Family and friends of Abdel-Muhti held a memorial and prayer service at the Islamic Cultural Center in Manhattan July 24 to honor his contributions to the fight for Palestinian self-determination and social justice. About 150 people took part, including supporters of Abdel-Muhti’s fight against the U.S. government’s attempts to deport him. Many participants also knew him for his work as an outspoken advocate of the Palestinian national liberation struggle and a defender of the Cuban Revolution.

Abdel-Muhti died just three months after being released from prison where he had been detained for two years without charges. He was arrested by immigration and FBI cops on April 26, 2002, who claimed they were acting on the basis of a 1995 government order to deport him. For 250 days he was held in solitary confinement. Jeff Fogel of the Center for Constitutional Rights, one of Abdel-Muhti’s attorneys, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that “He did not get his medication when he was transferred from jail to jail. We are looking into the possibility of a connection between his death and the conditions he endured.”

He won his freedom as the result of a public campaign waged by supporters of his right to work and live in the United States.

While his defenders were putting pressure on U.S. authorities to win his release, the Palestinian revolutionary remained active, organizing political activities with other prisoners and extending solidarity to others facing government victimization and workers fighting for dignity and better living conditions.

“While in detention he evolved to become a better fighter,” said Sharin Chiorazzo, a long-time friend of Abdel-Muhti, at the memorial meeting.

After his release, Abdel-Muhti continued to speak out in support of the struggle of the Palestinian people, and against U.S. government attacks on democratic rights.

Among those present at the memorial was Lynne Stewart, a New York attorney facing frame-up charges of “providing material support for terrorist activity.”

Stewart told those present how Abdel-Muhti spoke out and wrote messages from jail on her behalf. “When he got out of jail, one of the first meetings he attended was one in support of my case,” she said.

Many of Abdel-Muhti’s colleagues from WBAI radio, the local station of the Pacifica Radio network where he worked, were also present.

Abdel-Muhti was born in 1947 in the Ramallah district of what is now the Israeli-occupied West Bank, when it was still under British control. He left the West Bank before the 1967 takeover by Tel Aviv, living at various times in the U.S. and several countries in Latin America. He had lived here since the 1970s.  
 
 
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