Saturday Morning BDS Conference Sessions

Several general educational session were offered the Saturday morning of the conference; Apartheid 101, Lessons from South Africa, Popular Resistance to Israeli Apartheid, Israeli Apartheid as a Feminist Issue, Exploring Canada's Ties to Israeli Apartheid, Jewish Support for BDS, Indigenous Solidarity, Access to Healthcare Under Israeli Apartheid, and Land and Environment under Israeli Apartheid.

Indigenous Solidarity

“The burden of decolonization should not rest on indigenous people.” Harsha Walia

I was drawn to the Indigenous Solidarity session because I can see similarities between the Israeli colonization of the Palestinian people, and the European colonization of the indigenous people of Turtle Island – and because Judy Da Silva was one of the speakers. Judy is an elder from the Anishnabe nation and lives in Grassy Narrows, Ontario – a community that invited CPT to accompany them when they began their blockade of logging roads in 2002 to prevent Abitibi from clear-cutting their traditional lands.

Clifton Arihwakehte Nicholas is a Kanienkahak (Mohawk) and was the first speaker in this session. He reminded attendees that they didn't need to go to other countries to see apartheid – it exists in our own backyard in Canada. The cultural, social and linguistic depravation of the First Nations, a deliberate strategy of European colonization, has resulted in the 3^rd world conditions on reserves. There are different levels of effects of colonization across Canada because of different points of contact with European colonizers (i.e. it is more recent in western and northern Canada). Clifton shared how comfortable he feels around his Palestinian friends because they understand his struggle and he understands theirs. Clifton encouraged organizations interested in indigenous solidarity to work on getting Canada to ratify the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Harsha Walia is a South Asian activist, writer and researcher based in Vancouver who has been involved in the migrant justice movement. She warned us to avoid simplifications when working on both indigenous solidarity and the BDS campaign as 500 years of colonization is very different than the relatively recent Israeli occupation of Palestine. According to Harsha, all organizing should have indigenous solidarity at it's core because all the issues, to a higher percentage of the population, affect indigenous people. However the indigenous struggle cannot be absorbed into any other kind of struggle. Racism of indigenous people is nothing like racism of other people of colour. Our solidarity with the indigenous struggle must not come from a place of guilt but a place of responsibility.

Judy Da Silva said that only about 50 of 700 people from Grassy Narrows are active in organizing against the colonization of their lands. Her people carry a lot of fear and this affects what some of them are willing to do – especially when they experience discrimination on a daily basis from the Canadian government, companies wanting access to their land, and neighbouring white communities. The indigenous population across Canada is increasing at a rate 3% higher than the rest of Canada – and she feels that's why First Nations women are being targeted for attacks, rapes and murders – as they are the life-givers and mothers of the nations. She encouraged people and organizations standing in solidarity with Grassy Narrows to think about where the paper that they use come from and where the paper for books that they read/promote come from.

Jewish Support for BDS

“The red line in the discourse around Israel has changed from 10-15 years ago for Jews – now we can criticize Israel – the new line is BDS.” Sydney Levy

Sydney Levy has been with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) since 2000, currently working on a campaign to encourage TIAA-CREF (retirement investment planning company) to divest from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation. Sydney spoke about the importance of Jewish organizations joining the BDS campaign to help address the backlash against the campaign. The arguments are that BDS is anti-Semitic and divisive. The JVP provides Jewish answers to these arguments - to backlashes that the JVP receives and to backlashes against other non-Jewish organizations working on the BDS campaign. Israeli authorities have said that the BDS campaign is a threat to the state and there are efforts to have a Jewish counter response for any BDS campaign event within 12 hours. This article in the Tuesday edition of the Montreal Gazette is perhaps an example of such a response to the recent conference, and is full of the standard counter arguments against the BDS campaign.

These two sessions for me emphasized the strong purpose of the conference – to build solidarity both between different groups which are working on the BDS campaign – and also between other organizations who are mainly working on other issues, but who support the BDS call.

From Sharpeville to Gaza: 5 Years Since the Palestinian Call for BDS

“If calling for equality destroys any state then what does that say about the state?” Omar Barghouti

“South Africans have experienced apartheid so they don't apply that label on other parts of the world lightly.” Stephen Faulkner

The opening session of the October 22-24 BDS Conference in Montreal Quebec was an inspiring panel of three great speakers – below is a summary of the highlights for me of what each of them spoke about.

