At-Tuwani: Demonstrators Walk in Solidarity to Tuba Village
3 December 2007


On Saturday, 1 December, more than 200 Israelis, Palestinians and internationals walked from At-Tuwani to the nearby village of Tuba. The walk highlighted the violent harassment and other severe difficulties faced by villagers in the Southern Hebron Hills of the West Bank. These difficulties continue to worsen with the growth of unauthorized* Israeli settlement outposts.

Located a few kilometers outside the larger Palestinian city of Yatta, At-Tuwani serves as a gateway to trade, education and healthcare for a handful of more remote villages. Tuba is just a 20 minute walk southeast of At-Tuwani by the most direct route, which the people of Tuba traveled regularly before the construction of the Ma'on settlement (1984) and adjacent unauthorized outpost of Havot Ma'on (2000). Since then, settler attacks have forced Palestinians to take a longer route, which is about one hour on foot or by donkey.

Settler violence has also blocked Tuba villagers from reaching their fields for routine plowing, sowing and grazing. The Israeli peace organization, Ta'ayush, which cosponsored Saturday's march, hoped that a large Israeli activist presence would enable Tuba farmers to plow without harassment.

Initially the Israeli army tried to block the demonstrators from leaving At-Tuwani, but the large crowd peacefully pushed through the army cordon and continued over the hills to Tuba. The Palestinians successfully plowed and sowed their fields with only minor disruptions. Two Israeli settlers ran down into a field and tried to disrupt the work, but soldiers prevented them from doing so. An Israeli soldier also tried to disrupt plowing by confiscating the key of the tractor, but the farmer restarted it and continued working.

After a peaceful gathering with Tuba villagers outside their caves, the demonstrators returned to At-Tuwani in the afternoon on a path next to the outpost. Clapping and singing, they walked past dozens of Havot Ma'on settlers who came out to watch, dressed in white Shabbat robes. Some younger settlers tried to disrupt the procession, but Israeli soldiers and police restrained them.

Later in the evening, Israeli settlers attacked a boy from Tuba and stole his donkey. Two CPTers and two members of Michigan Peace Teams spent the night in Tuba, in case of further retaliation by settlers, but there was none.

*Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law; however, the settlement outposts are illegal under Israeli law.

Note: Tuba and its fields are situated within a vast tract of land that the Israeli government threatens to confiscate and use as a military firing range. This case is still under jurisdiction. If the Israeli Supreme Court finds in favor of the state and the army, they will expel all the villagers from their homes.

Tuwani's Mosque

RELEASE: Demolition Order Issued for Mosque in at-Tuwani

November 26, 2007

On November 26th, at 2:30pm, an Israeli army jeep and a white pickup truck, belonging to the Israeli District Coordination Office* (DCO), drove into the village of at-Tuwani and left an order for the demolition of the village mosque.

Israeli officials did not speak with anyone from the village. They placed the written order under a stone near the mosque and then drove out of the village. The demolition order gives the villagers five days to either demolish the building themselves or obtain an Israeli court ruling to suspend the order.

The villagers built a mosque in 1987, but the Israeli military demolished it that same year. Although they were unable to obtain building permission from the Israeli authorities, the villagers decided to rebuild their mosque at the end of 2006. In May 2007 the Israeli authorities issued a 'stop building order' for the mosque. This order generally precedes a demolition order.

At the time of this writing the villagers have not decided on their response to the demolition order.

Demolitions orders have also recently been issued for two homes in the village of Imneizil, close to the Green Line and the route of the southern section of the separation barrier.

* The DCO is part of the Civil Administration, the section of the Israeli army that deals with Palestinian civilian affairs in areas of the occupied Palestinian territories under Israeli control.

"No Way to the Inn - Bethlehem Behind the Wall" Campaign

Advent 2007

If the Christmas story were to happen today, Mary and Joseph would have a hard time getting to Bethlehem....

Shepherds and Magi walled out of Bethlehem - my mother's wonderful creation.

