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Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) and Operation Dove have maintained a constant non-violent presence in the Palestinian village of At-Tuwani in Masafer Yatta (Hebron District, The West Bank) since September 2004.1 The people of At-Tuwani commissioned CPT and Operation Dove to create this report as an overview of the harmful effects for the people of At-Tuwani and other villages in Masafer Yatta of the "security wall" to be built along Route 317 as proposed by the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) Hebron District Coordinating Office (DCO).
While members of CPT and Operation Dove have made frequent visits to several other villages in Masafer Yatta, especially Mufakara and Tuba, their primary work has been in At-Tuwani. This report, therefore, will focus on the impact the proposed security wall will have on At-Tuwani, but will also include insight on the effects on other villages in Masafer Yatta.
At-Tuwani with a population of 150, is the largest and most developed village in Masafer Yatta. The partially paved road leading into At-Tuwani from Karmil (henceforth the At-Tuwani road) is one of three main routes into and through Masafer Yatta. The At-Tuwani road in particular is the major route to Yatta, the nearest city to At-Tuwani. Route 317 is the main east-west Israeli bypass road in the southern West Bank, and it is restricted for Palestinians. Route 317 intersects the At-Tuwani road between At-Tuwani and Karmil. (See Appendix I.)
At present, the people using the At-Tuwani road encounter problems while crossing Route 317 on a regular basis. No one has been able to acquire an official, general statement on whether, when and how the IDF permit Palestinians to access Route 317 via the At-Tuwani road. IDF soldiers set up temporary checkpoints at this intersection on average a few times per week, sometimes allowing Palestinians to cross Route 317 and other times turning them back. Sometimes the soldiers allow Palestinians heading north (toward Karmil) to pass through the intersection, but not those heading south (toward At-Tuwani), or vice versa. Sometimes they allow Palestinians who live in Masafer Yatta to cross Route 317, but not those who live in Karmil or Yatta. In most cases, the soldiers stop all in vehicles, including tractors, to check IDs, but allow people on foot or riding on animals to cross freely. However, the soldiers do from time to time also stop foot traffic.
The soldiers sometimes tell Palestinians coming from Yatta on the At-Tuwani road that they may cross Route 317 only from the gate at Zif, to the northeast of Yatta, which is far out of the way and rarely open. Getting from Yatta to At-Tuwani using the Zif gate requires that Palestinians drive about 15 kilometers on Route 317. It is an absurd proposal, especially from soldiers who will not even allow Palestinians to access Route 317 long enough to cross it.
There is no discernable pattern to whom the soldiers will permit to cross Route 317 or when. Whether Palestinians can cross seems subject to the arbitrary decisions of the soldiers making the checkpoint at the time and/or the local officers who ordered the checkpoint. The Hebron DCO, the local branch of the Israeli military in charge of civil administration, frequently contradicts the IDF soldiers operating the checkpoints, and commanders of different groups of soldiers operating the checkpoints frequently contradict each other. The actual authority effectively lies in the hands of the soldiers operating the checkpoint at the time, as they can arrest any Palestinians who defy their orders. This arbitrary power leads the soldiers at times to act completely outside the law. (See Appendix III.)
The restriction of movement across Route 317 affects every aspect of life for the people of At-Tuwani and the rest of Masafer Yatta. Masafer Yatta has one primary school and one clinic, both in At-Tuwani. Both the teachers for the school and the medical staff who serve in the clinic live outside Masafer Yatta and must cross Route 317 to enter At-Tuwani. Masafer Yatta has no water, electric or other utility services, no government offices, no hospital or urgent care unit, no secondary school, college or university, and no mosques.
Masafer Yatta lacks water every summer and fall, and the present winter is dangerously dry. The people in Masafer Yatta must bring in tanks of water to survive during the dry periods, and the vehicles pulling the tanks in from Yatta can only access the area by crossing Route 317. At-Tuwani has a diesel generator to provide a few hours of electricity each day, and the people can only bring in the diesel and parts to service the generator from Yatta by crossing Route 317.
