I went back to Palestine on Wednesday, and after the usual hours-long ordeal at the border while they checked and rechecked me, I got in. I spent Wednesday and Thursday in Hebron and went down to Tuwani on Friday. It seems that I cannot be in Tuwani without something happening. Or maybe it is just that something is always happening in Tuwani.
The service van--public transportation in Palestine--dropped us at the bottom of the hill coming down from Yatta. From there we had to cross the bypass road (route 317--open only to Jewish settlers) and walk up the hill to Tuwani. When we got out of the van we noticed a group of people crowded around an olive grove off to the left, before crossing the bypass road and across from the Maon settlement. When we got there we saw that all of the trees had been destroyed. The branches were cut off, leaving only the stumps. They were 102 olive trees planted in 1974. Israeli soldiers were already there when we arrived. CPTers called the police and the media, as well as other human rights groups.
One of my CPT colleagues told me that as she was approaching the devastation early that morning, she saw a group of settlers on the hill overlooking the grove, singing "Happy Days are Here Again." Palestinians told us that the night before the settlers were celebrating the demise of Sharon, and as part of the celebration they destroyed the trees. We learned from another human rights group that the police had found footprints leading from the destroyed grove into Ma'on settlement.
Palestinians tell us that the trees will produce again, but it will take five years, minimum. The trees provide a livelihood for an entire family of Palestinians.
Later that day children ran into our yard in Tuwani, saying that the army was there and they had a bulldozer. I didn't know the word for bulldozer but I understood the rest! In my last email about Tuwani I wrote about new roadblocks due to the murder of a settler in the area. When I returned this time Palestinians had opened all the roadblocks with tractors and shovels. You still have to drive over a big dirt bump, but the rocks were removed. This is important, because people from Tuwani and surrounding villages have to get to Yatta for work, school, food, and medical traetment. Some of them have cars that were bulldozed in by the closures. My admiration for the Palestinians grows as they persevere in this form of nonviolent resistence to clear violations of international human rights law.
Anyway, when we got to the bypass road, we saw Israeli soldiers bulldozing closed the openings that Palestinians had made. These openings enabled them to cross the bypass road and get to Yatta by vehicle (as opposed to donkey). Kristy and I filmed it and then started talking to the soldiers. All but one of them were Russians, so I had a long conversation in Russian with several of them. Really, Russian Jews ought to know about what it feels like to be oppressed. They also know what it means to be occupied, and what it means to be subject to massive human rights violations. But it didn't seem to bother these guys. They said they were only following orders and we should take it up with their commanders. I didn't say, because I was afraid of their very large machine guns, that soldiers serving under Nazi Germany said the same thing in the Nuremburg trials.
We explained that blocking the road prevented movement to work, hospitals, etc. They said that everyone from Yatta is a terrorist and they have to prevent them from killing Jewish civilians. We said that the Palestinians are civilians and that these actions of the Israeli army are creating more terrorism. They said that the lives of Jewish civilians are more important than disrupting the lives of Palestinians. They said they also wanted peace. I said that they don't treat Palestinians the same as they treat Jews, and that they will have peace when they treat Palestinians as their brothers and sisters. They laughed at me; they said that Palestinians are not their brothers and sisters. Only Jews are.
Then we pointed to the destroyed olive grove and asked why the soldiers had not been on patrol the night before, as they typically are. They said they knew nothing about it. We asked why, since the settlers had committed a crime, the army did not bulldoze closed the road into the settlement and destroy all their houses, as they do with Palestinian villages when one person is suspected of a crime. Suspected, not convicted. They replied that the olive trees are not important---the Palestinians don't need those trees because they all have 2 Mercedes. This in a village where most families struggle to put food on the table. In fact, most Palestinians struggle to put food on the table. But the soldiers claimed they know more about it than me.
It went on like that. They wanted us to take their pictures and put them on our website. They all knew who we were and the address of our website. They say they look at the pictures all the time and like to find themselves there. Later we checked out our website and sure enough, the albums with soldiers in them all have more than a thousand hits, whereas the others have only a few hundred.
I learned later that the army is planning to build a concrete wall along the bypass road, permanently separating the Tuwani side of the road from Yatta. It would destroy the communities on that side of the road, which is, I'm sure, what they want. The Ma'on settlement would then get the land by default. The Palestinians are fighting it in court.
I returned to Hebron yesterday morning. Getting back was an ordeal. Israeli soldiers had occupied a house in Kirmil, a village between Yatta and Tuwani, and were doing flying checkpoints on the road to Yatta. Also, a large checkpoint between Yatta and Hebron which is usually closed had been opened. So it took forever. It is the ordeal that Palestinians endure daily, just to survive.
