| Dear Mark, I am excited to report to you that Mohammed Halabi was released Saturday from Israeli custody and has met with his family in Gaza! Halabi served as the Gaza Director for Christian relief and development agency World Vision International (WVI). In 2016, he was falsely accused and imprisoned for 6 years, prior to sentencing. Halabi was finally sentenced in 2022 to 11 years in prison, which sentence is now under appeal. Halabi declined all offers for a plea bargain, which would have allowed him to go free, because doing so would have required him to confess that he and World Vision were in fact diverting development funds towards Hamas. Yet, two international audits showed that no funds at all were missing from the WVI budget for Gaza, and World Vision’s internal procedures would not allow for such a diversion. He was being held as a hostage to pressure him and WVI on behalf of Israel. Halabi was also accused of photographing the Eretz crossing in a certain year when in fact he was nowhere near Eretz for years before and after that date. Halabi and WVI were also accused of diverting shipments of steel and building materials to Hamas for building tunnels when in fact WVI never imported steel or any other “dual function” materials. His legal saga, consisting of 163 court hearings, is riddled with procedural improprieties and blatant inaccuracies, and a total lack of any material evidence. Yet his own lawyers cannot even describe the worst of these rulings, as they were threatened by the court to keep such things secret, “for security reasons.” His lawyer, Maher Hanna, publicly stated that the only reason for such security was to protect the state from embarrassment and ridicule for the inadequacy of its case and the unreasonableness of the rulings of the judge. Our joy at Mohammed Halabi’s release is tempered by the fact that he had suffered so much in prison, having lost so much weight that, as you can see from the above pictures, he is almost unrecognizable. Even the Red Cross itself indicated, in a rare public pronouncement, that it was outraged at the conditions under which the released Palestinian prisoners were kept, including beatings, starvation, ongoing humiliations, and the spread of diseases like scabies. There are other reports of horrible conditions, which the Red Cross had not been allowed to see previously, but Israeli Minister of Police and Internal Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, has proudly boasted about this publicly. We also note that Halabi’s family was forced to relocate several times and their Gaza home lies in ruins. Following his arrest, WVI ceased all its activities in Gaza. Like UNRWA, which has also been falsely accused of supporting Hamas, WVI’s activities in Gaza were severely hampered. So they chose to suspend their work altogether. We hope WVI can now resume its regular activities and return Mr. Halabi to his position. These are services sorely needed in the rebuilding of Gaza. Previously, FOSNA undertook a campaign seeking his release (see here, here & here) and many of you participated in praying, writing letters on his behalf, or sending him cards. We are beyond happy that Muhammad has been released, and we look forward to the release of the rest of the Palestinian detainees being held in Israeli jails. Many Blessings, Jonathan Kuttab, J.D. Executive Director, Friends of Sabeel North America |
