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Non-violent resistance

CPT At-Tuwani October 2010 Update

CPTnet AT-TUWANI UPDATE: October 2010

The At-Tuwani team had between two to three CPTers serving during the month
of October.

School Patrol

Together with the members of Operation Dove, the team monitored the Israeli
military accompaniment of the school children from the Tuba area as they
passed near the Israeli settlement of Ma’on. Twice the soldiers failed to
arrive in the afternoon, and the internationals accompanied the children back
to Tuba. Four settlers, with faces masked, chased the children during one of
these accompaniments, but no verbal or physical contact with the settlers
occurred, and no one was injured. On another occasion, two high school
students were returning to Tuba when two masked settlers stole the donkey
they were riding.  Later the donkey appeared back in Tuba missing its
saddle.

Shepherd Accompaniment

Team members often spent Friday or Saturday nights at Tuba and accompanied
young shepherds in the morning as they grazed their flocks near the Ma’on
settlement barns. When settlers approached, the shepherds generally left the
area quickly. Israeli soldiers on one occasion chased young shepherds back to
Tuba and arrested their brother, a university student, when he videoed the
soldiers’ actions. He was taken to an army base and held for five hours. On
one occasion, two masked settlers attacked two members of Operation Dove as
they returned from accompanying shepherds, but did not injure them. The next
day, a settler on horseback challenged two CPTers and warned them to stay off
the road to Tuba. Three more settlers appeared and watched the CPTers as they
took a longer route.

Israeli Army Checkpoints

Soldiers often set up a temporary army checkpoint at the junction of the
settler-only highway and the road from At-Tuwani to Yatta. They stopped
most vehicles and checked IDs, possibly looking for labourers travelling to
or from Israel illegally across the nearby green line.  CPT and/or the Doves
monitored the checkpoint and intervened when soldiers detained Palestinians
for a longer time than usual. Sometimes they were able to engage the soldiers
in conversation about what they were doing and why.

Advocacy

A visitor from England spent a day with the team, and a delegation of thirty
Mennonites from the U.S. and Canada visited to see and hear the stories of
nonviolent resistance practiced by the people of At-Tuwani to the occupation
and confiscation of their land by Israeli settlers and soldiers. The team
helped a Palestinian couple from At-Tuwani prepare for a November speaking
tour in Italy.

Olive Harvest

The army seemed to have orders to protect the farmers from settler attack
during their olive harvest. While the families from At-Tuwani were in the
Humra valley near the Ma’on settlement, two army jeeps remained on the road
between the valley and the settlement for the entirety of the olive harvest,
which passed without incident.

Israeli soldiers detain five Palestinian school boys in South Hebron Hills

ISRAELI SOLDIERS DETAIN FIVE PALESTINIAN SCHOOL BOYS IN SOUTH HEBRON HILLS

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

November 21st, 2010

At-Tuwani – Christian Peacemaker Teams Press Release: Claiming that the children were throwing stones, Israeli soldiers detained five Palestinian schoolboys.

Since the beginning of 2005, the children from the village of Tuba wait every morning for an Israeli army escort to accompany them to the school in At-Tuwani, along the shortest road that goes through the Israeli settlement of Ma’on and the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on. The escort’s task is to protect the children from the violence of the Israeli settlers of Havat Ma’on.

On the morning of November 21st, Palestinian schoolchildren had been waiting for over an hour near the settlement chicken barns when, at about 8:50 am, the soldiers arrived to escort the children to school past Havat Ma’on. Instead of escorting the children, however, the soldiers stopped and talked with the settlement security guard while the children waited on the road nearby. While the soldiers and the security guard were talking, two settlers passed the children.

After waiting for 15 minutes, two of the schoolchildren left for school on their own, unaccompanied. The other 13 children waited for another five minutes, then turned around and left to head back home. The soldiers remained with the security guard.

As the children were arriving at their villages of Tuba and Maghayir Al-Abeed, the same soldiers drove up, and, shoving away two internationals from Christian Peacemaker Teams, grabbed five boys and put them in the army vehicle. The soldiers took the boys back to the settlement barns, where, according to the children, they asked them no questions, but made them sit against a barn. After holding them for 15 minutes, the soldiers released the boys.

As the boys were leaving, the captain told the internationals “tell the children’s parents that if the boys throw stones again, it won’t be like this time. There will be problems.”

