At-Tuwani Update: 9-14 April 2005

Saturday, 9 April

CPT members Maureen Jack, Evans, and Bischoff
accompanied an older Palestinian woman with her sheep
near fields planted by the Israeli settlers from
Ma'on. Israeli Army personnel came near and told her
that the area she was in was a closed military zone.
The woman stayed near the line and continued to graze
her sheep. The soldiers remained for about forty-five
minutes drinking coffee and talking to one another.
The Team noticed more soldiers in the area than usual.
 They understood that the military presence was
increased due to confrontations on previous weekends
between Palestinian shepherds and Israeli settlers
from Ma'on and Havat Ma'on. The soldiers seemed
relaxed, reading magazines and drinking coffee.

A delegation of Mennonites from Canada and the U.S.
arrived to join the team for a couple of weeks.

In the afternoon CPT members watched while soldiers in
a military vehicle escorted Palestinian children home
from school. The children were on foot. Six cars
driven by Israeli settlers pulled up behind the
military escort. The soldiers let the cars pass.
Further down the road one of the settlers' cars
stopped and the man inside appeared to be yelling at
the children. A soldier immediately jumped between
the car and the children. The settlers drove their
cars away.

Sunday, 10 April

Operation Dove members, who work closely with CPT,
observed that the military personnel escorting school
children were half an hour late in the morning.

CPT members Jack, Bischoff, and Diana Zimmerman
accompanied shepherds near Havat Ma'on. The shepherds
were able to graze their sheep without problems.

The Israeli Peace group Ta'ayush brought feed for the
sheep of At-Tuwani and Mufakara in response to the
poisoning of Palestinian grazing lands in the area
(see CPTnet release 'Seventeen Sheep Poisoned to Death; Shepherds will march
to Kiryat Arba', 4 April).

Monday, 11 April

The Hebron Governor's office delivered food for the
people of Tuwani and Mufakara.

Tuesday, 12 April

Zimmerman and Jack observed the Israeli police driving
behind the fourteen Palestinian children going to
school, beeping the horn to hurry the children along.

Zimmerman, Jack, and Bischoff accompanied two
shepherds from Tuwani while they grazed their sheep in
the valley near the Israeli settlement of Ma'on. The
shepherds discovered three piles of poison still in
the field. CPT members cleaned up the poison.

Representatives from the U.S. consulate came to
At-Tuwani to learn about the poisoning of the land.
They said that they had sent a letter to the State
Department regarding the issue. The Consulate office
had also spoken with the Kiryat Arba police about a
case regarding two U.S. citizens working with
International Solidarity Movement that had been
attacked by settlers. The police told the Consulate
that if Internationals were attacked they had brought
it upon themselves.

The local UN-OCHA (Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs) representative came for a
meeting to gather GPS readings of the lands that were
poisoned. He told CPT members that the name of the
second poison is Brodifacoum.

Wednesday, 13 April

Bischoff, Zimmerman, and Chelli Stanley accompanied
shepherds and farmers working on land near Havat
Ma'on. Two settler women came out of Havat Ma'on with
their babies. They began walking near the
Palestinians. They stopped when their baby fell out
of the pram. Bischoff and Zimmerman went to see if
the baby was okay, but the women shouted in Hebrew and
went back into the settlement.

The police did not show up for afternoon school
patrol. Stanley called and the police said they were
too busy. Stanley called the military and their
personnel arrived fifteen minutes later. By the time
the children began walking home with accompaniment it
was one hour after school had finished.

CPT members had a meeting with a woman from At-Tuwani
who expressed concerns about the hard life for women
in the area and how they would like to organize a
festival to show visitors the traditional life that
they live. The festival would involve making bread,
making cheese, and preparing a dinner for the
visitors.

A friend of the team secured an apartment in Yatta for
team members to base themselves there for a time.

Thursday, 14 April

Stanley and Bischoff noted that the morning school patrol was on time.

The CPT delegates from Canada and the U.S. visited
Tuwani and had lunch near where shepherds were grazing their sheep.

Around 4:00 pm, a settler came out of Havat Ma'on and
attempted to sic his dog on Palestinians working
nearby. The dog did not comply and the settler
went back into the settlement.

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