On Tuesday, April 28th, Palestinian farmers from the village of Beit Ommar worked their lands close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit Ayn. The farmers, accompanied by international and Israeli solidarity activists, went to their fields just two days after settlers from Beit Ayn used stones and sticks to attack two elderly farmers on their lands. One 80-year-old farmer was hospitalized after the attack, requiring ten stitches to treat two hair-line fractures on the top of his head.

On the morning of the 28th, two carloads of Israeli activists coming to join the farmers were prevented from entering the village by Israeli forces. The activists were later able to enter the village from another way. Once … Continue reading

On April 26th, 2009 at 1:15pm, Israeli settlers beat two elderly Palestinian farmers with stones and sticks while they were working their lands close to Bet Ayn settlement, located in the southern West Bank. The attack occurred shortly after Israeli soldiers, having observed the two farmers, left the area. They did not reappear even after the attack.

Both farmers are from the village of Beit Ommar, with lands in Saffa, close to the illegal Israeli settlement. Abdullah Soleiby, aged 80, sustained two hair-line fractures and received ten stitches to the top of his head after three settlers held him down and repeatedly smashed his head with stones. His brother, Hamad Soleiby, aged 72, was also beaten though … Continue reading

On the 22nd of April at approximately 8pm, Israeli soldiers stopped a bus of 40 boys between the ages of 8 and 11 near the entrance to Beit Ommar. The boys had been on a school trip to Jericho and were returning home to their village when they were stopped by Israeli forces. Soldiers took the ID of the bus driver and ordered all of the boys to leave the bus and stand in a line facing a wall. Concerned Palestinian parents, other residents, and two international solidarity activists with PSP, soon arrived at the scene to try to … Continue reading

On the 20 of April, around 500 Palestinian residents gathered at the Red Cross headquarters in Hebron to mark Prisoner’s Day. Prisoner’s Day in Palestine remembers all former and current political prisoners in Israeli jails. Prisoner’s day annually falls on the 17th of April, and demonstrations are held all over the West Bank and Gaza Many of the participants in the Hebron event carried pictures of loved ones in Israeli prisons.
At the Red Cross, demonstrators listened to speeches praising the steadfastness of the nearly 8,400 political prisoners currently in Israeli detention facilities and prisons. According to Addameer, a Palestinian prisoners’ support group, … Continue reading

from Ha’aretz.com
by Akiva Eldar

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people as a condition for renewing peace talks is unacceptable to the United States, the State Department said during special envoy George Mitchell’s visits over the weekend to Ramallah and Cairo.

The State Department released statements saying that the United States would continue to promote a two-state solution. In Ramallah, Mitchell met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Mitchell’s talks also seem to indicate that the United States does not accept Netanyahu’s position that the renewal of negotiations should be postponed until the Iranian nuclear threat is removed.
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While Defense Minister and Labor Party leader Ehud Barak has not spoken publicly on … Continue reading

Today, Friday April 17, during their weekly demonstration against the construction of the Annexation Barrier, Bassem Abu Rahme, a resident of Bi’lin, was shot in the stomach and killed with a high-velocity tear gas canister by the Israeli military. Eyewitness reports identified the weapon that killed him as the same type of high-velocity tear gas canister that severely injured American activist Tristan Anderson and several others during demonstrations in the Ramallah district in the last three months.

While other tear gas canister have also severely injured Palestinians, internationals and Israelis in the past, the high-velocity tear gas canisters are widely considered more dangerous because of the distance and speed at which they travel.

14 April, 2009 Hebron. A little after 4pm, four or five masked settlers youth climbed onto the roof of the Awaywi family home and punctured six large metal water tanks in open sight of a manned Israeli military tower.

Basma Awaywi, the mother of the family, was on the outside passage way of the house when she saw the masked settlers on the roof, she was frightened and went into the house.

About than 15 meters from the roof of the house is an Israeli military tower staffed with soldiers that have a clear view of the roof. Several other Israeli military watchtowers also have full … Continue reading

On Monday, April 13, at approximately 6 pm dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilian police, as well as members of Shabak (Israeli intelligence) descended on the entrance of Beit Ommar, creating a temporary or “flying” checkpoint on Route 60 that stopped Palestinian traffic for several kilometers in both directions (Israeli settler traffic was allowed through as Palestinians were forced to wait) for nearly an hour. Soldiers began checking the ID cards of every passenger of each car as it passed and pulled three men from one car. These men were handcuffed and taken to the side of the road where they were forced to kneel facing away from the road as soldiers blindfolded them. One of the … Continue reading

Late last night after nearly three weeks in solitary confinement, Yousef Abu Maria, a co-founder of the Palestine Solidarity Project, was released from imprisonment in an Israeli jail without charge. He reports that while not physically assaulted, he was held in very difficult conditions; freezing cold cell with only low lights and no contact with any other prisoners for his entire incarceration.

He and his family are overwhelmed with appreciation for the support shown for Yousef. Please note that PSP is in debt for thousands of dollars for Yousef’s and his brother Mousa’s legal expenses. Please continue to contribute to the legal fund.

Yousef Abu Maria has been a tireless organizer with the Palestine Solidarity Project, an organization dedicated to nonviolence and solidarity as a means of confronting the Israeli Occupation. He is well known and respected in his hometown of Beit Ommar, as well as by other Israeli and international anti-occupation groups.

Yousef has paid a high price for his activism. In the last 3 years alone he has been arrested 4 times, all for his work as a social justice and anti-occupation activist. He has been constantly harassed and his family, including two small children, terrorized by the Israeli military, who have taken him from his home in the middle of the night. Once, he was “accused” of … Continue reading