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<div class="header reader-header" style="display: block;"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://theintercept.com/2018/06/24/students-for-justice-in-palestine-fbi-sjp/">https://theintercept.com/2018/06/24/students-for-justice-in-palestine-fbi-sjp/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">The FBI Is Using Unvetted, Right-Wing
Blacklists to Question Activists About Their Support for
Palestine</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Alex Kane - June 24, 2018<br>
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<p>In two of the interviews, including Aburas’s, the FBI
referenced Canary Mission, an anonymously run,
right-wing website that compiles dossiers on activists
who organize for Palestinian human rights on U.S.
college campuses, claiming — without evidence — that the
students have ties to terrorism in an effort to make
them unemployable.</p>
<p>Advocates for Palestinian human rights have in recent
years triggered a national conversation about the
seemingly unconditional U.S. military and financial
support for the Israeli government. The work of these
advocates has drawn increasingly hostile tactics from
far-right groups who wish to silence them, and the FBI
interviews underscore the power of those groups — whose
false claims are now apparently informing government
action.</p>
<p>Civil liberties advocates are alarmed by the
interviews, which they say intimidate political
organizers, chill constitutionally protected speech, and
are just the latest manifestation of a 50-year history
of U.S. government scrutiny of pro-Palestine activists.
That the FBI is relying on information from the likes of
Canary Mission creates even more cause for concern,
because it signals that federal law enforcement is
relying on unvetted blacklists designed to shut down
criticism of Israel and smear students voicing
pro-Palestinian political opinions.</p>
<p>“This is where Islamophobic, ‘alt-right,’ Zionist
harassers in the private sphere intersect with
government suppression — your worst nightmare of the
government and its law enforcement apparatus, which is
already in widespread violation of basic civil rights,
responding to the most racist elements of society
demanding a crackdown on political expression,” said Liz
Jackson, a staff attorney at Palestine Legal, a group
that assists students interviewed by law enforcement
about Palestine.<br>
</p>
<u>When the FBI</u> approached Aburas two years ago, they
had concerns about two of his Facebook posts that Canary
Mission had shared on its Twitter account. In the first,
published during a punishing Israeli assault on Gaza in
2014 that killed 500 Palestinian children, Aburas wrote:
“We are all RESISTANCE ! We are all #hamas ! We are all
HUMAN !” (Aburas told The Intercept in an interview that
he is not a supporter of Hamas — the armed Palestinian
political faction that has waged attacks on Israel because
of its military occupation of Palestinian land — but
rather, wanted to show support for Palestinians in Gaza,
who were labeled as “Hamas members” in Israeli talking
points to justify the killing of civilians during the
war.) In an October 2015 post, he wrote in support of a
Palestinian uprising against Israel. Those messages are
First Amendment-protected speech.
<p>Emails obtained by The Intercept reveal that Canary
Mission alerted Seton Hall to Aburas’s words in June
2016. Patrick Linfante, associate vice president for
public safety at the law school, then immediately
alerted the FBI. (A Canary Mission spokesperson told The
Intercept that, while the group is not surprised that
the FBI is looking into “cases of vile anti-Semitism and
other forms of bigotry,” it does not send tips to the
FBI.)</p>
<p>Asked why the law school contacted the FBI about the
political opinions of a student, Seton Hall University
spokesperson Laurie Pine said that the law
school “respects the rights of its students to express
their own personal opinions, political or otherwise, in
the classroom, in the public square, or on social
media.” However, she added, “because the safety and
well-being of our students are always our paramount
concern, the University has an obligation to report
activity it views as a potential threat and to cooperate
with the authorities. Students have the right to refuse
to meet with the authorities should they so choose.”
Pine did not explain what “potential threat” Aburas
posed to the school.</p>
<blockquote data-shortcode-type="pullquote"
data-pull="left">“I googled Aburas and found plenty of
info regarding his open support of Palestine, freedom
for Palestine and his contempt for Israel.”</blockquote>
<p>In a June 13, 2016, email about Aburas to other school
employees, Linfante wrote: “See the attached tweet from
Canary Mission to Seton Hall advising that one of our
Law School students openly identifies with Hamas
terrorists…Records indicate that he is currently
registered this summer and the coming fall semester at
the [law school]. I am sure the [law school] is aware
or (they should be) of Mr. Aburas and his political
positions. I googled Aburas and found plenty of info
regarding his open support of Palestine, freedom for
Palestine and his contempt for Israel.”</p>
<p>Responding to that email, Lenihan, the security
manager, wrote: “Pat does not feel that this is an
immediate cause for concern but we should keep this
student on our radar.”</p>
<p>The FBI and New Jersey police followed-up with Aburas
on September 27, four months after Seton Hall had
alerted law enforcement about the Facebook posts.
