Um Fagara is in area C, under both Israeli military and administrative control. It has been subject to a range of evacuations, abuse and demolitions by the Israeli military in recent years. On 24 November, 2011, the Israeli army demolished two houses, a mosque, a barn and a structure containing the village’s generator. Two Palestinian girls were also arrested. They were released several days later.

Despite the close ‘supervision’ of the Israeli police from a hilltop above, most of the walls of the house were finished. The house was paid for by ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) together with the Humanitarian Relief Fund (HRF), managed by UN OCHA.

Around 6pm, village elders from Um Fagara and members of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee detailed their personal experiences of life in Um Fagara under Israeli occupation. They also thanked the activists for their help.
ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) together with the Humanitarian Relief Fund (HRF), managed by UN OCHA, have also funded the construction of a new mosque in Um Fagara and acquired several mobile caravans for the town. They are all under demolition orders from the Israeli military.

The demonstration is protesting against the illegal settlements all over the West Bank which is built on stolen Palestinian land, making it impossible for farmers to work on their land. The demonstration was also in solidarity with Ahmad Abu Hashem, member of the popular committee in Beit Ommar, who was arrested during the weekly demonstration last Saturday.

Walid Sabarna and Ibrahim Abu Maria were working on their land 150 meters from the settlement, when two security guards from the settlement accompanied by six soldiers approached them at 5 pm. The guards asked the farmers what they were doing here, and they gave the obvious answer: working on their land. The guards responded that this was not the case, but that the land belonged to them and that the farmers should go away.

They then attacked Walid, beating and kicking his right leg. He had an operation on this leg some time ago, and the kicking inflicted great pain. The guards also beat him on the back with rocks. Then they broke a mirror and smashed a window in the JCB backhoe loader, leaving cracks in it, before breaking the front window in Walid’s car. All this happened while the six soldiers just stood by watching.

The settler guards also broke branches on 6-7 olive trees.

Walid is now afraid to work on his land alone. But if he is accompanied by others, among them a couple of internationals, he would feel safer. The settlers don’t tend to attack when this is the case.

A report from the UN shows a rise in settler attacks, with 411 documented incidents in 2011, 40 % more than the year before. Over 90 % of the complaints never lead to an indictment, proving there is no accountability and no justice.

After a nice and quiet lunch nearby the Mosque, two international volunteers from PSP were heading back, but three of the people from the popular committee in Bil’in, among them the the popular resistance coordinator, were held aside and told they were arrested.

The internationals gathered around demanding that the Palestinians be set free. The soldiers were too few to break through the crowd, so they called for backup.

When the border police came they violently broke through the crowd and arrested the three Palestinians. Internationals and Palestinians tried to stop them and were met with hard violence. People, old and young, among them two Canadian men in their sixties from Christian Peacemaker Team and a Danish woman aged 69, were thrown to the ground.

The soldiers pushed the internationals back, and arrested four internationals and seven more Palestinians. An Italian woman severely injured her arm, but an Israeli ambulance refused to take her to hospital.

The settlers were watching the whole time, clapping when people were arrested.

Three of the Palestinians and two internationals were set free an hour or so later.

Article from the Palestine Telegraph

Kuwait, (Pal Telegraph) – The Palestinian struggle once again relates to oppression of others, this time the case is the murder of Trayvon Martin.

for those whom are unaware of Trayvon’s case, Trayvon; a teenager of African American origin was found on February 26th dead from a fatal gunshot wound in Sanford, Florida. George Zimmerman whom shot Trayvon tells the police that he had acted in self-defense, Zimmerman was armed with a handgun while Trayvon had a bottle of ice tea and skittles.

The police took Zimmerman’s words and did not arrest or administer a drug/alcohol test and he is left to go back to the comfort of his home, immediately we begin to see similarities between the oppression of African Americans in America and the oppression of Palestinians by Israel, The notion of self-defense is misunderstood; self-defense should be when you are the one in danger and in-need of drastic measures to ensure your safety.

Yet it seems that when you are oppressed, the oppressor is free to commit murder even when he has the balance of power on his side and is armed.

Ever since the murder of Trayvon, the African American community has had to protest heavily in order to ensure justice is served and it still remains ambiguous if that will happen, what we are forced to understand, is that justice is not served unless it is demanded that of-course being if you are oppressed, while many do not like to elude to the case of racism, it is impossible to not do so, Trayvon Martin was seen as a threat to the community by Zimmerman even using racial slurs when he called in the shooting to the police.