To access offices of the Palestinian Authority in Yatta, the people of Masafer Yatta must cross Route 317. The clinic in At-Tuwani is open a few hours per week at most, and the health care available when it is open is minimal. For all other health care needs, the people of Masafer Yatta must go to Yatta or Hebron, which requires crossing Route 317. The nearest secondary school is in Karmil and the nearest university in Yatta, so to continue their education beyond grade six, the people of Masafer Yatta must cross Route 317.
At-Tuwani once had a mosque, but the IDF destroyed it. The nearest mosque for the people of Masafer Yatta is now in Karmil, which they can only access by crossing Route 317.
Furthermore, Yatta is the primary economic center of the region of the West Bank south of Hebron. Many families living in Yatta own land in Masafer Yatta. In order to cultivate their land and reap the produce from it, they must cross Route 317. Palestinians living in At-Tuwani and Masafer Yatta must travel to Yatta or Karmil to purchase many foodstuffs and supplies, including essentials like wheat flour, firewood, cooking gas, and animal feed. Most of the people living in Masafer Yatta make a living by farming and raising livestock. They sell their products in Yatta. They also must go to Karmil or Yatta to refine many of their products for their own use: for example, pressing olives to make olive oil. Many of the men in At-Tuwani work in Yatta, some regularly and some intermittently. Their income is essential to their families' survival. Without a doubt, the economy of Masafer Yatta depends on a connection to the economy of Yatta. This economic connection hinges on free passage across Route 317.
In addition, all of the people in At-Tuwani have relatives living in Yatta. To conduct a normal family life requires that residents of At-Tuwani and their relatives cross Route 317 routinely.
Israeli settlers in the region often harass and attack Palestinian farmers and shepherds, preventing them from accessing their land and making their reliance on the Yatta economy all the more vital. At-Tuwani lies only a few hundred meters away from the Ma'on settlement and the outpost on Hill 833 (commonly called "Havot Ma'on"). Settlers from these communities have assaulted Palestinians from At-Tuwani on numerous occasions since they moved in during the early 1980s. Settlers from the same communities have also beaten members of CPT and Operation Dove on three occasions since September 2004. Residents of the Carmel and Soussia settlements and the Avi Gayil outpost have contributed to the violence against Palestinians in Masafer Yatta as well. All of these settlement communities are located in rural areas along Route 317, to which settlers have constant and free access. All of the settlement communities, with the exception of Soussia, lie south of Route 317, where residents of Masafer Yatta farm and graze their animals.
Every year large tracts of Palestinian land in Masafer Yatta go unplowed due to threats from these Israeli settlers. Shepherds risk their lives to graze certain hillsides and do not dare to enter other areas near settlements and outposts. Settlers constantly push the boundaries of their settlements by harassing and assaulting Palestinians until they stop coming near the settlements and then building fences around the inaccessible land. The IDF enable the settlers to continue their criminal acts by preventing Palestinians from challenging the settlers' illegitimate claims to the land. When settlers threaten to attack Palestinians for using land near to the settlements, the IDF soldiers usually force the Palestinians off the land in order to appease the settlers. In the spring of 2005, settlers spread poison on Palestinian land on two occasions, killing 84 sheep and goats-a crippling blow to the economy of Masafer Yatta. Settler violence undermines the ability of the people of Masafer Yatta to support themselves through farming and raising livestock, forcing them to depend more on income sources outside the area, and thus forcing them to depend more on free passage across Route 317.
In summary, the people of Masafer Yatta and the people who cultivate land in Masafer Yatta require free passage across Route 317 every day and every hour in order to maintain livelihood. To deny them free passage across Route 317 is to deny them their basic human rights. Sadly, the status quo is for the IDF to deny Palestinians passages across Route 317 on a regular basis.
