed to get one single conviction. The jury had not been able to agree. Some of them voted guilty for some charges, and some voted not guilty. But it had to be unanimous. And there was not a single charge that the— where the jury was unanimous. So, the case was over. We won.

Noor Elashi: This was a very joyous time for us. We were just beyond happy, and this was like a feeling Moments of happiness that we had and that we could really hold on to.

Speaker 6: نافذ بيتنا هو تسلامي وتي للأرض اللي ربطتنا يا راح الأرض ربطتنا وهتي يا راح الهاتي طولنا في بيتنا هو تسلامي وتي للأرض But soon after that, the judge asked the prosecutor, "Will you retry the case?" And he says, "Yes, Your Honor.

Speaker 18: I believe that we will." مسكوا على طول طلعوا برا فحطوا ال hand cuff إيديه.

Nancy Hollander: There were over 40 charges, as I recall, but primarily it was material support to terrorism.

Speaker 4: And would you say they use a social welfare activity to win the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people? Exactly what they do.

Speaker 17: Well, I think this material support statute is a guilt-by-association statute.

Speaker 3: I couldn't Google you and find out anything about your work or your background. Is that correct?

Speaker 2: I Googled this morning. من ثمانية آلاف وثيقة. الولايات المتحدة لم يكن عندها وثيقة واحدة أمريكية تدين مؤسسة الهوليلاند فونديشن.

Edward Abington: The Justice Department is alleging that the Holy Land Foundation is supporting terrorism because they're working with zakat committees. But we have a long list of projects funded by the U.S. government who worked with zakat committees, and we have the documentation to show this.

Nancy Hollander: And there was not a single charge that the— where the jury was unanimous. So the case was over. We won.

Noor Elashi: But soon after that, the judge asked the prosecutor, will you retry the case? And he says, yes, Your Honor, I believe that we will.

Speaker 5: The second trial was held in 2008.

Nancy Hollander: Then the second trial was in front of Judge Solis, a different judge from the first trial. And in fact, he let in even more evidence for the government than the first judge.

Speaker 7: The big difference in the 2 trials is, I think, probably the government put on probably too much evidence and overwhelmed the jury with, with too much evidence. I remember in general the evidence was presented probably in a more simple and logical way, based more on the timeline.

Nancy Hollander: There were even more burning buses during the second trial. There was a horrible video of people stamping on the American flag that had nothing to do with Holy Land.

Speaker 5: Except that there were 4 main differences. The 4 differences were, first, the government presented testimony from a man named Mohamed Chorbagy, who was a cooperator with the government.

Nancy Hollander: Mr. Chorbagy had gotten into trouble embezzling from somebody unrelated to Holy Land, but he had briefly worked with Holy Land. So the government went to him and said, if you testify against Holy Land, we'll give you a break on your other case. And he testified that everyone in Palestine knew that Holy Land was connected to Hamas, even though he'd never been to the West Bank, and all of his testimony was was based on newspaper articles or talking to people.

Speaker 5: A second piece of evidence was from a Mr. Robert McBrien, who came from the Treasury Department. Mr. McBrien was permitted to testify in the second trial that it didn't matter whether an entity was placed on the list or not, that under circumstances that he described, contributing money to an organization like that could nonetheless violate the law against material support. The government was permitted, as its third piece of new evidence, to call an expert witness named Stephen Simon, who had been on the National Security Council, who's a well-known expert in the area of the Middle East. And Mr. Simon was allowed to testify that the designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization helped the United States in various ways, including being able to station troops in the Mideast and also avoiding another 9/11-style attack on the United States.

Nancy Hollander: There was another piece of evidence. It was actually 3 documents that the Israelis had seized from Arafat's compound. They— I think 2 of them were handwritten. Nobody knew where they came from, who wrote them. One of them said something about Holy Land being connected to Hamas.

Speaker 5: We had objected to those documents. In the first trial, because they were so clearly unreliable, their genesis, their their the basis for the information in them was was so poorly set out. The judge had excluded them in the second trial. The judge allowed them into evidence.

