Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Main News

  • Democracy in Israel: What it is and what it isn’t | March 25, 2018
    Knesset and Joint List Member Yousef Jabareen being restricted from travelling to the US to give speeches on Israeli democracy can be seen as a prime example of the targeting of Arab Knesset members and the clamping freedom of speech within Israel. .....
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  • Future of Gaza discussed by international journalists in Jerusalem | March 15, 2018
    International correspondents, Donald Macintyre and Stephen Farrell have come together in discussion over the situation in Gaza, for an audience in Jerusalem, covering the possible failure of reconciliation talks and the responsibility of the international community to put pressure on ending the blockade. .....
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  • Arbitrary Rules Force Palestinians to Choose: In or Out | March 10, 2018
    With the aim to Judaise Jerusalem, Israel has revoked the residency status of 14,500 Palestinians since 1967. For some Palestinians who have been denied renewal of their residency, they are forced to remain in the State of Israel, often giving up opportunities to see family overseas, for fear of not being allowed back into the country on return. .....
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  • Israel lifts ban on Palestinian 3G | January 25, 2018
    This week a Palestinian telecom company was allowed to provide 3G data service for the first time. This makes Palestine one of the last places on earth to receive 3G coverage. .....
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  • Palestinians boycott Pence’s visit | January 23, 2018
    Palestinian leaders across the board have boycotted US Vice President Mike Pence’s visit on January 22 and 23 in protest at Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last month. .....
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  • Second Friday of rage leads to another Saturday of mourning | December 19, 2017
    As the second Friday of Rage after Trump’s Jerusalem announcement came and passed, so too did another four Palestinian lives. Amin Mahmoud Aqell was shot dead at a protest in Ramallah after stabbing and lightly wounding an Israeli soldier. His death left a number of questions unanswered. .....
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  • Jerusalem first, second and last | December 16, 2017
    America’s so-called ‘Deal of the Century’ apparently seeks to exclude Jerusalem from a future Palestinian state. However, any such efforts are based on illusions and will ultimately fail. .....
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  • A week of protests against Trump’s Jerusalem move | December 14, 2017
    It has now been a week since Trump announced the US recognises Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and will be moving its embassy there from Tel Aviv, setting off protests around the world and protests-turn-clashes with Israeli forces in Palestine. .....
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  • When victory is worse than defeat | December 01, 2017
    Netanyahu’s claim during the Knesset’s Balfour Declaration celebration that the Zionist movement triumphed is far from true. Instead, Zionism has gone down the path of moral and political breakdown while Palestinians have remained steadfast and have gained international recognition for their cause, writes Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. .....
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  • What is driving Palestine’s tourism boom? | October 30, 2017
    Palestine topped the UN list for the fastest-growing tourism industry, a recent report by the UN World Tourism Organisation revealed. What is driving the increase in foreign tourists, and what activities are on offer to visitors despite Israel’s occupation? .....
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  • Australian graffiti artist to hold workshop in Bethlehem | October 15, 2017
    The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem will host a graffiti master class with ‘the world’s most entertaining vandal,’ LushSux, at the end of October. The graffiti artist from Melbourne, Australia is well known for his large, provocative, street murals and more recently his painting on the Israeli – West Bank wall in Bethlehem. .....
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  • What do Palestinians want from reconciliation? | October 12, 2017
    Q&A: Reconciliation should be about more than just re-organising an authority under occupation, argues Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. Palestinians demand elections, democracy and a unified strategy when it comes to the their national struggle. .....
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  • The world is not blind | October 05, 2017
    World governments know about Israeli crimes. But it seems they fear Israel, or deem it untouchable. Hence the world’s people must speak out, writes Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. .....
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  • Formalising apartheid in Hebron | September 10, 2017
    Activists and local residents fear a decision of Israel’s defense ministry to expand the municipal powers of settlers living in the Old City of Hebron will put Palestinian families at risk of eviction. .....
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  • Israel turns the lights off on West Bank school | August 19, 2017
    As the school break ends, 80 children will go back to classrooms without electricity after solar panels were confiscated from a school in the Bedouin village of Abu Nuwar. It’s the third time this summer Israel confiscates solar panels, paid for by European donors, from Palestinian communities in Area C. .....
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  • How the Al-Aqsa protests united Palestinians | August 12, 2017
    Mass prayers outside the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem to protest Israel’s proposed security measures became the largest non-violent demonstrations in the Occupied Territories in recent years, uniting Palestinians without the intermediation of political parties. .....
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  • Jerusalem protests "a turning point for non-violence" | August 06, 2017
    We spoke with Dr. Mustafa Barghouti about the mass prayers held over security measures at the Al Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, which turned out to be the largest spontaneous protest by Palestinians in years. They were more about national unity than religion, and served to remind Palestinians what non-violence can achieve. .....
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  • Activists remain steadfast at ‘sumud’ protest camp | June 10, 2017
    Despite raids and arrests, activists continue their protest at the Sumud Freedom Camp. The Palestinian-led coalition, which aims to establish a new model for Israeli and international solidarity, symbolically rebuilt a village to reclaim the Palestinian residents’ right to live on their land. .....
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  • Why is child labour on the rise in Gaza? | June 04, 2017
    Child labour has doubled in the Gaza Strip in the past six years. Today, it affects more than 10,000 Palestinian minors. Children are seen working in restaurants, at the port, in the fields. Why is the problem so endemic? .....
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  • Nablus rap: self-expression as resistance | May 10, 2017
    Bahaa Jper, a young artist from Nablus, told us how living under occupation got in the way of his passion for music. But he does not absolve his own society of criticism: “Freedom of movement is just a right, and the people of Palestine have stopped dreaming about what they want to do with that right.” .....
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  • Turning waste into everyday art | May 09, 2017
    ReSign for Recycling Design, an "upcycling" initiative, is committed to transforming trash into functional items with aesthetic appeal. The project is at the forefront of Palestine’s environmental movement. .....
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  • Ramallah dance festival explores the theme of exile | May 02, 2017
    The 2017 Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival opened on April 20 with a symbolic ‘Welcoming the Stranger’ dance. The festival spanned 10 days and consisted of a repertoire of fascinating and international shows from Indonesia to Norway and Palestine. .....
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  • The crisis in capitalist globalisation and the alternative | April 23, 2017
    Twenty-seven years have passed since Francis Fukuyama hastily described the triumph of capitalism as "the end of history", but now capitalist globalisation is in deep crisis. This crisis manifests as four sub-crises: in economics, democracy, ethics and the rise of racist populism, writes Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. .....
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  • Against a hard surface | April 21, 2017
    To coincide with the opening of the Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival, Palestine Monitor went backstage with one of the participating dance companies, the Yaa Samar! Dance Theater (YSDT). Their piece uses "walls" as a metaphor for the barriers people impose on themselves, as well as those inflicted by the occupation. .....
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  • Palestinian prisoners launch open-ended hunger strike | April 18, 2017
    Around 1,600 Palestinian political prisoners in Israel initiated an open-ended hunger strike on Prisoners Day. Their demands include increased visitation rights and that Israel comply with international law in its treatment of Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli government has so far refused to negotiate. .....
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  • Lifta: the struggle over Palestinian memory | April 05, 2017
    2,250 Palestinians lived in Lifta before the entire population was expelled in 1948, during the Nakba. Hundreds of Palestinian villages had a similar story but Lifta is different because it is the only one that was neither destroyed nor inhabited again. .....
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  • Palestine Solidarity Campaign chairman becomes first victim of Israel’s travel ban | March 18, 2017
    Earlier this week, the chairman of the London-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Hugh Lanning, became the first foreign activist to fall prey to the controversial “BDS ban” law, just a few days after it was approved. The law, passed by the Knesset on March 7, prohibits the granting of entry visas or residency rights to foreigners who are advocates of the non-violent BDS movement. .....
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  • How Israel slashes the cost of occupation | March 08, 2017
    A report published today by B’Tselem says Israel systematically fails to pay compensation to Palestinians harmed by its security forces in non-combat situations, lowering the price of harming Palestinians while “maintaining a false show of a functioning justice system.” .....
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  • Israel passes law to bar BDS supporters from entering the country | March 07, 2017
    The Knesset passed a law barring foreign nationals who support a boycott of Israel from getting visas or residency permits. Critics say the move violates freedom of expression and will serve to further isolate the country. The law will also apply to Palestinians with temporary residency status in Israel. .....
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  • Struggling to bury their dead | March 06, 2017
    Bab al-Rahma is the second most important Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, lying in the shadow of the Old City. Local Palestinians wishing to bury their dead there have been facing increasing restrictions, which some observers see as part of Israel’s policies aimed at weakening Palestinians’ ongoing connection to Jerusalem. .....
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  • Palestinians mark anniversary of Ibrahimi mosque massacre | February 27, 2017
    Hundreds of Palestinians and internationals took to the streets of the Old City of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank last Friday in a march to commemorate the 23-year anniversary of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre, when far-right Jewish-American settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire on worshippers, killing 29 Palestinians and injuring 125. .....
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  • A story of every prisoner | February 22, 2017
    During the first intifada, Abed Dalbah was arrested a few months before his wedding with his now wife of 26 years, Bassma. The Red Cross would transfer postcard-like letters between prisoners and their loved ones, but these were restricted to 10 lines and moderated by the Israeli authorities. But there was a way to smuggle his love letters. .....
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  • Grassroots organisation works to combat violence against women | February 11, 2017
    Formerly known as Woman Against the Wall, Biddiya-based Women for Life began in 2002 as a group of Palestinian women practising non-violent resistance against the separation wall. Through demonstrations, camp-outs and rallying, the women succeeded in diverting the wall by 3km, and in doing so saved a school from demolition. .....
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  • Israel approves bill to "legally" dispossess Palestinians | February 08, 2017
    The Knesset passed a bill to retroactively legalise thousands of settler homes built on privately owned Palestinian land. While land grabs have gone on for decades through declarations of state land and other means, Palestinian civil society renewed its call for sanctions to rein in Israel‘s flagrant disregard for international law. .....
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  • Final vote looming on settlement legalisation bill | February 04, 2017
    The controversial bill would retroactively legalise 55 outposts, including approximately 4,000 housing units in both settlements and illegal outposts through the expropriation of over 8,000 dunums (about 2,000 acres) of private Palestinian lands. .....
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  • Dr. Mustafa Barghouti: Amona is an act of deceit | February 01, 2017
    Netanyahu is using the issue of Amona to create an impression as if he’s removing settlements. Instead, he’s using that as a cover for the declaration of 3,000 new settlement units today as part of a plan to build 10,000 units that would separate the West Bank into two pieces, and besiege Jerusalem completely. .....
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  • Fighting drug abuse in East Jerusalem | January 31, 2017
    In Shuafat, the only Palestinian refugee camp within the boundaries of the Jerusalem municipality, drug consumption is on the rise among youth. The introduction of synthetic cannabis several years ago has proved to be a major problem in tackling drug abuse for community activists. .....
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  • A lightness of being | January 28, 2017
    Tayseer Barakat is a Gaza-born, Ramallah-based artist who works with a variety of materials to create pieces that reflect a combination of Arab and Palestinian visual art and mythology with contemporary aesthetics of political struggle. His latest solo exhibition, ‘Lightness of Being‘, launched this week at Zawyeh gallery in Ramallah. .....
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  • The Amona stalemate | January 25, 2017
    Settlers from the illegal Israeli outpost in the West Bank have backtracked from an earlier deal to relocate a few metres from their current location, calling for renewed protests. .....
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  • 2017 opens with campaign of arrests | January 10, 2017
    The Palestinian Prisoner‘s Society (PSS) has reported that in the first five days of 2017, Israel carried out a campaign of arrests, detaining at least 100 Palestinians including 18 minors and three women. Additional arrests took place in the following days in the wake of a deadly attack in Jerusalem. .....
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  • Palestinians protest amid Israeli calls to pardon convicted soldier | January 05, 2017
    Israeli soldier who killed motionless Palestinian attacker was found guilty of manslaughter and could face a maximum 20 years in prison. Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians have stated their support for a pardon. But while Azaria is the only soldier undergoing trial for the killing of a Palestinian in 2016, the case is not an isolated incident .....
