Back "Home"

I arrived back "home" in Natchez, MS on August 18 and will spend the next few weeks in MS, La, & Fl. I don't plan to continue blogging. But when/if I work with CPT again, I'll probably post here again. I added a few more pictures from Palestine at http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelapalestine/.

Some other news- CPT now has a small team in Kurdistan, Iraq right now. Please continue to hold all of the lives there in prayer. If you would like to have access to CPT news or recieve email updates from the Iraq, Palestine, or another CPT team, you can join any of the CPT Yahoo groups via the website http://cpt.org.

(These are pictures of our new puppy, Sadi. My 2 younger sisters & I surprised our mom with a new puppy from the humane society for her birthday. She was not as excited about the new puppy as we were, but now she loves her...)

Thank you so very much for your love for justice and for your prayers & actions for the situations in Palestine and Israel.
Peace.

Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream. (Amos 5:24)

Consider Jesus who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.
(Hebrews 12:1-3)

A Day in an Israeli Settlement/Military Base

My last full day in Palestine-Israel was August 10. I spent that day traveling north (not too far north- still in the west bank) to an Israeli settlement called Harmesh to visit a friend who is stationed there in the Israeli army.

On the way to Harmesh I talked with some Israeli soldiers on the bus (the bus stops were full of young women and men heading to war). These particular guys do not want to be there, but they feel like they have the responsibility to fight for Israel. These soldiers are reservists and have already served 3+ years in the Israeli military when they were 18. Now they are 25 yrs old. They are stationed in a settlement that is slated for demolition (meaning, it is an illegal settlement even under Israeli law & the military is planning to evacuate it). I asked if the Israeli settlers in that particular settlement are violent and angry about the pending demolition. "No!," one soldier said, "These settlers are not ideological settlers. They want to leave. They are just waiting for the government to give them money."

These particular settlers are there because it is cheap to live in Palestine. I think I understood the soldiers to say that the government subsidizes the settlers homes.

The soldiers asked why I was there so I told them about the situation in At-Tuwani. They were surprised at the things I said- I don't think they believed that Palestinians are suffering. They have never been in Palestine except as soldiers.

One soldier told me, "Well, if Israel were to give them [Palestinians] one thing, then they would just keep taking. The Palestinians are never satisfied." I told him that I wouldn't be satisfied if my life was as restricted as the people of Tuwani & I asked if he would be.

He changed the subject and said, "But that is all the news shows. You never see dead soldiers on the news. You don't see our suffering. When I was in the army before, we carried out dead soldiers. The world never saw them."

I said, "I'm sorry... Why is that? Why don't we see the army's suffering on the news?"

I don't know what he has seen. I know it must be awful and I wish I and the rest of the world could see his pain. We should see his pain. If we support sending kids off to fight, we should see what we are doing to them and be willing to enter their pain with them.

He & I talked for a little longer and then he told me that we had reached my stop so I said goodbye- "Peace be with you."
"Shalom..."

I have to admit that I was pretty nervous about hanging out in a settlement and/or at a military base. I felt a little dishonest by being there... The settlers did not know that I was living and working against the occupation in a Palestinian village & only 1 of my Palestinian neighbors knew that I was going to visit a military base/settlement. In retrospect, I think it would have been fine, and even good, to tell both, but the opportunities never arose & I didn't seek out the conversation. I also wonder if I reject any attempt at solidarity when I take advantage of opportunities that are not available to Palestinians. For example, no Palestinian could take a bus into Harmesh. I was also nervous about how I would react to that environment. Like, would I be able to smile and enjoy time with my friend while we sat in a settlement? or, would he notice how uncomfortable I was & would that upset him?

My friend was waiting at the bus stop for me in the seemingly abandoned settlement of Harmesh. He said he had not spoken to a single settler since he had been there. The settlement was gorgeous, lots of flowers and it overlooked a beautiful valley and several Palestinian villages. When we turned the first corner, this guy with tatoos and piercings and no shirt was washing his car. I looked at my friend as if to say, "Is he a settler?"

