On Tuesday, March 27, 2012, PSP activists went to Om Al Kheir in the southern West Bank to meet with the Bedouin living there. They are surrounded by the Karmel settlement, and face daily attacks and injustices from the settlers and the court systems. At night, settlers throw molotov cocktails and stones at the Bedouin’s homes, or shoot into their village, trying to scare them off the land. One man explained that their small tents are their homes, and they have nowhere else to go. Settlers also throw chemicals onto the Palestinian land, which their sheep and goats eat, causing them to die and destroying another source of livelihood. Settlers … Continue reading

On Friday, February 24, 2012, Palestinian activists in Hebron (or Al Khalil in Arabic) organized a protest to open Shuhada Street which is a main street in the old city of Hebron that has been closed by Israeli soldiers to Palestinians. Hundreds of Israeli settlers now illegally live off of Shuhada street and their movement is not impeded by Israeli Forces. Hundreds of people attended the demonstrations from Hebron, from Palestinian towns and cities including Beit Ommar, some Palestinians from 48, Israelis, as well as internationals. The demonstration started with marching and chanting down the street, but quickly ceased after the demonstrators were met with many soldiers perhaps twenty or so baring the road, and some soldiers … Continue reading

On Saturday, February 11, 2012 the popular committee of Beit Ommar and Palestine Solidarity Project held their weekly demonstration against the occupation and settlements. Residents of Beit Ommar, accompanied by Israeli and international solidarity activists, marched to an area of Beit Ommar’s agricultural land near the illegal Israeli settlement Karmei Tsur. The demonstration, which carried pictures of Palestinian political prisoner Khader Adnan and included owners of land which had recently been confiscated by the settlement, was met with dozens of Israeli soldiers who immediately began to attack the demonstration. Two Palestinians, Saqqar Abu Maria and Beit Ommar popular committee spokesman Yousef Abu Maria were both arrested, … Continue reading

On Tuesday, February 7, 2012, Israeli settlers from Karmei Tsur, escorted by Israeli Forces, constructed two mobile homes (caravans) on two dunums (2000 square meters) of land owned by Palestinian residents of Beit Ommar. The farmland is legally owned by Mohamed Motlak Za’aqik and is located within the so-called security fence surrounding the settlement of Karmei Tsur to the south of the village. This fence was constructed in 2006, and annexed more than hundreds of dunums of Beit Omar farmland. Since then, the farmers are prevented from entering the area and cultivating their land for almost six years, causing all of the plum and grapes trees to dry up. Karmei Tsur was illegally established in 1984 on … Continue reading

On Friday, February 3, 2012, a large group of around 150 Israeli settlers entered the Palestinian village of Beit Ommar in the southern West Bank. The presence of settlers on Palestinian land is prohibited under International Law. The group was escorted by Israeli soldiers and border police, and moved through several neighborhoods of the village during the middle of the day.

The settlers wandered through Beit Za’tah and Alkarn neighborhoods before moving onto Wadi Esheikh area close to the illegal settlement of Karmei Tsur to the south of the village. During this provocative tour, the settlers blocked Route 60, the main road connecting Hebron … Continue reading

By Bekah Wolf
Published on Electronic Intifada (http://electronicintifada.net/content/demanding-justice-yousef-quiet-boy-killed-israeli-settlers/10865)

On 28 January 2011 at 6:30am, Yousef Ikhlayl, 17, went with his father Fakhri to their farmland on the outskirts of the West Bank village Beit Ommar, where they prepared the land around their grapevines. At approximately 7am, two groups of Israelis from the illegal settlements Bat Ayn and Kiryat Arba were taking a “hike” in the privately-owned Palestinian agricultural land belonging to the residents of Beit Ommar (“Palestinian killed in clashes with settlers near Hebron,” The Jerusalem Post, 29 January 2011).

There was no indication that the settlers were planning on shooting. Yousef’s father reported that the first shot … Continue reading

from the Palestine Monitor
By Dylan Collins

In a hazy room, clouded with cigarette smoke and steam from hot syrup-sweat tea, residents of Kafr ad-Dik and its neighboring villages, along with Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists, excitedly gathered together waiting for the midday prayer to finish. The twenty-seventh of January marked the fourth Friday during which the village of Kafr ad-Dik has staged a nonviolent protest against the annexation of its agricultural land by the Israeli Occupation Authority (IOA).

The village of Kafr ad-Dik, and the greater Salfit District, is located on top of the largest water table in the West Bank, thus providing it with some of the most fertile land in the region. Home to generations upon generations of farmers, Kafr … Continue reading

On Monday, January 9th, 2011, a joint action organized by several Palestinian popular committees saw about 60 demonstrators trying to drive from Jericho to Ramallah on an Israeli-only road. The road was built to facilitate Israeli settler movement to and from settlements in the West Bank and Israeli cities despite the fact that these settlements have continued to be upheld as illegal under international law by the United Nations. The activists were protesting Israeli policies which restrict Palestinian movement in the West Bank, and prohibits them from driving on dozens of Israeli-only roads and highways that are built on lands that were stolen from them in the first place.

… Continue reading

On December 23rd, 2011, residents of the Palestinian village of Beit Ommar, accompanied by Israeli and international solidarity activists. held a peaceful demonstration against the illegal settlement of Karmei Tsur, and the stealing of privately owned agricultural land.

Demonstrators approached the settlement fence and were able to remove a post and some barbed wire before many police arrived and forced them back. The demonstrators remained peaceful, even when the police shoved some of them roughly to the ground. After several speeches were given explaining the illegality of the settlement and the grievances of the Palestinians, the demonstrators ended the protest peacefully. There were no arrests.

The … Continue reading

On December 22, after Friday prayers, over 50 Nabi Saleh residents held their weekly demonstration along with Israeli and international solidarity activists. The group peacefully marched though town and towards the Ein al-Qaws (the Bow Spring), which rests on lands belonging to Bashir Tamimi, the head of the Nabi Saleh village council. The spring was used historically as a source of water for the village until being illegally fenced off by Halamish settlers in 2009.

While the protesters were demonstrating peacefully hundreds of yards away from the spring the Israeli military fired dozens of tear gas canisters at them. As demonstrators returned to the village, Israeli military forces illegally shot tear gas canisters directly at them from close range. The … Continue reading