Join in this effort to uplift the crisis facing Bethlehem and remember the Palestinians cut-off from traditional lands.

Since 2002, Israeli authorities have been building a separation barrier that snakes through the occupied Palestinian territories, in effect annexing valuable Palestinian land and water resources. To clear the way, Palestinians living near the security barrier often face the threat of home demolitions. According to Israeli human rights monitoring organization B'tselem, the separation barrier affects nearly half a million Palestinian residents, and currently the barrier separates almost twelve percent of the land on the Palestinian side of the 1967 Green Line from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. When completed, the barrier will be 780 km long.

Action Ideas

During the seasons of Advent and Christmas, consider these ideas:

Build a Wall around your nativity or crèche: Be creative! Build a wall encircling the crèche set, with no one or nothing else in view. Perhaps leave Mary and Joseph outside the wall (they certainly would have difficulty entering Bethlehem from Nazareth today!)

The three kings outside Bethlehem on a UN OCHA road closure map.
The solid red line indicates the completed separation barrier,
and the red-and-white line shows the separation barrier
currently under construction. The solid green line represents
the 1949 Armistice/Green Line.

Contact the local media regarding your family, small group, or church decision to erect a wall surrounding your Nativity set. Use this opportunity to explain to the media (and the broader public) about the separation barrier the Israeli government is building throughout the occupied Palestinian territories. Note: If you decide to extend the campaign through to Epiphany, call the media on 1 January, which is often a slow news day.

Take pictures of your wall. If you make your own Christmas cards, consider using a photo of your nativity/crèche set surrounded by the wall. In the card, explain why you are doing so

E-mail pictures of your wall to cptheb@palnet.com. The CPT Palestine teams will compile and use the pictures for broader distribution.

More ideas available at www.cpt.org

Demands of a Thief
By Gideon Levy, Published in Haaretz

The public discourse in Israel has momentarily awoken from its slumber. "To give or not to give," that is the Shakespearean question - "to make concessions" or "not to make concessions." It is good that initial signs of life in the Israeli public have emerged. It was worth going to Annapolis if only for this reason - but this discourse is baseless and distorted. Israel is not being asked "to give" anything to the Palestinians; it is only being asked to return - to return their stolen land and restore their trampled self-respect, along with their fundamental human rights and humanity. This is the primary core issue, the only one worthy of the title, and no one talks about it anymore. No one is talking about morality anymore. Justice is also an archaic concept, a taboo that has deliberately been erased from all negotiations. Two and a half million people - farmers, merchants, lawyers, drivers, daydreaming teenage girls, love-smitten men, old people, women, children and combatants using violent means for a just cause - have all been living under a brutal boot for 40 years. Meanwhile, in our cafes and living rooms the conversation is over giving or not giving. Lawyers, philosophers, writers, lecturers, intellectuals and rabbis, who are looked upon for basic knowledge about moral precepts, participate in this distorted discourse. What will they tell their children - after the occupation finally becomes a nightmare of the past - about the period in which they wielded influence? What will they say about their role in this? Israeli students stand at checkpoints as part of their army reserve duty, brutally deciding the fate of people, and then some rush off to lectures on ethics at university, forgetting what they did the previous day and what is being done in their names every single day. Intellectuals publish petitions, "to make concessions" or "not to make concessions," diverting attention from the core issue. There are stormy debates about corruption - whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is corrupt and how the Supreme Court is being undermined. But there is no discussion of the ultimate question: Isn't the occupation the greatest and most terrible corruption to have taken root here, overshadowing everything else? Security officials are terrified about what would happen if we removed a checkpoint or released prisoners, like the whites in South Africa who whipped up a frenzy of fear about the "great slaughter" that would ensue if blacks were granted their rights. But these are not legitimate questions: The incarceration must be ended and the myriad of political prisoners should be released unconditionally. Just as a thief cannot present demands - neither preconditions nor any other terms - to the owner of the property he has robbed, Israel cannot present demands to the other side as long as the situation remains as it is. Security? We must defend ourselves by defensive means. Those who do not believe that the only security we will enjoy will come from ending the occupation and from peace can entrench themselves in the army, and behind walls and fences. But we have no right to do what we are doing: Just as no one would conceive of killing the residents of an entire neighborhood, to harass and incarcerate it because of a few criminals living there, there is no justification for abusing an entire people in the name of our security. The question of whether ending the occupation would threaten or strengthen Israel's security is irrelevant. There are not, and cannot be, any preconditions for restoring justice. No one will discuss this at Annapolis. Even if the real core issues were raised, they would focus on secondary questions - borders, Jerusalem and even refugees. But that would be escaping the main issue. After 40 years, one might have expected that the real core issue would finally be raised for honest and bold discussion: Does Israel have the moral right to continue the occupation? The world should have asked this long ago. The Palestinians should have focused only on this. And above all, we, who bear the guilt, should have been terribly troubled by the answer to this question.

