Anyone who’s been to a checkpoint or a protest in the West Bank knows how arbitrary military rule can be. For the activist on the ground, some specific knowledge of the occupation’s byzantine legal framework can make a real difference. By Raghad Jaraisy Youtube is rife with videos of daily life in the West Bank – home demolitions, violent suppression of protests, unchecked settler violence, arbitrary arrests, etc.  But this video, from the organization Ta'ayush, is a little different. If other videos play out like action films, this one is more of a drama. No fisticuffs, no bulldozers, no tear gas or rubber bullets.…

Security forces are targeting Israeli activists and Palestinian shephards in new ways in the South Hebron hills. It’s as if they'd decided to circumvent the whole irksome apparatus of the courts and to resort instead to brute force. It’s much simpler, and maybe more effective.  By David Shulman Today we have the New Rules. In some respects they’re rather like the Old Rules. The aim and sole rationale remain the same: dispossession, expulsion, taking more land. The army has, it seems, given up on its favorite device of declaring Closed Military Zones, week after week; perhaps the outright illegality of this practice ended…

Israeli Ta'ayush activists who were accompanying Palestinian shepherds in the southern West Bank village Umm al Amad on Saturday were confronted by a soldier who lost his cool, to say the least. According to Guy, the Israeli activist who filmed the video below, this is private Palestinian land (the Otniel settlement is nearby) that the IDF and settlers routinely try and keep the Palestinian residents out of.  In the video below, the soldier can be seen first approaching the Palestinian shepherd, screaming in his face in Arabic: "You better watch it!"  Then Guy tells the soldier not to scream at…

In the video below (filmed by an Israeli Ta'ayush activist on Monday April 1 and subtitled quickly by yours truly) a policeman approaches Israeli activists who regularly go to the South Hebron Hills (he knows all their names already) and informs them they are being detained. For what? For filming illegal construction at an illegal outpost in the area called Avigayil on a different day. That's right. This was not an April Fool's joke, but the way the law is actually being enforced by Israeli authorities in the West Bank. They ended up being held for over 5 hours and questioned…

According to Guy, an Israeli Ta'ayush activist and documentarian of occupation in the South Hebron Hills area of the West Bank - there has been an increase in incidents over the last month in which Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been preventing him and other Israelis from filming what goes on. In this 7-minute video, edited together from footage taken just over the last few weeks, between February 23 and March 9, IDF soldiers - as well as high-ranking officers - are seen blocking camera lenses over and over by shoving their own smart phones in front of them. This…

The photo below was taken by an Israeli Ta'ayush activist on Saturday March 2 at 10:30a.m, in Umm al Amad, a Palestinian village in the South Hebron Hills close to the Otniel settlement. Shepherds from the village were trying to graze their sheep when according to the activist, Border Police officers showed up and simply expelled them. Masked settlers then came around to join in the intimidation and harassment. They were not questioned by the security forces or asked to identify themselves, but rather made nice. Although the settlers did not attack anyone in this incident, just a week and…

The Israeli army arrested 10 Palestinians and five Israelis in the South Hebron Hills today (Saturday) while they were trying to reach Palestinian-owned land next to the illegal outpost called Mitzpeh Yair, in the southern West Bank. According to Guy, an Israeli Ta'ayush activist who filmed the video below, the Awwad family from Umm al Ara'is was accompanied by Palestinians from Susya and Israeli activists to try and reach their land, since in recent months the army has been increasingly preventing them from doing so. As soon as they got there, the IDF soldiers declared it a "closed military zone" for reasons…

While Israelis are breathing a sigh of relief that quiet has mostly been restored (for the time being), and life can supposedly just go back to normal, with Gaza out of sight and out of mind, the other elephant in the room - the West Bank and East Jerusalem - is all but quiet. This morning (Sunday) a "price tag" attack was identified on a car in Shuafat, a Palestinian refugee camp in East Jerusalem, which is located inside the city's municipal borders (and thus under total Israeli jurisdiction). The car has the word "Gaza" graffitied on it, as pictured here in…

Thirteen anti-occupation activists were awoken by police officers early Sunday morning to receive closed military zone orders, preventing them from joining Palestinians in weekly demonstrations in the West Bank. By Leehee Rothschild Israeli police officers distributed closed military zone orders for four West Bank villages early Sunday morning to 13 prominent activists in groups such as Anarchists Against the Wall, Ta'ayush, and the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement. In most cases, the military orders were delivered personally, but for some activists who happened not to be home, they were left under their doors. In some cases, the officers came to look…

Last Saturday, a group of Ta’ayush activists traveled to the South Hebron Hills to provide support to Palestinian shepherds seeking to take their livestock out for grazing. Soon after they reached their destination, a group of IDF soldiers arrived to declare the area a closed military zone. Watch the confrontation transpire. By Israel Social TV.  Israel Social TV is an independent media NGO working to promote social change, human rights, social justice and equality, and to mobilize its viewers towards activism. Related: Testimony: Israeli activist blindfolded, mugged, beaten by settlers 1,500 Palestinians face expulsion to make way for IDF 'Firing Zone…

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…

Ta'ayush activists found 10 mature olive trees mangled on Saturday in an olive grove belonging to Palestinians from the village of at-Tuwani, in the South Hebron Hills. The settlers are from the illegal outpost of Havat Maon, a place known for settler violence and harassment. This 3-minute video taken by an Israeli Ta'ayush activist speaks for itself. It surveys the devastation caused to an entire grove of olive trees, which constitutes the livelihood of the Palestinian residents of the area. Such an act is not only an intentional blow to their income and basic welfare, but a total lack of…

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…