Speaker 6: جزء كبير من المحكمة الثانية كان الإسلام نفسه في الاتهام كووضعت المؤسسات المقدسة باعتبارها مؤسسة يعني قائمة عليها في الإسبانيا. ومسلمين قاموا بتشويه حتى صورة الإسلام ما فيش فيه توضيح للقضية في الصنعة بشكل واضح يعني في المحكمة ما رقوتش على رجال الزكاة ولا ركزوا على رجال الزكاة ركزوا على أشياء لها علاقة بالمكالمات ومش عارف ايش الهدول السكرت افلاس واشياء زي كده لما تعاملوا على كان قضية جمعية ما قضية سياسية ولم يوضحوا البعد السياسي الرئيسي وليش احنا أساساً موجودين في المحكمة يعني ما تكلموا عن هذا القضية يوماً يعني هذه كانت إحدى النقاط الطاعة الرئيسية.

Nancy Hollander: The problem we had was that the government hired an expert in the second trial, and the government was able to keep jurors who we didn't want, and they tried to pick a jury that had the least amount of education. We got rid of a lot of jurors, and did, I think, a really good job. But they ended up with a jury that was much more favorable to the government.

Speaker 4: My name is Mufeed Abdelkader.

Mufeed Abdelkader: And as I look at all these beautiful faces, for my dear brothers and sisters, I want to tell you I'm extremely proud of you for being here, showing support for me and for Brother Shukri and for Brother Ghassan and for all those people who are seeking justice. This is a poem that I wrote in English, so don't critique my grammar. Wire my brain and bug my tongue and tap my thoughts if you can. Examine my walk and study my talk and take my dreams with you to scan. Strip me down and check me out. Search my past from toe to head. Capture every call I ever made. Give your ears to my serious jokes. Translate this and make up that, just to impress you D.C. folks. I hear you say giving clothes to naked orphans was a crime. All children of those who died are worth not a nickel or a dime. I should have sentenced them to death for the awful things their parents did. They're nothing but terrorists-to-be, and none of Them was a normal kid. I beg your pardon, Your Honor Judge. Don't only listen to the other side. I never thought it was a crime to knowingly feed a hungry child.

Speaker 2: I'm very hopeful that this case, that the Holy Land Foundation case, we will win it. The government has No evidence at all for their claim.

Speaker 24: I learned that there had been a previous trial, which ended in a hung jury, and that now these men were being retried. So, I began to read about the Holy Land Foundation, and I began to read about Palestine and the history of Palestine. And I learned a lot that I did not know. So every day at noon, I started going to the trials. We began some projects there. We organized an ongoing daily protest, which was also feeding the poor just outside the federal building. We were giving the same semblance. It's okay to feed poor people. It's not a crime to feed people. We organized buses to come and bring people to the trials. We wanted to fill the courtroom with people, and that was successful. The courtroom was usually filled with people.

Speaker 15: كانت غرفة المحكمة مليئة بالمساندين للقضية حتى انه اضطروا لفتح غرفة أخرى ووضعوا فيها تلفزيون ينقل مجريات المحاكمة أو إصدار الحكم طبعا الجميع لم يصدق بعد أن كان صدر قرار سابق قبل سنة إنه لم نستطع الوصول إلى قرار الآن فجأة كلتهم أثبتت ضدهم.

Noor Elashi: One by one, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. And my heart fell to the floor and it shattered.

Speaker 19: بس على طول صاروا يبتهم يكلبش وحطوا ال hand cuffs عليهم وهيك وإحنا like what are you doing وحتى المحامل بيقولك شو عم تعملوا؟ زك لا أقول لا هم terrorists و they're like a flight threat فما بقدر يروحوا على الطار فهذا كمان إشي تفاجأنا فيه ما حد كان متوقع إنه يمكن هذا آخر يوم.

Speaker 13: أنه حتشوفي بابا في الدار أو إشي هيك يعني وحكونا بس ثلاث أشخاص من كل عيلة يودعوهم يعني حتى ما خلوا الكل فإمي حاكت يعني ما بقدر مثلاً أخلي واحدة من بناتي ما تودع أبوها فحاكت خلاص أنتو الثلاث تروحوا وودعوا أبوكم ودخلونا واحد واحد وعطونا مثلاً تقريباً 15 سكندس حكونا أحضنوه وودعوه وبس انسجنوا بشهر احداش هما بتوسين ايت اخذوهم من المحكمة بعدين بشهر خمسة جبوهم وناطقوا بالحكم فالحكم كان يعني صدمة فمرتها اجت تعاون المحلفين واحدة منهم من الكبار السن صارت تبكي تحكي أنا ما كنت أفكر هيك هيعملوا خاصة ستين سنة وعشرين سنة وخمستاشر إحنا كل فكرنا كان يكون الحكم ممكن ثلاث أربع سنين.