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  • UNSC resolution a “very powerful base” for advancing BDS efforts | December 27, 2016
    The resolution adopted last Friday by the UN Security Council, reaffirming the illegality of all Israeli settlements and demanding an end to settlement construction, was welcomed by most Palestinian analysts as a good legal base to advance the BDS campaign, take Israel to the ICC and demand sanctions. But words must be translated into action. .....
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  • Bethlehem gets ready for Christmas | December 21, 2016
    Watch: Despite a lack of funding to restore the world-famous Church of the Nativity and competition from Israeli tour operators, locals are determined to draw visitors and promote Palestine beyond religious sites. .....
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  • The women waging peace | December 12, 2016
    A 30,000-strong non-partisan Israeli women’s movement is trying to influence the country’s leadership to go back to the negotiating table. At least 1,000 Palestinian women joined a two-week march the movement organised last October. But with settlement construction continuing unabated and the Knesset drafting laws that, Palestinians say, are set to bury the two-state solution for good – the movement is not without its critics. .....
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  • Theology professor deported on grounds of support for Israel boycott | December 06, 2016
    On Monday, Israel denied entry to a senior official from the World Council of Churches (WCC) citing her organisation’s involvement in pro-Palestinian activism in the West Bank and alleged support for BDS. It’s the first time Israel deports a foreign national explicitly for involvement with boycott activities. .....
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  • NGO fights to protect victims of settler violence | November 29, 2016
    91 percent of cases against settlers are closed by the Israeli police without an indictment. “The Israeli state colludes with the settlers. They make it a systematic policy to intimidate the Palestinians and get them off their land.”.....
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  • The Sufis of Nablus | November 27, 2016
    In the corkscrew lanes of Nablus’ medieval centre, just a few steps from the austere beauty of the grand mosque, there is a low room with some plastic chairs and rich carpet. At first glance, it looks the same as any other Muslim holy place. But this room is actually a tekyeh, home to the Naqshbandi sect of Sufism. .....
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  • Building a “culture of resistance” in Nabi Saleh | November 12, 2016
    The Nabi Saleh Cultural Committee held its first conference this weekend under the title “Occupation, the enemy of religions and humanity.” The two-day event attracted locals as well as international and Israeli supporters as both audience and speakers. Many of them were familiar faces. The village of 550, located some 20 km north of Ramallah, has been at the centre of the Palestinian non-violent protest movement since it began demonstrating against land annexation by the nearby Israeli settlement of Halamish in December 2009. .....
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  • Arafat museum opens on anniversary of his death | November 10, 2016
    For forty years, Yasser Arafat dominated Palestinian politics. He was there through it all: Black September; the catastrophe in Lebanon; Oslo; the two intifadas. Mahmoud Darwish proclaimed that Arafat shaped “Palestinian national identity.” .....
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  • Orphanage battles to help kids in the face of trauma | November 07, 2016
    At first glance, Jeel El-Amal (‘generation of hope‘) looks like a normal school. But about a quarter of its students are orphans who live on site, many of whom have suffered abuse, spent time on the street, or were exposed to violence. While good quality mental health care is hard to come by in the West Bank, the orphanage offers alternative approaches to helping children affected by trauma. .....
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  • From Beijing to Ramallah: Chinese medicine comes to Palestine | November 02, 2016
    Green tea, Taoism, acupuncture. Where do you expect to find these hallmarks of traditional Chinese medicine? Shanghai? Guangdong? Maybe some bohemian corner of Paris or Berlin? The Palestine Monitor spoke with Chinese-trained Ousama Habiballah, the first practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine in Palestine. .....
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  • Traditional oud-maker salvages ancient Palestinian tradition | October 22, 2016
    The Israeli occupation has caused a lot of harm to a lot of people. But at least it got Samer Totah interested in the oud, an Arab stringed instrument similar to the lute. But during the First Intifada, Totah and his cousins would sit in their garden and listen to the old classics of the oud tradition. .....
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  • UNESCO condemns Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem holy sites | October 19, 2016
    UNESCO has affirmed Palestinian claims to holy sites in occupied East Jerusalem, condemning the Israeli government’s aggressive attempts to control Al-Aqsa Mosque and its environs. The UNESCO resolution, passed in a contentious vote on Tuesday 17 October, addresses Israeli violations of religious freedoms across the West Bank......
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  • Palestinian refugees starved of clean drinking water by Israeli red tape | October 17, 2016
    Denied access to clean water by the indifference of the Israeli authorities, the residents of Aqabat Jaber refugee camp say their children are suffering permanent health damage. Mohammed is a camp resident and father, and regularly makes a three-kilometre trek to neighbouring Jericho to fill up gallon jugs of clean drinking water. .....
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  • The Qalandiya Festival and the Limits of Artistic Activism | October 10, 2016
    “It has been an adventure to arrive at this moment,” began Aline Khoury, the media coordinator for the third Qalandiya International Festival (QIF). It is easy to see what she means. The event took two years to organise. Exhibits are hundreds of miles apart. One of the venues, the West Bank, is subject to a foreign occupation. .....
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  • West Bank village resists collective punishment | September 27, 2016
    For months, the Israeli army enclosed the West Bank village of Hizma in response to what they accused the residents of inciting violence and stone-throwing against soldiers in the area. The main road was blocked entirely from July 28 for almost one month. Residents had to carry IDs inside the village preparing to be checked by soldiers anytime. .....
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  • Musical kindergarten offers future to Palestinian children | September 27, 2016
    The most striking thing about the school is its educational ethos. As the headmistress, Fida, explains, the kindergarten is not a “music school” in the typical sense. Other schools in Ramallah teach music. But the kindergarten, with its twenty-five pupils, is different: “We have lessons with two teachers, the music teacher and the subject teacher .....
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  • Ramallah Fun Run Raises Awareness for Palestinian Children | September 24, 2016
    On September 23, the Palestine Medical Relief Society (PMRS) hosted a fun run for children as part of its Lost Childhood campaign, with the support of Right To Movement, Ramallah. About 400 children, aged 5-14, were bussed into Ramallah from all over the West Bank, including several refugee camps. .....
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  • No Respite for Susya | September 22, 2016
    The Palestinian village of Susya, in the South Hebron Hills, is still at risk of being erased from the map by Israel. This is despite an international campaign to save it last year. The most recent threat came after several Israeli MPs visited Susya on September 19, and some of the settlers accompanying them allegedly attacked local Palestinians. .....
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  • First-ever professional skateboard tour hits Palestine | September 22, 2016
    ‘Radical Islam’, reads a graffiti tag in Nablus skate-park. Sketched below it is a bearded Imam, a broad grin on his face and a skateboard in his hand. On Saturday, September 10, he watched the park being put through its paces by the Isle skate team. Isle were in town for the first professional skateboarding tour in Palestinian history. .....
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  • Innocent Palestinians punished as lethal violence flares in Hebron | September 22, 2016
    Following a spate of lethal clashes between the Israeli Army and Palestinian youths, innocent civilians are being denied the right to work, leave their home villages or retrieve the bodies of their dead children. At least 230 Palestinians and 32 Israelis have died in internecine conflict since unrest began to rumble across the West Bank in October.....
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  • Hunger Strikers Defiant as Administrative Detention Continues | September 20, 2016
    The condition of three Palestinian hunger strikers, held under Israel‘s administrative detention laws, has become critical, the Palestinian Detainees Affairs Commission has said. In a statement of September 17, reported by WAFA, the Commission‘s lawyers claimed that the three men had reached a “critical stage”. .....
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  • Inside the Palestinian refugee camp backed by Celtic football fans | September 16, 2016
    Glasgow Celtic Football Club played Israeli side Hapoel Be’er Sheva on August 17. A section of the crowd waved Palestinian banners in an act of solidarity. UEFA are set to hit Celtics fans with a £15,000 fine for displaying “illicit banners”. Instead, Celtic set up an online fundraiser,appealing for donations for MAP and Aida Refugee Camp. .....
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  • Here’s what pro-Trump Israeli campaigners think about Palestine | September 07, 2016
    The Palestine Monitor spoke to ROI co-chairman Marc Zell to find out what motivated the Israeli pro-Trump lobby, and what a Trump victory would mean for Palestine. As an American-born lawyer who now lives in the illegal settlement Alon Shvut in the Southern West Bank, Marc repeatedly used the term ‘Judea-Samaria’ to refer to the area, and made it.......
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  • West Bank settlers to build 463 new houses despite UN, USA condemnation | September 03, 2016
    Settlements in the West Bank will be hosting another 463 housing units, after permission for several major building projects was granted by the Israeli Civil Administration on August 31. Four illegal settlements in the central West Bank - Elkana, Ofarim, Beit Arye and Giva‘t Ze‘ev - are to expand. Over 2500 new builds have been approved. .....
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  • Abu Sakha : Appeal Against Administrative Detention Rejected | August 31, 2016
    According to the Palestinian NGO Addameer, defending Abu Sakha, an appeal against the administrative detention order has been rejected on August 25. It was submitted by Addameer attorney to the military court of appeals in Ofer four days earlier. Abu Sakha was arrested at Zaatara checkpoint, south of the city of Nablus, while on his way to work .....
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  • Gaza children return after a 10-day football trip in Ireland | August 15, 2016
    "It was an amazing trip; a dream come true. I have learned so much and Irish people were so friendly with us," told Muhannad Abu Ouda. Muhannad is one of the 14 children from the Gaza Strip who have just returned from a 10-day visit to Ireland to play football. Aged 10 to 14 years old, the young team of Al Helal football club toured seven cities .....
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  • Press release: No visa to Canada for PLC member Dr. Mustafa Barghouti | August 09, 2016
    Invited by Canadian political party Quebec Solidaire to participate in the Parliamentarian and Local Councillors’ Forum on August 10 2016 in Montreal within the framework of the World Social Forum, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian MP and chairman of the Palestinian National Initiative movement, was not granted a visa by the Canadian authorities. .....
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  • Rawabi, Palestine’s first planned city, enters new phase | August 01, 2016
    As the summer draws to a close, Rawabi seems to be entering a new stage in its development. The first school is set to open in September, and hundreds of new residents will move in by November. And last month, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah visited the site for the first time. .....
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  • Web documentary tells stories of Gaza‘s obliterated families | July 17, 2016
    In commemoration of the second anniversary of the latest Israeli offensive on Gaza, photojournalists Anne Paq and Ala Qandil released a multimedia web project. Obliterated Families offers a deep and intimate journey into the lives of those who survived; it transcribes their pain, and their struggle for existence in the aftermath. .....
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  • Water shortages in Salfit enter fourth week as Ramadan draws to a close | July 01, 2016
    As the month of Ramadan draws to a close, Palestinians are looking forward to the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which will mark an end to their month of abstaining from food and drink. But for residents of Salfit, north of Ramallah, the end of Ramadan won’t bring a relief from thirst. These residents have been without water for the entire holy month......
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  • Umm al-Hiran: Chronicle of a disappearance | March 14, 2016
    Located eight kilometers northeast of the recognized township of Hura, Umm al-Hiran is among the Bedouin villages in the Negev desert at the risk of being demolished. Named after the valley that passes by the village, Umm al-Hiran is home to about 500 residents of the Abu al-Qian tribe. .....
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  • Dr. Mustafa Barghouti: G4S withdrawal, "a great victory for BDS" | March 11, 2016
    The withdrawal of the G4S company from Israel is a great victory for BDS. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, said that the withdrawal of the British company, G4S, from Israel and the closing of their offices represents another great victory that is crucial to the BDS movement against Israel......
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  • "It’s not an Intifada, at least not yet" | February 25, 2016
    Since Oct. 2015, over 170 Palestinians and 27 Israelis have been killed in a wave of unrest across occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. Five months after its beginning, the question remains whether we’re witnessing a Third Intifada. .....
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  • West Bank violence spikes | November 23, 2015
    A Palestinian woman has been shot and killed by Israeli forces following an alleged stabbing attempt Monday morning. Another Palestinian woman was wounded and apprehended. .....
