Tuesday, June 10, 2008

I promised answers to Alajnbiya's questions about this video. And here they are! (I'm a jet lagged, so forgive me for not being very talkative.)

1.) How much does this limit the people from grazing their flocks?

The short answer - a lot. In the past, the majority of At-Tuwani's grazing land was under closed military order. This particular closed military zone order didn't last for long - the village resisted it too much. But closed military zones have completely destroyed Tuwani's economy in the past.

The evening after the events in this video took place, the leaders of Tuwani decided to try grazing near Avigayle settlement, which about a 10 minute walk from the village, to test how the Israeli army would respond. Sure enough, the next day, one villager was nearly arrested and the army later pulled out a closed military zone order. Leaders in the villager were extremely worried that this would become a trend, but thankfully it hasn't.

2.) Is there farm land included too?

Yes. There really isn't a distinction between farming land and grazing land - it's all important because there isn't a lot of it and there's even less water to nurture it. That's why closed military zones and settler violence have impacted at-Tuwani so deeply.

3.) Do Tuwani's villagers have deeds to this land?

Again, yes. This is a little bit complicated - most of the villagers have deeds, but the land is used collectively. Everyone shares grazing space and there are some landowners who've been driven out of the South Hebron hills all together. Getting the landowners involved can be difficult and the Israeli army sometimes uses this as an excuse. Mostly, though, they don't bother with excuses.

4.) Are they ever shown the orders in Arabic?

I'm not so sure. Not that I'm aware of.

5.) Why doesn't the world care???

Well, I like to think it's because very few people know what's going on. So, go tell them about it!

1 comment:

alajnabiya said...

Thanks for taking the time to answer. I admire what you do.