“I was waiting with the kids for over an hour, and I never saw them throw stones” said Joe Yoder, member of CPT. “Even if they were throwing stones while they were playing around, I don’t see how that’s an offense that merits soldiers coming into their home and carrying them off like criminals. If the army would just arrive on time, then there wouldn’t be a problem in the first place.”

Schoolchildren from Tuba and Maghayir al Abeed rely on the Israeli army to escort them past the settlement of Ma’on and the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on, where Israeli settlers have committed acts of violence against the schoolchildren in the past.

These kinds of incidents are the evidence of the Israeli military escort’s failure to protect the children from settler’s violence. In the last school year, the children were attacked 19 times, they waited for the escort 53 hours and they missed almost 27 hours of classes.

A more detailed report about the military escort of schoolchildren in South Hebron Hills will be published in the next few weeks.

Christian Peacemaker Teams and Operation Dove have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Mock checkpoint at Columbia University

Below is the press release provided by C-SJP, links to two videos of the mock checkpoint and links to other articles about the action.

New York, NY, November 18 – On November 18th, 2010 from 12pm to 2pm, Columbia University Students for Justice in Palestine (C-SJP)—a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, and community members—constructed a theatrical mock Israeli checkpoint at the Low Library steps at Columbia University.

Three students dressed as Israeli soldiers lined up dozens of volunteer students throughout the afternoon, blindfolded them, and forced them to sit on their knees as a symbolic gesture to portray the hardships faced by Palestinian students.

Those playing the role of the Palestinian students had tape over their mouths to reflect how Israel silences Palestinian voices by withholding their right to education.

We learned on Thursday morning that the Columbia administration alerted Zionist groups on campus 48 hours prior to our action in order for them to organize a counter demonstration.

Although Palestinian voices are loud and strong at Columbia – amplified by the opening of the Center for Palestine Studies last month – the administration remains firmly Zionist.  All things considered, the action was a tremendous success!

Israel-Palestine debate hits College Walk from Columbia Daily Spectator on Vimeo.

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine website

Israel/Palestine group clash on College Walk

BDS flashmobs at work

Philly grocery store flashdance

HP flashmob

SOUTH HEBRON HILLS: Israeli Army arrests young Palestinian man in South Hebron Hills

CPTnet Digest
A newsletter written by members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams
5 November 2010

SOUTH HEBRON HILLS: Israeli Army arrests young Palestinian man in South Hebron Hills

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the International Court of
Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and
outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most
settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are illegal under
Israeli law.]

On the morning of Saturday, 30 October 2010, around 10:30 a.m., Israeli
soldiers arrested a young Palestinian man from the village of Tuba, in the
South Hebron Hills, who had been filming Israeli soldiers chasing two young
Palestinian shepherds from Tuba.

The two shepherds, accompanied by internationals of Operation Dove (the
nonviolent corps of the Italian organization Community Pope John XXIII), were
watching their flocks in the Umm Zeitouna area, on private Palestinian land.

Around 10:00 a.m., a group of Israeli activists from Ta’ayush joined the
internationals accompanying the shepherds. After about ten minutes, three
military jeeps and two armored cars from Israeli army, the DCO (District
Coordination Office of the Israeli military) and Israeli police arrived,
surrounding the whole area. After a few minutes, Israeli soldiers came down
from the hilltop into the valley, chasing the two Palestinian shepherds, who
ran quickly toward their village.

Israeli activists and internationals tried to speak with soldiers, explaining, that the two shepherds were on Palestinian-owned land and, according to Israeli law, it is illegal to prevent Palestinians from accessing their land.

Nevertheless, the Israeli army continued chasing shepherds until they reached Tuba village as the young Palestinian man, who was working for Israeli human rights organization B’tselem, videotaped the action.

Soldiers then surrounded the Palestinian, detained him, and forced him to follow them to the Israeli-only bypass road, preventing him from answering his cell phone. They then took the young man to a military base close to the nearby Susiya settlement, detaining him for five hours.

After his release, the Palestinian told internationals he was blindfolded and handcuffed for a long time, and refused permission to make phone calls.  None of the soldiers were able to speak Arabic and they were not willing to speak with him in English.

Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

AL-KHALIL (HEBRON): Shepherd made homeless, livelihood threatened, son in prison.

