Friday 26th of April the Popular Committee of Beit Ommar, PSP, members of the Women Committee together with international and Israeli activists organized their weekly demonstration near the settlement of Karmei Tzur.

The demonstrators had prepared one hundred balloons filled with helium. The activists made a parade, chanting slogans and carrying Palestinian flags and the balloons to the scene. Written messages with names of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails were attached to the balloons and released into the air.

The activists managed to get to the gate of Karmei Tzur. One of the settlers living there, … Continue reading

Member of PSP and Beit Ommar Popular Committee joined other non-violent demonstrators in the street on Friday April 12th, 2013 in the village of Nabi Saleh, located 20 kilometres North West of Ramallah in the West Bank. The village has organized weekly demonstrations in Nabi Saleh since December of 2009 in order to protest the confiscation of the village’s land and freshwater springs by Israeli settlers.

The demonstrators, which included village residents, international activists and Israeli peace activists, marched to a spring located on Palestinian land that was illegally confiscated by Israeli settlers from the Halamish settlement. Israeli soldiers surrounded the village and then shot tear gas and steel-coated rubber … Continue reading

The Center for Freedom and Justice, a non-profit organization in the Palestinian village of Beit Ommar in Hebron District, is looking at new agricultural projects to support its inhabitants.

The Center for Freedom and Justice was established to address the lack of community development and has been organizing programs in rural Palestinian communities. Due to various problems concerning the Israeli occupation of the West Bank the Palestinian agricultural life is severely constrained. The organization aims to improve the lives of rural residents by supporting them to remain steadfast on their land so that confiscation of land and settlement expansion will be harder to accomplish.

The agricultural life of Palestinian communities … Continue reading

Today PSP, the Popular Committee of Beit Ommar and Youth Power of Palestine organised an action in the village of Beit Ommar. PSP and the Popular Committee have been organising weekly demonstrations for years.

The Palestinian, Israeli and International activists gathered outside of Karme Tzure settlement, south of the centre of Beit Ommar. The activists wanted to get as close to the fence to the settlement as possible, to demonstrate their right to walk on their own land.

As soon as the demonstrators had arrived in the area, the soldiers started shooting tear gas straight towards the non-violent … Continue reading

Friday morning, as most of the Israeli military in the Occupied West Bank were focused on regular weekly demonstrations, residents from Beit Iksa, a small village northwest of Jerusalem, were quietly setting up another protest village, similar to Bab Al Shams which was built east of Jerusalem last week.
Beit Iksa has lost almost all of their agricultural and historic land, beginning in 1948 to the annexation of “greater Jerusalem”, to the construction of the Apartheid Wall as well as to settlements which almost completely surround them. On one of their last stretches of land, locals and supporters erected a mosque and tents in an area adjacent to the Apartheid Wall. Over 100 participants gathered, held Friday prayers in … Continue reading

In the early morning hours of Friday, January 11, a group of Palestinians, coordinated by the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, gathered in an area east of Jerusalem referred to as the E-1 corridor, and quickly erected a tent village. E-1 is one of the most strategic areas in the West Bank. Several Israeli regimes have announced plans to build a settlement there, which would effectively cut the West Bank in half. On Friday, a few months after current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his plans for building a Jewish-only community in E-1, Palestinians decided to take the matter into their own hands. Within hours, over 200 Palestinians were staying in the community, named Bab Al … Continue reading

On November 14, a series of coordinated direct actions took place across the West Bank, coordinated by a network of activists throughout the West Bank. Palestinians, along with Israeli and international solidarity activists blocked settler-only roads and checkpoints in Huwarra, Nablus; Ni’lin, Ramallah; Nabi Saleh, Ramallah; Bil’in, Ramallah; Nashash, Betlehem; and Beit Jala, Betlehem. Activists from Beit Ommar and Palestine Solidarity Project joined over 100 other activists at the tunnels checkpoint outside of Beit Jala. For nearly half an hour, activists blocked Israeli settler traffic into Jerusalem through the checkpoint, protesting the ongoing military occupation of the West Bank. While some activists in some areas chose to emphasize the Palestinian bid for an upgrade in status … Continue reading

The production of olive oil in Palestine is considered fundamental for Palestinian economy. For the majority of Palestinian families, especially in the north of the West Bank and in some areas in the south, olive trees have an economic and historic importance as these trees have been part of the Palestinian landscape for thousands of years.

The olive oil sector is one of the major agricultural incomes for Palestinians. Unfortunately, this sector has been facing many obstacles which have prevented it from developing.

The first problem is the removal of thousands of olive trees by the Israeli occupation due to the building of the segregation wall and the establishment of Israeli colonies throughout the West Bank. Colons’ activities include burning … Continue reading

Most of the arrests in Beit Ommar take place at night as Israeli occupation forces storm civil Palestinian homes to search and arrest children and young men.

The soldiers usually enter the village in large numbers with several jeeps and a prisoner truck. Not only do they storm the Palestinian homes in a violent manner, they also use shock grenades, smoke grenades and tear gas, waking up the surrounding neighborhood, leaving no doubt in the minds of the future generations that they grow up under occupation.

The usage of for instance tear gas in urban areas targets each and everyone in the area, in their homes, working as a collective punishment of the entire local community. Young children are especially traumatized during … Continue reading

The weekly demonstration against the Israeli occupation in Beit Ommar was held on Saturday, 8th of September. Palestinian, Israeli and international activists joined together and marched in the direction of Karmei Tsur, the colony which is the biggest threat to the local Palestinian village.

The activists passed by the Palestinian greenhouse demolished by Israeli colonists from Karmei Tsur last week. As the participants walked towards the fence, which sparates the colony from Palestinian land that has not been occupied yet, several military jeeps with soldiers approached the area.

Both soldiers and activists were armed as usual; activists with banners, flags, cameras and chants and the soldiers with riot shields, tear gas … Continue reading