Settlers in At-Tuwani are very religious (or at least claim to be very religious). The men & women are always covered, the men have long curly side burns, and men definitely do not have tatoos or piercings. My friend knew what I was thinking & he laughed & said, "Angela, these settlers are not religious. They are just here because it is cheap."

As we approached the guy, he greeted us and then invited us in for tea. He and his girlfriend live together in the cute, small house. They pay 100 shekels a month for rent, less than $25. Israel is not a cheap place to live. This rent is ridiculously low. He said they get such cheap rent because the owner of the house wants to keep it occupied.

There are only 22 families living in the settlement of Harmesh right now. But, this guy said that many settlers will move there soon before the government evacuates the settlement because they want to recieve money from the Israeli government. From what this settler and the soldiers on the bus said, it sounds to me like the Israeli government exploits the poor by using them to occupy stolen land? When they are no longer useful politically, the government pays them off to move? (That's not to say that these settlers are not responsible for the fact that they are living in an illegal settlement on stolen land. They are.)

The settlement seems so quiet. This settler was the only person that we saw in the streets, but he assured us that Harmesh is not a nice place to live. At this point, his girlfriend came in from her job, cleaning other settlers' homes. She told us that she hates all Muslims. Twice in the last 2 years settlers from Harmesh have been killed by Palestinians.

I know nothing about the area around Harmesh so I don't know specifics about the history of that particular settlement or about the violence done to Palestinians who live nearby.

I only heard a few stories from this 1 settler couple in Harmesh. She is a maid and he is a struggling (and very, very talented!) musician. My friend and I sat and sipped tea while he jammed on his guitar, she smoked, and they both told us stories. We all watched the equivalent of Israeli MTV, making fun of the whacky outfits & hairstyles. We talked about life, music, work, the weather... normal things. It would have been a very normal afternoon with very normal people- except that we were an Israeli soldier called to duty because his country is at war, 2 Israeli settlers living on stolen land because they are poor and rent there is affordable, and a random girl from the U.S. who is living & working in a Palestinian village.

What I Take With Me

I finished with CPT for the summer and left At-Tuwani today. Tomorrow I will go a little north to say "bye" to a friend at a military base. strange, I know...

I have been trying to get in touch with a good, good Israeli friend since all of this chaos with Hizbollah began and since I read that Israel was calling up thousands of reservists to the military. I finally heard from him Sunday night.

“How are you?,” I asked. “Fine, but the army got me,” he said. “Oh no… oh no... I am so so sorry...” That is all I had to say. What do you say to someone whose plans for life were just interrupted by bombs and missiles?

We talked late into the night. He told me his plans after the army, I told him mine after Palestine. I sat on the roof staring at the stars. He sat in an abandoned factory, whispering so not to wake the 30 other soldiers with him.

“What is the biggest feeling that you will take away from here?,” he asked me. It took me a while to answer, but then I whispered, “right now, sadness, my friend. A heavy, heavy heart. For Palestine, for Lebanon, for Israel, for the world. Sadness is what I take.”

I thought to myself, “I am sitting with Palestinians in an occupied village weeping with my Israeli brother who is now carrying a gun in another occupied village.” What a strange, complicated, sad world we live in… That is what I take with me.

It was after midnight when we finished talking. I sat on the roof for while and then went inside to put on pajamas. The Operation Dove members had lit a candle and were sitting around it singing Nada Te Turbe. (translation- Let nothing distress you, be not afraid.) I don’t know why we were having worship at such an odd hour of the night but it was beautiful, perfect timing.

For the next 2 weeks there is a children’s day camp in the village. It’s organized by Tay’ush, an Israeli peace group, along with the women of At-Tuwani. The camp is for all of the nearby children. Children from the village of Tuba must pass the settlements of Ma’on and Havat Ma’on in order to reach camp. Like going to school during the year, it is impossible for the Tuba children to make it to At-Tuwani without an escort. The Israeli settlers have beaten them, tried to take some of them, and attacked the military escorts. In order to prevent internationals from accompanying the children through the settlements, the army is escorting the children to camp each day. One jeep drives in front, 25 or so children walk behind it, and another army jeep follows in back. It's pretty absurd that it requires the army for children to go to summer camp one village over?