Members of CPT and Operation Dove monitored the At-Tuwani road at the intersection with Route 317 during the month of January 2006. The data below are a small sample of how the At-Tuwani road is used. The data should not be interpreted as representative of the average use of the road during all times of the year, however. January is not typically a month in which Palestinians access their land with high frequency. On the contrary, January is often a particularly inactive month as farmers wait for their crops to grow between plowing and harvesting seasons, and shepherds wait for enough grass to spring up to feed their flocks. With the shortage of rainfall, farmers and shepherds were even less active than usual in January 2006.
Furthermore, the data cannot provide an accurate depiction of how the At-Tuwani road would be used with the proposed security wall in place. Palestinians cross Route 317 in vehicles at many places-not just at the intersecting roads. For example, many farmers have plots of land divided by Route 317 and cross it with their tractors wherever their land lies. All else being equal, with the proposed security wall in place, the traffic on the At-Tuwani road would undoubtedly be heavier than indicated in the table below.
| Traffic along At-Tuwani Road from 7am until 5pm | ||
| 11 January 2006 | 23 January 2006 | |
| Total number of people using the road | 316 | 277 |
| Number of people on foot | 117 | 19 |
| Number of vehicles | 48 | 52 |
| Number of tractors | 9 | 17 |
| Number of donkeys | 7 | 6 |
CPT and Operation Dove received the following information from the people of At-Tuwani. At the time of this report, the two organizations considered all the information presented tentative.
As presented by the Hebron DCO to the people of At-Tuwani on 22 January 2006, the IDF plan to build the wall on the north side of Route 317 between the Israeli settlements Carmel and Tene, a distance of approximately 14 kilometers. (See Appendix I.) The wall would be about 80 centimeters high and 30 centimeters thick, made of concrete. Four gates are proposed in the area near At-Tuwani. One of the gates would be on the At-Tuwani road. Each gate would be approximately four or five meters wide. The proposed number of other gates along the wall is unclear.
According to the Hebron DCO, vehicles and animals would be able to pass through the gates, while people on foot would be able to climb over the wall at any point. However, the Hebron DCO gave no guarantee that the gates would remain open all of the time. When Palestinians in the area first received the plans for the wall on 20 December 2005, the IDF presented no plans to build gates at all. The only map they have showing the gates has the sites of the gates drawn in by hand by an officer from the Hebron DCO. Because of this, CPT and Operation Dove consider the presence of any gates in the proposed security wall particularly tentative.
The people of At-Tuwani believe the security services for the Israeli settlements in the region originally proposed building the security wall along Route 317 wall as a means of protecting residents of the settlements. The proposed security wall's official primary purpose, as stated by the Hebron DCO, is to control the flow of Palestinian traffic on and across Route 317.
In order to see the true effects of the proposed security wall along Route 317, one must not look at it as an isolated issue. The proposed security wall along Route 317 would create a physical barrier between Palestinian lands. In addition, to build the proposed wall the IDF would confiscate more land in an area where good land is scarce. These immediate effects are in themselves concerning.
Far more concerning, however, is that the proposed security wall along Route 317 combined with the proposed "security barrier" along the southern border of the West Bank2 would create a separate and potentially isolated Palestinian region in the southern West Bank. Israeli settlers would not be isolated in this region, as they are free to travel on Route 317 and other Israeli-built roads in the area, and would be free to pass through the checkpoints along the security barrier along border of the southern West Bank. Such a separate Palestinian region would not reflect the social structure established by the people living within it. The Israeli occupying forces would impose this bordered region on the local Palestinian population without respect of their needs or common order.
Official statements on the purposes and uses of the security wall are not reliable predictors of what the functional uses of the security wall would be once the IDF built it. It would remain the prerogative of IDF soldiers on the ground to decide who may cross Route 317 and when and where they may cross. The Hebron DCO's inability to guarantee that the gates would remain open confirms this. Furthermore, the fact that the original plans to build the wall did not even include gates makes it difficult for the people of At-Tuwani to believe that the gates would remain open for any reasonable period.
