Co-defendants Raunaq Alam and Afsheen Khan at the Tarrant County courthouse last week (photo by and courtesy Stacey Monroe)
Texas prosecutors are seeking 10-year prison sentences for activists accused of anti-Zionist graffiti.
The three defendants — Raunaq Alam, Afsheen Khan, and another unnamed individual — were indicted on vandalism charges with hate crime enhancements after allegedly defacing a church with pro-Palestine stickers and the words “F*** Israel” written in red spray-paint alongside three inverted triangles. The incident occurred in March 2024 at Uncommon Church in Euless, which was flying an Israeli flag at the time of the incident.
Last week, a jury convicted Alam of committing a felony criminal mischief but rejected the hate crime charges. The trials for Khan and the unnamed co-defendant are scheduled for September 30.
Adwoa Asante, Alam’s attorney, told Hyperallergic that her client’s actions clearly stemmed from political protest, pointing out that the church is a staunch supporter of the Israeli military, as indicated by multiple Facebook posts.
“ My client was accused of writing, ‘F*** Israel’ … That is hands-down political speech when someone says, ‘F*** your country,’” Asante said.
Asante also explained that the incident, which occurred a year ago, started out with a misdemeanor graffiti charge. But “everything went haywire” when the state appointed Tarrant County District Attorney Lloyd Whelchel, who has previously handled cases concerning the death penalty, as prosecutor, he said.
“[Then] the state indicted this case and accused my client of anti-Jewish faith discrimination, and conflated the State of Israel with Judaism,” Asante told Hyperallergic.
Though the conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism is not new, the increasing criminalization of the former in the last two years has raised alarms. In the culture sector, artists have reported being silenced or censored for condemning Israel’s ongoing siege and mass killings of Palestinians, which have been deemed a genocide by multiple human rights groups, including Israeli organizations.
Last year, three individuals were charged with “making a terroristic threat as a hate crime” for vandalizing the homes of four Brooklyn Museum leaders, including Director Anne Pasternak. (Of the four, only Pasternak is Jewish.) The spray-painted messages also included inverted red triangles, symbols that are sometimes used by activists as a show of Palestinian resistance. Use of the shape’s emoji was restricted by Meta last year on the basis that it could indicate support for Hamas, but the symbol has also been traced to the Palestinian flag and to broader anti-fascist movements.
Alam now faces up to two years in state prison and a reported $10,000 fine, although the jury recommended five years of probation, which includes 180 days in a county jail. Khan and the other defendant are still facing criminal charges with hate crime enhancements.
Asante said that the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is “elated” that the jury acquitted Alam on the hate crime charges, but is still disappointed in the criminal mischief conviction.
“The NLG is deeply concerned because at the national, state, and local level, we’re seeing repression in the form of criminalization against those who oppose the genocide in Palestine,” Asante said.