Areej Ja'fari is a Palestinian refugee living in Deheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem. She is the West Bank coordinator for the Palestine Freedom Project and has been working with grassroots Palestinian youth organizations in the refugee camps on promoting support for BDS and anti-normalization. One definition of the term 'anti-normalization', is efforts to combat “the subtle and insidious processes that legitimize Israel's colonization and occupation policies even as they purport to pursue peace.” This normalization of the occupation has been perpetuated by international organizations (especially after Oslo) that fund projects in Palestine and require the project to have an Israeli partner. From her work, Areej feels that Palestinian youth know their rights, but don't always have the tools to fight for their rights. She said that Palestinians need better leadership that comes from both women and youth. Areej was one of the organizers of the first Israeli apartheid week at Palestine universities this past spring - she's definitely a leader!

Stephen Faulkner is the International Officer of the South African Municipal Workers Union, one of the larger affiliates of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). COSATU plays a leading role in several campaigns including the Coalition for a Free Palestine, a united front of South African Palestine solidarity groups. Stephen provided several lessons that the BDS campaign could learn from the struggle against Apartheid South Africa:

• be careful in thinking that victory is around the corner, it is a long haul

• there is no substitute for self-determination, it IS a Palestinian BDS call

• make sure you give enough attention to what to do after you win the BDS demands, simply defeating apartheid has not solved the problems in South Africa

Stephen encouraged the BDS campaign to be a microcosm of the type of society that we want to build – and to be fully democratic, united, moving outwards, and willing to motivate people.

Omar Barghouti is the founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (his upcoming book, BDS: The Global Struggle for Palestinians Rights, will be published by Haymarket). Omar spoke about how the Israeli occupation has not only been a colonization of the land, but also a colonization of the mind (i.e. the destruction of thousands of Palestinian books, closures at different points through the years of schools and universities). This deeper level of colonization of Palestine makes the call for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel that much stronger. Omar also touched on the increasing shift to the right of the Israeli government, to the point that the debate in Israel among the Jewish population is about fascism not apartheid. With the Israeli government discussing anti-BDS legislation, Israel is beginning to shift towards becoming non-democratic for Israeli Jews (it is already non-democratic for Palestinian Arab Israelis). Omar had the following recommendations for the BDS campaign:

• that local organizations decide the tactics and targets as they know the context of their local situation best

• a boycott of ALL Israeli good and products (it is the state that built and supports the settlements, so don't just do a boycott of settlement goods)

• put pressure on the Jewish National Fund (for which there is a Canadian chapter of that has charitable status in Canada)

• call for an immediate arms embargo in the region (for all parties in the conflict)

• call for an end to free trade agreements with Israel

Omar was interview by The Real News Network about the BDS call.

For those of you new to the 2005 Palestinian BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) of Israel call please go to www.bsmovement.net to learn more about it. The call asks for BDS measures to be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinians people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;

2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and

3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

   
   

Haji's Nonviolent Resistance Recognized and Building a House

I only have a couple more days left in Palestine – and I haven't written that many blog posts this time around – sorry about that! Blame it on the heat....this gal from Canada is not used to temperatures pushing 40 degrees Celsius :)

It's time to write about some good things that have been happening in At-Tuwani the past couple of days. First, today the village hosted the South Hebron Hills Festival of Nonviolent Resistance which has marked the end of the summer camp in At-Tuwani for the past 3 years. Memories from this day include....

• first time in all my times coming to Palestine that I've actually stood in a crowd while the Palestinian national anthem was played (I've heard kids sing it at the school or it being played over school loudspeakers in Hebron – but not at any events that I can remember being at).
• Children from At-Tuwani acting out scenes from life in the village and helping an Italian clowning group try and make a sad clown smile. Here's a photo:

• The end of the festival included recognition of groups and NGO's that have been in solidarity with Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills. And then the various villages in the South Hebron Hills were recognized, and specific individuals from some of the villages. I'm not quite sure it was proper, but several of us cheered and whistled loudly when the Haji's (female elders) from At-Tuwani were called up one by one to be recognized for their nonviolent resistance efforts. These 5 women are really quite amazing – they are in their 70's or 80's and have worked hard their whole lives in raising a family and farming. They are teaching the younger women in the village the traditional handicrafts of cross-stitching, wool spinning, dying and weaving, and making grass baskets. And any time there is a problem in the village with Israeli soldiers or settlers some of these women will often make their way to the centre of the incident – their presence in beautiful cross-stitched dresses and white flowing headscarves demanding respect – and emphasis their solution to whatever is happening (whether it be that soldiers need to leave the village, settlers need to be arrested for harassing villagers, or people from At-Tuwani needing to be firm in standing up for their rights). Their courage and fearlessness is I'm sure an example for the next generation of nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation in At-Tuwani.

