For two days on a freezing West Bank hilltop, the Bab Al-Shams village stood as a symbol of Palestinian nonviolent resistance to the planned expansion of settlements that would cut the West Bank into two and deny territorial contiguity to any hypothetical Palestinian state. Photos by: Hamde Abu Rahma, Ahmad Al-Bazz, Anne Paq, Yotam Ronen, and Oren Ziv On the morning of Friday, January 11, Palestinian activists from the various Popular Struggle Committees established a tent camp on a hilltop in an area east of the West Bank known as E1, calling it the Bab Al-Shams (Gate of the Sun) village. The land in…

UPDATE, 8:30 a.m.: Mass police and army forces evacuated Bab Al-Shams overnight, following a statement made by the prosecuter general stating that the outpost is an immediate threat to the security of the region. Hundreds of soldiers and police detained the dozens of activists present, who resisted the eviction non-violently, and put them on busses to Qalandiya checkpoint. The tents have remained in Bab Al-Shams, and authorities are waiting on the High Court to rule on whether or not they too can be brought down. The heart of the legal controversy is whether or not Bab Al-Shams was built on…

In response to the Israeli government's plans to build 4,000 housing units for Jewish settlers in the E1 area, Palestinians set up a new tent village called Bab Al-Shams (Gate of the Sun). Police attempts to dismantle the new village were thwarted by a temporary warrant issued by the High Court of Justice. Some 250 Palestinians, organized in part by the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee and activists from several villages in struggle against the wall and settlements, arrived at the area known by Israel as E1 early this morning, and started work on their new village. Activists state that the…

Izzie in HolyLand is back after the Europeans decide to go all the way with their response to building in E1 and... reprimand! Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Izzie: Yes Ruthie? Ruthie: Ms. Holyland, Prime Minister David Cameron for you on line 1. Izzie: OK. Cameron: Ms. Holyland? Izzie: Yes, David, how are you? Cameron: I’m good, I’m good. Thank you. Izzie: Mazel Tov on the baby. Cameron: Excuse me? Izzie: The baby, the baby! You know, Katie and Will’s? Cameron: Ah, of course. Yes, yes. Thank you so much Ms. Holyland. If I may, I’m calling you on another topic. Izzie: Sure, go…

The decision to promote construction plans for the E1 area and build 3,000 housing units in the West Bank has European diplomats making a last-ditch effort to save the two-state solution.  Israeli ambassadors in several European capitals have been summoned to receive angry responses to Jerusalem's recent decision to construct 3,000 new housing units in the West Bank settlements and promote the zoning plan for E1 area, northeast of Jerusalem. E1 is the only remaining corridor between the large Palestinian cities in the West Bank. It is the final brick in the great project Likud and Kadima prime ministers have…