Precedent in the region is a much more reliable predictor of the proposed security wall's future uses. In the best-case scenario for the people of Masafer Yatta, the gates would remain open at all times and people on foot would be able to cross the wall at any point at any time. Precedent rules out consideration of this scenario, however. Already, without a wall or gates, IDF soldiers routinely prohibit Palestinians from crossing Route 317. In many such cases, even up to the time this report was written, the soldiers tell the Palestinians that the only legitimate point for them to cross Route 317 is at Zif, to the northeast of Yatta-about 15 kilometers from At-Tuwani. There is a permanent checkpoint and gate at Zif, unlike the intermittent checkpoint at the At-Tuwani road crossing. The gate at Zif had been closed round the clock for at least one month and closed most of the time for at least five months prior to the time this report was written. Palestinians living in the area tell CPT and Operation Dove that in other places in the region surrounding Yatta and Samu', gates at intersections between Palestinian and Israeli roads have been opened for only a few hours each day at most, and sometimes closed for extended periods.
Moreover, during the 38 years that Israel has ruled over the West Bank, the IDF have continuously tightened restrictions on Palestinians movement. In particularly tense times, the IDF sharply increase these restrictions, with roadblocks and checkpoints. They also confiscate large tracts of land for military use and settlement expansion. Then when tensions ease, the IDF very rarely return confiscated land and occasionally remove some but not all of the restrictions they put in place during the tense times. For example, during the year prior to the writing of this report, the IDF blocked the At-Tuwani road in several different places multiple times after suicide bombings in Israel and other attacks against Israeli citizens. (See Appendices II and IV.) In none of the cases did the IDF remove the roadblocks after tensions eased. They merely ignored Palestinians who decided to clear the paths themselves.
The creation of the wall would make the closures more permanent, as it is much more difficult to open locked gates or make paths through concrete walls. Here again, official statements that gates will not be closed permanently, even if they were issued, would not be enough. The very existence of the wall and gates would give IDF soldiers the functional prerogative to prohibit all Palestinian vehicle travel in and out of Masafer Yatta at any time. Precedent suggests that the IDF would close the gates frequently, often for extended periods, making the Israeli-imposed region functionally isolated.
The proposed security wall, therefore, would worsen all of the problems already resulting from the restricted access of Route 317. It is impossible to quantify what the full effects of the security wall would be, since the level of access to Route 317 would be subject to arbitrary decisions of IDF soldiers. It is clear, however, that the proposed security wall would further hinder access to land, to markets to sell products, to places of employment, health care, education, government services and religious sites, and to familial relatives. Only the degree to which the proposed security wall would hinder these aspects of life is uncertain. Since the status quo is unacceptable, any further restrictions would be malicious. The proposed security wall, if built, should be expected to cause a humanitarian crisis in Masafer Yatta in a matter of months.
One certain impact of the proposed security wall, even if the gates were always open, is that farmers owning land on both sides of Route 317 would be forced to travel through the gates, which may be many kilometers away, in order to access land just on the other side of Route 317. Since the Hebron DCO offers no guarantee that the gates would remain open, farmers might well find the gate closed when they got there, or they might be trapped on the side of the road opposite their home if IDF soldiers closed gates behind them. Precedent suggests they should expect the IDF to close the proposed gates on a regular basis, so fear of being trapped would likely prevent them from accessing the land on the opposite side of Route 317 as frequently as they would otherwise.
The proposed security wall would accelerate the erosion of basic human rights for Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta in more ways than just denying them access to their land. Regular closures of gates in the proposed security wall would also likely cut off farmers from the markets where they sell their products. There are only brief periods during the year in which farmers can sell products. Any restrictions during these periods would be devastating. Depending on the season, perishable products could be lost completely.