Free Tuba! Subversive Knitting

I'm nearing the end of my current trip to Palestine and I don't have much of political import left to say. But my teammate Laura, who is thrilled by her recent fame (fame, at least, on this blog), reminded me that I do have at least one more thing to offer: picture of my "Free Tuba" hotpad.

Tuba is the name of one of the small villages that are neighbors to at-Tuwani, where CPT lives. Tuba has no road - or at least no road that Palestinians can use. Israeli settlers have built their settlement and outpost around the road to Tuba and attack Palestinians who try to use it.

Tuba, therefore, is in desperate need of freedom (or at least a usable road). So in my last few nights in Tuwani, I decided that the hot pad I was making for our house ought to express that:

It's the smallest moments that distill for me what occupation means. Today, I was walking through old city of Hebron, on the way to do some shopping. I walked through the Mosque gate, through the turnstiles and towards two soldiers sitting at a checkpoint. One of them asked me where I was from and I answered the United States. "Welcome," he said. I found myself speechless. How can a soldier welcome me to a city that is not his? What do I say to this?

I went walking towards the shop and was, of course, met by a young Palestinian man who was extremely eager talk and press postcards and bracelets into my hands. We chatted and as I was buying from him a soldier walked up and grabbed a key out of the young man's pocket. It was a huge, iron key, clearly to a very old building. It was the type of key that is iconic in Palestine, often used as a symbol of 1948 refugees who carefully locked their doors as they ran away from their villages, expecting to return soon. The soldier grabbed the key and laughed. He held it up for his colleague to see. Their looks said, how old! See, the Arabs are so backward. The young man just laughed. He deals with these soldiers, stationed ten feet from his shop, every day. I did the only thing that I could do - spend money, chat, smile. Then I walked back through the checkpoint and to our apartment, feeling totally helpless.

Say What?

"We talk about compromise and they speak of justice."

- A Israeli senior negotiations offical speaking of the Palestinian negotiating team. As quoted in Haarezt article Israel fearful PA negotiating staff could impede progress in talks

Beautiful At-Tuwani:
A Photo Essay

Humra Valley

An Olive tree from within an old house

Neighbors

Watering the Goats

New clothes for Eid

Up the tree, picking olives

Kids from Tuba

Beit Anankubut Spider Web

All photos taken by members of CPT at-Tuwani Team October-November 2007

The Virgin Mary and the Plowmen

Palestinians plowing their land (December 5th 2004)

Last week, I found myself in the midst of a situation that put me in mind of a Palestinian story about a figure revered by both Christian and Muslim Palestinians, the Virgin Mary:

When the Virgin Mary was on the flight to Egypt with her son in her arms, she passed by some plowmen making furrows in their filed. She said to them, “Though today you are only sowing, before the sun rises tomorrow morning, your field will be ready to harvest. But remember, if anyone comes this way and asks about me, say, she was here just as we were getting ready to plant these chickpeas.”

