On 25 January 2012, CPT Palestine was officially accepted as a member of the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) for Palestine, which operates under the auspices of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Beyond serving as a venue for processing large donations, CAP allows for organizations supporting Palestinians’ right to life, liberty, and freedom to coordinate effective advocacy strategies.

The process also allows groups to share information about the various issues that arise from the Israeli military occupation of Palestine and disturbing trends in all parts of the West Bank and Gaza.

With CPT’s participation in the appeal, CPTers will also be able to expand the communication of their experiences to a wider international audience and participate in targeted lobbying efforts.

Examples of other organizations who have participated in the Consolidated Appeals Process include Church World Service, Mercy Corps, Oxfam, Samaritan’s Purse, Save the Children, and Unicef.

To learn more about the appeal see
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ochaopt_cap_2012_full_document_english.pdf

On 24 November 2011, at 9:00 am, the Israeli army, with more than five Israeli army jeeps and two bulldozers, drove into the small village of Um Fagarah and demolished two houses and the village mosque.  During the demolition, they arrested a twenty-one-year-old woman and a seventeen-year-old woman.  They left one hour later.

One of the demolished homes belonged to a widow and her family; the other housed an extended family of twenty.  The soldiers did not have demolition orders or give any explanation for the demolitions, but called the village women 'whores' and entered at a time of day when most of the men were away at work.

 In 2004, the village of At-Tuwani and its Israeli partner, Ta'ayush, approached CPT's Hebron team and the Italian peace group, Operation Dove, asking if they could provide accompaniment for the children of the village, whom settlers regularly attacked as they walked to and from school.  Although CPT had made regular visits to the South Hebron Hills villages over the years, the team on the ground and the organization as a whole deemed it important to respond to the villagers' request for a permanent presence in At-Tuwani.

Seven years later, CPT-Palestine is closing its At-Tuwani project, because the growth of the South Hebron Hills nonviolent organizing work has made the presence of CPT less critical.  The shepherds of At-Tuwani and surrounding villages now are part of a large nonviolent resistance network encompassing various regions of Palestine.  They belong to the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, and South Hebron Hills leaders regularly plan nonviolent actions to which they invite Israeli and international groups.  They also offer nonviolence trainings to men and women in the region.

On 16 October, the Israeli military failed, twice, to escort the school children of Tuba and Maghayir al Abeed past Ma'on settlement and Havat Ma'on outpost. Because Israeli settlers have attacked and harassed the Palestinian schoolchildren multiple times in the past, the Israeli military made a commitment to villagers in the South Hebron Hills that soldiers would accompany the children if international groups such as CPT and Operation Dove agreed to stop accompanying them. CPT and Operation Dove now monitor the escort from hilltops at the start and finish of the escort.

On 25 September, more than one hundred people from different communities in the South Hebron Hills participated in a peace march to celebrate the power of nonviolence and the resilient spirit of the people of the South Hebron Hills.  The event was timed to coincide with the annual Perugia-Assisi Peace March in Italy, in which 50,000 Italians and internationals participated.

The Israeli army demolished three dwellings and a bathroom in the Palestinian village of Umm al Kheer early in the morning of 8 September 2011.  According to UN field workers at the sight, the demolitions left eight adults and sixteen children homeless.

The Israeli army and the District Coordinating Office arrived at the village of Umm al Kheer around 7:00 a.m. and declared it a closed military zone, preventing Palestinians and internationals from entering the area.  The army then used a backhoe and a bulldozer to demolish the three homes and the bathroom.  According to villagers, one of the destroyed homes was a tent donated by Oxfam.  The other two were metal shacks purchased and built by the residents.  The villagers said that this was the second time that the military demolished the homes of the families living in the metal shacks.

All of the destroyed structures had existing demolition orders, but according to people from the village, the military arrived with a demolition order that was not for the three homes and the toilet, but rather for a taboun oven in the village.  The military originally wanted to destroy the taboun oven three days earlier, but a lawyer representing the village succeeded in getting a two-day stay on the demolition order.  The military did not demolish the taboun oven.

During the night of 4 September, the Israeli army delivered a demolition order for a small taboun oven to the inhabitants of the Bedouin village of Umm Al Kheer.  A lawyer representing the village obtained a two-day stop-demolition order from the Israeli High Court, temporarily delaying the demolition. In addition to the taboun oven, where the villagers bake their bread, the Israeli military has slated eleven other structures in the village, and residents of the village fear that the military may destroy those structures, and possibly others during the demolition of the oven.  “The army has come to our village twice before to demolish houses,” said a resident of Umm al Kheer who wished to be identified only as Suleiman.  “Whenever they come, they destroy five or six buildings.  They won’t come and destroy just an oven, and then leave.”

Christian Peacemaker Teams is seeking staff for its two project sites in Palestine, one in the southern West Bank city of Hebron (Al-Khalil) and the other twenty-five kilometers (fifteen miles) further south in the village of At-Tuwani.  For the past few months, these teams have experienced staff shortages.

Tarek Abuata, CPT Palestine project support coordinator urges prospective CPTers, “People living in Middle Eastern countries are demanding peace and justice.  New members of CPT’s Palestine team can become part of that movement by joining a project that has for seventeen years supported Palestinian-led nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation, and helped to create a space for peace and justice to grow.”

CPTnet
29 July 2011
AT-TUWANI: Settlers harass Palestinian shepherds and assault international observers.

 At approximately 9:15 a.m. on 27 July 2011, masked settlers from the Havat Ma'on outpost, armed with stones and an iron bar, harassed three Palestinian shepherds and attacked two international observers.

 The shepherds were out with their flocks on Palestinian land near Meshaha hill when the four masked settlers attacked them.  They were able to getaway, but the settlers then hit a CPTer in the head with an iron bar and destroyed his camera.  He went to the hospital in Yatta and received eight stitches.

 On 18 July 2011 around 6:35 p.m. three settlers attacked two members of Operation Dove and one member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) with clubs and stones in the Meshakha valley outside of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. The settlers came out of the Havat Ma'on outpost, covering their faces with scarves and then ran with clubs toward two Palestinian shepherds who were grazing their sheep in a valley nearby. 
 The masked settlers could not catch the shepherds who, alerted to the approaching danger, left the vicinity.  The attackers then turned and ran toward the internationals, who had entered the valley to intervene and document the attack.  The settlers then made threats and attempted to strike the internationals as they filmed the settlers’ actions.  When the internationals retreated, the settlers begin throwing stones, narrowly missing their targets.