"We need windows to the outside world—windows to let our story out, to let in the light.  We need you to be our windows.  Will you be a window?  Will you?  And you, and you?"

 The finger that points at me, the eyes that meet mine, the voice that locks itself into my consciousness, is that of "Amal," one of several Palestinian women whom I have met thus far.  I am in the West Bank as part of a delegation jointly sponsored by Christian Peacemaker Teams and the Reformed Church of America.  We have come to learn, to protest in nonviolent ways, to stand in solidarity with Palestinians and Israelis who are working for peace in this divided and war-torn land.

 Amal is an articulate representative of all the Palestinian women who have opened their hearts, their homes, their stories to us.  She lives in Deheisheh, one of several United Nations refugee camps for thousands of Palestinians who have been forced out of their villages by government order but who refuse to leave their home country—the "internally displaced."  Located within Bethlehem, Deheisheh is a maze of narrow, tangled streets and alleyways.  It is a community of contrasts.  Drab cement-block walls serve as canvas for painted murals, some depicting ancestral villages that exist only in the memory of the camp's oldest residents.  A kindergarten playground is surrounded with razor wire.  Here and there, a fig tree grows next to a fence covered with photos of young men who have "disappeared."

 The lined faces of women like Amal tell stories of suffering.

The morning of 31 May, CPTers in Hebron and At-Tuwani woke up to the news that Israel had attacked a convoy of humanitarian aid ships in international waters during the night. The six ships, known as the Freedom Flotilla, were attempting to take 10,000 tons of aid to Gaza. The situation in Gaza has reached crisis point since Egypt and Israel tightened security measures preventing movement in and out of the region. Unable to import or export food or materials, unable to rebuild homes, schools or hospitals damaged by ongoing conflict, unable to leave what is now described as an open-air prison, Gazans desperately need external support. In response to this situation, up to 750 internationals from 40 nations boarded the Freedom Flotilla in a peaceful attempt to offer their help and express their indignation at this catastrophic state of affairs.

Kairos Palestine (http://www.kairospalestine.ps/), a Palestinian Christian organization with whom CPT Hebron partners, is asking Christians around the world to contact their ambassadors to Israel and the Israeli Military and Foreign Affairs ministries regarding new military orders that could separate families.  CPT Hebron asks that its constituents respond to this call.

On 7 January 2010, soldiers detained Musab Musa Raba’i after attacking him and members of his family as they were complying with the soldiers' order to move their flocks off their family-owned land.(See 8 January 2010 release, AT-TUWANI: Israeli soldiers attack and injure Palestinian shepherds and CPTers; arrest Musa Raba’i)

The same eight soldiers who arrested Raba’i and attacked his family took him to a military base at the nearby Suseya settlement.  For four hours, soldiers struck him in the back, in the face, and slammed him into walls.  The soldiers questioned him about his brothers.  Raba’i refused to give any information and refused to speak Hebrew with the soldiers, which infuriated them.  The soldiers told him that they would come to his house in the following days and beat or kill him and his brothers.  They tried to force him to say that they were the best soldiers in the IDF and beat him when he would not.  Raba’i told CPTers the soldiers tied his hands and feet, blindfolded him, and sat him on a chair.  Raba’i put his head in his lap, in an attempt to protect his head and his genitals, and refused to lift it.  He said that at one point, a soldier cocked his rifle and told him to lift his head or he would shoot him.  Raba’i refused.  When another soldier tried to bring him food and water, as the military is legally obligated to do in such situations, the soldiers who were torturing him swore at the soldier and told him to leave.  The soldiers also refused to allow Raba’i to pray.

On the morning of Thursday 7 January 2010, Israeli soldiers attacked and injured Palestinian shepherds from the Musa Raba’i family, as they grazed their sheep in Humra valley, near the village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills.  The soldiers also attacked the CPTers accompanying the shepherds and broke a video camera.  Before leaving the area, the soldiers arrested one of the shepherds, Musab Musa Raba’i.

At around 10:30 a.m., Palestinian shepherds were grazing their sheep on Palestinian land, for which they have legally-recognized deeds of ownership, when they saw Israeli settlers observing them from the outpost of Havat Ma’on.  A short time later, an Israeli army jeep came to the area.  After stopping to speak with one of the settlers, three Israeli soldiers approached the shepherds and ordered them to leave the area.  The shepherds explained that it was their land, but agreed to move further down into the valley.  The soldiers followed them and grabbed at one of the shepherds, so they all tried to leave the area quickly with their sheep.  A second army jeep came to the area, and a further three soldiers joined in the attack.  Soldiers hit the shepherds with their rifle butts, pushed them, and kicked them while other soldiers held them to the ground.

On Tuesday, 17 November 2009, in the South Hebron Hills of the West Bank, five Israeli settlers harassed a Palestinian family walking home, then beat and robbed two Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) members who were accompanying them.

The two young parents and their three small children were returning from the nearby city of Yatta to their home village of Tuba. At 11:00 a.m., they encountered CPTers just south of the village of At-Tuwani. After the CPTers warned the Palestinians about the settlers seen earlier in the morning, the family chose a longer path toward Tuba, accompanied by the CPTers.

As the group crossed Mashakha Hill, they saw four settler men on a ridge fifty meters above them. The settlers ran toward the Palestinians and began to circle them. A fifth settler, masked and hooded, appeared from the valley below. When the Palestinian man told them he was only trying to walk home, a settler shoved him.

At-Tuwani, South Hebron Hills, Palestine On the morning of Sunday 8 November 2009, four Israeli settler youth from Ma'on settlement plowed privately owned Palestinian fields in Umm Zeituna valley. The settlers arrived at approximately 8:50 a.m. and, throwing stones, chased two Palestinian shepherds off the land, before starting to plow. Local Palestinian shepherds and international peace activists from Operation Dove called the Israeli police, who failed to respond to the incident.

Settlers worked for several hours and plowed the whole valley, situated on privately-owned Palestinian land that lies outside of Ma'on's municipal boundaries.

Local shepherds also reported that on Friday 5 November, settlers from Ma'on, with the accompaniment of Israeli soldiers, plowed a field near the Palestinian village of Maghayir al Abeed belonging to Hajj Hussein Daoud from the Palestinian city of Yatta. Daoud has filed several complaints regarding settlers violating his property rights. In recent years, he has requested the presence of Israeli police and the Israeli army during plowing and harvesting because of Israeli settler attacks.

At 4:30 pm on Monday 13 July 2009, two Israeli soldiers attacked a sixteen-year-old Palestinian boy 150 yards from his home in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron.

The attack happened as he was walking to his home carrying heavy electrical cables necessary for repair work on his family’s house. Two workers accompanying him left to raise the alarm.

The teenager reported that one particular soldier has often held him for ID checks lasting at least one hour. This soldier and another took his ID and told him to sit on the ground. Initially they made inappropriate sexual comments about the boy and his mother. They then assaulted him, kicking his leg, and hitting him on the neck and back both with their hands and with their rifle butts. He tried to telephone his father but a soldier grabbed the phone from him and hit him with it after removing the battery and SIM card.