The Shift: Palestinian asylum seeker challenges ICE detention

A Palestinian asylum-seeker is challenging his indefinite detention by ICE.

Last month, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Texas A&M Legal Clinics filed a habeas petition on behalf of Mohammed Abushanab, a 27-year-old who fled Israeli harassment in the West Bank only to end up detained by ICE in Texas for over 17 months.

In February, a judge granted Abushanab withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) because he could face further mistreatment in the West Bank, but he has been held in post-removal detention since March.

Abushanab’s lawyers say he’s been harassed by prison guards and protested his treatment through a hunger strike before being threatened with solitary confinement.

“Mr. Abushanab should have been released from immigration detention months ago, but because he is Palestinian the government is punishing him and illegally subjecting him to indefinite detention,” said CCR staff attorney Samah Sisay in a statement. “The law requires that Mr. Abushanab have access to due process and is quickly granted his freedom to reunite with his family.”

“I escaped detention and abuse in Palestine only to be treated terribly and detained indefinitely in the U.S.,” said Abushanab in his own statement. “I submitted the habeas petition to secure justice and my freedom, and I hope the judge quickly gives me my freedom.”

There’s a lot of commentary about the economic and military relationship between the U.S. and Israel, but less attention paid to the societal parallels.

Interestingly, Abushanab’s legal challenge comes just days after Muhammad Ibrahim, a 16-year-old Palestinian-American accused of throwing rocks at soldiers in the West Bank, was released from an Israeli prison.

Ibrahim was detained for 10 months, and his 20-year-old cousin was killed by settlers while he sat behind bars. Ibrahim’s relatives say that he was beaten during his detention and held in solitary confinement.

Ayah Ziyadeh, a Palestinian human rights scholar and advocate who worked on Americans for Justice in Palestine Action’s campaign to have Ibrahim released, recently spoke to Mondoweiss about the ordeal.

“He was placed in two different facilities during his arrest, and the conditions were really awful. He was beaten up constantly by soldiers,” said Ziyadeh. “We heard from lawyers that when he would meet with the lawyer, and then they would leave, they would abuse him.”

“There was a moment when he was in court, and he knew that his parents were watching from the camera,” she continued. “So he waved at them. He was beaten up after that. The conditions were so bad that he lost over 30% of his weight. He contracted scabies because of the prison conditions. And so they put him in solitary confinement for that, which also declined his mental health.”

Ya’akub Vijandre gives first interview

Last week, Ya’akub Vijandre, a Muslim photojournalist and Palestine activist, who was detained over social media posts, gave his first interview from Georgia’s Folkston detention center.

Vijandre, a DACA recipient who has legally lived in the United States since 2001, was arrested at gunpoint in October. The Department of Homeland Security said the “Dallas Joint Terrorism Task Force” targeted Vijandre because he allegedly made a social media post that quoted Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006. They also claim that he posted in support of the Holy Land Five and Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who is currently serving an 86-year sentence for attempted murder.

Vijandre told The Guardian that the government is “attacking my faith” and expressed concerns about his safety.

He says prisoners are treated “like animals” at the facility and yelled at for not speaking English. When he asked a guard if he could visit the bathroom, he was “just piss on yourself.”

“I never expected anything like that … being accused of ‘glorifying terrorism’; they attacked my religion, my faith,” he said, referencing his detention hearing. “They boxed me in, cornered me. I’ve seen this in movies …but was not expecting my faith to be attacked.”

“This is a rehearsed tactic of Islamophobia,” Vijandre added.

Fetterman lobbies for Netanyahu

Democratic Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has consistently celebrated Israel’s destruction of Gaza, but a new revelation shows just how deep that support runs.

In a letter, obtained by TPM, Fetterman asked Israel’s President Isaac Herzog to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was on trial for bribery and fraud.

“In a world this dangerous, I question whether any democracy can afford to have its head of government spending valuable hours, day after day, in a courtroom rather than the situation room,” Fetterman wrote to Herzog.

“It seems that the legal proceedings against the Prime Minister, dragging on year after year, have become a drain on the nation’s spirit and its focus,” he continued. “In a world this dangerous, I question whether any democracy can afford to have its head of government spending valuable hours, day after day, in a courtroom rather than the situation room…I believe there is a strong case to be made for a pardon — not to erase the past, but to secure the future.”

When asked about the request, Fetterman referred to the Netanyahu trial as a “pointless distraction.

“I stand on the letter,” he added.