The closures would likely cause some or all of those who work in Yatta to lose their jobs due to prolonged truancy. Many of the most basic medical needs would go unmet, and all medical emergencies would be exacerbated. Teachers at the school in At-Tuwani would miss many classes and would likely fall too far behind in their curricula to make up for losses during the school year. Students at the school in At-Tuwani, therefore, would have lower standard levels of education. Students at schools and universities outside Masafer Yatta would also fall behind in their studies, and many would fail to complete their degrees. The increased economic burden caused by the security wall would likely force many families in Masafer Yatta to pull their children out of school in order to help with the work at home. Routine trips to government offices would be delayed, and important meetings would often have to be cancelled. Men from Masafer Yatta would repeatedly be unable to attend Friday prayers at the mosque in Karmil. Families would be frequently unable to visit each other on holidays or other occasions.
In the long term, the proposed security wall would force many Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta to move out of the region in order to survive. Most would likely move to Yatta, and would have to seek new careers since they would be prevented from cultivating their land in Masafer Yatta. Israeli settlers in the region, by contrast, would find many more opportunities to expand and thrive in the absence of Palestinians.
Overall, the proposed security wall poses an ominous threat to the future of the people of At-Tuwani and the rest of Masafer Yatta. The area is already under-developed and struggling to catch up because of IDF closure policies and settler violence. Its slow progress is not for lack of trying. The people of At-Tuwani especially are working for improvements, such as connecting to water and electric networks, but the IDF prevent them from moving at the rate they would prefer. The proposed security wall would paralyze their already stunted growth. Indeed, it would cause regression. The resulting humanitarian crisis would be the direct responsibility of the IDF.
These disastrous effects greatly outweigh any prevention of violence the proposed security wall might provide. In other words, the increased safety Israeli citizens might gain-and there is no guarantee of this-comes only at the cost of assured harm and human rights violations for all of the Palestinians living in the area. Moreover, the proposed security wall would do nothing to protect Palestinians in Masafer Yatta from Israeli settler violence. If anything, the isolation caused by the proposed security wall would make the people of Masafer Yatta more vulnerable to settler violence and less able to seek justice from the Israeli authorities seated in Hebron and elsewhere on the other side of Route 317.
No logic can justify the creation of the proposed security wall along Route 317. It is simply criminal and inhumane.
1CPT and Operation Dove acknowledge that there are multiple definitions of "Masafer Yatta". Residents of At-Tuwani do not typically consider themselves part of Masafer Yatta and have a relatively narrow definition of what Masafer Yatta is. Israeli authorities, however, have a relatively wide definition of Masafer Yatta as a geographic region and typically include At-Tuwani in it. By this definition, Masafer Yatta is roughly the region south of Route 317 and north of the 1949 Armistice Line, stretching as far west as the Palestinian village of Jinba and as far east as the Palestinian village of Tuba. (See Appendix I.) Since Israeli authorities are the primary audience intended for this report, CPT and Operation Dove will use their definition of Masafer Yatta for the purposes of this report.
2It is worth noting that the original plans for the security barrier around the West Bank showed the barrier running along Route 317, where the new proposed 80-cm security wall is planned, rather than along the 1949 Armistice Line, where the barrier is presently shown. See the official Israeli Ministry of Defense website for the previous and current plans, including a map.
The information provided in this report is based on the experiences of CPT and Operation Dove members in Masafer Yatta, particularly At-Tuwani, as well as other places in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The information, however, is not unique. Other bodies have conducted research in the area and written reports that corroborate the information provided by CPT and Operation Dove. Below is a short list of such reports, with annotations.
