The right to pray does not have an age limit

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by EA Ebba, Yanoun team,

“Teargas burns in my throat and nose. My eyes sting. I lift up the scarf over my nose and I start to breathe through the blue velvet fabric. Around me, people are fleeing in all directions. Smoke from teargas-canisters settles like a fog over the crowd, of men women and children. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! It sounds as if weapons are being fired, but the sound comes from sound bombs thrown into the crowd.”  

Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) monitor access to holy sites for Palestinians of all faiths across occupied Palestine. During Ramadan our EAs monitor the checkpoints every Friday to ensure that those with permits are able to go to Jerusalem and report on any human rights abuses that occur during crossing. Continue reading

Neutralising threats: the human cost of military occupation

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By EA Emily, Hebron team, 

The scars of Hebron’s local community are easy to miss at first glance but lie only just below the surface. I first arrived in the aftermath of a wave of violence from October 2015-March 2016 [1]. Within moments of meeting, locals in the city’s Israeli-controlled H2 area would tell me about a Palestinian killed by Israeli forces just meters away. It was clearly fresh and painful. Continue reading

A day in Yatta: The effect of the roadblocks around the town.

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by EAs Maria and Siphiwe, South Hebron Hills team, 

Today is almost certainly the last day of Ramadan – hopefully the new moon will be seen tonight and celebrations of Eid-al-Fitr will go ahead tomorrow. The holy month of daily fasts will be over.

While Ramadan is drawing to a close, there is less certainty about when life in Yatta will return to any kind of normality. As of the 5th of July, the towns of Yatta, As Samu’ and Bani Na’im are under indefinite closure. Mid-afternoon on Friday 1st July, there was a dreadful drive-by shooting of an Israeli family on Route 60, just west of Yatta, killing the father (Michael Mark) and seriously injuring his wife and two children (15 and 13 years old). The unidentified assailant/s escaped. [1] [2] Following the attack, the Israeli authorities closed the roads around Yatta and the surrounding villages. These villages were blockaded because they were suspected to be the place of residence of the perpetrators.

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