Speaker 25: You know my dad is not gonna basically serve more than sixty five or sixty five years more than a life sentence in prison. Like the mind your mind can't accept that.

Noor Elashi: On sentencing day, my father got up, walked to the podium. And said the following: Nothing in my life was as satisfactory as knowing that I could sign a check. It was the only evidence you have used against me, but that was the most enjoyable part of my life, knowing that I could sign a check to assist the thousands of Palestinian families who got displaced after their homes were demolished Nothing was more satisfactory to me than providing scholarships to hundreds of Palestinian students who had high average grades despite their circumstance.

Nancy Hollander: I said to the judge that a man named Amiri— how can that be, that someone who pleads guilty and admits to being a sleeper agent for al-Qaeda is going to get 10 years, And the government wants whatever they wanted, which was enormous amount for Shukri Abu Bakr, who committed no violent crimes, who was convicted of providing charity to Palestinian children, perhaps, as far as the government was concerned, the wrong children. And the judge's response, as I recall, was something to the effect of, well, Mr. Al-Marri just did one thing, and your client has been a lifelong supporter of Hamas. And I was just stunned.

Speaker 5: I've been a lawyer for— an American criminal lawyer for almost 30 years. And it was the most unjust decision I've ever seen.

Speaker 8: It's like somebody just came up to you and just hit you in the stomach as hard as they could. It took all the air out. You felt empty. You felt— The— a sense of injustice had just occurred.

Speaker 5: We appealed Mr. Al-Aulaqi's conviction to the Court of Appeals in New Orleans. We had raised a number of issues. We challenged the anonymous testimony. Witness, for example. We challenged the admission of the gruesome photographs. We challenged a good bit of the government's evidence, and most of it the Court of Appeals said was okay. But it found 4 errors. Those 4 errors were the admission of Mr. McBrien's testimony, the admission of Mr. Simon's testimony, the admission of Mr. Shorbaji's testimony, and the admission of those documents that the Israeli soldiers had found in the wreckage of the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah.

Nancy Hollander: That the Court of Appeals decision was, well, yes, all 4 of those pieces of evidence, which didn't come in in the first trial, which obviously made a big difference, because in the second trial everyone was convicted, it was all harmless. And that's an outrageous decision, and I believe a political decision. That we were just not going to win.

Speaker 17: بعد الحكم أخذوه مع السجن يعني كانت صدمة كبيرة يعني.

Speaker 13: واحد زي ال مش عارف يفكر.

Speaker 19: أمتذكر إنه أول ما نسجن مش متذكر شو صار كنت علامة من إشي عن جد رفعت التليفون وبدأ أحط بابا بعدين تذكرت إنه ما بقدر أصل عليه.

Speaker 15: He doesn't want to wake up. طبعاً أنا فقدت المعيل فقدت الصديق فقدت الحبيب فقدت ال يعني ال My father is a family man.

Noor Elashi: He loves to gather everyone for breakfast and for lunch and for dinner. So every weekend he made sure to gather the family and make a beautiful Palestinian brunch.

Speaker 25: Now, after he left, we all eat separate, separate times in our own schedule. Rarely do we all sit together and eat. What he brought us together.

Speaker 20: فراغ كبير يعني حتى أنا يوم عرسي اتصل فيه يوم عرسي أبوي وغنالي بس بدل ما أكون مبسوطة كنا نعيط إنه أبوي يعني خصوصي بالذات أبوي كان ينشد في الأعراس وأبوي يعمل أكثر من خمسمائة عراس بس ما ما قدر يعني لا يسوي عرسي ولا يحضرها إحنا معاك.

Speaker 25: He works in a kitchen in the prison, so he gets some money. Instead of using it for commissary, which is stuff that you can buy in prison—for example, tennis shoes—he's been wearing the same ones for three years. He would send me the checks every. Every month because he knew I needed it, and by doing that, he's helping my mom. The first you know check I got, I got set aside money to send him a check every month, and I said, "Now it's my turn." You know, Baba, it's my turn. I want to give back to you. And he said, "You don't have to do that, Baba.