Indeed when the soldiers who were after the Virgin came to the place on the very next day, these same plowmen were busy harvesting chickpeas. The soldiers asked, “Has a women carrying a child passed your way recently?” The plowmen replied, “By God, such a one did go by, but that was when we were digging the furrows to sow this crop.” “O,” said her pursuers, “that must have been some time ago. How will we catch up to her now?” Excerpt from Sahtain: Discover the Palestinian Culture by Eating

Very soon, once the rains begin to fall over the South Hebron Hills, Palestinians will begin tilling in preparation for later planting wheat and barley. But on Friday a Palestinian landowner decided to start early, in a valley south of the Havot Ma’on Israeli settlement. This valley and valleys and hills that regularly surround it have been the sites of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian farmers and shepherds. Therefore, when a landowner announced he was ready to begin working on his land, Palestinian community leaders began to prepare to deter and document a settler attack.

In order to ensure that one brave Palestine was able to work on his own land, Palestinian leaders had to coordinate the efforts of ten Israeli and international activists. Following the instructions Palestinian activists, six internationals spend the better part of a day observing from hillsides, prepared to gather evidence and intervene. It would be unwise and dangerous to describe exactly what Palestinians organized, but it was a James Bond-style operation. The Israeli army District Coordinating Office (DCO) was on-hand to prevent an attack and members of Christian Peacemaker Teams were prepared to collect video evidence if they did not do so (as too often happens.) In the end, settlers did not attack the plowman. Like the Virgin Mary, Palestinians outwitted their oppressors. It was another victory of Palestinian nonviolent resistance.

Olive Harvest 2007

“This is insane,” I said to my teammate Laura. We were sitting on a tarp under an olive tree not more than 20 feet away from an Israeli settlement. The Palestinian olive harvest had just begun and Laura and I were working in Susiya, a village that is surrounded by ideological Israeli settlers. Tension hung in the air and I was anxious to begin harvesting as soon as possible. Our hosts, however, had different plans. The Palestinian family that owned the land on which we sat was spreading out lunch - hummus, tomatoes and cucumbers, olive oil, tea and large round slabs of soft homemade bread. They were happily eating and chatting away, seeming to pay no mind to the dangerous area where they had decided to picnic. “Koli!” said the grandmother. Eat! I looked at Laura, dipped some bread into oil and did what I was told.

Over the last two days, Palestinians living in at-Tuwani and the nearby village of Susiya decided to harvest their olives in areas close to Israeli settlements and an Israeli army base, where Israeli settlers might attack or Israeli soldiers were likely to tell Palestinian landowners to leave. As the harvest began, we knew that harassment from settlers or soldiers was not only possible, but likely.

But the difficulties we expected never materialized. Instead, we peacefully harvested thousands of tiny olives. Over the two days of harvesting, about 200 Israeli peace activists, and five CPTers, helped Palestinian families harvest on their land. In the village of at-Tuwani, settlers came out of their settlement to watch the harvesters. The settlement “security” guard, a man who regularly harasses Palestinians and CPTers, drove his pick-up on the road for everyone to see. But the shear number of people, especially Israelis who were willing to stand up for the rights of Palestinians to use their own land, deterred an attack. For two days, ploughshares won out over swords.

In Susiya village, neither Israeli settlers nor soldiers arrived to disrupt our lunch. Instead, the grandfather with whom we sat told us about his family history as his wife thrust more and more food in our direction. We ate quietly, in the shadow of the settlement, and then began harvesting. It was utterly insane and completely miraculous.

Recently, one of CPT’s friends told us that he's planning a demonstration. He wants to have Israelis, Palestinians, and CPTers gather in an area that is normally too dangerous for Palestinians to use. On one hand, this idea is ridiculous. But I’m learning that this sort of insanity isn’t so crazy after all.

Up the tree, picking olives

Sorting Olives

Picking while the Israeli Police watch


At-Tuwani women showing everyone how the harvest is done properly

CPTers document when Israeli settlers come out of the settlement to watch the harvest.

