Har Homa settlement’s impact on the Palestinian community has been devastating, with the town of Beit Sahour now dominated by the ever-expanding settlement. While many are aware of Beit Sahour’s famous nonviolent resistance during the first Palestinian intifada (1987-1993), less well-known is how Israeli rule continues to choke the town. Ben White reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Beit Sahour: a microcosm of Israeli colonization
In addition to destroying homes in three areas of the West Bank this week, Israeli forces this week invaded villages inside Israel and bulldozed and handed out further demolition orders. Nora Barrows-Friedman reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about "In the eyes of the state, we don't exist here"
GAZA (IPS) - It was bad enough that Ahmad Asfour was severely maimed by an Israeli drone strike outside his house on 9 January 2009. But, his search for advanced treatment landed the journalism student, now 19, in Israeli prison where he remains. Read more about Adding torture to injury
Mousa Abu Maria, co-coordinator of the grassroots Palestine Solidarity Project in the occupied West Bank village of Beit Ommar, was used to the sound of boots running on the ground and surrounding his home in the middle of the night. But when Abu Maria looked outside the window this time, it wasn’t Israeli forces shouting at him to come outside. Nora Barrows-Friedman reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Grassroots organizer targeted by PA, Israeli forces
BRUSSELS (IPS) - Dexia, a major Belgian-French bank, is continuing to finance Israeli authorities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories almost a year after it indicated that it would cease providing loans to illegal settlements. In May 2009, Dexia promised that it would not lend any fresh money to councils representing Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Read more about Belgian bank financing Israeli settlements
A group of Jews and Arabs are fighting in the Israeli courts to be recognized as “Israelis,” a nationality currently denied them, in a case that officials fear may threaten the country’s self-declared status as a Jewish state. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Lawsuit challenges Israel's discriminatory citizenship definition
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - An Israeli journalist remains under house arrest and another lives abroad, after they broke news on Israeli undercover units carrying out assassinations or “targeted killings” of non-combatant Palestinian political opponents. Anat Kam, 23, who used to work for the Israeli news site “Walla,” was arrested last December for allegedly copying secret Israeli military documents during her compulsory military service. Read more about Israel gags news on extrajudicial killings
Four nonviolent demonstrators were shot at close range with live ammunition by Israeli soldiers during six simultaneous protests throughout the Gaza Strip commemorating Land Day. Three of those injured come from Khozaa, a village east of Khan Younis in Gaza’s south. The fourth, from Deir al-Balah, was participating in a peaceful demonstration east of Meghazi, central Gaza. Read more about Four Palestinians injured during Land Day protests in Gaza
An Arab-owned restaurant in the Israeli city of Haifa has been caught in a whirlwind of legal action and threats of violence after staff refused to serve a soldier in uniform, an incident that is rapidly tarnishing the city’s reputation as a model of good Jewish-Arabs relations. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Restaurant attacked for barring armed Israeli soldier
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - In early February, 41-year-old Fayez Ahmed Faraj, a father of nine from the city of Hebron, 30 miles south of Jerusalem, in the southern West Bank, was shot dead in his home town by Israeli soldiers after he allegedly tried to stab one of them. After a preliminary investigation the Israeli military authorities stated that the soldiers had acted in self-defense and had used the necessary force. Read more about Rights groups dispute Israel's story in Hebron killing
