In the early morning of Wednesday April 17th, soldiers from the Israeli Occupation Forces entered the village of Beit Ommar. At 2.30 a.m., they surrounded the house of Mohammed Ahmad Abu Maria and his family.

The soldiers searched Mohammed’s house for two hours and destroyed many household items belonging to the family. After the search, the soldiers beat Mohammed before they arrested him.

Mohammed is only twenty-two years old, but has already spent three years and two months in Israeli prisons. He was released from prison two months ago and had just recently applied to continue his university studies at Palestine Polytechnic University in Hebron.

Member of PSP and Beit Ommar Popular Committee joined other non-violent demonstrators in the street on Friday April 12th, 2013 in the village of Nabi Saleh, located 20 kilometres North West of Ramallah in the West Bank. The village has organized weekly demonstrations in Nabi Saleh since December of 2009 in order to protest the confiscation of the village’s land and freshwater springs by Israeli settlers.

The demonstrators, which included village residents, international activists and Israeli peace activists, marched to a spring located on Palestinian land that was illegally confiscated by Israeli settlers from the Halamish settlement. Israeli soldiers surrounded the village and then shot tear gas and steel-coated rubber … Continue reading

14-Year old Nassim Abu Maria was released late Sunday 14th of April after spending 4 ½ months in Ofer Prison, which is located between Jerusalem and Ramallah. He was arrested during a surprise night raid and it was his first time in prison. During the night raid, soldiers came to his house unexpectedly at 3 am and he was told that he was being arrested because the soldiers possessed photos of him throwing stones. He was blindfolded, handcuffed and taken into custody. After ten court appearances, the soldiers were unable to bring forward the photos they allegedly possessed of Abu Maria’s stone throwing, yet, he was still sentenced to prison, without any evidence of his alleged political activity.

Abu Maria … Continue reading

The Center for Freedom and Justice, a non-profit organization in the Palestinian village of Beit Ommar in Hebron District, is looking at new agricultural projects to support its inhabitants.

The Center for Freedom and Justice was established to address the lack of community development and has been organizing programs in rural Palestinian communities. Due to various problems concerning the Israeli occupation of the West Bank the Palestinian agricultural life is severely constrained. The organization aims to improve the lives of rural residents by supporting them to remain steadfast on their land so that confiscation of land and settlement expansion will be harder to accomplish.

The agricultural life of Palestinian communities … Continue reading

Tha’er Halahlah, the famous Palestinian (former) hunger striker, has once again been arrested by the Israeli Occupation Forces.

Halahlah participated in a hunger strike in protest of his administrative detention, without charge and trial, by the Israeli Occupation Forces. After 77 days without food, he was finally released on the 5th of June, 2012. He had been imprisoned for almost three years.

Halahlah has previously told PSP that by his 60th day without food, he had began to believe he would die, and by his 70th day, he had lost hope that he would ever see his family again. Halahlah’s wife described the days of his strike as the most difficult moments of her life, explaining that she was constantly worried about … Continue reading