Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
Wedding in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, a young couple get married in a traditional way in Palestine territory.
May 30, 2016
Gaza, Palestine
80% of factories in Gaza are out of service because of the ongoing siege imposed on the city by the Israelis.
Israeli Security in the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel.
Female tourist with mud pack on her face at the Dead Sea, Israel.
Bar Mitzvah service, a Jewish religious tradition, in the old city of Jerusalem.
A man reads a notice posted in the Mea Shearim district, an Ultra Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem.
Israeli woman enjoy a cold shower in a waterfall in the desert by the Dead Sea, Israel.
Israel Border Police in the West Bank, May 9, 2015.
Warning sign on Jordan-Israel border.
Salty crust of the Dead Sea on the Israel-Jordan border. Due to climate change the Dead Sea is shrinking every year.
May 2, 2015
Palestine, West Bank
The Palestinian National Security Force put on a display of its tactical abilities at a public event in Jericho on May 2, 2015.
The contributor of this video provided the following description of the event:
“The Palestinian Authority is very interested in conveying a positive image to the Palestinian public about its security forces. This is to counter an ever increasing negative perception among ordinary Palestinians towards the PA for coordinating on security matters with the Israelis.
The PA wanted to show us through experience what it is like to be a member of the NSF.They wanted us to know full well, and to tell the world, that their men and women are well disciplined, conditioned and motivated to carry orders when given.
However what struck me the most is the moral of the men and women and their motivation. They see themselves as a nucleus of a regular Palestinian army and not just a mere special force to carry on an arrest. One member of the NSF alluded to the second Intifada and at the time when the Israeli army stormed the center of Ramallah and laid seige on the Presidential compound where Arafat was taking residence. It was as if he was saying this won't happen again. There was also a feeling of bitterness and resentment over the Israeli army incursions into Palestinian towns and cities.
Members of the NSF speak of themselves as if they were a border force in charge of defending borders of Palestine. Of course we cannot help but ask ourselves where do these borders lie.
I asked the Colonel in charge of media affairs about challenges. His reply was the "Israeli occupation" as the most direct challenge and obstacle to advance this force. He cited restrictions on procuring technology and equipment. To make a point about the various restrictions the Colonel talked about donors' refusal to fund a canine unit and how this unit was founded despite lack of funding.”
The old city of Jerusalem contains the holiest places for two major monotheistic religions and the third holiest place for a third. The old city of Jerusalem contains the Wailing Wall, the holiest site for Jews; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is said to stand on the ground where Jesus was crucified, interred, and later resurrected; and the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is one of the oldest mosques in Islam and represents the place where the prophet arrived on his nightly journey from Mecca. Al-Aqsa is regarded as the third holiest place in Islam, after Mecca and Medina.
Together, these religious sites hold significance for approximately four billion Christians, Muslims and Jews around the world.
Palestinians from across the West Bank and Israel gathered in confiscated Palestinian villages, on both side of the 1967 Greenline, to commemorate Land Day. Land Day is seen as a day of resistance action in defense of Palestinian land. Annual Land Day events are held by Palestinian communities within the State of Israel, in the occupied territories, and in the Palestinian diaspora.
Land Day events in 2015 included a 'return march' by the community-in-exile of Lifta, many of whom today remain only a kilometer or two from their original homes. Today there remains a small but very active community-in-exile of Lifta's refugees in East Jerusalem, and it was this group, under the banner of their community grassroots organisation 'Sons of Lifta' who spent Land Day inside their home village. Although many of the village's houses remain intact and the refugees live only a ten minute journey away, they are denied their rights to return to live in the vilage by the State of Israel.
Land day first started on March 30,1976, when mass demonstrations broke out among Palestinian communities in the State of Israel in protest at an Israeli state plan to confiscate 20,000 dunums (2,000 hectares) of land around the Palestinian villages of Sakhnin and Arraba in the Galilee. This was one of the first examples of mass coordinated action being carried out by Palestinian citizens of Israel. Protests were held from the Galilee in the north all the way to the Negev (known as the 'Naqab' to Palestinians) in the south. Over the course of the day 6 Palestinians were shot dead and more than 100 were injured. Ever since these events, Palestinians have commemorated March 30th as 'Land Day', or 'Yom al-Ard' in Arabic.
