CPTnet
6 May 2006

AT-TUWANI: "Are you afraid of the settlers too?"

Increased attacks and harassment by Israeli settlers from Hill 833 (a Ma'on
settlement outpost), on schoolchildren from the village of Tuba have drawn a
confused response from the Israeli police and military. These actions by
settlers include the following:

- Settlers placed large rocks blocking the short road from Tuba to At-Tuwani
that goes between Ma'on and Hill 833. (The Israeli Knesset Committee for
Children's Rights mandated that the military/police escort of the children
use this route, because it is the most direct.) The military left the rocks
there for five days, and switched to a middle road around the south side of
Hill 833.

- Settlers stood on the road; the police escort arrived, and warned the
approaching children to retreat. Settlers broke a window on the police
jeep, then two settlers ran away and others drove away. Police took no
action against the settlers.

- A settler security guard stopped his truck in the road that is the most
direct route, blocking the military escort jeep. He demanded that the
military use the middle road instead. The soldiers complied.

- Five adult male settlers circled around the school escort, yelling at the
schoolchildren, and then a group of about thirty-five settlers formed a
circle around the escort and threw rocks and eggs. The soldiers had the
schoolchildren get into the military jeeps, and sat for almost an hour. The
military and police took no action against the settlers.

- On two occasions, adult male settlers came from their houses near the
middle road and yelled at the children. On one occasion, the soldiers
allowed a settler, who was waving his arms and roaring, to walk into the
group of children, who scattered and ran. The soldiers returned after the
children were home and had a five-minute conference with that settler.

- Settlers placed a barrier of large rocks on the middle road. On first
discovering the barrier, the escort used the short road from Tuba to
At-Tuwani. Since then, on instructions from their senior officer, soldiers
have walked with the children on the middle road, with their jeep returning
and driving around through Ma'on settlement to pick up the soldiers. This
escort continued for several days, but on 3 May a police jeep arrived, drove
to the roadblock, and then left without escorting the children. The
children waited for three hours, but despite repeated calls to both the
military and the police, no other escort arrived. Finally, three CPTers
accompanied the children home.

Despite increasingly aggressive harassment from settlers, tardiness and
passivity on the part of the Israeli police and military, these young
children continue to make their way to and from school via the longer and
less direct route. The Israeli military and police are thus in violation of
orders mandated by the Israeli government

A CPTer overheard one of the children ask an Israeli police officer, "Are
you afraid of the settlers too?"