The camp is amazing. The children have music class, and art, and games… laughter and a little freedom. It is so healthy. I only pray that the children can continue to make it to camp safely.

Monday the Israeli organizer of the camp came to our house to visit. Among many things, she shared that 2 of the Israeli volunteers have had family members killed by Hizbollah rockets in the north. She spoke of the despair that they all carry around as Israelis.

She feels “so much responsibility for the disproportionate massacre” that Israel is conducting in Lebanon and in Gaza. She spoke of understanding the violent feelings of Hizbollah and others in the Arab world and, yet, she thinks the violence is unproductive. Bombs lead to more bombs. Deaths to more deaths. She cried as she spoke of Israel’s actions. “Now Lebanon will hate us for another 100 years and any peace with Palestine is postponed,” she said. “I want children, but I cannot raise children here! Send them to Israeli school?! Have them wave that flag?! We cannot even celebrate any holidays! Every holiday represents Israel killing someone…,” she wept. “And, mothers… I see them on TV, mothers of soldiers. They are proud to send their sons and daughters off to fight. Why can’t they see!? They are like the proud mothers of suicide bombers! It is the same thing!! Mothers sending children off to die!! & for what?! It is the same! This meshing of religion and state, and religion and the military. It is a dangerous thing! It is frightening. Israel and Hizbollah- they are the same in this way- religious fanatics fighting for God.”

She looked at me and lowered her voice, “I’m sorry… I can talk about this for hours. It is all I think about now.” I looked back at her & said, “I understand... I think…”

During parts of the conversation I felt like she could replace the word “Israel” with “the U.S.” and replace “Hizbollah” with the general term “terrorists” and I would be saying the same words. I think I understand her shame, her sadness, her fear. It is shameful when your home is known all over the world for murdering children. It is sad to witness the destruction in one’s own country and against one’s enemies. And it is scary to see one’s religion being used to defend murder.

“What do I take with me?,” my dear friend asks me- The love of my Israeli sisters and brothers- their tears and fear. I take the resilance of my Palestinian sisters and brothers- their strength and resistance. I take the laughter of the children- their handshakes and dirty faces. And I take sadness, sadness for a place absolutely ravaged by violence and for a world that sits by and lets children suffer.

In spite of everything, I still believe
that people are really good at heart.
I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation
consisting of confusion, misery, and death.
I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness,
I hear the ever-approaching thunder which will destroy us too,
I can feel the suffering of millions,
and, yet, if I look up into the heavens,
I think that it will all come right,
that this cruelty will end,
and that peace and tranquility will return again.
- Anne Frank

Village Stories

We had several tour groups come through At-Tuwani this past week. When groups come, we take them around the village, telling them stories of the village as we point out the places where the stories took place. Usually, several people from At-Tuwani share their personal stories with the tours. I thought I would repeat some of the stories of 3 of the families’ stories…

(I know this is really long- the 3 stories are separated with dashed lines. I will post pictures soon but the connection is way too slow to do that right now.)

I'll start with Yousef*, a close friend of the team’s and our translator. One of the things that Yousef tells every group is that his story is not completely unique. “Every family has stories like this,” he says. Every family in At-Tuwani (and I would assume surrounding villages and maybe even all of Palestine?) has stories of direct abuse by Israeli settlers and soldiers. I will write a few of Yousef’s family’s stories here, but these stories are only a few of many.

Members of Yousef’s family were first attacked in 1986, around the time that most of their land was violently stolen by Israeli settlers. When Yousef shares “his story” with visitors, he usually begins by saying, “I want to tell you about my mother.”

Yousef’s mother is a strong, strong 75+ years old woman. In April 2004, while Yousef was in a meeting with a group of Israeli peace activists, he heard screaming and someone came to tell him that 8 settlers were by his mother. In this area, Israeli settlers equal violence.

Yousef ran up the hill where his mother was grazing their sheep. Eight settlers had pulled off his mother’s hair covering and were beating her with her shepherd’s staff. Blood was running from her mouth. The settlers were trying to steal her sheep. When Yousef ran towards his mother, one settler with a gun began shooting at his feet. He continued running as the settlers began beating his mother on the ground with rocks. His mother continued to struggle to get her sheep. The Israeli peace activists caught the incident on tape and brought it to the police.