Despite the heat, a couple of teammates and I have helped a young couple (K&J A for those of you who know people here) in the village in building a new house. My previous experiences in building a house include helping Mom and Dad build their new house (I remember freezing during Christmas holidays nailing plywood on the roof) and going on a work and learn Mennonite Central Committee tour to El Salvador after Hurricane Mitch and helping a community there build small pre-fab kinda houses. And now a cement and cement-block house in At-Tuwani. All 3 experiences have been different so I can't say that my knowledge of how to build a house has increased! The day that I helped we were wiring together re-bar for the flat cement roof of the house. Here's a photo:

Inshallah I will be back sometime next year to serve with CPT in At-Tuwani, but I'm not quite sure when that would be yet. But I think that it's pretty certain the villagers will be hooked up to the Palestinian electricity grid (24hrs of electricity! Yay!!) and also have access to a water filling point. These are major accomplishments for the villagers as they have been struggling to have these basic infrastructure needs met for over 10 years. It will be exciting to come back and see how the lives of the families in the village will change as a result of these improvements in their standard of living.

What life is like in the South Hebron Hills

It's rare that mainstream (and well-known) media come down and do stories on the situation in the South Hebron Hills – but it does happen. Nicholas Kristof from the New York Times was in the area recently and wrote this article about his visit.

Just this past week the New York Times also released this video about his visit, and it really shows the extremes between the standard of life available to Israeli settlers in the area and Palestinian residents.

The video opens with the Omar Abu-Jundiya family in their cave in Tuba. A couple of nights ago a teammate and I visited this family and spent the night. And as always, this is where I've had the best tea that I've ever had in Palestine! The kids in this family were the first ones that CPTers accompanied to and from school when the project in At-Tuwani village opened. The international accompaniment of the children didn't last long because of attacks by settlers. So for the past 6 years these children have been accompanied by either the Israeli military or police on part of the road they take to school as it goes in-between an Israeli settlement and an Israeli settler outpost – and the settlers have continued to harass and attack these children even while they are being escorted. It's a bit crazy – rather than hold the settlers accountable for their actions, and removing the illegal settlement outpost – the band-aid solution of a military escort continues.

Anyway, back to the Abu-Jundiya family. Part way into the Kristof video, Ahmed Abu-Jundiya is interviewed – he has just graduated from high school and often shepherds his family's flock in the early morning. He is also a videographer for the 'Shooting Back' project of B'tselem, an Israeli human rights organization. Last week Wednesday Ahmed was shepherding and several settlers came and stole one of his family's sheep. As a result of the video that Achmed took of the incident the Israeli police were able to identify the settlers and Achmed's father went with the police to retrieve the sheep from the settlement. While Ahmed and his father Omar were at the Israeli police station filing a complaint against the settlers (Ahmed for 5 hours), one of the settlers came in and filled a counter complaint against Omar (which is bogus as Omar wasn't even at the incident). At first the police didn't want to give Ahmed a copy of his complaint, but the B'tselem field worker who accompanied Ahmed insisted on a copy as if the case goes to court and Palestinians don't have a copy of the complaint that they filed the Israeli police have sometimes claimed that none was filed. And then the complaint of the settler is the only one for which there is paperwork for and the case would go badly for the Palestinians. In instances such as this with both the Palestinians and the settler filing complaints the case will mostly likely be thrown out by a judge – and the settlers will not be prosecuted for stealing a sheep. Here is the video that Achmed captured.

Destruction of Vegetable Fields

So I'm back in Palestine this summer and have been here for just over a week – I haven't quite kicked the cold that I caught the week before I left so that's left me feeling a bit low on energy. But I think I'll soon be fine for the remaining month that I'm here for.

I'm serving with CPT in Hebron for the first couple of weeks as staffing is low in Palestine at the moment and CPT decided to pull all the volunteers to Hebron until more arrive and we can return to At-Tuwani village. Our Italian partner organization, Operation Dove has been staffing the At-Tuwani project by themselves during this time. This coming week I'll be able to head down to At-Tuwani for a couple of days and I'm looking forward to that!

