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Others were less surprised, like Suhad Babaa, executive director of Just Vision, an organization dedicated to increasing media coverage and support for Palestinian and Israeli grassroots leaders."The Israeli government has been actively repressing voices of dissent and nonviolent activists with an increased fervor in the past two years," Babaa wrote in an email. "The decision to indict Issa this time around appears to be a clear-cut case of political persecution.""The decision to indict Issa this time around appears to be a clear-cut case of political persecution." –Suhad Babaa
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However his trial goes, Amro remains worried about the future of nonviolent resistance in the West Bank. He worries that the way he is being treated by Israel will make other Palestinians lose hope that nonviolent resistance can be effective. But his trial is also confirmation of a kind. His work embarrasses the Israeli authorities, Amro says, making them feel they need to justify their actions in Hebron, or even apologize for them."They want to make Hebron empty from any moderate voices calling for peace or nonviolence," he said. "They see it as the main threat to them," possibly even a greater threat than the violent stabbings that have plagued Israel recently."Israel manages very well regarding how to act against violence," Lasky, Amro's lawyer, said. "They can act violently back and they know how to do it, and how much strength to use. But Israel hasn't found a good way to fight nonviolence, so this nonviolence really presents a big riddle to the Israeli authorities. So the way they have chosen to treat nonviolence is to incarcerate the leaders to make people uncomfortable or afraid of coming to nonviolent activities because they see what happens to those leaders.""They don't want civil disobedience because it's the best methodology to defeat them," Amro said. "They want to keep the Palestinians violent so they can kill them."Follow Batya Ungar-Sargon on Twitter."They want to make Hebron empty from any moderate voices calling for peace or nonviolence." –Issa Amro