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  • EU announces guidelines for labelling Israeli settlement products | November 13, 2015
    The European Commission announced new guidelines Wednesday on labelling products sold in the EU which are manufactured on illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian and Syrian land. The guidelines state that the EU “does not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967.” .....
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  • Palestinian prisoner Muhammad Allan to be released | November 04, 2015
    Israel is set to release Palestinian prisoner Muhammad Allan, 31, Wednesday. Allan has been held in administrative detention for one year. During his imprisonment, Allan undertook a 66 day hunger strike to protest his arrest without trial. .....
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  • The Problem is the Occupation of Palestine | November 03, 2015
    After 22 years of negotiations, Palestinians realized that the road to peace is completely blocked by Israel, and that Israeli governments are using peace negotiations as a cover for the expansion of settlements. .....
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  • Assassination attempt on Dr. Mustafa Barghouti | October 26, 2015
    Late Saturday evening two men attacked Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, General Secretary of the Palestine National Initiative, outside his home in Ramallah. The assailant cut an eight-centimeter wound from his left ear down to his cheek with a knife or sharp object. .....
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  • LIVE UPDATES: 13.10.2015 | October 13, 2015
    Tuesday sees violent tensions escalate across the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, as protests against the occupation sweep the West Bank East Jerusalem, and Gaza. Since Oct. 1, 29 Palestinians have been killed, at least 55 Palestinians injured with live fire, and 77 injured by rubber-coated steel bullets. .....
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  • Palestinian shot dead after alleged stabbing attack in Jerusalem | October 10, 2015
    Palestinian shot and killed next to the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem after he allegedly stabbed an Israeli police officer. A group of nearby Israeli officers saw the incident take place, and opened fire, killing the attacker, and wounding two Israeli officers in the process, including the officer who had been stabbed. .....
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  • Thousands March for Funeral of Mohammed Halabi | October 09, 2015
    Thousands gathered in Ramallah today for the funeral of Mohammed Halabi, 19, who was shot dead by Israeli police after killing two Israelis in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti sees the latest swell in protests and violent clashes as a critical moment in the current political situation between Israel and Palestine. .....
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  • Israeli Police Close off Jerusalem’s Old City | October 04, 2015
    Israeli police have closed off the Old City of Jerusalem to Palestinians for 48 hours after two Israelis were killed and three injured in one confirmed and one alleged stabbing attack. The Israeli army announced that only Israeli citizens, residents of the area, tourists, business people and students of the Old City are permitted to enter. .....
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  • Aqsa clashes continue into second day | September 14, 2015
    Israeli police were reported as saying that a group of Palestinian youths inside al-Aqsa had blocked entrance to the mosque, and were organising to prevent Jews from entering the site, which is holy to both Muslims and Jews. .....
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  • Gazans, Hamas protest UNRWA cuts | August 03, 2015
    Palestinian refugees gathered in front of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency’s (UNRWA) headquarters in Gaza City Sunday in protest against its recent decision to reduce education and support services .....
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  • Khader Adnan‘s hunger strike enters 36th day | June 09, 2015
    Khader Adnan’s condition is deteriorating as he enters the 36 day of hunger strike in protest against his administrative detention. He is currently being held at Israel’s Ramle prison clinic having been transferred from Israel’s Hadarim prison in central Israel. .....
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  • From Aida to Shoufat, Part 4 | May 23, 2015
    This is the fourth and last segment in a series of articles to be published by the Palestine Monitor focused on the plight of Palestinian refugees throughout occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank .....
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  • 10 arrested at Jerusalem Day demonstration | May 18, 2015
    Israeli nationalists and police clashed with Palestinians in Jerusalem Sunday during controversial Jerusalem Day commemorations, marking when during the 1967 Six Day war Israel seized and later annexed East Jerusalem. .....
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  • BDS: Lauryn Hill cancels Israel show | May 05, 2015
    American R&B and hip hop star Lauryn Hill on Monday canceled an upcoming concert in Israel, saying she had been unsuccessful in her attempts to schedule a similar show in the occupied Palestinian territories. .....
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  • Israeli army vets slam policy used in Gaza war | May 04, 2015
    Breaking the Silence has harshly criticized the Israeli army for its operational policy during last summer’s aggression in the Gaza Strip, arguing that it lead to “immense and unprecedented harm to the civilian population and infrastructures in the Gaza Strip.” .....
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  • Israeli army uses Birzeit to conduct military exercise | April 17, 2015
    As an integral part of the Israeli occupation policy, house searches are not uncommon in the occupied Palestinian territories. However, the incidents that occurred the night of Wednesday 25 March were out of the ordinary. They were part of a training campaign conducted by the Israeli army throughout the month of March... .....
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  • From Aida to Shuafat, Part 3 | April 11, 2015
    This is the third segment in a series of articles to be published by the Palestine Monitor focused on the plight of Palestinian refugees throughout occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank. Our correspondent, Ruairi Henchy, will be visiting a handful of camps in order to give voice to their grievances and to highlight the distinctly unique... .....
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  • From Aida to Shuafat, Part 2 | March 26, 2015
    This is the second segment in a series of articles to be published by the Palestine Monitor focused on the plight of Palestinian refugees throughout occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank. Our correspondent, Ruairi Henchy, will be visiting a handful of camps in order to give voice to their grievances and to highlight the distinctly unique character .....
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  • From Aida to Shuafat, Part One | March 11, 2015
    Wandering back through the squalor of Aza’s winding alleyways toward the main road leading back into Bethlehem, it seemed hard not to share in Shadi’s pessimism. “Give me a call if you ever need any more information about Aza – I’ll still be here,” he said as he bade farewell. .....
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  • BDS in West Bank grows stronger | February 10, 2015
    The head of a higher Palestinian Authority committee in charge of confronting Israeli practices against the Palestinians announced Monday that they will prohibit the entry of merchandise from six large Israeli companies into the West Bank as of February 11. .....
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  • The view from Settlement Hill | February 10, 2015
    The settlement of Kiryat Arba on the outskirts of Hebron grabbed headlines in Israel and further afield with the controversial visit of Israeli president Reuven Rivlin. Rivlin’s visit to Hebron and Kiryat Arba came just days after the Israeli government announced the construction of 450 new settlement units in the West Bank, including... .....
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  • Homelessness still rife in Gaza | February 03, 2015
    Almost six months after Israel’s Operation Protective Edge ended, living conditions for the vast majority of the approximately 108,000 Palestinians left homeless are still appalling. .....
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  • Uncovering the truth in Khuza’a | January 27, 2015
    As one of the coldest winters in recent history across Palestine and the Middle East starts to break, and people begin to look toward the spring, the inhabitants of Khuza’a in the Gaza Strip are still reeling from the effects of the July-August 2014 war. The approximately one and a half month conflict left 2,205 Palestinians dead, mostly unarmed... .....
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  • Is the West Bank boycott beginning to turn the corner? | January 22, 2015
    Bravo supermarkets grabbed headlines last autumn when the company announced that it was initiating a complete boycott of Israeli produce. Bravo is the first Palestinian supermarket chain to do so, a significant step given that it is the largest chain in the West Bank. .....
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  • Barghouti: Go immediately to the ICC | December 31, 2014
    In light of the failure on Tuesday of a Palestinian draft resolution calling for peace with Israel within a year and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories by late 2017, the Palestinian leadership should go directly to the International Criminal Court, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti said Tuesday evening. .....
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  • Palestinian youth shot dead by Israeli forces near Nablus | December 29, 2014
    Israeli forces shot a young Palestinian man dead on Monday near the Tappuah checkpoint south of Nablus Israeli troops opened fire at two young Palestinian men around noon on Monday in the Jabal Sbeih area of the village of Beita near the Tappuah checkpoint. It is still unclear as to why the two young men were fired upon. .....
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  • Amnesty International accuses Israel of war crimes | December 09, 2014
    Israeli air strikes on landmark buildings toward the tail end of this summer‘s Operation Protective Edge amount to war crimes, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday, calling for an immediate independent and impartial investigation. .....
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  • Ireland to Consider Recognizing Palestine | November 10, 2014
    In the wake of Sweden’s recent decision to formally recognize the independent state of Palestine and the decision of the British House of Commons to pass a non-binding resolution to the same effect, Ireland may be moving towards a similar change in position. The upper house of the Irish Parliament recently passed a motion calling on the ... .....
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  • Why We Need International Recognition of the State of Palestine | October 20, 2014
    Sweden’s recent responsible decision to officially recognize the State of Palestine was quickly followed by the British Parliament’s vote for similar recognition. The Swedish and British moves, clearly grounded in a desire for peace, are a last-ditch effort to save the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. .....
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  • Dr. Mustafa Barghouti on the destruction of Gaza | September 13, 2014
    On Tuesday 9th September, Dr Mustafa Barghouti, the Palestinian MP, member of the PLO’s Central Council, and General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, addressed Palestine Solidarity Campaign activists in London. .....
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  • As the school year starts in the West Bank, Gazan schools remain closed | September 11, 2014
    “I hope that we can lead a normal life (…) and can go to our schools in safety and security. We did not do anything wrong and on this day we should have been sitting at school desks,” says Bisan, who is supposed to start eighth grade this year, but now lives in an elementary school in Gaza City that is used as a shelter. .....
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  • Israel to expand settlement bloc in West Bank ‘in response to terrorism’ | September 10, 2014
    “Building is our answer to murder,” said Naftali Bennett during his visit to the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank on 1 September. Bennett, the Israeli Minister of Economy and Trade, was referring to a government proposal to annex 400 hectares of land south of Bethlehem which was presented the day before. He linked the land-grab to ... .....
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  • Beloved Palestinian Druze Poet Samih al-Qasim Dies age 75 | August 26, 2014
    Al-Qasim remained a powerful voice against Israeli oppression, both in the occupied West Bank and Gaza and also against Palestinians living within the State of Israel. As a result of his political beliefs and activism, al-Qasim was subjected to periods of house arrest, imprisonment, harassment and censorship. .....
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  • The unlawful sacking of Arab-American Professor Steven Salaita | August 18, 2014
    Steven Salaita, an Arab-American Professor of American Indian Studies, was recently fired from his position as associate professor in the American Indian Studies program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Although the University asserts that his contract was merely “rescinded,” many believe that Salaita was sacked for ... .....
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  • Hebron: a hotbed of tension and human rights abuses | August 13, 2014
    “The Israeli military is responsible not only for reckless and deliberate unlawful killings in Gaza, but also for unlawfully killing Palestinian protesters in the West Bank,” according to Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. .....
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  • Psychological damage of Gazan children will have long-term consequences | August 13, 2014
    Hassan al-Zeyada, 50, works as a psychologist at the Gaza Community Mental Health Program’s center in Gaza City. He treats several residents who suffer from psychological trauma due to Israeli military operations in the coastal enclave. When his own home was shelled on 20 July, killing six of his family members, he found himself with difficult ... .....
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  • New 72-hour Gaza ceasefire to start at midnight | August 10, 2014
    As ‘Operation Protective Edge’ enters its 32nd day, a new 72-hour halt to hostilities in Gaza has been agreed upon. It is hoped that this ceasefire, starting at midnight Sunday, will pave the way for a more lasting truce between Hamas and Israel. .....
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  • Resistance from Azzeh refugee camp: “We are here” | August 09, 2014
    "The third intifada is not now, but if it comes, we know. It is a matter of feeling,” 23-year-old Osama from Al-Azzeh refugee camp in Bethlehem told Palestine Monitor. Osama lives right by the street where demonstrations have taken place almost every night since ‘Operation Protective Edge’ began. .....
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  • What’s happening in Gaza is a colonial confrontation, not a conflict | August 03, 2014
    I use the word ‘conflict’ to describe the confrontation between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement that governs the Gaza strip, with hesitation. In fact, I probably shouldn’t use it at all. This is because the word ‘conflict’ inadequately conveys the full measure of inequality between the two sides: occupier and occupied. .....
