On Saturday, May 19th, 2012, locals together with more than 30 Palestinian, Israeli and international activists (from Norway, the USA, Britain and Italy, amongst others) built a single story prefabricated house in the village of Um Fagara (South Hebron Hills). The event was organized by the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee of Al-Tuwani with the aim of peacefully resisting the Israeli occupation by affirming the right to live of the community of Um Fagara.

Um Fagara is in area C, under both Israeli military and administrative control. It has been subject to a range of evacuations, abuse and demolitions by the Israeli military in recent years. On 24 November, 2011, … Continue reading

A letter from Thaer Halahleh, on day 75 of hunger strike against his detention without charge, to his two-year-old daughter Lamar, who he has never seen. Translated by Jalal Najjar.

“My Beloved Lamar, forgive me because the occupation took me away from you, and took away from me the pleasure of witnessing my first born child that I have always prayed to God to see, to kiss, to be happy with. It is not your fault, this is our destiny as Palestinian people to have our lives and the lives of our children taken away from us, to be apart from each other and to have a miserable life, nothing is … Continue reading

Khader Adnan writes in gratitude for the support he was given while on hunger-strike and calls for solidarity with the prisoners:

In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.

Dear free people of the world. Dear oppressed and disenfranchised around the globe. Dear friends of our people, who stood with me with a stern belief in freedom and dignity for my people and our prisoners languishing in the Occupation’s prisons.

Dear free women and men, young and elderly, ordinary people as well as intellectual elites everywhere – I address you today with an outpouring of hope and pain for every Palestinian that suffers from the occupation of his … Continue reading

On April 9, 1948, members of Zionist paramilitary groups, the Irgun (led by Menachem Begin) and the Stern Gang (led by Yitzhak Shamir), entered the Arab village of Deir Yassin and massacred over 100 men, women and children. Deir Yassin had a population of about 600-750 people, and had a reputation for being a peaceful village. There were also reports of rapes and mutilations.

Excerpt from The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Israeli historian Ilan Pappé:

Irgun and Stern Gang, the Jewish forces, stormed into the village of Deir Yassin on this day 63 years ago, they sprayed the houses with machine gun fire, killing many. They raped and killed some of the women, they gathered the remaning villagers in one place … Continue reading

On Sunday, March 25, 2012, four international activists from PSP went to Ofer military court to follow up on the eight Beit Ommar youths who were arrested recently. They were warned ahead of time by Israeli activists that the security at Ofer military court tend to do their utmost to keep others from entering. Thus, despite being registered to attend the hearing, the PSP activists were made to wait outside for nearly an hour, missing the entire session.

Going through security, the Israeli security guards asked each person if they spoke Hebrew, then if they spoke Arabic. The first of the internationals to go through was an American woman. She answered the questions, admitting that she spoke no Hebrew, but she … Continue reading

On the morning of February 28th, 2012 in the Palestinian village of Surif in the southern West Bank, two Israeli bulldozers and five jeeps of Israeli soldiers came unannounced to Abdel Hamid Abu Khader’s land. The soldiers placed erected concrete blocks with yellow warning signs, claiming that the land was mine-ridden and that the land was a closed military zone. The Palestinian owner of the land claims that the area was cleared of mines more than 20 years ago by the Palestinian Authority. The land mines were originally placed there by the Israeli army, as soldiers used Palestinian communities such as Surif (a very large town of about 15,000 people) for training operations. The total area of … Continue reading

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/02/201221715355300838.html

Friday is the 62nd day of the Palestinian prisoner’s protest against his detention by Israel.

Sixty-one days. That is how long it’s been since Khader Adnan has eaten.

The 33-year-old Palestinian was taken from his home in Arrabeh village near Jenin in the occupied West Bank at 3:30am on December 17. One day later he began his hunger strike to protest against the “humiliation and policy of administrative detention”. Adnan, like hundreds of other Palestinians, was arrested under a military order that Israel has named “administrative detention”, which allows prisoners to be held without charge or trial for periods of up to six months, spells that can be renewed indefinitely.

Sahar Francis is a lawyer with Addameer, a prisoner rights groups based … Continue reading

From Electronic Intifada: http://electronicintifada.net/content/interview-ex-prisoner-reflects-friendship-khader-adnan-and-his-hunger-strike-justice/10919

Mousa Abu Maria spent nearly five years, from 1999 to 2003, in Israeli prisons. He spent an additional 14 months, from 2008 to 2009, in administrative detention (without charge or trial). He, like current hunger striker Khader Adnan, was subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment and torture as part of his interrogation. In 2001, he shared a cell with Adnan.

Abu Maria, a member of the popular committee in the West Bank village Beit Ommar and co-founder of the Palestine Solidarity Project, spoke to Bekah Wolf about Khader Adnan, who is being held by Israel without charge and has entered his … Continue reading

On the 17th of December 2011 (53 days ago), Khader Adnan began his hunger strike in protest of his ill-treatment in Israeli detention and his arbitrary detention without charge or trial (known as Administrative Detention). He is in danger of dying at any moment. His wife, Randa, who saw him for the first time since his detention today described his condition as rapidly deteriorating and that he has lost a third of his weight and his hair.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

1.Call and demand the release of Khader Adnan, who has not been charged with any crime but instead is being held under Administrative Detention.
Call the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC … Continue reading

The Center for Freedom and Justice, an organization in Beit Ommar committed to combining activism against the occupation with social service and popular education, will be hosting the second annual Womens’ Organizing Conference to strengthen female participation and leadership in nonviolent resistance initiatives. The conference will take place in Beit Ommar village in the Hebron District of the southern West Bank on March 10th 2012.

Last year, over 300 Palestinian, international, and Israeli women attended the first conference in Beit Ommar. Please consider donating towards the cost of this conference and supporting women organizing against the occupation. Links to the Center’s Paypal account can be found below:
http://www.center4freedom.org/support/

… Continue reading