The Solidarity tour programme offers an introduction to the different geographical and cultural regions of the West Bank. The tour is providing its participants with in-depth social, political and historical insights on Palestinian life. Read the full program here. (the program is also available in French, Italian, Spanish and Norwegian).

Watch a short introduction from the Beit Ommar area:

Justice?
Human rights?
Freedom?

Come and see for yourself.

Use the important and unique possibilty:
Visit Palestine!

For further questions or information. Do not hesitate to contact us.
center4freedom@gmail.com

Take a look at other recently published documentaries by PSP:

Watch a summary of a French groups`s experiences in Beit Ommar here:

”For what reason? House demolished in Al Jab`a …

”Land grab” a documentary about the Israeli occupation and a new bypass road.

October 11th 2011: In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Israeli army bulldozers demolished a house in Al-Jab`a, not far from the illegal settlement of Bet Ayin.

The owner Naser Hassan Salim Alin Athous witnessed the demolition from his fields. His family have lived in the area for many generations. The demolished home was planned to house 14 persons.

No reason was given for the demolition.

The destruction of the Athous’ home comes less than a month after the Israeli army demolished another Beit Ommar home, and a building in the neighbouring Al Arub refugee camp (report here).

The roadblock prevents Palestinians from traveling within the occupied West Bank, and prevents
farmers from transporting their crops from the fields to the markets, it also makes it difficult for local students from attending secondary school. Daily, students from the village of Al’Jab’a must travel to Surif to study. They are forced to make this long journey by foot because the roadblock prevents buses and service taxis from crossing the settler road to the adjacent village. In Al’Jab’a, the school serves students until around age 11. When the students reach twelve years of age, they must go to the older children’s’ school in Surif. With the road block in place, this simple journey is grueling and slow.

Residents of Al’Jab’a and Surif along with Internationals from PSP and Israeli activists met to partially remove this roadblock on 21 September 2006. Recently the concrete and earthen roadblock was replaced by the Israeli military with a gate in preparation for a visit by German officials. The German Consulate funded the building of a boy’s school in Al’Jab’a in 2009. Prior to this visit occurring the Israeli opened the gate briefly allowing the free flow of traffic between the two municipalities. However, the gate has remained closed since shortly after the German delegation departed illustrating continued deception by the Israeli government in regards to the harsh realities of the occupation. For Palestinians, despite the shiny new yellow gate, these two historically integral communities remain cut from one another indefinitely.

The trees belong to several Palestinian farmers, including Mousa Hamdan Abu Loha, Azat Abu Latifa, Ibrahim Mahmoud Abu Loha, Ahmad Sobhia, and Mohammad Abed Al-Latif.

The land where the trees were destroyed were located alongside the Israeli settlement of Bat Ayn. Settlers from Bat Ayn were seen felling trees with chainsaws while soldiers operated the bulldozers. Settlers then piled the pieces of cut up trees into cars.

Al-Jab’a is a small village of around 900 people that is situated west of Bethlehem and north of Beit Ommar. Al-Jab’a lies on the Green Line, the dividing line between Israel and the West Bank. The village is surrounded by settlements, with Gush Etzion to the east, Betar Illit to the north, and Bat Ayn to the south. Israeli settlers, particularly from Bat Ayn, periodically harass the villagers of Al-Jab’a with impunity. Additionally, the main road connecting Al-Jab’a to the nearby village of Surif is blocked by the Israeli Authorities.

Al Jab’a, a village of 700 people, sits in the path of a section of the apartheid wall which Israel has scheduled for construction at a future stage. It lies south west of Bethlehem, just one kilometre from the 1967 Green Line – inside the Palestinian West Bank.
From the hillsideone can see, not too far distant, the colony/settlements of Bat Ayn, Betar Ellit, Nahal Gavot and the monstrous Gush Etzion, all built on Palestinian land. It is no wonder that the people feel that their future is precarious.

Present-day life is hard enough. For anything but the most basic necessities villagers rely on shops in the neighbouring town of Surif. In 2000 the Israeli authorities blocked off the road connecting the two centres, in what we in Australia would call an act of sheer bastardry.* Now the people of Al Jabá must walk the 400 metres from their village along a track to where taxis wait to take them to and from Surif. On their return trip, laden with anything from gas cylinders to groceries and household supplies, they must once again negotiate the track. If The Wall is completed as planned, Al-Jab’a will end up on the “Israeli side” of the Wall, separated further from critical facilities in Surif.

*Question: why would the Israelis do this?
Answer: to make life difficult, if not impossible, for the people of Al Jabá.

Question: how can the Israelis get away with it?
Answer: because we in the West do nothing.

On the day we were there we found two small children (see photo) crying inconsolably as they waited in the sun for their father, who was struggling up the steep track, laden down with some of life’s necessities for his family. This is the face of the Occupation.

The Israeli military confirmed there was a “confrontation” and that the settler guard shot a Palestinian. They said they were investigating, though the settler was not arrested.

This comes one week after settlers from Bat ‘Ayn shot at residents of Saffa, on the other side of the settlement, though no one in that incident was injured.

The Palestine Solidarity Project, along with Israeli activists, still plans to accompany farmers from Beit Ommar as they replant trees in an area that was destroyed by Bat ‘Ayn settlers and will not be deterred.

After the first success, the group moved on to Beit Einun to remove a roadblock preventing movement on a heavily-used road between Hebron and Sa’ir. The IOF had blocked the road four years ago. This was the first action of this sort in this area. While a group of about 100 people began to remove the roadblock, ten jeeps arrived and waited nearby. The second roadblock was successfully removed. The group piled into their cars and drove further down the road to remove the next planned roadblock. The Jeeps followed them and suddenly created a line across the road, trapping the group between them and the next roadblock. The group decided not to remove the next roadblock because the group wanted to prevent possible arrests. They then waited two hours for the IOF to leave. Finally, two disassociated Palestinian cars appeared and needed to pass through. The jeeps parted, allowing the cars to pass as well as the other cars carrying the PSP members, the Anarchists, and the Popular Committee of Hebron.

Then the Palestine Solidarity Project and the Anarchists Against the Wall joined Beit Ommar’s Popular Committee to remove an important roadblock in Beit Ommar. The roadblock has been preventing traffic from the large vegetable market in Beit Ommar to Route 60, the main highway linking Beit Ommar and other villages to both Hebron to the south and Bethlehem to the north. This roadblock has already been removed three times and then reinstituted by the IOF. Palestine Solidarity Project and people of Beit Ommar are insistent that the road remain open and that the IOF NOT have control over the movements of the Palestinians of Beit Ommar.

When PSP, the Popular Committee, and the Israeli activists arrived, there was one hummer waiting near the roadblock. The group began removing the roadblock regardless. One concrete block was removed successfully. The soldiers lined up along the roadblock, blocking further work and the group left in three separate cars. One jeep and one hummer followed the three cars for one hour with video cameras. They photographed the license plates and the participants. Eventually, the cars split to two directions and the IOF followed two of the cars. Then the two cars went in different directions and the IOF left.

There are 4 major roadblocks throughout Beit Ommar preventing vehicular traffic from several neighborhoods to the main highway. They are part of a larger ‘matrix of control’ designed by the Israeli Army to maintain complete control over the movements of Palestinians. The people of Beit Ommar and PSP are committed to maintaining freedom of movement to and from their village and others. The Israeli Army will NOT be allowed to make the people of Beit Ommar prisoners in their own village.