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  • The world must intervene to restrain the Israeli army | July 10, 2014
    The world watches but does nothing as yet another crisis unfolds. The tragedy of the disappearance and killing of three Israeli teenagers last month has provoked a campaign of collective punishment against Palestinian citizens across the occupied territories. Mass arrests have been carried out, whose victims include Palestinian parliamentarians. .....
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  • Propaganda or careless journalism - the BBC investigated | July 10, 2014
    Nowhere is it more important to disseminate accurate and unbiased information to news audiences than in reference to Palestine and Israel. For many the situation is both confusing and multifaceted, and the sensitivities surrounding the status of Jerusalem in particular are deep-seated and long standing. .....
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  • Clashes carry on in Palestinian cities across Israel for 5th consecutive day | July 08, 2014
    Clashes between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Israeli police forces reignited Sunday afternoon and continued into the night for the fifth straight day, following confirmation by Israel’s secret police—the Shin Bet—that several Jewish suspects had been arrested for the brutal murder of 16-year-old Mohammad Abu Khdeir in East Jerusalem last... .....
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  • Israeli cabinet makes move to strengthen hold on Jerusalem | July 03, 2014
    The Israeli Cabinet approved an $87 million (NIS 300 million) plan for enhanced Israeli security, economic development, infrastructure and education in East Jerusalem. The plan‘s stated purpose is to thwart "any possibility that the city would be divided as part of a future accord," and echoes Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennet‘s plan to ... .....
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  • Know thy heritage, and share it with the world | June 27, 2014
    While the Bethlehem Marching Band’s music echoed in the narrow streets of the town’s Old City, forty young Palestinians made their way to Manger Square. None of them grew up in Palestine, and most of them were seeing the country for the first time. On Sunday the 15 June they where welcomed to their homeland with speeches, music and dance... .....
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  • 2 Palestinians killed during overnight raids in Ramallah and Nablus | June 23, 2014
    In a serious escalation of the military crackdown currently gripping the West Bank, Israeli troops invaded central Ramallah last night. As the sound of live ammunition echoed through the city’s streets, youth in Ramallah made the Palestinian Authority the target of furious protest, marking what could be seen as a turning point in events. .....
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  • Israeli troops raid Birzeit University | June 19, 2014
    The crackdown in the West Bank took a troubling turn last night, as the Israeli military raided Birzeit University, invoking invoking bitter memories of the harsh educational crackdowns throughout the First and Second Intifada. .....
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  • Israel enacts widespread crackdown after 3 teens go missing | June 16, 2014
    On Thursday night, three Israeli boys aged between 16 and 19 were travelling home from their Jewish religious schools, based in the illegal settlements of Gush Etzion and Kiryat Arba in the southern West Bank. The teenagers, Gilad Shaer, Naftali Frenkel and Eyal Ifrach, were reportedly hitchhiking. They didn’t make it home. .....
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  • Israel evicts Palestinian returnees from their village | June 16, 2014
    The Israel Land Authority demolished a camp on Wednesday that was set up by activists in the destroyed village of Kufr Bir’im, in the Galilee region of Israel. The activists are all descendants of Palestinian refugees from the village, who where expelled from the village in the 1948 war. Last August approximately 10 young Palestinians ... .....
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  • Breaking the Silence commemorates 10 years | June 10, 2014
    They all served in the Israeli military, but none of them agree with the things they witnessed while serving. Those are the two traits that all speakers had in common at the 10-year anniversary of Breaking the Silence this weekend in Tel Aviv. .....
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  • As prison protest escalates, troubling testimony from inside | June 08, 2014
    For families, activists and observers in Palestine, the passing of time has come to be loaded with a grave significance. Each 24 hours represents another day of hunger for hundreds of prisoners protesting administrative detention in Israeli jails: a new mark in an increasingly morbid tally that takes the situation of inmates closer to the brink. .....
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  • A Zionist response to the new Palestinian unity government | June 05, 2014
    Israel’s Housing Ministry has invited bids for 1,500 new homes in Jewish settlements across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, reports said on Thursday. The release of the tenders come as a direct response to the formation of the Palestinian unity government on Monday. .....
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  • Promising opening for PalFest 2014 | June 04, 2014
    The unexpected cold wind on Saturday didn’t stop people from flocking to the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah for the opening of Palfest 2014—the seventh annual edition of The Palestinian Festival of Literature. The list of well-known authors set to read their poetry and prose made sure of that. .....
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  • Pope Francis I visits Bethlehem | May 27, 2014
    It was a scene of pure elation in Nativity Square in Bethlehem on Sunday as Palestinians celebrated the visit of Pope Francis I. Welcomed by Palestinian Christians, Muslims and tourists alike, the Pope held mass in the square for crowd of approximately 7,000 people. .....
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  • In Israeli jails, Palestinian hunger strikers remain steadfast | May 22, 2014
    Every Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jail is going hungry today, in a mass gesture of support for the ongoing hunger strike of 180 inmates. In a day-long protest, over 5,000 prisoners are refusing food, highlighting the plight of administrative detainees, held without charge or trial, who have been striking since April 24. .....
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  • Emek Shaveh: Archaeological narratives and control of Jerusalem | May 19, 2014
    It was a find, literally, of biblical proportions. Last week, Israeli archaeologist Eli Shukron boldly claimed that he’d discovered the legendary citadel captured by King David in his conquest of 3,000 years ago – a site that has long evaded discovery, but which is regarded as pivotal to Jewish biblical history. .....
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  • The village of Al-Walaja commemorates Nakba day | May 17, 2014
    Men, women and children of all ages gathered on Thursday in the village of Al-Walaja, just outside of Bethlehem, to remember those from their homes and land during the 1948 Nakba. With the ever-recognizable sound of Israeli military vehicle horns, the familiar crack of tear gas canisters and the constantly present helmeted soldiers ... .....
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  • Two killed during Nakba Day demonstrations in Ramallah | May 15, 2014
    Two young men were killed on Thursday, the 66th anniversary of the Nakba, during an impromptu demonstration outside Israel’s Ofer Prison on the outskirts of Ramallah. Six additional protesters were hit with live ammunition shot by Israeli forces; one remains in critical condition at the Ramallah hospital. .....
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  • Women’s cooperatives provide support and income for Palestinian women | April 30, 2014
    Staggeringly high rates of unemployment, imprisonment, critical injury, and death at the hands of Israeli armed forces have rendered many men unable to provide for their families. As of January this year, according to Palestinian prisoner support and human rights association Addameer, there were 4,852 adult Palestinian males in Israeli prison......
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  • Unpacking Kerry’s “Apartheid” slip | April 30, 2014
    It was only a matter of time. After a flurry of outrage over John Kerry throwing the ‘A’ word into the slanging match of the Peace Process, the US Secretary of State has backtracked. The use of “apartheid” to describe a potential future for Israel, he said yesterday, was unfortunate: “if I could rewind the tape,” he told a Fox News interviewer ... .....
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  • Devotion and restrictions in Jerusalem this Easter | April 22, 2014
    It is just past midday on the Via Dolorosa, and Jesus Christ, or at least a devotee dressed as him, is carrying a crucifix. Covered in red paint and with a crown of thorns on his head, he is led by a gaggle of followers wearing purple, sequinned headdresses. The party is surrounded by hundreds of people, cameras, smartphones and iPads raised ... .....
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  • Settlers move into strategic Hebron enclave | April 22, 2014
    At the edge of Hebron’s old city, the sound of construction is clearly audible from the Rajabi building. The empty 3000 square meter structure, which could potentially house dozens of apartments, overlooks a Mosque, a sprawling cemetery, and several Palestinian homes. And now, it has become the newest Israeli settlement enclave in the Palestinian .....
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  • Mariam Barghouti released on bail | April 16, 2014
    Mariam Barghouti, a 20-year-old student was released from military prison this evening, nearly one week after she was arrested by Israeli forces near the village of Nabi Saleh. .....
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  • High Court petition holds Israeli impunity to account | April 13, 2014
    Samir Awad was sixteen years old when he was killed. It was mid January last year, and after completing a science exam he had walked to the separation wall that cuts through the land of his home town of Budrus. According to the friends he was with, Israeli soldiers fired a stun grenade at the boys and shot Samir in the leg. Then, as the ... .....
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  • March Freedom Ride 2014 | April 03, 2014
    On Saturday 29 March the 2014 March Freedom Ride concluded in Bethlehem. Starting on 17 March, the Freedom Ride consisted of about 20 people from all over the world who made their way through parts of the West Bank facing particularly pressing conditions, beginning in Jenin and making stops in the Jordan valley, Nabi Saleh, the South Hebron ... .....
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  • After Israel cancels prisoner release, PA turns to UN in response | April 02, 2014
    Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas signed documents requesting membership in 15 United Nations institutions on Tuesday 2 April in an attempt to gain Palestinian statehood outside the auspices of the current peace negotiations. In doing so, Abbas broke his initial promise, made as part of the agreement which brought the two sides ... .....
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  • Peace talks on brink of collapse after canceled prisoner release | April 01, 2014
    The Israeli government refused to release a group of 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners on Saturday 29 March originally arranged under an agreement which brought the two sides back to the negotiation table back in July 2013 . The coalition government of PM Netanyahu is demanding a clear commitment from the Palestinian Authority (PA) to extend the... .....
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  • Three Killed in Jenin Attack | March 25, 2014
    Three men were killed in the Jenin refugee camp in the early morning hours of Saturday 21 March during an Israeli military operation targeting Hamza Abu al Hija (22), the son of Jamal Abu al-Hija, a Hamas leader who is currently serving nine life sentences in Israeli prison. Hamza himself was a leader with the al-Qassem Brigades, the armed ... .....
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  • No right of return in a Jewish state | March 18, 2014
    Talking to Israeli public radio on 11 March, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said that he would only agree on a peace deal that includes Palestinian recognition of the Jewish state and that forgoes the Palestinian right of return, repeating the already known Israeli position. Recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is unacceptable for... .....
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  • Six killed in less than two days: Israeli actions threaten peace process | March 13, 2014
    In just two days time, six Palestinians were killed across the West Bank and Gaza Strip; some of them in very unclear circumstances. On Monday 10 March, Raed Zeiter, a Palestinian judge working in Jordan, was shot dead at the Allenby Bridge border crossing by Israeli forces. Hours after that, 18-year old Saji Darwish was shot dead by Israeli forces .....
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  • Continued settlement expansion harms negotiations | March 10, 2014
    Israeli authorities recently approved extensive measures that will expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. These actions come in the midst of the latest round of peace talks, and have drawn disapproval from the European Union and the US State Department. .....
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  • Worshipers detained at Al-Aqsa amidst heated sovereignty debate | March 09, 2014
    Eight Palestinian men were detained by Israeli forces at the Al-Aqsa mosque on Friday 7 March. Leaving the compound, the young men were arrested as they breached a recent police decision to restrict access to the mosque for male worshipers under the age of 50, based on "intelligence of plans for unrest", according to police spokeswoman Luba Samri. .....
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  • Mounting pressure in Jerusalem’s controversial E1 area | March 03, 2014
    The Israeli army issued demolition orders to 40 Palestinian Bedouin families living on the outskirts of Al-Ezereya in East Jerusalem on Sunday 23 February. The community, about 300 Palestinians from the Jahalin Bedouin tribe, live in mostly steel structures in the controversial E1 area of East Jerusalem. .....
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  • Another week of unsanctioned settler violence in Nablus | March 01, 2014
    Israeli human rights group Yesh Din concluded that settlers are largely operating with impunity throughout the West Bank. Between 2005 and 2013, Yesh Din monitored 938 investigation files. Just 8.5% of them ended in the indictment of Israelis suspected of harming Palestinians and their property. .....
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  • BDS is on the rise | February 24, 2014
    In recent weeks, some of the biggest international financial institutions have decided to reconsider their economic ties with Israel. .....
