Obituary - Riad Hamad - May 2008

In Memoriam
Riad Hamad: 1952-2008

The Independent Monitor, May 2008

To answer the call to Palestine – to stand up against the injustice inflicted upon the region and to give your life to helping its people live a dignified, peaceful, prosperous life – is to accept heartbreak into your own life, often and in great magnitude. For some, the mission ends far too early, because the fight and the heartbreak are just too much to withstand any longer.

Riad Elsohl Hamad died on April 14, 2008, of an apparent suicide. He was reported missing by his family after he had gone out to pick up a prescription and never returned. His body was found floating in Lady Bird Lake in Austin, TX, on Wednesday, April 16. When his body was fished out of the lake, he was found to be gagged with duct tape, and his hands tied. Police investigators said the positioning of the tape were consistent with him “having done it to himself.”

Hamad was well known to many activists in Palestine and the United States, as well as amongst Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. His work was tireless and for the benefit of the families suffering under the effects of occupation: poverty, sanctions, and a lack of health care and education. But mostly, a sense of imprisonment in this life that leads to despair and sometimes self-destructive behavior, especially amongst the children.

His fight was as much about stopping this result of occupation as it was about stopping the occupation itself. His organization, the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund (PCWF), helped kids by sponsoring them and their families with monthly donations, microfinancing programs, food and medicine, and gifts during Muslim celebrations, when they would otherwise have nothing. He also helped the communities by donating books, computers and money to programs meant to enrich the children’s lives and education.

One such program is the Afaq Jadeeda (New Horizons) Cultural Center in central Gaza, which was started mainly to help kids have something to go to, to keep them in touch with their cultural roots and continued education, and to keep them from following a dangerous and increasingly common path: turning to violence. Education was of utmost important to him, as someone who had earned several degrees, and was a teacher by trade. He donated computers and used English school books so they could have classes for the kids who attended the center from the Nuseirat refugee camp in which it was founded. Since his passing, the English and Computer Center has been named in his honor.

But such involvement and activity for people who are generally regarded as terrorists by one’s government will often attract unwanted attention. After years of surveillance, Hamad had been expecting government intervention, and in February 2008, it came bounding through his door. On February 28, agents from the FBI and IRS raided his home in Austin, TX, “leaving with more than 40 boxes of tax returns, forms, documents, books, flags, cds etc. The special agent said that they have a probable cause for money laundering, wire fraud, bank fraud, etc and I think that all of it stems from more than 35 years of watching me,” he wrote in an e-mail to friends. The investigation failed to find any wrongdoing on the part of Hamad or PCWF, but he knew he continued to be watched. In the months before and after the raid, e-mails from friends would disappear from his computer, even as he was reading them.

As soon as the news of his death started to circulate, so did the rumors. He had been found gagged and bound, and had been under surveillance and investigation for years, so the conclusion that he had been murdered by government operatives came naturally to many who had known him. Also suspicious was the changing reports from the Austin police: when it was announced that an unidentified man had been found in Lady Bird Lake in that condition, murder was the first assumption; but when, the next day, the police announced that they had changed the conclusion to suicide, as the positioning of the duct tape looked like he could have done it himself, the blogosphere came alive with conspiracy theories. Adding to them was the report from Dr. Ibrahim Dremali, who had washed Hamad’s body at the Islamic Center of Greater Austin. He recounted on the Alex Jones Radio Show the condition of the body, and how he had no doubt that something suspicious had happened to him.

But sources close to the family maintain that this was suicide. He had been despondent for some time, had turned over accounts to friends, and had admitted to a few people that he could no longer support himself or pay his legal fees. They say there are other reasons as well, but they are being kept private. In regards to the duct tape, family and friends believe he did do it, to keep himself from changing his mind and swimming to safety, and that his body was probably in the condition it was in, because it had been in the lake for three days before he was found.

However, while he was not physically murdered by the government, there is no doubt that had he not endured years of harassment by government agencies and investigations which, although they never were able to indict him of wrongdoing, were nevertheless very costly to defend himself against, he would still be here.