Zaytoun...

Good Shepherds

You, God, are my Shepherd
I will never be in need.
You let me rest in fields of green grass
You lead me to streams of peaceful water,
And you refresh my life.

Abu Basil walks slowly, constantly mumbling to himself and to his sheep. At 70, he is the oldest man living in at-Tuwani. Within his life time, he has seen the end the British mandate over Palestine, the beginnings of Jewish immigration to his homeland, the 1964 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and the arrival Israeli settlers in the South Hebron Hills. Throughout all of these changes, the rhythms of Abu Basil’s life have remained steady. This morning I found him grazing his sheep in a valley near the Ma’on settlement. Like every morning when I accompany him in his fields, Abu Basil shook my hand and then motioned for me to sit down on a rock. For a while we talked - not much since Abu Basil’s Arabic is nearly incomprehensible to the best Arabic speakers on our team - about Ramadan and his baby goats. While we spoke, his month-old kids baaed and trotted over towards greener thistles on the opposite hillside. Abu Basil arose from his rock and walked over to them, shouting, waving his arms, and tossing rocks in their path. Eventually the goats followed his commands and left the ungrazed hillside for the all but barren valley. Abu Basil sat in silence while he waited for his herd to finish. Then, abruptly as always, Abu Basil dismissed me with a nod, indicating that he was heading home. I stood up and gathered my bag and camera, but then Abu Basil took my hand. “I can’t go to the hill,” he told me, “because of the Israelis.”

You are true to your name
And you lead me along the right paths.
I may walk through valleys as dark as death,
But I won’t be afraid.
You are with me,
And your shepherd’s rod
Makes me feel safe

The people of at-Tuwani village have been shepherds for generations. Raising sheep and goats provides meat for the family and wool and dairy products for sale in the nearby city of Yatta. But in the 1980s, extremist Israeli settlers moved onto land belonging residents of At-Tuwani and other neighboring Palestinian communities. Now shepherding is a tricky business. Because of settlement expansion and Israeli army restrictions, shepherds like Abu Basil cannot access enough land to graze their flocks. Settlers attack Palestinian shepherds in their fields. CPTers now accompany shepherds in these dangerous areas. Most mornings I pack up my video camera and cell phone and walk out to Khourba hill. I pick a comfortable rock to sit on and chat with shepherds, as old as 70 and as young as 14, who quietly herd their folks, occasionally looking over their shoulders at Havot Ma’on settlement. Knowing full well the dangers they face, these farmers calmly call to their sheep and goats and stand their ground.

You treat me to a feast,
While my enemies watch.
You honor me as your guest,
And you fill my cup Until it overflows

In the face of violence and injustice, the shepherds of at-Tuwani still find land sufficient for their flocks. The settlements may have electricity 24 hours day and water to spare, but at-Tuwani is rooted firmly to the land it has always known. As the villages of the South Hebron Hills organize themselves to nonviolently resist the expansion of Israeli settlements, slowly they are reclaiming more and more of their land. In 2004, when Christian Peacemaker Teams was invited to accompany shepherds in at-Tuwani, the valleys and hills to the south of Havot Ma’on settlement were inaccessible. Now, thanks to their courage and determination, shepherds are able to graze in more of their land than at any time since the arrival of Israeli settlers. The quiet persistence of these shepherds gives me the hope I need to continue working here in the South Hebron Hills. Come what may, I believe the people of at-Tuwani will still be here.

Your kindness and love
Will always be with me
Each day of my life,
And I will live forever
In your house, God.

Text: Psalm 23 from the Hebrew Scriptures

At-Tuwani Dance Party!

I challenge anyone to find cuter children, or better dancers.

Quiet

A few days ago, I sat on a hillside surrounded by sheep and kept an eye out for armed Israeli settlers through binoculars. I watched goats munching on thistles and Palestinian shepherds calling to them, occasionally glancing over their shoulders at the Havot Ma’on Israeli settlement, and I wondered at the situation where I find myself. I never expected my life to include angry armed men or sheep.

