Updates and Arrested Friends

Two internationals were arrested in Beit Omar on Saturday morning for escorting Palestinian farmers to their farm lands. The Israeli Army had declared it a "closed military zone" which they have done often as a way of destroying the farms that Palestinians work on and making life impossible for them. The two had gone saturday morning and at first had been targets of settler violence as rocks were hurled at them. Next a police jeep arrived and tried to arrest one of the Palestinian farmers. The internationals tried to protect the palestinian and had him guarded for 20 minutes before the police took out their batons and beat them away. They stayed somewhat firm and were themselves arrested, while the Palestinian was able to get free.


They were in jail for about 12 hours without any food or water and were brough to a judge who said that they were banned from Beit Omar for 2 weeks.



Last night we got back to Sheikh Jarrah from Ramallah and a concert had been organized at the tent where the evicted woman is staying. Bands from Italy and Norway were playing to support the cause of the families fighting eviction. Lots of people came from all around to watch it. Settlers also came out of their houses to gather up the road and to intimidate women that walked nearby.

One of the Norwegian Band members told us that they had also played in Hebron and the settler kids stole their water and tried smashing their equipment. After their show in Hebron, one of the kids even tried to knife them. Settlers are scary.



Today is the last day that the court gave the Hannoun family to give 50,000 dollars as collateral to the court that they will leave by July 19th. We are worried that the patriarch of the family may be arrested again in the near future.