We've had one crazy day in the Hebron region so far – please take a look at video and the release below. Really it's maddening and also slightly disturbing that the Israeli administration in the West Bank decided that it was necessary to rip up irrigation pipes for vegetable fields. And part of me wonders, for how many weeks and days have the Israeli civil administration authorities (in control in the region of the Baqa'a Valley where these incidents occurred) driven through the valley on the Israeli settler bypass road that bisects it....and looked at how large the tomato plants were. Did they keep track of when the plants were first transplanted in the fields? Did someone flip the calendar in their office ahead a couple of months to the date when the tomato plants would be around 2 weeks from being ripe and ready to be picked for market...and schedule an 'operation' for the Israeli border police? I do really wonder, if it is the case – that's evil.

And tear gas does definitely not improve a cough.

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Israeli border police destroyed several Palestinian fields in Al Baqa'a Valley just east of Hebron on July 6, 2010, directly impacting the livelihood of more than one hundred Palestinians.

Landowners said that Israeli border police and the Israeli District Coordinating Office (DCO), responsible for the coordination of Palestinian civilian affairs in Area C, began implementing the destruction at around 8:30am. Israeli authorities, with the assistance of hired labor, damaged fields of vegetables and destroyed the irrigation systems of those fields.

When international peace activists from Christian Peacemaker Teams arrived in the area at 11:30am, about 20 workers hired by the Israeli border police and DCO had cut and disposed of the irrigation pipes laid in two fields. The fields each measured 10 dunams (approximately 40 acres) and included tomatoes, eggplant, cauliflower, and beans. In addition to dismantling the irrigation pipes, the workers also cut the twines that were holding up each tomato plant. A matriarch of the family, Aratiki Karim, said, "These tomatoes are for the kids, for the babies, to feed the kids and to sell them to buy other food for the kids." The Palestinian farmers had planted the tomato plants nearly three months ago and the tomatoes were only 20 days from being ready for market.

The border police, DCO, and hired laborers then moved to another field further along Route 60 in the Al Baqa'a Valley to perform the same procedure. The border police blocked the junction between the residential zone and the nearby fields, shooting tear gas and sound bombs to prevent Palestinians from going to the area where the hired workers were removing more irrigation pipes. Several women and children suffered from tear gas inhalation and required hospitalization.

Badran Mohammed Jabber, looking out onto his destroyed fields uttered in exasperation, "I have spent 43 years under the Israeli reign of terror. I have lived my life in fear, I never know what the Israelis will do tomorrow. They have destroyed my land, they have destroyed my life, these fields are my life."

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This is not the first time Israeli authorities have destroyed crops and irrigation equipment in the Al Baqa'a Valley. See the following links for further reading on demolitions in the Baqa'a Valley:

*"Whose water is it anyway?" http://www.cpt.org/cptnet/2009/11/23/al-khaliilhebron-whose-water-it-anyway

*"This Used to be Paradise" http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cpthebron/message/1255

*"Fight for survival in the West Bank" http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/2009103018216661237.html

Oasis of Peace - Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom

A couple of days ago while on a short break from the work in At-Tuwani, I took the opportunity to visit a village in Israel called Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom.  This village is located half way between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, on land give for the village by Latrun Monastery.  The village was started 30 years ago as an intentional mixed Palestinian-Arab and Jewish village (all with Israeli citizenship) to demonstrate the coexistence between Jews and Palestinians by developing a community based on mutual acceptance, respect and cooperation.  Democratically governed and owned by its members, the community is not affiliated with any political party or movement.

The village gives expression to it's vision through programming like it's bilingual, binational school (first Jewish-Palestinians bilingual children's educational program in Israel) and the school for peace (conducts outreach education through encounter work between Arabs and Jews).

Please feel free to watch this short video about the village if you are interested...better than any words I'd find to describe it!

There is a Canadian Friends of WAS/NS group which has been working on touring an exhibit of art from last year's summer camp program in the village across Canada as part of raising awareness about the village and the programs that are offered there.  The board of Canadian Friends is currently based in Calgary and I have been involved with their efforts in the past half a year - and so I'm glad that I took the opportunity to visit the village while here.

