The first day of Raunaq Alam’s trial in Tarrant County started with debate over whether “F*** Israel” is hate speech or a protected political statement.
Alam and two others are accused of graffitiing “F*** Israel” on the wall of Uncommon Church in Euless and putting pro-Palestinian stickers on a church sign and flagpole. They’re charged with criminal mischief that damaged a place of worship, along with a hate crime enhancement — making the potential punishment more severe. If found guilty, Alam could be sentenced to probation, or between two and 10 years in prison with a fine up to $10,000.
Alam’s trial started Monday. In her opening statement, his attorney, Adwoa Asante, told jurors her client originally faced a misdemeanor case, but the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office bumped up the charge.
“The government has manufactured a felony on a graffiti case because they hate his opinions,” she said.
In Alam’s indictment, Tarrant County accused him of vandalizing the church because of bias against Israel and Jewish people. That’s the main thing jurors have to decide on — not whether Alam vandalized the church, prosecutor Lloyd Whelchel said.
“There is no dispute this defendant did this,” he said.
The Texas branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has called on the DA’s office to drop the hate crime accusation. Alam was criticizing a country, not a group of people, they argued.
Camilo Diaz
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Fort Worth Report
Pro-Palestinian students at UT Dallas continued their call Friday, April 26, 2024, for the school to divest in companies supplying arms to Israel. Some representatives briefly met with UTD President Richard Benson to deliver their demands.
Dozens of Alam’s supporters filled the courtroom Monday. Several people came draped in black-and-white keffiyehs, the scarf that has become a symbol for Palestinians.
Attendees raised concerns about what this case could mean for free speech, including Alam’s sister, Najwa Alam Armstrong.
“Honestly, this is really terrifying. Obviously for personal reasons, because of my ties to my one and only sibling, but on a much bigger scale for what this could mean for any other American,” she said.
The war in Gaza has set off fierce debates in the U.S. over whether criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an antisemitism investigation into Plano ISD over allegations that school officials allowed pro-Palestine walkouts. The federal government has threatened some pro-Palestine student protestors with deportation.
The war began after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Since then, more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The World Health Organization has confirmed Gaza is experiencing a famine, and a group of genocide scholars has declared Israel is committing genocide — a charge Israel denies.
Cristian ArguetaSoto
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Fort Worth Report
A patron at the Jewish Federation of Fort Worth’s rally for Israel waves an Israeli flag as Jewish community leaders sing a zemirot, or Jewish hymn, on Oct. 10, 2023.
Uncommon Church started flying an Israeli flag after Oct. 7, Lead Pastor Brad Carignan said. He was called to the stand as the first witness in Alam’s case. He was heartbroken over the attack and wanted to show solidarity, he said.
The flag drew Alam to vandalize the church, according to Whelchel. He showed the jury photos of the vandalism, including “F*** Israel” in red paint on a wall and stickers on a church sign and the flagpole. One sticker showed the Nazi flag next to the Israeli flag, and another had the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
While many pro-Palestine protestors use that chant as a call for equality, others see it as a call to wipe out Israel, according to the Associated Press.
That’s how Carignan saw it, too, he said. When Asante pointed out that Alam and his codefendants wrote “Israel,” not “Jews,” in their graffiti, Carignan said he didn’t make a distinction.
“The country of Israel is the Jewish homeland,” he said.
Asante was largely not allowed to question Carignan about Israel’s actions in the war, including accusations of genocide. Whelchel objected to their relevance, and Judge Brian Bolton agreed. Only when the jury was out of the room was she allowed to ask Carignan in detail about his trips to Israel and his relationship with his brother-in-law, who is a veteran Israeli Defense Force commander.
In an interview after Monday’s proceedings, Asante said hate crime laws are designed to protect people, not foreign nations.
“Israel is a government, and not all Jewish people approve what Israel is doing. Not even all Israeli citizens approve of what Israel is doing,” she said. “So the state equating the state of Israel, the government, to Jewish people, is actually antisemitic, because it seeks to define the politics of Jewish people in one broad stroke.”
When asked if she wanted to add anything else, Asante said, “Free Palestine.”
Whelchel said he cannot comment on a trial before it ends. In a previous statement, a DA’s Office spokesperson said, “Our indictment is based on the evidence.”
The trial began Monday with jury selection. Attorneys for both sides questioned potential jurors about whether they’d be able to put certain biases aside.
Raunaq Alam’s trial is taking place at Tarrant County’s criminal courthouse, the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in downtown Fort Worth.
One potential juror admitted she’d automatically find the accused person guilty if the case involved Israel. Another said he would struggle to apply the hate crime law because he believes all religion is just mythology.
Asante asked potential jurors if it was possible to criticize a country without criticizing its people.
It depends on the country, one man responded.
“Some countries are very integrated with their religion,” he said.
Another potential juror said separating the two concepts makes sense. He’s from Cuba, and he detests the Cuban government, but not the Cuban people, he said.
Each side was allowed to strike a certain number of potential jurors from the list. Prosecutors struck the man from Cuba — and another man who agreed with him — for their responses, Whelchel said when the defense challenged him about it.
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