Justice Denied by Sami Bishara Mashney For The Independent Monitor
Justice Denied
Sami Bishara Mashney
For The Independent Monitor
Nineteenth century British politician William Gladstone coined the famous phrase “justice delayed, is justice denied.” This phrase was subsequently quoted innumerable times by attorneys, judges, Supreme Court justices, and many others, to the point that it became a fundamental principle in our American justice system.
The reasoning supporting this unassailable principle emanates from the indisputable logic that if it takes an accused or an aggrieved person an exceptionally long period of time to get justice or to be finally vindicated in our court system, our society regards the long delay as an actual denial of justice—irrespective of the outcome.
Imagine traveling back in time twenty years ago, to sunny and captivating Southern California, to find yourself in your late twenties or early thirties, idealistically believing in the American way of life and its glorious ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—and not to forget justice for all. You have legally immigrated from Israeli Occupied Palestine escaping national origin and religious persecution at the iron and fire hands of the U.S.-backed Israeli occupation army—the military arm of the Apartheid Jewish State.
You wanted to peacefully and orderly help your family and people in Occupied Palestine rid themselves of the suffocating and ethnically-cleansin
One night, while peacefully sleeping at home with your wife and young children, your front door is violently knocked down. No, it is not a home invasion armed robbery. It is much worse. It is a group of very big, rough, intimidating and armed-to-the-
When you are released, your real twenty-year-
What’s your charge? Allegedly being “affiliated” with a group that advocates "the doctrines of world communism." Of course, that’s disingenuous euphemism. In plain speak, you are being targeted for lobbying to free your country, people and land from the never-ending brutal Israeli occupation.
You would think that the above scenario is a movie plot from
This is exactly what happened to Aiad Barakat, Amjad Obeid, Ayman Obeid, Khader Hamide and his Kenyan wife, Michel Shehadeh, and Naim Sharif, seven Palestinian Americans and the Kenyan wife of one of the defendants. This case quickly became known as the “LA-8.”
The arrest and persecution of the LA-8 was a menacing message sent to all Arab (and Palestinian) Americans that their lawful and peaceful advocacy of Palestinian rights in the USA will subject them to the attritive horror of becoming defendants mercilessly pursued by our federal government for many many years.
The intent and practical effect of this anti-American policy is to continue to give Israel the green light to monopolistically manipulate our American political process vis-à-vis the Middle East, and to enable it to continue to occupy Palestine, illegally confiscate lands from Christian and Muslim Palestinians to build Jews-only colonies, while continuing to further create and implement diabolical segregationist policies designed to give Jews rights superior to Christians and Muslims in Occupied Palestine—while falsely claiming to be the so-called “only democracy in the Middle East!”
On October 31, it was announced that our government dismissed its case against the remaining two defendants Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh. And while many are relived that, at least for now, our misguided government has ended its unfair persecution of these innocent and courageous people, many are not celebrating because the government placed conditions that Messrs. Hamide and Shehadeh cannot apply for citizenship for three years, despite the fact that they were eligible to do so more than twenty years ago.
Furthermore, there are now tens of thousands of law-abiding and conviction-free Arab Americans who applied for citizenship years ago and DHS has not acted on their citizenship application unpersuasively claiming that the FBI has not cleared their names. We also know of the countless horror stories of how Arab Americans are racially profiled and mistreated like criminals at airports and other border crossing points. I am sure that members of the LA-8 will be treated in an even harsher manner if they attempted to travel.
Last but not least, everyone agrees that our government robbed the LA-8 of twenty years of their lives where they had to sleeplessly worry about the outcome of the protracted litigation that engulfed their lives like wild fire for twenty years. They had to spend large sums of money on legal fees. Now, twenty years later, and after many court defeats—thanks to our judiciary—our government has finally dropped all charges against Hamide and Shehadeh.
And while Hamide and Shehadeh and the rest of the LA-8 are finally vindicated, the carrying of justice was delayed for twenty years, which brings us to what William Gladstone wisely said more than a century ago: “Justice delayed, is justice denied.”
posted by annie at 4:38 PM
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