In Another Land Day event, activists in the village of Wadi Fukin in the West Bank attempted to plant 350 olive tree saplings on land that is threatened with expropriation by the expansion of the Israeli settlement of Sur Hadassah. All Israeli settlements within the 1967 occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) are illegal under international law. Before more than a handful of trees could be planted in Wadi Fukin, Israeli soldiers rained clouds or tear gas on to the activists bringing the Land Day event to an abrupt halt. For Palestinians, Land Day is an important annual event which brings together many thousands of Palestinians across historic Palestine in the defence of Palestinian land.
As the Land Day action is brought to an abrupt halt in Wadi Fukin, the majority of the 350 olive tree saplings remain unplanted outside a house in the village after activists were forced to escape from clouds of tear gas that was fired by Israeli soldiers.
Wadi Fukin, West Bank, Palestine. March 30 2015.
A Palestinian child watches from a rooftop in Wadi Fukin as Israeli soldiers fire rounds of tear gas at fleeing activists during a tree planting event to mark Land Day. In the background stands the huge Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit which is built partly on the land of Wadi Fukin.
Wadi Fukin, West Bank, Palestine. March 30 2015.
Two elderly Palestinian women attempt to make their way down the hill in Wadi Fukin to escape from the tear gas that is being fired by Israeli forces.
Wadi Fukin, West Bank, Palestine. March 30 2015.
An Israeli security helicopter circles above Wadi Fukin during the olive tree planting event to commemorate Palestinian Land Day on March 30th 2015.
Wadi Fukin, West Bank, Palestine. March 30 2015.
Israeli soldiers line up on a hill top in Wadi Fukin as Palestinian activists watch from a distance during an olive tree planting event to commemorate Land Day in the Palestinian village of Wadi Fukin.
Wadi Fukin, West Bank, Palestine. March 30 2015.
350 olive trees were brought to Wadi Fukin to be planted on the lands threatened by settlement expansion.
Wadi Fukin, West Bank, Palestine, March 30 2105.
Activists make their way up a hill toward land that is threatened by the expansion of the Sur Haddasah settlement. In the background, the huge Beitar Illit settlement is also built on the land of Wadi Fukin.
Wadi Fukin, West Bank, Palestine, March 30 2015.
In the West Bank village of Wadi Fukin, an olive tree planting event is underway with local activists and refugees from Bethlehem's refugee camps to commemorate Land Day on March 30th 2015.
Wadi Fukin, West Bank, Palestine. March 30 2015.
Activists flee as Israeli forces rain tear gas down on them. The tear gas stopped the olive tree planting event being held to commemorate Land Day in the Palestinian village of Wadi Fukin.
Wadi Fukin, West Bank, Palestine. March 30 2015.
A Palestinian youth raises a Palestinian flag from the top of settlement construction machinery within the construction site that is expanding the Israeli settlement of Sur Hadassah. Sur Hadassah is located on the land of the West Bank Palestinian village of Wadi Fukin and the land of the pre-Nakba Palestinian village of Ras Abu Ammar.
Wadi Fukin/Ras Abu Ammar, West Bank/Green Line, Palestine. March 30 2015.
A small group of activists reach the construction site on the top of the hill in which Sur Hadassah settlement is being further expanded.
Wadi Fukin/Ras Abu Ammar, West Bank/Green Line, Palestinel. March 30 2015.
An elderly Palestinian women plants an olive tree sapling on land of the village of Wadi Fukin, which is threatened with confiscation by the expansion of the Sur Hadassah Jewish settlement.
Wadi Fukin, West Bank, Palestine. March 30 2015.
Yakoub Odeh is one of Lifta's Nakba survivors and also the head of 'Sons of Lifta' - a community group that was established by the refugees in defense of their village and their right to return to live in the village: "We are here to remember, we are here to learn and we are here to say we will never give up (our struggle for return)." Yakoub Odeh and Palestinian refugees from Lifta. Lifta, West Jerusalem, Israel. March 27 2015.
The refugees ended their Land Day action with Friday prayers at the edge of Lifta's spring under the watchful eyes of Israeli security forces and Jewish orthodox youth from the nearby settlements.
Palestinian refugees from Lifta. Lifta, West Jerusalem, Israel. March 27 2015.