Yousef’s family filed a report, but the Israeli police did nothing about the settlers beating a 75 year woman grazing her sheep.

Three weeks after his mother’s beating, Israeli soldiers came to At-Tuwani and demolished his two brothers’ homes. And in June 2004 Israeli settlers filled the family’s water cistern with dead chickens.

Israeli soldiers raided homes and terrorized village children for more than a solid month in the summer of 2004. Eventually Tay’ush, an Israeli peace organization, began sleeping in the village. They caught the soldiers’ abuse on tape and it made the Israeli news, which caused the violence to decrease. Soon after, CPT and Operation Dove began a permanent presence in At-Tuwani.

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Recently, each morning we have been going out before 7 am with Adam*, a 31 year old shepherd from At-Tuwani. We go out and sit in his family’s hills while he grazes and waters his sheep.

Adam’s family lives in a house slightly outside of At-Tuwani, very, very close to the illegal Israeli settler outpost of Havat Ma’on. Like the Yousef’s family, Adam’s family began experiencing repeated settler attacks and having their sheep stolen in 1986.

These stories are straight from the notes of another CPTer, Art Gish. Like the stories of all the families in the village, there are too many to write here. I deleted some pieces. Adam’s family has seen their children, wives, husbands, parents, and friends beaten, shot and humiliated time after time. They have sought justice only to find that it is not available to them here.

In November 1999, Adam’s family went to plow their fields. They met thirty settlers and three soldiers at their field. Adam and his cousin went to the soldiers and asked why the settlers were on his land. The settlers then attacked. They threw rocks at them and the tractor, and came and beat them. Adam was hit on the head and was unconscious for ten minutes. They were injured and bleeding. The soldiers watched and did nothing. The soldiers even shot at the family as they walked over the hill. They had to wait for one and a half hours for the soldiers to get an ambulance to take them to the hospital in Beer Sheva.

In 2001, four settlers on horses approached Adam’s father, who was old and sick, and could not walk well. One of the settlers attacked his father with a horse whip. They tried to catch Adam’s brother, who ran away, but lost one of his shoes in the flight. Settlers took the shoe and cut it into pieces.

In 2002, Adam went to plow his land. Settlers, soldiers and police came. The police confiscated his tractor, took it to Susia, and held it for more than a month. The police offered Adam a deal. They would give back his tractor if he signed a release, giving his land to the settlers. He refused, and ended up paying a 1,000 shekel fine to get the tractor back.
Later in 2002, his brother, home from the university, was sitting reading under a tree. A settler came and attacked him. His brother was arrested and fined 500 shekels.
Adam’s father was very sick in 2002. They took him to a hospital in Hebron, but the doctors said they could not help him. They released him to die at home. On the way home, four settlers stopped their car on the main road, took his father out of the car, pulled the tubes out of his body, and assaulted the others with their gun stocks. Soldiers came and did nothing. Twenty days later Adam’s father died.…

In August, 2003, the family had gone to a wedding in Yatta. When they came back, they heard shooting and saw his son was bleeding. Bullets were hitting the ground around them. The settlers then left in a settler security car. The wounds were superficial, except for one person with a head fracture.

At 2:00 that same night, soldiers came on Adam’s roof where he was sleeping, knocked him down, and asked for his identity card. They beat his brother. The soldiers took the ID cards with them and said they would be back at 7:00 in the morning. Adam called Ta’ayush. They came with an Israeli journalist before the soldiers arrived. Adam told the Israelis to hide, because if they were seen, the soldiers would act politely. When the soldiers came, they spoke very rudely to the family and tried to beat his brother. The Israelis came out of hiding, after which the soldiers quickly gave back the IDs and left.

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Fatima and Fadil* are our neighbors and the owners of the home in which CPT and Operation Dove lives. They have four young sons, ages 1-12. Like every other family in At-Tuwani, they have experienced direct attacks from Israeli settlers and soldiers. But like every other family, they continue to struggle to remain in their village and to raise their children in a healthy and peaceful environment.