Follow-up on the Quartet and Electricity in At-Tuwani

Thanks to all of you who responded to the urgent action that the CPT At-Tuwani team released the other week after the Israeli military delivered a demolition order to the newly constructed electricity pylons in the village.

We have heard back from the Quartet office - they are concerned about the situation and are working on it.  And just the other day the Mayor of At-Tuwani had a call from the Quartet office saying that the villagers have verbal permission from the Israeli authorities to bring electricity down.  Of course verbal permission is not as good as a written permit....however today construction workers are beginning to string the wires on the pylons down from the next town to the north!

Boys on Wheels

The new paved roads in At-Tuwani have opened a whole new realm of play for the young boys in the village.  Anything with wheels is used to zoom down the hills...from bikes and rollerblades to bits of a broken skateboard, and a roller skate attached to the bottom of a plastic crate.  Here are some photos!

The clinic in the village is still only open one day a week, through CARE international, so it is probably a good thing that the kids haven't attempted to stand on their wheeled toys as they ride down the hills.

Encouragement for the Quartet needed

URGENT ACTION
28 July 2009
At-Tuwani Urgent Action: Demand that Quartet pressure Israeli Occupying Forces to revoke demolition order for electricity pylons

On Tuesday, 28 July, members of the Israeli District Coordinating Office (DCO) – the branch of the Israeli army that administers civilian affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)- issued a demolition order to the newly constructed electricity pylons in the village of At-Tuwani, located in the South Hebron hills.

On 19 March 2009, Tony Blair, special middle east envoy of the Quartet, visited At-Tuwani (see AT-TUWANI: At-Tuwani hosts former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair to address Israeli occupation and violence in the southern West Bank). During his visit, Blair assured villagers that oral permission had been given by the DCO to carry out the electricity construction work.

On 25 May 2009, the DCO entered the village of At-Tuwani and ordered villagers to halt construction work on new electricity pylons in the village. No written orders were delivered. (see AT-TUWANI URGENT ACTION: Demand that Israeli occupying forces allow At-Tuwani to bring electricity into their village).

On 26 May 2009, Saber Hreini, head of the At-Tuwani Village Council, wrote to Blair requesting written permission for the electricity work to continue.

We hope that in your role as envoy for the Quartet, you can be of assistance to us in contacting the Israeli government with the hopes of procuring written permission for these projects. We fear without written permission our problems will continue.

There was no response from Blair, as the representative of the Quartet, to concerns of the villagers when the DCO ordered a halt to the construction work on the electricity pylons.

ACTION TO TAKE
Contact:
Stefan Szetesi
Private Sector Development Officer
sszetesi@quartetrep.org

and

Olivia Otecosky
otecosky@quartetrep.org

Office of the Quartet Representative
Telephone: +972 2 633 3333

And ask them to put pressure on the Israeli government to revoke the demolition orders on the electricity pylons and give permission for construction to continue on the work to bring electricity to the village of At-Tuwani.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The Quartet is the body consisting of representatives of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia responsible for facilitating peace talks between the Israel government and the Palestinian Authority. Tony Blair is currently the special envoy for the Quartet to the Middle East.

Currently At-Tuwani receives only four hours electricity a day, supplied by a diesel generator operated and paid for by the villagers. The illegal Israeli settlement and outposts of Ma’on, Havat Ma’on, and Avigail, located within 2km of At-Tuwani, are supplied by electricity from the main Israeli power grid.

Israel, as the occupying power*, is responsible for the general welfare of the occupied Palestinian civilian population. Whilst providing electricity and water to Israeli settlements and outposts in the occupied Palestinian territories they fail to supply these basic services to Palestinian towns and villages. In this most recent move they are now threatening to demolish the villagers attempts to improve their living conditions.

* International Humanitarian law (1907 Hague Regulation and 1949 Fourth Geneva Conventions) obliges the occupying power to ensure the welfare of the occupied population.

Israeli military accompanies children but harasses older brothers who are shepherds

As I mentioned in a previous entry, I am on team with CPT in At-Tuwani during the summer camp that the village has hosted for the past 8 years for children from the south Hebron hills region. Children from several neighbouring villages are coming to the camp in At-Tuwani, which is lasting for two weeks this year.

When CPT first opened a project in the village of At-Tuwani (partnering with and Italian peace organization, Operation Dove) one of the tasks that we were asked to do was to accompany Palestinian children from a neighbouring village to and from school in At-Tuwani. The elementary school aged children needed accompaniment because Israeli settlers would attack them on roads/paths that they took to and from school. Some of you may remember that when we began doing the accompaniment of the children we also experienced first hand the violence of the Israeli settlers that live in the area with several international volunteers injured and hospitalized after settler attacks.

