CPTnet
25 April 2006

AT-TUWANI UPDATE: 26 March -6 April 2006

Sunday, 26 March

Village leaders held an evening meeting and invited members of Christian
Peacemaker Teams (CPT) and Operation Dove (Doves) to attend. The meeting
opened with several expressions of delight from the villagers about the
release in Baghdad of the three CPTers, Jim Loney, Harmeet Sooden and Norman
Kember, and condolences on the death of Tom Fox. The villagers commented on
the close relationship and trust that exists between the villagers and CPT.

The villagers then expressed their concern about the drought in the area.
The water levels in the well and cisterns are dangerously low, and some
crops have failed. The villagers are hoping that CPT and the Doves will
help solicit the aid of relevant NGOs.

Tuesday, 28 March

Maureen Jack and two Doves went to a meeting in Hebron of international and
Palestinian NGOs organized by the United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA.) The group first identified difficulties
in the provision and delivery of humanitarian relief caused by military
restrictions. The military often delays NGO vehicles traveling on bypass
roads 60 and 317. The discussion turned to the drought in the South Hebron
hills. Oxfam is carrying out an assessment of the water situation in the
At-Tuwani area.

In the afternoon, Chandler and Laurie Haden accompanied shepherds in
Khoruba. (Khoruba, Sarura and Humra are three small villages close to
At-Tuwani which Palestinians have abandoned because of soldier and settler
harassment.) Villagers from At-Tuwani own the land in these areas, and
shepherds often take their flocks to graze there.

Two soldiers on foot patrol came through the area, and then an army jeep.
Both patrols stopped and spoke with the CPTers. Later, a settler, perhaps
walking from the Avigail outpost, walked through the flock of one shepherd
and into the Hill 833 outpost. The settler ignored the CPTers when they
asked him what he was doing.

Wednesday, 29 March

The police accompanied the nineteen children from Tuba only part of the
distance for the morning school patrol, leaving the children vulnerable to
possible harassment from the settlers. Matt Chandler immediately called the
police to lodge a complaint.

An Israeli army patrol jeep with three soldiers stopped and talked with
Allen Johnson while the team was accompanying shepherds in the Khoruba and
Sarura areas.

Thursday 30 March

At 3:00 p.m., while Jack and Chandler were accompanying shepherds in the
Sarura valley, two settlers from the Hill 833 outpost appeared on the
Khoruba hill and looked down on the shepherds and CPTers. After some rude
gestures, the settlers turned and walked back to the outpost.

Chandler and Jack spoke briefly to visitors from Oxfam, who were in the area
assessing the supply of water.

Saturday 1 April

Two visiting Belgian journalists went with the Tuba children as the military
escorted them home from school.

The team accompanied shepherds in the Sarura area the whole day.

Sunday 2 April

Shepherds reported that three settlers on quad bikes were on Khoruba hill.
One settler, with his face covered, drove his bike aggressively towards the
shepherds and insulted them, but all the settlers had left before CPTers
arrived.

Monday 3 April

The team accompanied shepherds near At-Tuwani and in the Humra and Sarura
areas. In the morning, some sheep and goats (from a flock that a settler
shepherds) escaped from the Hill 833 outpost and a Palestinian shepherd
chased them back into the trees without seeing any settlers.

Tuesday 4 April

The police were unable to open the settlers' lock on the gate on the road
along which they accompany the Tuba schoolchildren. This resulted in delays
in both the morning and afternoon school patrols.

Two Operations Support Officers from the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency (UNRWA) came to At-Tuwani for updates on settler harassment. Johnson
and a Dove met with the officers at a Palestinian home.

Johnson responded to a confrontation between the police and a Palestinian
family from Jawiyya at the junction of bypass road 317 and the Palestinian
road to Karmil. When Johnson approached, the police ordered him to leave but
he continued to videotape until the police left.

Thursday 6 April

Shepherds from Mufakara told Lorne Friesen and Johnson that earlier in the
morning a settler from the outpost of Avigail had grazed his sheep on
planted Palestinian fields in the area. Friesen and Johnson called the
police and returned to the area in the afternoon when they noticed that the
police had arrived. The police threatened the CPTers with arrest if they
did not move away and stop filming. One of the Mufakara shepherds asked the
CPTers to continue filming from a distance. After lengthy discussion
between the shepherds, the police and soldiers that also arrived, one of the
shepherds went with the police to Kiryat Arba to file a complaint.

While on the way to join Johnson and Friesen, Jack and Haden spoke with a
group of young Israeli adults from Gush Etzion on a field study trip to the
area; they were planning for future visits with elementary students. The
CPTers spoke with them about the problems in the area and why CPTers were
present.