At 2:30am on the morning of November 12, 2011, PSP activist Iyad al-Alami was arrested from his residence in Beit Ommar by Israeli Forces.

Iyad is 23-years-old, and is an active member of the National Committee in Beit Ommar, as well as the Palestine Solidarity Project. In recent years, Iyad has been arrested two times before. Eyewitnesses saw 5 jeeps of Israeli soldiers conduct the early morning raid. Iyad was seen blindfolded and handcuffed as he was being led to an army jeep.

Iyad is studying engineering at Hebron’s Polytechnic University. A … Continue reading

Majde Za’aqiq, a 38-year-old school teacher from Beit Ommar and a long-time member of both the Palestine Solidarity Project and the Center for Freedom and Justice, has been imprisoned by the Israeli Authorities for nearly two months and is currently hunger striking against inhumane prison conditions. The mass hunger strike, now in its third week, has seen the participation of hundreds of Palestinian political prisoners in multiple prisons. The strikers are demanding an improvement in their conditions, including the ending the use of solitary confinement by Israeli Authorities to isolate and break the spirits of the prisoners.

Majde Za’aqiq was arrested on August 20, 2011 as he was … Continue reading

Beit Ommar 14.th October 2011. At about three o’clock in the morning three persons were arrested in a late night millitary raid in Beit Ommar; Abed Helail aged 41, Mohammad Yousef Bahar 17 years old, and Ahmad Mahmoud Sohaibe 20 years old.
No reason was given for the arrests.

Several arrests have occured in Beit Ommar the last few weeks. Report here

Two days ago the soliders arrested Yousef Ahmad Halil Abu Hashem. Report here

The army raids in Beit Ommar have … Continue reading

Beit Ommar 11th October 2011:

Yousef Ahmad Halil Abu Hashem was arrested along with his father, Ahmad Abu Hashem, at 02:30 Tuesday morning in the old city of Beit Ommar. Ahamd Abu Hashem is an active member of the popular committee in Beit Ommar.

The Israeli army came to Ahmad Abu Hashem’s house in the middle of the night with more than a hundred soldiers, seven jeeps and two buses, including three dogs. The soldiers used a ladder to climb the wall, and established a command point on the roof, after having broken open the front door of the house on the ground floor.

All family members were made to lie on the floor, while the soldiers brought in … Continue reading

Sunday 11th September: In the early hours of Sunday morning, at around 2am, Isreali military forces raided several houses in Beit Ommar, firing teargas and throwing concussion grenades.

Three houses were surrounded by dozens of soldiers, who arrested Munib Jahed, 17, university student Nadim Khalil, 21, and Fares Al-Owewy, 25.

All three are being held in Gush Etzion prison, where lawyers were able to visit them yesterday afternoon (Sunday).

All three reported that during their interrogation, they were repeatedly told to sign documents or give statements incriminating local Palestinian organisers, by claiming they encouraged children to throw stones. This is a tactic used repeatedly by the Israeli occupying forces, where children and youths are detained late at night, denied any sleep … Continue reading

Today, twenty-five Palestinian, international, and Israeli activists peacefully marched towards an Israeli Apartheid fence built on Palestinian land in the village of Beit Ommar. When they reached the fence, several activists attempted to pull the fence down as an act of symbolism against the occupation and apartheid system in Palestine, while others peacefully demonstrated on the other side of the fence on Route 60. After ten minutes of trying to bring down the fence and protesting, several Israeli military jeeps arrived and the activists stopped pulling on the fence, and joined the others on the other side of the fence on the road.

… Continue reading

9th September: PSP joined residents of the Al Ma’sara village in Bethlehem district for their weekly demonstration against the Israeli occupation. Around fifty Palestinian protesters – accompanied by Israeli and international activists – marched from the town and attempted to cross an Israeli-built road to access their fields.

The march was met by around 25 Isreali soldiers, who prevented the villagers from crossing the road to reach the Palestinian fields. Protesters chanted in support of Palestine’s Spetember bid for statehood at the UN, and demanded an end to the occupation. The entirely peaceful protest was then pushed back by the heavily armed soldiers, who … Continue reading

Today in Beit Ommar, around twenty-five demonstrators marched towards the illegal Israeli settlement of Karmei Tsur in protest of the imprisonment of Beit Ommar school teacher Majde Za’aqiq. Demonstrators held signs protesting Majde’s imprisonment, advocating Palestinian membership of the UN, and ending the occupation.

Israeli soldiers followed both in front of the demonstrators, and behind in a jeep. The demonstrators continued to march peacefully, until thirty Israeli soldiers blocked the demonstrators’ from marching through their own fields. Younes, one of the popular committee organizers, then gave a powerful speech condemning the theft of … Continue reading

Majde Za’aqiq, a 38-year-old teacher from Beit Ommar and member of the organizing committee for the Center for Freedom and Justice, was yesterday (Tuesday) denied bail by an Israeli military court in Ofar, West Bank.

In response to the lack of evidence presented by the prosecution, the judge ruled that the trial be delayed by up to 100 days in order to allow the prosecutor more time to gather evidence. The judge then refused Majde’s application for bail.

Following an unsuccessful appeal today (Wednesday), Majde now faces the possibility of spending several months in prison before any trial takes place.

On hearing of the military court’s decision, the popular committee of … Continue reading

This past Saturday, Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists peacefully demonstrated in Al Walaja protesting the Israeli High Court’s decision to allow the construction of the separation barrier that would annex half of Al Walaja’s land to Israel.

Al Walaja is an agricultural village and most of the families there depend on these fields for their income. The annexation of Al Walaja land will therefore be devastating to its residents.

The demonstrators marched peacefully holding signs condemning the occupation and the apartheid system. Israeli soldiers presented a closed military zone order to the activists, but the order was outdated. They then presented a closed military zone order for August … Continue reading