CounterPunch Readers on 'Salamat Riad': Mostly Thanks

I began working with Riad Hamad, in 2004 and have been to oPt 5 times since June 2005.

The last time I spoke to Riad on the phone was a few days after the federal agents had descended upon him.

He told me that not only did they cart off more than forty boxes of papers, files, computers, CDs, his daughters childhood diaries, but also an ounce and a half of catnip.

I told him he sounds like the next Dr. Sami-Al Arian. He made no reply then, but i can imagine he had already decided he would not be locked away or PCWF shut down.

Riad had the best sense of humor of any activist I have ever known and he was a better Christian than many I have known who claim to be one. Riad did The Beatitudes; he blessed: did good unto the least among us; the poor and oppressed children of Palestine.

I personally met with some of the Bethlehem children PCWF served and also Husam Jubran; PCWF’s ‘boots on the ground’ coordinator.

I didn’t meet any terrorists in all my days in the refugee camps and travels through the West Bank. All I met were human beings suffering from injustice and a military occupation we American tax payers support with 3.2 Billion annually.

thanks for your Counterpunch article.

Thanks a lot for your article about Riad Hamad printed on Counterpunch today.

It looks like Riad death is going to go pretty much unnoticed and will be only lightly investigated.

Thanks for reminding everyone what kind of a man he was and in what kind of a world he (we) lived (live) in.

Best regards and many thanks.

that was a beautiful essay. thank you.

as a good friend and close colleague of Riad Hamad’s and his work over the years, this article is totally shallow, misinformed, exploitative and doesn’t get to any of the core issues that Riad was dealing with — whether he committed suicide or not. I was happy to see someone take on the issue, but your article is very sub-par.

Excellent piece. Thanks for doing it.