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