CPTnet
27 April 2007
AT-TUWANI UPDATE: 11- 24 April 2007

Each morning and afternoon, the team monitored the Israeli military escort
of the children from the Palestinian villages of Tuba and Maghayer
Al-Abeed to and from school in At-Tuwani. The team also accompanied
Palestinian shepherds in fields near Israeli settlements and settlement
outposts and monitored checkpoints near Tuwani.
In addition to members of the Italian peace group, Operation Dove, team
members included Cassandra Dixon, Jill Granberg, Kathleen Kern, Kathie
Uhler, Ilse Muehlsteph, Sean O'Neill and Heidi Schramm

Wednesday 11 April

At 7:00 a.m., two Doves noticed a tent on Khoruba hill with two settlers
sleeping in it. A Palestinian called soldiers, the Israeli military
District Coordinating Office (DCO) and police. Soldiers came to look in
the afternoon but did nothing.

Schramm brought pictures of settlers to morning school patrol. The
children identified the one who led the attack on 7 April in which
settlers chased the children, causing some to fall, and stole two of their
backpacks. The team brought the photo to the Yatta police.

Friday, 13 April

While two Doves were with a shepherd in Humra valley at 10:50 a.m., two
young masked settlers appeared at the borders of the forest and threw stones
with a slingshot.

Saturday 14 April

O'Neill was over the hill with a flock from Karmil between the Israeli
settlement outpost of Avigail and Road 317 when three settlers, one armed,
came down and started throwing stones at the sheep. After about ten
minutes, the settlers went away but soon returned with three soldiers from
the settlement. The soldiers sent the shepherds and the internationals
away.

Sunday 15 April

Soldiers were one and a half hours late in the afternoon for the school
escort. Schramm called the army six times, and Israeli friends called four
times. The soldiers refused to open their doors to talk to Schramm when they
arrived.

At 3:45 p.m., the two boys from the area around Avigail settlement told
CPT that soldiers in a jeep abducted a Palestinian from Qawawis. They
blindfolded and handcuffed him, put him in the jeep and drove west toward
the Israel/West Bank border. A Tuwani community leader later told the
team that the arrest was the second of the day. At 11:00 a.m., a man from
Imneizel was arrested in a similar way after people saw a settler named
Yacov Dalia speaking with the soldiers. Soldiers took both men to the
military base in Susiya and released them at 7:00 p.m. He also told the
team that on Sunday, Israeli soldiers detained seven-year-old Palestinian
boy and his sixteen-year-old cousin.
[See 17 April release, "AT-TUWANI: Israeli military targets shepherds,
seven-year-old boy in South Hebron Hills.] Monday 16 April

While shepherds were grazing flocks in the Khoruba valley, settlers came
out to the hill where their tent--which had disappeared during the
night--had been set up. Eight of them, some with their faces covered,
chased a shepherd down Mashaha valley. Police arrested eight settlers. A
Palestinian filed a complaint against the settlers.

The two Palestinians arrested during the Avigail grazing action were
released.

Thursday, 19 April

At 9:08 a.m. a Palestinian called to tell the team there was a bulldozer
between Tuwani and Avigail. Schramm and Dixon started for Avigail but
soldiers stopped them when they attempted to climb the hill. The soldiers
declared the entire area southwest of Tuwani a closed military zone.
Schramm went around the hill and videotaped destruction of fifty young olive
trees and a cistern on Ali Rajai's land. When soldiers and the bulldozer
left Tuwani, they went to Imneizel and destroyed one house, and Qawawis,
where they destroyed five homes and one outdoor oven. The homes destroyed
included some rebuilt in March with Israeli and international help.

Friday, April 20

Dixon and Muehlstelph walked to Qawawis to visit the families whose homes
the Israeli military has demolished. The women said that the soldiers
arrived at about 10:00 am and threatened them with guns. They did not
give the families any time to remove possessions.

Saturday, April 21

Shepherds held grazing actions near Tuwani. At about 8:30 a.m., the
Hebron team and people from EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in
Palestine and Israel) and Michigan Peace Teams arrived in Tuwani and
joined the Tuwani team and the shepherds. Ta'ayush and some volunteers
from ISM, about twenty in all, arrived at about 9:00 a.m. A Ta'ayush
vehicle drove in on the road by the settlement. IDF soldiers blocked the
road with a jeep, and the police arrived and detained two Palestinians. A
large group of settlers--about six adults and ten or twelve children--came
out of the house at the end of the outpost and yelled at Ta'ayush and the
Palestinians. The Army kept the two groups apart. Police told CPTers
that if the internationals stayed back from the settlers, they would
release the Palestinians and return their IDs. Most of CPT returned to
the shepherds in Humra and Khoruba valleys, leaving Muehlstelph to talk
with the detained Palestinians, whom the soldiers released after forty-five
minutes.

At about 9:00 a.m., six settlers went to where the shepherds were grazing
sheep near Tuba and stole a sheep, which they put into the back of their
truck. Ta'ayush videotaped the sheep in the truck. The settlers said
they would give back the sheep if the shepherds would leave the area. The
owner of the sheep wanted it back, so they left.

Monday, 23 April

The Israeli military escort came with the school children in the morning
but did not arrive when school ended at 1:00 p.m. When Dixon called the
military, they told her that because of the Israeli holiday, school was
closed. She explained that school was in session for Palestinians; the
children had arrived with a military escort and they were now stuck in
Tuwani. The military insisted the school was closed. After three hours
and many phone calls, the escort did arrive.

Tuesday, 24 April

Dixon and a Dove went with Palestinians from Qawawis and Shaab-el-Botom to
their fields near Qawawis, directly below the Avigail outpost. After the
Palestinians had finished harvesting their crops, soldiers from the
outpost told the Palestinians they were on state land and would have to
leave. The landowner showed them his deeds, and the Dove and Dixon called
the pol