Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) detained at least 23 Palestinians in raids across several towns, including Dura, Bani Naim, Al-Samu, Beit Ummar, and Al-Arroub camp in Hebron.

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian and shot ten others with live rounds in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank. Israeli forces invaded, on Wednesday, Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, while local Palestinian youths protested the military incursion.

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A group of illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers cut and uprooted dozens of trees on Palestinian lands in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank’s southern part.

The Occupied West Bank Since October 7: Movement Restrictions and Collective Punishment

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Israeli forces have arrested some 4,695 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war broke out on 7 October.

Over a dozen Palestinian villages have emptied since Oct. 7

Israeli forces have killed three Palestinians, including a teenager, in separate raids across the occupied West Bank.

Three Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed by Israeli gunfire in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The Israeli occupation forces raided the headquarters of the Beit Ummar Association for Orphan Care, north of Hebron, on December 7, closed some of its offices, and seized the association’s furniture and files, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Earlier Monday morning, many Israeli military jeeps invaded Beit Ummar town, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and abducted one Palestinian, leading to protests, before the soldiers injured many Palestinians and caused damage to two cars.

Israeli soldiers injured many Palestinians and abducted six from several areas of the Hebron governorate in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.

For the first time, Democratic voters sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis, according to Gallup’s annual poll on U.S. attitudes toward the Middle East.

56% of Democrats view Israel favorably, but that’s down from 63% in 2022. 49% of Democrats said their sympathies lie with Palestinians, while 38% said they sympathize with Israelis.

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On Friday, Israeli soldiers injured many Palestinians in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, in the West Bank’s southern part.

The Israel Defense Force’s military prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday that they would prosecute, subject to a hearing, a soldier who shot and killed an 11-year-old Palestinian boy in a West Bank village near Hebron in 2021.

On Friday, Israeli soldiers shot a young man and caused many Palestinians to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.

Several army jeeps invaded the town and attacked a nonviolent procession organized by several factions and civil society institutions demanding the release of the bodies of slain Palestinians killed by the soldiers in previous invasions.

The soldiers attacked the protesters with rubber-coated steel bullets, gas bombs, and concussion grenades.

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Long time commentator and former KGNU news director Joel Edelstein interviewed Hala Zahalka – a Palestinian sister from Nablus on a Fulbright scholarship at the University of Idaho; Sergio Atallah – Colombian-Palestinian brother, math teacher and long-time colleague and friend. The interview centered on the state of relations between the Israeli government and the Palestinians living under Occupation.

On Thursday dawn, dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, searched and ransacked many homes, abducted sixteen Palestinians, including children and siblings, and injured a former political prisoner. The soldiers also abducted a young man in Hebron city.

Clashes erupted between the Palestinians and the Israeli occupation forces, in separate areas of the occupied West Bank.

And Palestinian security sources said that a Palestinian boy was wounded by bullets, while a number of citizens suffocated, during clashes in Aida camp, north of Bethlehem, to the south of Jerusalem.

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The Israeli occupation forces launched a number of armed incursions across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, during which they arrested a number of young Palestinian men. Meanwhile, gangs of illegal settler attacked Palestinians and their property in Nablus and Hebron.

Israeli soldiers shot a young man and a child in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.

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Over 300 persons show up to hear a range of speakers from a Colorado State Representative, Palestinian-American children reading poetry, Jewish Voice for Peace, and our own Bessan Adi of the Center for Freedom and Justice who spoke from Beit Ummar on a prerecorded tape.

Samia Halaby, Palestinian artist and author tells how it was she came about to write the book "Drawing the Ksar Qasem Massacre" as a part of the upcoming program "Together for Palestine" October 8, 2022 at the South Broadway Christian Church, Denver Colorado

Israeli forces raided Defense for Children International - Palestine’s headquarters in the central occupied West Bank early Thursday morning.

Israeli forces raided DCIP’s headquarters located in Al-Bireh’s Sateh Marhaba neighborhood, located just south of Ramallah around 5:55 a.m. on August 18. More than a dozen Israeli soldiers forced open the office’s locked front door and removed a computer, photocopier, printer, and client files related to Palestinian child detainees represented by DCIP’s lawyers in Israel’s military courts, CCTV footage showed.

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CFJ-CO members recently attended the Palestinian Cultural Day at the Museum of Boulder. The event was a partnership between Boulder Nablus Sister City Project and the Colorado Palestine Club.

For over five decades, Palestinian children and their families have experienced the injustices of the Israeli occupation. To our children, this occupation has served as a school of daily experiential learning.

