Once again the Palestinians celebrated this year’s Eid Al-Fitr with an unwelcome guest.

Ramadan was not only a challenge to the Palestinians this year because of the thirty days of fasting, but because of the economic choke hold placed on them by the Israeli occupation. The holy month in the Muslim calendar has also suffered on a religious level, as many Palestinians were denied entry to mosques to pray.

Eid, the Arabic word meaning ‘festivity’ marks the end of Ramadan and is celebrated with family. Gifts, often money, are traditionally given and new clothes always worn. This month however, the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has not been about to pay salaries on time to its nearly 180,000 civil servants. … Continue reading

Ahmed Abu Hashem is an institution of political activism in Beit Ommar. For quarter of a century he has been a thorn in the side of the occupation and, in the dying days of the second intifada, was one of the early members of the embryonic organisation which would become the Popular Committee.

Ahmed was born in 1967, only months before the Six Day War and subsequent occupation of his homeland. As he grew up, so too did the settlements being established on Palestinian land; a development which took a destructive toll on Ahmed’s family. His father was shot and wounded by Israeli forces and his mother, tragically, was … Continue reading

In 2011, tens of children from the village of Beit Ommar were arrested and imprisoned by Israeli forces. These children, all under the age of eighteen, were usually snatched from their homes in midnight raids by the IDF in terrifying circumstances, intended to provoke fear in the children and their families. Here we will examine the cases of three such children who were taken in circumstances such as these.

Mohammed Yousef Awad was arrested on April 1st, 2011. Soldiers smashed the doors and windows of his family home and threw tear gas canisters in. Through loud-hailers they ordered the inhabitants out into the night and, when Mohammed emerged, they beat him, bound his hands and blindfolded him, before taking him away … Continue reading