Today, international and Israeli activists joined more than 200 Palestinians from the village of Al-Khadr and surrounding villages in their weekly demonstration against the construction of a series of Apartheid structures, including the Annexation Barrier, a settler by-pass road, and by-pass tunnel. Today residents commemorated Land Day, traditionally observed in Palestine on March 30.
Participants gathered near the main thoroughfare, Route 60, and held their midday Friday prayer near the site where the Annexation Barrier is currently being built. The Wall in this area will cut off or destroy 90% of Al-Khadr’s land in Israel’s most recent policy of land confiscation. They then marched towards the highway where Israeli Occupation Forces … Continue reading

From Christian Peacemaker Teams
Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills gathered today in the village of Qawawis to begin rebuilding homes destroyed by the Israeli military on March 19.
Villagers from At-Tuwani, international human rights workers and the families of Qawawis worked throughout the morning to clear rubble, which blocked the entrance to a cave home in the village. Israeli soldiers initially refused to allow the work to continue but a District Commander arrived later in the morning and confirmed that the family did have the right to remove rubble from the home.
Israeli soldiers using a bulldozer destroyed three homes and an animal enclosure in the village on … Continue reading

Bekah Wolf, co-founder of PSP, will be speaking several cities around the United States this month and will then be joining the Wheels of Justice tour in May.

Here’s the schedule of cities, for more information on locations please email palestineproject@gmail.com:

March 29-30: Chicago, IL
March 31: Beloit, WI
April 1-3: Minneapolis, MN
April 4-5: Pittsburgh, PA
April 6-7: Philadelphia, PA
April 10: Amherst, MA
April 13: New York, NY

The following are with Sami Awad, Executive Director of Holy Land Trust
April 20-24: Bay Area, CA (San Francisco, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Orinda)
April 29: New York, NY

This Friday, March 21, more than 200 Palestinians marched against the construction of the Annexation Barrier in the Betlehem District in two different demonstrations in Al-Khadr and Um Salamuna. These demonstrations came two days after Israeli media reported that the Israeli Occupation Forces have been given more “legal” leeway to fire live ammunition at the legs of demonstrators near the “Separation Barrier”. The report also stated that international and Israeli demonstrators were not to be fired on. This policy has been in practice, with varying frequency, since the resistance to the construction of the Annexation Barrier began in 2003. However, news that the Border Police had been given clearance to shoot non-violent demonstrators was worrisome … Continue reading

from the Christian Peacemaker Teams
March 17, 2008

An Israeli settler yelled threatening remarks, and wielded a rock at young Palestinian children on the way to school in the village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. About twenty children from the villages of Tuba and Magayer Al Abeed walk to the elementary school in At-Tuwani each day. They are accompanied by an Israeli military escort past the illegal settlement outpost of Havat Maon (Hill 833). The Children’s Committee of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, ordered the escort in 2004 after a series of settler attacks on the children. On the morning of 17 March, 2008, the children were unable to meet the … Continue reading

This morning, Tuesday March 18th, the Israeli High Court ordered that the excavations that have damaged numerous Palestinian homes in the East Jerusalem village of Silwan, be stopped. Many attribute the success in the court to the joint non-violent demonstrations involving Palestinian and Jewish Israeli activists against the excavations. For several weeks, Palestinians, Jewish Israelis, and international volunteers have stayed in a protest tent where they were repeatedly harassed and attacked by Israeli settlers. The excavations were ostensibly part of a greater archaeological project searching for parts of the original City of David. However, the excavations were done without consultation of the Palestinian inhabitants of the area, and in many cases the digging caused severe structural … Continue reading

A massive demonstration was held by students in Betlehem today, March 15, against the assassinations of 4 men last week and the ongoing Israeli military incursions into Beit Jala. The Israeli Occupation Forces have been invading Beit Jala almost nightly, occupying homes and setting off explosives. The students carried photos of the men who were killed by undercover Israeli forces Wednesday night, and marched past each of their homes. They also marched through the streets of Beit Jala, chanting slogans against the occupation and the ongoing “negotiations” between Mahmoud Abbas’s imposed government and Israeli government officials. The students blocked traffic as they marched through the streets towards Manger Square, where a traditional mourning tent for the … Continue reading

From Christian Peacemaker Teams

In At-Tuwani Village, South Hebron Hills, Israeli soldiers and ‘border police’ assaulted Palestinian shepherds.

While they grazed their sheep and worked in their olive groves in the Khoruba Valley, Israeli police threatened the shepherds with arrest and assaulted them. This was on Palestinian land in the southern West Bank’s Hebron Governorate.

A border police officer twisted the wrist of one shepherd and pushed him to the ground. Police grabbed another by his collar and pushed several other Palestinians.

The shepherds were engaging in a simple act of life that has become an act of nonviolent resistance – feeding their sheep and tending their trees on their own lands.

The Palestinians were attempting to graze their sheep and repair olives trees … Continue reading

At approximately 2pm today, March 12, Israeli military forces entered Beit Ommar on the edge of town near the Israeli settlement Karmi Tsur. 3 boys, aged 12, 13, and 14 were shot in the legs, ostensibly because the Israeli forces believed they were throwing stones. The youth were taken to the hospital in Hebron, where they were treated. It appears as of now that none of them will lose their leg, an all too common result of such shootings. It is becoming regular practice for Israeli soldiers in Beit Ommar, as well as throughout the Occupied Palestinian territories, to return to a policy of shooting children with live ammunition, … Continue reading

Palestine News Network: for the original article click here

Bethlehem / Najib Farrag – Dozens of Palestinian journalists demonstrated on Wednesday morning at Bethlehem’s Church of Nativity in protest of the Israeli arrest of journalist Hassan Abdel Jawad.

The 53 year old is a member of the board of the Palestinian Journalists Union and also a local newspaper correspondent. Abdel Jawad is currently being held in the Israeli military prison Ofar, built on Ramallah lands.

His arrest came when six members of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine political party were blindfolded, bound and taken away on Monday morning.

Among the demonstrators this morning was Bethlehem Mayor Dr. Victor Batarsa, several police officials, and Palestinian Legislative Council member, Issa … Continue reading