Saturday, March 6–Beit Ommar, population 17,000, is located halfway between the cities of Betlehem and Hebron, both homes to religious sites significant to all three monotheisitic religions which have been the focus of a new move by the Israeli government to declare the sites “Israeli”. More importantly, both sites, the Ibrahimi and Belal Mosques, are located deep within Palestinian territory.

At the beginning of March, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu declared the Ibrahimi Mosque (also known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where Abraham is believed to be buried by Muslims, Christians, and Jews) in Hebron and The Belal Mosque (also known as Rachel’s Tomb, where all three monotheistic religions believe Rachel, the matriarch, is buried) in Betlehem … Continue reading

Thursday, November 26, residents of Beit Ommar, along with members of PSP and international volunteers sought to remind the Israeli military and settlers of the ownership of privately-owned Palestinian land on which an electricity line is being built. Led by Mousa Abu Maria, son of the land owner Abdelhamid Abu Maria, the group made their way to the electricity towers. They then hoisted a Palestinian flag between the towers, flying high above Route 60 for the settlers of Gush Etzion (for whom the new electricity line … Continue reading

From Ma’an News Agency

At least six demonstrators were arrested in the northern West Bank after they breached a section of Israel’s wall on Saturday, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

The protesters said they intended to march to lands that were left isolated behind the wall in Deir Al-Ghusun, northeast of Tulkarem, and managed to break open one of the barrier’s gates before Israeli soldiers invaded the village.

One demonstrator was lightly injured after being struck with a rubber-coated bullet in the leg, onlookers said.

“Today’s demonstration was the opening salvo for a public campaign by the Deir Al-Ghusun municipality and the affected farmers,” said Anarchists Against the Wall, an Israeli group, in a statement. “As the demonstration was coming to an end, … Continue reading

On Tuesday July 7th, Palestinians, Israelis and internationals met at 5pm from both sides of the Annexation fence near Beit Jala and the illegal Israeli settlement of Gilo. The Barrier in this location cuts off residents of Beit Jala from significant portions of their agricultural land. They met with a message of peace, justice and inter-religious tolerance against the occupation. As a gesture of solidarity, each of the religious groups brought symbolic items to exchange with one another through the Barrier. On the Palestinian side of the Annexation Barrier, all participants, including a large German solidarity delegation of approximately 100 members, reached the meeting point next to the fence without any delays or obstacles; the situation on the other … Continue reading

On Wednesday, September 17, more than 50 Israeli supporters of Palestinian Independence joined the residents of Ni’lin in another demonstration against the construction of the Annexation Barrier. In addition to the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall, a constant presence at Anti-Barrier demonstrations, members of the ultra-orthodox Naturei Karta sect of Judaism and other Israeli peace activists joined Palestinians in the center of town. The group then marched towards the edge of the village where Israeli Occupation Forces met them and began shooting tear gas at the crowd. Two small groups of activists managed to get around the soldiers and made their way to the bulldozers, stopping their work for several … Continue reading

Jerusalem / PNN – Yesterday throngs of people held a sit-in at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in East Jerusalem’s Old City. The occasion was a day of solidarity with the people of Gaza, under intense siege by the Israeli government and its forces.

Bishop Attallah Hanna, the Archbishop of the Roman Orthodox Church, began with a prayer “in support of our people,” and “to lift the siege on our people in the Gaza Strip.”

Jerusalem itself is under heavy siege by the Israeli government and its forces which are creating new facts on the ground in contravention to international law and the United Nations, including settlement building and expansion, Wall construction which is cutting off the city from the rest … Continue reading

Friday, January 11, PSP Palestinian and international activists joined by Israeli activists took razor wire from the fence surrounding the Karmi Tsur settlement and used it to block settler traffic on a street connecting the Etzion settlement bloc to Israel, near the Palestinian villages of Surif and Al-Jab’a. The action was to protest the continued presence of an Israeli military roadblock on the Palestinian road between Surif and Al-Jab’a. Israeli settler drivers for a short time were subjected to the same restriction on movement that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians face each and every day.

Activists set up orange cones on the road so that oncoming traffic would have plenty … Continue reading

On Saturday Israeli and international activists joined some residents of the Al-Qasa region, just outside Idhna, in the Hebron District, to demonstrate against their recent expulsion from their homes after over 50 years of residency. 264 refugees from 1948 lived in caves, small homes, and tents in the Al-Qasa area until two weeks ago, when the Israeli military forced them from their homes and destroyed most of them. The reason? Al-Qasa is in “the seam zone”, the ‘no man’s land’ created where the Israeli government refused to build the Annexation Barrier on the Green Line and instead built it further into Palestinian land. Thousands of Palestinians up and down the … Continue reading

The roadblock between Surif and Al-Jab’a has been there for at least 10 years, well before the second intifada broke out in late 2000. It prevents the nearly 1000 residents of Al-Jab’a from accessing essential resources in Surif such as secondary schools, shops, and medical care. The roadblock also forces the over 30,000 Palestinians in Beit Ommar and Surif areas to use the entrance to Beit Ommar, which is controlled by the Israeli Occupation Forces with an enormous watchtower and gate, to access the cities of Hebron or Betlehem, where the only regional hospitals, universities, and major marketplaces are located. Saturday, Israeli and international solidarity activists from the Palestine Solidarity … Continue reading

This morning just in time for rush hour traffic, Palestinian, international, and Israeli activists, including people from Anarchists Against the Wall and Palestine Solidarity Project marched onto the Jerusalem-bound side of Road 443 in the Occupied West Bank and stopped traffic.

For several years Road 443, which leads through the heart of the West Bank, has been designated “restricted”, meaning Palestinians are forbidden from using it. The demonstration was intended to highlight the illegality and immorality of Israel’s apartheid system of restricting access to roads based on nationality. Over 30 Palestinian, Israeli, and international demonstrators, some of whom were locked to a large metal road gate, … Continue reading