Back in Tuwani

The taxi dropped me off near the settler road that separates Tuwani from the nearby town of Yatta, and I waked another kilometer into the village. Entering Tuwani was like a home-coming. Children ran out of their houses yelling “Yousef, yousef!” Some hollered “What’s your name”, and others hit them saying “that’s Yousef don’t you remember!” Villagers looked up from their work with the animals and household chores to greet me and welcome me back to Tuwani.

Not much has changed. Our house has a few modifications, but most of the furniture and decorations are still the ones I helped acquire eight months ago. The clinic is finished and beautiful, painted bright pink and green so you can’t miss it. The Palestinian Authority is supposed to provide a doctor on Sundays, but they often don’t show up. NGO’s keep promising that they’ll provide equipment and staffing, but none have come through. At a meeting two days ago, CARE International promised to provide furniture and funding for a year, starting in early October, but Palestinians say they’ll believe it when they see it. Though the clinic technically has an Israeli permit, the Civil (military) Administration recently re-zoned Tuwani and designated the areas that they currently consider legitimate. The rest is subject to demolition, which included a handful of homes, the school, and the clinic. So we are prepared for further attacks on village infrastructure.

The children are out of school for summer vacation, so our primary work has involved escorting shepards. In order to steal Palestinian land, Israeli settlers frequently harass and attack Palestinians attempting to graze their sheep. In the past, this forced Palestinian shepards to avoid grazing on areas of their land near the settlement. Now with our accompaniment, Palestinians have been daring to heard their sheep in these areas and challenge this violent expulsion from their land.

Last February, Israeli settlers attacked two Italians who were accompanying Palestinian shepards. A settler karate kicked one of the Italians in the head causing a concussion, a broken jaw, and a torn retina. Since then, settlers have continued to harass and attack shepards and internationals. Three days ago, I arrived shortly after a settler security officer had attacked a group of young boys from the near-by village of Juwiyya. Most of the boys escaped, but the settler caught the smallest boy, a nine year old, and tore his shirt and hit him with his shepards staff.

The next day, I accompanied the same boys from Juwiyya to this area. They decided to take their sheep on an area of their land currently under dispute in an Israeli court. Technically, neither Palestinians nor settlers are supposed to use land that is under the court’s consideration, however we have video footage of settlers continuing to farm this area. Plus, it is all Palestinian land the Israeli court has no right to give the land away to Israeli settlers or tell Palestinians they can’t use it. Shortly after the sheep began grazing there, a settler security vehicle pulled off the road and headed straight for us. The boys took their sheep and ran to the other side of the mountain. An Italian activist and I intercepted the settler security guard. He yelled at us that they are not to be using this land and denied that settlers had been. He asked why they ran if they didn’t think they were doing something wrong, and I explained that they likely feared they’d be beaten, shot, or arrested. He insisted that Israelis never attack Palestinians, even though it was he who had beaten the boy the day before, and I’ve seen video footage of him spitting on and attacking other Palestinians. He claimed that the Palestinians are full of lies and insisted we not believe anything they say. He left with “Have a good day.”

Yesterday, I accompanied a shepard from Al-Mufakra, we’ll call him Abu Mohammad. Abu Mohammad has suffered immensely from the poison settlers put on the land. Last April and March, Israeli settlers spread barley seeds coated with rat poison on five acres of Palestinian land they are trying to steal. At least 57 adult sheep and 46 new-born sheep have died from the poison, and the long-term environmental effects are yet to be determined. We are noticing a pattern of late-birth in poisoned sheep, and now several pregnant Tuwani women are around a month late. Normally, when a farmer’s animals are exposed to toxins, they slaughter them all rather than risk contaminating humans and other livestock. However, Palestinians could not possibly afford to lose their entire income so they continue to use the meat and milk and hope for the best. The Palestinian Authority is considering giving the shepards compensation rather than have infected sheep spread all throughout Palestine.

Abu Mohammad lost over 60 sheep, but he continues to graze what remains of his flock and try to survive. Talking with him, he gave me some political analysis. “If America would get out, then there would be no problem” he tells me in simplified Arabic. “Palestinians and Israelis could play shish bish (bat gammon) together instead of fighting”. He said that Arabs, especially Palestinians and Iraqis, are a thorn in the throat of America because they refuse to silently comply with the U.S. agenda. This is why the U.S. is so aggressively trying to smash their resistance, and losing.

Recently, Israeli soldiers have been erecting a temporary checkpoint at the entrance to Tuwani almost every evening. They stop and check Palestinians coming and going from Tuwani and monitor the traffic on the settler road. If a driver looks even remotely Arab, they make them pullover and show their ID. We have been monitoring this checkpoint, and the soldiers tell us they’re looking for “terrorists” on the settler road. “Settler terrorists too?” we ask, but get no answer. Yesterday, instead of the normal armored jeep or hummer, the soldiers had a snazzy new silver 4X4. They blared Tupac (an American gangster rapper) from their fatty sound system as they stopped cars. They made the first two CPTers who approached sit far away, but Diane and I walked up and sat right next to them. “You can’t be there” he told us, “move up there with your friends”. “But I wanna hear TuPac” I said, and began dancing to the groove. They all laughed and didn’t know what to do, so Diane and I just sat down and stayed until they left. It was quite funny to see these young armed men trying not to dance to the sick beat, and failing.

Everyone is worried about the upcoming business in Gaza. It is certainly obvious that it is a distraction and will have no real effects, other than to further fortify the Gaza prison camp and legitimize settlement expansion in the West Bank. However, it is likely that whacko West Bank settlers will use the “pull-out” as an excuse to escalate attacks against Palestinians. We are prepared for the worst, and I will keep you updated.

In peace and justice

 joe