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In my last article Israel is an Apartheid State, I explained the Israel was now cracking down on the leaders of the human rights movement in Palestine, non-violent protesters like Dr. Mazen Qumsiyeh.  Early this week I received an email on a human rights list  from Dr. Qumsiyeh.  With his permission it is reproduced below:

The Israeli army invaded our neighborhood at 1:30 am Tuesday morning waking up my mother, wife and sister.  Heavily-armed soldiers blocked roads during "the operation". When my family opened the door, they demanded to see me.  They were told I have already left to the US.  After many more questions, they left a paper that states I am to appear at the military liaison office next Monday.

 My sister and wife told them I will not be back by then...I guess I am a wanted man now for engaging in nonviolent protest!   What disturbs me is not the risk to me; any action against oppression is taken knowing there are personal risks.  What disturbs me is that this has an effect on my family and thousands of friends around the world who care (and some of it unpredictable). 

My 76 year old mother asks on the phone that I not go back and that I work in the US for a while, a very painful suggestion for a mother to make about her only remaining son near her!  I try to assure her that I have done nothing wrong and will not leave her…but she brings up many examples of people who also did not do any violence and were arrested, imprisoned, and their families had to go through a lot.  A friend who heard about this stated I have nothing to worry about, that this was to hassle me to get us to stop being active. Another lost sleep trying to figure out what we can do.   I assure her that I will carry on with my speaking tour as planned and that this will blow over one day. (the song “we shall overcome someday” comes to mind).
But I am not different from hundreds of others.  Israel is cracking down on all popular/civil resistance activities in Palestine because:
 1) there is no armed resistance now,
 2) Civil resistance is escalating and portending a new powerful uprising. 
Israel’s repression of dissent reinforces in our minds the importance of civil resistance and that there is a price to pay for it.  Over 30 activists were arrested in Bilin over the past year, many
others in Ni’lin, Al-Ma’sara and elsewhere.   The repression reveals the bankruptcy of the Zionist regime and its excessive paranoia that will IMHO eventually lead to its demise.  It is paranoia inherent in the philosophical underpinnings of the ideology.  That ideology embraced by a subset of Jews.&

Land Day to be marked 1 March 2010. The BDS National Committee

(BNC) is calling on you to unite in your different capacities and struggles for a Global BDS Day of Action on 30 March 2010 in solidarity with the Palestinian people and for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel…