On the morning of July 1, Palestinian farmers in Wadi Suweit, on the main road between the settlements of Ma’on and Suseya in the South Hebron Hills, were forced off their
land while they were plowing and preparing their land for cultivation. When solidarity activists arrived at about 8:30am, the scene was quiet, though there where about four military jeeps observing as the farmers worked. By 9 am, several settlers had arrived along several more Israeli military and police jeeps, totaling 14. The settlers stood on one side of thesoldiers screaming and threatening the farmers for an hour. Eventually the Israeli soldiers complied with the settlers demands and told the Palestinian farmers to leave the field.
… Continue reading

On Friday, June 10, about 40 people gathered for the first of what will become regular, weekly demonstrations in At-Twani, a small Palestinian community south of Hebron. Protesters marched through town towards the nearby settlement of Ma’on, often a source of settler violence and harassment. Before they could get there, they were stopped by a group of about twenty Israeli soldiers. The army refused to let the demonstration pass. Protesters and soldiers argued for about ten minutes. Then the military grabbed a member of At-Twani’s Popular committee and an Israeli activist and pushing the rest of the activists back. One soldier threw a sound … Continue reading

Soldiers from the settlement of Karmei Tsur detained two members of the Popular Committee on Friday, May 13. Ali Ayad Awad and his family had been on their land, some of which lies very close to the Karmei Tsur fence. A group of settlers arrived, yelling at them and throwing stones from within the settlement.

Popular Committee members Mohamed Ayad Awad and Ahmed Abu Hashem were informed of the harassment, and came out to the land where the farmers were trying to work. By the time they arrived, the settlers had gone, and instead, a group of soldiers from Karmei Tsur was waiting.

The soldiers detained both Ahmed Abu Hashem and Mohamed Ayad Awad. A half hour later, Popular Committee member Mousa … Continue reading

Mohammed Abd Alhamid Soleibi has lost land before.

Four years ago, twelve dunams of farmland near Karmei Tsur—land for which he had all the appropriate deeds and documentations of ownership—was surrounded by a fence, essentially annexed by the settlement. This left the seventy-year-old farmer with eighty-eight dunams about a kilometer and a half from the settlement of Bat Ayn in the Saffa Valley. He shares this land with his extended family—in all, around one hundred and fifty people make use of it.

Around eight thirty on the morning of Saturday, April 2nd, Mohammed went out to his remaining land with his brother, sons, and grandson. He and his grandson took a donkey and began plowing one field while the others worked … Continue reading

Around 12pm on Monday, March 21st, 2011, two Palestinian residents from the village of Beit Ommar in the southern West Bank were shot with live ammunition by an Israeli settler. The settler stopped his car on Route 60 as a funeral procession was moving towards the village cemetery and started firing indiscriminately into the crowd of mourners.

59-year-old Mohammad Ali Abu Safiyya was hit in the chest and is in critical condition in a Hebron hospital. 32-year-old Eyad Bassem Za’qiq was shot in his right thigh. The settler who shot the two men was not arrested.

Israeli Forces arrived on … Continue reading

On Saturday, March 12, 2011 at around 8pm, three bus loads full of Israeli settlers entered the village of Beit Ommar, breaking into at least two residences and beating the Palestinian occupants. The attacks seemed to be coordinated as part of other settler violence across the West Bank. Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in villages near Nablus, Ramallah, and Hebron.

In Beit Ommar, three buses of settlers from Bat Ayn and Kiryat Arba Settlements stopped on Route 60 near the entrance of the village. The settlers entered a residence close to the Israeli watchtower, breaking everything inside the house and smashing flower pots … Continue reading

Thursday, March 10th, 2011, 7am: Responding to an international call to action, Palestinian solidarity activists in Chicago renamed street signs on downtown street corners commemorating a Palestinian youth killed two years ago by the Israeli military. The activists used ladders just as morning rush hour commuters were starting to arrive in Chicago’s loop, and replaced street signs that read “Honorary Ben Gurion Way” with “Honorary Mehdi Abu Ayyash Way.”

According to the activists, David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, was responsible for drafting policy which intentionally drove Palestinians from their homes and disallowed them from returning. The activists also gave out … Continue reading

On Saturday, March 5th, 2011, dozens of Palestinian residents from Beit Ommar, supported by international and Israeli solidarity activists, rallied against the nearby Israeli settlement of Karmei Tsur. A sizable contingent of Palestinian activists from Hebron were also present to support the demonstrations in Beit Ommar. Though the weekly demonstration is almost always repressed, on this week, the army was even more violent than usual. Israeli soldiers pursued activists through the fields on the outskirts of the village, throwing tear gas, sound bombs, and beating at least one journalist.

Additionally, six Israeli settlers began throwing stones at the demonstrators from behind the fence surrounding Karmei Tsur, in plain sight of the soldiers. Yousef Abu Maria, … Continue reading

During this week’s unarmed demonstration, on February 26th, 2011, around 70 Palestinians from the village of Beit Ommar, supported by more than two dozen Israeli and international solidarity activists, protested the nearby Israeli settlement of Karmei Tsur. Karmei Tsur is built on land illegally taken from Beit Ommar residents, and the settlement continues to expand.

This past Saturday, the demonstrators gathered at 1pm waving flags from different countries expressing international solidarity with Palestine. At one point, four settlers aggressively came out of the fence surrounding Karmei Tsur with large dogs and threatened violence. After some time, the settlers were told to leave the area by … Continue reading

Late Sunday night at around 10pm, on February 13, 2011, a large group of about 50 armed Israeli settlers attempted to enter the Palestinian village of Beit Ommar to harass residents. The settlers arrived in the area near the military tower at Beit Ommar’s entrance. Dozens of villagers, including activists with the Palestine Solidarity Project and the National Committee, also came to the area to defend their village. After a stand-off that lasted more than one hour, the Israeli Military ordered the settlers to leave the village.

On January 28th, 2011, another group of settlers from Bat Ayn invaded the area shooting live ammunition. 17-year-old Yousef Ikhlyal was shot in the head while working on his family’s … Continue reading