CPTnet Digest, Volume 35, Issue 1
A newsletter written by members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams
29 October 2010

AL-KHALIL (HEBRON): Shepherd made homeless, livelihood threatened, son in prison.

On Monday 11 October, at 8.00 a.m. the Israeli military arrived at the home
of Noah al-Rajabi in Bani Naim without warning and destroyed the family’s
water cistern, tent, and a small wooden structure family members used for
cooking and storage.

Al-Rajabi told CPTers, who visited after the incident, that soldiers kicked
and beat some of the animals and that one pregnant ewe aborted.  When his
fourteen-year-old son objected to their actions, soldiers arrested him,
accusing him of “obstructing the military” and scratching a soldier’s
face.

Ten weeks earlier, the Israeli military demolished al-Rajabi’s house. His
wife and the younger of his seven children now live in two rented rooms in
Hebron. Al-Rajabi and his oldest son remained in a tent supplied by the Red
Cross, so that they could continue working with his flock.

CPTers met al-Rajabi in Hebron on 12 October. He did not know where his son
was being held, or where he could get water for his animals. They
accompanied him to three Israeli police stations. The only information
Israeli police gave them was that his son was being held in Ofer military
prison. They refused to accept a complaint against the Israeli soldiers for
their behaviour.

CPTers also visited Al-Rajabi’s rented accommodation in Hebron where they
met his wife and some of his other children. “Please bring my son
home,” his wife pleaded with them.

Al-Rajabi’s brother has been watching his sheep and goats, and has moved
them to another hillside where there is water. Agencies in Hebron are
trying to reconnect Noah’s water supply, but the cistern will have to be
rebuilt, and will run the risk of demolition in the future.

For further information on the imprisonment of Palestinian minors by the
Israeli military, please refer to the annual reports of Defence for Children International (Palestine).

Freedom rally in Nablus, 9/29/10

When I hear the cadence of a drum squad, my heart skips a beat remembering my days in marching band at Dallastown High School. I loved marching through the parking lot to the football field to the beat of the school’s cadence.

Today, while walking through downtown Nablus, I heard the enticing sound of drums coming from the main square. I quickly changed my afternoon plans and hastened to the square, where I found myself in the midst of a Freedom Rally. Everyone was holding signs protesting Palestinian imprisonment in Israeli jails.

Children from many different schools were marching around the square in their uniforms. Mothers held framed photographs of their imprisoned sons. Music played and a stage hosted a few speakers. Downtown Nablus was packed like figs in a basket and the place was thumping with energy.

As I weaseled my way through the crowd to capture videos, I noticed something different about the subjects of my photos. Usually people give me strange looks when I ask to make a video of them. Sometimes they ask, “why?” Today, the women holding Palestinian flags and photographs of their sons looked me in the eye and nodded, as if to say what many in Nablus have said before, “Take this photo and show it to everyone you know.”

Please watch the video clips from the rally in Nablus today.

Messages to America

During the last three months, I taught a Spoken English class for adults who teach English to young people in Nablus and the surrounding villages.  During the class, we had intense debates, told jokes and shared stories about our families and life experiences, from the loss of our parents and grandparents to personal stories about the occupation.

I once asked my class, what, in their opinion, I can do to help make a change for Palestinians.  They all responded with the same answer.  They all said that I should share the stories of the Palestinian people.

Today we had our last class and I asked them each to write a message to those reading this site.

Here are their messages to you.

  • Hello friends,

I don’t know you individually and you don’t know me myself, but my short message for you is this.

Let politicians work in policy, this is their job, and let the world love its people.  We are two different groups of people but we share in our feelings of humanity.  We are all human and we should do our jobs for the world.  Give love, peace, happiness and hope toward humans, since we are not strangers who came from space or Mars.  My message for you, in brief, is this, “Warm words don’t cost much yet they accomplish a lot.”  We try to heal our wounds and pain from the occupation, especially Palestinian, Iraqi and Afganistani people.  So, we people have to like each other apart from politics since politics is a bad game.

All Palestinians love you and send their regards.

-Nisreen Ghanem

  • Dear Americans,

Freedom started from where you are and then spread to the whole world.  Americans are well known for freedom and equality.  No country is still under the occupation except for Palestine.  We trust the American people, that they can do something to help us get rid of the occupation.

