Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh Faces Arrest By IDF
March 13th, 2010 by MEJPIsrael has cracked down hard on nonviolent resistance arresting dozens of activists in Bi’lin, Ni’lin, Al-Masara, and elsewhere just in the past year. They have even injured and murdered other peaceful demonstrators, like Rachel Corrie, who was killed seven years ago. Now Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, a U.S. citizen, faces arrest by the Israeli army this week now that he’s back home in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank village of Beit Sahour after completing a speaking tour in the United States.
The Israeli army invaded Mazin Qumsiyeh’s neighborhood in Beit Sahour, a suburb of Bethlehem, on March 2, in the middle of the night, waking up his mother, wife and sister. Heavily-armed soldiers blocked roads during “the operation.” When his family opened the door, the soldiers demanded to see Mazin Qumsiyeh. After his family explained that Mazin had already left for a U.S. speaking tour, they wrote a summons to appear for Monday March 8. He could not appear because he was still in the U.S.
For more information: Read about Mazin’s situation in his New Haven Register op-ed, which is reprinted below. http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/03/09/opinion/doc4b95ab40a3642160727871.t. See an interview on March 4, 2010 with Silvia Cattori, an independent Swiss journalist:
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=58126
Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh is a tireless activist for Palestinian human rights who returned to his hometown of Beit Sahour in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and now teaches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee, Duke and Yale Universities. He is now president of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People in Beit Sahour, a suburb of Bethlehem. The author of Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle (2004), available for $17 from the AET Book Club www.middleeastbooks.com.
Call to action: Contact the State Department at 202-647-6575 or email them by clicking here.
Ask the U.S, State Department to intervene with Israel to keep Dr, Qumsiyeh safe and out of jail.
Opinion in The New Haven Register:
Peaceful protest in Israel can lead to arrest
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
By Mazin Qumsiyeh
THIS week, when I return to my village in the occupied West Bank, I face possible arrest by Israel for engaging in nonviolent protests against abusive Israeli policies opposed by our own government.
This prospect is difficult after 29 years of living in the United States, where such activities are fully protected. It was this openness that attracted me to the U.S. I became a proud citizen and pursued work not only in my profession but also as a human rights advocate.
Over the years, I gave hundreds of talks and participated in many vigils and protests, mostly against the war on Iraq and for justice and equality in Israel/Palestine. The activities always involved people of all backgrounds.
When I moved back to Palestine in early 2008, I continued to engage in these activities. I teach and have helped to establish a master’s program in biotechnology at Bethlehem University. I also pursue my passion of educating others on human rights and engaging in civil resistance through protests and vigils.
On March 1, shortly after I left my village near Bethlehem for a visit home to the United States, the Israeli army invaded the neighborhood and surrounded our house at 1:30 a.m. My mother, sister and wife, terrorized for no reason, told the military I was out of the country but would be “happy” to talk to them upon my return.
The soldiers delivered a note demanding my appearance in a military compound five days later — a date I have missed because my ticket was scheduled for a few days later. I thus face the likelihood of arrest, administrative detention or worse when I go back.
My story is just a minor manifestation of a disturbing pattern. As civil resistance against Israel’s West Bank apartheid wall and settlement activities have increased, there has been an escalation of Israeli repression of nonviolent protesters.
Nonviolent resistance to colonization and occupation are consistent with international law and U.S. policies. President Barack Obama has stated that settlement activities in the occupied territories must stop as a prelude to ending the occupation that started in 1967. Yet, Israeli authorities continue settlement activities apace, while intensifying attacks against peaceful vigils and protests against this indefensible behavior.
Obama also gave clear encouragement to nonviolent Palestinian demonstrators in his Cairo speech, yet has remained silent as nonviolent demonstrators have been seized in recent weeks by the Israeli military.
Bethlehem has suffered significantly because of Israeli actions. The district is squeezed now by illegal Israeli settlements and military installations on three sides. Bethlehem’s 130,00 residents have access to only 20 percent of the original land of the district. The settlers, protected by the Israeli military, now want to build a settlement in the only remaining open side of Bethlehem — to the east in an area called Ush Ghrab.
The people of my village, Beit Sahour, are known for a history of nonviolent resistance, including a tax revolt in 1988 against the Israeli military government. We are a town with limited resources, comprised of 70 percent Christians and 30 percent Muslims, but have a highly educated middle class with more than 300 holders of doctorates among the population of 12,000.
Having lost so much land, and being well-informed and connected to the outside world, we decided to nonviolently resist the additional Israeli encroachment on our town. The Israeli response relied on brute force. Our first prayer vigil was attacked while a Lutheran priest was leading us in prayer.
As a member of the committee that organized the vigil and another peaceful event a week later, I was targeted. An Israeli officer warned me not to participate and threatened me, noting he knew I was planning to come home to the U.S. for a lecture tour.
Given that the Israeli government receives billions in U.S. military aid, my taxes and yours at work, our government should defend those of us who engage in nonviolent protests. I was encouraged last week, therefore, in meeting with the office of U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, that his office will pursue my concerns with the State Department and the Israeli government.
While I fear for myself, I am more worried for other activists who do not have the minimal protection of a U.S. passport. And, I am terribly worried for our future as we are squeezed into smaller and smaller apartheid-like Bantustans.
We will not be deterred from nonviolent protest. Despite being let down by numerous governments, we look to the United States and elsewhere in the international community to help defend us from abusive and violent responses to nonviolence.
Mazin Qumsiyeh was an associate professor of genetics at Yale University School of Medicine and lived in Orange before moving to Palestine. Write to him at Bethlehem University, 9 Freres St., Bethlehem, Palestine. E-mail: mazin@qumsiyeh.org.
