Ibrahim Muhammad Biss’s curiosity was slightly piqued when a car driving slowly along Route 60 came to a halt in front of him and his group of friends at the entrance to the Aroub refugee camp just north of Beit Ommar on a Thursday in early June. 16-year- old Ibrahim, who lives in the camp, was waiting for traffic to pass so he could cross the street to enter the Aroub Agricultural College. Assuming the driver was stopping to ask the boys for directions, Ibrahim watched as the middle-aged man lowered the window.

Instead of an inquiring foreigner, Ibrahim found himself facing an Israeli settler pointing a handgun at … Continue reading

On the morning of June 23rd, 2010 Jewish settlers rioted and attacked Palestinian property in the neighbourhood of Saffa, Beit Ommar. On the most recent example of the so-called ‘price tag’ policy, dozens of residents of the illegal settlement of Bat Ayn attempted to set fire to private Palestinian land before throwing stones and bottles at nearby houses.

Israeli soldiers began firing tear-gas canisters and stun grenades after awoken Saffa residents had gathered around dawn, lightly injuring a number of Palestinians. Members of the Beit Ommar National Committee and Palestine Solidarity Project arrived in Saffa shortly after and recorded the incident.

The more radical of Israel’s 500,000 settlers in the … Continue reading

This morning at 10am a settler driving north on route 60 stopped his car outside the Agricultural School and University of Arroub and in front of the Arroub Refugee camp, just north of Beit Ommar. He stopped, got out of his car, and fired several live bullets into the air, prompting students on one side of the street to begin shouting at him and others across the street to throw stones at the car. He then turned and shot two students standing in front of the entrance to the school. Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Bis, 19, was shot in the stomach and back, Mu’atez Mousa Benat, 17, was shot … Continue reading

Early on May 31st, the people of Beit Ommar received news that Fatma Elyaan Sabarneh, age 55, who was hit yesterday by a settler who was speeding on route 60, had died in a hospital in Hebron. A funeral procession was subsequently organized by villagers, in which hundreds followed the casket down the main road towards the village`s cemetery.

Immediately following the burial at around 2:00 p.m., the Israeli military prevented the crowd from walking towards Road 60, after which a confrontation ensued between Palestinian youth and soldiers. Soldiers began grabbing Palestinians from the crowd, including PSP … Continue reading

On May 30, at 7:30 PM, a settler was driving a taxi at excessive speed on Route 60 by Beit Ommar and hit a husband and wife walking in the road. Local Palestinian residents saw the two Palestinians hit, shouted at the driver, and called for an ambulance. The Israeli army came and the driver fled the scene.

A Palestinian ambulance took the Palestinians to the hospital in Al Khalil. Both Palestinians have head injuries and are in critical condition. Their names are Fatma Elyaan Sabarneh, age 55, and Shedah Abd Sabarneh, age 59.

The driver had been driving about120 km/h in a 70 km/h zone.

The small village of Al Libban (Libban al Sharquia) sits in rolling hills planted with olive trees, approximately half way between Ramallah and Nablus. The villagers are simple fellahin – farmers – growing wheat and fruit in addition to their olive trees. The pride of the village is the central mosque, an impressive, large structure, built in 1977 and the only mosque currently in operation.

That was, until the night of Tuesday 4th May when fire gutted the mosque’s interior, destroying carpets, furniture, numerous Korans and the building’s fixtures and fittings. The visitor now witnesses a scene of total devastation. The blackened walls, floor and ceiling have a nighmarish quality and it is hard to imagine that this was once a … Continue reading

Sa’ed Ahmed Abu Maria is just 6 years old and is a normal Beit Ommar kid who loves riding on his dads tractor. He was shot in the leg with a plastic coated steel bullet Wednesday afternoon by an Israeli settlement security guard who took offense at his father plowing the land his family have farmed for generations next to the Karmei Tsur settlement. Sa’ed is the son of Ahmed Abu Maria, a member of the Beit Ommar National Committee.

No reason can be found that might have provoked the settler into shooting young Sa’ed.

No warning was given that the guard was about to open fire. The wound … 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

From Christian Peacemaker Teams and Operation Dove

AT-TUWANI – The past two weeks have seen a marked rise in settler activity outside the illegal settlements* of Ma’on and the Havat Ma’on (Hill 833) outpost. This has varied from settlers crossing Palestinian grazing land, to grazing their sheep while shooting rocks from slingshots at nearby Palestinian shepherds, to abducting young Palestinian shepherds with the aid of the Israeli military and police.

On Friday afternoon, 19 February, 2010, Israeli settlers, soldiers and
police detained a 12-year-old boy from the Palestinian village of Saadet
Tha’lah, located near the Israeli settlement of Carmel in the South Hebron Hills. The boy had been grazing his family’s flock alone in their regular grazing area, just above Umm Zeitouna … Continue reading

(Photography from Palestine Solidarity Project. Video of Nabi Saleh from Activestills Collective, Video of Sheikh Jarrah from Yisrael Putermam)

This Friday, January 22, demonstrations were again held against land confiscation, the Annexation Barrier, and the expulsion of Palestinians from East Jerusalem for the settlement of right-wing Jewish settlers.

In Al-Ma’asara, Bethlehem District, approximately 70 Palestinians, Internationals and Israelis marched from the center of town towards the barrier set up by the Israeli military. Tensions were high as a larger-than-usual presence of Israeli soldiers and border police lined the route of the march on the roofs of buildings. The demonstration included the imposed Palestinian government’s minister of agriculture who participated in a symbolic tree-planting near the entrance of the village. … Continue reading