West Bank

Walking Palestine

by News Sources 03.20.2012

The Guardian reports: Mohammed Atari heaved the rock into position, its painted red and white sign marking a seven-mile trail across wheat fields, olive groves and gentle stony hills in the north of the West Bank. “When we started marking walking trails, people were suspicious,” he said. They feared the markers signified a new Israeli [...]

Read the full article →

Israel breaking settlement records, says Peace Now

by News Sources 01.10.2012

Reuters reports: Israel’s government broke all its settlement-building records in 2011, diminishing prospects for establishing a viable Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s anti-settlement activist group “Peace Now” said Tuesday. The group’s annual report on building in Arab East Jerusalem and the West Bank – land the Palestinians want for a future state [...]

Read the full article →

Israeli democracy should be replaced by Jewish law, settler leader says

by News Sources 01.08.2012

Haaretz reports: Israeli democracy must be dismantled and in its place a halakhic state, based on Jewish law, should be established, says settler leader Benny Katzover in an interview to a a messianic journal of Chabad. In an interview with Beit Mashiach, the journal of the messianic faction of the Chabad Movement with ties to [...]

Read the full article →

Jewish extremists engaged in 228 attacks on Israeli security forces and dozens of arson attacks on mosques in 2011

by News Sources 01.07.2012

Haaretz reports: Israel Police has been unsuccessful in running its agents in the West Bank, a senior police officer said Thursday, adding that officers have been struggling to gather evidence on crimes committed by right-wing activists. Haim Rahamim, head of the investigations and intelligence wing of the Judea and Samaria District in the West Bank, [...]

Read the full article →

High Court says Israel can exploit West Bank resources

by News Sources 12.31.2011

Haaretz reports: The High Court of Justice has authorized Israel to exploit the West Bank’s natural resources for its own economic needs by rejecting a petition against the operation of Israeli-owned quarries in the territory. In its ruling, issued on Monday, the court adopted the state’s position: that no new Israeli-owned quarries should be established [...]

Read the full article →

Why anti-government Americans should be pro-Palestinian

by News Sources 12.24.2011

On the right in the U.S., nothing garners political support as easily as preaching the evils of Big Government. But if someone wants to observe big government in one of its most tyrannical expressions, there’s probably no place better to go than the West Bank where Palestinians live under Israeli military rule. Haaretz reports on [...]

Read the full article →

Israel’s emerging ‘Jewish Hezbollah’?

by News Sources 12.19.2011

Mark Perry writes: Seven months ago, during the early morning hours of May 30, Jewish settlers visiting Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus in the Palestinian West Bank engaged in a shoving match with IDF soldiers deployed to protect them. Within minutes, the confrontation escalated; several soldiers were punched by Jewish worshippers and rocks rained down on [...]

Read the full article →

US-made tear gas becomes fatal ingredient of protests

by News Sources 12.17.2011

Joseph Dana writes: Residents of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank have been demonstrating, each week for the past two years, against the slow encroachment on their land by Israeli settlers. Gathering in the village centre on Friday afternoons, villagers along with Israeli and international activists attempt to march, under the watchful eye of soldiers, [...]

Read the full article →

Gingrich favors rapid expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank — calls Palestinians ‘terrorists’

by Paul Woodward 12.11.2011

Having stirred outrage by calling Palestinians an “invented people,” in last night’s GOP presidential debate New Gingrich went even further by saying, “these people are terrorists.” I guess if he becomes president, at least the United States will have to abandon the pretense that it has any role as a mediator between Israelis and Palestinians. [...]

Read the full article →

West Bank mosque set alight in suspected ‘price tag’ attack

by News Sources 12.07.2011

Haaretz reports: Arsonists attempted to set fire to a Palestinian mosque, Israeli police and residents of a West Bank village near the settlement of Ariel said on Wednesday. Residents of the Palestinian village of Burkina discovered that two vehicles were torched overnight, and that there had been attempt to burn the local mosque as well, [...]

Read the full article →

Routine life under Israeli military rule

by News Sources 11.23.2011

TPM reports: In an exchange in Iowa on Friday, Rick Santorum defended Israel’s right to build settlements in the West Bank — saying that it is fully part of Israel, having been conquered in the 1967 war, and that as a result all of the people in the West Bank are Israelis, not “Palestinians.” This [...]

Read the full article →

Palestinian ‘Freedom Riders’ arrested on bus to Jerusalem

by News Sources 11.16.2011

The Washington Post reports: Evoking the nonviolent tactics of the American civil rights movement, six Palestinian activists boarded an Israeli commuter bus linking Jewish settlements in the West Bank to Jerusalem on Tuesday and were arrested as they tried to ride through an Israeli checkpoint on the outskirts of the city. The group, part of [...]

Read the full article →

Escalating Israeli settler violence in the West Bank

by News Sources 11.07.2011

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs occupied Palestinian territory, says in its latest report [PDF]: The weekly average of settler attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties and property damage has increased by 40% in 2011 compared to 2010, and by over 165% compared to 2009. In 2011, three Palestinians have been killed [...]

Read the full article →

Israel rushes settlement growth after Unesco accepts Palestinians

by News Sources 11.01.2011

The Guardian reports: Israel is to expedite the construction of about 2,000 homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in response to the Palestinians’ successful bid to join Unesco. Israel also imposed a temporary halt on the transfer of tax revenues which it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) [...]

Read the full article →

Palestinians hit by cyber-attack following success at Unesco

by News Sources 11.01.2011

The Guardian reports: Internet services in the West Bank and Gaza have come under “sustained attack” by unknown hackers in multiple locations, according to officials. “There has been a sustained attack since the morning from many sources in many countries,” said Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib. “It is deliberate and continuous.” Computer experts were trying [...]

Read the full article →

U.S. warns Israel: New Jerusalem construction will aid Palestinian bid at UN

by News Sources 10.27.2011

Haaretz reports: The United States urged Israel on Wednesday to halt a plan that would approve new construction in a contentious Jerusalem neighborhood, saying that such a move would harm U.S. efforts to thwart the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations. The Jerusalem District Planning Committee announced late last month that it would [...]

Read the full article →

Israeli government backs Jewish terrorism

by News Sources 10.26.2011

Yossi Gurvitz writes: Brigadier General Nitzan Alon, who left the command of the AYOSH (West Bank) Division yesterday, spoke candidly during his replacement ceremony, and called the “price tag” actions by their true name: Jewish terrorism. Alon, who was repeatedly harassed by the settlers, demanded that more be done in the battle against it (Hebrew). [...]

Read the full article →

Israeli soldiers attacked by Jewish settlers

by Paul Woodward 10.06.2011

There is an illusion of autonomy that allows Israeli governments to defy the United States even while they remain dependent on American military aid and diplomatic protection. Likewise, Jewish settlers living in the West Bank operate as a law unto themselves and defy the state of Israel even while remaining utterly dependent on that state [...]

Read the full article →

Palestinian protesters accost U.S. diplomats during West Bank visit

by News Sources 10.06.2011

The Associated Press reports: A small crowd of Palestinian protesters accosted an American diplomatic delegation visiting the West Bank Tuesday, blocking a convoy of vehicles, chanting “shame on you” and hurling a shoe — a deeply insulting gesture in Arab culture. The Americans, including employees of the consulate in Jerusalem, were on their way to [...]

Read the full article →

Palestinians pessimistic about bid for statehood

by News Sources 09.30.2011
Read the full article →

Israel set to approve 1,100 new Jerusalem homes beyond the Green Line

by News Sources 09.27.2011

Haaretz reports: The Jerusalem District Planning Committee is set to approve 1,100 new housing units in Jerusalem’s contested Gilo neighborhood on Tuesday, despite past U.S. objections concerning any construction that expanded Gilo further across the Green Line. The plan was submitted by a subsidiary to the Jewish National Fund, and must pass 60 days in [...]

Read the full article →

Jewish settlers: ‘We will slaughter Arabs’

by News Sources 09.27.2011

Ma’an News Agency reports: Jewish settlers on Sunday hung posters displaying anti-Arab slogans on the main road between Hebron and Jerusalem, local officials said. The mayor of al-Khader, near Bethlehem, Ramzi Salah told Ma’an that some of the slogans read: “This is the land of our fathers and grandfathers,” and “This is the land of [...]

Read the full article →

French Jewish fighters move in to defend Israeli settlements in West Bank

by Paul Woodward 09.25.2011

While Israeli authorities are making it increasingly difficult for non-violent international activists to visit the West Bank, suspected Jewish terrorists — members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) — coming from France in recent days apparently had no difficulty reaching the illegal settlements which they claim they want to defend. The FBI has described the [...]

Read the full article →

Living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank

by News Sources 09.21.2011

Younes Arar from the Center for Freedom and Justice in Beit Ommar talks to Robert Wright at Bloggingheads.tv. See also the Palestine Solidarity Project. Earlier this month, the International Middle East Media Center reported: As Israel decided to further arm the settlers by providing them with stun grenades and tear gas bombs, the settlers, supported [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries