By Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel A new Adalah report documents the parallels between two Palestinian villages, Al-Araqib in Israel and Susiya in the West Bank, which share a single story of struggle against home demolitions and forced displacement. The report sets out the methods of displacement used by Israel to expel Palestinian communities from their land on both sides of the Green Line, and examines the legal context in which it takes place. Read more: PHOTOS: Palestinians commemorate Nakba Day with rallies and protests Remembering the Nakba, understanding this is a shared land…

The Palestinian village of Susya, which has been through numerous demolitions and forced expulsions, beginning in 1986, is facing yet another threat to its existence. This time, the fate of the entire village lays in the hands of Israel's Supreme Court. By Rabbis for Human Rights On Thursday, Israel's Supreme Court will hold two sessions regarding two petitions affecting the future of the Palestinian village Susya. One will discuss the possibility of expediting the demolition of most of the village, while the other seeks to prevent the villagers’ remaining lands from being rendered off limits to them. The first court session involves a petition by…

Photos by Mareike Lauken and Keren Manor On January 17, the Israeli army destroyed 55 homes and animal shelters in the Al Maleh area. This large scale military operation happened simultaneously in two separate locations: Hamamat al-Maleh, and further up the valley in Al-Mayta. Al-Maleh and Al-Mayta are two marginalized villages located in the north of the Jordan Valley, near the Tayasir checkpoint. Of the 55 buildings demolished, 23 were family homes: five in Hamamat Al-Maleh (leaving 37 people homeless) and 18 in Al-Mayta (leaving 150 people homeless). In addition, 33 other buildings used to shelter the communities' animals were…

In September, a troupe of performers from the West Bank and Israel held a nine-day tour throughout the West Bank, promoting cultural resistance and staging innovative performance styles in an attempt to unify disparate Palestinian realities. By Marta Fortunato Al-Hadidiya, Jordan Valley, 12 December 2012 – Samir is on the verge of tears while he watches the Freedom Theatre actors performing the story that he himself just finished sharing with his community members. “I was grazing my sheep when the Israeli army arrived. I was blindfolded, handcuffed and brought to a military camp,” Samir tells. “There, some soldiers set dogs on me.…

Foreign Minister Lieberman may offer the Palestinians a 'temporary state' with no borders, which actually translates to no state at all. The Israeli government is so threatened by the Palestinian Authority's bid to go to the UN in order to achieve non-member observer state status, that it has gone through a series of moves in recent weeks that began with threats, and has now transitioned into what is being called an "offer" by the Foreign Ministry. According to a report in Haaretz on Wednesday,  Foreign Minister Lieberman is considering offering the Palestinians recognition of statehood within "provisional borders" in exchange for…

There is no possibility that Israel's Civil Administration will fairly and properly plan for Palestinians in Area C if they are not at the table when their fate is decided. By Rabbi Arik Ascherman Last Thursday, the bulldozers demolished Beit Arabiya, for the sixth time. On Wednesday, two homes were demolished in Dirat, a village that is appealing with Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) to the High Court against discriminatory planning in Area C. Additional homes and structures were demolished over the past week in Al-Waya, A-Tur, Ein al Hilwe, Ibziq, Nabi Samuel, Hares and more. The only crime of…

As America celebrated the re-election of Barack Obama, it was business as usual in Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank. At least two Palestinian homes were demolished today. The residents' 'crime?' They didn't have building permits, which are issued by Israel and are next to impossible for Palestinians to obtain.  According to Operation Dove, an Italian organization that maintains an international presence in the South Hebron Hills, one home was destroyed in Ad Deirat, while another house and a water cistern were destroyed in Jawwaya. Both villages are located in Area C of the West Bank, where Palestinians are under increasing…

On Saturday, Palestinian families in the Hebron Hills found themselves subject to state violence yet again, this time in the form of a tear gas attack. Their crime: harvesting olives on their land. By Alon Aviram It’s that time of the year again and the olive trees are ripe and ready for harvest. I found myself last Saturday picking olives alongside Palestinian families and Israeli activists from Ta'ayush in the village of Tarqumiya, northwest of Hebron. As the morning light crept over us, the only sounds to be heard were those of intermittent conversations, of hands sifting through coarse olive branches…

A surprisingly candid op-ed from a high-level Israeli official explains the role the Oslo Accords played in allowing Israel to maintain the occupation. Dov Weisglass, former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's righthand man, recently had another very candid moment. After Before the disengagement from Gaza, Weisglass gave a famous interview to Haaretz in which he was honest about the rationale behind the move: the desire to fill the diplomatic vacuum and secure Israeli control of the West Bank forever. Last week he went back to Oslo. Weisglass published an interesting op-ed in Ynet in which he explained the value of the 1993 Accords from a…

I started to think that a formal, unilateral annexation of Israeli-controlled Area C is imminent in May, when I saw this video (Hebrew) advocating the move. A public relations ploy designed to convince Israelis that annexing Area C is good for their future—and that giving the Palestinians who live in the area citizenship or residency won’t disturb Israel’s demographic balance—the video was put on YouTube by settler leader Naftali Bennett. After he made a fortune in high-tech, Bennett served as Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff from 2006 to 2008 (before Netanyahu was Prime Minister). He went on to become the Director…

The Defense Ministry and Civil Administration complained Tuesday that the thousands of faxes calling on the government to cancel the demolition of the Palestinian village are disrupting their work and threatened to get the police to stop the campaign.  Over 300 faxes were sent on Tuesday morning alone to the Defense Ministry offices as part of the "S.O.S. Susya"  campaign launched by several Israeli anti-occupation organizations to raise awareness and actively oppose the planned demolition of the small Palestinian village of Susya, in Area C of the southern West Bank. A simple click on the campaign's website automatically sends 5 faxes…

By Nasser Nawaj'ah I am Nasser Nawaj'ah. I am 30 years old. My mother gave birth to me in a cave in Susya El-Kadis. You know of Susya as a Jewish settlement in the South Hebron Hills, but Susya is first of all a Palestinian village that existed before the establishment of the State of Israel. I was named after my grandfather, who was still alive at the time. In 1948, he was displaced from his village near Arad, now in southern Israel. When they were expelled, my father was just a little boy and my grandfather carried him in…

One Member of Knesset's success at bringing down the mobile monopoly in Israel demonstrates that when there is a will, there is a way. On the minds of 99% of Israelis this week was not the occupation, not the bloated new coalition and definitely not Iran. Israelis were thinking about cellphones. In what was considered a historic moment, the country's three oldest cellular phone companies - Cellcom, Orange and Pelephone -  got a great sock in the eye, when two sleek new mobile operators entered the market last week, instantly undercutting the giants. With several more virtual companies on the…