Friends reacted to Hamad’s death with shock and grief. A message on the PCWF website read, “We cannot begin to express our sorrow at the death of this fine man who has helped so many and asked for so little. Many of you have written to tell us how much he has done and how much he will be missed. We are grateful for the outpouring of affection, and we want to assure everyone who has been a part of PCWF that its mission will continue.”


Dr. Mona El-Farra, a physician and peace activist who lives in Gaza and worked with Hamad and PCWF for many years, in conjunction with the Middle East Children’s Alliance (Gaza) wrote, “I am speechless, shocked and do not know what to write. How can I pass this piece of sad news to thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza that he supported and opened a window of hope and love to them and their families?”

One of his middle school students wrote:

they make him sound so unreal.
like he wasn't really an intellectual man.
a loving man.
like he didn't have thoughts and ideas, different interests and hobbies,
like he's just another headline.
how can they do that?
he is so much more. so much more than that.
he had a family, a story, a life.
he had pets, his cats, and of course, his camels.
he had a sense of humor.
he was an activist.
he wanted to help people, help children.
he was wrongly accused by the government.
multiple times
yet he did nothing wrong.
he's one of the greatest people i've knownand will ever know.
and, i regret not knowing him better. he will be missed.
dearly.

One of the attributes Hamad’s friends remember most was his sense of humor, which often came out in letters to the government in response to the harassment of his family and friends, which he had had to endure so much, he placed a sign on his yard warning his neighbors that he was under surveillance by the US government. One such letter was to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft: “My neighbor came up to me few weeks ago and informed me that an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation called him again regarding some information about my activities and other personal matters. (He) specifically told me that the agent inquired about the kind of car that I drive since your agents cannot find any records of car ownership for me in Travis county or the state of Texas. I was surprised to hear that from him since not even my closest friends know that I do not own a car or any property, fixed or mobile in the state of Texas or the United States. It was my choice at the age of forty to give up all material things and devote my life to something meaningful besides racking up dollars in my bank account. For your information I do not own a car, a house, a yacht and my bank accounts have less than one hundred dollars in them. Your agents should know the car that I drive since it has more than 20 bumper stickers in support of the people of Palestine, against the occupation of Palestine, against the war in Iraq and one that states "A village in Texas is missing its idiot," and I think he now lives on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

“Now, you know that piece. Anything else you want to know. Oh yes, I forgot, my personal attire. I own five shirts. One light pink shirt that I have had for over three years. One dark pink shirt that I have had for over three years. I use both often to show my feminine side because I know how much you and the rest of this administration hate gays…”

Perhaps as a final statement of defiance to the government, or as a wink to his friends, when his body was found, he was wearing one of his pink shirts.

The Hamad family planned a memorial on May 10th in Austin, to celebrate his life.

Anna Baltzer, author of Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories, wrote: “The last time we met was in Austin, where he hosted my father and me for a luxurious dinner. It struck me, since I knew how frugal he was with himself — sleeping in a car rather than paying for a hotel that would detract from the money he could send to Palestinians — but he was always generous with others. He sent me away with a full belly and 1000 bumper stickers that he'd bought himself to support my work. Soon thereafter he sent me dozens of purses embroidered by Palestinian refugees. Each purse bore the name of a destroyed village. These weren't your typical "Free Palestine" messages; Riad was encouraging the embroiderers to celebrate their history and connection to their villages — a kind of nonviolent resistance to Israel's policies of ongoing ethnic cleansing and denial of the inalienable Right of Return. May you finally find the peace you harvested for so long, Riad.”

In her blog post in his memory, Dr. El-Farra added: “Riad... you will stay alive inside all of us who have known you and share the same vision, working hard to change the world and give the less privileged a chance for a dignified life. Your kindness, your big heart, your strong will and your determination will stay alive in us. We will never surrender to oppression, injustice and occupation. We will never give up our right of return. And one day peace and justice will prevail.”