Palestinian Land and the Law

Welcome to my first letter from Hebron! The roads from Jerusalem to Hebron were open when I came in. The next day, Saturday, everything was closed up and the service taxi had to drive through a field to get us out to Jerusalem. There was also an ID check on the road and a new checkpoint coming out of Hebron. This because of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Friday.

Anyway, the interesting thing is that by Sunday, when I returned, everything had opened up again. This is way different from last fall, when they closed up the entire West Bank for three months after the bombing in Beer Sheva.

Monday I went to Tuwani. You will recall that Tuwani is the small village that we work in and the location of the settler attack against me and Chris last fall. I felt I needed to go there right away because I will be coordinating the project while I am here and I wanted to get a feel for what is going on. I was able to see the nearly-completed medical clinic which happened as a direct result of the attack. I also saw 15 children being escorted by the Israeli army to school past the settlement. It is up from 5 to 15 kids, now that there is less danger to the children. This is also a direct result of the attack.

One of the more exciting things for me is to see the Israeli army protecting Palestinians when their mandate in the occupied territories all along was to protect the settlers, not the Palestinians. What has happened is extraordinary.

Now the main work in Tuwani is escorting shepherds while they try to graze their sheep. Grazing happens in this season, when the ground is wet and green. During the rest of the year sheep are fed barley and other stored-up grains. Anyway, much of the land is located near the settlements, so even though it is owned by Palestinians, the settlers try to chase them off. This is because if they can keep the Palestinians off their land for long enough, the settlers think they can claim it for themselves. They have done this repeatedly and successfully over the years as a way to expand their settlements. The difference is that now there is international accompaniment, so the shepherds are emboldened to stand their ground against the settlers.

Many of you already know that there was a settler attack against us two weeks ago (the week before I got here) while my colleagues were accompanying the shepherds. One of the Italians was hosptialized with a broken jaw. The mask fell off of one of the attackers, so we have pictures, and he was arrested and there was already a preliminary hearing. This, of course, would never have happened if a Palestinian was injured.

We continue to escort the shepherds and there are clashes nearly every day. We joke that yesterday was a quiet day because all that happened is that some settlers with guns chased the shepherds off their land. However, since the attack two weeks ago, the army has established some kind of a base in the trees across from the settlement and now arrives fairly quickly when there is any kind of encounter or clash.

The shepherds have filed a case in the Israeli courts to retain claim to their land. The soldiers, who have seen the deeds, believe that the Palestinians will win their case. It is just a matter of how long it takes. However, we don't think winning a court case will keep the settlers from acting violently. They act violently in Pa;estinian villages all over the Weet Bank, no matter what Israeli law says.