In the northeastern corner of the Palestinian village of Anata, between the separation wall and Israel’s illegal settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev, a crowd of about a hundred people has gathered for a celebration. On a small stage, a group of twenty foreign activists claps and sings about rebuilding and resistance. At the end of the… Read more »
Jeff Halper, ICAHD’s Director, reflects on the final day of ICAHD’s annual rebuilding camp for internationals: The ICAHD Rebuilding Camp is completed! Two weeks of building in 40 degree (104 F) heat, 20 international activists bolstered by their Palestinian and Israeli compatriots and a wonderful, professional Palestinian team of builders led by Salim and Riad,… Read more »
Today, August 2nd, has been an eventful culmination of our rebuilding fortnight together. This started with a hard mornings’ work on site in the 42 degrees heat, adding finishing touches to the house, cleaning, painting, and building a platform stage for our closing ceremony. During the ceremony we planted some trees, sang a song, helped… Read more »
Today there has been much exciting progression. The house is starting to look and feel ready, in preparation for Sunday’s dedication ceremony when the keys will be handed over to the new family so they can move in and make it their home. We were joined by two delegations from Ramallah – some researchers following… Read more »
Yesterday we celebrated a rebuilding camper’s birthday with a spontaneous bout of dancing to Frank Sinatra over breakfast! We then spent the day away from the rebuilding site and went first to Ramallah to get to know the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq, one of the oldest human rights organisations in the Middle East, established… Read more »
ICAHD rebuilding camp participants visited Susiya, the village in the South Hebron Hills threatened with demolitions. Photos of the visit will follow and for now here are reflections from Jeff Halper. On Friday the ICAHD rebuilding camp participants embarked on a study tour of the southern West Bank. Our first stop was Susya,… Read more »
We are grateful to Youth Against Settlements who gave us an explanation yesterday of life in the H2 section of Hebron – of not being allowed to walk in certain streets (Shuhada Street being the prime example) and having to walk through the cemetery whilst settlers get to use the roads and pavements. Plus there… Read more »
Internationals here for ICAHD’s annual rebuilding camp heard another sad story when they visited Dahmash, an area located between Lod and Ramle within Israel. “The situation here is no different to that in the Occupied Palestine Territory,” said Arafat Ishmael, head of the Lod Popular Resistance Committee, when he described the racist policies that they… Read more »
An American rebuilding camp participant describes our visit to Tel Aviv/Jaffa when we were given a tour by Zochrot, an Israeli organsation that seeks to educate Israeli society about the Nakba. George writes: The most depressing thing for me was to see everybody enjoying the popular Jerusalem Beach spot in Tel Aviv, and all along… Read more »
One of the many ways in which the Israeli government controls the Palestinian population – alongside the Separation Wall, water shortages, the appropriation of Palestinian land and the segregation of Palestinians living in different occupied areas – is through house demolition. Approximately 46,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished since 1967 in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and around 52,000 within the… Read more »
