Tag Archives: West Bank

By Ramzy Baroud There is a possibility that you have heard of the famed British author, J.K. Rowling, writer of the popular fantasy series ‘Harry Potter’. While I knew of her books – through my teenage kids – I knew little about the author herself, until recently. Using generalised, ambiguous terminology that offered little by way of compelling Israel to …

Human Rights Groups denounced Israeli demolitions of homes in the West Bank where the U.N. said 63 houses and other structures were destroyed this week alone, making 132 Palestinians homeless. In a joint statement, 31 international organizations including Oxfam and Amnesty International slammed the “surge” in demolitions and urged world leaders “to take urgent action” to put an end to …

By : Amer Zahr There’s no reason to think there’s anything wrong. Almost no reason. Except for one thing. There’s a military occupation going on. Forty-eight years later, unfortunately, this still has to be explained. And I don’t want to try to explain it to you by exploring international law or geopolitics. Wikipedia has that pretty well covered. Instead, let’s …

  On Friday a Palestinian children has burned to death after Israeli settlers set fire to houses in West Bank. Two homes were set ablaze in an arson attack by Israeli settlers in Duma Palestinian village in south of Nablus. The fire broke out after Jewish settler threw firebombs and Molotov cocktails into houses. Local residents’ identified the killed infant in the attack as  the 18 …

By: Ramzy Baroud Another row is brewing between Israel and the Palestinian Resistance Movement, Hamas, over the release of Avraham Mengitsu, an Israeli citizen who, according to Israeli military sources, ‘slipped into Gaza’ on September 7, 2014. The circumstances of Mengitsu’s entry into Gaza remain unclear, especially since Hamas’ political leader,Khaled Mashaal, denied that the military wing of Hamas is …

By Ramzy Baroud  Are you surprised that there has been little mobilization to help Yarmouk, the Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, which is overrun by militants, and besieged by the Syrian army? Palestinians – and Syrians – there are killed in a myriad of ways, including starvation. I am not surprised. Even before Palestinian refugees found themselves …

Out of School, Doing Risky Work for Low Pay – HRW (Jerusalem) – Israeli settlement farms in the West Bank are using Palestinian child labor to grow, harvest, and pack agricultural produce, much of it for export, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The farms pay the children low wages and subject them to dangerous working conditions …

US Secretary of State John Kerry is all set to travel to Rome this Sunday to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They will discuss a number of issues, including recent developments in Israel, the West Bank, and Jerusalem and the region”, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. Kerry had been dogged in his nine-month pursuit for peace …

Human rights groups and NGOs have accused Israel of supporting a shoot-to-kill policy after several recent Israeli police incidents with Palestinians. A Jerusalem court on Sunday arraigned a border policeman after he shot and killed a Palestinian during a demonstration in the West Bank in May. Many argue that the manslaughter charge was not strong enough; furthermore, Israeli Public Security …

Israel on Wednesday approved new settlement blocs in east Jerusalem despite mounting unrest over the issue, as US Secretary of State John Kerry gets ready to meet with Palestinian leaders over tensions in the occupied territory. The construction of the new settlement were announced only hours after Jewish extremists torched a mosque in West Bank, in a development that will …