Oppression of African Americans in America, still exists, actually racism in America has never died except it has been hidden, instead of being direct, it has become covered and subliminal.

The lines of comparison grow stronger when the case of Yousef Ikhlayl is presented as the Palestinian narrative, Yousef a Palestinian teenager the same age as Trayvon, was shot and killed by settlers on January 28th 2011 while farming with his father in the village of Beit Ommar, Yousef was killed from a fatal gunshot to the head, after the shooting occurred and Yousef was rushed to the hospital, the settlers roamed freely in the area shooting at residents and youth whom were throwing stones at them.

During the clashes between the settlers and the residents of Beit Ommar, Yousef’s father took pictures of the settlers in the area and identified individuals that were closest to him and Yousef, when Yousef was shot.

Yet even with all the evidence that is present, the killers of Yousef and Trayvon roam free, ensuring the truth behind the allegation that racism still thrives, Yousef was killed because he was a Palestinian and Trayvon was killed because he was African American.

Oppression anywhere is oppression everywhere, We Palestinians demand justice not just for the killers of us, but we demand justice against all forms of oppression, near and far, local to our land and foreign, we demand that a child, teenagers and adults murder be handled justly without racism being a deciding factor on whether that justice is served. We demand justice for Trayvon, We demand justice for Yousef.

{According to B’Tselem, “Since the beginning of the [second] intifada, IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] soldiers have killed at least 1,656 Palestinians who took no part in the fighting. Of those killed 529 were children. Many of these deaths result from changes in the Rules of Engagement, which now allow soldiers to open fire on Palestinians in a variety of non-combat situations, even when the soldiers are not in danger… Over the past four years, the IDF conducted only 89 military police investigations into the deaths and injuries of Palestinians. Of these investigations, only 22 resulted in indictments. To date, one soldier has been convicted of causing the death of a Palestinian. Thus in the vast majority of cases, no one is never held accountable.” See: “Rules of Engagement and Lack of Accountability Result in Culture of Impunity for Civilian Deaths,” B’Tselem, November 24, 2004.}

{Author: Yasir M. Tineh / Click Here To Visit Blog}

The settlement is practically on top of them. The settlements have a monopoly on the water, cutting off irrigation for Palestinian crops. The Bedouin in Om Al Kheir have to buy their water and bring it in from the outside. There’s a fence separating Karmel from Om Al Kheir, and on the settlement side, the land is lush and green, but the Palestinian side is brown and rocky. All electricity in the camp is solar-powered.

The settlements are literally just feet away from the Bedouin tents. According to the Bedouin there, the settlers say in court that they’ve stopped building, but the settlement construction continues. The Bedouin have pictures documenting this, but the courts pay no attention to their claims.

The Bedouin’s homes are frequently bulldozed, and every home has a demolition order except for two that have been there since before the settlement was established in the early 1980s. This area has been the home for the Bedouin for much longer than that, and the settlements are illegal under the 4th Geneva Convention. Nevertheless, the courts continue to rule in favor of the settlements.

Demonstrators today were unable to reach the fence separating Beit Ommar from the settlement due to Israeli forces. Soldiers pushed a couple activists to the ground and would not let them get to the olive tree saplings which had been damaged during the demonstration. There were no arrests and only minor injuries.

The march was also in solidarity with Hana Shalabi, on the 31st day of her hunger strike. Hana Shalabi was released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange and then re-arrested and is now in administrative detention. The Popular Committee of Beit Ommar has been on hunger strike for the past two days in solidarity with her.

Yesterday, March 16th, also marked the ninth anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death. Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer nine years ago while attempting to prevent a Palestinian house in Gaza from being bulldozed.

Most of the settlers are opposed to any sort of fence separating the Palestinian land from the settlement because they consider all of the land as belonging to them, despite the settlement being illegal under international law. The settlers tend to be very religious, and from all over the world: U.S., Europe, Russia, etc. Wad Abu Reesh is covered in plum, olive and grape trees, which the settlers periodically cut down to hurt the Palestinian farmers economically and to frighten them into leaving the land. Activists from Palestine Solidarity Project went to observe the situation, and found a large rock with graffiti in Hebrew that referred to the “price tag” movement. The “price tag” campaign is led by violent right-wing settlers who are known for burning mosques, attacking Palestinian people and property, and setting fire to Palestinian fields, as the “price” for any actions against the settlements. For more information on “price tagging” and settler violence: http://www.btselem.org/settler_violence.