Lenihan said in an email obtained by The Intercept that
Aburas’s postings were being re-examined by law
enforcement because of the September 2016
pressure-cooker bomb attack carried out in Manhattan by
a New Jersey man.</p>
<p>According to Aburas, the law enforcement officers who
questioned him were particularly concerned about what
they saw as his support for Hamas and his organizing
with Students for Justice in Palestine.</p>
<p>“They were asking me questions about connections to
terrorism,” said Aburas. He said they asked him, “Do you
know or sponsor any organizations outside the U.S.?” He
added, “They asked me if I would stand with the United
States.”</p>
<p>The law enforcement scrutiny came as no surprise to
him.</p>
<p>As “a Muslim man living in America, coming from a
Palestinian background,” Aburas said, “I don’t want to
say I got used to it, but I did get used to it. It’s
normal. We’re always going to be spied on.”</p>
<p>The other FBI interviews of organizers for Palestinian
rights have carried similar threads. A University of
Chicago student, who asked not to be named, was
questioned in April 2018 based in part on Canary Mission
propaganda. In another instance in 2014, FBI agents
wanted to question Palestinian-American activist Huwaida
Arraf because StoptheISM.com, another right-wing
website, claimed without evidence that Arraf and the
group she co-founded, the International Solidarity
Movement, support terrorism. (The ISM is a group of
foreign volunteers in the occupied Palestinian
territories who support Palestinian action against the
Israeli occupation. Arraf was not home when FBI agents
came to her apartment in Albany, New York, but her
lawyer later spoke with the FBI on her behalf.) And in
two of the interviews, the FBI brought up Hamas.</p>
<p>FBI spokesperson Kelsey Pietranton did not directly
answer questions about the questioning of activists who
organize around Palestine. In a statement to The
Intercept, she said that the agency “relies on the
American people to provide tips and information
regarding criminal activity and possible threats to our
nation’s security,” and that these “allegations are
reviewed by the FBI for their merit, with consideration
of any applicable federal laws — which does not
necessarily result in the opening of an investigation.
When warranted, we take all appropriate actions,
including seeking further information and conducting
interviews. Regardless, the FBI only investigates
activity which may constitute a federal crime or pose a
threat to national security. Our focus is not on
membership in particular groups but on criminal
activity. The FBI cannot initiate an investigation based
solely on an individual’s exercise of their First
Amendment rights.”<br>
</p>
<p><u>If the FBI</u> was concerned about criminal activity
among the student activists, its agents made no
indication of that in the interviews. They did, however,
ask questions that echoed far-right propaganda about
unproven links between pro-Palestine activist groups and
militant groups.</p>
<p>In the two interviews that touched on Hamas, FBI agents
asked students about how Students for Justice in
Palestine fundraised. In February 2018, FBI agents
questioned a student at the University of California,
Los Angeles, who requested anonymity. An agent asked if
money from SJP was “funneled” to organizations in the
Middle East. (SJPs typically fundraise through
activities like bake sales and give that money back to
the organization to pay speakers and organize events.)
The FBI agent also asked if the student knew anyone who
“aligned with Hamas.”</p>
<blockquote data-shortcode-type="pullquote"
data-pull="right">“It left me with a sense of loss of
privacy.”</blockquote>
<p>“I felt really scared about the entire experience. If
anything, it left me with a sense of loss of privacy. It
was invasive,” the UCLA student said. “It’s really scary
to think that doing this work can result in a visit from
a federal agency when all you’re really doing is
exercising your right to free speech.”</p>
<p>The line of questioning that the FBI pursued in
California echoes a theory advanced by right-wing
activists that SJP is linked to Hamas, a U.S.-designated
foreign terrorist organization, because of SJP’s ties to
American Muslims for Palestine.</p>
<p>The theory has its roots in post-9/11 law enforcement
scrutiny of Muslim-run charities that did humanitarian
work in Palestine. These investigations are usually
prompted by the legal bar on “material support” to
terrorism — a broad law that prohibits not only giving
cash to foreign terrorist groups, but also speech that
encourages militant groups to engage in peaceful
activism and the provision of humanitarian aid in areas
controlled by militant groups. Civil liberties activists
say the law chills free speech and political organizing
and has ensnared Muslim-Americans who never gave money
for or carried out a violent act.</p>
<p>Most notably, in 2001, the Department of Justice shut
down the Holy Land Foundation, and in 2008 prosecuted
and jailed its leaders. Federal attorneys convinced a
jury that the foundation, which gave money to charities
in Gaza, supported Hamas because the charities were
allegedly controlled by Hamas and Palestinians helped by
one of the groups had associated the aid with Hamas.
