Israeli forces have demolished every home in the Bedouin village of Khirbet Taha in the northern West Bank district of Nablus during three separate demolitions since the start of the year. The village’s only school was also destroyed, leaving children to study in a dilapidated 100-year-old mosque — the only structure left standing in the village.
Palestinians across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday gathered to commemorate the 40th anniversary of “Land Day.” The first Land Day, on March 30, 1976, saw thousands of Palestinians take to the streets in protest of the confiscation of thousands of acres of Palestinian land in the northern Galilee region of Israel. During the protest, six demonstrators were shot dead and over 100 were wounded. Forty years later, Palestinians are still taking to the streets in protest of massive Israeli land grabs.
As the world celebrates World Water Day this week, Palestinians in refugee camps across the occupied West Bank are preparing for the summer, when water becomes scarce. While the World Health Organization recommends 100 liters of water per person per day, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank use less than 73 liters, with those in refugee camps using even less. In Israel, residents use an average of 183 liters per person, per day. In Bethlehem’s Beit Jibrin camp, one young man takes Mondoweiss around the in and outs of the water issues the camps face each year.
Dozens of Palestinian students marched in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem to encourage business owners to get behind the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement on Sunday. Ibrahim Subhay, a 22-year-old student in Bethlehem, told Mondoweiss that his main goal was to educate business owners on the importance of the BDS movement, “We can’t ask the international community to support us, and not do our part to support ourselves.”
On March 13, 11-year-old Khalid Ishtawy joined the thousands of other children injured by Israeli forces, when he was shot in the thigh in the northern occupied West Bank village of Kufr Qaddum during a protest. This past weekend other children joined the village’s weekly protest to honor their injured friend. Abed Al Qaisi and Sheren Khalel interview some of the young protesters who say they are demanding their right to be like children in the rest of the world, and letting their injured friend know they support him.
Israeli forces on Friday suppressed a peaceful march of Palestinian protesters in the occupied West Bank district of Hebron, firing tear gas, physically assaulting and throwing stun grenades directly at protesters and journalists. The march was in commemoration of the Ibrahimi mosque massacre of 1994
On Feb. 10, Israeli forces installed a section of fence a few hundred meters long, lined with barbed wire, along a dirt path taken by school children in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem’s Tuqu village. Mondoweiss spoke to some of the students and teachers who take the path to school everyday, and witnessed children as young as five getting caught in the barbed wire.
Israeli forces closed down Qabatiya village in the northern occupied West Bank overnight Wednesday, following an attack carried out by three teens from the village who shot and killed a 19-year-old Israeli police officer, and seriously injured another. All three teens were shot dead at the scene, but Israeli forces retaliated by closing down the attackers’ hometown. Around 25,000 people in the large northern village are on lockdown.
Muhanned Qafesha, a resident of Tel Rumeida in Hebron, takes Mondoweiss through the arduous journey residents of the city have been subjected to since Israel made the town a closed military zone in November. Israeli soldiers detain and harass filmmakers Sheren Khalel and Abed Al Qaisi as they attempt to report Qafesha’s story.
Filmmakers Sheren Khalel and Abed al Qaisi wanted to know exactly how much the children who live in Bethlehem’s Aida and Beit Jibrin refugee camps understood about the military occupation going on around them, and how normal they believed their lives were. With their parents permission, Khalel and al Qaisi asked five children from the streets of the two camps what they thought. All of the answers were spontaneous and unrehearsed, and as it turned out, the kids understood — and have experienced — quite a lot.