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Steven Emerson,
Executive Director
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June 14, 2019
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CAIR
Oddly Silent About Hamas-linked Activist's Deportation Fight
by John Rossomando
IPT News
June 14, 2019
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The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been unusually
silent about the attempt to deport Hamas-linked activist Abdelhaleem
al-Ashqar.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents placed Ashqar, 60, on an airplane to Israel last week,
but he was able to return to the United States after a federal judge said
Ashqar could only be sent to Jordan.
Ashqar was sentenced in 2007 to 11 years in prison for obstruction of justice and criminal contempt after he
refused to provide immunized grand jury testimony about his knowledge of
Hamas activities. He played a leadership role in a Hamas-support network in
the United States known as the "Palestine Committee."
Ashqar helped organize a 1993 Palestine Committee meeting in
Philadelphia that gave rise to CAIR's founding. Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad – who would become CAIR's co-founders the
following year, participated in the meeting. Ahmad also helped organize
the Philadelphia meeting and even called it to order.
CAIR was added to the Palestine Committee's organizational roster as soon as it was formed.
Evidence like that prompted the FBI in 2008 to cut off outreach work with CAIR. "[U]ntil we can
resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its
executives and HAMAS, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison
partner," an FBI assistant director explained in a letter to U.S. senators.
The policy remains in effect.
CAIR, thus far, has said nothing about Ashqar's plight, which is
surprising for a case involving a Palestinian activist waging a fight
against deportation. But a recent Hamas press release suggests the terror group may still
consider him one of theirs.
Hamas issued Arabic and English press releases June 6 criticizing the Trump
administration for trying to extradite Ashqar to Israel.
"As the US extradites the Palestinian scholar Abdul Halim al-Ashqar
to the Israeli occupation, Washington confirms its absolute prejudice in
favour of the Israeli occupation," Hamas said. "We call on international and human rights
organizations to intervene and demand an immediate release of al-Ashqar.
"They have to save his life and secure him freedom, given that his
confinement in the US or in the Israeli occupation is a flagrant violation
of the International Law and the International Humanitarian Law."
CAIR has issued no statement. San Francisco Bay Area Executive Director
Zahra Billoo did call attention to Ashqar's case, linking to an article
about him and writing,
"MUST READ. This happened on #Eid, this week. @ICEgov lied to a
Palestinian, Abdelhaleem Ashqar, kidnapped him, and deported him to
Apartheid Israel."
CAIR has taken up for other Palestinians in high-profile deportation
cases, including Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
terrorist Rasmieh Odeh. She was deported to Jordan in 2017 after being convicted of naturalization fraud. Odeh had failed to
disclose her conviction in Israel for her role in a 1969 bombing of Jerusalem
grocery store that killed two students.
CAIR organized a #JusticeforRasmea hashtag on Twitter and held programs and rallies on her behalf.
CAIR was willing to stand up for Ashqar during his trial and 2007
sentencing. Its Chicago chapter cast
him as a victim of an unjust prosecution, saying, "the Bush
administration has attempted to criminalize charitable aid to Palestinians.
It said it was "dismayed" by his "excessive" sentence.
"For many observers, the case has amounted to political
persecution," a CAIR Chicago news release said. It cited Ashqar's statement that he "would
rather go to prison than 'become a traitor or collaborator.'"
The grand jury specifically was investigating Hamas support activity,
not people who simply advocated for Palestinians, making the issue of whom
he would be betraying by providing truthful testimony uncomfortably clear.
U.S. authorities believed that Ashqar had valuable information about a
2003 Hamas suicide bombing that killed Americans at Mike's Place, a bar in
Tel Aviv near the U.S. embassy. Ashqar refused to "become a
traitor."
ICE took custody of Ashqar after his 2017 release from
prison, with the intent of removing him from the country. But no country
would take him. In last week's deportation attempt, they hoped to have
Israeli officials transfer him to the West Bank. His attorney argued the
Israelis might mistreat Ashqar. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III blocked
the transfer and ruled last week that ICE's attempt to take him to
Israel violated U.S. law because Ashqar's detention order instructs he
should be deported to Jordan.
He is being held in a Bowling Green, Va., detention facility.
CAIR's newfound reticence about a Palestinian facing deportation is a
mystery. The Hamas statement may have boxed it in – while CAIR still
receives credible media coverage and political support despite its history, it's a bad look
for a group born from a Hamas-support network to take up the same cause as
Hamas in Gaza.
Ashqar is a reminder of CAIR's origins. CAIR doesn't want people to remember
that.
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