Israeli Defense Forces on Good Friday: Friend arrested, Windshield Smashed

(BETHLEHEM) - 10 friends have been released from Israeli jails on bail pending "trial" for their role in a recent non violent demonstration.

Those kidnapped from the peaceful march in Bethlehem area on Palm Sunday attended a press conference in Ramallah and passed by Beit Sahour late Friday. Each is to appear in front of a military judge later this month.

Yet, the Friday regular demonstration in Al-Ma'sara was large and daring. Speeches were given at the site where soldiers had stretched barbed wire blocking the road.

International residents, including Israelis, participated with Palestinians. The occupation troops decided to end the demonstration early with a barrage of concussion/stun grenades.

Two reporters and two demonstrators were injured by the soldiers and the arrests were made in a violent way.

The soldiers also shot directly at my car smashing one concussion grenade into the windshield from a distance of over 100 meters (replacement and clean-up will cost $250-300).

Similar repression occurred in other towns in the West Bank. Israel also shelled a number of places in Gaza including a dairy products factory, previously mentioned in a Salem-News.com report^[1]^[2].

The Huwwara Checkpoint land day event is another example of Palestinian nonviolent resistance being met by violence again and again^[3]. Al-Jazeerah English showed our land day activities in Beit Sahour^[4].

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD (formerly of Yale and Duke universities) teaches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine and chairs the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People. Professor Qumsiyeh has authored over 110 scientific papers in areas of mammalogy, biology, and medicine including mammalian biology and evolution, clinical genetics, and cancer research. He has published over 100 letters to the editor and 30 op-ed pieces in International, national, regional and local papers on issues ranging from politics to environmental issues. His appearances in national media include the Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, CNBC, C-Span, and ABC, among others. He is the founder and president of the Holy Land Conservation Foundation and ex-President of the Middle East Genetics Association, and Prof. Qumsiyeh won the Jallow activism award from the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee in 1998. Those are just a small list, visit Mazin Qumsiyeh's amazing and informative Website to learn more: qumsiyeh.org, and also pcr.ps.

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Vic April 5, 2010 8:03 am (Pacific time)

Couldnt have said it better, Jeff !

Jeff Kaye~ April 4, 2010 4:41 pm (Pacific time)

This hateful persecution will persist as long as we in the US - and the rest of Israel's allies (stooges) - ignore it, condone it and encourage it with our silence. We who are in a position to speak up, to speak out in condemnation of this racist regime, yet do nothing, are no better than the Zionist perpetrators of decades of repression, torture and genocide. Thank you, professor Qumsiyeh, for your brave coverage of the plight of these innocent people murdered and terrorized these long decades. People like you standing up for simple human rights are the key to a peaceful solution to a complicated problem.

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