Here; an excerpt:
The American government accuses me of undermining U.S. foreign policy, a patently absurd pretext for deportation for political speech that the Trump administration dislikes. The government is scraping the bottom of the barrel in its attempts to smear me. My only “crime” is refusing to accept the slaughter of Palestinians, opposing war and promoting peace. I have simply insisted that international law must be respected. I believe the way to a just and long-lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis is through diplomacy and restorative justice.
By seeking to deport me, the Trump administration is sending a clear message: There is no room for dissent, free speech be damned. It seems willing to shield an extremist Israeli government from criticism at the expense of constitutional rights, all while suppressing the possibility of a peaceful future for both Palestinians and Israelis, a future free of trauma and fear.
I dream of justice and peace, a dream shaped by the nightmarish memories of my childhood. I was born a third-generation refugee in Al-Far’a camp in the West Bank under Israel’s apartheid system. When I was 8 years old, I buried my brother when he died a few years after an Israeli military siege blocked his access to medical care, ultimately resulting in fatal health issues. Instead of celebrating my 11th birthday, I walked in my uncle’s funeral procession after he was killed by the Israeli military. I witnessed an Israeli soldier kill my best childhood friend when I was 11....
Before moving to the United States in 2014, freedom was an abstract concept for me, something I could barely imagine while living under Israeli military occupation. I sang for freedom, wrote poems about it and dreamed of living it but had never experienced it. I longed for physical freedom — the ability to travel without encountering a military checkpoint — and for the right to free speech, both of which I found in America.
Ultimately, I sought American citizenship not only because I did not want to lose the freedom I enjoyed as a permanent resident but even more so because I believe in the principles and values of democracy, which this country stipulates in its founding documents. While America has not always lived up to those values, like Dr. King, I believe they serve as a promise of what’s possible.
These very freedoms are under attack today, both for me and for others like me. The Trump administration is hewing to Israel’s playbook: Under the thinly veiled guise of security, rights are being denied and due process eliminated. The administration is silencing its critics by deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain noncitizen dissidents and is compromising the integrity of the immigration system.
Once the repression of dissent, in the name of security, becomes a key objective of a government, authoritarian rule and even martial law are not far off. When they look at my case, all Americans should ask themselves: What is left of our democracy, and who will be targeted next?
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