Israeli Army Wants Me: Invading Our Neighborhood At 1:30
AM Tuesday Morning Waking Up My Mother, Wife And Sister
2 March 2010By Mazin Qumsiyeh
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. Clearly the warning
from that military officer at Ush Ghrab that I
mentioned in my last email, was based on knowledge of
this. I guess I am a wanted man now for engaging in
nonviolent protest! Those who were at that event and
have video, please contact me. 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, and 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 (Zionism) simply teaches that “we
are God’s chosen people, He gave us this land, we
cannot go wrong when behaving against the Goyim
especially those who happen to be here when we arrived
to reclaim and cleanse our lands, and International
law and human rights laws do not apply to us.” It is
self-destructive delusions that are inculcated during
early education and perpetuate the myths of
uniqueness. It leads to the kind of behaviors that are
now difficult to hide (the ethnic cleansing of 1948
was only a beginning). But even some Israelis are
shedding these mythologies and joining the struggle.
In the end, we will live together despite all this
repression.
I have to consider various options in terms of
responding to this particular event. If you have any
advice, I would appreciate it. My initial thought is
that we should intensify our work for peace and human
rights in this critical and historic period: write to
the media, the politicians, neighbors and anyone who
would listen. Below is an action call for March 30th
(Land Day) which I urge you to heed. We can’t be
neutral on a moving train and there are times whether
in the US in the 1950s and 1960s or in South Africa
under apartheid, when silence was indeed complicity in
crime.
-------------------------------------------------
Action: Land Day to be marked with Global BDS Day of
Action Statement, Palestinian BDS National Committee,
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… http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11107.shtml
Good and relevant reading: The Goldstone Report and
the Israeli "Right of Self-Defense" By Jerome Slater -
Professor Emeritus of political science, SUNY Buffalo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerome-slater/the-goldstone-report-and_b_479945.html
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD A Bedouin in cybersopace, a
villager at home http://qumsiyeh.org
©
EsinIslam.Com
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