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  • Night raid and arrests in Nabi Saleh caught on video | February 19, 2014
    At about 2:00 AM on Tuesday 18 February, around 50 or 60 armed soldiers and several military vehicles invaded the village of Nabi Saleh, going door to door and searching the homes. When it was over, after 4:30 in the morning, five people, including a youth aged 16, were blindfolded and taken away to an undisclosed location. .....
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  • PA files emergency procedure to recognize Battir as UNESCO-site | February 18, 2014
    The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has to begin its deliberations as to whether the the village Battir should be classified as a World Heritage Site. Considerations began 31 January after the Palestinian Authority (PA) filed a last-minute emergency procedure to register the village on UNESCO‘s list of ... .....
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  • Al-Quds, a university caught in more than just a media war | February 17, 2014
    On 22 January dozens of Israeli Border Police officers in armoured cars closed off the main entrance to the university and began checking students’ identity cards. Some of the policemen started throwing tear gas bombs into the campus, causing damage to buildings and injuring students. Others entered the campus grounds in full gear, carrying ... .....
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  • Nonviolent protest village "Ein Hijleh" brutally evicted | February 07, 2014
    After 1:15 AM, on Thursday 7 February, many hundreds of Israeli soldiers, with bulldozers and sound bombs, invaded the Palestinian protest village of Ein Hijleh. Hundreds of volunteers from across the West Bank were scattered across the area, with dozens severely beaten and detained, including activists, journalists, men, women, and children. .....
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  • Israeli posters target parents of “terrorist” children | February 05, 2014
    In the dark morning hours of Tuesday 28 January, Israeli forces raided the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Abu Dis and al-Eizariya. In addition to detaining a dozen youth and ransacking two homes, Jerusalem police also left behind posters meant to threaten and intimidate the parents of defiant youth. .....
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  • Ein Hijleh in photos | February 04, 2014
    Hundreds of Palestinian and international activists erected a protest village on the ruins of Ein Hijleh in Jordan Valley on Friday 1 February 2014. Organized by Melh Al-Ard (Arabic for "Salt of the Earth"), a new direct action campaign, the move comes in response to Israel’s ongoing attempts to colonize and potentially annex the area. .....
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  • The Siege of Ein Hijleh | February 03, 2014
    Hundreds of activists and supporters—men, women, and children—moved into the abandoned village, called Ein Hijleh, near Jericho in the Jordan Valley on Friday 1 February. The operation was shrouded in secrecy until around midday, when the first busloads of activists began to arrive and word quickly spread. Friends and supporters continued to ... .....
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  • Muhammed Mubarak, 20, killed by Israeli military | February 02, 2014
    On the 30th of January, 20 year-old Muhammed Mubarak, a resident of Jalazone refugee camp, was killed by the Israeli military after he was shot from a close distance. He was working as a traffic controller at the time. The incident happened just north of Ramallah, the de-facto capital of the West Bank. .....
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  • SodaStream violates International Law | February 02, 2014
    After significant press coverage of the situation, Scarlett Johansson made the decision to step down from her position as an ambassador for Oxfam, over a “fundamental difference of opinion” with the charity. .....
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  • Cremisan Valley Christians hold their last mass | January 30, 2014
    On Friday, the Christian community of Beit Jala held its last weekly mass in the Cremisan Valley, an area threatened by the construction of Israel’s separation barrier. The valley, a large agriculture area lined with olive groves, is located on the seam line between Jerusalem and the West Bank. .....
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  • Israeli settlers torch mosque in ‘price-tag’ attack | January 19, 2014
    Before dawn on Wednesday 15 January, Israeli settlers set fire to a mosque in the West Bank village of Deir Istiya, in the Salfit district. The attack came in retaliation for the public humiliation of several settlers the previous week, and locals say the culprits left behind identifiable information. .....
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  • Elderly Palestinian killed on New Year’s Day | January 09, 2014
    On New Year’s Day, Said Jasir Nasar Ali, an icon of the village of Kafr Qaddum, suffocated when Israeli forces tear-gassed his home during a demonstration inside the Palestinian village. He was pronounced dead in a Nablus hospital later in the day, becoming the first fatality of the village’s two-and-a-half year popular struggle and the first ... .....
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  • Christmas Eve demolitions leave more than 60 homeless | December 31, 2013
    Early on Christmas Eve, Israeli wrecking crews flattened a Palestinian Bedouin community on a beautiful hilltop in the Ramallah Governorate of the occupied West Bank, demolishing more than a dozen homes and leaving 15 families in temporary tents. Days later, despite the hardship, the residents are proud, hospitable, and determined to hold ... .....
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  • BDS Momentum and Debate in 2013 | December 28, 2013
    In December, a major European business firm and an important American academic association made headlines when they endorsed sweeping boycott measures against Israeli institutions, capping a momentous year of growth and debate surrounding the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli violations of Palestinian rights and ... .....
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  • Celebrations as Samer Issawi is Released | December 27, 2013
    The Israeli Prison Service released on Monday Samer Issawi from Shita prison after his arrest in 2012. Thousands gathered in the streets of his hometown of Issawiya in East Jerusalem to welcome the 34 year old, who the local community hails as a hero for his 266-day hunger strike while in prison. .....
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  • Lessons and legacies of the First Intifada | December 17, 2013
    This month marks the 26th anniversary of the spontaneous outbreak of the First Intifada—literally, “shaking off”—a revolutionary, mass, popular uprising that dramatically altered the way the world saw the Palestinian struggle and transformed the dynamics between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel. But today the Intifada is ... .....
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  • Commemorations, new strategies, and clashes in West Bank resistance village | December 10, 2013
    On Saturday, 7 December, the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh hosted a special event commemorating several important milestones and a new beginning for the Popular Struggle against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Approximately three hundred people, including 70 or 80 Israeli activists and a dozen or more internationals, were in ........
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  • The struggle to remain in south Hebron hills | December 07, 2013
    A shepherd, an activist, and a father of seven, Mr Hafez Hreini serves as the coordinator for the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC) in the south Hebron hills. Last week, he welcomed the Palestine Monitor to his home in Al-Tuwani to talk about his family‘s history intertwined with that of the PSCC‘s work in the region, and about... .....
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  • Dozens made homeless amid latest Jordan Valley demolitions | December 05, 2013
    On Monday, 2 December, Israeli bulldozers accompanied by military vehicles knocked down four houses and numerous tents and livestock barracks, leaving at least 30 Palestinians homeless and causing the deaths of more than a dozen lambs, local residents of al-Auja told the Palestine Monitor during a visit on Wednesday afternoon. Four displaced ... .....
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  • Thousands Protest Prawer Plan in Global "Day of Rage" | December 04, 2013
    Protests were held throughout the Israeli and Palestinian territories, as well as 31 cities around the world, on Saturday 30 November, to protest the Prawer-Begin Bill for the Regulation of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev, a development plan currently being reviewed by the Israeli parliament which would displace some 40,000-70,000 Bedouin fr.....
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  • East Jerusalem park prevents expansion of two Palestinian neighborhoods | December 03, 2013
    On Thursday 14 November, the Israeli District Planning and Construction Committee ordered plans to construct a national park on lands belonging to the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Al-Issawiyyeh and A-Tur. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemned the decision, stating that the construction of the park would confiscate ... .....
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  • Emmy Awards recognize Palestinian struggle | December 02, 2013
    Emad Burnat, Bil‘in resident and film Director, along with co-Director Guy Davidi and Producer Christine Camdessus, won the award for Best Documentary at the 41st International Emmy Awards, last Monday 25th November in New York, for their production of 5 Broken Cameras. .....
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  • Political tourism challenges Palestinian tolerance | December 01, 2013
    "Hebron - the ultimate family experience in Israel: Isn‘t it about time you took your children to visit your great-grandparents in Hebron?" - Such is the concise, convenient way in which Jewish tourism companies advertise their tours of Hebron - one of the oldest continuously lived in cities in the world. Considering the fact that Hebron is of ... .....
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  • Five Palestinians killed in the West Bank in three days | November 30, 2013
    Clashes erupted in Qalandia Thursday night and Friday morning after Mahmoud Wajeeh Awwad passed away in an Israeli hospital due to the bullet wounds he sustained at clashes eight months ago. According to the most recent statistics compiled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 27 Palestinians were killed from... .....
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  • Government services collapse in East Jerusalem | November 27, 2013
    These photos were taken in and around the Shu’fat refugee camp in East Jerusalem. Shu’fat has seen overcrowding and a collapse of government services since the construction of the Separation Wall cut it off from most of East Jerusalem, and the nearby neighborhoods of Ras Khamis and Ras Shahada currently face a wave of potential house demol .....
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  • The Jenin Freedom Theatre presents, "Lost Land" | November 26, 2013
    After two months of research, writing and rewriting, three weeks of pre-production with the designer, one month of travel within the West Bank, seven months living with a Palestinian family in a refugee camp, three months of Arabic lessons, two and a half months of rehearsals and thirty years ‘‘impassioned by the Palestinian plight‘‘ - a well... .....
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  • Villages east of Ramallah plea to reopen road to the city | November 25, 2013
    Though the Palestinian towns of Beitin, Deir Debwan, ‘Ein Yabrud and Burqa are located only a few kilometers east of Ramallah, it takes the villagers anywhere from 45 minutes up to an hour to reach the city. Ever since the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000, the main road that leads from the villages to Ramallah has been closed off ... .....
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  • Rasmea Odeh: Palestinian-American activist risks 10 years in American prison | November 16, 2013
    On Wednesday 13 October, Rasmea Odeh, associate director of the Arab American Action Network, appeared in court in Detroit on charges of immigration fraud. If convicted, the sixty-six years old Palestinian-American community activist faces a potential prison sentence of ten years and deportation. According to her lawyer, she pled not guilty. .....
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  • Yasser Arafat’s death: commemoration and investigations | November 13, 2013
    Palestinians commemorated this week the 9th anniversary of the death of former Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. This year’s commemorations come in the midst of the release of a report compiled by a team of Swiss doctors on the cause of the death deceased president. Owing to the discovery of an abnormal rate of polonium 210 in his ... .....
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  • Olive harvest in Burin: Israel stifles Palestinian agriculture | November 10, 2013
    Surrounded by the Israeli settlements of Yitzhar and Bracha, residents of Burin experience settler violence throughout the year, especially during the fall olive harvest. Burin‘s agricultural land has been and continues to be subjected to poisoning, burning and the uprooting of precious olive, almond and fig trees. Over 6,830 olive trees ... .....
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  • Israel to maintain control over Jordan Valley via construction of Wall | November 08, 2013
    On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his plans to construct a barrier along the Jordanian border, according to the Israeli daily Maariv (Hebrew). The wall will be built upon completion of the ones along the Egyptian and Syrian borders and will pass through the Jordan Valley, closing off the West Bank from Jordan. .....
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  • Palestinian annual olive harvest, a struggle to survive | November 07, 2013
    Every year, throughout October and November, Palestinians carry out an ancestral tradition: the olive harvest. Palestinians farmers along with their relatives, friends and international supporters begin picking olives from the eight and a half million productive olives trees that bring economic sustenance to around 100,000 families in West Bank. .....
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  • Palestinians en route to UNESCO in defence of Akka’s old city | November 06, 2013
    “The khan al-Umdan is not for sale,” chanted the demonstrators, last 18th of October, while marching through the old streets of Akka (also called Akko, in Hebrew, or Acre in English - located in the north of present-day Israel). The demonstration marked the opening of a campaign against what the participants see as a threat to the Palestinian ident .....
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  • Israel destroys two homes in Jerusalem | November 02, 2013
    Less than a week later, in the Al-Ashqariya neighborhood of Beit Hanina, a neighborhood of East Jerusalem, Rushdi Shweiki and his family were woken at 4:00 AM by a troop of Israeli soldiers accompanying three large bulldozers to the door of their four-story home. By 9:00 AM, when Rushdi’s brother Salah Shweiki managed to obtain a brief ... .....
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  • Wadi Fukin is disappearing | November 01, 2013
    Last week Israeli authorities stopped the construction of a park and children’s playground in Wadi Fukin, on the grounds that it was built without a license. After showing the Palestine Monitor around the site, Mr. Manasrah expressed his feelings of shame at the park‘s unfinished state. A simple idea bursting with love and good will, blocked ... .....
