Editor's Comment: Tonight at 2:30 a.m. Venezuelan time, we received a communique telling us that Mazin has been released by the Israeli gestapo. Here's his message and please note that he even took the time to include links, continuing his work. Have you ever been arrested, insulted, brutalized and interrogated. This treatment involves tremendous stress, physically and psychologically. Mazin is a hero. Scroll down for the background of this story about the kidnapping of Mazin Qumsiyeh and his protesting friends in Palestine.

Saludos Mazin! - LMB

I was released from detention after investigation only with minor bruises, threats and warnings but both Israeli activists Shy and Yotam were brought in front of a judge on some false charges and judged to stay away from the wall for 30 days (last time for me it was 15 days) with hefty fines if they violate the order.  I was honored to share a few hours with them in detention.  The past two days have not been easy (videos below). Yesterday (Tuesday June 8th), we witnessed how the land of Al-Walaja was being destroyed.  Abu Nidal watched as Israeli colonizers uprooted olive trees that his family has planted decades ago and trees donated by Europeans 8 years ago.  After the devastation, activists were determined to do something and this morning some even chained themselves to a bulldozer.  The 'Border police' are known for being ruthless and mean.  In this case, there was also the added complication of the Israeli army deciding to put a unit headed by a Druze officer named Asa'ad that included a mix of Ashkenazim and Druze and a token black soldier.  One of the Ashkenazi soldiers was particularly aggressive.  The Druze soldiers appeared out of place. Some soldiers confided that they are merely forced to serve.  But Captain Asa'ad was clearly in command and interested in action.  He was busy ordering his soldiers to push us around, instructing them to not talk to us, telling them to arrest us etc.  After Yotam was arrested for chaining himself to the bulldozer, we were pushed up the hill toward the paved village road past the old destroyed fig tree that Zakhariya used to sit under every day for decades.  We had a sit-in for over an hour at the side of the street.  Towards the end of it, it was clear that this commander had it in for us.  At two times as I was trying to talk to him and his soldiers, he came to tell me that I would be arrested.  As we finally ended our sit-in and were moving away from the soldiers, the commander called for me and took my ID card and told me I was being detained.  As his soldier led me away, other activists rushed to talk to the soldiers including the commander.  I was thus not surprised to see Shy also arrested even though he did not do anything other than trying to talk to the occupation soldiers about why they detained me. I was released without charges four hours later with a strong warning and threat from Asa'ad  that he would shackle me, hurt me, 'and worse' if he caught me near the wall work areas again.  Shy and Yotam were given a suspended sentence but they must stay away from the wall areas for 30 days. If you know any Druze, I urge you to write to them.  It is a shame what they are doing serving in an army of occupation.  But it is also a shame for any human being to serve in such a sadistic brutalizing colonization force.
Heartbreaking video of devastation Tuesday June 8th at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrbMP9hRNeo
And the action and arrests on Wednesday June 9th
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9rdBX0pvv0
And here is a report from Palestine monitor with great photos
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1442

This destruction is carried on while the US administration bribes Mahmoud Abbas with more millions in aid for more streets and government buildings and security forces to ensure we do not have any demonstrations against the occupation. This is done as the US shields Israel from International law and sends more arms shipments to Israel in violation of US law (which demands weapons not be used to violate human rights)
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/c/o/colindale/2010/06/explosive-document-that-needs.php

Israeli Murders, NATO and Afghanistan By Craig Murray
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25596.htm

PLEASE  ACT on the call from Palestinian Civil Society for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/710 and continue to write and demonstrate and increase the pressure on the supine media and politicians.

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home
http://www.qumsiyeh.org    
Professor, Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities
Chairman of the Board, Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People, http://www.pcr.ps

Editor's Comment: Mazin Qumsiyeh has been a regular correspondent with Axis of Logic for years. Today, we are dismayed to hear that he was arrested by Israeli soldiers. He is himself Palestinian and he has been one of the foremost voices in the world for the Palestinian people. We salute him today for his courage in organizing protests in Palestine and delivering their message in his tours around the world.

Mazin was arrested before at a protest in Al-Walaja on May 6, 2010

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh's work is regularly published in Axis of Logic's Letters from Palestine. He teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee, Duke and Yale Universities. He is now president of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People. He published several books of which the most acclaimed Sharing the Land of Canaan: human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle which was also translated to Spanish. He also has an activism book published electronically on his Website. His main interest is media activism and public education. He has published hundreds of letters to editors and hundreds of op-ed essays in the corporate media and he has been interviewed in TV and radio extensively (local, national and international). He is currently finishing a book on Palestinian civil resistance going back to the beginning of the Zionist project in the 19th century until today.

In whatever ways possible we will continue to support him and demand his release from being held behind Israel's iron curtain by their military and police. His arrest is evidence enough that he is a threat - not to Israel's "security", as they say, but to their ongoing apartheid system. Visit his Website and read his essays and reports on Axis of Logic's Letters from Palestine. More about the arrest of Mazin Qumsiyeh below.

- Les Blough, Editor

© Copyright 2010 by AxisofLogic.com

This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article in its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you!

Former US Professor Arrested in Al-Walaja
Palestine Monitor
June 9, 2010

Former Yale Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh was among three demonstrators arrested this morning, as Israeli soldiers brutally stopped a demonstration in Al-Walaja. Aaron Dearborn reports from the field. All images by Kara Newhouse.

Dr Qumsiyeh was allegedly arrested and taken for interrogation as soldiers believed he was a "security threat", however they did not provide specific details.

Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh arrested by the Israeli military and taken away for interrogation.

Also arrested under similar circumstances was an Israeli activist, Shay Chalatzi of Tel Aviv, allegedly for insulting the military unit as he protested the arrest of Dr Qumsiyeh.

Both arrests occurred after the demonstration was over and activists were attempting to leave the area. Soldiers followed the demonstrators as they walked away from the construction site to make the arrests.

Shay Chalatzi of Tel Aviv, allegedly for insulting the military unit as he protested the arrest of Dr Qumsiyeh.

Unidentified protestor arrested along with Mazin Qumsiyeh and Shay Chalatzi

Fellow protestors waiting at the site as Mazin is being arrested.

At around 7am this morning, approximately 25-30 demonstrators marched on the scene of the wall construction, with two activists chaining themselves to bulldozers.

Yotam Wolfe of Jerusalem was arrested immediately as the military arrived; forcibly removed from a bulldozer to which he was chained by the neck.

At one point, the Israeli contractor in charge of the site attempted to attack the demonstrators and had to be forcibly restrained by the military.

Soldiers than began shoving the crowd and threatening arrests, as demonstrators were forced out of the construction site and onto the village roads.

The crowd then staged a peaceful sit down demonstration with soldiers not permitting demonstrators to move.

All three are believed to be held at the 300 check point in Bethlehem and are currently under interrogation.

The demonstrations came in response to the uprooting of trees and the overturning of land in preparation for the construction of the separation wall which threatens to cut the villagers from their agricultural lands.

(Photo descriptions by Axis of Logic)

Palestine Monitor