A Palestinian,

-Mahmoud Bsharat

  • A message to America.

I hope you will treat all the citizens of the world the same.  Don’t humiliate people politically, then give them aid.  Please try to change your political policies around the world.  Life isn’t eternal, so make people happy.

-Muna Numan

  • Dear Americans,

I hope that you never experience being under an occupation as we are.  I hope you know the truth about our issue and I wish for you to come to my country to see and judge for yourselves.  I wish you won’t take any side, just be a fair judge.

I hope you won’t suffer as we do.

-Hasan Ali

  • A Message to the American people.

I am so happy to have this opportunity to write to you.  First of all, I would like you to know that we, the Palestinian people, are not terrorists. On the contrary, we are a peaceful and social nation.  We like foreigners, but our case is like that of any other occupied nation whose land is taken by strange people who don’t have the right to it.  We don’t want any financial help from anyone, but we only want your empathy and support.

-Samah Tuffaha

A few of the articles students’ chose for class discussions:
Liberating America From Israel, by Former Congressman Paul Findley
The Real Cost of US Support for Israel – $3 Trillion, by Christopher Bollyn
US hails ‘constructive’ direct Middle East peace talks, BBC News
US Military Aid and the Israel/Palestine Conflict
Support builds for boycotts against Israel, activists say
If Americans Knew – statistics

Two Iraq Burin men arrested for attending peaceful demonstration

IRAQ BURIN —  On September 24, 2010 at 4:30pm, two villagers from Iraq Burin, a village near Nablus in the West Bank, were arrested by Israeli soldiers.  A checkpoint was erected at the entrance to the village in the morning of the same day.

In response to these arrests and the killing of two young men by Israeli soldiers in March 2010, Iraq Burin is launching a website: www.iraqburin.wordpress.com.

The soldiers identified the two men, Iman Qadous, 45, and Yousef Qadous, 50, both village council members, from a photo taken during one of the weekly peaceful demonstrations held in Iraq Burin since November 2009, protesting Israel’s confiscation of their land.

The soldiers said they were arresting the two men for having attended the demonstration.  Villagers do not know where the men were taken or for how long they will be gone.

In March 2010, two villagers, Mohammed Qadous, 16, and Usaid Qadous, 19, were killed with live ammunition when Israeli soldiers entered the village after the weekly demonstration.

Read the detailed report about the killings filed by the UNESCO Chair on Human Rights, Democracy and Peace at An-Najah University.

Support At-Tuwani Women’s Co-op Italy Speaking Tour

We may not currently have the might of the Israeli army nor the power of traditions confining us in certain roles, however, we know that one woman standing behind another in a line of solidarity is a force more powerful than both.

– Keifah Addera, At-Tuwani Women’s Cooperative

Dear friends and supporters of At-Tuwani village,

We would like to invite you to support a force more powerful than violence: the voices of Palestinian women. In late November 2010 , Humanity Together will host Keifah Addera and her husband Nasser on a speaking tour in Italy. Keifah will be speaking about the experiences of women in At-Tuwani as they nonviolently resist both the Israeli occupation and sexism. We hope that you will consider financially supporting this exciting project.

The people of At-Tuwani have often told their allies that the most important way we can support their struggle is to share their stories in our own communities. Keifah Addera, the organizer of the At-Tuwani Women’s Cooperative, is a powerful voice uniquely able to speak about the resistance of Palestinian women. While in Italy, Keifah will speak about the effect of the Israeli occupation and settler violence on women and children in Tuwani as well as the women’s cooperative’s work for justice and gender equality. Keifah’s husbandwill speak about his experiences as a prisoner in Israeli jail after being arrested for his participation in nonviolent demonstrations. Keifah and Nasser will present at the annual Italian Pax Christi peace conference as well as other public meetings in Rome, Trento, Ravenna, and several other locations.

Few Tuwani residents are as experienced in speaking with visitors as Keifah. She often hosts groups in Tuwani and has a rare talent for creating relationships with the people she meets. For this reason we are excited by the opportunities for building international support and women’s solidarity that this trip will provide. We are trying to raise 2,500 euros to cover the cost of flights, visa procedures, lodging, transportation in Italy, and food expenses. To donate, follow this link to our Pay Pal. Thank you so much for your support

In solidarity,

Humanity Together

Read more about the folks in At Tuwani.