Amer Jubran in Prison: Feared and Targeted by the US and Israel

"Is the US Anti-War Movement Pro-Resistance? At this point, it is a waste of time to discuss the perfidy of the US government. It is established beyond doubt that Bush, like presidents before him, represents the interests of a prosperous war industry. What is worth researching, though, is the methods by which the US managed to achieve its vast criminal empire. Such research needs not focus on the well-known economic and military machinery and its political consequences, but rather on the unconventional and secret strategies employed by the US to encircle and strangle its prospective targets. These strategies include client regimes, large-scale media propaganda, and co-opting opponents of the system. One such opponent is the United States "antiwar movement."

"As well, the US continues to maintain Israeli oppression of Palestine, it continues to wage war against Colombia using a phony war on drugs as a pretext, it continues to defy international treaties regarding war crimes, it continues to refuse to submit to an international court of law, it continues to steal oil from the Arab world, and it continues to support the dictatorships of its many client regimes. At home it has created the police-state Department of Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, the Border Security Act, and the world's largest prison population."

- Amer Jubran, February 4, 2004

Amer Jubran interviewed in Boston at the time of his deportation in 2004 from the US to Jordan.

We received news yesterday from Amer Jubran, following his sentence by a military tribunal in Jordan to 10 years in prison. Amer was arguably the most powerful Palestinian leader on the East Coast of the United States until he was “forced to agree” to leave the country and return to Jordan in 2004. Amer is a personal friend of mine whom I came to know when he worked with us in the anti-war demonstrations in Boston from 2001 after the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition to his work as a writer, orator and Palestinian activist he is co-founder of One Palestine: The New England Committee to Defend Palestine (NECDP). Personally, I’ve always known Amer to be an amiable, soft-spoken compassionate man with a keen sense of humor and as a supporter of the Palestinian people, a clear-headed articulate speaker on International Relations. Axis of Logic has been publishing articles written by and about Amer since it’s inception in May, 2003.

The U.S. government and Israeli Zionists in the US and abroad feared him – and targeted him. Their joint pursuit of him followed him to Jordan after his deportation where he now begins a 10 year prison sentence handed down by a Jordanian military tribunal and all that life for a Palestinian leader in a Jordanian prison means.

"The Killing of Hassin: An indication of the importance of Hamas is the hostility and violence it inspires in the US and Israel. Evidence of this is the use of American attack helicopters and guided missiles to assassinate Hamas members and leadership, the US listing Hamas as an international terrorist organization, and pressure by the US on its allies and client regimes to deal with Hamas as terrorist. This singling out has taken place even though Hamas never carried out a military or political action outside the boundaries of historic Palestine. Why has Hamas been singled out? The answer is the Israeli-US blanket charge of "terrorism" -- Hamas is blamed with carrying out lethal attacks against Israeli innocents. But this answer ignores the entire Israeli occupation of Palestine, the long history of Israeli oppression and its consequences, and the reality of the political shift in both the region and the rest of the world in favor of Hamas and the culture of resistance which Hamas exemplifies."

- Amer Jubran, March, 2003

Last year, Noah Cohen, a mutual friend of ours wrote about Amer’s first arrest in the United States, the aftermath and his arrest in 2014 in Jordan. (excerpts from Noah’s July 21, 2014 article published in Counterpunch):

Arrested in the United States. Noah Cohen (photos added):

Amer with Neturei Karta International Rabbis opposed to Israel, in Boston Garden on the annual celebration of "The Birth of Israel."

“I met Amer Jubran 13 years ago when he was living in the United States. He was arrested for the first time at a protest in Brookline, MA that he helped to organize against a yearly celebration of the colonization of Palestine called “Israel Day.” Police arrested him, broke up the demonstration, held him over night in jail with hand and leg shackles, and then charged him with assaulting a passerby. After a lengthy series of court hearings, the judge found the charges to be baseless. Information obtained in the course of the hearings revealed instead that the police had been in the pay of the Israel Day organizers, including the Israeli consulate. The police had been communicating with them about the protest–including details about individual protest organizers–and had more or less acted as agents of a foreign government….

Amer speaking at an anti-war demonstration in Boston in 2003

“Two days after the first demonstration of the New England Committee to Defend Palestine (NECDP), FBI and INS agents broke into Amer’s home in Rhode Island and demanded that he answer some questions. “Please the ears of this gentleman,” said the INS agent pointing to the FBI agent, “or you’ll rot in jail for fifty years.” Amer demanded his right to an attorney. They jailed him, at first without charges or access to a lawyer. We obtained a lawyer for Amer, but they refused to give any information to him when he called, and hung up on him. They held him that way for 17 days. It took an international campaign just to get him a bond hearing.”

