Criminalising Palestinian solidarity
\nby News Source on July 1, 2011
\nMaureen Murphy writes:<\/p>\n
The United States government has criminalised the Palestinian people, and now it is increasingly treating US citizens who stand in solidarity with Palestine as criminals as well \u2013 including those courageously putting their lives on the line to break the siege on Gaza.<\/p>\n
I am a Palestine solidarity activist in the US, and one of 23 US citizens who have been issued with a subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury as part of what the government has said is an investigation into violations of the laws banning material support to foreign \u201cterrorist organisations\u201d.<\/p>\n
None of us have given money or weapons to any group on the State Department\u2019s foreign terrorist organisation list. But what many of us have done is participate in or help organise educational trips to meet with Palestinians and Colombians resisting the US-funded military regimes they live under.<\/p>\n
The goal of these trips is to learn about the human rights violations happening in these places and to bring those stories back home to the US, to educate people and to organise to change US foreign policy for the better.<\/p>\n
Travel for such purposes should be protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. But a year ago the US Supreme Court decided in Holder vs. Humanitarian Law Project to dramatically expand the government\u2019s definition of what constitutes material support for a foreign terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n
Now the government considers travel to places like the West Bank and Colombia to be a predicate or justification for opening up an investigation and issuing search warrants to raid activists\u2019 homes and seize their belongings. Political speech if made in a \u201ccoordinated way\u201d can be construed as material support. …source<\/a><\/p>\n