Water and Hospitals

Friday, June 2, the delegation spent the day in At-Tuwani, the other place that CPT-Hebron works. Tuwani is a beautiful village. Many of the residents live in caves that their families have lived in for hundreds of years. As we walked through the village, I whispered, “Wow… It’s so peaceful here…” Children were playing, people were visiting with each other, and there were no other sounds except nature. It did not take long to shatter my view of peaceful Tuwani. Our guide, another CPTer, pointed out the nearby Ma’on settlement and the military outposts. As we walked back, a military jeep with armed men stopped us.
(picture of an olive tree that the village of Tuwani planted in memory of Tom Fox.)

There is a water shortage in Tuwani and in most (all?) of Palestine. Most homes try to keep a water reserve because Israel cuts of the Palestinian water supply during the dry summer months. Yet we were told that the Israeli settlers’ water supplies are never turned off.

Friday night we all stayed in Palestinian homes. I stayed in Bet Ummar (the town where we accompanied the farmers to their fields a few weeks ago). We stayed with a beautiful family. They have 3 children- ages 10, 8 and 5. The youngest daughter is a talented dancer with incredible rhythm. Every time that she hears music, she begins doing Palestinian dances. She and her two older brothers keep begging their parents to bring them to the nearby Dead Sea. However, Palestinians are not allowed to go to the Dead Sea. Only Israelis and foreigners may go. The mother said sadly, “What do I tell my children?” The mother said that sometimes they try to make a small pool of water for their children instead of the sea, but now "there is no water for Palestinian children." One of the other delegates said that this mother’s lament reminded her of Martin Luther King Jr’s laments for his children in a segregated society where they were refused certain rights because of their skin color.

Saturday a group of Palestinian men decided to take trucks up to their well and pump water for the village of Suseya. The well is on Palestinian land but sometimes they are attacked by settlers or harassed by soldiers when they go to get water. They asked CPT and Tay'ush, a joint Palestinian/Israeli group, to accompany them to the well. We just sat by while they pumped and the soldiers watched. Then when we got ready to leave, the soldiers followed us. It was kind of ridiculous to watch the large military vehicles rolling down the road at our walking pace. what a waste of their time… (picture of an Israeli volunteer from Tay'ush talking to the soldiers & police)

It was an extremely hot day & we were not drinking enough water. We turned off the road and into an olive grove to go sit in the shade under a villager’s tent. The soldiers began yelling at us that we could not go that way. Of course there was no reason that we could not go that way. Two soldiers jumped out of the vehicle & came after us. One was very angry. We insisted that we could sit in the shade and that we could sit under this tent. The soldiers followed us to the tent. The Palestinian woman of the house invited the soldiers into the tent as well. The soldiers decided to remain in the sun. The woman made coffee for us, and her young son offered the first cups to the two soldiers. The soldiers refused. We waited for a little less than an hour and then two taxis came to get us and the soldiers left.

After we left the Palestinian men were able to make two more trips to pump water.

That night one of the delegation members was sick. During the course of the night several others became ill. By the morning half of the delegation was very sick. They were all very dehydrated and perhaps had food poisoning as well. 6 delegation members ended up with IVs and 1 of them had to stay the night in the hospital. I’ve spent the past 3 days accompanying people in & out of the hospital. Most of those who were sick are feeling much better and are in the process of returning home right now. One of the sick delegates is still pretty ill but plans to leave for the airport in a few hours. Please pray that they all will have safe travels home and speedy recoveries. Thank you for your prayers!

The care at the hospital was amazing. The doctors and nurses (like the teachers) have not been paid in over 3 months (since aid to Palestine has been cut). The hospital, like most places here, is in an economic bind. Yet we had to convince the doctor to let us pay for the delegate's IV today. The doctor was insisting that he wanted to treat the delegate for free “for God and for [his] brother.”

CPT itself does not provide material aid, but if any of you wish to support that hospital in Jerusalem (Augusta Victoria) or the Charitable Hospital here in Hebron (which is also in great need) by sending supplies or donations, I can send you their contact information… just let me know... The hospital in Hebron said that they are in need of “disposables,” things like gloves, syringes, medicines.