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 »
With all the attention about the imminent threat of demolition of the village of Susiya that would result in the displacement of the residents, it was important for the ICAHD camp participants to travel to the South Hebron Hills to demonstrate our solidarity with the village. We arrived early in the morning and were welcomed… Read more »
More than half way through the building camp and we are slightly ahead of schedule. The building so far… Unlike in previous years, this house has not been built on the footprint of a demolished house. The family’s house was demolished, but they are able to reconstruct the house in a different location. When the… Read more »
Today we worked on constructing a large tent for a Bedouin community in the Jordan Valley area of Ain Sultan. Prior to that we toured the Jordan Valley with one of ICAHD’s political tour guides, Chaska. The hot and harsh yet beautiful landscape hides extremely ugly human rights abuses in plain sight. The Jordan Valley… Read more »