Settlers coming out of the trees to attack.I am back in Hebron after a very eventful week in Tuwani. This week I understood my first full sentence in Arabic without translating it in my head: "Kim, there are soldiers in Hafez' house." I think that says a lot about the situation. The words in Arabic that are stuck in my head forever are the ones for "soldiers," "settlers" and "problems."
On Saturday an Israeli activist group joined us to continue cleaning up the poison in the fields, which appears to be far more toxic than we had even feared. We had the usual soldiers come, much negotiation, and finally they let us stay for the clean-up. Then we got a call that the settlers had come out in a different part of the area. They were trying to provoke a confrontation. I wasn't there, but people from Operation Dove said they had to get between the two sides.
A similar thing happened on Sunday, only this time I was there. Three of us were walking toward Khoruba, which is the place where most of the poison was placed. Khoruba is a Palestinian village abandoned several years ago due to settler violence and harassment. It is located close to Tuwani, and is in the fictional military fire zone that the army keeps using to keep the Palestinians away from the land. Palestinians still use it for grazing when they can get to it.
Anyway, on Sunday we were walking toward Khoruba because we had seen the shepherds going in that direction, and we knew it was not safe for them. When we got close we saw that the Maon settlers had come out and were looking across the valley toward Khoruba. When we got closer we saw that there were shepherds there, and I called the police. We hurried closer to the shepherds, and the settlers began walking toward us. I must have called the police about 10 times, but it took them 45 minutes to get there. The place is very remote and hard to find.
The settlers did not have masks and I did not see any weapons, but to me it was clear they were coming to try to provoke a confrontation. They had cameras, ready to take pictures of Palestinians misbehaving. There was a lot of yelling and getting in each other's faces, and I was in the middle of it, trying to pull Palestinians away from settlers. The settlers said horrible things to me in English, and the Palestinians said they were doing the same to them in Arabic. It lasted about 10 minutes, with me eventually ending up between the two sides. We stayed that way until the police finally came. The police refused to talk to the CPTers or the Palestinians on site, and based on what the settlers said, they arrested two Palestinians over the incident.
Both are now out on bail. We had to go to the police station to make statements that neither of them had hit or thrown stones at settlers. It was very scary for me, because I thought it was going to get violent. I am sure that if CPT was not there, it would have been worse.
I also really felt my lack of language skills in that situation. Usually I have someone with me with better Arabic, but this day there was no-one, and it was a real problem, both in calming down the Palestinians and in dealing with the Israeli police. I asked the settlers what they were doing there, and they said they had come to see what was happening on their land. The land is not part of the settlement or even part of the illegal settlement outpost. They said they were filing a court case to claim the land and they wanted pictures. No explanation about why they had to be right up in the shepherds' faces to do that. To my mind, it was a provocation.
On Tuesday we organized a press conference and demonstration in Hebron about the settlers poisoning the land. Almost the whole village of Tuwani came out for it, and it was very empowering for them, I think. They got a lot of press coverage. Afterward the village leadership told me how much they appreciate me and CPT. It was a good moment.
The next day the shepherds found more poison in a different place, another place that the settlement wants to claim for itself. It was the same area where the settlers came out on Saturday. So you can see how it continues to escalate.
It is hard for me to leave, because the work here is incredible, but I am also ready to move on to something else. I feel that it was important for the village that I came back after what happened to me there. Despite my lack of Arabic, I have developed strong relationships, and that feels good. I would like to come back.
On Saturday an Israeli activist group joined us to continue cleaning up the poison in the fields, which appears to be far more toxic than we had even feared. We had the usual soldiers come, much negotiation, and finally they let us stay for the clean-up. Then we got a call that the settlers had come out in a different part of the area. They were trying to provoke a confrontation. I wasn't there, but people from Operation Dove said they had to get between the two sides.
A similar thing happened on Sunday, only this time I was there. Three of us were walking toward Khoruba, which is the place where most of the poison was placed. Khoruba is a Palestinian village abandoned several years ago due to settler violence and harassment. It is located close to Tuwani, and is in the fictional military fire zone that the army keeps using to keep the Palestinians away from the land. Palestinians still use it for grazing when they can get to it.
Anyway, on Sunday we were walking toward Khoruba because we had seen the shepherds going in that direction, and we knew it was not safe for them. When we got close we saw that the Maon settlers had come out and were looking across the valley toward Khoruba. When we got closer we saw that there were shepherds there, and I called the police. We hurried closer to the shepherds, and the settlers began walking toward us. I must have called the police about 10 times, but it took them 45 minutes to get there. The place is very remote and hard to find.
The settlers did not have masks and I did not see any weapons, but to me it was clear they were coming to try to provoke a confrontation. They had cameras, ready to take pictures of Palestinians misbehaving. There was a lot of yelling and getting in each other's faces, and I was in the middle of it, trying to pull Palestinians away from settlers. The settlers said horrible things to me in English, and the Palestinians said they were doing the same to them in Arabic. It lasted about 10 minutes, with me eventually ending up between the two sides. We stayed that way until the police finally came. The police refused to talk to the CPTers or the Palestinians on site, and based on what the settlers said, they arrested two Palestinians over the incident.
Both are now out on bail. We had to go to the police station to make statements that neither of them had hit or thrown stones at settlers. It was very scary for me, because I thought it was going to get violent. I am sure that if CPT was not there, it would have been worse.
I also really felt my lack of language skills in that situation. Usually I have someone with me with better Arabic, but this day there was no-one, and it was a real problem, both in calming down the Palestinians and in dealing with the Israeli police. I asked the settlers what they were doing there, and they said they had come to see what was happening on their land. The land is not part of the settlement or even part of the illegal settlement outpost. They said they were filing a court case to claim the land and they wanted pictures. No explanation about why they had to be right up in the shepherds' faces to do that. To my mind, it was a provocation.
On Tuesday we organized a press conference and demonstration in Hebron about the settlers poisoning the land. Almost the whole village of Tuwani came out for it, and it was very empowering for them, I think. They got a lot of press coverage. Afterward the village leadership told me how much they appreciate me and CPT. It was a good moment.
The next day the shepherds found more poison in a different place, another place that the settlement wants to claim for itself. It was the same area where the settlers came out on Saturday. So you can see how it continues to escalate.
It is hard for me to leave, because the work here is incredible, but I am also ready to move on to something else. I feel that it was important for the village that I came back after what happened to me there. Despite my lack of Arabic, I have developed strong relationships, and that feels good. I would like to come back.
