10 AM. A dusty blue tractor, idle at the edge of the field. Some twenty soldiers, including many officers and a Druze super-officer from the Civil Administration. Six army vehicles plus the big police van. A dozen settlers or so, held at bay by the soldiers. Fifteen Palestinians of the ‘Awad and Jabareen families, whose land we are standing on. Sa’id ‘Awad, restrained, dignified, is their spokesman today. Children—like Latif, in school in Yata, and Sara, in a long brown coat and pink boots and a knitted scarf for the ...Saturday, October 6 2012 Soldiers fired tear gas on olive harvesters from Tarqumiya – 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 as they plucked the fruit, and then of the olives dropping like scattered rain drops on the nylon sheets below. The annual olive harvest is a ...
Saturday, September 15 2012 Gawawis and Bi’r al-‘Id – by David Shulman I’ve never been expelled from my home or my lands or from anywhere else. No doubt my ancestors could have said something about it. When I came to live in Israel some 45 years ago, I never dreamed that someday I’d be spending my weekends trying to keep Palestinian farmers and shepherds from suffering that prototypically Jewish trauma—at the hands of the Jews. I can tell you. It feels like hell, even if you’re just watching it happen to someone else. There are times when I think I can’t go ...
Friday, September 14 2012 We Need Your Support
Ta’ayush is a grassroots movement working to break down the walls of racism, segregation, and apartheid by constructing a true Arab-Jewish partnership. For more then a decade, Ta’ayush has been working in area C of the occupied Palestinian territories, especially in the South Hebron Hills, to support Palestinian residents in their struggle to retain their homes and agricultural lands. Palestinians in these areas face constant harassment and violence by Israeli settlers and the army, which aims to cleanse area C of its Palestinian population by compelling them to leave to ...Saturday, August 25 2012 Solidarity Visit in the Villages Slated for Demolition in the South Hebron Hills (“Firing Zone 918″).
The residents of the villages, together with the activists and groups active in the area, invite you to a solidarity visit in the villages which stand in immediate danger of demolition by the Israeli army and its “Civil Administration.” The Israeli Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, recently gave orders to destroy eight Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills and to expel from their lands the 1,500 residents of the area. The residents are defined, in the Minister’s statement, as “squatters on Firing Zone 918.” This definition blatantly ignores historical ...Saturday, July 21 2012 They’ll Stone You When You’re Trying to Feed Your Sheep by Amitai Ben Abba “Waaargh!!!” the older settler roars and charges us with a rock in his palm. I am afraid, finding myself behind the camera at a settler attack once again. “We already called the cops, they’re attacking us, stop them!” I shout to the soldiers in the jeep down in the wadi. The settler runs past us to throw the stones at the shepherds and Ada makes a ninja jump, imitates the settler’s roar and starts running after him screaming at him go home, nutcase. Fruitcake. Cupcake. Ada, a brave yoga teacher ...
Tuesday, July 10 2012 The Beating and Why I Come Back for More by Amitai Ben Abba My arm was twisted, bent, injured, violated, but it was not broken. 5 soldiers and 4 settlers were huddled around me. I felt blows from all directions. My hat was in the dirt. I was biting dust, clinging to my glasses with my left hand, and desperately clenching the camera with my right. The blue shirted attacker grabbed my right arm, twisted, bent it. I screamed. The camera was extracted from my hopelessly clenched fingers. They quickly smashed the camera on the ground. Taayush means living together living the revolution ...
Friday, June 22 2012 Demonstration in Susiya – by David Shulman
I doubt if Palestinian Susya has ever seen so many people. Some 500, maybe more, have arrived from Jerusalem (including a large Palestinian delegation from East Jerusalem), Tel Aviv, Beer Sheva, and various sites in the occupied territories: Beit Umar, Mufagara, and the khirbehs close to Susya. It’s a mixed Palestinian-Israel crowd. I see many veterans of the early years of Ta’ayush, some of them returning to Susya after a long time. We know the Susya people well: we have stood by them in the face of many violent attacks ...
Pressing Issues