CPTnet
6 June 2005
AT-TUWANI UPDATE: 18-31 May 2005
Wednesday, 18 May
At 9:45 a.m., Chelli Stanley met a Palestinian shepherd from Jawiyya at the
Kiryat Arba police station in Hebron. She came in through the Israeli
settler entrance and immediately walked over to the Palestinian entrance
where the shepherd was waiting. The shepherd was there in order to file a
complaint about settlers attacking and killing his sheep on Monday, 16 May.
A few policemen on duty recognized Stanley and got very upset, one asking
angrily, "What are you doing here?" Then they began yelling at the shepherd
for about ten minutes before letting him inside.
Once inside, police continued to shout at the shepherd, assuring him that
despite his being inside, he would have to wait all day before they allowed
him to file the complaint. They suggested he might as well leave right
away. At 3:00 p.m., they took his statement. He identified one of the
settlers who took part in the attack from photographs in the possession of
the police. The police said that they would arrest the settler. Stanley
also showed a videotape with pictures of the dead sheep to the police.
Meanwhile, late in the afternoon, Bill Baldwin and two members of Operation
Dove (OD) were accompanying shepherds in Jawiyya. At 5:00 p.m. a settler
security man came to the area along with four adult settler men, about
twelve to fifteen settler boys, and Israeli soldiers in four military
vehicles. The settlers insisted that the sheep were grazing too close to
the Ma'on settlement. Operation Dove members called the police and
accompanied two of the shepherds to the Kiryat Arba police station to file a
complaint.
Thursday, 19 May
Kristin Anderson, Sally Britton, and Diane Janzen went to Jawiyya to
accompany shepherds who were grazing their flocks on disputed land, the
ownership of which is currently being contested in the Israeli court system.
After a confrontation with Israeli settlers, military, and police, the
shepherds were forced to move their flocks from the area. (See 24 May 2005
CPTnet release, "Israeli military, police and settlers prevent Palestinians
from grazing sheep and goats.")
Friday, 20 May
Midmorning Anderson, Britton, and Janzen accompanied shepherds in Jawiyya,
this time in an area next to the disputed area from the day before.
Nevertheless, the Israeli army monitored the movements of the shepherds and
CPTers throughout the day. At one point, soldiers got out of the vehicle
that they had driven onto the Palestinian field and walked towards the
CPTers and the shepherds. The Israeli soldier commander admitted that the
shepherds were not on the "forbidden" land. CPTers asked the commander why
he was conducting surveillance and he said, "I can come here whenever I
want."
Saturday, 21 May
Anderson, Britton, and Janzen accompanied Palestinian harvesters on fields
near the Havot Ma'on settlement outpost. A journalist visited At-Tuwani to
learn about the situation and to interview Palestinian shepherds affected by
the poisoning of their grazing lands several months earlier. In the
afternoon Anderson and Janzen went to Jawiyya to photograph a sheep which
had died as a result of a settler beating on 16 May 2005.
Sunday, 22 May
Anderson and Janzen heard of a newly demolished Palestinian house in an area
called Khallet Athba and went to investigate. The CPTers were told that
Israeli soldiers arrived there at about 9:30 a.m. in three jeeps along with
a bulldozer and a bagger. They gave the family little time to remove their
belongings before the destruction commenced and took less than a half hour
to level the entire house. The house was relatively new, about seven years
old, and had been built out of stone with a tarpaulin roof. The owner told
the team "Where do we go? We are not making problems. People need to stop
talking about peace. What peace!"
About 3:00 p.m. CPTers and Operation Dove members observed a sudden visit
Israeli police and Civil Administration officials made to At Tuwani.
Villagers reported later to the internationals that the main purpose of the
meeting was to try to intimidate the villagers into forcing the
internationals to leave. The Israeli officials told the villagers, once
again, that the internationals were "causing problems" in the area. The
officials also told the villagers that they (the police) would be better
able to help them if the villagers simply took pictures of each incident
with settlers, and the police would put the settlers responsible in jail
"for a very long time." The villagers said that they told the police and
Civil Administration officials that they did not believe them, that only
since the internationals have been living in the village has the situation
for the villagers improved. The villagers then told the internationals that
they wanted them to stay.
Monday, 23 May
About 9:00 a.m. Anderson and Janzen and Operation Dove members were called
to a field in Jawiyya where settlers were harvesting wheat by hand. The
field lies in area currently under dispute in the Israeli court system (See
above.)
At the same time more settlers and Palestinians began converging on the
field. The two groups yelled at and shoved each other. Israeli army,
police, and settler security vehicles arrived. In about fifteen minutes, at
least fifteen settlers gathered and continued to cut the wheat, stuffing it
into large bags. Although the police and soldiers told the settlers to stop
harvesting, they did nothing to force the settlers to quit. Eventually the
Israeli police handcuffed and arrested two settlers. After being
handcuffed, one of the settlers escaped from the police and led them on a
chase through the hills, twice. The policemen later took the arrested
settlers to the Kiryat Arba police station.
After about forty minutes, the Israeli police ordered the Palestinians to
move further back from the confrontation area. At about the same time, the
police detained one Palestinian. Soon after that the military declared the
contested area a closed military zone, and threatened to arrest the
internationals and the Palestinians if they did not leave the area. The
Palestinians refused to leave, saying that the police should release the
detained Palestinian first. The police told the Palestinians and
internationals that they were arresting the detained Palestinian and taking
him to the Kiryat Arba police station. Soldiers and police then loaded the
bags of harvested wheat into the back of an Israeli police jeep and a Civil
Administration jeep.
