In Ramallah, thousands participated in a demonstration called jointly by Fatah and Hamas. In Betlehem, Palestinians gathered near the Church of the Nativity, in Hebron, near a University. Schools were closed throughout the West Bank as thousands marched to apparatuses of the Israeli Occupation: checkpoints, watchtowers, the Annexation Barrier. People marched in Nablus, Qalqilya, Jenin, Betlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and dozens of smaller towns, protesting the ongoing massacre in Gaza. And make no mistake, it is a massacre. Even Israeli news sources are reporting around 50% of the fatalities are civilians. In reality, no one but the Palestinians on the ground can be sure of who was a fighter and who a civilian; … Continue reading

Christian Peacemaker Teams: At-Tuwani, South Hebron Hills
On Saturday, February 23nd, Israeli soldiers and settlers harassed and threatened Palestinian shepherds grazing their flocks. Several Palestinian shepherds from the village of At-Tuwani and nearby villages in the South Hebron Hills attempted to graze their flocks on Palestinian land near the illegal Israeli settlement outpost of Havot Ma’on. Soldiers arrived and took the ID of one of the shepherds, threatening arrest. A number of sheep were injured, including one when a soldier kicked the sheep, breaking its teeth. Settlers from Havot Ma’on harassed the shepherds and tried to chase away the flocks.

On Sunday, February 24rd, Israeli soldiers again tried to prevent Palestinian shepherds from At-Tuwani from … Continue reading

From Christian Peacemaker Teams
By Jessica Frederick

10 February 2008

HEBRON–Palestinian residents of the Beqa’a Valley are in danger of losing eleven homes and their health clinic. The clinic is currently under construction. The Israeli Civil Administration issued orders to the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) to demolish the homes and clinic by 14 February.

Residents in the valley have been building this clinic without governmental or outside funding, even though many have little or no paid employment. The Israeli Civil Administration refused to grant a building permit despite the difficulties residents encounter in reaching other health facilities outside of the valley. Between 600 and 700 people, mostly women and children, will use the new clinic for routine medical care, including … Continue reading

This Saturday, January 12, international and Israeli activists, including those from PSP and Anarchists Against the Wall joined nearly 70 residents of Beit Ommar to demonstrate against the illegal Israeli Settlement, Karmi Tsur, home to about 700 settlers, which was built on the land of Beit Ommar and the Palestinian village of Halhul in 1984. In the past 5 years, the population of Karmi Tsur has increased nearly 7 times, and has continued to expand, stealing more and more Palestinian agricultural land. The Popular Committee or Beit Ommar, which support from PSP, agreed to a campaign of demonstrations against the settlement to highlight the conditions Palestinian residents are facing due to … Continue reading

Saturday, January 5, the Popular Committee of Beit Ommar along with Palestine Solidarity Project held its first in a series of demonstrations against the Karmi Tsur settlement. Karmi Tsur is an Israeli settlement built on top of Beit Ommar’s agricultural land. In the summer of 2006 the settlers built a second fence around the settlement that stole hundreds of dunums of Palestinian agricultural land. The residents of Beit Ommar, who are 95% farmers, have been slowly encircled by encroaching settlements and their by-pass roads. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has publicly announced that he would abide by his promise to end settlement expansion in the West Bank (which, he … Continue reading

Tensions are running high as residents in and around the Palestinian village of Beit Ommar find themselves virtually incarcerated. Israeli soldiers at all ends of Beit Ommar sealed the village off to both incoming and outgoing traffic, be it by vehicle or foot, for the majority of the day today and most of yesterday.

At around 10 am this morning the Israeli Occupation Forces moved in on Beit Ommar. What followed was a several hour long barrage of gunshots, sound blast grenades, tear gas, search and seizures and profanity. The IOF brought in bulldozers and humvees, sealing off all entries and exits to and from Beit Ommar which are already sparse … Continue reading

Mohammed Awad, 17, was shot with live ammunition in the leg last night at approximately 8 pm while walking near a vegetable stand on Route 60 near the entrance to Beit Ommar. Eye witnesses report that 8 shots were fired by a special forces unit of the Israeli Army at Mohammed without warning. When two friends ran to him to help him, all three men, including the injured Mohammed, were arrested. The Israeli military took Mohammed in an army ambulance to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem. The location of the other two men is not currently known.
When international solidarity activists came to document the scene, the soldiers took … Continue reading

On Saturday nearly 200 Israelis and internationals joined the Palestinian residents of Tuwani and Tuba in the South Hebron Hills as they marched from Tuwani to Tuba where they accompanied local farmers as they plowed their fields next to the illegal Israeli outpost, Ma’on Farm. Ta’ayush Movement and Combatants for Peace organized this delegation both to raise awareness within the Israeli population about the plight of the Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills, and to provide a level of protection for the Palestinian farmers, who are often viciously assaulted by the right-wing extremists living in Ma’on Farm.

The group began with a briefing by members of Ta’ayush Movement on the local situation in … 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 264 residents of the area of Al-Qasa, near Idhna and the Tarqumiya checkpoint, originally came from the village of Beit Jibrin, on what became the Israeli side of the Green Line in 1948. Many of the residents still remember when they first came to Al-Qasa, 50 years ago. The land of Al-Qasa, which is less than half a kilometer inside the West Bank from the Green Line, was donated to the families who were forced from Beit Jibrin, which is now the site of the Israeli town beit Shemesh when they became refugees of An-Nakba–the catastrophe. For 50 years 10 families have lived in caves and semi-permanent homes, … Continue reading