Behind the Wall

Rich Wiles is a photographic artist who has been living and working in Palestine for some years. His photographic work has been shown around Europe, the US, Australia and in Palestine itself. Since 2006 he has been writing from Occupied Palestine under the title Behind the Wall. Much of this work is based in and around the refugee camps in Palestine, highlighting daily life and memories of refugees who still live in forced exile for over 60 years since al Nakba (The Catastrophe). www.richwiles.com

hunger strike ends

On the evening of 14 May, Palestinian prisoners' ended their hunger strike. The prisoners' committee representing the hunger strikers announced the agreement that they had won: an end to the use of long-term isolation of prisoners for "security" reasons - with Israel currently keeping Palestinians in isolation for up to 10 years; for an end to the denial of family visits; and that no new administrative detention orders or renewals of administrative detention orders will be issued for the 308 Palestinians currently in administrative detention, unless the secret files, upon which administrative detention is based, contain "very serious" information.

Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh spent an incredible 77 days on hunger strike, and over 2000 spent almost a full month without food. The steadfastness of those hunger strikers was inspirational - and your support was critical. As with any non-violent direct action, international support and solidarity was essential in raising the issue on a global stage, and increasing pressure on the Israeli government to abide by human rights law. Despite the mainstream news media's silence, the creative use of social media including twitter, with #75DaysVSApartheid trending internationally, successfully broke the silence, and spread the word about the protests inside Palestine, and internationally.

As Richard Falk points out: ‘the animating hunger of these Palestinians is for peace and justice, for love and dignity, and that their heroic strikes would have impossible without cherishing life and future freedom for the people of Palestine'.

This report: from Palestine Solidarity Campaign

More land-grabbing - Olive trees in jeopardy

Ousra loses more land to the ever-expanding colonies

Sunday, April 29, a group of settlers bulldozed agricultural lands belonging to the village of Qusra, in Nablus district. In the morning hours, the settlers went to the piece of land, which is even located far from the settlements surrounding the village but had been targeted before by the settlers. Many times, the area was a location of clashes between the people from Qusra that were out there to protect their lands against the settlers’ usurpation.
link to www.stopthewall.org

IOA plans to uproot 1,000 olive trees

The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has informed Palestinian farmers in Wadi Qana in Deir Estiya village, west of Salfit, that one thousand of their olive trees would be chopped off.

May Day illustration by Majed Badra

link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

news in april

48 hours before 8am 16 April 2012 [Main source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group (PMG) - Thanks too, to Laura Stuart

Dawn: Israeli air strike hits Gaza City

Israeli Army tanks shell Northern Gaza

Israeli Army missiles hit Gaza farms

Israeli Navy opens fire on Palestinian fishing boats

Settler militants stone international cyclists

Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in 20 towns and villages

1 air strike – 5 attacks – 47 raids including home invasions – 5 beaten – 6 injured – 2 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage – 11 taken prisoner – 22 detained – 107 restrictions of movement

Home invasions & occupations:11:00, Jayus - 01:30, Jayus town - 03:45, Al-Ubeidiya. 10:50, Seida - 02:50, Bethlehem - 23:15, Hebron.

Peace disruption raids:01:05, Deir Sudan - 02:25, Burhan - 14:30, Al-Araf - 22:15, Zabuba - 00:15, Al-Yamun - 00:45, Beit Qad - 14:40, Beit Lid - 16:50, Izbat Shofat - evening, Anabta - 20:50, Izbat Al-Tabib - 23:00, Nabi Elias - 06:25, Beit Ibba - 07:00, Jericho - 19:00, Bethlehem - 19:20, Al-Thahiriyye - 00:40, Hebron. dawn, Gaza. 15:25, Abu Dis - 21:30, Al-Ram - 14:10, Ramallah - 14:10, Al-Bireh - 16:00, Jalbun - 17:00, Zubaba - 22:50, Arraba - 09:45, Allar - 22:50, Zeita - 00:15, Anabta - 00:25, Tulkarem - 15:00, Hablat - 15:00, Ras-Terih - 01:15, Qalqilya - 21:40, Beita - 14:35, Al-Khadr - 22:10, Al-Khadr - 09:25, Bani Na’im - 11:45, Qalqis, - 12:00, Deir Samit - 13:00, Dura - 14:10, Al-Thahiria - 16:00, Yatta - 16:00, Beit Ammra - 22:00, Al-Sima.

illustration: Majed Badra

Easter Monday - Gaza this week

Life continues as 'normal' in the Strip.In the past week, Two people were injured in Israeli air strikes on Gaza. Israeli tanks fired on, and invaded Gaza farmland, ruining crops. Gaza farms were under Israeli fire from the Green Line.

(Collated by Laura Stuart)

Short-lived cease-fire in Gaza

The citizens of Gaza continue to suffer attacks by the Israeli military, power cuts and various deprivations of life's necessities. A cease-fire brokered today lasted a few hours  until an Israeli attack on a funeral. More details here

Fun with mom and pop - making holes

Laura Stuart, eagle-eyed and vigilant observer, has just posted this interesting piece about alternative holidays. If you grew up with hollywood westerns and any kind of gun culture it might look like the most natural and wholesome "fun" thing to do together as family. If this is your idea of fun, a firm called Caliber 3 will provide top Israeli anti-fright experts to show you how to pull that trigger:

Latest "Family Holiday"
Take the family to Israel and learn how to shoot guns
http://caliber3.webads.co.il/

picture: "Settlers" carry on the Hollywood tradition