President Trump has arrived in Israel, promising the ultimate deal. Ahead of the big day, a few political activists and commentators shared their thoughts on what, if anything, Trump can bring to the region.  By Yaser Abu Areesha President Donald Trump, a man who often speaks about making the "ultimate deal" that would bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has landed in Israel. But despite official declarations, no one is actually sure what he wants or whether he will surprise us. What is certain is that Trump moves in mysterious ways. [tmwinpost] The president is no longer the messiah…

Hundreds of activists, organized by a coalition of Palestinian, Israeli and American Jewish groups, built an encampment in Surara, from where Palestinians had been expelled in the 1990s. By +972 Magazine staff Around 300 Palestinians, Israelis and diaspora Jewish activists staged a direct action in the village of Sarura in the south Hebron hills of the West Bank on Friday, building a protest camp on land from which Palestinians were evicted in the 1990s. The event was also intended to mark 50 years of occupation. The event was organized by a coalition of groups, including the Center for Jewish Nonviolence,…

The Israeli army really wants to see Palestinian nonviolent activist Issa Amro in prison. We ask Issa why he's facing 18 charges now, and what 'winning' would mean for him. Video by A. Daniel Roth, Aaron Rotenberg Nonviolent Palestinian organizer Issa Amro has been practicing and teaching nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience in the occupied city of Hebron since 2003, in part through the local activist group he helped establish and operates, Youth Against Settlements. Recently, the Israeli army announced that it plans to prosecute him for 18 separate charges going all the way back to 2010. [tmwinpost] Almost all of the charges are…

Police arrested Muhammad Abu Hummus to prevent him from peacefully demonstrating against the Jerusalem Marathon — then lied about it. By John Brown* In March of this year, Israeli police arrested Muhammad Abu Hummus, a resident of the village Issawiya in East Jerusalem, where he serves as a member of a community organizing committee. He was arrested along with two other residents for alleged disorderly conduct. At 4 a.m. on March 18, approximately 20 police officers arrived at Abu Hummus' home and took him to the local police station for interrogation, even though a simple summons would have sufficed. The police, however, did…

"The Israeli occupation used to target Palestinian human rights defenders — now they’ve moved inside Israel," Hebron-based activist with Youth Against Settlements, Issa Amro, tells +972 Magazine and Activestills. Read more on the campaign against Breaking the Silence and human rights organizations in Israel.

Neither the army nor the police bat an eyelid when settlers set up shop in the front yard of a privately-owned Palestinian home for an entire weekend.  By Michael Salisbury-Corech Dozens of settlers in Hebron took over the front yard of the home of well-known local Palestinian nonviolent activist Issa Amro over the weekend. Israeli soldiers remained with the settlers for over 24 hours, guarding them as they slept, prayed, and ate — all the while blocking the entrance to the house. [tmwinpost] Amro rents the house from its Palestinian owner, using it as the community center for the "Youth Against Settlements"…

Israeli soldiers have been harassing Palestinian activist Issa Amro since he released a video of a soldier cocking his weapon at two youths. 'They know I am a moving camera,' he says. Palestinian non-violent activist Issa Amro is seen in the following photo, taken on May 28, being punched by an IDF soldier (the soldier's identity is unknown and this specific moment does not capture the punch that achieved contact). Amro, who lives in Hebron, is the founder and director of Youth Against Settlements and one of the most prolific and effective documentarians of Israeli occupation in the city. Amro, who has…

In the middle of Hebron, volunteers and activists built a kindergarten. Even a kindergarten, an attempt to bring a small piece of normalcy to the area, has turned into a target for the army, police and settlers.  Text and photos by Dana Direktor / 'The Hottest Place in Hell' Read this article in Hebrew The State of Israel offers compulsory education from the age of three. But for the residents of the H2 area of Hebron, under Israeli control, there are no educational institutions. Period. Thus, a Palestinian child has two options: pass a few checkpoints on the way to…

Since the Middle East is normally a hot and dry place without much more than heat waves for meteorologists to report, it can be quite a big story when the weather turns stormy as it did this past weekend. The magnitude of snow, which spread across the region from Jerusalem to Cairo, Homs, Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, Istanbul, Bethlehem and Hebron, was a rare sight to see. Times of extreme weather like this remind me that Israel is - at least geographically - an integral part of the Middle East. That there were once open roads and railways that connected Damascus to…

The only Palestinian kindergarten in the Israeli-controlled part of Hebron is vandalized with threatening hate speech. Similar slogans found elsewhere in the H-2 part of the city. Israeli settlers vandalized a Palestinian kindergarten in Hebron, spray-painting "Death to Arabs" on its wall, it was discovered this week. This is the only kindergarten in the Israeli-controlled section of Hebron to which Palestinian parents can send their three- to five- year-old children without them having to pass through an Israeli checkpoint. This is what the children saw when they arrived: The kindergarten is located near Shuhada Street in H-2, the part of Hebron…

By The Popular Struggle Coordination Committee UPDATE: Issa Amro was released on Sunday evening from Israeli prison after being held since Thursday. He had to pay NIS 1,500 upon being freed, and his terms of release include a  guarantee of NIS 5,000. He is prohibited from engaging in demonstrations for the next 3 months. Issa Amro, Coordinator of Youth Against Settlements, was stopped Thursday night by Israeli authorities at the Allenby Bridge. He was arrested and taken to the Hebron police station, where he was interrogated for hours on suspicion of involvement in organizing the women's action that took place in…

Nonviolent organizer Issa Amro was released from military prison this morning in a rare case of swift justice for Palestinians in the Israeli legal system.  Amro, the director of the Hebron based NGO Youth Against Settlements, was one of the organizers of Friday’s international day of action to open Shuhada street. On Monday, Israeli authorities summoned Amro for an interrogation in the Kiryat Arba police station. Authorities threaten to raid Amro house if he failed to appear for questions. Once he entered the station, Amro was arrested on suspicion of ‘sedition’ and ‘membership in an illegal organization,' both are serious charges which are…