Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network stands in solidarity with Taher Herzallah and Kareem El-Hosseiny, two Palestine activists who work for American Muslims for Palestine. Both were arrested and now face fines and jail time for speaking out during the opening statement of David Friedman, the now-confirmed U.S. Ambassador to Israel. See video below:
Herzallah and El-Hosseiny were arrested along with four white, Jewish activists who also participated in the protest against Friedman for his disregard of Palestinian rights; however, three of those four activists had their charges dismissed and the other’s case was moved to traffic court, leaving, in a striking example of selective prosecution, only the two Arab protesters on trial and facing serious charges for the protest.
We urge all supporters of Palestine to participate in the actions below in support of Herzallah and El-Hosseiny, including attending the protest in Washington, DC and participating in the Twitter campaign. The following alert was issued by American Muslims for Palestine:
AMP staffers Taher Herzallah and Kareem El-Hosseiny are due in DC Superior Court at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow for a status hearing on the criminal charges of unlawful disruption of Congress. Their attorney Ann Wilcox of the National Lawyers Guild will ask the court to dismiss the charges, on the grounds they amount to selective prosecution that’s based solely on the men’s racial, religious, and ethnic identities.
Capitol Hill police arrested Herzallah and El-Hosseiny and four white, Jewish activists from Code Pink and IfNotNow in February during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing for David Friedman, who has since been approved as U.S. ambassador to Israel.
Herzallah and El-Hosseiny — the only two Arabs and Muslims in the group — are also the only two facing criminal charges filed against them by the U.S. Attorney’s office. Three of the white Jewish protesters were allowed to pay a small fine the same day. One had his case transferred to traffic court.
Herzallah and El-Hosseiny face six months in jail and a $500 fine.
Several organizations, including Code Pink and IfNotNow, have rallied around the AMP staffers.
We need you! Here’s how you can help!
WASHINGTON DC
If you live in the DMV area, please attend the rally tomorrow, from 8-9 a.m. in front of the DC Superior Courthouse, 500 Indiana Ave. NW. We need to show that we reject biased prosecutions!
TWITTER/FACEBOOK
If you are not able to attend the rally, please support today and tomorrow by keeping this issue alive on social media. Use the hashtags #DroptheCharges and #SelectiveProsecution. You can get memes, sample Tweets, media Twitter handles and more background information on our special project page!
DONATE
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