The service van--public transportation in Palestine--dropped us at the bottom of the hill coming down from Yatta. From there we had to cross the bypass road (route 317--open only to Jewish settlers) and walk up the hill to Tuwani. When we got out of the van we noticed a group of people crowded around an olive grove off to the left, before crossing the bypass road and across from the Maon settlement. When we got there we saw that all of the trees had been destroyed. The branches were cut off, leaving only the stumps. They were 102 olive trees planted in 1974. Israeli soldiers were already there when we arrived. CPTers called the police and the media, as well as other human rights groups.
One of my CPT colleagues told me that as she was approaching the devastation early that morning, she saw a group of settlers on the hill overlooking the grove, singing "Happy Days are Here Again." Palestinians told us that the night before the settlers were celebrating the demise of Sharon, and as part of the celebration they destroyed the trees. We learned from another human rights group that the police had found footprints leading from the destroyed grove into Ma'on settlement.
Palestinians tell us that the trees will produce again, but it will take five years, minimum. The trees provide a livelihood for an entire family of Palestinians.
Later that day children ran into our yard in Tuwani, saying that the army was there and they had a bulldozer. I didn't know the word for bulldozer but I understood the rest! In my last email about Tuwani I wrote about new roadblocks due to the murder of a settler in the area. When I returned this time Palestinians had opened all the roadblocks with tractors and shovels. You still have to drive over a big dirt bump, but the rocks were removed. This is important, because people from Tuwani and surrounding villages have to get to Yatta for work, school, food, and medical traetment. Some of them have cars that were bulldozed in by the closures. My admiration for the Palestinians grows as they persevere in this form of nonviolent resistence to clear violations of international human rights law.
Anyway, when we got to the bypass road, we saw Israeli soldiers bulldozing closed the openings that Palestinians had made. These openings enabled them to cross the bypass road and get to Yatta by vehicle (as opposed to donkey). Kristy and I filmed it and then started talking to the soldiers. All but one of them were Russians, so I had a long conversation in Russian with several of them. Really, Russian Jews ought to know about what it feels like to be oppressed. They also know what it means to be occupied, and what it means to be subject to massive human rights violations. But it didn't seem to bother these guys. They said they were only following orders and we should take it up with their commanders. I didn't say, because I was afraid of their very large machine guns, that soldiers serving under Nazi Germany said the same thing in the Nuremburg trials.
We explained that blocking the road prevented movement to work, hospitals, etc. They said that everyone from Yatta is a terrorist and they have to prevent them from killing Jewish civilians. We said that the Palestinians are civilians and that these actions of the Israeli army are creating more terrorism. They said that the lives of Jewish civilians are more important than disrupting the lives of Palestinians. They said they also wanted peace. I said that they don't treat Palestinians the same as they treat Jews, and that they will have peace when they treat Palestinians as their brothers and sisters. They laughed at me; they said that Palestinians are not their brothers and sisters. Only Jews are.
Then we pointed to the destroyed olive grove and asked why the soldiers had not been on patrol the night before, as they typically are. They said they knew nothing about it. We asked why, since the settlers had committed a crime, the army did not bulldoze closed the road into the settlement and destroy all their houses, as they do with Palestinian villages when one person is suspected of a crime. Suspected, not convicted. They replied that the olive trees are not important---the Palestinians don't need those trees because they all have 2 Mercedes. This in a village where most families struggle to put food on the table. In fact, most Palestinians struggle to put food on the table. But the soldiers claimed they know more about it than me.
It went on like that. They wanted us to take their pictures and put them on our website. They all knew who we were and the address of our website. They say they look at the pictures all the time and like to find themselves there. Later we checked out our website and sure enough, the albums with soldiers in them all have more than a thousand hits, whereas the others have only a few hundred.
I learned later that the army is planning to build a concrete wall along the bypass road, permanently separating the Tuwani side of the road from Yatta. It would destroy the communities on that side of the road, which is, I'm sure, what they want. The Ma'on settlement would then get the land by default. The Palestinians are fighting it in court.
I returned to Hebron yesterday morning. Getting back was an ordeal. Israeli soldiers had occupied a house in Kirmil, a village between Yatta and Tuwani, and were doing flying checkpoints on the road to Yatta. Also, a large checkpoint between Yatta and Hebron which is usually closed had been opened. So it took forever. It is the ordeal that Palestinians endure daily, just to survive.
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