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The Only Democracy? » Entries tagged with "Villages Group"

“Law Enforcement” Destroys Prayer House, Homes, School – Just Because They’re for Arabs

“Law Enforcement” Destroys Prayer House, Homes, School – Just Because They’re for Arabs

Last Thursday, November 24, employees of the Israeli company “E.T. Legal Services”, hired by the deceptively named “Civil Administration” arm of Israel’s military Occupation regime in the West Bank, demolished a mosque. Among other things. To add insult to injury, Occupation forces arrested two young women for passive nonviolent resistance (see the video below). This is not your vanilla American “Occupy” arrest-and-release, get lawyer-and-defendant-rights arrest. The girls were entered into a sealed military vehicle … Read entire article »

Filed under: Discrimination, Featured, On The Ground Reports

Villages Group: South Hebron Hills Update

Villages Group: South Hebron Hills Update

Dear friends and supporters, About one month ago we reported to you on the state of the local schoolhouse in Palestinian Susiya as its second school year opened. Visiting the school on Thursday November 2nd, 2011, we witnessed an impressive development in the construction of the school’s permanent building. These works are undertaken as a joint initiative of the NGO Action Against Hunger/ ACF International, and the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees. For our modest … Read entire article »

Filed under: Discrimination, On The Ground Reports

World-Class American Jazz Harpist Conducts Workshop at Salem Music Center

World-Class American Jazz Harpist Conducts Workshop at Salem Music Center

On Saturday, October 15th, 2011, American master jazz harpist Park Stickney visited the Salem village Music Center near Nablus. Stickney was in Israel-Palestine to give the opening concert for the new Jaffa Harp Festival. The Festival organizer, harpist Sunita Staneslow and her spouse Fred Schlomka informed Park about the Salem center, and he decided to include it in this – his first – visit to the country. During his visit at the Center, Park held a … Read entire article »

Filed under: On The Ground Reports

Please Help Palestinian Community Organizer Follow His Dreams

Please Help Palestinian Community Organizer Follow His Dreams

From David and Ehud at the Villages Group: Hi friends I am happy to tell you that Ibrahim Nawaja, who has run the Susiya creative and learning center, with great success , for almost a year (see also video below), has been accepted to Dar Al Kalima college (Arabic link) to study Documentary Film Making. This is a great opportunity for him. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1OoXxBrqA4&w=640&h=360] For those who know Ibrahim, you know what an exceptional, creative and sensitive person … Read entire article »

Filed under: Featured, On The Ground Reports

Report on Summer Camps at Susya and Umm-Al-Kheir

Report on Summer Camps at Susya and Umm-Al-Kheir

The summer camps at Susya and Umm-Al-Kheir have just ended. Both camps are organized locally, and funded with the help of outside donors. Villages Group activists help arrange these funds, work with organizers to help meet their needs, and – most rewardingly – visit the camps to interact with the kids. ————————————- At Palestinian Susya, this has been the third consecutive year for the camp. As mentioned above, this has been a homegrown local initiative from the … Read entire article »

Filed under: On The Ground Reports

Salem’s Music Center Team Visits Tel Aviv And Jaffa

Salem’s Music Center Team Visits Tel Aviv And Jaffa

Dear Friends, The last months saw the development of connections between the Music Center that opened about a year ago in the village of Salem, near Nablus, and several people from the well-stablished Alef High-School of Arts in Tel Aviv. Ram and Rutie, who are leading this initiative from the Israeli side, initiated and organized for Jubier, Fadi and Amid – the Music Center’s team, a visit of three days in Tel Aviv. … Read entire article »

Filed under: On The Ground Reports

Second School Year Opens at Salem’s Music Center

Second School Year Opens at Salem’s Music Center

On Saturday February 19 we visited the Salem Music Center. We were accompanied by three professionals – Fuad, a music teacher from Tel Aviv-Yaffa, Ram – principal of Tel Aviv’s art high school, and Ruti – head of that school’s music department. The occasion was the opening of a second school year at the Center, absorbing a second cohort of students in addition to last year’s students who continue their work (see here for a description … Read entire article »

Filed under: On The Ground Reports

Villages Group: Yasmin Opens the Braille Little Oxford Dictionary

Villages Group: Yasmin Opens the Braille Little Oxford Dictionary

by Assaf Oron. Yasmin Gebara is a very special young woman from the village of Salem near Nablus. Yasmin is blind from birth.  In September 2004, Yasmin’s father Saael, a taxi driver, was killed in cold blood by a settler who later managed to escape the country before going to prison. Last month as Yasmin graduated from Nablus University with an English major, we sent an email asking for donations of English literature CD’s, and possibly a … Read entire article »

Filed under: On The Ground Reports

Villages Group Finds A Local Hero in Umm Daraj

Villages Group Finds A Local Hero in Umm Daraj

With all the bad news about the fierce apparatus of “Separation” in the West Bank, it is inspiring to learn  about the work of the Villages Group –a small group of Israelis who have regularly traveled to cut-off villages in the West Bank  since 2002.  With their Palestinian partners, they seek to renew direct interaction between the two peoples, with frequent, open, and mutually respectful contact. Recently the group visited the  Beduin village of Umm Daraj in the Judean desert, where … Read entire article »

Filed under: On The Ground Reports