CPTnet
4 May 2006
AT-TUWANI UPDATE: 7 - 26 April 2006
Daily routine Each day (apart from Fridays) the team carried out school
patrol in two locations at the start and close of the school day. The team
has been observing that the new brigade of soldiers in the area (the change
happened after the Passover holiday) have implemented the school patrol
escort poorly. Each day, too, between early morning and late afternoon the
team accompanies local shepherds in nearby areas. Team members during this
period were CPTers Lorne Friesen, Laurie Hadden, Maureen Jack, Diane Janzen,
Allen Johnson, Rich Meyer and two members of Operation Dove (Doves.)
Friday, 7 April 2006
Johnson and Friesen traveled with a Palestinian translator to document an
attack in Susiya (see 27 April CPTnet release, "Testimony of 25 March
Settler Attack in Susiya, 24 April 2006.) On the way the translator
pointed out his olive groves near the road, and a rainwater-gathering
cistern which he said is now under threat of demolition, despite the fact
that such cisterns do not require planning permission.
After taking the testimonies about the recent settler attacks in Susiya, the
CPTers also visited another family who has suffered from Israeli settler
attacks. One told them, "Every year the settlers take more of our land."
The settlers graze their sheep on Palestinian land and threaten the
Palestinians with guns. The family had already had to move after the
military demolished their home in Susiya. Then in 2000 the military came
with bulldozers, demolished one of their large tents, and tried to destroy
their cave by filling it in with large boulders.
Janzen monitored a flying checkpoint on the road between the bypass road 317
and Karmil until the soldiers left.
Jack and Janzen gave tours to three groups, including visitors from Belgium,
Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Later in the afternoon a villager saw that Israeli soldiers were harassing
shepherds on hills across the bypass road from the entrance to Ma'on, and
asked Hadden, Jack and Janzen to go to the area. The soldiers had come to
move the Palestinians' sheep off the hill. As the CPTers arrived the
soldiers were driving away. They returned in twenty minutes because the
sheep were again grazing on the hill. They frightened the sheep and
shepherds by driving at the flock and revving the engine.
A challenge to the soldiers' behaviour by Jack and Janzen led to a long
conversation about politics and history, during which the sheep grazed
undisturbed.
Saturday, 8 April 2006
In the afternoon Friesen and Janzen walked to the next village of Mufakara
to meet with a shepherd who had been to Kiryat Arba police station to make a
complaint about settlers grazing their flocks on planted Palestinian land on
6 April. The Palestinian said that the police wanted him to return to the
police station on 9 April, b t he said that he would be on his land and that
the police could come speak to him there.
Hadden and Jack responded to a call from villagers who had seen settlers at
a rainwater-gathering cistern in a valley close to At-Tuwani. The CPTers
visited the cistern with a young Palestinian man. The settlers had left
and the CPTers saw no sign of damage to the cistern or water pollution.
Sunday, 9 April 2006
Friesen and Janzen walked to Mufakara to pass on videos of incidents in the
area to the man waiting to speak to the police. The police never arrived.
At 3:00 p.m. the team received a report that soldiers had come and chased
shepherds from the nearby village of Jawiyya who were in a valley between
At-Tuwani and Ma'on. Friesen and Janzen went to accompany the shepherds
until they returned home at 6:00 p.m.
Monday, 10 April 2006
While Friesen and a visitor were accompanying shepherds in the hills on the
other side of the bypass road, settler security from Ma'on arrived. Settler
security argued at length with the shepherd and they both spoke by telephone
to an Israeli military District Coordinating Officer (DCO.) Later soldiers
arrived and insisted that the shepherds move the flock from area because
that land belonged to the settlers. Hadden and Janzen went out in support.
Settler security spoke with the soldiers in Hebrew. Subsequent translation
of the videotape showed that the soldiers had told settler security that it
was the Palestinians' land and so they could do nothing; they also asked him
what they could do. However, the soldiers gave a very different account to
the CPTers, telling them in English that the land belonged to the settlers
and the Palestinians needed to go past the top of the hill. Hadden asked
the soldiers why three days before it had been acceptable for the
Palestinians and sheep to be on top of the hill but now their presence was a
problem. The soldiers said that two days before an official from the
military had come to the area and "declared new borders." Again during the
discussions the sheep remained grazing and around 5:00 p.m. settler security
left and the shepherds started on the way back to Jawiyya.
