CPTnet
19 December 2005

AT-TUWANI UPDATE: 12-26 November 2005

Saturday 12 November

CPTers and members of the Israeli group Ta'ayush helped a family from the
village pick olives in the morning and most of the afternoon.

About 2:30 p.m., Michael J. Brown and a member of Operation Dove went down
to bypass road 317 with Palestinians driving to Yatta because the Israeli
military had set up a checkpoint at the entrance to the village. The
soldiers did not stop Palestinians traveling between Yatta and At-Tuwani.

Tuesday 15 November

Amy Knickrehm, Jenny Elliott, and a Dove accompanied men from At-Tuwani who
were plowing and planting fields just down from the Havot Ma'on (Hill 833)
outpost. A settler security vehicle stopped briefly in the area, but neither
settlers nor soldiers created problems for the men.

Thursday 17 November

A villager told CPT that settlers and soldiers were stopping a Palestinian
man in Mufakara from plowing his land. CPTers Kristin Anderson, Diane
Janzen, Maureen Jack, and Knickrehm went to the village of Mufakara and
found Israeli settlers, soldiers and police on the top of the hill above
where the Palestinian landowner had stopped his tractor on land that he had
already plowed. The Palestinian landowner went with the police to the
Kiryat Arba to speak further about the land. (See 22 November CPTnet
release, "At-Tuwani: Palestinian landowner forbidden to cultivate his
land.")

Saturday 19 November

In the morning while the Tuba children were waiting for the Israeli military
escort to accompany them to school, several settlers walked around the
Israeli settler mobile home (located outside the trees of the Havot Ma'on
outpost), and one approached the children and shouted at them.

The Doves accompanied a Palestinian plowing on a hill next to the bypass
road 317 (the same hill as Havot Ma'on, southwest of the outpost.) The
Doves saw three young settlers come from the synagogue of Ma'on and walk to
the top of the hill on the other side of the valley. The settlers watched
the Palestinians plow for fifteen minutes and then returned to Ma'on.

Sunday 20 November

At 7:20 a.m. children came to the internationals' house to tell CPTers that
soldiers were at the road leading to Yatta. Anderson and Janzen stood on
the hillside overlooking the area and saw soldiers walking along the road.
The CPTers observed the soldiers as they set up a temporary checkpoint then
checked the ID's of Palestinians. They watched until the soldiers left at
8:45 a.m..

Wednesday 23 November

The Doves accompanied farmers plowing in Sarura after school patrol.

At 7:00 p.m., a child from an At-Tuwani house closest to Havot Ma'on went
outside the house and saw a vehicle parked on the road that comes down from
the settlement outpost. The child went back inside and told his father that
a hummer and soldiers were outside and the father went out to look. When
the Palestinian man went outside, an armed settler was standing next to the
vehicle and he cocked his gun at the Palestinian. The Palestinian man
backed away and eventually the settler went back inside the vehicle and
drove back to the settlement area.

Thursday 24 November

During the day, the Doves and CPTers Elliott and Knickrehm monitored the
area around Khoruba to watch for settlers who might be plowing Palestinian
land. At noon the CPTers noticed a tractor with plow coming on the road
from Mufakara, and eventually entering Havot Ma'on. Rich Meyer and Janzen
monitored the area later in the afternoon and did not see any fields that
might have been freshly plowed by settlers.

Friday 25 November

Around 8:30 a.m., a villager notified the CPTers that settlers from Avigail
were interfering with Palestinians from Mufakara plowing their fields.
Elliott and Meyer went to investigate and found a large group of people in
the fields just across the road from Avigail. Two settlers, including
settler security from Ma'on were there, along with two Israeli military
jeeps with six soldiers in each, a white jeep from the Civil Administration
with two soldiers, half a dozen Palestinian farmers from Mufakra, and a
group of twenty volunteers from Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR.)

The group from RHR had come to accompany Palestinians olive-picking near
Avigail, but they found that the settlers had already picked most of the
olives. They then were prepared to accompany the farmer from Mufakara while
he plowed his field, but as soon as they arrived at the field, the settlers
came, and then the military. The soldiers told the Palestinian farmer that
he should meet them at the land on Sunday and they would then decide rights
of access to this land claimed by the Avigail settlers and him. The army
also told the farmer that he is permitted to graze his sheep on the ridges,
but not in the valleys.

Saturday 26 November

After morning school patrol, Meyer and Janzen went over to Sarura to watch
from the hills as Palestinian farmers cleaned the lower fields in the valley
(removed and burned thistles) and plowed the hillsides (Elliott and Anderson
joined them later.) No problems occurred.