Noah continues:

“Eventually the INS (which became the ICE) manufactured immigration charges against Amer to justify–and at the same time conceal–the US government’s political persecution. They now claimed that the marriage through which he had obtained his green card had been fraudulent.

“For over a year, we fought the case in hearings before the immigration court. The Department of Homeland Security devoted more than 12 FBI agents to “gathering information” on what was ostensibly an immigration matter. Agents visited members of Amer’s ex-wife’s family and tried to intimidate them into testifying against him. In some cases they showed pictures of Amer taken at demonstrations in the US and claimed that they were images from a “terrorist training camp” in Afghanistan. They tried to connect Amer with 9/11, and to suggest that people who didn’t fully cooperate might make themselves liable to prosecution in connection with 'terrorism'.

“We fought the case in the immigration court for more than a year. In the course of the proceedings, we submitted FOIA petitions that turned up evidence of widespread cooperation between local police and federal agents in monitoring us and other activists for political activities such as demonstrations, educational websites, and court solidarity.”

Amer with Haredi Rabbi, Yisroel Dovid Weiss who came from New York to Boston each year with other member rabbis of Neturei Karta International to protest the annual "Birth of Israel" celebration.

Arrested in Jordan. Noah Cohen:

“A man is taken from his home by 20 armed, militarized police in fascist black uniforms. They break in through the doors and windows, rappel from the roof with ropes, storm the home where he lives with his wife and four children, in the dead of night. They take him away, and no one hears from him for days, and then weeks, and then months. He isn’t charged with anything; for a long time he is simply disappeared. There is no official charge, but he is a known political activist, a writer, a lecturer. This isn’t news, because the country is Jordan, the orders come from the US or from Israel, and the man is an Arab, a Palestinian….

“Jordan recently passed legislation further criminalizing political speech as part of its “anti-terrorism” laws. The new amendments specifically criminalize activities that are harmful to Jordan’s relationship with foreign governments. Even before the passage of the new legislation, Jordan had already tried Mwaffaq Mahadin for “endangering relations with a foreign state” for speaking about Jordan’s security cooperation with the US on Al-Jazeera, so it isn’t hard to imagine how the new legislation will be applied. Over the past year, Amer has been sending out critical information and articles about Israeli, US and Jordanian cooperation in destabilizing Syria.”

Yesterday, we received the following information from Free Amer (from detention in Jordan). It includes a statement by Amer who called from prison along with viable things we each can all do to intervene on his behalf:

Amer Jubran, deported to Jordan where he has now been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Statement from Palestinian Activist Amer Jubran on Being Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison by Jordan's State Security Court (Audio recording with transcript)

See Action Steps and Open Letter below.

On Wednesday, July 29, Amer Jubran was sentenced by Jordan's State Security Court along with 8 other defendants. The rest of the defendants were given sentences of 2-3 years; for his refusal to cooperate, he was singled out for excessive punishment, and given a 15 year sentence (reduced by his lawyers to 10 years). The verdict comes after 15 months in detention--the first 3 months without charges.

He was able to get a call out of the prison where he is being held in Jordan to make a statement about his trial and sentencing. Listen to the audio recording of Amer's statement after receiving his prison sentence on July 29, 2015 .

We include a full transcript below:

"Last Wednesday on July 29, 2015, I was issued a verdict of 15 years in prison which was reduced to 10 years later. This verdict was issued by a military court, a martial tribunal court made of three judges. The trial lasted for about 1 year and over thirty sessions, through which my legal defense team has proven beyond doubt false charges of terrorism. There were 10 charges and our defense amounted to zero effect on the outcome of that trial, as I was given a maximum punishment, while everybody else in the group were given 2-3 year sentences. It is clear that I am being targeted as a person, and such decisions had completely put aside law and justice and replaced that with politics and vengeance.

"During the interrogation period, I was told by the GID that any decision made about me is involving (quote) 'our American and Israeli friends' (end-quote). All started when I refused to be a sell-out and work against the Lebanese resistance. I was told then that I will be sent behind the sun for such a refusal. And frankly it is very easy for me to disappear behind the sun rather than to be well outside but a sell-out and traitor.

"Please use this information to spread to everyone among our activist media who are interested. Especially media that is pro-resistance in Lebanon. And anybody you think is worthy to take this information to. Also please tell my love and my respect to everybody who stood by me among our friends and brothers and sisters where you are. And I thank you deeply from my heart and please do not forget Palestine."

In conversation, Amer further clarified that all 10 of the original charges were disproved by his defense team, but a new charge was manufactured at the time of the verdict. He also clarified that his refusal to be a "sell-out and work against the Lebanese resistance" was a refusal to work as an infiltrator and informant.