Speaker 19: Like you're my greatest gift." Baba can دايماً حاطت يمكن يعني حتى ما ما كانت تحتاج لشيء مليحة مش مليحة. أنا شكراً لك أنك تحط في عقلك الظاهر أنك ابني وبنتي وحاولت أعمل هذا طبعاً أمام أبابا مش لازم تعمل هالشي بس حسيت حالي أنه لازم ما عنديش إخوة أو إشي هيك فأنا كنت الولد ففي الوقت الذي كنت فيه أبد الأيتام في فلسطين خمس ألاف يتيم كانت تكفلهم المؤسسة أصبح أولادي في حكم الأيتام أبوهم مغيب في السجون في أرض الحضارة دقت المرارة في صور اجتني من غسان مؤخرا طبعا بحسه كبر كتير يعني كبر بتطلع على داء انه مثلا صارت قطنة بيضاء يعني ما شاء الله لكن يعني لو صبغ شعره أسود أكثر شيء أنا بشتاكله لما كنا نلعب مع بعض أنا كنت صغيرة وهو كان نساته شباب وبيرقد ورايا نلعب ونرسم مع بعض كان دايما يورجيني كيف أرسم يورجيني كيف أخذ صور كان يشتريلي أي شيء اشتكتله هو نفسياً وإن فشوف أبوي هو نساته شباب ودائماً بيبتسم دائماً عنده بسمة كبيرة وأزك عبدال عند بابا وكلهم voluntary deportation to anywhere بس anywhere.

Speaker 18: بس هذا طلع الكمر بس يفتحوا لي خذوا مني عن الكمر بس لا خذينني كانوا أمي كوبس.

Speaker 19: ظن إحنا يمكن like literally نقتل بعض على على تلي على telephone calling هلأ سرنا يمكن أحسن بس يعني منعصب like oh my god how could we what are you doing بابا is about to call or if it's Baba it's so funny every time it's Baba like okay we know it's Baba بس I don't know إذا الحمد لله يمكن من كثر الحب لبابا بس سأقتل لك بابا سأقتل لك بابا أنا حاولت قدر إمكاني أن ما أشعر أن أبوه مش موجود مواجهته مشكلة لما يتصل أنا أختصر الاتصال حكي معاه أخليهم يحكم معاه عشان أشعر أنه هو عايش معنا حتى لو هو بعيد جسديا يعني بس روحه وكراراته والأشياء هذي نفسياً إنه يشعر إنه أنا موجود بحياة بناتي أكثر شيء أشتاق إليه أنا ليلي طويل فروحي تميل لشمس الحياة وهمس النغم وضحك الصغار بأرجاء داري ودفء الحبيبي بجوف الظلم قد سرت وحيدا عن أهلي شديدا تجسمي رهين وإسمي رقم السلام عليكم يا أستاذ السلام ورحمة الله كيف حالك يا ماما كيف ذنك الله بارك فيك أمك يا أخواتي والحمد لله يا أمي احنا بخير بس دير بالك على حالك الله يرضى عليك ويساعدك دايماً أنا بدي لك يا رب الفرج إن شاء الله.

Noor Elashi: My dad gets two fifteen-minute phone calls a week, and he distributes those calls among my mother, my sister, and myself. I have a sister who lives northeast in Connecticut, me in New York. And my mother in Texas.

Speaker 6: كيف عليك بابا؟ أهلاً أهلاً حبيبي كيفك بابا؟ أمين عليك شو أخبارك يا بابا؟ تمام والله الحمد لله أنت كيفك حبيبي إن شاء الله تمام؟ الحمد لله طمين عليك بابا كيف أمورك كيف المدرسة معك حبيبتي؟ الحمد لله عيد ميلادي. والله والله أنا عارف أنا رح أودي لك إن شاء الله رسالة ورح أودي لك كارت ورح أودي لك يعني بعض الرسائل.

Speaker 20: وحتى في كثير أوقات لأنه هو بتصل ست ونص بالضبط كل ثلاثة مثلاً هذيك المرة كنت بسوق والعجل تنفس ورحت على المكالمة يعني تنكدت لأنه أنا عافة لسه بقيلي أخرى أسبوع لأحكي معاه لا ما نوصي Hello.