Tune in – KGNU, Boulder, Hemispheres – Middle East Dialogues – Tuesday, March 24, 2022 @ 6-7 pm, Mountain States Time. The Ukraine Conflict’s Consequences for the Middle East – Part Two: Biden’s Attempt to Build an anti-Russian Alliance: Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places

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This is a one-hour webinar (YouTube or Facebook) featuring staff from the East Jerusalem YMCA, whose therapists treat Palestinian child detainees and other youth whohave been traumatized by Israel's defense and police forces. The program also features a member of No Way to Treat a Child, a program of Defense for Children International-Palestine. These organizations are supporting Rep. Betty McCollum's House Resolution 2590. This bill excludes Israel's use of U.S. military aid to detain and incarcerate Palestinian children, demolish Palestinian homes, and annex Palestinian land.

On 1/22/22, Joe Drexler of CFJ-CO interviewed Mousa Abu Maria, resident of Beit Ummar, Palestine, and CFJ-Beit Ummar representative. They discussed Mousa's background (including his time in prison), life under occupation, Mousa's principles of non-violence and sustainability to resist the occupation, all of the accomplishments CFJ-Beit Ummar is making, and the importance of international support.

The interview can be seen on Facebook or YouTube.

On 11/22/21. CJF-Colorado interviewed Gary Anderson, Colorado-based water engineer, who has spent many years all over the Middle East working on water projects, including in Palestine. We discussed the Palestinian struggle for water use, how most water in the West Bank is diverted to illegal Israeli settlements, and how the struggle for water plays into the the broader Israeli policy toward the Occupied Territories. Unfortunately, we were unable to record this event due to technical issues, but we encourage everyone to research the water situation in Palestine, to become better informed of the reality there. A great place to start is with the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, which raises awareness about Israel's use of water as a weapon against the people of Palestine.

On Thursday, Israeli soldiers poured fortified cement into a Palestinian water spring near Beit Ummar town, north of the northern West Bank city of Hebron.

This is the latest example of how the Israeli government systematically uses control of water to make living conditions unbearable and destroy the town's agricultural economic base.

The United Nations General Assembly on July28, 2010 enacted Resolution 64/292, explicitly recognizing access to water as a human right.

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Join CFJ-CO as we interview Katie Miranda about her experiences in the West Bank, her activism and past/current work, and her motivation for getting involved in supporting Palestine.

The interview can be seen on YouTube or Facebook. Please start at the 40-second mark.

Describing herself, Katie says, "I'm a painter, illustrator, calligrapher and jewelry designer. I'm the founder of Palbox, a quarterly subscription box featuring products from Palestine and my jewelry, and a former International Solidarity Movement (ISM) nonviolence trainer and coordinator. My cartoons have been published in Mondoweiss, Middle East Eye, Middle East Monitor, Dissident Voice, and Al Jazeera. I was selected as a Muslima Ambassador for the International Museum of Women in 2012 and as an exhibitor at the Capital of Islamic Culture in Sharjah in 2014. My illustrated short story Stop Being So Picky or Why I Didn’t Marry My Cat was published in the anthology Muslim American Writers at Home in 2021.

Israeli soldiers injured, on Thursday evening, many Palestinians in Beit Ummar town, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

During the recent vote of sending an extra $1 billion to Israel for the Iron Dome, there were 8 "no" votes in the House: Cori Bush, Andre Carson, Chuy Garcia, Raul Grijalva, Marie Newman, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced opposition but voted "present."

CFJ-CO members have been working with a number of other organizations to encourage Representative Joe Neguse to sign onto H.R. 2590. See the attached letter, which has been sent to his office, for more information.

Israeli soldiers abducted eleven Palestinians, including siblings and former political prisoners, from their homes in several parts of the occupied West Bank; the army also shot a young man.

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has published some articles that you should check out: Why AFSC uses the term “Israeli apartheid,” Unifying Palestinian youth across divides, and 5 things to know about U.S. funding for Israel’s “Iron Dome.”

CFJ has released its annual newsletter. We hope you will read through it, especially to find out more about contributing financially to the Women's Outdoor Market in Beit Ummar.

Nadeen Ibrahim discusses her organizing work and activism, as well as her master's thesis on how the Israeli government weaponized a variety of land policies to increase and fund settlement construction as a means to change the demographics on Palestinian lands. The interview can be seen on YouTube and Facebook.

Nadeen M. Ibrahim is a seasoned community organizer with more than 7 years of experience in Colorado. She has largely and intersectionally organized for the Palestinian, Muslim, immigrant, and refugee communities, given her identities. Some of her flagship projects include co-founding the Colorado Muslim Leadership Council, Denver Day of Dignity, and Muslim Youth Empowerment Conference.

Her unwavering commitment to advocating for Palestine and Palestinians is driven by her identity. She was born in the city of Jerusalem during the Oslo Accords and maintains deep connections with her family and land in Palestine. Nadeen most recently completed her Master's of Public Policy at the University of Oxford, England.

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This month, August, a group of illegal Israeli settlers, accompanied by many soldiers, raided archaeological sites on Palestinian lands.

