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

During this week, Friday demonstrations were held in Nabi Saleh and Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem against settlement expansion, and Bil’in, Ni’lin, Al-Ma’asara, and Budrus against the Annexation Barrier and in commemoration of the 7 year anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie.
In Nabi Saleh, an international from the International Solidarity Movement was shot from close range in the arm with a rubber-coated steel bullet, breaking her wrist and causing her to be hospitalized. Additionally, three Palestinians, one holding Israeli and American citizenship (ISM co-founder Huwaida Arraf) along with 2 male residents of Nabi Saleh were arrested while trying to prevent the Israeli military from firing on people helping to evacuation of the injured international.
Arraf was released the next … Continue reading

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

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

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

On Wednesday, March 3, the Israeli military accompanied 2 bulldozers onto privately-owned Palestinian land in the village of Beit Jala, north of Betlehem. Olive, walnut and other fruit trees were being uprooted in preparation for the continued construction of the Annexation Barrier (also referred as the Apartheid Wall), which had been halted in almost all of the West Bank for over a year.
A group of Beit Jala residents, led by Leila Awad, a landowner who believes she is under threat of eviction because the Barrier will be built within 5 meters of her home, protested the bulldozing. They were joined by Israeli and international solidarity activists, as well as Palestinians from PSP as they attempted to block the … Continue reading

Though pouring rain and even hail fell throughout the West Bank yesterday, demonstrations against land confiscation, the Annexation Barrier, and settler expansion in East Jerusalem continued on Friday.

In Nabi Saleh, which has been demonstrating for several weeks against a move by settlers from the nearby Halamish settlement to take over a a spring and other privately-owned Palestinian agricultural land, several dozen residents, along with Israeli and international solidarity activists, again marched from the village towards the land being annexed by the right-wing settlers. They were confronted by Israeli forces, who used tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets to deter the crowd. The army then invaded the village, using a jeep-mounted tear-gas launcher that shoots … Continue reading

This Friday, February 12, 2010 once again saw demonstrations against the Annexation Barrier in Ni’lin, Al-Ma’asara, and Bil’in, and against settlement expansion and dispossession in Nabi Saleh and Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem.

In Al-Ma’asara, approximately 30 Palestinians were accompanied by 10 international and Israeli solidarity activists as they marched down the main past Al-Ma’asara village, connecting villages east of Betlehem with the main throughway, Route 60. They were quickly stopped by Israeli soldiers at the edge of Al-Ma’asara, where they declared the area a closed military zone. The demonstrators insisted they were trying to reach the site of the Annexation Barrier, which was partially constructed on Palestinian land in 2007-2008 but has not been completed or worked on … Continue reading

The New York Times this Friday included a large article on page 4 of the front section about the “new” anti-wall demonstrations, which they erroneously say began in Bil’in but have now spread to 4 other villages. In response to questions by the Times reporter about the nature of the protests, and whether they could be considered non-violent, an Israeli spokesman reportedly said, “these are not sit-ins with people singing we shall overcome”. Well, minus the old gospel song, that’s exactly what people in Nabi Saleh did this week during their Friday demonstration. Only after the Israeli military fired on the demonstrators, did youth respond by throwing stones…. Continue reading