Speaker 19: Hey, salaam alaikum. Wa alaikum salaam.

Speaker 6: Sorry to bother you while you're driving.

Speaker 19: Baba, you never bother us. No, I don't know. I think Mama and Shurukh's phones— I don't know why.

Speaker 6: Okay, I just want to— I want you to make— be comfortable. Assalamu alaikum. Assalamu alaikum.

Speaker 19: I called the prison just to make sure, no, everything's okay. I'm calling you. I was like, are you guys— everything's good? No lockdown? She's like, yes, we're fine.

Speaker 6: Yeah, it's good to check. It's good to check. Yeah. الحمد لله. طيب يا بابا بحب أضمن عليكم السلام إن شاء الله.

Speaker 19: أوكي بابا وصيصي.

Speaker 18: يلا حبيبي يلا take care يا بابي. ناسام ناسام.

Speaker 20: ولا يبتعد عنا أول شيء كان هو في Illinois تقريباً 11 ساعة من هون.

Speaker 15: بر وبعديها قعد سنتين هناك بعدين هلأ تقريباً قعد سنتين في إندية والزور أبوي تقريباً مرة بالسنة لأنه بده يعني يومين روحة بالبر يومين رجعة وغير الجو ما بتساعد خصوص بالشتاء لأنه كتير عندهم تلاج وهيك شئ لأنه هو شمال أمريكا هلأ ذهب إلى ماريان إيلينوي وهو وهناك للست سنوات الأخيرة تقريباً CMU Communication Management Unit زيارات أظن مرة في الشهر لكن لبعده تقريباً عشر ساعات ونصف نذهب في السيارة نذهب مرتين إلى ثلاث مرات في العام لأنه ذهاب مكلف بوقته وماله وجهد غياب عن العمل.

Speaker 19: اللي زيارة من التمانية للثلاثة إن شاء الله I think يوم الأحد منشوفها بس يمكن يوم الأحد اللي زيارة تكون يعني قصيرة عشان نقدر نرجع يكون عنا وقت نرجع back الوقت بنش كثير بسرعة وقت بيخلونا نستنى برجعونا بيطولوا عليه عما هو يجي يفوت في الغرفة بس هلأ صار الحمد لله يعني إحنا بألف نعمة من قبل قبل لما كان في إنديانا في السياميو من مكان وراء الكزاز كان يعني كتير صعب علينا كانت كتير صعبة عشان أختي سنابل الله يرحمها كانت على الأكسجين لما نروح مثلاً في الطيارة أو كانت ما كانوا يخلوها والأشياء هيك وأدريتها بس في السيارة نفس الإشي كنا لازم نستأجر زي أكسجين تينك وكانت تتعب كتير فا وبنفس الوقت لازم نروح بوقت Like البنات معطلين للمدرسة، فيمكن مرتين بالسنة.

Speaker 18: زهرية.

Speaker 19: I don't know why he's naked. I really don't.

Noor Elashi: Once we get in, usually we have about 4 hours with him. So we go inside the prison visitation room. Now, one of the most cruel aspects of this prison is that we cannot touch our father. We cannot hug him. We have not been able to touch our father since 2009.

Speaker 6: شعوري أنتوا الدامين وشش شعوري يعني طبعا هذه معاملة غير إنسانية وما لهاش لازم لأنه أنا أصلا كنت برا ما استدش أي خطر على المجتمع ولا خلاف.

Speaker 20: إحنا هنا تقريبا أربع سنين بعرفش ريحته بعرفش إشي عنه.

Speaker 6: يعني من كثر ما هو بعيد عنا يعني التغير كتير عليه كمان هو لما يشوفنا هو بتفاجأ يعني كان في سنة اجيت ويعني كنت من زوج جديد والسنة اللي مضى اخذت ابني معي والله اني سويت حفلة سوينا عدلا وانبسطنا ولما شفت سبحان الله دمعت عيني والله وحاولت سألتهم قلت لهم بس خليني ابوزه قالوا والله ممنوع ممنوع بتقول هذا حفيظ الاول قالوا ممنوع يعني لما تكون امامك زوجتك وابطالك ولا تصير ان ترمسهم ولا تصير ان تحضرهم وتشعر بالاسى ليش ثلاثين سنة من حياتي في امريكا لم ارتكب جرما واحدا ولم تكن عندي مخالطة يعني زي ما تحكي سواق السيارة بسرعة اللوكر.