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CFJ-CO member Gary Anderson's new article highlights the story of his involvement in Palestine. He discusses how he came to understand the issues and how he was able to conquer fear, hatred, and anger.

CFJ-Colorado is interviewing Jeff and Janet Wright on Monday 8/16/21 at 7pm Mountain Time. The Wrights will be discussing their years of service to the people in Palestine. Retired from pastoral ministry, Jeff serves KairosPalestine as a global service worker appointed by the Disciples Of Christ and the United Church of Christ. Janet, a licensed clinical social worker retired from private practice, supervises and consults with clinicians in the areas of trauma, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). They host annual alternative pilgrimages to Palestine/Israel. View the interview on YouTube or Facebook.

A 20-year-old Palestinian man died hours after being shot on Thursday by Israeli forces during the funeral of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Alami, who was killed the day before, also by Israeli military gunfire.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Shawkat Awad sustained gunshot wounds to his abdomen and head as was taken in critical condition to a hospital in Hebron, where he succumbed to his wounds.

He was reportedly hit in clashes that erupted between hundreds of Palestinian mourners and protesters, and Israeli troops in the town of Beit Ummar, near Hebron, where al-Alami's body was laid to rest.

On 7/18/21 CFJ-CO interviewed Raghad Alafifi about the recent war against Gaza. The interview can be viewed on YouTube or on Facebook.

What happened during this war was really terrible mostly in Sheikh Jarrah and Gaza. Gaza was destroyed. The situation was very bad here in Beit Ummar and the West Bank in general. Israeli soldiers were coming into the town daily even more than once a day. The soldiers caused many troubles for those who were coming to or leaving the town. They were spread everywhere on the entrance of Beit Ummar and on the balconies or roofs of citizens' houses, and their guns were always pointed at people.   To be honest, we didn't fear them at all; even the youngest went out to resist. Yes, Gaza was destroyed; many people were killed, many arrested; and there was always tension - but our voice reached many countries around the world. Huge numbers of people became our supporters and saw the truth. Israel definitely had not expected that or the destruction that happened in their living area.

Currently, it's not as bad as before, but we don't know what might happen later.

Dr. Asi speaks about the discrepancy between how Israel dealt swiftly and effectively with the COVID-19 pandemic within Israel’s borders but has largely failed to do likewise among Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories (West Bank and Gaza). Yara M. Asi is a non-resident Fellow at the Arab Center Washington D.C., a Policy Member of Al-Shabaka, and a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Central Florida specializing in health in fragile and conflict-affected states.

The interview can be viewed on Facebook or YouTube.

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With its insight into the longstanding struggle between Israel and the Palestinian people, Wake Up and Reclaim Your Humanity focuses on the psycho-spiritual roots of suffering and conflict, commonly misinterpreted historical issues, and the humanity that lies at the heart of the tragedy.

“We saw how the Israeli occupation forces were systematically working at destroying the livelihood of the Palestinians on their own land.” According to the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture, more than 3 million trees, mostly olive and citrus trees, were uprooted by Israeli forces between 2000 and 2012. Join Rob Prince from CFJ-Colorado as he interviews Rami Barhoush, Vice Chair of the board of APN. Topic: The effects of military occupation on the land and its residents.

The interview from 3/21/21 is posted on YouTube.

Israeli soldiers today assaulted an entire Palestinian family during a search-and-arrest operation in the town of Beit Ummar in southern West Bank, as they detained at least seven Palestinians throughout the occupied territories, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Sergio Atallah of CO-CFJ interviewed Jennifer Bing and Shaina Low on Monday 2/22/21. The interview covered the Israeli military detention of Palestinian children, Jennifer & Shaina's work on HB 2407, and information on the ways the public can help work for justice for these Palestinian minors.

The interview can be viewed on the CO-CFJ Facebook page on or YouTube.

Jennifer Bing directs the Palestine Activism program for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and currently works with Defense for Children International Palestine on their joint advocacy campaign, “Israeli Military Detention: No Way to Treat a Child.”

Shaina Low serves as an Advocacy Officer at Defense for Children International Palestine and currently serves on the American Friends Service Committee's Palestine Advisory Committee.

The Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank are a source of severe and multi-dimensional violations of the human rights of Palestinian residents living in the occupied territories. International Humanitarian Law prohibits the occupying power from establishing civilian settlements in occupied territory.

Extremist Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers tending to their crops.

On January 11, 2021, Gary Anderson of CFJ-Colorado interviewed Zarefah Baroud, who wrote her Master’s thesis on U.S. military aid to Israel. The interview included a discussion of U.S. laws that prohibit arms sales to human rights violators, provided background on how U.S. aid has been used to harm Palestinian children, and tackled the issue of what can be done. Watch the interview on YouTube.