In the afternoon, an Israeli from Ta'ayush, Anderson, and a member of
Operation Dove visited families whose homes were also demolished on the
previous day (Sunday, 22 May.) In the area around the village of Sarura,
the Israeli military destroyed six Palestinian houses belonging to an
extended family, displacing thirty individuals.
A family member told team members they had to sleep outside on mats they had
been able to remove from their homes before the bulldozers started the
demolition. The family had contacted the Red Cross, but was still waiting
for the tents and other survival materials to arrive. Later, Anderson called
to checkup on the families' urgent call for help and was assured by a Red
Cross worker that the materials would be delivered the next day, 24 May 2005
The group of internationals were not able to visit the village, Al Fakheit,
where Palestinians reported that the Israeli military destroyed two other
homes, also on Sunday, 22 May. The group did check on the family in the
village of Khallet Athba where CPTers had visited on Sunday. This family
reported that had been sleeping outside on mats since Sunday's demolition.
"God is generous," said one family member pointing to the mats that they
were able to save before the destruction began.
On the way back to At-Tuwani several Palestinians intercepted the group,
pointing at a settler in a car (accompanied by his wife and small child) in
the area of Mghal Abeed stealing Palestinian goats from one of the flocks.
The Operation Dove member caught the theft on video camera and showed it to
the Israeli police. They promised to arrest the settler if the Operation
Dove member gave them the tape-- which he did--and the police arrested the
settler.
Meanwhile Israeli soldiers also arrived in Mghal Abeed because other
settlers (about five or six men and five or six young people) had invaded
nearby Palestinian fields and were in the process of cutting down and
stealing their wheat. By the time the Israeli military arrived to stop the
theft, ten dunams (about two and a half acres) had been harvested and hauled
away. Despite complaints from the Palestinians, the Israeli police did
nothing to take the harvest back.
Tuesday, 24 May
In the morning a Palestinian shepherd came to the internationals' house in
At-Tuwani to report that he was missing more goats and that he needed a copy
of the videotape of yesterday's (Monday, 23 May) incidents. Later, when the
Operation Dove member went to the Kiryat Arba police station to retrieve the
videotape, the police refused to give it back. The Operation Dove member
also discovered that the police had arrested the settler arrested for
stealing the goats. The police told the OD member that after they reviewed
the videotape (which they were now refusing to give back) they could not
clearly identify the settler they had arrested. The police also told the OD
member that the Palestinian arrested in Jawiyya the previous afternoon had
not been released.
In the evening the internationals met with At Tuwani village leaders where
they learned that, to date, thirty-four sheep and goats were dead and eighty
were very sick in At-Tuwani and Mufakara because of the poisoning of grazing
lands by settlers in late March and early April.
Wednesday, 25 May
A Palestinian reported that at about 2:00 a.m., Israeli soldiers occupied a
Palestinian home close to Simea, which is very near the village of Samua'.
Soldiers forced all fifty people living there into a single room. The
soldiers kept them penned up that way for twenty-two hours until they
vacated the home at about 11:00 p.m.
Saturday, 28 May
In the afternoon, Anderson, Janzen and Operation Dove members accompanied
shepherds with their flocks to fields in Jawiyya (the area under dispute.)
After about one hour the internationals noticed several settlers on a street
in Ma'on looking and pointing at the field. Soon, about fifteen settlers
came down to the highway between the settlement and the field, followed by
an Israeli army jeep and settler security vehicles. A settler security man
claimed that the lawyers for the two sides (settlers and Palestinian family)
had agreed that no one would go on the disputed land until after the court
case was settled. The young Palestinian shepherds eventually moved their
animals to a different area. The settler security man drove his truck
around to another Palestinian field and when the Palestinians and
internationals questioned his right to drive on Palestinian land he
responded saying, "I can go wherever I want to."
Sunday, 29 May
Janzen and a member of Operation Dove went to Jawiyya to photograph two more
sheep that had died as a result of injuries inflicted by settlers on Monday,
16 May.
Janzen and Anderson made and signed a statement saying that they were
present on the land that is under dispute in Jawiyya while Palestinians were
planting wheat last December. The CPTers gave the statement and photographs
of the plowing from December to the Palestinian landowner to give as
evidence to the family's lawyer.
At noon, the internationals were called to an area called Khoruba (which is
near the Havot Ma'on outpost) because settlers were harvesting wheat on
Palestinian land there. The internationals videotaped a settler on a John
Deere combine harvesting wheat, while another settler watched from the edge
of the outpost. Soon, settler security and several Israeli army vehicles
arrived. Palestinians from the family that own the land complained to the
soldiers, but the soldiers allowed the settler with the combine to leave the
area with the harvested wheat still inside. When the Israeli police arrived
(one hour after being called by the internationals and Palestinians) a
policeman said "This is no one's land. We are dealing in court with who owns
the land." After the police told the Palestinians that they must go to the
Kiryat Arba police station to file a complaint about the harvesting and
stolen wheat, the Palestinians, soldiers and police left the area.
Tuesday, 31 May
A CPT delegation of ten persons visited At Tuwani to learn about the
situation there and CPT's work in the area.
In the early evening the internationals received a call from a Palestinian
reporting that a settler man and boy from the Havot Ma'on outpost walked to
the nearby Palestinian village of Mufakara and looked around the village.
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