Activist Threatened with Arrest
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Your Tax Dollars at Work: Mazin Qumsiyeh, past US Campaign Steering Committee member and nonviolent activist, threatened with arrest
Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, a geneticist, author, leader of nonviolent resistance in the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour, and a past member of the US Campaign Steering Committee, is facing arrest when he returns to the occupied West Bank this week. Mazin writes in the New Haven Register (emphasis added):
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. More Here: http://endtheoccupationblog.blogspot.com/