Neve Gordon – Israel's Occupation. Citizen journalism focuses on Israeli occupation. Resistance is fertile: Palestine's eco-war - Features. They come from across the planet and meet in the shadow of Israel's 12m concrete wall. They strap olive saplings and water bottles to the back of a donkey, silent under its burden. Former police officers from Sweden, German punks, Australian conservationists, leftist activists from the US, South African priests, and a Celtic fringe of Welsh students join Israeli anarchists and Palestinian pacifists. These are the guerilla gardeners of the occupied West Bank. And it's a growing movement, with more than 120 international volunteers arriving in Bethlehem governorate alone to assist with this year's harvest.
"Guerilla gardening" has its roots among the Levellers and the Diggers of mid-17th Century England, but today has branches spanning the globe. But in the occupied Palestinian territories, it is a slightly different story. Here, it isn't merely a symbolic attempt to reclaim pockets of neglected or misused terrain. UN Special Rapporteur Condemns Israel of De-Facto Annexation of the West Bank. Under the Guise of Security? Population Control by the Occupying Power « International Law Observer. Palestinians prepare to lose the solar panels that provide a lifeline.
Two large solar panels jut out of the barren landscape near Imneizil in the Hebron hills.
The hi-tech structures sit incongruously alongside the tents and rough stone buildings of the Palestinian village, but they are fundamental to life here: they provide electricity. Imneizil is not connected to the national electricity grid. Tamimi was killed because of occupied village's insistence on access to its only well. Mustafa Tamimi’s sister Ola, center, on learning of his injury, Dec. 9 Friday morning, December 9th, my friend and I set out to experience a West Bank protest.
It was a first for both of us, seeing as I have Arabic class every Friday, and he lives in Tel Aviv. As protest virgins, we had no idea what to expect. Vandals try to start fire in West Bank mosque. 15 December 2011Last updated at 11:41 By Yolande Knell BBC News, Jerusalem Damage caused by unknown attackers in the Burak Mosque Vandals have started a fire in a mosque in a West Bank village, in the second such attack in two days.
Officials in Burka, east of Ramallah, said that carpets and chairs were burnt in the local mosque and Hebrew graffiti saying "war" was scrawled on the wall. On Tuesday, a fire was started in a 12th Century mosque in Jerusalem. The incidents are being blamed on Jewish settlers angry at what they see as Israeli government attempts to restrict settlement building. Israel to defend its Military from Israelis. Coddling violent fanatics who attack and steal from Palestinians might just backfire on the Right wing Likud government.
What? It already has? I wonder if there is a connection?? The USG Open Source Center translates reaction from the Israeli press: “Israeli Media Urge ‘Harsh’ Punitive Steps Against Jewish Right-Wing ‘Criminals’ Israel — OSC Summary Wednesday, December 14, 2011 Document Type: OSC Summary … How I became a 'terrorist' WikiLeaks – Israeli Official On Non-Violent Demonstrations In West Bank: ‘We Don’t Do Gandhi Very Well’ IDF Civil Administration pushing for land takeover in West Bank.
Let Palestinian police control Area C. Palestinian police in the West Bank city of Ramallah during a training session organised by the EU Police Mission for the Palestinian Territories.
Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP When Israeli officials say security is their highest priority, they do not mean in Area C. The 60% of the West Bank placed under their military control since the 1993 Oslo Accords has descended into lawlessness on their watch. Israel could stabilise areas plagued by violence and crime, and further its own interests, by conceding security responsibilities in these areas to the Palestinian Authority. While "A" areas – cities such as Ramallah and Nablus – have benefited from tight Palestinian Authority control, "C" areas have become notorious for car theft, drug dealing and the growing influence of armed gangs.
Conditions are reaching crisis levels in H2, the "C" area of Hebron city, where traditional clans are the only semblance of authority. Feuds between families have become bloodier. The West Bank: When push comes to take. On the rare occasion that the Israeli army dismantles an illegal Israeli-built outpost in the West Bank, Palestinians in nearby villages go into lockdown. Normally within a day, there is retaliation from the settlers.
Not against the soldiers who demolished their "property", but against the perceived beneficiaries. Violence against the nearest Palestinian community has become a routine reaction - against property and people - in what have become known as "price-tag" actions. Now that Palestinian resistance is growing, and their government has had the temerity to pursue their interests without Israeli approval, history suggests we will see a backlash. These actions, aimed at securing Palestinians' historic rights, can cost Israel far more than any outpost. Israel's impunity challenged by torture victim in Jerusalem. JERUSALEM (IPS) - In a case that has highlighted Israel’s abuse of Palestinian detainees, an Israeli military court recently acquitted a Palestinian man after it became clear that Israeli interrogators used physical and psychological abuse as a way to coerce a confession from him.
Ayman Hamida, a resident of Ezariya in East Jerusalem, was accused of various security offenses, including shooting at an Israeli border police outpost in September 2009. He was indicted for 17 offenses, based largely on a confession obtained during a forty-day interrogation period.