Rise in Israeli Violence Against West Bank Palestinians Requires U.S. Response

Interview with Mazin Qumsiyeh, Palestinian-American activist, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

The Obama administration has made resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a high priority, and has publicly criticized Israel for its continued building of settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, lands that were taken in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. But the U.S. has not withdrawn or threatened to withdraw any of the more than $3 billion in mostly military aid it provides to Israel every year.

While attacks and oppression of Palestinians by Israeli military forces and settlers have been an ongoing fact of life, there are some indications that such violence is now on the rise. Israeli response to protests against the Israeli separation wall being constructed inside Palestinian territory, in Bi'lin and other Palestinian villages, have turned more violent, resulting in at least two recent killings and the kidnapping of village youths. In another recent incident, 1,500 olive trees -- a mainstay of Palestinian agriculture and economic survival -- were recently destroyed by settlers.

Mazin Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian with dual American citizenship who spent many years in the U.S. but who moved back last year to live at his family home in Beit Sahour, in the West Bank. Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Qumsiyeh, a professor at Bethlehem University, who describes the upsurge in repression and what he views is an appropriate American response.

Mazin Qumsiyeh is the author of "Sharing the Land of Canaan," and is writing a forthcoming book on Palestinian civil resistance. Visit his website at www.qumsiyeh.org

Related links:

* The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions www.icahd.org

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