Speaker 26: هلأ هلأ ذكريا منزلة.

Speaker 18: الحمد لله يعني شكلك أنت عبان يعني شوية.

Speaker 13: وبخاف لما نتأخر بخاف بشيل همنا إن الكونسر معنا إشي وهيك، بس الحمد لله طمن علينا وإحنا طمننا عليه.

Speaker 19: بعدين خاتو عزيزة، إلو تمن السين مش شايفها، فأي خط؟ ما ما ما ما، وشفت سيده؟ كع. Yes. وشاف سيده، وسيده طعم جاجة، وشوكليت. بكرة إحنا نتصور. حكى لنا، طلبتوا هانكم عشان. تطور مع بعض يوم السبت في بيكون هناك واحد من المساجد يشتغل بصور برضو رحنا نشوف بابا ودائما منروح يعني نفس العدد ومبارح رحنا وفتنا وعادي وبعدين فتنا عزيزة رسلنا عبابا وكعدنا وبعدين نادوا عليه وصارت زي تبادل فيه وتصرخ عليه بابا حاول يحكي لهم بس احنا دايما هيك واجينا مبارح ما حد حكى اشي حكى طب بدي احكي مع المدير اللطنة فندوه وبعدين صار يحكي معاه بعدين انا كنت رحت احكي حكيت معاهم قلت لك ايش فيه ويزاك لازم خمسة قلت لك طيب احنا دايما خمسة ويزاك ريا ما يعني he doesn't count they're like no انتو لازم يكون بس خمسة بابا زعل even more he's like وحكى خلاص انتو كلكم روحوا هو بابا بليز خلينا أنا أنا بروح باخد زكريا من بروح يزك لا كلكم روحوا أنا أنا ما بقدر أستغني عن حدا واليوم مخططين آه يا حرام وزكريا يعني ملبست يعني تاي وكله عشان يعني عن زكريا وهذا الإشي الثاني بيقطع قلبي إنه كله هذا عشان زكريا شو عمل زكريا مش فاهم بعدين لما طلعنا حاجة زكريا why see the cry ليش تيده بعيد I love you.

Speaker 6: حبيبيت حبيبيت حلموني يا كبابا. والله.

Speaker 19: كتير حبيبي اليوم لما لما I dropped them off صحيح كي صار عايز. He's like, I want see though.

Speaker 18: أنا أدري. إن شاء الله إن شاء الله.

Speaker 19: So إن شاء الله.

Speaker 6: إن شاء الله فيما بعد إن شاء الله things will get better.

Speaker 18: يا رب. إذا. Yes, Baba.

Speaker 6: Okay, Hamid.

Speaker 18: I'm sorry I didn't have time to sit together. It's okay.

Speaker 19: It's okay. ما هو every time the attention is on me at least you give it.

Speaker 18: Okay. Okay. Baba. Okay.

Speaker 13: أنا مين تبقى كيابنتي النوم؟ أنت عسبيكر شكرا عسبيكر.

Speaker 18: شكرا. سجل كل كلامتك.

Speaker 13: سبحان الله سنابل يعني كتير قريبة من أبوها تحب أبوها كتير كتير يعني طبعا مرضها لأنها كانت ما تشوف إلا أنا وأبوها في المستشفى يعني ناخد موانع وبعد عن بعض معظم الأوقات أنا طول النهار عندها وهو طول الليل فتأثرت كتير كتير كتير يعني حتى صحتها من بعد ما انسجن صرت تدخل مستشفى أكتر أصعب المحطات هي أن تموت بنيتي ولا أكون لها الحب الكبير الذي كنت أريد أن أكون ماتت وبيني وبينها ثمانمية وخمسين ميل، ثم يموت أبي بعدما أنتقل إلى هذه الولاية وأنا على بعد خمس ساعات في السيارة ولا أستطيع أن أقابلها، فيموت أبي.

Speaker 25: من أول ما حكى محاولنا.

