CPTnet
22 June 2005
AT-TUWANI UPDATE: 1-14 June 2005
Thursday, 2 June The team learned that the court hearing, scheduled for 31
May in Israel, regarding the Tuwani sheep poisoning case would not occur.
The villagers are waiting for a meeting with their lawyer and the District
Coordinating Office to clarify what will happen next on a legal level.
Saturday, 4 June A member of Operation Dove (an Italian Catholic peace
organization with CPT team in Tuwani) and three other Italians came for a
visit. They went to nearby Mufakara. A novelist from the U.S., Richard
North Patterson, came to interview the team about its work and to learn the
history of the current situation of Tuwani for a forthcoming book on the
Middle East conflict.
The team's next-door neighbor invited the novelist and the team for tea. He
also showed us one of the family caves across the road. The cave, now used
for storage,dates back to the Roman time. Indeed, part of a Roman column
still stands in the cave. There is also a tunnel at the back of the cave
thatleads to an old, dry well. The team's neighbor said that in the past,
when families needed to hide from invaders, the family could shut the door
of the cave and live in it with the animals for many months.
In the morning, the Israeli military in four vehicles and Israeli border
police drove through the village at different times. Three of the team
members went to the road towards the military hummer. It stopped and a
soldier asked where the internationals lived. Diane Janzen (CPT) answered,
"In a house in Tuwani." The soldier asked where, and she replied, "You
don't need to know." The soldiers drove away.
Saturday, 5 June The team responded to an early morning call to accompany a
shepherd in Jawiyya nearby and stayed with him and his goat and sheep flock
for three hours in the morning and again at 3:00 p.m.. In the morning, the
shepherd made tea for the group in the field. The morning went by
peacefully, but in the afternoon, Israeli civilian police drove up and asked
the group to show him the video camera. They did so and the police drove
away. The shepherd asked for accompaniment because he was going to graze
his sheep to the edge of the "disputed" land. (i.e., land that both
Palestinians and Israelis claim and whose ownership is being decided by the
Israeli judicial system.)
Monday, 6 June CPTer Mary Yoder arrived with Kristin Anderson and a CPT
intern. In the morning, the team responded to a call to accompany a shepherd
in Jawiyya.
Tuesday, 7 June The team went to Khoruba to investigate whether poison in
the area that harmed and killed sheep in the past two months is still
around. They found numerous areas of the turquoise poison tablets under
layers of dust. The team shot a video of the area and took samples of the
poison.
Wednesday, 8 June Team members responded to a call to accompany a shepherd
in Jawiyya in the morning and the afternoon. Settler security arrived at
the field around4:00 p.m. and took video footage of the scene. No incident
followed.
Thursday, 9 June
Jerry Levin came with a guest and gave him a tour. At 9:00 p.m., one of the
Tuwani families invited the team for a turkey meal.
Friday, 10 June In late afternoon three Palestinian men arrived to report
that a group of seven or eight Israeli soldiers occupied a home in Yatta at
3:00 a.m. today, putting all fifteen family members in one room. The team
alerted the Israeli groups Ta'ayush and Machsoum Watch.
Monday, 13 June In the afternoon, while the team was accompanying a
shepherd in Jawiyya, settler security arrived followed by an army hummer.
One Israeli soldier was extremely angry and frightened the shepherd, a young
boy, who ran his flock down the hillside. The team stayed back and talked
with the soldier, explaining that the shepherd was on his own land. The
soldiers left, but the settler threatened the team by yelling that, "If CPT
keeps helping the shepherds, the settlers will move the Red Line!"
(referring to the boundary of the Ma'on settlement.) The team knew the name
of this settler and has documented his threat.
Tuesday, 14 June
The team met with Tuwani leaders about the poisoned sheep report to the
Ministry of Agriculture of the Palestinian Authority (PA.) The Tuwani men
decided to request compensation for the lost sheep only from their first
poisoning, since those numbers were used in a public forum of the UN Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Mary Yoder, for the
team, wrote a letter to the Minister of Agriculture in support of the claim
of the Tuwani men.
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