Below is an update including action calls, interviews by several languages, and more videos of civil resistance actions being persecuted by occupation authorities.
Many people have been injured and killed in the past few weeks as both the local population and the occupation authorities realize we are in the birth pangs of a new uprising against the occupation focused on civil resistance in villages and towns impacted by the colonization policies. A 14-year-old Ehab Afdal Barghouthi was critically injured after Israeli occupation soldiers shot him in the head earlier this week during one of these demonstrations. The concern that hundreds of you showed to my situation with a potential arrest upon return home moved me. Of course, I am more protected and privileged than most Palestinians who engage in civil resistance and we must not forget about them. But in discussion with many hundreds of friends via my appearances in the US in the last few days and via the internet, we come to the conclusion that it might be good to use my story as a way to draw attention to these other cases. If the Israeli army is allowed to persecute a Palestinian American academic and professor who always advocated civil and nonviolent resistance, then obviously they would have more freedom to do far more against others. And not being able to intimidate me might give more courage to other Palestinians from exile to return and struggle in our homeland. So with those ideas in mind, I contracted with the law offices of Jonathan Kuttab (famous Palestinian civil resister himself) to represent me upon my return. We will also wage a media and other campaigns as the need arise. I thus spoke strongly against repression in several venues in the past few days including Bradeiss, Brown, UMAss, and Northeastern Universities. I will also be speaking March 10th at Noon at Graduate Student Lounge (just behind Au Bon Pain), Rutgers Student Center, 126 College Avenue, New Brunswick Directions: http://maps.rutgers.edu/
Sponsored by the Emeriti Assembly of the Rutgers Council of AAUP-AFT Chapters
Supporters of freedom have also took initiatives to act on their own. Some started a petition to describes the situation surrounding the threats by the Israeli Army: http://www.thestruggle.org/
And some American professors and representatives have already expressed support:
Others have continued to put videos on Youtube showing indeed who the aggressors are.
Other peace and justice groups have asked for action. For example Palestine Action Group wrote to their supporters:
This is a call for action on behalf of our friend, Dr Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, whom we know as a tireless advocate for human rights and justice. Mazin is a Palestinian American citizen who lived in the US for 29 years before returning to Palestine nearly two years ago. He received his higher education in the US and served as a faculty member in schools of medicine at the Universities of Tennessee, Duke and Yale. He has also written several books, the most recent of which is Hope and Empowerment: A History of Popular Resistance in Palestine.……………Israel receives billions of our tax money, and carries out its targeting of nonviolent peace activists, like Mazin, with the tacit complicity of the US government. Please join us in writing to Israelis officials (that we are aware of Mazin's situation and concerned for his safety) and US officials (asking that they use their influence on Mazin's behalf). Below are the addresses, and thanks for any attention you can bring to his case.
Israeli Embassy in US: Ambassador Michael Oren, Embassy of Israel, 3514 International Drive, NW, Washington DC 20008 Telephone: (202) 364-5500 Fax: (202) 364-5423 E-mail: info@israelemb.org
Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, 456 Montgomery St, Suite 2100, San Francisco, CA 94104
Telephone: 415-844-7500 Fax: 415-844-7555 E-mail: sf@israelconsulate.org
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
U.S. Department of State, 2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20520, Main Switchboard: 202-647-4000 / Comment Line: 202-647-6575 or 202-647-5291
US Embassy in Israel: U.S. Embassy, Israel 71 Hayarkon Street, Tel Aviv amctelaviv@state.gov
Israeli minister of justice: Min. of Justice Yaakov NEEMAN, Salah -a - Din 29 P.O.Box 49029 Jerusalem 91490 ISRAEL
Interview of Mazin Qumsiyeh by Silvia Cattori
English
French
German
Spanish
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment