By Amira Hass
11 August 2010
Haaretz

Nighttime raids, pointed guns, arrests often accompanied by beatings, kicks, curses and painful and extended handcuffing. The ordinary behavior of Israeli children in uniform.
Children in the West Bank throw stones at army vehicles and Israeli cars, mainly those belonging to settlers. That is the undeniable truth. Throwing stones is the classic way of telling the occupier, who is armed from head to toe, that he has forced himself on the occupied. Sometimes it’s part of a sweeping resistance movement, sometimes it’s a ceremonial remnant of such a movement, not devoid of braggadocio and adolescent boredom, while also a reminder to adults not to adapt. Read the rest of this entry »

After two years, a case against Palestinian teenagers accused of throwing stones was overturned when the military prosecution backed out. The suspects pleaded innocent all along, saying they’d been in school

By Amira Hass
8 August 2010
Haaretz

Eight Palestinian teenagers were tried in the court of military judge Lt. Col. Menashe Vahnish on November 11, 2008. Referring to a soldier from the Kfir Brigade, Vahnish said, “at this stage, there is no reason to cast any doubt on the witness.” According to his police testimony, on October 30, 2008 the soldier, T.M., and some of his comrades apprehended stone-throwing Palestinian 16-year-olds on a road that runs between the al-Aroub refugee camp south of Bethlehem and an agricultural school across the way. Read the rest of this entry »

By Janan Abdu
The Electronic Intifada
13 July 2010
Janan Abdu with her two daughters outside a closed-door hearing on her husband Ameer Makhoul’s arrest, 12 May 2010. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills)
I used to tell my husband, Ameer Makhoul, “One day, they’ll come for you.” As chairman of the Public Committee for the Protection of Political Freedoms he’d begun to organize an awareness-raising campaign to push back against the security services’ harassment of our community, the Palestinian citizens of Israel. Read the rest of this entry »

By Anshel Pfeffer
12 July 2010
Haaretz

The Military Advocate General on Monday ordered the army’s criminal investigations unit to investigate the death of a Palestinian protester who was killed by a tear gas canister at a demonstration in Bil’in in April 2009.

The Military Advocate General had refused to open a criminal investigation into the death of Bassem Abu-Rahma, but on Monday changed its mind after expert testimony showed that the tear gas canister was aimed directly at Abu-Rahma and was fired in violation of military orders.
Read the rest of this entry »

21 February 2010

Dear Friends and Supporters,
It has been two months now since I was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken from my home. Today news has reached Ofer Military Prison that the apartheid wall on Bil’in’s land will finally be moved and construction has begun on the new route. This will return half of the land that was stolen from our village. For those of us inOfer, imprisoned for our protest against the wall, this victory makes the suffering of being here easier to bear. After actively resisting the theft of our land by the Israeli apartheid wall and settlements every week for five years now, we long to be standing along side our brothers and sisters to mark this victory and the fifth anniversary of our struggle. Read the rest of this entry »

By Amira Hass
15 February 2010
Haaretz

Something about 12-year-old Bassam caused two Israelis to smile. Two Palestinians noticed, but did not remember their smiles as being disparaging or arrogant. On the contrary. The Palestinians regarded the smiles as a rare moment in which two Israelis - and not just any Israelis, but military judges - realized how ridiculous the situation was. Read the rest of this entry »

January 1, 2010

To all our friends,

I mark the beginning of the new decade imprisoned in a military detention camp. Nevertheless, from within the occupation′s holding cell I meet the New Year with determination and hope.

I know that Israel’s military campaign to imprison the leadership of the Palestinian popular struggle shows that our non-violent struggle is effective. The occupation is threatened by our growing movement and is therefore trying to shut us down. What Israel′s leaders do not understand is that popular struggle cannot be stopped by our imprisonment.

Whether we are confined in the open-air prison that Gaza has been transformed into, in military prisons in the West Bank, or in our own villages surrounded by the Apartheid Wall, arrests and persecution do not weaken us. They only strengthen our commitment to turning 2010 into a year of liberation through unarmed grassroots resistance to the Occupation. Read the rest of this entry »

Neve Gordon
23 December 2009
The Guardian

Palestinians have a long history of nonviolent resistance but Israel has continuously deployed methods to destroy it

“Why,” I have often been asked, “haven’t the Palestinians established a peace movement like the Israeli Peace Now?”
The question itself is problematic, being based on many erroneous assumptions, such as the notion that there is symmetry between the two sides and that Peace Now has been a politically effective movement. Most important, though, is the false supposition that Palestinians have indeed failed to create a pro-peace popular movement. Read the rest of this entry »

By Benjamin Barthe
30 December 2009
Le Monde

Dans les territoires occupés, la silhouette de Jamal Juma passait rarement inaperçue. Corpulent, le front dégarni et le sourire aux lèvres, ce quadragénaire, coordinateur de “Stop the wall”, la campagne de protestation contre la barrière de séparation israélienne, se bagarrait sur tous les fronts. Dans les oliveraies de Bilin ou de Nilin, deux villages qui manifestent chaque semaine contre cet ouvrage qui confisque près de 10 % des terres de Cisjordanie ; sur la place des Lions de Ramallah, haut lieu de rassemblement de la société civile palestinienne ; et dans les consulats européens de Jérusalem-Est qu’il rappelait à leurs obligations en matière de défense des droits de l’homme. Read the rest of this entry »

By Amira Hass
December 23, 2009
Haaretz

There is an internal document that has not been leaked, or perhaps has not even been written, but all the forces are acting according to its inspiration: the Shin Bet, Israel Defense Forces, Border Police, police, and civil and military judges. They have found the true enemy who refuses to whither away: The popular struggle against the occupation.
Over the past few months, the efforts to suppress the struggle have increased. The target: Palestinians and Jewish Israelis unwilling to give up their right to resist reign of demographic separation and Jewish supremacy. The means: Dispersing demonstrations with live ammunition, late-night army raids and mass arrests. Since the beginning of the year, 29 Palestinians have been wounded by IDF snipers while demonstrating against the separation fence. The snipers fired expanding bullets, despite an explicit 2001 order from the Military Adjutant General not to use such ammunition to break up demonstrations. After soldiers killed A’kel Srour in June, the shooting stopped, but then resumed in November. Read the rest of this entry »