Fatima is a leader in the village, maybe even the leader. She is full of life. Fatima has a great smile and a clever sense of humor. She married at age 16 and moved from Yatta, the nearby town, to the village of At-Tuwani. Fatima will tell anyone that .life as a village woman is hard. .

Fatima started a women’s co-op in the village. The women make beautiful rugs, dresses, baskets, other handicrafts, and olive oil. They sell their items in a museum next to our common patio. Tour groups come by, hear Fatima’s speech, and shop in the museum. The men of the village respect Fatima and appreciate the work of the women’s co-op. At times, the women’s co-op brings in over 40% of the village income. Basically, Fatima takes care of the village finances, as well as organizes a way for the women to gain more financial independence.


I love living so close to Fatima and Fadil’s family. Their family spends so much time together and they really seem to enjoy each other. They teach their adorable children love, hospitality, strength and wisdom. When I go to the roof to sleep at night, I often look up and see Fadil praying on their roof. When I wake up, Fatima is by the house making bread. In the afternoon, the children play on the hammock in our common patio and with toys that random tour groups leave.

The other day an army jeep drove through the village. It stopped by our house where Fatima and family were eating lunch and rolled down the window. The soldier asked, “Is everything ok here?” Fatima’s 5 year old son looked worried and said, “No… You are here.” Fatima’s children, like all of the children in the village, understand what it means to live under occupation. They recognize the occupation as evil and begin to resist it and to seek freedom at a very young age.

Amidst the chaos of violence, Fatima and Fadil have made a home of peace for their children. Amidst the despair of occupation, the women’s work is a beacon of hope for the whole village. And amidst the hatred of war, they manage to teach their children to love.

* not their real names

A-Tuwani Update July 18 - 31

During this time period, the team accompanied shepherds from At-Tuwani andsurrounding villages in the early morning. Their activities included grazingtheir flocks and watering them from cisterns next to Israeli settlementoutposts.

During this period on several occasions (22 and 27 July), Israeli soldiersresponded to settler invasions of Palestinian land by removing or trying toremove the Palestinians from their own land. These actions are incontravention of the recent High Court ruling that Israeli soldiers have anobligation to protect Palestinians on their land and that removingPalestinians is not an acceptable alternative to restricting the settlersand protecting the Palestinians.

In addition to members of Operation Dove (the Doves), Christian PeacemakerTeam (CPT) members on the project during this time were Angela Davis,Maureen Jack, Rich Meyer, Heidi Schramm, Diana Zimmerman and a guest ofCPT.

Tuesday 18 July 2006
While accompanying shepherds at a cistern near the settlement outpost ofAvigail, Zimmerman and a Dove encountered some settler boys from the outpostwith their flock of goats. The boys grazed their animals on Palestinianland. A soldier posted at the outpost watched the boys but did not stopthem.

Thursday 20 July
A lawyer from ACRI (Association for Civil Rights in Israel) who is workingwith the people of At-Tuwani called to find out if the roadblocks blockingthe access to Yatta remained in place.

According to the lawyer, the Israeli Army assured her that they moved theblocks to allow a donkey to pass the roadblock easily. Davis walked down tothe roadblock, but nothing was changed. She took pictures and sent them tothe lawyer.

The entire team spent the whole evening and a sizable part of the nightparticipating in a large village wedding celebration.

Friday 21 July
The wedding party continued with CPT and Operation Dove in attendance.

Saturday 22 July
Jack and Zimmerman attended an action sponsored by the Israeli peace groupTa'ayush at the Palestinian village of Susiya. Palestinians, Israelis andInternationals gathered to clean up a house burned by a settler on 5 Julyand to replace the tarp roof. About an hour after the work started fiveyoung settler boys approached the area. They ranged in age fromapproximately nine to eighteen. Although they were not visibly armed, theyhad articles of clothing wrapped around their heads, obscuring their faces.The leader of the boys demanded that the group move out of the area. Shortlyafterwards the army arrived and asked the group of Palestinians, Israelisand Internationals to back up a bit. One soldier said "Please do thisbecause the settlers are upset and this will make them happy." The groupreturned to the work of cleaning up the house and ignored the settler boys.The soldiers remained and prevented the boys from walking among theparticipants of the action. After about an hour, the boys left the area.

