On Saturday, December 23, over 200 people from the villages of Beit Ommar and Halhul as well as other nearby villages marched along Road 60, the main thoroughfare from Hebron to Jerusalem, blocking settler traffic for more than one hour. The Israeli army’s attempt to prevent activists from joining the demonstration by closing the road in front of Al-Arroub before the demonstration began were unsuccessful.

People from Beit Ommar and Halhul, representing all political parties, were joined by international activists from PSP, CPT, and ISM and Israeli groups Ta’ayush and Anarchists Against the Wall, to protest the construction of a new settler bypass road connecting the … Continue reading

In Wadi Ghaza, an area in the middle of the Gaza Strip near Al-Bureij, Palestinians are suffering from the sewage and polluted water that runs off from Israeli towns just outside the Strip. This has caused major health problems for Palestinians in the area, and the runoff has also caused severe environmental damage in this agricultural area, depriving the farmers of their livelihood. The Wadi Ghaza municipality sent samples of the polluted water to a laboratory for tests, which revealed that the water contained dangerous chemicals from Israeli chemical factories. The fact that this polluted water and sewage is being dumped illegally in the heavily populated Gaza Strip is a crime against the … Continue reading

A group of Israeli settlers from P’nei Hever burned trees belonging to Palestinians in the area of Bani Na’im, a Palestinian village south of Hebron. Fifty dunams of land planted with apricot, almond, olive, and cherry trees belonging to the brothers Muhammed Yunis Muhammed Manasira and Ibrahim Muhammed Manasira were completely destroyed. Five Israeli settlers carrying M-16 rifles set fire to the trees at 8am on December 20th. The area is far from the village, so the Muhammed and Ibrahim did not learn about the fire until the afternoon. When they came to try to put out the fire, the settlers shot at them, preventing them from reaching their trees and allowing the fire to spread further. Because the settlers … Continue reading

Al-Khadr is a town on the western side of Bethlehem. The Israeli settler bypass road between Jerusalem and Hebron (Road 60) runs by the western edge of Al-Khadr. All the roads leading into the town have been blocked by the Israeli occupation forces since the beginning of the 2nd Intifada in 2000. In order to travel between Bethlehem and the western villages in the Bethlehem district or anywhere in the Hebron district, Palestinians must come to Al-Khadr to the Al-Nashash checkpoint, go over or around the roadblock on foot, and then get in another shared taxi on the other side of the roadblock.

There is no way … Continue reading

A group of Israeli settlers from the Susia settlement attacked two Palestinians from the village of Susiya today. Aziz Musa and his brother, Muhammed Musa, were attacked by three settlers at about 10am when they were grazing their sheep. The settlers, who were carrying rifles and wearing masks, beat the brothers on their arms and legs, and then threatened them further and ordered them to leave the area. The settlers also beat several of the sheep before leaving and returning to the settlement.

Settler attacks are a frequent occurrence in this area, making it very dangerous for the Palestinian residents. PSP’s goal is to have a permanent international presence in Susiya to deter these … Continue reading

***Update on abductions in Al-Jab’a***

At 7am on 18 December 2006, Palestinian residents of Al-Jab’a went to try to plow their land near the Beit Shemesh checkpoint and the Apartheid Wall. Six people, including PSP activist Hamza Muhammed Al-Tous, set out with two tractors but were stopped by Israeli soldiers and detained at the Beit Shemesh checkpoint. The soldiers ordered Shadi Muhammed Al-Tous to take the tractors back to Al-Jab’a, and arrested Hamza and Wasfi Ibrahim Abu Latifa. 22-year-old Hamza and 20-year-old Wasfi, both university students, were taken to the Israeli military base in Beit Shemesh. The soldiers confiscated Hamza’s telephone because he had used its camera to photograph the soldiers when they stopped the tractors, fined them 2,000 NIS, and … Continue reading

Wednesday, three men from Al-Jaba’a, including the mayor and PSP’s liason were taken by Israeli soldiers to an undisclosed detention center. PSP is in the process of trying to locate them. We will send updates as soon as we have them.

The Israeli checkpoint on Road 60 near the Gush Etzion settlement separates the Bethlehem and Hebron districts of the West Bank. Over the past several years, the checkpoint has been expanded, and the Israeli military plans to expand it further as the Apartheid Wall is built in the area, so that, we have been told, soon Palestinians from the Bethlehem district will be required to have permits to go to Hebron and vice versa. There is now an area at the checkpoint where the Israeli soldiers and border police regularly detain Palestinians attempting to travel between Bethlehem and Hebron for several hours at a time.

Today, Israeli soldiers detained two Palestinian youth for … Continue reading

Three Israeli settlers from the settlement of Bat ‘Ain attacked Hamad Suleiby, 60, a farmer from Beit Ommar who was working on his land near the settlement today. At about noon, when Al-Suleibi was taking a break from his work, the settlers appeared carrying guns and iron bars, and accompanied by three dogs. They hit Suleiby on the top of his head, causing him to lose consciousness. The settlers then stole his horse, saw, and pruning shears, and ran back to the settlement. When Suleiby woke up after two hours, his head was still bleeding. He managed to walk to the nearest house, where the … Continue reading

Raw sewage and polluted water from the settlement of Kfar Etzion is being dumped onto nearby agricultural land belonging to the Al-Sabarnah family from Beit Ommar. Unfortunately, this is an all too common form of terror used by settlers in an attempt to prevent Palestinians from making a living. The influx of raw sewage raises the salinity of the soil for years afterward, damages or kills the grape vines, pollutes the environment, prevents the farmers from working on their land, and creates a potential public health crisis for the Palestinian families. The trees are turned a brown or sometimes yellow color from the sewage, indicating … Continue reading