From Anarchists Against the Wall

Some 100 Israeli activists left Tel Aviv and Jerusalem today to bring water to several isolated villages in the South Hebron Mount. These villages suffer more than anywhere else from Israel’s racist water policy, as they lack connection to water pipes, and suffer from army attacks on what few water wells and deposits they have. Busses where harassed several times on the way, and stopped completely near the Carmel illegal settlement, where soldiers claimed the area was a closed military zone, though no warrant was shown. Activists got off the busses and started marching, passing the bewildered soldiers and policemen and moving on towards their destination. Attempts to stop the spontaneous march failed, and the … Continue reading

This week, after a break for the month of Ramadan, the demonstrations against the Annexation Barrier, being constructed on the agricultural lands of Wadi An-Nis, Um Salamuna, and Al-Ma’asara, began again from the edge of Al-Ma’asara. The tone was more somber than usual, as the procession commemorated the loss of local organizer (and personal friend of PSP coordinators) Qaher Al-Din. Qaher was killed in a car accident, along with the driver and a French journalist, as he gave the foreign national a tour of the illegal settlements surrounding Al-Ma’asara. At this week’s demonstration residents of Al-Ma’asara, joined by friends of Qaher and international and Israeli activists, … Continue reading

Kobi Snitz, a long-time activist with the Israeli group Anarchists Against the Wall, and a personal friend of PSP, begins a 20 day prison term for an arrest in 2004 in which he tried to prevent a home demolition in the Palestinian village of Kharbatha, in the Ramallah District. He is the first Israeli activist to be tried, convicted, and forced to serve time for demonstrating in the Occupied Territories. His statement (from yesterday) is below:

‘Tomorrow I will start a 20 day prison term. It is a result of an attempt to prevent a house demolition in kharbatha. As you probably know 20 days is nothing compared to the time many Palestinian teenagers have to do. Unlike them, … Continue reading

for the original article on Maan click here

More than 100 of farmers, youth, international and Israeli peace activists marched against the Israeli separation wall Friday, and armed with car tires and home made ladder to climb the high wall they managed to burn one section and pull down three others.

According to participants one of the youth passed over the wall and set fire to car tires, damaging the fence and the sensors attached to it. A second group of youth burned a stack of 10 tires at one of the gates in the concrete wall, with black smoke billowing toward the nearby settlement.

“This is the first … Continue reading

From The Nation

By Naomi Klein

When I heard the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was holding a celebratory “spotlight” on Tel Aviv, I felt ashamed of Toronto, the city where I live. I thought immediately of Mona Al Shawa, a Palestinian women’s rights activist I met on a recent trip to Gaza. “We had more hope during the attacks,” she told me. “At least then we believed things would change.

Al Shawa explained that while Israeli bombs rained down last December and January, Gazans were glued to their TVs. What they saw, in addition to the carnage, was a world rising up in outrage: global protests, as many as 100,000 on the streets of London, a group of Jewish women in … Continue reading

From Christian Peacemaker Teams and Operation Dove

At a time when the international community is calling for a freeze on new building in settlements and the disbanding of settlement outposts, the settler community of the South Hebron Hills is continuing its expansion unabated.

Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement on Ma’on, in the South Hebron Hills area, are constructing at least five new caravans on the south-west side of the settlement. Internationals based in the nearby Palestinian village of At Tuwani first observed building preparatory work in Ma’on a few days ago. Today, as the new caravans were being built, settlers began preparatory work on a nearby hilltop for further settlement … Continue reading

For the original article on aljazeera.net/english click here

Israel has officially approved the construction of 455 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, defying demands by the US and others for a freeze on settlement building.

Israel’s defence ministry announced the decision to continue with settlement building on Monday.

“Defence Minister Ehud Barak has authorised the construction of 455 housing units in settlement blocs” in the occupied West Bank, the ministry said.

The US wants Israel to stop settlement activity and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has demanded a freeze as a condition for returning to peace negotiations.

Israeli officials announced on Friday that Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, intended to give the go-ahead for the new projects before considering a halt.

Netanyahu’s move is … Continue reading

On Friday, Palestinian residents of the Ramallah-District village of Ni’lin, accompanied by Israeli and international activists, totaling around 100 participants, met after noon prayers and marched towards the newly-constructed concrete wall in the agricultural fields of the village. One group of demonstrators began defacing the wall, and taking apart the barbed-wire fence adjacent to it, both illegally constructed on Ni’lin land and preventing the residents from reaching their privately-owned agricultural land.
Israeli soldiers responded with tear gas and sewage-smelling spray for several hours. Later in the afternoon, when much of the demonstration had dispersed, Israeli soldiers inexplicably resorted to using live ammunition. A young reporter with Press TV from Ni’lin, Mohammed Amireh, was grazed in the leg with … Continue reading

For the original article on Aljazeera.net/english, click here

Israel’s prime minister is set to approve plans to build hundreds of new homes on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, before considering US demands for a construction freeze.

Aides to Binyamin Netanyahu said on Friday that the prime minister would consider a settlement freeze, but first planned to authorise the new building work.

The comments, quoted in Israeli media, are the first time an aide has said in the name of the prime minister’s office that a freeze could be imminent.

But the plans for new settlements are likely to anger Palestinians, who have said they will not resume peace talks unless Israel suspends construction on lands they want for a future state.

Settlement … Continue reading