Today at approximately 4:30 pm four army jeeps entered the edge of Beit Ommar and occupied one home. from the rooftop of the home, they shot rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas into the fields and onto the roofs of nearby houses. There was no planned demonstration in Beit Ommar and the Israeli Army entered with no obvious goal other than to antagonize the local people. After shooting at no clear targets from that location, the jeeps moved and entered the main street in the town, occupying the balcony of another home and shooting rubber-coated steel bullets indiscriminately between the houses and tear … Continue reading

Today, over 300 Palestinians from the South Betlehem villages including Um Salamuna held their friday prayer on the land being confiscated for the Annexation Barrier and then marched down the main road leading to Efrat, blocking settler traffic, in commemoration of Land Day. There was a minor confrontation with three Israeli soldiers as the march enveloped an army jeep, but there were no arrests or injuries. Peaceful demonstrations were held throughout Palestine and in Palestinian villages inside the Green Line, including Budrus, Tulkarem, Bil’in, Sakhnin and Um Salamuna.

Land Day began in 1976 in the Palestinian-Israeli village of Sakhnin to protest the expropriation of Palestinian lands by Israelis in 1948 and 1967. … Continue reading

Today at 7:55 am the Israeli Occupation Forces used a military attack dog on a Palestinian woman at Ar-Ram checkpoint, between Ramallah and Jerusalem. Eyewitness John, from the Ecummenical Accompaniment program said that as the woman was walking down a side street near the checkpoint the soldiers, without warning, let loose an attack dog which savagely bit the woman’s leg and knocked her to the ground. The soldier then approached with his weapon aimed at her. When John attempted to take pictures to document the attack, the soldiers prevented him from doing so. A Palestinian PSP activist who was at the checkpoint by chance at the time, also witnessed the attack. He was told that … Continue reading

Today, members of PSP attempted to accompany farmers from Beit Ommar to their land near the Karme Zur settlement to prune their grapevines. Last summer, the Israeli Occupation Forces built a fence through the farmers’ land, for “security reasons”. However, after an Israeli Supreme Court decision, the farmers were granted access to their land on the other side of the fence if coordinated with the DCO (the district representative of the Israeli Army who is the ‘liason’ to the Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories).

When the farmers arrived at the gate at a time pre-arranged with the DCO, an IOF Humvee and an … Continue reading

Nearly a month ago an illegal roadblock, that PSP, Palestinian, and Israeli activists had removed in October, was put back into place. As promised, last night the Beit Ommar Popular Committee, PSP, international and Israeli activists removed the roadblock, again. The roadblock was prohibiting traffic from the main vegetable market in Beit Ommar to Route 60, the main thoroughfare to Betlehem and Hebron. Because of this roadblock, it was very difficult for vegetable trucks to carry produce from Beit Ommar to surrounding areas.

The right to freedom of movement is recognized under international law and therefore all roadblocks put in Palestine by Israeli Occupation Forces are illegal. These roadblocks … Continue reading

Today approximately 30 girls from the Gush Etzion settlement, accompanied by an armed guard, trespassed on Palestinian land in Beit Ommar. When an international activist questioned the armed man, he said that the girls were on a “field trip” because they believed that this land (the land they were trespassing on) was theirs. The youth were from a girls zionist youth organization.

Today, International and Israeli activists from Ta’ayush movement joined Abu Jabber Soleiby and the Beit Ommar Popular Committee as Soleiby, his brother and his nephew pruned their grapevines near the Israeli settlement Beit ‘Ain. Abu Jabber and his brother have been forced to rely on accompaniment by international and Israeli activists to work their land in the Saffa area of Beit Ommar after repeated violent attacks from the settlers. The Soleiby family is determined to continue to go to their land in defiance of the settlers’ attempts to terrorize them and force them to give up the land that they have owned for decades.
Abu Jabber spoke about the repeated … Continue reading

The regular friday demonstration in the South Betlehem area was held in Wadi Rahhal yesterday. The regional Popular Committee is committed to including all of the South Betlehem villages in the struggle against the construction of the Annexation Wall on their lands. Nearly 100 Palestinians, internationals and Israelis met near the path of The Wall where they held a short demonstration and then marched to the village.

Wadi Rahhal is a small village near the Israeli settlement Neve Daniel. If The Wall is completed on its proposed path, Wadi Rahhal, along with the villages Nahalin, Batir, Husan and Al-Jab’a, will be left on the western side of The Wall, … Continue reading

People in Um Salamuna celebrated Mother’s Day today by demonstrating against the Annexation Wall which the Israeli government is building on their land. The leader of the Um Salamuna Women’s Organization, Fatima Brijea, told the crowd that the wall was being built with violence, and that this violence would not help to achieve peace. She proclaimed the purpose of today’s demonstration against the wall was to help achieve peace “for our children and their children.” Many children, especially young girls, were present.

The demonstrators marched along the bulldozed path to where the machines were working. Once there, two Palestinian women, one man from … Continue reading

Soldiers entered the village of Beit Ommar tonight following a funeral. Unwilling to let friends and family mourn their loss in peace, soldiers began shooting into the air. There was no operation or other purpose for their entry, the soldiers simply entered an area they frequently harrass (they’ve killed 7 people in the area in the past), fired guns and parachuted flares into the air in an attempt to frighten people. The Army stopped two Palestinian cars and used them, still occupied by their Palestinian owners, as shields against potential stone-throwers. Using civilians as human shields for any purpose is against international law, though the Israeli Army … Continue reading