We are releasing this statement along with a call for activists to renew pressure on the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jordan's Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al Hussein, demanding an independent review of Amer's trial and the flagrant violations of human rights involved in his imprisonment. It is now 13 months since our initial open letter to the High Commissioner--an appeal that is still unanswered. (See the text of our letter).

It has been clear from the outset that Amer was targeted for his activism and political speech on behalf of Palestine. The lengthy proceedings before the State Security Court were a sham trial, before a court with no political independence, acting as a rubber-stamp for the GID (General Intelligence Directorate).

Amer's statement confirms what many of us have suspected from the beginning: his arrest and detention--and now his sentencing to 10 years of imprisonment--have taken place in coordination with the US and Israel.

Please take the time to forward Amer's statement. You can support justice for Amer by sending letters, faxes and e-mails over the next week (8/5/15-8/12/2015) addressed to Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al Hussein at the following address:

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Fax: (41 22) 917 0008 (If faxing from US: 011-41-22-917-0008)
E-mail: registry@ohchr.org

And please cc the following:

Prime Minister and Defense Minister
Abdullah Ensour
Fax number 962-6-464-2520 (If faxing from US: 011-962-6-464-2520)
e-mail: info@pm.gov.jo

Minister of Interior
Salamah Hammad
Fax number 962-6-560-6908 (If faxing from US: 011-962-6-560-6908)
e-mail: info@moi.gov.jo

Minister of Justice
Bassam Talhouni
Fax number 962-6-464-3197 If faxing from US: 011-962-6-464-3197)
e-mail: Feedback@moj.gov.jo

Our open letter is below:

Open Letter to Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al Hussein
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
email registry@ohchr.org
August 3, 2015

Dear UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al Hussein:

We wrote to you in July of 2014 to ask you to intervene in the case Amer Jubran of Jordan.* Mr. Jubran at that time had been detained for two months without charges, and you, at that time, were the UN High Commissioner-Elect. Now you occupy that office, and Mr. Jubran has been convicted. On July 29, 2015 he was sentenced by the Jordanian State Security Court, a military tribunal, to ten years in prison on charges of terrorism. These charges were proven false by Mr. Jubran's defense team, but a decision was made against him nevertheless.

We saw no sign that you acted to intervene in this case in 2014. Perhaps if you had this sham trial would not have proceeded. But now that it has come to its predictable conclusion we ask you again to intervene to question why such a harsh sentence could be handed down without evidence of any crime. As High Commissioner for Human Rights we believe it is your responsibility to act to review this case. Amer Jubran is an internationally known activist, speaker, and writer on Palestinian human rights, and a critic of US and Israeli policies in the Arab world. These are the reasons he was targeted, not for terrorism. Though Jordan is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the human rights violations of its General Intelligence Directorate and State Security Court are well known. This is a problem that, as a Jordanian and as Human Rights Commissioner, you have every reason to be concerned about. The unjust sentence against Amer Jubran should be overturned immediately.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

The Amer Jubran Defense Campaign
defense@amerjubrandefense.org

*See our previous letter at Free Amer!

cc:

Prime Minister and Defense Minister
Abdullah Ensour, e-mail: info@pm.gov.jo
Fax number 011-962-6-464-2520

Minister of Interior: Salamah Hammad, e-mail: info@moi.gov.jo
Fax number 011-962-6-560-6908

Minister of Justice Bassam Talhouni, e-mail: Feedback@moj.gov.jo
Fax number 011-962-6-464-3197

Amer Jubran Defense Campaign
freeamer.wordpress.com | defense@amerjubrandefense.org

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A Tale of Two Wars: US wars on terrorism and communism were motivated not by stopping these supposed menaces, but in order to secure supreme power under their pretext. These wars were both governed by unsurpassed racism and cruelty against Arab and Muslim people. The US public, the people of Western Europe, and Arab compradors are all responsible for the scourge generated by this US policy. They have made it possible through the payment of taxes, through silence, through inexcusable ignorance, through unthinking greed and privilege, through complicity, and through an unbelievable betrayal of basic humanity over a period of more than 60 years. From the ravages there is now emerging a fierce will to fight back. It is visible today in the Iraqi resistance, which is beginning the long task of bringing the US to justice for its monumental crimes.

- Amer Jubran, July 2004

Sources

Amer Jubran Defense Committee

New England Committee to Defend Palestine

Counterpunch

Neturei Karta International Jews United Against Zionism

Articles by Amer Jubran on Axis of Logic

Biography, Essays and Poetry by Les Blough