CPTnet
11 May 2009
AT-TUWANI UPDATE: April 2009

Present on the team in April were Tarek Abuata, Jan Benvie, Laura Ciaghi, Cassandra Dixon, Joy Ellison, Jessica Frederick, Alwyn Knight, Sarah MacDonald, Sam Nichols, Sean O'Neill, and Joe Wyse.

[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.]


During the month of April, the village of Tuwani held weekly nonviolent actions in which shepherds grazed their sheep on disputed Palestinian land near the settlement and outpost of Ma’on and Havat Ma’on.  The actions are in response to expanded use of Palestinian land by settlers from the settlement and outpost.  Settlers have repeatedly grazed goats on privately owned Palestinian land and have allowed their goats to destroy mature crops.  The presence of settlers and their goats prevents Palestinians from accessing the land in order to graze their own sheep and goats.

The grazing of settler sheep is part of a larger pattern of settlement expansion in the South Hebron Hills, which includes recent construction of buildings, water towers, agricultural structures, and roads on Palestinian land.  Palestinians have filed legal complaints against settlements and individual settlers, and against the Israeli Army for forcing them off their land.  They have insisted that the military respect the current boundaries, and have risked arrest in order to maintain their rights.

Tuwani has also experienced an increase in settler violence and harassment during the month.  Harassment by soldiers has also increased, and soldiers consistently fail to adequately escort the schoolchildren of Tuba past settlers who have threatened the children.

School Escort Problems
On 01 April at the end of the school day, five adult settlers were present near the chicken barns of the Ma’on settlement.  Despite their presence, the army refused to escort the children to the end of the barns.  When Tuwani team members met the children near the chicken barns, they were crying, running, and clearly afraid.

On 2 April, Tuwani team members talked with the Israeli District Commander.  They told him of the danger the children were in the day before, and asked that the soldiers complete the escort.  The soldiers came slightly farther, but failed to accompany the children past a settler present in the area with a flock.  For the remainder of April, soldiers failed to complete the escort, and children were forced to walk alone through an area where they have experienced settler harassment and threats.

On 26 April, soldiers who met the schoolchildren in Tuwani for the walk to Tuba honked at the children and then drove ahead of them, forcing the children to run to keep up.  The escort was at least fifty feet ahead of the children for most of the walk, and no soldiers walked with the children.

Checkpoints and harassment by soldiers
On 3 April, soldiers established a checkpoint in Tuwani.  They stopped several vehicles, including a truck and tractor with a family of thirteen.  Some of the Palestinians were held for nearly one hour and included children, a baby, and an elderly man who was on his way to the doctor.  Soldiers forced the Palestinians to unload belongings into the road, held their IDs, and removed license plates.  The soldiers then drove through the village and set up a second checkpoint where they checked IDs and searched vehicles for another hour.

On 5 April In the early afternoon, two Israeli military jeeps drove around inside the village of Tuwani for about a half hour and then established a checkpoint on the road and stopped vehicles and checked IDs.

On 7 April, soldiers walked through Tuwani, pointing their rifles at people and looking into doorways.  On the 13th, they stopped and searched cars on the road to Yatta and held one man from Tuwani for one hour.  On the 14th, they briefly blocked the road into the village with two jeeps for about twenty minutes, and then drove through the village.

On 19 April, soldiers detained six Palestinian men and their car in Tuwani.  The soldiers attempted to leave with the IDs of the six Palestinians but were prevented by Tuwani team members who stepped in front of the jeep.  During a search of the vehicle, one of the soldiers charged at the Palestinians with his gun pointed at them and ordered them to pull up their shirts and to drop their pants.  Police arrived, ordered At-Tuwani team members to leave the area, and then released all the men except the driver.  Soldiers attempted to start the car and then pushed it with a jeep towards the Susiya checkpoint, about two miles away, forcing the Palestinian to walk there in order to obtain his car and his ID.

Grazing actions held by Palestinians
On 4 April, Palestinian shepherds held a grazing action in the valley below the Israeli settlement of Avigail.  Soldiers and police declared the area closed and attempted to force Palestinians off the land.  Palestinians refused to remove their flocks, successfully negotiated with police and military, and grazed for the remainder of the day in most of the contested area.  

