This Friday another village added a demonstration to the regular mix across the West Bank: Nabi Saleh in the Ramallah district had a demonstration of over 300 people who managed to block the road near the Halamish settlement, which has stolen land from the village and continues to encroach on village agricultural land. More than 20 people were reportedly injured by rubber-coated steel bullets, including veteran popular resistance leader Ayed “Abu Ahmed” Morrar, from Budrus. The group was also assaulted by settlers from Halamish, who threw stones and fired live ammunition in the direction of the demonstrators, who despite the violence of the settlers and soldiers, managed to block the road for more than 2 hours.

In Al-Ma’asara a … Continue reading

From Maan News

Video from Yisrael Putermam

Friday, December 25–Members of the As-Sabbagh family were attacked in their home by four Israeli settlers who broke into the building in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah Saturday morning, witnesses said.

The settlers were attempting to take over the home and settle in it, onlookers alleged.

The act prompted clashes, injuring Tamer, Dalal, Um Mohammad, and Abed Al-Sabbagh and his pregnant wife before Israeli forces arrived and detained the settlers.

Residents of the neighborhood ran to help the family when they heard the noise of the initial break-in. Following the detention of the four settlers, several others came to the scene, … Continue reading

On December 20, 2009 at 9am four farmers from Beit Ommar, Mohammed Ikhlayl, ‘Ayed Ikhlayl, Kalil Ikhlayl, and ‘Ali Nayef, were plowing their agricultural land approximately 700 meters from the Bat ‘Ayn settlement, alone. Suddenly, they were shot at four times from inside the settlement. No one was hit but Israeli soldiers arrived shortly after, acknowledging that they knew settlers had shot at the farmers, and demanding that the Palestinians leave in order to “avoid problems”. The farmers refused, and remained on their land for another 2 hours before they were finally forced to leave by the Israeli soldiers. At no time did the Israeli soldiers, in theory in charge of security for the area but … Continue reading

December in southern Occupied Palestine is the ideal time to begin planting new trees to replace what was destroyed in the previous year. For more than 6 months, since the beginning of April, 2009, Palestine Solidarity Project has been accompanying the three brothers Abdullah, Mohammed, and Hamad Soleiby and their families to work on their land in Saffa near the Bat ‘Ayin settlement. They suffered enormous loss physically and financially at the hands of arguably the most extreme settlers in the West Bank. Both Abdullah and Hamad were seriously injured by settlers this year, and all three lost over 500 fruit trees, including old olive trees, to intentional destruction by Jewish Israeli settlers.

From our … Continue reading

On Thursday, December 10th activists from PSP took part in a solidarity march in the village of At-Tuwani. The children of the At-Tuwani school (along with other Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals) marched south from the village of At-Tuwani to the school in Al-Fakhit. Al-Fakhit school opened this school year to accommodate students living in Maghayir Al-Abeed, Markaz, Halawe, Fakhit, Majaaz, and Jinba. The teachers at Al-Fakhit school travel from Yatta each day and pick up schoolchildren along the route. The purpose of this 10 kilometre march was to draw attention to the ongoing obstacles children and teachers face when traveling to school. The … Continue reading

From Al Jazeera English

video

Note from PSP

We bring this story to our website not to condone or condemn the actions of the Palestinian who lightly wounded 2 Israeli settlers, or what he “deserved” but to point out the total lack of control or will to control the settler population by the Israeli military. The Palestinian population of the West Bank has no other recourse but the Israeli military involving incidents with Israeli settlers, though time and again the Israeli military has demonstrated and stated explicitely their inability to control the Israeli population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. While the Israeli soldiers not only … Continue reading

This Friday, November 27, Palestinians and Jews gathered in the center of Jerusalem to demonstrate against the continued violence and illegal expansion of right-wing settlers in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarra in East Jerusalem. In the early hours of Thursday, November 26, settlers who had already taken over the home of Ghawi family invaded the home next door, attacking residents of the Al-Kurd family before the police were called and the settlers were forced to leave. Though the entire incident, which occured at around 1am, happened inside the Al-Kurd family’s home, one settler accused the Palestinians of attacking him, filing a complaint with the Israeli police. The Palestinian residents were turned away when they attempted to … Continue reading

This Saturday, October 3, international and Israeli activists, along with PSP committee members, attempted to accompany Abu Jabber Soleiby and his family to his land in the Wad Arish valley, in the Saffa district of Beit Ommar. Since the completion of Ramadan and the Muslim holidays, the farmers wished to again tend to their land, in preparation for some repair work that they intend to begin, with the support of PSP and Israeli solidarity activists, this month. Instead, the Israeli military, with an unusual show of force even for the often-brutalized Beit Ommar, prevented farmers and activists alike from accessing the valley. The soldiers, who were even more … Continue reading

From Christian Peacemaker Teams and Operation Dove

At a time when the international community is calling for a freeze on new building in settlements and the disbanding of settlement outposts, the settler community of the South Hebron Hills is continuing its expansion unabated.

Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement on Ma’on, in the South Hebron Hills area, are constructing at least five new caravans on the south-west side of the settlement. Internationals based in the nearby Palestinian village of At Tuwani first observed building preparatory work in Ma’on a few days ago. Today, as the new caravans were being built, settlers began preparatory work on a nearby hilltop for further settlement … Continue reading

On Monday August 17th, Governor Mike Huckabee attended a dinner with right-wing Israeli officials at the Shepherds Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. The Shepherd’s Hotel was an Arab-run hotel that was bought over by Jewish-American millionaire Irving Moskowitz in 1985. Since then, plans to build another Jewish settlement on the site of the hotel in the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah have been underway. Mike Huckabee was here supporting the settler movement, claiming that Israel had the right to build wherever they wanted in their own country, even when East Jerusalem is acknowledged internationally as the occupied capital of a future Palestinian state.

Peace Now, an Israeli organization fighting against settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, … Continue reading