Speaker 19: بنات الـ All In One Foundation كنا نقعد مع بعض و we started زي website بعد ما نسجنوا هيك عملنا زي YouTube page وعملنا زي little videos كنا كتير نسافر ونحكي عن قضية أنه على زي مؤتمرات ونحكي وكنا مثلاً حتى نحكي هان locally like fundraising dinners وأشياء هيك بعدين أجا وقت المحامين حكوا ما تحكوا هيك أو ما تعملوا هيك هذا حيأثر على دس وعلى دس بس ما يعني ففي أجد فترة يعني كتير ما عملنا أشياء زي ما كنا بدنا عشان كنا خايفين.

Noor Elashi: So I talk about the case to everyone. I talk about the case when go out into the streets and I go to restaurants and you know sometimes I'll talk to just people I meet at different events. Every single person. Who has heard this story has been outraged. I have spoken at every major Ivy League school in the country—at Harvard, at Yale, at Brown University, at Columbia University—and as I had the opportunity to speak, أنا وصحباتي كنا عاملين جروب في الجامعة اللي هي Students for Justice in Palestine وعملنا event عزمنا ميكو بوليد إنه يجي يحكي على موضوع.

Speaker 20: فلسطين للطلاب في الجامعة وبعد ما خلص راحت حكيت له القصة وهو تفاجأ بصراحة يعني خصوصا لما عرف أبوي شو صار فيه.

Mufeed Abdelkader: I was I was shocked about what I heard. I never heard about it really quite before. I heard little bits about it, but I didn't really know the full the full scope. And then I began to inquire some more and to get more information. And then I came back to Texas after that, and I met with the Families, and over the last two three years I've been gathering information, all the information that I could find about about this case. Ah, كويس كويس في عندي contract. أجا contract من from the publisher.

Speaker 6: والله طيب حبيبي نروح نروح.

Mufeed Abdelkader: I have to sign it now or read it and sign it. الحمد لله بسوى we have a book. I'm reading through the I'm reading through the I was able to meet, obviously, Shukri's family several times, Mufeed's family several times, Ghassan Elashi's family several times here in Dallas. And just recently, about a month ago, I was able to visit Shukri in prison. I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by his ability to maintain this wonderful spirit, to maintain his optimism. We talked about the kids. We talked about the case. We talked about my family, his family, the history, the Palestine politics. I mean, we talk about everything, you know, like friends do. The only people who get used to it are the people who belong there, and they're there. You see them. I've got all the material. Now it's a question of sitting down and writing. This is a political case. I think these 5 men are political prisoners. I think their position right now is very similar to the position of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. You could see that they were doing a very good job and being very successful. And this contradicts the Zionist narrative, that there is no Palestinian problem, that there is no Palestinian people, that the refugees and the poverty and all of these issues are not true, that Israel has nothing to do with it. They're all just terrorists. It's all a lie. They all want to attack Israel. So if you have an organization that's decent, that's honorable, that is doing good work, people are going to start thinking, maybe they have a point. Maybe the Zionist story is not perfect. And that's why they had to bring them down. It was a threat because it challenges the Zionist narrative. And that is the most dangerous thing to do for Israel. That is the most dangerous thing to do for Zionism. And that is the thing that the Israeli lobby fights the most.

Speaker 6: اللوب الصيوني في البلاد المتحدة لا يريد وجه آخر لحكاية الشعب الفلسطيني مع الاحتلال، فاستهداف المؤسسة لم يكن من أجل بضعة الدولارات التي كنا نبعثها والتي بدو بتكات تكفي إحجاز الشعب الفلسطيني ولكن للطاقة الكامنة التي كانت مخزنة في هذه المؤسسة. استطاعت أن توصل عبارات ومعانات الشعب الفلسطيني وبدأ الشعب الأمريقي يتعاطف بشكل كبير جداً.

Speaker 18: We appealed.

Speaker 8: The case after the second trial in what's called the Fifth Circuit, or one of the higher courts. And they affirmed the conviction. They said, we agree that the jury got it right. So they didn't change the verdict. We appealed it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court decided they didn't want to listen. The only thing left is another lawsuit that says we didn't get a fair trial. It's called a habeas petition.

Nancy Hollander: And what that means is you go back all the way to the beginning, back to Judge Solis, and argue that this was not a fair trial, argue that the lawyers were ineffective, which we all agreed that we were in one way or another, that we, we filed affidavits with the court saying things that we didn't do that we should have done.