However, those same relief organizations received U.S.
government support and prosecutors never alleged that
the Holy Land Foundation money went to militant attacks
or were intended to support terrorism. The specific
charities in Gaza that the foundation supported have
never been placed on the U.S. government terrorist list.</p>
<p>But the closure of the foundation, once the largest
Muslim-run charity in the U.S., and the convictions on
charges of support for Hamas have cast a long shadow
over Muslim political life in the U.S. Accusations of
support for terrorism now dog any Muslim organization
with former ties to the foundation.</p>
<p>Right-wing activists have seized on the fact that
Muslims with former ties to the Holy Land Foundation
have fundraised for American Muslims for Palestine and
sit on its board, and that AMP has supported SJP
chapters in the U.S.</p>
<p>“SJP is an integral part of the Hamas terrorist
network,” David Horowitz, the prominent far-right
activist who has relentlessly tried to link SJP to
terrorism, told The Intercept. The student group “is
funded by Hamas through American Muslims for Palestine,”
he added. (Horowitz said he has not been in contact with
the FBI about SJP.)</p>
<p>But Osama Abuirshaid, AMP’s national policy director,
dismissed Horowitz’s claims as baseless. He also told
The Intercept that while AMP gives grants to different
SJP chapters — about $10,000 a year — and organizes
trainings for SJP, AMP has no influence on the student
group’s internal affairs.</p>
<p>“It’s guilt by association,” said Abuirshaid. “They
keep making like it’s a conspiracy, and there’s this
connection and this hidden agenda. It’s all nonsense.
There’s nothing. … They’re desperate and trying to
censor, instead of engage these students in a free
debate.”</p>
<p>The FBI’s questions to activists are just the latest
example of unwarranted harassment and surveillance of
Americans who believe in Palestinian human rights, said
Michael Deutsch, a Chicago-based lawyer who has defended
many Palestinians from criminal charges in the U.S.</p>
<blockquote data-shortcode-type="pullquote"
data-pull="left">“People are concerned about raising
issues about Palestine in their community because
they’re afraid they’ll be targeted.”</blockquote>
<p>“There is this continual cloud of potential repression
of the Palestinian-American community,” he said.
“Anytime the FBI is visiting people’s homes or their
workplaces or placing informants in the mix of people
who were doing public organizing, it creates a chilling
effect of people. People are concerned about raising
issues about Palestine in their community because
they’re afraid they’ll be targeted.”</p>
<p>Deutsch has seen this surveillance, which largely
focuses on alleged links between activists in the U.S.
and Palestinian groups abroad, escalate into indictments
of activists and, in some cases, jail time or
deportation for those who are not U.S. citizens.</p>
<p>In 2010, for instance, the FBI raided the homes of 23
Midwest-based activists and subpoenaed them to give
testimony during an investigation into any “material
support” they gave to the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine — allegations that stemmed from
the testimony of an undercover informant. No charges
were ever filed against the activists.</p>
<p>But, according to Deutsch, the government probe into
Palestine solidarity activism eventually led federal
agents to Rasmea Odeh, a revered Chicago-based
Palestinian activist charged with lying to immigration
authorities because she did not disclose her conviction
in an Israeli military court on terrorism charges. Odeh,
who was deported last year to Jordan, says her
confession — to setting off a bomb in Jerusalem in 1969
that killed two students — was tortured out of her by
Israeli soldiers.</p>
<p>There is no indication the current wave of FBI
interviews is part of an investigation that will lead to
criminal charges. Still, civil liberties advocates warn
that the questioning poses a danger to free speech in
the United States.</p>
<p>“They knock people off their feet in their confidence
and their ability to just maintain their basic activism
and their willingness to speak publicly about
Palestine,” said Jackson of Palestine Legal, which also
tracks instances of university suppression of
pro-Palestine organizing. “Most people will think right
away about what they say on social media and how many
people they say it to. This means they stop speaking
vocally and passionately about Palestinian suffering.”</p>
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