Saturday, November 23 2013 An Organized Attack in Umm el Ara’is, and MoreA sunny Saturday in South Hebron hills, and for some reason, not many activists have registered. Some of us headed from Jerusalem, in Ezra’s car, to the lands of Umm el ‘Amad. One shepherd took his sheep to graze, and another plowed his land accompanied by us, fortunately without being disturbed by settlers or ‘”Security Forces”. The farmers have finished their work pretty early, and the one who had been plowing reminded us that his access to his lands has been denied for many years, until we started coming along with him. The rest of us headed in a van from Jerusalem to […]
Saturday, November 2 2013 An article in “Le Monde” about Ta’ayushhttp://www.taayush.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/TAAYOUSH.pdfTAAYOUSH Written in French by Luc Beaudoin In the Paths of Occupied Palestine—Part 1 of 2 Photo Captions (clink the link, above, to see photos in the original article): Bedouins from Um al-Hayyari having difficulty watering their flocks: the settlement in Carmel (right) expanding their military defense. Bottom: Ta’ayush’s Tamar confronts soldiers defending the settlement consuming Palestinian lands. The Oslo Accords (1993) between Israel and the Palestinians predicted that a five-year interim period would lead up to enacting the permanent agreement in which the West Bank (and Gaza) would be […]
Monday, July 15 2013 Umm al-Ara’is and Umm al-Khair by David ShulmanJuly 13, 2013 Umm al-Ara’is and Umm al-Khair A man wants to walk on his land. He knows they won’t let him. The soldiers are already there, waiting for him. Still, he wants to walk on his land. Settlers have stolen it, and the soldiers are there for their sake. Still, he needs to go there, it’s his land, it’s like a part of his body. He’s not about to give up. Week after week, on Saturday morning, we follow him to the fields. Today, like every week, there are […]
Wednesday, July 10 2013 [Watch] The False Arrests – Umm al-Kheir by Amitai Ben-AbbaSaturday July 7th, 2013. We’re called urgently to Umm al-Kheir. When we arrive, a woman is shouting and people from the village are running down the hill. Abdallah starts running ahead of me with his big camera. He sprints incredibly quickly for this rough terrain. People and soldiers are scattered chaotically on the hill above the well of the village. A young shepherd of Umm al-Kheir, Sa’id (aliases throughout), is being howled into a military jeep. People gather around the jeep, the women scream to God in over-bearing agony. People […]
Thursday, June 27 2013 On Authors, Porta-Potties, and Other things by Amitai Ben-AbbaA blow to the ribs is the small token I received from the soldiers for coming once again to accompany people to their land in Umm al-Ara’is. This time we staged some resistance. We approached the land from three different directions. In a sub-group of five we entered from the south and met confused soldiers telling us we are not allowed to go further. We told them there is absolutely no legal justification to stop us as we kept on roaming through. They demanded our ID’s but we dismissed them […]
Saturday, June 8 2013 Shepherds accompaniment in Umm el-Amad, a mock arrest in Umm el Arayes and a real one in Umm el KhierTa’ayush activists spent the Saturday (as any Saturday) in several locations of the South Hebron hills region, and cooperated with local Palestinians. On the lands of the village of Um el Amad, activists accompanied local shepherds and their flocks of goats and sheep, while they went grazing near the settlement of Otni’el. Unlike many previous occasions This time the military nor the settlers did not disrupt the shepherds. The shepherds noticed that earlier that week a new incursion into a different part of their lands that started last January, was […]
Saturday, January 22 2011 escorting shepherds in Um Elkhir, cleaning a cistern in Bir El IdIn the morning we went out with the shepherds. As we reached the pastures, forces of the border police and the army arrived and asked to see our papers, but nothing more. The shepherds went down into the wadi with the flocks and we returned to the village and from there to Bir El Id. We saw the progress of cleaning the cistern, on which the Civil Authority only allowed one week’s work. From there we continued to Palestinian Susya. We found that the settlers were pitching a huge tent […]