Photo stories on Palestine/ Articles about Budrus and Biddu
1/ Photo stories by Larry Towell, Magnum Photos
2/ Letter from Budrus, by Mark Sorkin, in The Nation
3/ Westerners Brave Tear Gas in Israel Barrier Battle, by Cynthia Johnston, Reuters story
1/ Photo stories by Larry Towell, Magnum Photos
To view the two photo stories shot by Larry Towell during February and March, visit , then click on "Features", then click on the individual stories
1) A Wall Through The Heart, and 2) Resistance.
2/Letter from Budrus, by Mark Sorkin, in The Nation
"The van drops us off at the top of a hill and rattles around the bend. It is the middle of the afternoon in Budrus, a
tiny village in the occupied West Bank ten miles northwest of Ramallah, and the neighborhood seems deceptively quiet. A
few boys and girls linger outside their homes, picking at cactus bushes. Others peek out from second-floor windows to
watch the visitors walking by. A dirt road winds down to an expanse of olive groves that stretches for about 700 dunams
(175 acres) to the Green Line, the internationally recognized border with Israel. It's a bucolic scene, violently
interrupted by the razor-wire fence on the outer edges that threatens to tear through the middle of the groves. If
construction here continues, the 1,200 residents of Budrus--the vast majority of whom depend on agriculture for
work--will lose a large portion of their fields. An Israeli bulldozer has already carved a preliminary path, and
uprooted trees lie in its wake."
For the full article, please go to:
3/ Westerners Brave Tear Gas in Israel Barrier Battle, by Cynthia Johnston, Reuters story
BIDDO, West Bank (Reuters) - When they come to protest against Israel's West Bank barrier, foreign activists sometimes
wear bandannas soaked in vinegar.
Peter, a European activist who has already been hit twice with rubber bullets at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, swears
it works better than a whiff of raw onion to ease the burn of tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers.
Western activists have been repeatedly fired on, tear gassed and arrested at protests in the West Bank and Gaza since a
Palestinian uprising began in 2000. Two have been killed.
But the activists keep trickling in, confronting bulldozers at West Bank towns like Biddo where Israel is clearing land
for a barrier it says will stop suicide bombers.
Israel sees them as idealistic dupes for militants who, sworn to Israel's destruction, have killed hundreds of people
since 2000. Palestinians say they lend moral support and make it more difficult for soldiers to use violence.
For the full article, copy and paste the following link:
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT http://www.palsolidarity.org