Democratic Palestine : 22 (ص 30)
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- Democratic Palestine : 22 (ص 30)
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Palestinians Are Harassed in Los Angeles
ee
Below we reprint an article from the International Herald Tribune, February 11,1987, because it il-
lustrates the increasingly overt role of the Reagan Administration in the iron fist policy to silence the
Palestinian people. The current campaign reached a peak on January 26th, with the arrest of eight
Palestinians and one Kenyan in Los Angeles, California, under the McCarran-Walter Act. This act, a
remnant of the McCarthy era, provides for deportation of non-citizens who are alleged to be members or
supporters of an organization that writes, prints or distributes material teaching «doctrines of world
communism.» The full dimension of these arrests was revealed a week later with the leakage of a docu-
ment of the Immigration and Naturalization Service entitled «Alien Terrorists and Undesirables: A Con-
tingency Plan.» The contingencies include the creation of a network of detention camps for suspected
‘terrorists’ from among US residents who originate from Iran, Lebanon, Libya, Jordan, Morocco,
Tunisia, Algeria and Syria.
by Anthony Lewis
Boston-She is a 22-year-old woman,
a student in San Diego, California.Born
in Ramallah, in the West Bank, she
came to the United States at the age of 3
and is an American citizen. On the
telephone she sounds like California. I
shall call her Evelyn Bitar, which is not
her real name.
«I was studying alone in the school
library on the night of Jan. 28. At
about 8:30 a large man... came up and
shoved a paper in front of me. It said
‘subpoena’ and had my name on it. He
flashed what looked like a badge and
said, ‘Evelyn, we want you to come
with us.’ He had a gun in a holster at
his waist. He took my left arm and
handcuffed me to his right arm.
Another man - he also showed a gun
-came over and grabbed me roughly by
the right arm. They took me out to a
dark burgundy car, cuffed my hands in
front of me and shoved me into the
back seat.»
That was the beginning of a night-
mare of 12 hours for Evelyn Bitar. I
‘take her words from an affidavit that
she drafted afterward, and from a
telephone conversation with her.
What happened to her is related to
her Palestinian origin. Two days before
her experience, eight Palestinians (and
one’s Kenyan wife) had been arrested in
the Los Angeles area by agents of the
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service. She was a friend of one of
them. But let us continue with her
story.
«We drove for some time when they
made me face backwards. In a residen-
30
tial area we drove into a garage and I
was taken into the house, into a big
bare room with a cement floor. There
was a big metal desk. The room also
had a metal pole set in the cement floor.
It had a nook at the top, sort of like a
tetherball pole. I was thrown into a grey
metal chair, still handcuffed. The room
was dimly lit, but with a _ bright
fluorescent light coming at my face.
«They threw a picture down on the
desk. It was a picture of me, my hus-
band and X(the friend who had been
arrested). They slapped it and said,
‘Who is this man, identify him.’
«I refused and said what they were
doing to me was illegal. One said,
‘Honey, we are the law.’ They kept
throwing pictures on the desk. They
were all picture from San Diego, some
from the old Arabic club...
«It was after midnight by now. They
uncuffed my right hand, then cuffed
my left hand to hook on the top of the
metal pole. My left arm was stretched
up to reach it.Then they left the house
and left me hanging there like that for
over three hours. They came _ back
around 3:30 with a third man. I asked if
I could use the bathroom. I was
desperate to go. They would not let me.
*‘They told me that my husband was
in custody, that they had just picked
him up. (That was false.) They said we
could work out a deal, I could be a
witness for the prosecution of X. If I
would do that, they would let my hus-
band go.
‘‘When I still didn’t respond, they
said, ‘At your rally you said, ‘‘Long
Live Palestine.’? We'll show you what
we think of your Palestine’.
‘“They took out a small Palestinian
flag, about 3 by 5 inches [about 75 by
125 millimeters], and burned it.
‘*Then they took me out, back into
the car. They stopped about two miles
[about three kilometers] from my
house. They said, ‘Listen, Babe, when
you least expect us, expect us. We’ll
always be around.’ I looked at my
watch. It was 8:30 A.M.”’
Could that have happened in
America? Readers will no doubt find it
hard to believe, as I did. So did Evelyn
Bitar. She was too frightened to talk, at
first. But now she is ready to testify, us-
ing her real name, if her lawyers ask her
to.
The eight Palestinians arrested in Los
Angeles were taken at gunpoint in their
homes at 7 A.M., then shackled in arm
and leg irons. Each was shown
photographs and offered advantages if
he would testify against someone.
There was no evidence that they had
done or contemplated any act of
violence. The charges had to do with
reading or distributing Palestinian
literature.
But that is another story of un-
constitutional outrage. For the mo-
ment, it is enough to think about what
happened to Evelyn Bitar. Is that
America?
Realism requires us to recognize that
it can happen. It has happened. But it is
not too late to find out how; to punish
the federal agents who behaved like
totalitarian thugs. ‘‘When we speak
out,’’ Mrs. Bitar said, ‘‘that’s our only
protection.’’ She still believes in
America.
The New York Times. @ - هو جزء من
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