Today, March 30th, 2012, demonstrations took place all over Palestine commemorating Land Day. On March 30, 1976, thousands of Palestinians gathered to protest Israeli government plans to confiscate 60,000 dunams of Arab-owned land in the Galilee. Israeli forces killed six Palestinians that day, and wounded and jailed hundreds. Palestinians continue to mark this day to protest the ongoing expropriation of Palestinian land.

In Beit Ommar, a peaceful demonstration took place at the entrance of the town, which is located on Route 60. Before reaching the gates of the town, which were closed by the Israeli military to keep people from … Continue reading

On Monday August 17th, Governor Mike Huckabee attended a dinner with right-wing Israeli officials at the Shepherds Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. The Shepherd’s Hotel was an Arab-run hotel that was bought over by Jewish-American millionaire Irving Moskowitz in 1985. Since then, plans to build another Jewish settlement on the site of the hotel in the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah have been underway. Mike Huckabee was here supporting the settler movement, claiming that Israel had the right to build wherever they wanted in their own country, even when East Jerusalem is acknowledged internationally as the occupied capital of a future Palestinian state.

Peace Now, an Israeli organization fighting against settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, … Continue reading

From Haaretz.com

The evacuation of two Palestinian families from the homes in the disputed East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on Sunday drew a slew of condemnations.

The neighborhood was at the center of escalating tensions between Israel and the U.S. last month, when Israel’s plan to build some 20 new apartments there was revealed. The U.S. has demanded that the project be halted, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said two weeks ago that “Israel will not agree to edicts of this kind in East Jerusalem.”

The evacuation comes after a decision by the High Court of Justice last week, which ruled that the homes belong to Jewish families.

Robert Serry, the United Nations envoy to the Middle East, criticized the evacuation of … Continue reading

At approximately 5:30 am this morning, Sunday, August 2, a truckload of heavily armored police raided the homes of the Hanoun and Al- Ghawe families in Sheikh Jarrah, evicting the families and international and Israeli solidarity activists staying there. After months of legal haggling and eviction order after eviction order, the final eviction was carried out very quickly. Israeli police blasted open the gate to the two homes, blew open the doors and broke holes in the windows. Within minutes, large forces entered the house, ordering the family members and international and Israeli activists out at gunpoint. Those that refused the orders were dragged out by force. Reportedly 7 international activists and 1 Israeli activist … Continue reading

Settler violence continued in Sheik Jarrah this week when a settler
attacked Samar Al Sabach, a Palestinian woman who was staying in the Sheik Jarrah tent just below the Sfaradim settlement. The settler first came to the Hanoun house, which is currently under threat of eviction and has been a leader in the campaign against evictions in Sheik Jarrah. After being scared off by a large crew of family members, neighbors and solidarity activists, the settler retreated to the Sheik Jarrah tent, a community center just below the Sfaradim settlement, former home of the Al Kurd family. The settler found Samar alone in the tent and attacked her, beating her over the head with a rock. Samar has been hospitalized, and … Continue reading

On Sunday at 12:30pm, three internationals, one Israeli and two Palestinians, including the former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, were arrested in an attempt to block settlers from entering a Palestinian home of the Hijazi family in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. As they were arrested settlers entered the home and began to destroy the house from the inside. At 3:30pm three internationals tried to enter the Palestinian home to stop the destruction and were also put under arrest. A protest in solidarity with the arrestees and against the actions of the settlers was called for at 4pm on Monday…. Continue reading

For original article from Ma’an News Agency, click here

Mousa Muhammad Ahmad Ouda’s new name is “Number 59.”

Ouda’s house is marked 59 of a total of 88 houses in one East Jerusalem neighborhood that are slated for demolition by the Israeli-controlled Municipality of Jerusalem. The Municipality says it plans to turn the area into a park.

The houses are marked in red on an official map drawn up by the Israeli authorities. On the satellite map the neighborhood, Bustan, is a sliver marked with a thick red boundary, an outline oddly similar to the outline of Mandate Palestine.

The Municipality says the houses were built without construction permits, but the residents say that the demolition orders are a calculated attempt to remove … Continue reading

The Jerusalem Municipality appears determined to move forward with the demolition of 88 homes in the Al-Bustan neighborhood of Silwan, located near Occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. According to a well-attended press conference this morning sponsored by The Civic Coalition for Defending the Palestinians’ Rights in Jerusalem, surveyors have descended on the neighborhood which often signals imminent demolition. When completed, up to 2,000 Palestinians will be uprooted from their homes.

The Municipality is following a vicious policy, where they use city planning to achieve military, political, and nationalistic goals. Palestinian communities are fragmented and then isolated through forced dispossession from their houses and land and, in other cases, the use of zoning and planning to restrict growth. A coordinated effort … Continue reading

This morning, Tuesday March 18th, the Israeli High Court ordered that the excavations that have damaged numerous Palestinian homes in the East Jerusalem village of Silwan, be stopped. Many attribute the success in the court to the joint non-violent demonstrations involving Palestinian and Jewish Israeli activists against the excavations. For several weeks, Palestinians, Jewish Israelis, and international volunteers have stayed in a protest tent where they were repeatedly harassed and attacked by Israeli settlers. The excavations were ostensibly part of a greater archaeological project searching for parts of the original City of David. However, the excavations were done without consultation of the Palestinian inhabitants of the area, and in many cases the digging caused severe structural … 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