[news] Statement of Solidarity from the Family of the Late FAROUK ABDEL-MUHTI for the Struggle of Palestinian Refugees in Canada

[Stefan Christoff]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 21:19:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: No One is Illegal Montreal <noii-montreal at resist.ca>


From the Family of the Late FAROUK ABDEL-MUHTI:

A Statement of Solidarity for the Coalition Against the Deportation of
Palestinian Refugees in Montreal on the eve of the September 18th
STATELESS and DEPORTED Demonstration.


Below is a statement of solidarity from the family of the late Farouk
Abdel-Muhti a stateless Palestinian refugee, who died in July 2004. With
Farouk's passing the struggle for Palestinian liberation lost one of its
leading fighters in the US.

Farouk Adbel-Muhti was born in 1947 in Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the
occupied West Bank of Jordan. Like many Palestinians, Farouk lived the
uprooted life of a stateless refugee, traveling from country to country
until finally settling in New York in the 1970s.

He came to the attention of US immigration officials in the mid-1970s
after overstaying his visa. An immigration judge ordered him deported,
however, there was no way to carry out the deportation, since the West
Bank was now controlled by Israel, which did not allow the return of
people who left the Palestinian territories before the Israeli occupation
of 1967.

Farouk continued to live openly in the New York area, engaging in a number
of public political activities, with a focus on the struggle for
Palestinian liberation and issues relating to immigration and Latin
America.

In March 2002, Farouk began working regularly at Pacifica Radio station
WBAI. He used his contacts to arrange interviews with Palestinians in the
Occupied Territories. One month later, three New York police officers and
an INS agent, came to his Queens apartment without a warrant. They claimed
they wanted to ask Farouk some questions about September 11th.

Farouk was detained on April 26, 2002 and jailed in various facilities
around the country for two years. He was never charged with a crime. He
was often held in solitary confinement, subjected to extensive
interrogation, and often denied food. His health was failing but he
remained handcuffed and shackled whenever he went to the health clinic.
Two years after his detention, a US federal judge ordered Farouk to be
deported, charged or released. He walked out of prison on April 12, 2004.

Farouk died in July 2004 of a hear attack, after giving a speech in
Philadelphia. In his last speech, Farouk called for unity among groups
fighting for Palestinian liberation and social justice. His death came
just three months after he was released from jail where he was detained
for two years without charge.

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Statement of Solidarity with the Palestinian Refugees of Canada
From the Family of the Late Farouk Abdel-Muhti:

This statement is to express solidarity with the Palestinian refugees of
Canada, on this very important occasion, the Montreal demonstration
against the deportation of Palestinians from Canada, on the eve of the
Sabra and Chatila massacres, as we approach the twenty-second anniversary
of the heinous crimes committed against the Palestinian people by the
Lebanese right-wing Christian militia, the Phalange, on the orders of
Ariel Sharon, who gave the orders to enter the camp when the Palestine
Liberation Organization had already left, to slaughter the innocent people
in the camps. In this brutal act of genocide, more than three thousand
unarmed Palestinian civilians, men, women, and children, including babies,
were brutally massacred, their bodies dumped mostly in mass graves, while
the world looked on in horror, but did nothing.

Twenty-two years later, we see the sons and daughters of this generation
still suffering, as war rages in Palestine, as Israel continues to
practice ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people, imprisoning
them, demolishing their homes, and now building an apartheid wall that
cuts deep into Palestinian lands, separating families from their lands,
their livelihoods, and each other. Meanwhile, in Canada, Palestinian
refugees who escaped the horrors and degradation of life in the refugee
camps of Lebanon and throughout the world are now facing deportation from
Canada, having committed no crime, but being Palestinian. These stateless
Palestinians have truly inherited the experience of their parents, and are
feeling the intense pain of being stateless refugees. It is for this
reason that the world must realize the urgency of the Palestinians
achieving their independence, in a Palestinian state of their own, with
Jerusalem as its capital. The vulnerable position of the Palestinian
deportees in Canada, in Lebanon, in the United States and all over the
world obviates this fact and disproves any argument that the Palestinians
can be "absorbed" into the polities of any other country, including Arab
countries.

In the meantime, however, the countries where they reside, such as Canada,
have an obligation to accept the Palestinians, and to extend to them the
rights and dignities that are extended to all their other citizens and
residents, including granting them political asylum.

Palestinian refugees of Canada, we share your pain. Our dear brother,
Farouk Abdel-Muhti, who is now deceased, was also a stateless Palestinian.
As such, he lived for thirty some odd years in the United States, with no
serious problems until, after September 11th, he was picked up by
immigration authorities, incarcerated for nearly two years, 8 months of
which was spent in solitary confinement, tortured, beaten, withheld
medication, belittled and called a terrorist, simply for being a
Palestinian in the post-September 11th climate of paranoia and xenophobia
in the United States.

Our dear brother was ultimately released in April of this year, but the
irreparable damage was already done, to his life and to ours. Farouk died
exactly one hundred days after his release, weakened from the terrible
treatment, food, and conditions he endured in the immigration jails of the
United States, Allah yarhamouh! His only crime was being a stateless
Palestinian. We are left to live with the tragic reality of this and other
misfortunes which are largely a result of the unjust, inhuman and
misguided policies directed at Arab and Muslim immigrants, especially
Palestinians, since 9/11, by the Bush Administration in the United States,
and by other governments. We see similar policies being implemented in
Canada against immigrants, in what the Bush Administration is attempting
to portray as a "global war on terror". But what do these immigrants,
especially the Palestinians, have to do with this, being victims of the
state terror and genocide inflicted upon them by the Zionist State and its
war machine for the last 56 years?

We must not let what happened to our brother Farouk, who fought tirelessly
for the rights of workers and the oppressed all over the world, especially
for his people, the Palestinians, happen to Palestinians in Canada, who
have migrated there to seek a better life, and better opportunities, away
from war-torn lands and squalid refugee camps. We must demand that this
inhuman treatment of immigrants be stopped, once and for all.

Our struggles are the same, and we send this statement of solidarity to
express to you that we are behind you in your struggle, we feel your pain,
and we say to you, you must continue to fight for justice until your human
rights and your dignity is acknowledged, in Canada, in the United States,
and in Palestine, where ultimately you will prevail, with the
establishment of your own state, where you the Palestinians, not an
occupying power where World-War Two era fascists and murderers masquerade
as a government, will be free to determine your own destiny.  We wish you
peace and success, and offer you solidarity on this very special occasion,
where you are taking your struggle to the streets and demanding your
rights, letting the world know how unjustly you are being treated. May the
struggle continue until you win! If Farouk were with us today, he would
encourage you to keep going, to network with all of us, for us all to work
together until we achieve social justice, human rights, equality, civil
and political rights! We will see the phoenix rising from the ashes, if we
remain steadfast in our fight to end oppression, racism, and imperialism,
and to demand justice and rights for all peoples, regardless of their
race, religion, or nationality. His spirit remains with us, and if we
continue, we will win; our dignity, our independence and our inalienable
right to be free!

Venceremos!
With Revolutionary Fervor and Congratulations!
With Love and Solidarity!
Long Live Palestine!

Sharin Chiorazzo (the fiancée of Farouk Abdel-Muhti)
and Tariq Abdel-Muhti (Farouk's Son)

For more information, please see www.freefarouk.org, or e-mail us at
freefarouk at yahoo.com or abufkheida at maktoob.com.
Phone: (201) 951-6919, (212) 674-9499.

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