Sunday 23 July
Just before noon the team received word that a police jeep was in At-Tuwanivillage near the school. When they arrived on the scene, the Israeli policewere cutting the license plates off the car of a man from the village. Theyalso told the man who owned the car to come with them to the police station.The police would not say why they were taking the man with them, but did saythat he was not under arrest.

The team later heard that the police fined the man 1000 shekels(approximately $225 U.S.) for driving on the settler road. Because theopening by At Tuwani is blocked, the man drove his car from Yatta to theclosest opening in the wall, which is two kilometers from At-Tuwani. Afterdriving through the opening he drove the two kilometers to the village. Thepolice claimed that he did not have the right to use the road and fined him.

Tuesday 25 July
In the morning Davis received a call that the army was in the nearby cavevillage of Mufakara. When Davis and a Dove arrived fifteen minutes later,the army was leaving the village. According to members of the village, asettler from Avigail came close to the village to graze his goats onPalestinian land and asked the army to protect him. The settler also leftsoon after the internationals arrived.

Thursday 27 July
Davis and Jack along with two Doves accompanied a shepherd in Khorubavalley, an area outside At Tuwani where settlers frequently harassPalestinians. While they were there, some settlers, along with a settlementsecurity officer from Ma'on observed them. A bit later some soldiersarrived and after speaking with the settlement security officer, approachedthe group.

The soldier acknowledged that the shepherd was on Palestinian land but thought that the Palestinians should leave because their presence made the settlers upset. The soldier said that the Palestinians should avoid thearea because the settlers may hurt them.

Friday 28 July
A friend of the team informed them that the Israeli high court heard apetition asking that the roadblocks blocking vehicle access to Yatta to bemoved. The judge promised to rule on the case in a few days.

Sunday 30 July
Meyer, a Dove, and a CPT guest walked to the cave village of Tuba for avisit. On the way there, they took pictures of the new army communicationtower recently constructed near Tuba. According to the residents of Tuba,the generator at the tower is constantly running, keeping them awake atnight.

Monday 31 July
In the afternoon, Meyer, a CPT guest and a Dove visited Susiya Antica, anarcheological dig near the Palestinian village of Susiya. It was the siteof the Palestinian village of Susiya until twenty years ago when the Israelimilitary expelled them. Afterwards the three returned to Susiya and showed amap of the site to a family there. One of the daughters of the familypointed to where her family lived. She was six years old when they wereforced to leave. She is not allowed to go back and see her family's caveand former home, although it is less than one kilometer from the tentvillage where her family now resides.

At-Tuwani Update July 8 - 17

Each morning during this period the team went to Bier Jabareen, a cisternnear the Avigail outpost, to accompany shepherds from Mufakara and Sh'ebBotom as they watered their flocks. They also accompanied shepherds fromTuwani as they grazed their flocks in Humra. In addition to members fromOperation Dove (called "Doves"), CPTers on team during this period wereAngela Davis, Maureen Jack, Rich Meyer, Heidi Schramm and Diana Zimmerman.

Saturday, 8 July 2006
Meyer and a Dove were in the village of Susiya overnight and participated ina water pumping action sponsored by Ta'ayush, an Israeli peace group.Minutes after the tractors arrived at a Palestinian cistern near an Israelimilitary outpost, soldiers intervened and would not allow the group to pumpwater from the cistern. The soldiers declared the area a closed militaryzone and threatened to arrest anyone who remained. The group withdrew fromthe area.

Afterwards, several members of Ta'ayush along with Meyer drove to thevillage of Tuba to photograph a new gate that blocks the road from Tuba toAt Tuwani. On the drive back to At-Tuwani, settlers stopped the vehicles byblocking the road. The settlers spit on Meyer through the open truckwindow. The police arrived, coaxed the settlers off the road, and allowedthe vehicles to pass.

When the group arrived back in At-Tuwani, Israeli soldiers approached them,said the area was a closed military zone to all nonresidents, and orderedall the Israelis to leave. They did not request that the internationalsleave.

In the afternoon, Zimmerman and Davis monitored a temporary checkpoint setup by the border police at the entrance to At-Tuwani.

Sunday, 9 July 2006
A representative from the Israeli group Yesh Din (literally, 'there is alaw') and an Israeli lawyer visited At-Tuwani. They spoke with men fromTuba, Susiya, Magaer Al-Abeed and At-Tuwani about the difficulties they haveexperienced. The lawyer indicated that he would file charges in relationto various incidents in the hope that the Israeli judicial system wouldinvestigate them.

Monday, 10 July 2006
Shortly before 10:00 p.m., three army vehicles entered At-Tuwani. Two ofthem drove toward the Hill 833 outpost after stopping briefly. Zimmermanspoke with the soldiers from the third vehicle. They said that they wereresponding to a report that someone was throwing stones. The soldier wouldnot say who filed the report nor who was supposedly throwing the stones.Zimmerman called some families in the village, but no one knew anythingabout stone throwing. After less than fifteen minutes, the soldiers left.

Tuesday, 11 July 2006
At 11:00 a.m., the team received information that an Israeli constructioncrew was working near Tuba. Jack and Zimmerman walked via an indirectroute to Tuba to avoid potential problems with settlers. When theyapproached the work site, the workers did not object to the CPTers'documenting their work. The man in charge said that they were building acommunications tower for the army. The CPTers then walked to Tuba to passon this information to the villagers there.

Several truckloads of water arrived in At-Tuwani, provided by Oxfam. Most ofthe cisterns in the village received some water.

Wednesday, 12 July 2006
In Humra, two Doves saw an army humvee. Four soldiers were by the vehiclehaving what appeared to be a picnic. After half an hour, they left.

Thursday, 13 July 2006
From Khoruba hill two Doves took photographs of the army's newcommunications tower near Tuba.

At 10:10 a.m., Davis photographed a crane truck lifting cement blocks toblock the gap in the low wall on the north side of settler bypass road 317.Shortly after 1:00 p.m., Davis, Jack and Zimmerman responded to a reportthat soldiers were on the road. There they found several villagers andtheir vehicles stranded on the Yatta side of route 317. (See 17 July CPTnetrelease, "Access from At-Tuwani to Yatta blocked.")

Friday, 14 July 2006
After 4:00 p.m., a villager called to say that he had heard that the blockshad been removed from the road. Davis and Jack went to investigate; theblocks were still in place.

Sunday, 16 July 2006
Two members of the International Committee for the Red Cross visited thevillage. They informed the team that they have submitted complaints withthe Israeli military about crimes committed by the settlers during theprevious few months. The team gave them pictures and video documentation ofincidents that occurred during the spring.

Monday, 17 July 2006
Leaders from At-Tuwani and surrounding villages met with a representativefrom the Israeli army to talk about water distribution for the Masafer Yattaarea and the problems caused by the roadblock along route 317. The armyrepresentative said that the roadblock will be removed "soon." He refused to give a date.

Maintaining Normal Life

As Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza rage, people in At-Tuwani attempt to maintain “normal” life.

(picture of a man and his son waiting for a donkey to come get their bags that they carried off their tractor. The man and his son were coming back from Yatta on the day that the soldiers placed blocks along the road, trapping his tractor on the other side of the wall from At-Tuwani.)

We asked one of the leaders in the village what the village wants to do in response to the concrete blocks that the army recently placed blocking At-Tuwani’s access to much of the West Bank. The villager replied, “Nothing. There are many things going on in the village right now… Like, people are getting married.”
(picture= groom giving the bride jewelry at a pre-wedding party for the women of the families.)

He went on to say that the village is also a little wary of protesting the wall right now because the Israeli’s army’s response may be very violent. Because all of the media is focused on the north, the army and settlers have a bit more freedom to terrorize Palestinians right now without the world watching. Also, he said, many phone calls and letters to the commander about the blocks will just get lost among the many responses to Israel’s current wars. So… the village is trying to “lay low” and avoid the wrath of Israel at this point in time.

