For the second week in a row the National Committee of Beit Ommar organized a demonstration, along with the Palestine Solidarity Project, to block Route 60, a major north-south highway past Beit Ommar that is used by settlers from throughout the Hebron District, in protest of the crackdown on Palestinian popular resistance, unabated settlement expansion (including new homes planned in the nearby settlement of Beitar Illit) and the continued theft of Palestinian land.

50 participants, including Israeli and International solidarity activists, arrived at the entrance to Beit Ommar, carrying Palestinian flags and posters calling for the end to the Occupation. Upon reaching route 60 and sitting the road for less than 5 minutes, they were met with over 100 Israeli … 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

Just before 1 am Monday, March 8, 6 Israeli military jeeps with over 2 dozen soldiers surrounded the homes of Mousa Abu Maria (and his wife, Bekah Wolf) and Mousa’s father, Abdelhamid Abu Maria, 78, who lives with his wife, adult daughter, and two small children, Sarah, 2, and Hamze, 1 month.

The soldiers broke down the doors of Mousa and Abdelhamid’s houses and ordered the adults, along with the small children, outside. Mousa, Palestine Solidarity Project co-founder and well-known activist in Beit Ommar, was forcefully searched. The soldiers then made a cursory search of Abdelhamid’s home and demanded to see the ID’s of the adults present. The two small children, particularly Sarah who was awakened by the invading … Continue reading

Saturday, March 6–Beit Ommar, population 17,000, is located halfway between the cities of Betlehem and Hebron, both homes to religious sites significant to all three monotheisitic religions which have been the focus of a new move by the Israeli government to declare the sites “Israeli”. More importantly, both sites, the Ibrahimi and Belal Mosques, are located deep within Palestinian territory.

At the beginning of March, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu declared the Ibrahimi Mosque (also known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where Abraham is believed to be buried by Muslims, Christians, and Jews) in Hebron and The Belal Mosque (also known as Rachel’s Tomb, where all three monotheistic religions believe Rachel, the matriarch, is buried) in Betlehem … 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

In the pre-dawn hours of Thursday, February 25, Israeli forces entered Beit Ommar and carried out an extensive arrest and intimidation operation, lasting several hours. Five men were arrested, their homes ransacked and copious amounts of tear gas and percussion grenades were shot throughout the streets. An additional seven men were summoned for interrogation by the Israeli intelligence services, Shabak.

One of the men arrested, Ibrahim Awad, lives above a local kindergarten supported by Palestine Solidarity Project. Israeli soldiers returned to Awad’s home at approximately 7am and threw sound grenades at the door of the kindergarten while children were inside. They remained in the area, continuing to throw sound grenades within feet of the kindergarten, as children … Continue reading

On Saturday, February 13, 2010, a group of farmers from Beit Ommar and Saffa were accompanied by members of the Beit Ommar popular committee, Palestine Solidarity Project under the new Center for Freedom and Justice of Beit Ommar, and international and Israeli solidarity activists to march into the valley below Saffa, which has been under threat of confiscation through settler violence and the Israeli military declaring the entire area a closed military zone in perpetuity.
PSP had organized a series of tree-plantings along with Israeli anti-occupation activists last month. The Israeli military attempted to prevent the tree-plantings and went so far as to announce they would … Continue reading

On Wednesday, February 10, more than 50 international volunteers with the YMCA along with a group of Israeli activists joined 20 Palestinians in a coordinated tree-planting for 4 farmers who own land near the Karmei Tsur settlement. The action was organized by PSP, the Beit Ommar Center for Freedom and Justice, and the newly re-formed Beit Ommar Popular Committee and was designed to plant 400 trees on land that is threatened with confiscation as the Karmei Tsur settlement continues its plans to extend its “security perimeter” further onto privately-owned Palestinian land.

In 2006, these four farmers, Hamad Soleiby, Hossam Bahar, Mousa Abu Maria and Mohammed Awwad … Continue reading

Either the Israeli military’s intelligence isn’t that good, or the unit(s) assigned to the Beit Ommar were just looking for a clash. This morning, Saturday, February 6, 7 military jeeps with 30 soldiers arrived in Saffa, a district of Beit Ommar that has been under intense military repression and settler violence for more than 8 months. They came, despite the fact that there was no planned action this week, as in weeks past during several tree-planting missions and follow-up visits after farmers were informed that the land was being declared Israeli “state land” and therefore the more than 800 trees planted in the area would be uprooted.

Their arrival, and closing of the only street in Saffa, provoked local … Continue reading

Update: Preliminary research done by Peace Now has revealed that the area in which farmers from Saffa planted trees (to replace what was destroyed by settlers from Bat ‘Ayn) that the Israeli military announced it would uproot last week was not registered as Israeli ’state land’ in the 1970’s as they previously claimed. They are, however, in the process of declaring it state land, a legal maneuver to confiscate the land from the Palestinians who have been using it since the before the creation of the state of Israel.

Update February 1, 2010: Farmers Prevented from Accessing Land Ahead of Uprooting

On Saturday, January 30, a group of farmers from Beit Ommar and Saffa, including those from the Thalji family whose … Continue reading