CPTnet
28 April 2005

AT-TUWANI: Sheep killed in Tuwani

by Maureen Jack

On the morning of Wednesday 19 April 2005 a lamb was born dead and a sheep
died, after a soldier beat the ewe and other sheep in the flock on the
previous day.

Early that morning a shepherd from Tuwani was grazing his small flock of
nine sheep on the hillside below Havat Ma'on. Shepherd and sheep were all
on the Tuwani side of the path below the outpost--land which the Israeli
military commander had previously told the shepherds they could access.

A group of four soldiers arrived and told the shepherd to move the sheep
further from the outpost. The shepherd refused to move, referring to the
commander's earlier instructions. During their somewhat heated discussion a
soldier hit some sheep with his heavy rifle and also kicked them with his
boot.

The shepherd said that he had bought the sheep two years before for 150
Jordanian dinar (approximately $215). Its death, together with the
stillbirth of the lamb, came just a short time after the death of another of
his sheep following contamination of grazing land with poison pellets. In
total, twenty seven sheep have died in the last few weeks. Their loss is a
devastating blow to the villagers' livelihoods.