"Forbidden Roads: The Discriminatory West Bank Road Regime." B'Tselem: The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. August 2004.
| Earth mound along the northern side of Route 317, blocking the At-Tuwani road leading to Karmil. 06 January 2006. |
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| IDF soldiers building a new roadblock on the At-Tuwani road. 17 December 2005. |
| IDF soldiers operating a checkpoint on the At-Tuwani road south of Route 317. 23 December 2005. | 
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| A member of CPT documents as IDF soldiers build a new roadblock on the At-Tuwani road by Route 317. 06 January 2006. |
| Close-up view of an earth mound blocking access to Route 317 from the At-Tuwani road. 06 January 2006. | 
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| IDF soldiers inspect a Palestinian vehicle attempting to cross Route 317 on the At-Tuwani road. 21 October 2005. |
Palestinian driver bringing 10 children to school, shoved and beaten by IDF soldiers
Sunday, 4 December 2005
This morning at 7.30 a.m. 10 children from Susiya, coming from Yatta and going to school with a car driven by a Palestinian man from Susiya (Peugeot 404, Palestinian vehicle # 9-0486-41), were stopped on their way to the At-Tuwani school by a military vehicle 15 meters from the entrance of At-Tuwani village, on the Yatta/Karmil side of Route 317.
Four IDF soldiers with a military jeep stopped the car and asked to the driver to come out. As soon as the driver was outside of the car, the soldiers shoved and beat him. The 10 children ran away, scared, toward At-Tuwani. Two CPT-ers [members of CPT] met one girl from Susiya crying and in panic. The two CPT-ers went down to the entrance of the village and saw the car (at 15 meters from the entrance of At-Tuwani village, on the Yatta/Karmil side of Route 317), without people or soldiers. Taayush [an Israeli peace organization] was informed and called the army.
At around 8:30 a.m., some Taayush members found the driver held by soldiers in Haribat an-Nabi checkpoint. They took him and brought him back to his car near At-Tuwani. The driver showed to OD-ers [members of Operation Dove] and CPT-ers in At-Tuwani wounds on his wrist and said he was forced in the checkpoint to kneel down with hands cuffed and arms behind his back. The man said that the soldiers never said to him the reason of their behavior and they didn't ask him anything. The police were never present. OD-ers and CPT-ers videotaped an interview with the man and took pictures of his wrist.
On Monday, 31 October 2005 (see CPT and Operation Dove updates) the same man and the same children were stopped on Route 317 on their way home to Susiya from At-Tuwani, and all were force by Israelis soldiers to go and stay in Haribat an-Nabi checkpoint for more than 3 hours.
At-Tuwani: Israeli Military constructs three roadblocks on the road from At-Tuwani to Yatta
17 December 2005
Shortly after 7 AM the Israeli military arrived at the entrance of the village of At-Tuwani and began constructing roadblocks on the road from At-Tuwani to Yatta with a military front-end loader. The military placed three roadblocks along a 500-meter stretch of road just north of where the Palestinian road crosses the Israeli bypass road, Route 317. The roadblocks consisted of large rocks and topsoil taken from the surrounding plowed and planted fields. The front-end loader operator not only piled up rocks and dirt for the roadblocks, but also dug trenches, ripping up the asphalt road. When the military finished approximately two hours later, the road was completely impassible. This road is one of the few that Palestinians from the villages south of 317 have to access hospitals and markets in the larger populated area of Yatta. Photos of the incident are available.
In addition to making the road impassible, soldiers in the jeep that was accompanying the front-end loader didn't allow people to walk across the road into At-Tuwani. Two At-Tuwani school teachers coming from Yatta were turned away but were able to enter the village later after the soldiers left.
According to people from the village, children from the Palestinian village of Suseya were unable to attend school in At-Tuwani today because the road closures throughout the South Hebron Hills made the drive to At-Tuwani impossible. The closures in the area are in response to a drive-by shooting on another bypass road, Route 60, where an Israeli settler from the Beit Haggai settlement was killed.
| Christian Peacemaker Teams contact: USA: tel.: (+1) 773-277-0253; fax: (+1) 773-277-0291 Palestine: tel.: (02) 222-8485; e-mail: cpttuwani@cpt.org web: www.cpt.org | Operation Dove contact: Italy: tel.: (+39) 541-751-498 Palestine: tel.: (054) 813-0634; e-mail: npcod@gmx.net web: www.operazionecolomba.org |