30 September 2011 | Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlement of Bil’in
Dozens of demonstrators were asphyxiated by tear gas during the weekly march organized by the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bil’in. Present at the demonstration were Chairmen of the Advisory Council for a Green Palestine, Basem al Masri and Dr. Sabri Saydam, a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, Sultan Aboul-Enein, Adviser to the Prime Minister, Dr. Jawad Naji, the artist Ahlam Faqih, and dozens of Palestinians and international and Israeli peace activists.
The march began … Continue reading
Bil’in takes art as a means of resistance
The psychology and coping of Balata refugee camp
by Alistair George
30 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Balata refugee camp, 2km east outside of Nablus, in the North of the West Bank, is a densely packed grid of permanent buildings and tight streets, many narrower than shoulder-width. Buildings rise higher each year as residents add extra storeys to cope with chronic overcrowding and lack of space. Having been founded in 1950, Balata was initially designed to house 5000 refugees forced from their homes during the 1948 Nakba . There are now more than 25,000 people crammed into the 1km2 camp and many residents live in extreme hardship … Continue reading
Kufr Qaddoum demands access
by Alistair George
30 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
Israeli military forces mounted an aggressive incursion into the centre of Kufr Qaddum today, in response to the weekly demonstration against the closure of the main road linking the village to the nearby city of Nablus, in the North of the West Bank. The Israeli military fired tear gas canisters directly into streets crowded with villagers and international observers, causing many to suffer from severe gas inhalation.
Murad Shttaiwi, spokesman of the demonstrations, confirmed that this was the furthest that the Israeli military had entered into the village since the weekly … Continue reading
Three cousins die in Gaza tunnel collapse
30 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, Gaza
Shortly after 5:00 pm on Sunday, September 25, three Palestinians died when sewage leaking from an Egyptian pipeline caused a tunnel connecting the Egyptian and Palestinian sides of the Rafah border, in which they were working, to collapse.
It was the second time that the pipeline, which pumps sewage east into the Sinai, had sprung a leak in the area.
The three, all cousins, lived in the south of the Gaza Strip. Feras Ahmed Al-Shaer, 18 years old, lived in Khan Younis with his parents, one brother, and seven sisters. He was completing his last … Continue reading
The graffiti battle of Sheikh Jarrah
28 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
While Palestinian families continue to defend their right to reside in their homes in East Jerusalem, and while illegal Israeli settlers attempt to overtake whatever home or land to feed their colonial appetite, a different struggle is taking place on the walls of Sheikh Jarrah. As international activists and Palestinians use graffiti to express Palestinian resistance, Zionists scribble over the artful proclamations in reactionary stick images and symbolism of the Zionist agenda. As more walls are built or demolished by Israel, the artwork in Sheikh Jarrah reflects the struggle … Continue reading
Observations from Hebron daily life
26 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
A child of about eight years old sneaks past a multitude of soldiers at as they hold back Al Rumeida residents from climbing the hill to their homes. He runs into the corner store, comes out and joyously waves his forbidden purchases at them–a bag of candy—and continues running home. A settler funeral was going on in a Jewish cemetery half way up the hill. Although the procession only took about two hours, Checkpoint 56 at the bottom of the hill was closed for five hours.
Palestinian women on the bus chat happily … Continue reading
Extremist settler attacks shepherd and brutally abuses flock
28 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On the 17th of September Israeli colonists attacked a shepherd near Sha’ab el-Butom, resulting in several sheep injured and the arrest of the young shepherd.
Sha’ab el-Butom is a small Bedouin village in South Hebron Hills not even mentioned in most maps, a village that faces daily harassment from the surrounding illegal settlements and outposts composed by the most ideological settlers in the West Bank. On Saturday September 17th of September, Nahel Ahmed Mousa Aburem, a 23 year old shepherd, went as usual down the road with his sheep when one settler accompanied by a … Continue reading
International activists in Gaza defiant despite repeated attacks
26 September 2011 | Islam Online, Hama Waqum
The Civil Peace Service (CPS) Gaza human rights observation boat has returned to the waters off the Gazan coast after being grounded for two months due to Israeli naval attacks.
CPS Gaza aims to monitor human rights violations committed off the coast of Gaza, in which Gazan fishermen are invariably the victims. However in July, the CPS boat, Oliva, was attacked three times, with the final attack forcing the boat to retire to shore after the engine was rammed beyond repair. On September 25th, the boat made her first trip at sea, in which … Continue reading
Israeli military conceals information about possible nerve agent used by illegal, violent settlers
26 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
On Sunday, September 25th, Riyadh Abu Armile was assaulted by settlers and the army in Hebron,causing for an open investigation by human rights groups as evidence suggests that settlers may have used an unidentified nerve agent during the assault.
On the night of the attack hundreds of settlers from around Al Khalil (Hebron) arrived in the H2 area, in the centre of the city for the funeral of Asher Palmer and his son from Kiryat Arba who died in a car crash on Friday. Despite the fact that an investigation into the deaths … Continue reading
The real cost of Al Rumeida roadblock
25 September 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank
For the last three days Ahmed Sau and Khalil have been loading bushell loads of white building material on carts pulled by a horse and a donkey as they trek up the steep hill going to Jabel Al Rahmeh. At the other end is a truck filled almost to the top. Several men await Ahmed and unload the wooden cart and the trek begins anew.
As the horses struggle up the last part of the hill, Ahmed and some children help to push the heavy load to its destination. It is in these ways that the Israeli occupation affects the common people. Slowly, it … Continue reading
Recent Photos