Israeli peace groups pressured the Israeli government to protect the Palestinian children on their journey and for the past 5 years the Israeli military was ordered to accompany the children to and from school. CPTers and the Doves were asked by the parents of the children to monitor this escort and we have noted many instances of when the Israeli military failed in their task of getting the children to and from school safely and on-time. Here is a report about the military accompaniment during a previous school year.

The Mayor of At-Tuwani coordinated with the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli military for the children to also receive accompaniment to At-Tuwani for the summer camp. Last year there were many problems with this accompaniment and this year the team decided to monitor the accompaniment more closely, which includes being present with the children at their home village.

One morning this past week my teammate Jessica and I walked with the children from their small cave village of Tuba to the location where they meet the Israeli soldiers who accompany them to At-Tuwani. There didn't seem to be any problems with the accompaniment this morning and so Jessica and I returned to Tuba to begin the second part of our day - accompanying shepherds grazing their flocks of sheep.

As we got back to Tuba we noticed an Israeli settler vehicle on a hilltop close to the valley where the shepherds often graze their sheep. After confirming with family members that the shepherds were in fact in that area, Jessica and I took off as fast as we could to reach the shepherds. By the time that we got to them, an Israeli military jeep had arrived and one of the two shepherds (boys aged around 16years) was being detained.

A month ago both of these shepherds had been arrested and told that if they were caught on any of the hills near the Israeli settlement of Ma'on that they would be jailed. However the hills around Tuba (some of them close to Ma'on) are private Palestinian land on which their families have grazed their flocks for decades if not centuries. The sheep need to eat and there is no money to buy food to feed them, so the shepherds continue to go out on the hills.

Soon after we got to the area where the soldiers were detaining the shepherd, Jessica noted that the military jeep had the same number as the one who had accompanied the children to summer camp in At-Tuwani. Jessica went up and asked the soldiers why they accompanied the children to summer camp but then came out to harasses the brothers of those same children?

After some time the Israeli police arrived (and an Israeli settler had lengthy conversations with both the soldiers and the police), and the shepherd was told to come the next day to the Israeli police station. Thankfully at the Israeli police station in Hebron the shepherd boy was not arrested. But is was for him a long and expensive journey to come from Tuba at the whim of the Israeli police.

Palestinians have the right to both an education and to access their land, and the Israeli military is responsible for protecting those rights.  It is not acceptable to work on protecting the access to education without also working on protecting all the other rights of the Palestinians living in the region.  The irony in all of this is that a most obvious and easy path to protecting the rights of Palestinians living in the region would be to stop Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and stop settlement expansion.

Israeli Military Delivers Stop Work Orders

Below is a release that the CPT team put out last week.....

Israeli Military Delivers Stop Work Orders on Nine Palestinian Structures; Palestinians Protest Nonviolently and Military Strikes a Child, Arrests Palestinian

20 July 2009

At-Tuwani – In the afternoon of 20 July, the Israeli District Coordinating Office (DCO) delivered stop work orders for nine Palestinian structures around the village of At-Tuwani. These orders were delivered to seven new houses, one cave, and one cistern in the area. The Israeli military sometimes delivers a stop work order to a structure prior to a demolition order; and after a demolition order is delivered, the Israeli military may then demolish the structure. While the DCO and Israeli soldiers delivered the stop work orders, Palestinian children and adults gathered in the area, protesting the delivery of the stop work orders. One Palestinian admonished the DCO and soldiers to deliver demolition orders to the illegal buildings in the Israeli outpost of Havat Ma’on, which continues to expand. Palestinian children surrounded each house and chanted loudly, attempting to make it difficult for the DCO to leave the orders at each house and making it difficult for the DCO and soldiers to use their radio and phones. In addition, Palestinians sat in protest in front of the military and DCO and prayed together on their land.

While delivering the stop work orders, a member of the DCO struck a small child and an Israeli soldier shoved a Palestinian civilian to the ground. In addition, Israeli police arrested a Palestinian man who was present to protest the stop work orders. He is supposedly charged with “threatening soldiers” and remains in the Kiryat Arba police station.

