Friday morning, April 16, Beit Ommar woke up to huge blocks of concrete across the entrance to the town and a locked steel barrier which cut off all vehicular access. Other back roads were similarly blocked and pedestrians were questioned by Israeli soldiers checking all IDs.

Around 11 am four jeeps started towards the main street to provoke the youth of the town who replied in the traditional manner by throwing small stones at the vehicles. The Israeli troops set up snipers on a rooftop and other soldiers fired rubber coated bullets at the group of youths. A pair of soldiers grabbed a passing kid of 12 or 13 by the scruff of his neck and forced him to walk … Continue reading

Wednesday, April 14, the student committee of the Palestine Solidarity Project held a 2 hour demonstration at the fence of Karmei Tsur settlement before being dispersed by Israeli soldiers and settler security using live ammunition.

At 3 o’clock a group of 25 young men and women from Beit Ommar approached the razor wire fence of the nearest Israeli settlement to the town carrying hand-written placards and chanting slogans calling for the end to the illegal settlements. The students posed no threat to the 4 jeeps full of heavily armed soldiers and 2 trucks of armed settler security who arrived on the scene however the peaceful demonstration against land theft was broken up initially by tear gas grenades. The retreating students were … Continue reading

11 Arrested, Including 2 Palestinians from PSP, in Saffa Protest Against Settlement Expansion

Saturday afternoon a group of around 50 farmers and residents of Saffa attempted to remove a stone and concrete structure erected on their land by settlers from Bat Ayn. The farmers were accompanied by members of PSP, the National Committee of Beit Ommar, Israeli activists and members of the international press.

On arrival at the structure, which was being guarded by 3 jeeps of soldiers of Israeli army, the Palestinians began to take the structure down. The soldiers forced the farmers away from the site into nearby trees where a number of the group sat down and refused to move from their land. … Continue reading

Update: at approximately 1:30 pm Monday, after calls from several people in the Palestinian Government, Mousa Abu Maria was kissed on the head by the head of the police in Hebron, apologized to, and released from custody. The police claimed they didn’t know who he was when they illegally arrested him the night before. They would not explain why he and Younis Arrar from the National Committee of Beit Ommar were on their list of people to arrest and claimed they were looking for car thieves during their operation in Beit Ommar overnight.

While Salam Fayyad and other PA minsters march in Bil’in declaring their support of the Popular Resistance, the Palestinian police have continued to repress any such … Continue reading

Update All 15 detainees, including the 10 Palestinians who were held for 5 days in military prison have been released. At a hearing at Ofer prison for the 10 Palestinians in an unusual ruling, the judge admonished the Israeli police for arresting “non-violent” protesters.

video and photos from ActiveStills

On Sunday, March 28, approximately 200 Palestinians, Christians and Muslim supporters along with international and Israeli solidarity activists, marched from the center of Bethlehem towards the Gilo checkpoint, a massive terminal checkpoint in the Annexation Wall dividing Bethlehem from Jerusalem. The demonstrators were demanding access to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, where Christians traditionally hold a procession on the Sunday before Easter.

The demonstrators successfully and non-violently crossed the checkpoint by overwhelming the … Continue reading

photograph from FLV at Palestine Monitor

A second teen, 19 year-old Useid Qaddus, died early Sunday morning after being shot in the head with live ammunition during a demonstration in Iraq Burin, Nablus region, on Saturday. Mohammed Qaddus, 16, was killed after being shot in the heart on the same day. Though the Israeli military officially denied using live ammunition, photographs of entry and exit wounds in Mohammed, taken by a B’tselem field worker, as well as x-rays obtained from the hospital for both youth clearly identify a live bullet lodged in the skull of Useid and wounds that could only be caused by live ammunition.

The killings occurred Saturday, when local residents marched on their land against settlement expansion … Continue reading

At 13:25 Friday afternoon 8 Military jeeps and personnel carriers invaded Beit Ommar in force firing dozens of rounds of rubber coated steel bullets, stun grenades and at least 40 tear gas grenades. The town youth forced the army and Border Police to retreat to the outskirts of the town with a constant barrage of stones.

In a co-ordinated series of non-violent protests across the West Bank today thousands of Palestinians protested peacefully against the Israeli restrictions imposed on access to the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, part of a week-long clampdown on Palestinians in Jerusalem which began when the Israeli government announced the construction of 1500 new housing units in East Jerusalem.

… Continue reading

Mohammed Qadus, 16, was shot in the chest and killed by Israeli forces in his home village of Iraq Burin, south of Nablus, during a demonstration Friday. Red Crescent medics reported that he was taken by private car to a hospital after their ambulance was detained by Israeli forces. Qadus was killed for participating in a demonstration that has become a weekly occurrence in this small village, protesting the presence of right-wing illegal Israeli settlements and the attempted expansion of those settlements on Iraq Burin’s land.

Another 16 year old was seriously wounded when he was shot in the head, also reportedly with live ammunition.

For the second week in a row the National Committee of Beit Ommar organized a demonstration, along with the Palestine Solidarity Project, to block Route 60, a major north-south highway past Beit Ommar that is used by settlers from throughout the Hebron District, in protest of the crackdown on Palestinian popular resistance, unabated settlement expansion (including new homes planned in the nearby settlement of Beitar Illit) and the continued theft of Palestinian land.

50 participants, including Israeli and International solidarity activists, arrived at the entrance to Beit Ommar, carrying Palestinian flags and posters calling for the end to the Occupation. Upon reaching route 60 and sitting … Continue reading

In Sheikh Jarrah, the weekly jovial march of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians met at Damascus Gate of the Old City and marched to Sheikh Jarrah, protesting the eviction of the Hanoun, Ghawi and Al-Kurd families, all Palestinians who had lived in the neighborhood of East Jerusalem since the 1950s who were forcibly removed by the Israeli government (one home of the Al-Jurd familiy in July, 2008, the Hanoun and Ghawi households in August, 2009) to allow Jewish families to move in. The families have been living in tents in protest outside of their homes since the eviction. More recently, a group of settlers moved into an annex of another home of the Al-Kurd family, creating even more friction … Continue reading