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  • Dr. Mustafa Barghouti: After 20 years of Oslo | October 26, 2013
    Have the Oslo Accords been a success or a failure? Are they dead or alive? Is the Oslo experience still worth revision after having had its fill of criticism during the past 20 years? What are the results of those 20 years since the agreement was signed? .....
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  • The Euro-Palestinian Water Film Festival | October 24, 2013
    The United Nations (UN) named the year 2013 as the “International Year for Water Cooperation.” Since the start of the year, many projects have taken place worldwide aimed at increasing awareness about the international challenges and demands regarding water management, sanitation and access. .....
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  • Our sign is the stone: Stories from Nabi Saleh | October 22, 2013
    The living room of activist and Nabi Saleh Popular Committee member, Manal Tamimi, has turned into a shelter for foreigners and locals during the village’s weekly anti-occupation demonstration. On these days, the room is transformed into meeting centerof violent Israeli military attacks or the training room where, sitting down meanwhile drinking .. .....
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  • Waste water and pollution threaten Salfit | October 21, 2013
    Untreated wastewater runs like a small creek along the side of the road by the village Salfit, near the Israeli settlement of Ariel in the occupied West Bank.  Plants wither around the water and a stench hangs in the air.  Stretching back into town, the olive groves show little sign of the contamination in the soil, but Saleh Afaneh, Head of ... .....
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  • The Taybeh Oktoberfest moves to Ramallah | October 10, 2013
    As a student at Hellenic College in Boston, Nadim Khoury brewed beer in his apartment with a small home brewing kit. During the summers, when he had to come back to his hometown of Taybeh in order to maintain his Palestinian identity number, he brought the brew kit with him, keeping up the hobby in his native land. .....
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  • East Jerusalem startled by wave of price tag attacks | October 04, 2013
    Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, has been the victim of two price tag attacks in the last two weeks. On Sunday, September 29, Israeli extremists vandalized eight cars belonging to Palestinian families. A week earlier, on September 22, extremists slashed the tires of five cars, sprayed “price tag” onto one of the ........
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  • Lina Qadri, “Nostalgia” | October 01, 2013
    Lina Qadri started painting when she was a child in her hometown of Nablus. After studying Arts at al-Najah University, she held her first solo exhibition in the French Cultural Center of Nablus. Her third exhibition, “Nostalgia,” was displayed last week in the intimate atmosphere of the Mahmoud Darwish Museum in Ramallah.  .....
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  • Israeli provocations at al-Aqsa Mosque | September 29, 2013
    On 28 September 2000, 13 years ago today, former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon entered the al-Aqsa compound in an act of provocation, sparking the Second Intifada. Recently, more and more Israelis have been entering the Temple Mount again, causing “the worst tension in memory” around the mosque, according to Palestinian leaders who have ... .....
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  • A week of house raids in Hebron after killing of soldier | September 27, 2013
    Tensions were especially high in Hebron after the mysterious shooting and death of an Israeli soldier on Sunday, 22 September. After the killing on Sunday night the IDF soldiers reportedly went around the neighborhoods surrounding the Abu-Arish checkpoint, close to where the soldier was killed, and rounded up all Palestinian males with an ID ... .....
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  • Netanyahu makes a plea to strengthen the settlements in West Bank | September 25, 2013
    On Sunday, 22 September, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made public his decision to allow settlers to move back into the Machpelah house in the Old City of Hebron. Netanyahu‘s decision comes just days after an Israeli soldier was shot and killed just blocks away from the contested house by a Palestinian sniper. .....
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  • Jayyous: a village’s struggle for its own land | September 25, 2013
    Jayyous, a Palestinian village on the western border of the West Bank, takes pride in having the best volleyball team in all of Palestine. Yet instead of worrying about winning the Palestinian championship, the villagers have a whole range of other, more threatening, problems to face. .....
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  • Remembering Sabra and Shatila | September 18, 2013
    On 16 September 1982, between 800-3500 Palestinian were massacred by the Lebanese Phalange party militia, after the right wing Christian group, in collaboration with Israeli forces, invaded the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in southern Beirut. The massacre took place in the context of the Lebanese civil war (1970-90) and Israel’s 1982 ... .....
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  • Israel‘s MAG closes investigation in 2009 death of Bassem Abu Rahmeh | September 15, 2013
    On Wednesday, 11 September, the Israeli Military Advocate General (MAG), Maj. Gen. Danny Efroni, decided to close an Israeli military investigation into the death of Bassem Abu Rahmeh, a non-violent activist from the village of Bil’in. The case was closed due to an alleged lack of evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the Israeli security forces... .....
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  • Al-Khadr‘s monastery attacked by tear gas | September 14, 2013
    In Al-Khadr, a village five kilometers south of Bethlehem, a daily struggle between the villagers and Israeli soldiers is taking place. Tear gas is a frequent occurrence in the village’s monastery and school that are adjacent to the separation wall and route 60, which the Israeli soldiers are ordered to protect. On Saturday, 7 September, the ... .....
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  • Demonstration to open road at Qariut Checkpoint | September 13, 2013
    On Tuesday 10 September, around 100 protesters tried opening the road that leads from Qariut village, situated between Ramallah and Nablus, to the main road that connects these two cities. Ever since the Second Intifada, the road has been closed for Palestinians by the Qariut checkpoint, supposedly for security measures. Today, the road can only... .....
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  • Resistance Culture | September 10, 2013
    Issawiya is nestled in a small valley in East Jerusalem; its modest houses extending up the slopes towards the posh Jewish settlement of French hill and the ivory towers of Hebrew University. These hills, once part of Issawiya, today stand worlds apart.  The manicured lawns, trendy food stalls, and spacious parks of the French Hill/Mount Scopus ... .....
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  • Jerusalem: Family‘s home demolished, now living in cave | September 09, 2013
    Khalid Zir, a 39-year old laborer living in Silwan, was forced to move his family into a cave in late August 2013 after Israeli municipal bulldozers destroyed the small shack that had been home to his family for seven years. The cave that lies beneath the small hill where his home once stood, which was once used as a stable for the family’s farm... .....
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  • Forcing their Hand: Self-demolitions in East Jerusalem | September 02, 2013
    Ziad Ameira was forced to demolish his East Jerusalem house last week in order to avoid the 73,000-shekel demolition cost leveled by the municipality.  On Monday, 19 August, Ziad hired a bulldozer and truck, at a personal cost of 25,000 shekels, and destroyed his family’s home, thus ending a 15-year battle with the Jerusalem Municipal Court and ... .....
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  • 3 Killed by live fire in Qalandiya Refugee Camp | August 27, 2013
    Early Monday morning, 26 August, Israeli military forces killed three young men inside the Qalandiya refugee camp, in the West Bank near the border with Israel. Witnesses reported that undercover Israeli forces entered the camp at around 5 AM to carry out an arrest. Residents in the camp were quickly alerted to the presences of the military and ... .....
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  • Barghouti Demands ICC Justice | August 26, 2013
    As Israel continues to toy with the lives of Palestinians, Dr. Barghothi suggested that Palestine should refer Israel’s war crimes to the International Criminal Court without delay in order to protect the lives and rights of Palestinians. He stated that in order to bring an end to such war crimes as those seen today, the International Criminal Cour .....
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  • Al-Ka’abneh Bedouins made homeless in Beit Hanina | August 25, 2013
    On August 19th the Bedouin community of Beit Hanina -East Jerusalem- was  brutally woken up by an Israeli raid that tore their homes to the ground. An estimated two-hundred Israeli soldiers stormed the makeshift structures at around 6 AM, threatening its inhabitants with guns and forcing them out of the perimeter outlining the area ... .....
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  • "Price Tag" attacks strike again | August 23, 2013
    Late Monday night, 19 August, the Beit Jamal Monastery, located near Beit Shemesh just outside of Jerusalem, became the latest target of a “price-tag” attack carried out by Jewish extremists. During the night perpetrators threw a fire-bomb into the entrance of the monastery that houses the Sisters of Bethlehem, and defaced walls of the building ... .....
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  • In Palestine, studying abroad is a fight for freedom | August 20, 2013
    Albaraa Kefaya’s dream came true the day he was accepted for an internship at Berkley University, California. With the US visa in hand, he approached the border with Jordan and found out that a security alert had been issued against him. The twenty-five year-old engineer student is considered a threat to the state of Israel due to his ... .....
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  • Egypt’s turmoil results in demise of Gazan Palestinian image and livelihood | August 20, 2013
    Tha’er Abdullah, a resident of Gaza, doesn’t support Hamas’ relations with recently ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan) in Egypt.  He doesn’t think he is among a minority holding this belief in Gaza, either. Between the Egyptian military’s current attitude towards Palestinians in Gaza, however, and Hamas’ ... .....
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  • Israeli settlement expansion undermines peace talks, again | August 15, 2013
    Tuesday August 13th-The Israeli government approved more than 900 new housing units in the Gilo settlement of East Jerusalem just hours before Israeli and Palestinian negotiators sat down in Jerusalem to resume peace talks. Two days earlier, , Israel’s Housing Minster announced plans to build almost 1200 new units in a number of West Bank and..... .....
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  • Israel to release 26 Palestinian prisoners | August 07, 2013
    Israel is set to release 26 prisoners next week, august 13th, the first of four “batches” of Palestinian detainees who are scheduled to be freed during the course of the peace talks. In a statement on Sunday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat confirmed “the release of veteran prisoners will be in four batches as Israel refused to release.... .....
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  • Day of Rage | August 04, 2013
    August 1, 2013-Protests rocked Israel and the West Bank in a “Day of Rage” yesterday. Protesters responded to Israel’s decision to implement a plan which will displace the Arab Bedouin from the Naqab (Negev), severing them from their historical ties to their land and denying them the chance to be treated as more than second class citizens......... .....
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  • Football Under Occupation | July 30, 2013
    When FIFA President Sepp Blatter called on Israel earlier this month to ease travel restrictions placed on players of the Palestinian National Football team, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Blatter not to make football a political tool.Palestinian football players have never had the luxury of asking Israeli authorities to separate.......... .....
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  • Dr. Mustafa Barghouti: Israeli Political Blackmail and the Peace Process | July 30, 2013
    Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative (al-Mubadra), has criticized Israel’s release of 104 Palestinian detainees as a form of political blackmail. In a statement made by the former presidential candidate, Dr. Barghouti said this should not be viewed as an act of kindness by the Israeli state but a long .....
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  • Five Palestinian teens face life in prison for alleged stone throwing | July 23, 2013
    Five Palestinian boys, aged 16-17, are facing 25 years to life in prison for alleged stone throwing. The boys were each charged with 25 counts of attempted murder after being accused of causing an accident in which a settler driven car crashed into parked truck near Salfit, occupied West Bank. On Thursday evening March 14th, a car driven by........ .....
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  • Enter a prisoner, leave a leader | July 22, 2013
    Israeli jails are being redefined by their prisoners from a living hell to a space of resistance through organized education. While the organization of Palestinians within jails is not limited to detained students, the high rate of arrests in An-Najah University of Nablus forges a link between academics, politics, and imprisonment for these........ .....
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  • European Union Bans Settlement Funding | July 21, 2013
    On June 30th the European Union(EU) published a directive that bars its 28 member states from contracting agreements for funding, awarding scholarships, prizes or research grants to residents in the Israeli settlements. Any future contracts between the EU and Israel will include a “territorial applicability clause” indicating the exclusion of.. .....
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  • Tayba checkpoint-A daily nightmare for Palestinian workers | July 18, 2013
    The Tayba checkpoint in the northwest city of Tulkarem, occupied Palestinian territories, is one of the main crossings for Palestinian workers into Israel. Tayba is the entry point for workers from the Tulkarem, Jenin and Nablus districts. Between 5,000 and 7,000 Palestinians cross Tayba checkpoint into Israel every day in order to reach their..... .....