One of the houses had already been destroyed in the night of 16 July (see release: New Palestinian House and Olive Tree Destroyed in the Night.) The Palestinian family suspects the house had been demolished by Israeli settlers from the Israeli settlement of Ma’on or the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on, and the family began rebuilding the home the next day.

Despite Israeli settler and soldier harassment to discourage the growth of the village of At-Tuwani, Palestinians remain committed to asserting their right to develop and build their privately owned Palestinian land.

Anything is possible

Well there have been quite a few changes in the village of At-Tuwani since the last time I was here in the summer of 2007 (and most everyone remembers me and when I was here last!).  Children have grown, new babies have been born, and land that was not accessed for a while because of settler attacks is now being used.

For me however the most striking change is the new construction in the village, and since I came back, on the surrounding land owned by the villagers.  

The planning system in the West Bank, implemented by the Israeli Civil Administration, is one of the cogs in the wheel of the Israeli occupation.  As with the other bureaucratic systems, the planning system operates on two distinct tracks: one for Jews living in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the other for Palestinians.

In 2008, the Office of the Quartet (EU, US, UN and Russia) Representative declared that 14 master plans will be granted for 14 Palestinian villages.  At-Tuwani is one of these villages.  The Office of the Quartet Representative claims that the approval of these master plans will facilitate in the developing, building and upgrading of schools, clinics, and other facilities within these villages.  

The area covered by the master plan for At-Tuwani does not include the entire village however, and construction in the area outside of the master plan is considered illegal and faces the continued threat of demolition.  The village's new cistern is outside of the planning area, as is the new mosque, and the mayor's new house (previous house demolished in 2003).  As well, there are restrictions on building only one structure in the village plot owned by each family in the master plan area.

However since the release of the master plan for At-Tuwani at least 10 houses/structures have been built or existing houses have been added on to, which means that expanding extended families can have smaller sub-families move out into a new house.  And families from Yatta that want to move back to Tuwani can.

All the main roads in Tuwani are paved now and 4 new rooms are being added to the school which will be able to accommodate students up to grade 10 beginning this fall (before students had to go to a larger town after finishing grade 6).  This is especially important for girls in the area as many of them are not able to go to school past grade 6 because of the need to go to another town, and families don't have the money to send them.  

Another new project for the village is that they received permission from the Palestinian Authority to build the infrastructure to bring electricity down from Yatta.  Although the Israeli military stopped the villagers from putting up the electricity pylons in the last month, the villagers have resumed putting them up.  

All of this brings new life and hope to the village.  Perhaps this picture of boys from the village performing the dabka, a traditional dance, during the 2 week long summer camp depicts the energy in the village (despite the heat!)

And they continue to resist the Israeli occupation and harassment by settlers and the army by using creative nonviolent tactics.  The day I arrived in the village we were asked to go to the top of a hill near the village to accompany someone building something up there on land they own.  We were a bit confused at first, but of course went up there.  And the next day again we were asked to go up to the area and when a truck arrived in the late afternoon and delivered a load of cement blocks we started to understand more clearly.  The following day the villagers began construction in earnest on 6 new houses, and when the Israeli Civil Administration officer came by to tell the families to stop building as they didn't have construction permits, more people came out from the village to speed up the construction.  Depsite one house being destroyed in the night (see CPT release) the families will continue to work on these houses.

Driving back to the village from the construction site of one of the new houses with the family building it, I asked....so when do you think that this road from At-Tuwani to Jinba (another small village further south right next to the Green Line) will be paved?  And the answer was “we hope some day.  We talked for many years of having the roads in At-Tuwani paved, and look they are, so anything is possible.”

Information on the Master plan available from ARIJ   – The Israeli policies in area (C): Silent Transfer of the Palestinian Population 12 Oct 2008

In Palestine Again

During my summer break from my part-time job at Project Ploughshares Calgary I will be serving for a month on the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) project in the village of At-Tuwani (village in the south Hebron hills part of the West Bank).

Although the CPT team does have limited internet access in the village now, I will probably do most of my writing off-line and upload my posts every 7-9 days when I leave the village for a day off.

So please check back here in a week or so!

PS.  For those of you who don't know - I am currently still a reservist with CPT (expected to serve on a CPT project for a short period of time once a year), I was a former full-time volunteer from 2003-2006 with CPT working on the organizations projects in Hebron and At-Tuwani in Palestine.  For more information about CPT please check the organization's website at www.cpt.org