NLG National Statement on Dhoruba Bin Wahad and Naji Mujahid's Denial of Entry to Occupied Palestine‏

The National Lawyers Guild calls upon the United States State Department to lodge a
formal protest over the treatment of Dhoruba Bin Wahad and Naji Mujahid, two Black
political activists denied entry to Palestine. We further call upon the Israeli
government to end its racist and unjust detention and interrogation policies and
reiterate our call for the freedom of Palestinian political prisoners.

On November 23, 2009, Dhoruba Bin Wahad, a former U.S. political prisoner and leader
of the Black Panther Party, and Naji Mujahid, a student-activist from Washington
D.C. were on a tourist bus enroute from Amman, Jordan to the to the West Bank of
occupied Palestine. Both had been invited to attend the International Conference on
Palestinian Political Prisoners in Jericho that was sponsored by the Palestinian
Authority Ministry of Prisoners and ex-Prisoners Affairs. As the bus crossed the
King Hussein Bridge that connects Jordan with the Israeli-occupied West Bank, it
stopped for a border inspection by Israeli officers. Of the numerous individuals on
the bus, only Dhoruba and Naji were ordered to disembark. Significantly, both were
the only Black people on the bus.

Within a short time, the border officials searched under Dhoruba's name on the
internet. They discovered that he is Muslim, a former Black Panther leader and
someone who spent 19 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. (Dhoruba, a
target of COINTELPRO, was arrested in 1971 and sentenced to life in prison. His
conviction was overturned in 1990). Both Dhoruba and Naji were interrogated, strip
searched and their property confiscated and searched. Despite their cooperation and
offer to return into Jordan, their detention continued for over 12 hours. They were
ultimately released but denied permission to enter occupied Palestine and returned
to Jordan.

The treatment accorded Dhoruba and Naji would be outrageous if it occurred to
anyone. And as Naji Mujahid himself stated shortly after returrning to Amman, "the
humiliation and frustration that we endured was a small taste of what we can be sure
the Palestinians go through on a daily basis." But the incident is rendered even
more shameful because its genesis appears to have been racial profiling. Dhoruba and
Naji were ordered off the bus before Israeli border officials had any idea of their
country of origin or personal histories. They only knew that they were Black.
Moreover, the incident occurred only days after it was reported that the South
African government deported an Israeli official following allegations that a member
of Shin Bet, the Israeli secret police, had infiltrated the airport in Johannesburg
in an effort to get information on South African citizens, particularly Black and
Muslim travelers (Reuters, November 22, 2009).

This action, of course, comes on the heels of numerous denials of entry to occupied
Palestine to Palestinian and Arab Americans and others, new visas that prevent free
movement inside occupied Palestine to those granted entry, and a continuing and
obvious pattern of racial and ethnic discrimination in denying entry to occupied
Palestine. In this case, the racist actions of the Israeli government prevented
critical meetings between former US political prisoners and former Palestinian
political prisoners from taking place. In addition, Dhoruba and Naji were contracted
by African American news agencies to report on the conference, bringing much needed
news about Palestine to the Black community - a project blocked by this denial of
entry.

The National Lawyers Guild was founded in 1937 and is the oldest and largest public
interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in
New York and it has chapters in every state.

For further information contact:

Robert J. Boyle, Esq.
212-431-0229

--
Paige Cram
NLG Communications Coordinator
communications@nlg.org
(212) 679-5100, ext. 15