On Saturday Israeli and international activists joined some residents of the Al-Qasa region, just outside Idhna, in the Hebron District, to demonstrate against their recent expulsion from their homes after over 50 years of residency. 264 refugees from 1948 lived in caves, small homes, and tents in the Al-Qasa area until two weeks ago, when the Israeli military forced them from their homes and destroyed most of them. The reason? Al-Qasa is in “the seam zone”, the ‘no man’s land’ created where the Israeli government refused to build the Annexation Barrier on the Green Line and instead built it further into Palestinian land. Thousands of Palestinians up and down the … Continue reading

The roadblock between Surif and Al-Jab’a has been there for at least 10 years, well before the second intifada broke out in late 2000. It prevents the nearly 1000 residents of Al-Jab’a from accessing essential resources in Surif such as secondary schools, shops, and medical care. The roadblock also forces the over 30,000 Palestinians in Beit Ommar and Surif areas to use the entrance to Beit Ommar, which is controlled by the Israeli Occupation Forces with an enormous watchtower and gate, to access the cities of Hebron or Betlehem, where the only regional hospitals, universities, and major marketplaces are located. Saturday, Israeli and international solidarity activists from the Palestine Solidarity … Continue reading

This morning when a farmer and his family attempted to pick the olives from their trees that may be inaccessible next year if the Annexation Barrier is completed as planned, the Israeli military forbade them from going to their land, which is near the illegal Israeli settlement Efrat. So the plans for the weekly demonstration in Um Salamuna against the construction of the Annexation Barrier were altered and international activists joined the farmer and his family and other demonstrators to bring in their olive harvest.

Demonstrators began with trees on what will remain on the “Palestinian side” of the Fence, but then decided that they would … Continue reading

The 264 residents of the area of Al-Qasa, near Idhna and the Tarqumiya checkpoint, originally came from the village of Beit Jibrin, on what became the Israeli side of the Green Line in 1948. Many of the residents still remember when they first came to Al-Qasa, 50 years ago. The land of Al-Qasa, which is less than half a kilometer inside the West Bank from the Green Line, was donated to the families who were forced from Beit Jibrin, which is now the site of the Israeli town beit Shemesh when they became refugees of An-Nakba–the catastrophe. For 50 years 10 families have lived in caves and semi-permanent homes, … Continue reading