CPTnet
18 April 2009
AT-TUWANI: Israeli settlers destroy crops near At-Tuwani village; soldiers declare area a Closed Military Zone

[Note: According to the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and numerous United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal.  Most settlement outposts are considered illegal under Israeli law.]


On 18 April 2009, Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills reported that Israeli settlers had destroyed a large, privately owned Palestinian wheat field by allowing a flock of goats and sheep to graze on it.  Palestinian owners discovered the destruction when they arrived to harvest the crops on the morning of 18 April.  The field, located in Meshaha Valley, is the property of a family living in the nearby village of At Tuwani.

Also that morning, Israeli soldiers declared a large area of land east of At-Tuwani to be a closed military zone and forced Palestinian shepherds and their flocks to leave their land.  Landowners and internationals were told they would be subject to arrest if they remained.  The soldiers also ordered Palestinian landowners to advise the military every time they intend to access their own land within the zone.  Israeli soldiers refused to provide Palestinian landowners with copies of the map of the military zone boundaries and would not tell them how long the closure would last.  Throughout the morning, a group of at least ten Israeli settlers conferred with the soldiers.

The Palestinian owners of the land said the cultivated area destroyed was approximately forty dunum (approximately ten acres).  Palestinians from At-Tuwani and nearby villages have repeatedly observed settlers from the outpost of Havat Ma’on with a flock of sheep and goats grazing on Palestinian land east of the outpost in recent months.  Israeli settlers with the flock have threatened Palestinian shepherds and disrupted the grazing of Palestinian flocks on several occasions this spring, prompting Palestinians to file legal complaints against them.

The crop destruction represents a severe economic loss, as the area is experiencing an extremely dry spring and the field was one of the few near At-Tuwani that produced a spring wheat crop.  Spring crops and the raising of sheep and goats are central to the economy and way of life in At-Tuwani and the surrounding small villages of the South Hebron Hills.  Disruption by the Israeli military or settlers of agricultural work at this time of year represents a substantial threat to the villagers’ livelihoods.