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.