CPTnet
24 May 2005
AT-TUWANI: Israeli military, police and settlers prevent Palestinians from
grazing sheep and goats
by Kristin Anderson
On Thursday, 19 May 2005, Israeli soldiers, police and settlers prevented
Palestinians from Jawiyya, a small village in the south Hebron Hills, from
grazing their sheep and goats.
Israeli soldiers and a security guard from the Israeli settlement of Ma'on
arrived simultaneously about 5:00 p.m.. They began interrogating and
photographing Palestinians and members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams
(CPT.) At the same time, four young settlers descended a hill and gathered
close to the Palestinian shepherds and sheep, taunting them and picking up
rocks. Israeli police proceeded to tell CPTers Kristin Anderson and Sally
Britton that they must go to the (Israel bypass) road, because, he said,
"The settlers make more problems whenever they see CPTers." Anderson told
the policeman that CPTers would not leave because it would not be safe for
the Palestinians. The Israeli policeman then took Anderson's passport and
threatened her with arrest.
Israeli police proceeded to check the IDs of the Palestinians. They claimed
they were verifying ownership of the land where the goats and sheep were
grazing. After this, Israeli soldiers corralled the Palestinians and their
flocks into a smaller area. The soldiers then began chasing the
Palestinians up the hill and physically pushing them. The soldiers were
shouting, "This is soldier land - GO! This is soldier land - go home!" The
Palestinians moved slowly and verbally refuted soldiers' claims to the land.
One Palestinian defiantly sat on the hillside. The Ma'on security guard
continued to drive the goats and sheep roughly up the hillside. Once the
Israeli soldiers forced the Palestinians to the top of the hill, just beyond
the border of the "disputed" area, the soldiers, police, and remaining
settlers left.
In the last week, the settler security guard from Ma'on and/or the Israeli
military have interrupted the grazing six times while CPTers and members of
Operation Dove, an Italian Christian peace organization, were accompanying
the shepherds. Additionally on Saturday, 16 May 2005, between forty and
fifty settlers from Ma'on attacked Palestinians harvesting wheat and grazing
their animals on this land. A ten-year-old Palestinian boy needed six
stitches in his chin as a result of an injury from a rock thrown by a
settler. On Monday, 16 May, 2005 twenty settlers attacked Palestinian
shepherds and their animals on this "disputed" land, killing three sheep and
injuring several others (four of these injured sheep have since died.)
Palestinians from Jawiyya continue to resist nonviolently land confiscation
and settlement expansion by grazing their animals on this "disputed" land.
While an Israeli soldier was shoving him up the hill, one Palestinian
shepherd screamed, "It's a war here every day."
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