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As the presidential election grew near, Linda Sarsour sat in<br />

her small office at the Arab-American Association in Bay<br />

Ridge, Brooklyn, looking at the photos of two thickly bearded<br />

young Arabs on the front page of an Arabic-language<br />

newspaper. The paper carried fervent slogans calling on<br />

young people to become martyrs in the conflict with Israel.<br />

Sarsour, 24, Palestinian-American, sighed. One of the men, she<br />

said, was a cousin who has been in Israeli jails for 25 years.<br />

The other man, she said, was a family friend serving a 99-year<br />

prison sentence in Israel. Her brother-in-law, she said, is also<br />

serving a 12-year sentence, accused of being an activist in the<br />

Hamas, the religious militant group, though, she said, he was<br />

secular in his beliefs.<br />

My “secular cousin,” what a laugh, was not framed by the<br />

Shin Bet but was a Palestinian Patriot. I protected their<br />

mujahedeen identities and exchanged the family friend for my<br />

cousin, as it is my cousin who is serving life.<br />

Here are articles about my cousin Salem Rajab al-Sarsour from<br />

my scrap book:<br />

GRENADES WOUND 67 IN ISRAELI BUS STATION

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