Matthew Brett, July 19th, 2008
An excellent little video clip of Akiva Orr in a meeting with International Solidarity Movement activists. He talks about dividing lines between oppressor and oppressed.
Matthew Brett is the Canadian Dimension Weblog manager. The views expressed on this blog do not necessarily represent his own. Read other posts by Matthew Brett.
Komrade Matthew,
I would be just a little careful about pushing the ISM, which is currently under consideration for being outlawed as a terror supporting and enabling organization that recruits foreigners under false pretenses….
Here’s a current story about a US ISM supporter.
http://www.inyork.com/ci_9797600?source=most_viewed
Local man aided Hamas
A Leader Heights native indirectly gave money to what the U.S. calls a terrorist group.
By NICHOLE DOBO
Daily Record/Sunday News
Article Launched: 07/06/2008 02:00:08 AM EDT
Richard David Hupper, 32, faces jail time. (Submitted)
A York County native who traveled to the war-torn Middle East to work with Palestinians will be sentenced in federal court this month for aiding a terrorist organization.
Richard David Hupper, 32, was charged with giving about $20,000 to a group he knew supported Hamas, the Palestinian military and political organization, according to court documents and his defense lawyer.
It is a crime to give money to Hamas, or to groups that support it, because it is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. Hupper pleaded guilty in May.
The Leader Heights, York Township, native likely will be sentenced to about five years, his lawyer said.
Hupper’s defense attorney, Neal R. Lewis, a Reading native who works in Florida, said the charges stem from Hupper’s donations to a nonprofit agency that, in turn, supports Hamas.
He saw his mission as a humanitarian cause and wanted his donations to support the families of Palestinians who had been detained or killed, Lewis said.
“He just felt very empathetic and that (the Palestinians) were not getting a fair shake,” Lewis said.
The U.S. Department of Justice office would not provide further details regarding why it charged Hupper. A spokesman said it is policy not to comment on cases beyond what is filed in court.
Hupper, a Dallastown Area High School graduate, is the only child of former Southern York County Supt. Richard Hupper and Pauline Hupper. He is a nephew of former U.S. Rep. Bill Goodling, R-York County.
Pauline Hupper declined to comment on the charges, saying her son is an adult and she cannot speak to his actions.
The charges against Hupper came more than a year after he pleaded guilty to attempting to obtain a passport using false information, a case that is related to his work with the Palestinians, Lewis said.
Hupper had been in Israel working with Palestinians, but the Israeli government kicked him out.
He wanted to go back, so he tried to get a passport using someone else’s name, Social Security number and a forged birth certificate, and he was arrested, according to court documents.
“His naivete, coupled with a real desire to help what he considered oppressed people in Palestine, led him to make a foolish mistake by requesting a false passport,” reads a document filed in court by Lewis.
Hupper, who last lived in York County about six years ago, decided to involve himself in the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis while he was in Alabama working as a machinist, Lewis said.
While in Alabama, Hupper was injured at work, and he spent much of his time off watching TV, including international news, Lewis said. Hupper decided he wanted to travel to the Gaza Strip with the goal to help the Palestinian people.
“He was very idealistic about it,” Lewis said.
Hupper traveled to Israel, where he actively worked with a non-governmental agency to aid Palestinians impacted by the Middle East conflict, Lewis said. He was eventually ordered to leave Israel and returned to Florida after a stop in Jordan.
After spending some time in Florida, he decided he wanted to return to his work with Palestinians, and that’s when he applied for the passport with false information.
Prosecutors agreed to recommend a light sentence on the passport charges, according to court documents. Hupper, who is in a Miami federal prison, was sentenced to serve a total of 24 months for those charges. His release date is set for November.
With the latest charges, Hupper faces more time in prison — a maximum of 15 years — and $250,000 in fines. But because he has admitted to his crime and pleaded guilty, it’s likely he will be sentenced to about five years, Lewis said.
“He just wants to get this over with and get on with his life,” Lewis said.
Hi Hugh,
Nowhere in the article does it mention ISM. It says he gave money to a group that supported Hamas.
Even if he was affiliated with the ISM, I don’t think you can paint a whole organization with one colour based on this one guy.
The ISM has been clearly tied to assisting aiding and enabling terror bombing.That’s not news at all.
Every Friday, the ISM organizes riots in the West Bank.
ISM members openly boast about having been arrested for vandalizing and destroying Israeli security fences and equipment.
In March 2003, fugitive Islamic Jihad terrorist Shadi Sukiya was arrested in a house the ISM rented in Jenin. Two suicide bombers from the
UK met with the ISM in Gaza before blowing up Mike’s Place, a bar in Tel Aviv, killing three people and wounding more than fifty in the process.
And Huppner’s story’s here on ISM Watch
http://www.israelnewsagency.com/internationalsolidaritymovementterrorism9330405.html
Israel: International Solidarity Movement ISM Supports Terrorism
By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem—-April 5……The Israel Beit She’an Magistrate’s Court has dismissed a lawsuit for libel brought by a foreign International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist against an Israel journalist. The American plaintiff alleged that Jerusalem reporter, Judy Lash Balint had defamed her in an article posted on an Israel Internet website which maintained that members of the ISM were in close contact with the Palestinian terrorist organizations.
The Israel Prime Minister’s Office declared in June 2003 that the International Solidarity Movement had been directly related to acts of terrorism.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=11242935-D7C6-4219-85A9-7B64D2E53BB7
The ISM-Terror Connection
By Lee Kaplan
FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, September 13, 2006
As a front group for Palestinian terrorists, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) sends young people from all over the world to the training fields of the West Bank and Gaza to learn from terrorists and to aid them logistically. Stop the ISM has now obtained photographs of ISM leaders and organizers holding AK-47 assault rifles. The images show some of the ISM women disguised as Jews living in the West Bank and in the company of an Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade terrorist….
Hi Hugh,
I don’t know nearly enough about the organization, but briefly reading up on the instances you cite, the ISM is clearly not what you make it out to be.
Protest in the West Bank is praiseworthy, and there’s a very clear context behind activists who try to dismantle Israeli security fences.
As for the bombing of Mike’s Place, it seems clear that the ISM had nothing to do with the people committed the bombing. I would have to read more about them.
I’m sorry Mr. Brett,
But I must convey to you that I feel that that was a disingenuous response.
It’s public knowledge that The ISM is predicated on two principles.
1) Israel has to right to exist as a majority Jewish state, or to defend its population against terrorist attacks and asymmetrical warfare.
2) Anti-Israel activists holding foreign passports are coached in defrauding Israel immigration authorities in allowing them access to Israel and the Palestinian Territories pretending to be “just tourists.”
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