Saturday, December 1 2012 Partnering in justice by Jon SimonsThis post was originaly published in Jon’s blog – israelipeaceimages.com If I were a cinematographer, I’d show you the scene this way. First you see small groups of Palestinian men and children sitting on rocks on a sunny hillside, mostly in everyday, modern clothes, many smoking as they chat. The camera passes over a few Israelis and a Westerner sitting among them, apparently basking in the sun. To one side, women, more of whom are in traditional dress, are preparing tea over an open fire. You might think it’s a […]
Saturday, November 17 2012 Mitzpe Yair and Susya by David Shulman10 AM. A dusty blue tractor, idle at the edge of the field. Some twenty soldiers, including many officers and a Druze super-officer from the Civil Administration. Six army vehicles plus the big police van. A dozen settlers or so, held at bay by the soldiers. Fifteen Palestinians of the ‘Awad and Jabareen families, whose land we are standing on. Sa’id ‘Awad, restrained, dignified, is their spokesman today. Children—like Latif, in school in Yata, and Sara, in a long brown coat and pink boots and a knitted scarf for the […]
Saturday, October 6 2012 Soldiers fired tear gas on olive harvesters from Tarqumiya – by Alon AviramIt’s that time of the year again and the olive trees are ripe and ready for harvest. I found myself last Saturday picking olives alongside Palestinian families and Israeli activists from Ta’ayush in the village of Tarqumiya, northwest of Hebron. As the morning light crept over us, the only sounds to be heard were those of intermittent conversations, of hands sifting through coarse olive branches as they plucked the fruit, and then of the olives dropping like scattered rain drops on the nylon sheets below. The annual olive harvest is a […]
Saturday, September 15 2012 Gawawis and Bi’r al-‘Id – by David ShulmanI’ve never been expelled from my home or my lands or from anywhere else. No doubt my ancestors could have said something about it. When I came to live in Israel some 45 years ago, I never dreamed that someday I’d be spending my weekends trying to keep Palestinian farmers and shepherds from suffering that prototypically Jewish trauma—at the hands of the Jews. I can tell you. It feels like hell, even if you’re just watching it happen to someone else. There are times when I think I can’t go […]
Saturday, August 25 2012 Solidarity Visit in the Villages Slated for Demolition in the South Hebron Hills (“Firing Zone 918″).The residents of the villages, together with the activists and groups active in the area, invite you to a solidarity visit in the villages which stand in immediate danger of demolition by the Israeli army and its “Civil Administration.” The Israeli Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, recently gave orders to destroy eight Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills and to expel from their lands the 1,500 residents of the area. The residents are defined, in the Minister’s statement, as “squatters on Firing Zone 918.” This definition blatantly ignores historical […]
Tuesday, August 7 2012 Training for Ethnic Cleansing by Amitai Ben-AbbaToday (Tuesday, August 7th, 2012) Israeli soldiers landed with two helicopters on Khirbet Jenbah, a Palestinian village in the south-east corner of the West Bank. Soldiers terrorized locals and vandalized property. The village is in an area assigned as a “fire zone” for military training. Recently, Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered to evict Jenbah and seven other villages that are situated within the arbitrary training zone in South Hebron Hills. Roughly 1500 people will be displaced as a result. The idea is to force the inhabitants of Jenbah and […]
Saturday, July 21 2012 They’ll Stone You When You’re Trying to Feed Your Sheep by Amitai Ben Abba“Waaargh!!!” the older settler roars and charges us with a rock in his palm. I am afraid, finding myself behind the camera at a settler attack once again. “We already called the cops, they’re attacking us, stop them!” I shout to the soldiers in the jeep down in the wadi. The settler runs past us to throw the stones at the shepherds and Ada makes a ninja jump, imitates the settler’s roar and starts running after him screaming at him go home, nutcase. Fruitcake. Cupcake. Ada, a brave yoga teacher […]
Tuesday, July 10 2012 The Beating and Why I Come Back for More by Amitai Ben AbbaMy arm was twisted, bent, injured, violated, but it was not broken. 5 soldiers and 4 settlers were huddled around me. I felt blows from all directions. My hat was in the dirt. I was biting dust, clinging to my glasses with my left hand, and desperately clenching the camera with my right. The blue shirted attacker grabbed my right arm, twisted, bent it. I screamed. The camera was extracted from my hopelessly clenched fingers. They quickly smashed the camera on the ground. Taayush means living together living the revolution […]