The villager’s reply that “people are getting married” contains so much wisdom. “Normal” life for Palestinians here is resistance. There have been 3 weddings over the past 3 weeks. Each wedding is a weeklong party. Basically, we have been partying for the past 3 weeks- dancing & drinking tea until the wee hours of the night. The last 2 weddings occurred after the army blocked the road to Yatta. Both of these weddings were between men from At-Tuwani and women from Yatta. The brides had to ride in cars over large dirt mounds that the army has placed in the road between Yatta and At-Tuwani. Then the cars from Yatta dropped the brides off by the concrete blocks. They got out in their wedding dresses and squeezed between the blocks. The rest of the wedding parties walked up the hill to At-Tuwani and other cars came to pick up the brides on the At-Tuwani side of the blocks. This lack of freedom of movement is ridiculous. But people find ways to maintain some type of normalcy despite it.
(picture 1= bride and party entering a home in At-Tuwani for the final wedding party, picture 2= a child in At-Tuwani with henna on her head. Many of the women dyed their hair with henna for the weddings. They sleep with henna on under a plastic bag or scarf. In the morning, one's hair is red.)

Last week one of the men of the village was driving on the Israeli bypass road 317, the only way to get to Yatta and much of the West Bank now that At-Tuwani’s road is blocked. The police followed the villager back to At-Tuwani, took his license plate and took the villager to the police station. The police claimed that the license plate was an illegal Israeli tag. However, we have the tag on video tape. It is a Palestinian tag. Also, there is no other way for the man to travel now that the army blocked the road. Another man from the village traveled by foot and public taxi in the midday sun (which is very hot) to the police station to pay bail. When he arrived at the police station, the police said bail was 2000 shekels. The villager refused saying, “That is too much. I’ll pay 1000.” The police agreed to 1000 shekels. This sounds to me like there was no legal process going on? There was no official bail set, no paperwork- only a Palestinian man illegally detained and 1000 shekels handed over to the Israeli police.

So… the village of At-Tuwani and the nearby villages in the South Hebron Hills are cut off from their main market town and from most of the West Bank by a low wall. When the soldiers placed the blocks in the road, they said that Palestinians would now have to go down the settler road (which is very dangerous because of potential attacks by Israeli settlers) and around to a checkpoint before reaching Yatta. An At-Tuwani man was caught using the road, like the soldiers told him to do, and the police unofficially “arrested” him and made him pay 1000 shekels (a little over $200). At-Tuwani is a village of 150 people, no running water, electricity for 4 hours a day by a generator. They are suffering a severe drought and have very limited crops. Along with their livestock, they depend on buying and selling in Yatta.

The low wall and blocks do nothing for security. It makes one wonder if they are only meant to make life so difficult for Palestinian villagers that they eventually leave.

Thursday we were out on Khoruba Hill with a Palestinian shepherd. Israeli settlers got angry and called the army to come tell the shepherd to leave. The army came and we spoke with them for about 45 minutes (long enough to distract them from harassing the shepherd and to give the shepherd time to finish watering his sheep). One CPTer told the soldiers, “But this is Palestinian land.” The soldier said, “Yes, I guess it is… but the problem is that those people (the settlers) are very violent… they do not want the Palestinians here. Today they called us (the army), tomorrow they may call us… but eventually they will take matters into their own hands and be very violent… and the army and police will arrive too late.” Conversations almost identical to this one occur regularly. Soldiers regularly chase (or attempt to chase) Palestinians off Palestinian land. Then the soldiers tell us that they know it is Palestinian land but the settlers are "crazy" or "violent."

There is no law here. Well, on paper there is law. There is Israeli law, military law, international law… but when it comes down to it, Israel does what it likes. It has more weapons and billions of dollars from the U.S. It does not matter if the land is legally Palestinian or Israeli. Israeli settlers decide to steal land from Palestinians and the Israeli army often protects them while they do it. It is illegal under every law and people recognize its illegality, but lawlessness continues...

Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey and robbing the parentless.
What will you do on the day of reckoning,
when disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your riches? (Isaiah 10:1-3)