The story of the Bedouin village Sa’wa in the Naqab is the story of Palestine, from the West Bank to Jerusalem and beyond. Palestinian homes are being demolished and Palestinian families are being expelled to make way for the Israeli settler population.
17-year-old Ali Burqan was reportedly helping his neighbors demolish their own home, as per an Israeli court order, when a wall fell on him, killing him. Another teenager, 13-year-old Omar Abu al-Nil was killed in Gaza during protests on the border.
Zuheir al-Rajabi walks through his East Jerusalem neighborhood past Israeli flags hanging from the homes of his former neighbors who were forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for Jewish settlers. “This is an occupation and nothing is going to stop them from enacting their policies,” al-Rajabi said. “They will do everything, arrest us, imprison us, and kick us out, just as they did with our neighbors.”
By opposing and prohibiting funding to many of the Israeli policies of military occupation that violate the human rights of the Palestinian people, and by increasing the transparency around US weapons flows to Israel, Representative Betty McCollum’s latest bill is the boldest effort ever by Congress to ensure that the United States is no longer complicit in Israel’s denial of freedom to five million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A new field report from Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq released this week details the numerous human rights violations that occurred throughout Palestine, particularly in the occupied West Bank, during 2020 — violations that the group said were exacerbated by, and spurred on, by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
An Israeli military court could send anti-apartheid activist Issa Amro to jail next week for among other absurd charges using the word “stupid” with an Israeli soldier. An international campaign to stop Amro’s sentencing now includes the Canadian mission to Ramallah, novelist Raja Shehadeh and the liberal Zionist org J Street.
On Monday morning, Israeli armed forces and Civil Administration authorities arrived at Khirbet Humsah, a Bedouin enclave in the northern Jordan Valley, with bulldozers and proceeded to dismantle at least 28 structures, including homes and agricultural pens. This was not the first time Khirbet Humsah’s residents were left homeless and displaced. On November 3rd, 2020, just hours before the US elections, Israeli forces also completely razed the village to the ground, leaving its residents to spend a cold and rainy winter night without shelter.
Yumna Patel interviews Rasmi Abu Aram, the father of Harun Abu Aram who was shot by Israeli forces on New Year’s Day as he attempted to protect a neighbor’s house from demolition. “My son Harun is so young, he’s only 24. He had his whole life ahead of him, and now he might die because the soldiers had nothing better to do than shoot him over a generator,” Abu Aram tells Mondoweiss.
If there ever was a year in recent history that was truly unforgettable, 2020 is it. In Palestine, COVID-19 did not stop the occupation, and in many cases exacerbated the devastating effects of 53 years under Israeli military rule. On top of the pandemic, we witnessed major shifts in global politics with widespread regional normalization, and the defeat of US President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, global movements for justice like Black Lives Matter, and the fight for justice in Palestine continued to transcend borders, thrusting marginalized voices into the mainstream in ways that were once unimaginable.
41 Democratic congress members have signed a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, condemning Israeli’s demolition of a West Bank village and demanding to know whether U.S. equipment was used.