Tuesday, 11 April 2006
At afternoon school patrol the police arrived fifty minutes early and
demanded to know from Jack and Johnson where the children were. The CPTers
explained that the children do not finish school until 1:00 p.m. The police
continued to act in a belligerent and demanding way to the CPTers, and drove
away, returning for school patrol at the correct time.
Wednesday 12 April 2006
At lunchtime school patrol, a man from Tuba was waiting with the children.
He said that he was ill and hoped to walk the short way home with the
children and police. The police arrived promptly and voiced no objections
when a Dove asked about the Palestinian walking with them. The police could
not open the gate on the road that the military/police use to escort the
children to and from school (the settlers have changed the combination on
the lock they have on the gate), and so one policeman walked up the hill
with the children while the jeep drove round.
A villager from Susiya visited and told a Dove and Johnson that near Susiya
preparations for construction of the low 'security' wall along bypass road
317 are continuing.
At 6.55 p.m. a villager rang from his car; he was on the road from Yatta to
At-Tuwani. A Palestinian driver had just told him that soldiers were at the
bypass road and that they had beaten him up. Jack and Johnson went down to
the road. As they approached, an army pickup truck drove away. The
villager was in his car on the other side of the road with his mother and
son and two other children. He told the CPTers that a soldier had
threatened to kill him if he came back.
Thursday 13 April 2006
A shepherd from Jawiyya visited and spoke to Jack and Janzen. He reported
that the previous day five settlers had come from Ma'on and chased family
members who were herding sheep.
Jack and Janzen gave a tour to a group of Belgian lawyers.
While taking tea at a friend's house, Jack and Janzen saw a border police
jeep stopped on bypass road 317. The police were speaking to three
Palestinian men harvesting in the valley next to the entrance road to
Tuwani. However, they soon let them go and the men resumed their work.
Friday, 14 April 2006, Good Friday
A Canadian consular official stationed in Ramallah visited. She was very
interested in the difficulties that the settlers have caused for the
villagers and inquired about the eighty-centimeter wall that the Israeli
government is building along bypass road 317.
Saturday, 15 April 2006
Doves observing morning school patrol reported that no soldiers walked with
the children; the soldiers shouted at the children from the jeep, and they
revved the jeep's engine to make the children walk faster. In the afternoon
patrol, the same soldiers again shouted at the children.
Sunday, 16 April 2006
The soldiers were thirty minutes late for school patrol; the children
returned part way towards Tuba because of settlers working on the new
chicken barn.
In the morning the team heard from an At-Tuwani villager that soldiers were
occupying a house in Zif (a village northeast of At-Tuwani.) Janzen and a
Dove went with a man from the occupied house to speak with the soldiers.
Twenty-one family members live on the main floor of the house that is right
next to bypass road 317 in Zif. Soldiers entered the house around 8:00
a.m., breaking two windows in the process. The soldiers then occupied the
family's living quarters and said that they would be there four days. The
family was crowded into two normally unused rooms on a lower floor.
Janzen and the Dove entered the house and started videotaping the soldiers
inside. The soldiers refused to tell the internationals why they were
occupying the house. The soldiers ordered the internationals to leave and
threatened that if they failed to do so the soldiers would use force or call
the police and have them arrested. After discussion, the soldiers allowed
one of the older men in the family to remain in the house and Janzen and the
Dove left. Later that day, the family reported that for most of the day the
soldiers allowed the older man, one woman and a girl to stay in the house.
However, at about 9:00 p.m., the soldiers evicted everyone from the house
after allowing the family to take out mattresses for sleeping.
Monday 17 April 2006
The soldiers were late arriving in the morning so that the children did not
get to school until 9:00 a.m. The children were released from school at
10:30 a.m. Despite calls, the military did not arrive to accompany them
home until 1:45 p.m. No soldiers walked with the children.