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  • Israeli soldiers return Palestinian flags to activists | July 17, 2013
    Three Palestinian activists followed an Israeli soldier back to his vehicle, demanding the return of the Palestinian flags and kufiyas he had taken after pulling them over after a demonstration on July 7, 2013. Activist Jamil Barghouti was hit with a tear gas canister from close proximity during the demonstration, and the group was on their way... .....
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  • Kufr Qaddum Stands Strong | July 16, 2013
    On Thursday July 4th, the Kufr Qaddum village in the occupied Palestinian territories celebrated its two year anniversary of peaceful protests against the Israeli occupation. On Friday the weekly protest was violently suppressed by Israeli soldiers. Kufr Qaddum village held a festival to commemorate two years of peaceful resistance against....... .....
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  • Settlers attack Bedouin camp in Huwwara, Nablus district | July 10, 2013
    It was three in the morning on Saturday, July 6th when a group of some 50 settlers stormed a Bedouin village on the outskirts of Huwwara, Nablus District. Mahmoud Rahaide, father of eleven, was injured when he attempted to stop the settlers from damaging his car and tractor. The attack came in response to the alleged theft of some sheep from .....
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  • Popular Struggle clashes with Israeli forces | July 10, 2013
    Demonstrators gathered last Wednesday, July 3, in an attempt to gain access to a road closed to Palestinians for over two years by the Israeli Defense Forces. The demonstration was organized through the collaborative efforts of Palestinian NGOs, the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, and leaders of the popular struggle movement, including.... .....
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  • Nonviolent Resistance in the South Hebron Hills | July 09, 2013
    Villages in the South Hebron Hills experienced three days of continuous Israeli army and settler violence between the 4th and 6th of July. This escalation of violence occurred just days after the sixth annual Popular Resistance Festival was held in the village of Khalett Athaba, located in Israeli Firing Zone 918 in the hills south of Hebron.. .....
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  • Israel’s puppet war unmasks apartheid regime | July 03, 2013
    The El-Hakawati theatre was colorfully adorned to host its annual International Puppet Festival when a closure order by the Israeli authorities dashed the expectations of the Palestinian children living in East Jerusalem. Now signs announcing the closure of the theatre from June 22 to 30 have replaced the festive decorations..... .....
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  • Israel Seizes Bedouin Outhouse | July 03, 2013
    The confiscation of an outhouse in the Bedouin village of Umm al Khair near Hebron last week signifies just how far Israel’s policies in the West Bank extend in preventing villagers from establishing a home. Israel’s Civil Administration, which oversees policy implementation in Area C of the West Bank, deems nearly every structure in the village......
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  • Palestinian hunger strikers secure move to prisons closer to home | July 02, 2013
    Eight Palestinian prisoners began a collective hunger strike, on Monday 17 June, in response to their transfer to prisons in southern Israel, away from their families. All of the men were put in solitary confinement after launching their strike. Last week Israeli authorities conceded to the hunger strikers demands, allowing the men..... .....
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  • Activist Sireen Khudiri Sawafteh detained and prosecuted for a Facebook page | June 30, 2013
    The 24 year-old human rights activist, Sireen Khudiri Sawafteh, is being detained in the Israeli prison of Eichel for having created a Facebook page that allegedly threatens the security of the State of Israel. On the afternoon of Tuesday 14 May, her car was stopped at a temporary checkpoint on the road between Nablus and her hometown, Tubas... .....
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  • Israel’s Bedouin solution: from garbage dump to settlement area | June 26, 2013
    The current Israeli Defence Force (IDF) proposal sets the town of Nuweimeh, near Jericho, as an alternative to Abu Dis, deemed hazardous for health by Israel‘s Environmental Protection Ministry for its proximity to a garbage dump, for the resettlement of rural Bedouin communities living in the Jerusalem periphery. Since its independence, Israel ... .....
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  • Azzun Atma resists construction of new separation wall | June 25, 2013
    The first demonstration against Israel’s construction of its ‘Separation Wall’ on land belonging to the Azzun – Beit Amin School was held in the village of Azzun Atma on Friday 21 June. Just a few days earlier, on 18 June, bulldozers accompanied by Israeli army jeeps and border police began preparation work for the wall’s construction in the ... .....
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  • Israel’s High Court delays justice for deaths in the Abu Rahmeh family | June 25, 2013
    Two members of the Abu Rahmeh family were killed on separate occasions during demonstrations in Bil’in, a West Bank village near Ramallah. A third was shot while being held by Israeli soldiers at nearby Ni’lin village. In all three cases, the Abu Rahmeh family faced initial refusal by the Israeli military to open investigations, avid denial ... .....
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  • Escalation of Price Tag Attacks in West Bank and East Jerusalem | June 24, 2013
    Twenty-one cars had their tires slashed and racist graffiti was painted on nearby Palestinian buildings in the Jerusalem Neighborhood of Beit Hanina this Sunday, in the most recent in a string of “Price Tag” attacks committed by right wing activists and settlers in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. .....
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  • Why Google’s tagline change matters | June 23, 2013
    On the 1st of May of 2013, the Internet search engine Google surprised the world by changing the tagline on the homepage of its Palestinian version from “Palestinian Territories” to “Palestine.” .....
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  • Settlement Expansion and the Prospects for Peace | June 21, 2013
    Since the onset of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visits to revive the staled peace talks between Israel and Palestine there has been a sharp increase in settlement expansion plans in the West Bank, with construction rising 335% in the first quarter of 2013.  In the month of June alone, Israel announced its plans to build 1000+ new homes in ... .....
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  • Newly Elected Palestinian Prime Minister Resigns | June 20, 2013
    Thursday afternoon, 20 June 2013, newly appointed interim Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah handed in his official letter of resignation to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. Sworn in by President Abbas on June 6th, Hamdallah’s cabinet has only held two official sessions. .....
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  • Mohammed Assaf ‘cheers up‘ Palestine | June 20, 2013
    The second edition of the program, Arab Idol, has turned into quite an event throughout the occupied Palestinian territories. The Beirut based music talent show, based on the British series Pop Idol, is catching the attention of Palestinians like no other TV show has before.  Gathering around the TV at home, in cafes and restaurants or attending... .....
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  • Apartheid roads on the rise in Jerusalem | June 18, 2013
    Israel’s Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee has approved the construction of the Hazeitim interchange, a road way that connects the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc directly to Jerusalem and allows for further settlement construction in the controversial E-1 area.  .....
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  • Mass graves shine light on Palestinians in Jaffa | June 18, 2013
    The recent discovery of six chambers of mass graves in Jaffa has captured international headlines. The skeletal remains of hundreds believed to have been killed during the 1948 Nakba were uncovered, and consequently, further light has been shed on the carnage that translated into Israel’s establishment on the land of historical Palestine.  .....
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  • Israel bans tourists from visiting West Bank  | June 17, 2013
    A delegation of North American religious tourists was banned from visiting the West Bank recently upon their arrival to Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv. Israeli authorities at the airport forbade them from entering the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of the West Bank without an Israeli-issued military entry permit. .....
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  • Rally Against Relocation: Demonstrators in Beersheba protest the Prawer Plan | June 15, 2013
    housands demonstrated in Beersheba this Thursday to protest the Prawer Plan and the continued demolitions and displacement of the Bedouins in the Negev.  The government sponsored Prawer Plan, if fully implemented, would uproot some 40,000 Palestinian Arab Bedouins living in the 35 unrecognized villages in the area and “relocate” them to one of ... .....
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  • East Jerusalem: Settler violence and demolition orders on the rise | June 11, 2013
     Last week Palestinians in East Jerusalem witnessed a sharp escalation in settler violence. Israeli Settlers burn a vehicle in Sheikh Jarrah, damaged vehicles in the neighborhood of al-Tur and attacked a Palestinian taxi driver in the Pisgat Zeev settlement. Additionally, demolition orders were issued by Israeli authorities on buildings in ... .....
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  • Children detained by Israeli army as young as 6 years old: a new trend? | June 10, 2013
    Children younger than 12-years old can’t be charged or sentenced, according to the Israeli military law to which Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are subjected; however, the Israeli army has repeatedly violated this law over the years and reports show an increase in the number of children detained in recent years, some of which ... .....
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  • Video: protest in Jerusalem | June 08, 2013
    Palestinians protested in Jerusalem after the Friday prayers in the Al-Aqsa mosque to mark the Global March to Jerusalem and the anniversary of the Naksa. Israeli forces violently dispersed the protesters, injuring several people. .....
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  • Continual Displacement in Attir | June 03, 2013
     For the second time in two weeks, the Bedouin residents of Attir have been left homeless after yet another round of Israeli house demolitions.  On 16 May, 18 homes were destroyed and some 500 trees cut and uprooted in the Bedouin village located in the Negev desert in Southeastern Israel.  14 days later, 30 May, the demolition forces returned ... .....
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  • 13 displaced in Beit Hanina Demolition | June 01, 2013
    In the early hours of Wednesday 29 May, a swarm of Israeli police officers surrounded Badwan Al-Salaymeh’s home in the Bet Hanina neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Without prior warning or allowing the family to remove their belongings, two bulldozers transformed the two-story house into a disfigured mass of broken concrete blocks and mangled iron.  .....
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  • Israel rejects Palestinian petition to redirect Wall in Cremisan valley | May 29, 2013
    The Israeli Special Objection Court rejected the latest petition from Palestinian landowners in the town of Beit Jala to redirect the wall that intends to cut off the Cremisan Valley—located in the Bethlehem district—from the surrounding villages of the Jerusalem area. The ruling, rendered official on 26 April 2013, allows for the continuation ... .....
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  • Systematic Displacement: Attir and Israel’s “Bedouin Problem” | May 29, 2013
    In the early hours of the morning the Israeli Authorities and their convoy of vehicles arrived atop the hill that looks down upon the small Bedouin community of Attir in the Negev Desert. At 7 AM Israeli forces descended into the town below, destroying 18 buildings, uprooting some 500 trees and leaving more than 80 people homeless. .....
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  • Pull the Trigger: Settler’s demand easing rules of engagement in oPt | May 27, 2013
    Settlers in the West Bank are applying pressure to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in hopes of easing the rules of engagements that restrict Israeli troops from firing on Palestinians, according to the  Israeli newspaper Haaretz.  Settlers, backed by right wing politicians, are insisting that the IDF change its rules of engagement and treat ... .....
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  • Israeli Denial and the Nakba | May 23, 2013
    The Nakba, our catastrophe and dispossession in 1948, confirmed time and again by UN reports, resolutions, historians and military archives, cannot be denied. In order to achieve peace, it is time for Israel to recognize its responsibility for this crime, as a first step towards accountability and a just solution to this conflict. .....
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  • Israel cancels UNESCO’s visit to the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem | May 22, 2013
    On Sunday 19 May, a few hours before a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) mission was due to arrive in Jerusalem to carry out an examination of the state of conservation of the Old City, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs came up with a surprising announcement, cancelling the visit at the last minute.  .....
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  • Sheikh Jarrah: The struggle continues | May 20, 2013
    Hundreds of demonstrators marched in Sheikh Jarrah this Friday, 17 May 2013, in opposition to the ongoing settlement campaign in East Jerusalem. Weekly protests have been taking place here for years as Israelis, Palestinians and international activist alike have joined together against the eviction of Palestinian residents and the intrusion ... .....
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  • Israel Approves Nearly 300 New Homes in Beit El Settlement | May 20, 2013
    On Wednesday, May 8 2013, Israel approved the construction of 296 new homes in the Beit El settlement near Ramallah. This move is likely to increase tensions as US Secretary of State John Kerry is seeking to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians that have stalled since 2010. .....
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  • Israel’s Gaza policy: “The Essential Terrorist” | May 18, 2013
    Mainstream media outlets are marred with depictions of Palestinians as kuffiyeh-draped militants who indoctrinate in their children a “culture of hate” and take up arms against their morally superior, democratic and pluralistic Israeli opponent. Equally flawed and Orientalist in character, more subtle presentations frame debates in strictly poli .....
