Hatem Abudayyeh had already left his Chicago home early on the morning of Sept. 24, 2010, when he got a call from his wife. She told him that FBI agents had arrived at their home with a search warrant.
Abudayyeh raced home. He found his small daughter in tears and agents moving from room to room in the house. They took papers and even travel brochures--anything with the word Palestine on it, Abudayyeh said.
His home was one of at least eight the FBI raided Sept. 24 in Chicago and Minneapolis. A grand jury later subpoenaed Abudayyeh and 22 other labor and peace activists for allegedly providing material support to terrorist groups in Palestine, Lebanon and Colombia.
Abudayyeh said he believes the grand jury will indict some of the activists shortly. But the allegations against them are false, he told a Seattle audience Feb. 16 at the offices of the American Friends Service Committee.
Abudayyeh, a U.S. citizen born in Chicago, said a Chicago group he founded called the Palestine Solidarity Group leads delegations to Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories solely for educational purposes. The U.S. Department of Justice is violating the activists' Constitutional rights of free speech and free association to intimidate and silence the activists, he said.
The activists have all invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify against themselves to the grand jury, but that may not help them. At the Seattle event, attorney Damon Shadid said grand juries can give witnesses immunity and force them to testify against themselves or others. If they don't, they can face jail time for refusing, he said.
A group called Seattle United Against FBI Repression, which formed shortly after the Sept. 24 raids, brought Abudayyeh to Seattle to help raise money for his and the other activists' legal defense fund.
On Feb. 7, the group sent a letter to President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder defending the activists and urging them to stop the assault on civil rights. The letter's more than 70 signers include King County Council Chair Larry Gossett and Alice Woldt, executive director of the Washington Association of Churches.