At 11:30 a.m. Friesen and Janzen responded to a report of a problem with
settlers from the Hill 833 outpost. They learned that a settler shepherd
had gone near a flock of sheep from Migael Abed that the young son of a
Palestinian shepherd was watching. The boy was frightened, ran away, and
left the sheep. The settler then stole some of them. The CPTers saw the
settler as he was coming back with the flock to the outpost, videotaping and
photographing him with the sheep.
The team learned that a suicide bombing that afternoon in Tel Aviv had
killed seven people.
The team heard that soldiers were still occupying the house in Zif.
Tuesday 18 April 2006
At lunchtime the police were forty-five minutes late for school patrol.
Just after breakfast, Jack and Janzen went with two Palestinian friends to
document the preparations near Susiya for the low security wall along bypass
road 317. A bulldozer and backhoe were working and two security guards were
present. A lot of ground had been dug up and alongside the road there was a
swathe several metres wide carved out of the planted field.
At 12:30 p.m., a Dove came across a temporary military checkpoint on the
road to Karmil; the soldiers moved on at 1:20 p.m.
The team learned that the soldiers had left the house in Zif at 2:00 a.m.
Wednesday 19 April 2006
At 9:20 a.m. Friesen observed two Israeli men on the road below the Hill 833
outpost. He contacted Jack and Janzen, who were nearer; they walked to the
area. One of the men disappeared into the trees and the other walked
towards them. The CPTers greeted him; he said that he lives in the Galilee,
and was on a Passover visit to his brother who lives in the outpost. He
said that he wanted to talk to Palestinians, and the CPTers told this to
several Palestinian men who were watching from further away. Several young
village men approached and a discussion ensued. The villagers spoke about
the situation and the problems with settlers attacking Palestinians in the
field and the children from Tuba. They said that "there was no problem
having the settlers live in Ma'on or in the treed outpost, but it was a
problem when the settlers attacked them and tried to take their land.' The
Israeli visitor listened and asked questions, and one of the Palestinians
brought tea. Twice an army vehicle came by to check that there was no
problem.
Two villagers asked whether it was better for them to talk together, sit
down and drink tea, or throw rocks at each other in the field. As the
Israeli left, he shook everyone's hands.
In the afternoon Jack received a call that settlers had attacked families in
Tuba. She phoned the Israeli police. At first they said that it was not
their concern and suggested that she phone the Palestinian police. She
insisted that it was their responsibility and gave them the telephone number
of a Tuba villager. Friesen and a Dove walked to Khoruba to see if settlers
were returning from Tuba. They saw no one on the path, but they could see
and hear settlers on the top of the outpost in what appeared to be some kind
of celebration.
Jack and the Dove walked to Tuba by the long route. Villagers from Migael
Abed Tuba welcomed then. They spent the night in the cave home of one of
the Tuba families. Villagers told them that they had been frightened when
the settlers attacked and threw rocks, but that no one had been hurt. The
team learned that the settlers first attacked the village of Migael Abed,
and villagers saw settlers pouring something from a bottle into one of the
village's wells. The settlers then continued up to Tuba. The villagers in
Tuba also said that there was no water in the well in Tuba and that people
were paying money for water.
Later the team learned that the military had detained a shepherd from
Jawiyya.
Thursday 20 April 2006
In the morning while waiting near Tuba with the children for the army jeep
Jack and the Dove photographed the construction of what the team assumes is
a new chicken barn. On the other side of this construction from Khoruba
hill there is another large flat area that looks as if another chicken barn
will be constructed there. The children were clearly apprehensive waiting
there and kept watch for settlers. When the jeep arrived, Jack said to the
soldiers, "We are walking with the children today," "OK," they said, and
Jack and the Dove walked with the children in front of the jeep.
After school patrol Jack stayed to accompany a shepherd and his flock. She
noticed two vehicles on bypass road 317, near the turnoff for the back road
to Ma'on, and two men carrying out a survey of the road. Once Friesen and a
Dove had joined her, Jack asked one of the surveyors if their work was
connected to the low security wall, but he said that they were simply
planning to widen the road. The CPTers documented the surveying.