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  • Israeli Forces Repress Nakba Commemoration in Jerusalem | May 16, 2013
    The biggest event of this year’s 65th anniversary of the Nakba (Arabic for the catastrophe) took place outside of Damascus Gate in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. Over 500 Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activists gathered for the remembrance, a tribute which was marred by clashes that erupted between Palestinians and the Israeli army ... .....
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  • 65th Anniversary Nakba Commemorations in Ramallah | May 16, 2013
    On Wednesday 15 May Palestinians commemorated the 65th anniversary of the Nakba across the occupied Palestinian territories. Demonstrations ended up in clashes between the Palestinians and Israeli occupational forces in different parts of West Bank. Thousands of people gathered in Ramallah’s Yasser Arafat Square to mark the Nakba, Arabic for... .....
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  • Eyal Checkpoint, Qalqilya: A Testament of Human Resilience | May 16, 2013
    The sun has not yet risen on Eyal checkpoint in the northwestern city of Qalqilya.  Already hundreds of Palestinians queue up and wait to cross into Israel and begin the workweek. In the coming hours, roughly four thousand Palestinians from the Qalqilya region and the northern West Bank will pass through the encaged L-shaped corral... .....
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  • Among the ruins of Lifta, memory of the Nakba persists | May 14, 2013
    Standing within the boundaries of the holy city, Lifta is one of the 68 villages surrounding Jerusalem that were ethnically cleansed during the Israeli systematic attack in 1948. Unlike the others, it is the only Arab village that has not been destroyed since.  Israel confiscated the village land under the Absentee Property law in 1950, despite... .....
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  • "From al-Araqib to Susiya" documentary encourages new framework of resistance | May 12, 2013
    On April 26, the documentary by legal workers at the Adalah Legal Center “From al-Araqib to Susiya” featuring testimonies from the residents was screened in both of the villages.  al-Araqib is located roughly eight kilometers north of Beersheba in the Naqab desert, whereas Susiya lies within the 1949 Armistice “Green Line,” six kilometers... .....
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  • The people of Silwad and Deir Jarir resist land theft | May 11, 2013
    A new settlement sprung up two months ago between the West Bank villages of Deir Jarir and Silwad, and the people of the villages have made it clear they are not going to accept it quietly.  The new settlement is an ‘outpost‘ settlement, meaning it is unrecognized and illegal even under Israeli law. The outpost is calling itself Nezah Benjamin ... .....
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  • Clashes and police violence on Jerusalem Day | May 09, 2013
    Palestinian protestors demonstrated outside Damascus Gate on Wednesday May 8 as groups of boisterous Israeli youth marched to the old city of Jerusalem.   These protests came in response to “Jerusalem Day,” a celebration of the reunification of Jerusalem with Israel after the 1967 war.  To Palestinians, Jerusalem Day signifies the beginning of... .....
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  • Israel refuses to respect Gaza ceasefire | May 02, 2013
    Reports of a settler killed near Nablus dominated media coverage of Palestine this week. But another murder committed the same day received far less international attention, perhaps because the victim was Palestinian and the assassin was the Israeli government. A precision strike by Israeli warplanes killed Haitham al-Mishal in northern Gaza... .....
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  • Update: Efforts to save Lian Barhoum entering second phase | May 02, 2013
    Lian Barhoum, a toddler from Gaza, is suffering from a lack of the enzyme oxalate in her liver which if left untreated, will systematically destroy all the organs in her body.  The Palestine Monitor reported on her case in February 2012. Lian is currently undergoing treatment, with her parents at her side at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center. Her... .....
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  • Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney on Israeli backed US foreign policy | May 01, 2013
    My name is Cynthia McKinney and I served as a Member of the U.S. Congress for 12 years. During my time in Congress, I strove to make respect for human rights a central feature in the formulation of U.S. foreign policy.  Amid minor successes, I have to say that my efforts while, broadly appreciated by many, failed miserably. That failure stems... .....
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  • Discriminatory Israeli laws fragment Palestinian lives | April 29, 2013
    On Monday 22 April, Israel ratified the extension of the “Citizenship and Entry into Israel” law for the thirteenth time since 2003.  The law breaks multiple international conventions, has been dubbed “racist” by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and denies Palestinians the basic human right of leading a dignified family life under one... .....
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  • Kufr Qaddoum persists in struggle against occupation | April 27, 2013
    Since the start of the weekly demonstrations in Kufr Qaddoum on July 1, 2011, the village has seen more than 120 arrests. More than 100,000 shekels have been paid in fines for those arrested. Over 2,000 people have suffered from severe tear-gas inhalation. One teenager was critically injured by a tear-gas canister that hit him in the head... .....
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  • Intensified protests in Aida camp and the village of al-Khader | April 27, 2013
    During the last month, Bethlehem has witnessed different “spontaneous” protests in different hotspots of the governate.  The clashes between Israeli soldiers have become a kind of routine for the inhabitants of the Aida refugee camp, which lies close to the checkpoint 300— the only access to Jerusalem from north Bethlehem. Since January, three... .....
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  • Israeli settlement policy poised for further aggressiveness | April 24, 2013
    The new Israeli government Netanyahu-Lapid-Bennet-Lieberman coalition is set to pursue the most aggressive West Bank settlement building policies to date. Having settlers within the government cabinet is not a new phenomenon, but the current batch of ministers marks the highest percentage of settlers, not to mention the most radical. .....
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  • Defying all odds, the first Palestinian Circus School flourishes | April 24, 2013
    Currently submerged in an ambience of red noses, big shoes, squeaky flowers, stilts and many other props, the Palestinian Circus School (PCS) began as a small circus group in August 2006 thanks to the determination of Shadi Zmorrod and Jessika Devlieghere, who initiated the pathway to introduce circus arts from Palestinians for Palestinians... .....
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  • Sameer Issawi ends his hunger strike on his own terms | April 23, 2013
    The long term hunger striking political prisoner Samer Issawi will be finally released by the Israeli authorities after he reached an agreement with the Israeli Prison Service overnight on Monday April 22. The deal as confirmed by Shireen Issawi, Samer’s sister and lawyer, is that he will spend 8 months in prison starting from April 23 and... .....
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  • Bethlehem Runs Rings Around the Wall | April 22, 2013
    On Sunday, roughly 500 people ran in the Right to Movement Marathon, the first marathon to take place in the West Bank. The marathon was held in Bethlehem, a city that bumps up against the Apartheid Wall, a fact which presented runners and race organizers with unique challenges.  Zuher Tmeza, the coordinator for Right to Movement‘s Information... .....
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  • Thousands congregate for Palestinian March of Return in Khubeiza | April 22, 2013
    In what was the biggest congregation of Palestinians for the March of Return to date, approximately 7,000 Palestinians marched to the destroyed Arab village of Khubeiza during Israel’s “Independence Day” on Tuesday, April 16.  The march has occurred every year since 1998, with each event taking place at a different location in Palestinian 1948... .....
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  • UNRWA closes its offices briefly in Gaza before resuming work | April 20, 2013
    On Thursday, April 4 2013, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) announced the shutdown of its operations in the Gaza Strip after protesters stormed the agency’s offices. Demonstrations broke out after it was made public that the main UN agency for Palestinians would cut down its relief budget in the area... .....
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  • Israeli corporation profits from high price of prisoners‘ food | April 20, 2013
    Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails often purchase items from the canteen, an alternative to the meals provided by the Israel Prison Service each day. But the high cost of the canteen provides ample profits to the private Israeli company Dadash, which holds the contract to supply food and other items to the canteens in all Israeli jails. .....
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  • Journalist shot whilst filming soldiers needs constructive facial surgery | April 18, 2013
    Mohammed Al-Azza was covering the entrance of Israeli soldiers into Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem. Born and raised in Aida Mohammed works as a journalist documenting the constant incursions of Israeli soldiers into the camp.  At around 5:30 pm on April 9 Israeli soldiers had started to advance into the camp. At the time there was no protest... .....
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  • Palestinian-Americans denied entry to their homeland | April 15, 2013
    According to the Right to Enter Campaign based in Ramallah, a legal resource for those visiting the West Bank who have been denied entry to Israel, Israel’s crackdowns on granting tourist visas to Palestinian-Americans and anyone who might be suspected of visiting the West Bank have intensified this year. While in years gone by many Palestinian... .....
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  • Palestinian Christians denied to visit the holy sites for Easter | April 13, 2013
    Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are two of the most important dates in the Christian calendar. Jerusalem is a pivotal part of these festivities.  According to the bible Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey where the people lay down their cloaks and waved palm leaves, hence Palm Sunday. It is also the place where the bible depicts the... .....
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  • Getting to know Abdelhadi Yaish, Ramallah‘s local artist | April 12, 2013
    Standing in the corner of the main Rukab Street with Al-Anbeya Street, the familiar site of Abdelhadi Yaish and his portraits adorned the wall and pavement. He leaned towards his drawing tripod while holding a cigarette in one hand and a pencil in the other, and asked, “Where are you from?”  After a few moments of introductory conversation... .....
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  • "Suicide Note from Palestine" dramatizes the reality | April 09, 2013
    It is the year 2090. A violent Israeli shelling of the Gaza strip is projected on a folding screen. Amal, a student shows up in the middle of the stage lying down in a hospital bed. Her heartbeat has already stopped and she is being resurrected in a medical care center by strange medical staff wear in UN white coats. The Freedom Theatre starts........
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  • Egypt’s Rafah border crossing still remains an obstacle for Palestinians | April 08, 2013
    With border crossings, countries and even continents to contend with, a traditional wedding for one young couple in love was impossible. Manal Abu Shanar and Emad al-Malalha were due to marry in Egypt but the groom was denied entry to the country. Whilst his new wife Manal lives in the Egyptian city of Rafah, Emad is a Gazan citizen meaning the... .....
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  • Can a Documentary Save Palestine? | April 06, 2013
    Although neither film won an Academy Award, the very inclusion of 5 Broken Cameras and The Gatekeepers in this year‘s Oscar ceremonies signals that support for Palestinian resistance is becoming more mainstream. But although it may seem the Oscar nominations for the two films came out of nowhere, they are both part of a proud tradition of... .....
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  • Hebron mourns the death of cancer stricken prisoner Abuhamdia | April 05, 2013
    On Thursday March 4, more than 1,000 people attended the funeral of the latest prisoner to die under Israeli custody, 64 year old Maysara Abuhamdia from Hebron. He died on April 2 at the Soroka hospital in Bir Sabe’, where he was transferred to there from Eshel prison last month despite his suffering from throat cancer since August 2012. .....
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  • Two killed in Tulkarem amid rising West Bank tensions | April 04, 2013
    Amer Nasser, 17, and Naji Belbisi, 18, were shot and killed by an Israeli sniper whilst throwing stones at an Israeli guard tower on Wednesday, April 3. The cousins were shot at Enav checkpoint near the town of Anabta, south of Tulkarem, where they were protesting in response to the death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, who died in Israeli custody... .....
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  • Three dead in the West Bank as protests for Maysara Abuhamdia escalate | April 04, 2013
    64 year old Maysara Abuhamdia, imprisoned by the Israeli occupation since 2002 and sentenced to 99 years, died on Tuesday, April 2 in Saroka hospital shackled to his bed. Abuhamdia suffered from throat cancer, and was only given chemotherapy sessions in March, despite complaining of affliction since August 2012. According to his lawyer... .....
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  • Hacker group Anonymous vows to "Erase Israel From the Internet" | April 03, 2013
    The hacker collective Anonymous is preparing a second wave of assaults against Israeli websites after a period of relative calm in Israeli cyberspace following the end of Israel‘s November assault on Gaza known as "Operation Pillar of Defense." The promised attacks, promoted through Twitter, are part of an Anonymous initiative known as... .....
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  • Crackdown on Aida camp‘s youth by Israeli occupation | April 01, 2013
    US President Barack Obama’s visit to the historic town of Bethlehem on Friday March 22 only lasted for 30 minutes. His short visit did not include a trip to the refugee camp Aida in Beit Jala, Bethlehem. The camp lies next to the Apartheid Wall and as a result is often invaded by Israeli soldiers.  On February 25, two young boys were shot... .....
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