Speaker 27: What I'm working on, what I filed and what I'm pursuing, it's called a 2255 motion, which is under the federal law, where after their convictions and their appeals have been denied, it's a way to raise fundamental constitutional errors, to raise new evidence that had not been considered before, and to ask the court to reconsider the validity of their convictions. And because this whole case, the whole issue in this case, was whether or not Hamas controlled these sakat committees. So, at the trial, there was no witness presented by either the defense or the prosecution who was a person who actually worked with the zakat committee. If they had a retrial, it would be on the same accusations, but the trial would be completely different, because at a retrial, the jury would have firsthand testimony from people that would testify that these zakat committees are not and were not controlled by Hamas.

Speaker 8: Right now, the lawyers have been able to secure 34 affidavits from different lead— I mean, different board members of these zakat committees who swear that these zakat committees gave aid based on need, not on creed or politics, that they were not under influence of anybody.

Speaker 27: This 2255 petition is the last legal opportunity that these men have To challenge their convictions in court, if this petition is not successful, then they have no further legal options. إذا إذا القضية في فلسطين نسمي يعني مش واصلة.

Speaker 13: نفس الشيء أنا بشعر إنه القضية مش هتصل لمكان إلا ما تصير تهدى الأمور في فلسطين.

Speaker 2: يبقى الحل السياسي أيضا هذا مستبعد لكنه قائم بمعنى أن تكون صفقة على على مستوى مستوى إقليمي ودولي.

Nancy Hollander: We've thought at times that there might be a way to do some kind of prisoner trade. We've not been able to really get anywhere with that. Of course, we could ask the president for a pardon.

Edward Abington: It seems to me that the only possible outcome for these people is a pardon. And I don't know politically whether a pardon would be in the works by American officials.

Speaker 11: I would hope that someone, a Justice Department official, whether it's Eric Holder or whomever, would see That there was an injustice done in this case, recommend to the president of the United States whoever he or she may be, and say these men should be pardoned. Okay.

Speaker 19: وإذا ما عملوا pardon إيش بيصير حضر له في السجن يعني that's it.

Speaker 17: I think you know their their best shot would be in a court rather than in the realm of politics because we're still in a you know a kind of anti terror.

Speaker 8: Well, the future of this case. This will end when the legal options are over, as far as whether these men get out of prison. It'll either end in them serving their time or dying in prison, or we may be successful with this habeas or the legal battle that we're still fighting.

Noor Elashi: I'm not going to keep— I'm not going to be convinced that this man will die in prison. In prison, that my father will die in prison. That's not going to happen, in my eyes. I can't believe that.

Mufeed Abdelkader: I think the way this can be resolved has to be through public pressure. So, whether people are living here in this country, in the United States, whether they live in the Middle East, whether they're in Europe, people have to stand up. People have to protest. People have to speak up against this. This has to be something everybody talks about, argues about. Is it right? Is it wrong? And bring it to a point where politicians have to listen. Bring it to a point where there is public pressure to at least reopen the trial, if not to you know throw out the trial altogether and exonerate them.

Speaker 6: إيش تحدث؟ ما فيش كذا الحد واحد. هي ما صدقش الأوضاع السياسية في في في في أمريكا وثاني إن شاء الله أشياء زي كده ح هيغير الأوضاع القانونية. إما إحنا ما في محاولة. ولا ما زالت لسه ما حنصلناش جواب من القاضي أما الحل واضح هي قضية سياسية مسألة ما فيها لك قدر يعني مسألة سياسية بامتياز يعني الحل الله أعلم إذا كان قضية سياسية ليش كرهتوا الحل لا أعتقد ولا أؤمن بالقضاء الأمريكي ولا بعدلة القضاء الأمريكي أبداً بعد اليوم نريد تحرك عالمي وضغط على الرئيس أوباما دي من أجل عفو رياحي Dear Mr.

Speaker 26: President, I have been writing a letter to you year after year. I am 11 years old now. I am one of the proud daughters of the Holy Land Five. My father and 4 other great men were put into jail for nothing. My father got 65 years. He did not hurt anyone or anything. If anything, he helped people. Now, the favor I really want from you is to free the HLF-5. You are the only one who can do this, and I hope you will. Did you know I have the same birthday as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? Maybe that's why we think the same. Come on, Mr. President, we need you. Can you solve this case? I hope you think about this, and please, as soon as you can. Thank you. Sincerely, an American girl who wants her dad back.