Members of the National Committee of Bait Ommar and Palestine Solidarity Project joined with more than 50 residents of Beit Jala, Bethlehem District, who marched Sunday morning in another attempt to reach their land which is cut off by illegal settlements and the construction of the Annexation Barrier. They were accompanied by around 20 Israeli and international solidarity activists with banners and flags.
The peaceful demonstration was disrupted by Israeli Occupation Forces who blocked off the route with military vehicles and without any provocation threw sound bombs into the crowd as it approached. Despite these intimidating tactics the demonstrators approached the soldiers and sat down on the street in … Continue reading
From Ma’an News Agency
Dozens of masked soldiers raided the West Bank villages of Bil’in and Nil’in Monday morning to post decrees designating the village’s lands closed military zones on Fridays for a period of six months, residents said.
The areas between the wall and built up villages will be declared closed military zones every Friday between 8am and 8pm for six months, the military decrees read.
According to a statement issued by Bil’in’s Popular Committee, the move comes one week after the head of the Israeli Shin Bet threatened to step-up action against the Palestinian popular struggle in the two villages that see weekly protests against the separation wall’s construction.
The Popular Committee said the decrees went into effect on 17 February, … Continue reading
by Donald Macintyre
From The Independent
Ehab Barghouti would not have been at the demonstration at all if his father Asdal had had his way.
Asdal found his son, 14, on the road from their village of Beit Rima and ordered him into the car. “I told him: ‘You shouldn’t go, you’re too young.’ He told me: ‘I want to resist.’ I said: ‘Do you want me to see you on TV?’” But when Asdal stopped at a local garage and went in to talk to the mechanic, Ehab made his escape.
A few hours later he was unconscious in intensive care in Ramallah’s main hospital, a rubber-coated steel bullet having penetrated his skull. He had been standing among a crowd of youths, … Continue reading
On March 11, 2010 at about 19:00 settlers from Bat Ayn set fire to trees in the valley below the neighborhood of Saffa, Bait Ommar. Members of the National Committee from Bait Ommar arrived in Saffa shortly after and attempted to record the incident. Two members were detained briefly by the Israeli Occupation Forces when they attempted to photograph the fires and were released.
Villagers tried to descend into the valley to put out the fires but were prevented from doing so and were met with tear gas from the Israeli occupation soldiers. A fire engine was also unable to deal with the fires.
Palestine Solidarity Project, along with Rabbis … Continue reading
On Friday March 5, 14 year old Ehab Barghouthi was critically injured during a demonstration in Nabi Saleh against the theft of agricultural land by the Israeli settlement Halamish. Witnesses say he was shot from less than 30 meters away in the forehead with a rubber-coated steel bullet, which entered his skull just above the right eye. He underwent surgery in a hospital in Ramallah, his prognosis is still unknown. Several youth have been killed with these so-called “non-lethal” weapons, when shot from short range by the regular-issue M-16s the Israeli military uses to fire both live ammunition and rubber-coated bullets.
In Jerusalem on Friday, approximately 3,000 Jews and Palestinians gathered in a soccer field near the entrance … Continue reading