At lunchtime school patrol, a border police jeep arrived and the police
agreed to accompany the children home. They did not know the combination to
the lock on the gate on the road (placed by the settlers) and so two
policemen walked with the children while the jeep drove around. Janzen
overheard one child asking the policemen if they were afraid of the
settlers. At 2:20 p.m., part way through the escort, the jeep of soldiers
who were supposed to do the escort finally arrived. However, the border
police finished the escort.
Friday 21 April 2006
At around 5:00 p.m., a villager came to tell the team that soldiers were at
bypass road 317, preventing a villager from bringing his sheep into the
village. Jack and the two Doves responded. On the way down, they could see
the shepherd walking on the road into At-Tuwani with his sheep. He later
told the team that the soldiers had held him for fifteen minutes and
threatened him. The internationals waited near the jeep until it left
around 6:00 p.m., villagers met to discuss arrangements for the
demonstration against the proposed low wall along bypass road 317 the
following day. The villagers agreed that they would not allow violence
against people or property and that the demonstrators would not block the
bypass road; rather they would walk along the side as far as possible to the
construction work near Susiya.
Saturday, 22 April 2006
The children were forty-five minutes late for school because the soldiers
who were to escort them were late and did not know where to go to meet the
children. The soldiers drove to a nearby hill asking the internationals
watching from there where to go. At that moment, four settlers shouted and
threw stones at the waiting children, forcing them to return part way back
to Tuba.
Jack and a Dove responded to a report at 10:15 a.m. that settlers were near
Jawiyya shepherds on the other side of the bypass road 317. Six settlers
were standing on the ridge above the shepherds. Janzen spoke to the police
who were in At-Tuwani at 10:30 a.m. because of the demonstration and asked
them to go to the area where settlers were. After half an hour, the
settlers left and Jack and the Dove walked along bypass road 317 back to the
village, meeting a police vehicle on the way that was heading to the area
(after the incident was ove.r)
At 11.00 a.m., the demonstration against the proposed low wall began in
spite of the large presence of Israeli police in the village and military at
the entrance to the village. The villagers' peaceful protest seemed to
evoke a particularly violent response from the police, army, and special
forces. The police arrested two villagers and three Israelis. Soldiers and
police injured two other villagers who received hospital treatment in Yatta.
(See 24 April CPTnet release, "Israelis and Palestinians arrested
demonstrating against planned security wall.")
Sunday, 23 April 2006
The soldiers were again late at morning and afternoon school patrol.
Monday, 24 April 2006
A villager from Susiya came to tell the team that soldiers had come to the
village the previous evening around 10.00 p.m. and asked his father where
the young men of the family were. (They were spending the night in Yatta.)
The soldiers then searched the tents of that family and one tent of another
family.
Mid-morning Janzen and a Dove documented soldiers blocking the road to
Yatta. A large front-end loader was scooping up dirt from beside the
entrance to At Tuwani and dumping it on the intersection of the Yatta road
and bypass road 317. A hummer was with the front-end loader. Both left as
soon as the internationals arrived. Two tractor drivers were waiting to
cross the road, so the drivers and the internationals cleared a way so that
the tractors could go over.
The military escort for the schoolchildren was an hour late in the morning.
While waiting for the military escort in the afternoon, the children played
in the evergreen trees at the edge of the hill where the outpost is; some
climbed through a fence and were playing above a field of the settlers'
fruit trees. Some of the boys started wandering to the edge of the
settlers' trees, picking up old pop cans and bottles. Janzen asked them to
play farther away from the settlement because she had seen a few settlers
walking on the path at the edge of Ma'on. Shortly after that, six settlers
came running down the short road towards the children and started yelling at
them. Janzen and a Dove ran to stay between the settlers and the children,
and told the children to go to the village. Janzen asked the settlers why
they were scaring small children. They claimed that the children had been
damaging the trees. Janzen had been watching them the whole time and had
seen no sign of them causing damage. The settlers screamed angrily into
Janzen's face. At this point, villagers from At-Tuwani arrived and there
were heated exchanges between some of them and the settlers. Shortly
afterwards settler security, police and army jeeps arrived.
