The small town of Mazraa Qabaliya in the northern West Bank is fighting the Israeli military and armed settlers for control of a resource that is both revered and essential to their community — Naalan mountain. “We all take turns making sure there is electricity extended and that the lights on this mountain are on at all times, to make sure there is a sign of life here” Ahmad Obeid, tells Mondoweiss. “We must keep the light on here on the mountain at all times. Once it’s off, know that something is wrong, that there is an attack.”

Join the Campaign to Defund Racism, which seeks to stop the exploitation of U.S. charitable status to fund the Israeli settler movement. The campaign addresses the financing of Israeli settler-colonialism, and responds to the decades-long battle to protect our lands and resources from the Galilee to Sheikh Jarrah to Bil’in to the Naqab.

Israeli settlement expansion is not only illegal, it is also destroying Palestine’s environment through the urbanization of the West Bank.

If the mainstream media reported on Israel’s Jewish-only colonies more accurately, Americans would have a better understanding of the Israeli system of apartheid.

The Israeli government has approved initial plans for thousands of new housing units in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, along with hundreds of Palestinian units in Area C, the part of the West Bank under full control of the Israeli government. “It seems that the approval of a handful of plans for the Palestinians is only intended to try to reduce criticism of the government and to please the US administration ahead of Prime Minister Bennett’s expected visit to Washington in the coming weeks,” settlement watchdog Peace Now said in a statement.

Religious zealots have established an “outpost” settlement in West Bank lately and Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians protesting the landgrab. The story is getting wide coverage in Palestine but not in the United States, though these lands are the supposed basis of a “Palestinian state.”

Sixteen year old Palestinian teenager Ahmed Shamsa succumbed to his wounds on Thursday morning, a day after he was shot in the head by Israeli forces in the northern occupied West Bank village of Beita in the Nablus district. According to locals Shamsa is the fifth Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces in Beita since protests against the establishment of a new Israeli settler outpost in the area began in early May. Shamsa is the ninth Palestinian youth to be killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year.

In a matter of just two weeks, six Palestinian families, numbering 27 people, from the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah will be thrown out of their homes and into the street, and replaced with Israeli settlers. Now residents are doubling down on the campaign to #SaveSheikhJarrah.

François Dubuisson writes that the ICC decision to investigate war crimes in Palestine has huge symbolic significance and will likely lead the court to consider the crime of apartheid, given recent reports.

If there ever was a year in recent history that was truly unforgettable, 2020 is it. In Palestine, COVID-19 did not stop the occupation, and in many cases exacerbated the devastating effects of 53 years under Israeli military rule. On top of the pandemic, we witnessed major shifts in global politics with widespread regional normalization, and the defeat of US President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, global movements for justice like Black Lives Matter, and the fight for justice in Palestine continued to transcend borders, thrusting marginalized voices into the mainstream in ways that were once unimaginable.