On the following three Saturdays, Palestinians staged grazing actions on their land in Khoruba valley and on Meshaha hill.  Each time, the Israeli military responded by declaring the area a closed military zone, on one occasion including the entire village of Tuwani in the closure order.  The Israeli army refused to provide maps or documentation of boundaries.  During the action on 11 April, the Israeli army arrested two visiting human rights workers.  On 25 April, soldiers forced sheep belonging to a Palestinian shepherd off the land near Old Havat Ma’on and down into the valley, throwing stones to make the sheep run.  They then detained the shepherd, handcuffing him and placing him in an army jeep.  Border police and civilian police later agreed with the shepherd that he had a right to graze on the flank of the hill, and released him.  During these actions, police and military personnel did nothing to stop settlers, who harassed Palestinians as they grazed their sheep.

Settler encroachment on grazing land
On 11 April, Palestinians discovered that Israeli settlers had destroyed a large, privately owned Palestinian wheat field (an area of about 10 acres) on Meshaha hill by allowing a flock of goats and sheep to graze on it.  See 18 April CPTnet release: “AT-TUWANI: Israeli settlers destroy crops near At-Tuwani village; soldiers declare area a Closed Military Zone.”)  On 10 April, a settler followed a Palestinian villager as he grazed his sheep near Tuwani.  Soldiers ordered the Palestinian to leave, followed him home, remained in his yard for over one hour, and refused to provide a map showing settlement boundaries.  On 13 April, team members saw a settler with a flock on Palestinian land in Meshaha valley, which had largely been destroyed by settler flocks.  On 19 April, settlers harassed shepherds grazing in Meshaha and called soldiers, who forced the shepherds to move, and on 20 April, soldiers forced Palestinian shepherds to move their sheep from Palestinian land in Humra valley.

Settler harassment and violence
On 5 April, two members of the Tuwani team were returning from watching the children walk home to Tuba when two masked settlers began chasing them near the settlement of Havat Ma’on.  Also on 5 April, soldiers and the Ma’on settlement security guard took three Palestinian boys from a field near Jawayye into the Ma’on settlement.  When the children returned after forty-five minutes, they said six masked settlers kicked and punched them.  Juwayye villagers reported that earlier that day settlers shot at a teenage Palestinian shepherd as he grazed sheep near Juwayye.  (See 5 April CPTnet release, “AT-TUWANI: Masked settlers beat three Palestinian children, shoot at Palestinian shepherds for the second time in ten days.”)

On 6 April, several masked settlers gathered in the trees of the outpost of the Havat Ma’on outpost.  They used slingshots to throw stones at shepherds and their sheep grazing nearby.  Later that day, soldiers and settlers harassed the shepherds as they walked home.

On 10 April, five masked Israeli settlers armed with sticks attacked three Palestinian women from the Bedouin village of Um al Kheir.  They beat one of the women, who was eight months pregnant.  The same settlers chased Tuba shepherds off Palestinian land, then stopped and surrounded two members of the Tuwani team who were heading towards the shepherds.  The settlers stole a video camera from them, and attempted to prevent the Tuwani team members from calling the police.  (See 11 April CPTnet release, “AT-TUWANI: Masked settlers attack three Palestinian women in the South Hebron Hills.”)

On 21 April, settlers threw stones and chased sheep belonging to shepherds from the village of Jawayye near Ma’on settlement.  Members of the team saw several settlers in the trees of the settlement.  Soldiers later ordered the shepherds to leave the area.

Settlement road construction
On 23 April, Israeli soldiers arrested a Palestinian journalist in the village of Um al Kheir and declared the village a closed military zone, thus allowing settlers from the nearby settlement of Karmel to resume construction of a settlement road on Palestinian land, despite a pending legal complaint filed by the village.  The proposed road passes within a few meters of Palestinian homes, animal enclosures, and gardens.  (See 25 April release,  “SOUTH HEBRON HILLS: Israeli soldiers arrest journalist, close village of Um al Kheir.”)

On 26 April, villagers in Um al Kheir nonviolently blocked road-building equipment when construction of the settlement road resumed.  Stones dislodged by the work accidentally struck one older Palestinian man who was sitting in front of earth-moving equipment.  (See 29 April CPTnet release, “SOUTH HEBRON HILLS: Nonviolent action by Palestinians and At-Tuwani team stops settler road construction in Um al Kheir.”)