Two members of Ta'ayush arrived. One of them translated for the
internationals what the settler security had told the police: a Thai worker
[foreign workers are hired by the settlement] had seen the Arab children
breaking branches [which Janzen could testify was not the case] and
notified the Jewish people in the settlement.' Janzen and the Dove tried to
make statements to the police to complain about the settlers' behavior
towards the children. However, the police said that in order to file a
complaint it would be necessary to go to Kiryat Arba police station near
Hebron.
All of the army vehicles drove away. As the last were about to leave,
Janzen asked the soldiers to wait and escort the children home to Tuba.
They refused and one soldier said, "No. There will be no escort today."
One of the members of Ta'ayush spoke to the police about it. The police
said that they would call the army and make sure that the children were
escorted home ( the escort finally happened at 3:00 p.m.) While waiting for
the soldiers' return, Janzen saw a man going into the field of trees and
had the impression that he was breaking off branches. A member of Ta'ayush
reported this to the police who were still there, and the police said that
it was a Thai worker (subsequent comparison of photographs confirmed that
the man in question was a settler, not a Thai worker.) This same settler
came out of the fruit trees as the military escorted the children home and
stood on the short road and watched them.
Tuesday, 25 April 2006
Two Doves documented preparation of land for construction of the low wall on
the north side of bypass road 317. Heavy equipment operators were working
immediately across from the entrance to At Tuwani, with a Caterpillar 966E
loader and a backhoe.
In the afternoon, the children from Tuba waited further away from the
settlement for the police to escort them home. After ninety minutes, some
of the children lost patience and began to walk home the long way around.
The police were unable to do the escort and an army jeep eventually arrived
two hours after the end of school. All children got home, though one small
boy fell and hurt his hand while walking the long way home.
Shortly after 3:00 p.m., Janzen and a Dove responded to a report from
shepherds that olive trees had been cut in a valley near At-Tuwani in the
night. The landowner showed them how seventeen olive trees, all about one
year old, had been cut off fairly close to the ground. At about 5:00 p.m.
police arrived to document the damage and take a statement from the
landowner.
Wednesday 26 April 2005
In the morning the Doves noticed that there were several large boulders
across the road preventing vehicular access through the gate along the short
road. The police escorting the children told the Doves that they were going
to call the army to remove them.
Jack and a Dove went to the school shortly after noon when Meyer reported
the presence of a military jeep there. A teacher and the Tuba children
(already released from school) reported that soldiers had told the children
to go to the house in the village closest to the settler outpost rather than
to the gate leading to the short way to Tuba. Jack asked a soldier why the
jeep had come to a different place and where it would be the following day.
The soldier said that it would be at this house again because of 'the
agriculture.' He said [incorrectly] that the children had damaged the
settlers' trees. The soldiers then escorted the children around by the
middle path south of the Hill 833 outpost.
Meyer and a Dove watched from a hill as the children and their military
escort approached the settler caravan on the east side of the outpost by the
middle path at 1:00 p.m.. A minute before the escort got there, another
army jeep arrived at the caravan, and a settler spoke to the soldiers.
Then five adult male settlers and one adult female came from the caravan and
stood by the road. When the children approached, the settlers yelled at
them and moved toward them. The children were frightened and ran back to
the escort jeep. Soldiers got out of both jeeps, with some going towards
the settlers and some walking among the children. At that moment, a police
car arrived from the direction of Ma'on settlement, and one adult male
settler ran away down the hill. The other settlers spoke to the
schoolchildren while the children and their escort walked quickly past the
cabin. When the children and the escort were past, the second army jeep
left. The police in the car drove around on the middle path and met a
police jeep approaching from At Tuwani. After conferring for a few minutes,
both police vehicles returned toward Ma'on.
Jack spoke to two visitors from UNWRA, who had visited an elderly woman
injured by police in the demonstration on 22 April 2006.
After lunch, Meyer and a Dove went down to bypass road 317 to watch the
continuing construction. Two security officers claimed to Meyer that the
work was a road-widening project, but then they admitted that it would
include a low wall. Meyer asked about all the people of At-Tuwani and
surrounding area who need to get to Yatta. "Why do they need to go to
Yatta?"a guard replied. "There are hospitals in Israel. There are schools
in Israel. All this side is Israel. People on that side can go to Yatta."
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