I live in a small Palestinian village that is filled with a beautiful quietness, but plenty of activity. No one who lives in at-Tuwani is still. The South Hebron Hills that this village called home may be gorgeous as the morning sunlight fills the valleys, but it isn’t an easy place to live. Our Palestinian neighbors know how to farm and graze in rocky soil and scant vegetation, and under the threat of drought. They work hard, but their work follows the rhythms of the seasons. As I wave to children riding donkeys and sit under olive trees, I am taken by how right this way of living feels.

“Things are very quiet right now.” My teammates and I regularly comment, always slightly surprised, on the recent peacefulness of our lives. Tuwani may be beautiful, quiet, and calm, but it is still under Israeli military occupation. The Havot Ma’on Israeli settlement, sits on a hilltop next to the village, always in view. Havot Ma’on is home to far-right Israeli settlers who believe in the importance of claiming the South Hebron Hills for themselves exclusively and are willing to use violence against Palestinians to do so. As we walk over the hills, we always carry cameras and cell phones with us, as settlers may appear with guns at any time. At-Tuwani may be peaceful, but for Palestinians, the presence of Havot Ma’on makes it dangerous.

“But lately we haven’t had much to do. There haven’t been any problems.” It’s true. My first 2 and a half weeks in Tuwani were extremely quiet, mind-numbingly so. It’s the job of us in Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPTers) to accompany Palestinians who are threatened by violence and respond when the Israeli army harasses Palestinians or settlers attack. And when I arrived in Tuwani, we had very little to respond to.

But within this quiet, soldiers and settlers are constantly present. Shortly after I arrived, I waited for the Israeli army for an hour with a group of schoolchildren from the village of Tuba. These children must walk near Havot Ma’on on their way to school in Tuwani. Settlers have attacked these children as they walked with their books and backpacks. The Knesset has ordered the Israeli army to escort the children past the settlement, after settlers attacked and injured CPTers accompanying them. Everyday we walk out in two groups, one to where the soldiers meet the children and another to a hillside where we can see the point where they leave them. Often, we have to call the army to ask them to come to escort the children. That day, I called the army and the kids waited for the soldiers for another forty minutes before they were able to walk home with the jeep following behind. Even when the soldiers arrive on time and escort the children the entire assigned distance, the situation remains dangerous. Settlers have attacked the children while the army was present. As I wait for the kids to come walking down the hills, I think about of the other Palestinian children who have to take dangerous routes to school but have no one to escort them.

Yes, it has been quiet, but the Palestinians who live here are still struggling to survive under this occupation. The settlers have claimed much of the land owned by the people of Tuwani, and Palestinian shepherds are having more and more difficulty finding enough food for their flocks. Settlers may not attack every day, but their presence is constantly felt.

Then 10 days ago, the calm was shattered. Ten settlers entered the village of Tuba. They threw stones at the villagers, hitting and elderly woman and her grandson. Then, a few days a later, fifteen settlers came to the hill where CPTers were accompanying two Palestinian shepherds. They chased the sheep and their shepherds, yelling curses and insults. “You come back here and we kill you,” they shouted. One settler grabbed my teammates video camera. When she demanded it back he responded, “You go now and you go with your life.”

Our lives have continued here. This morning three settlers came down from Havot Ma’on, walked over the hills for a while, then yelled at a Palestinian family, and went home. It was a quiet day, I suppose. I pray tomorrow will be as well.

As summer lingers, we have been sleeping on the roof under the stars. As we fall asleep beside our neighbors, I can imagine what peace will feel like when it comes to Tuwani. Shepherds will have enough land to graze their sheep and goats. Children will walk to school without fear of armed strangers. Everyone will walk freely over the hills. Under the stars, peace seems close by, like something I could reach out and touch. For now we wait and enjoy the quiet, until the calm is shattered again.