Bill and Peter left in the afternoon on Sunday July 29 for At Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. We visited with the four Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) members currently serving there. The CPT members go out in pairs each day to accompany shepherds from At Tuwani who are often harassed and attacked by Israeli settlers from the Ma’on settlement and Havat Ma’on outpost.

We stayed overnight at the home of Hafez in At Tuwani. He is the Coordinator of the Regional Committee of the South Hebron Hills, attempting to organize the people to nonviolently resist the attempts of soldiers and settlers to drive them off their land. He is urging more internationals to come to the area to provide protective accompaniment, document the abuses, and join with Palestinians in their demonstrations against these abuses. Hafez is urging the Michigan Peace Team (MPT) to become more involved in these activities.
 

Currently he is in the midst of the two week At Tuwani children’s day camp, which brings children from neighboring villages as well as from At Tuwani. Volunteers from the Israeli peace group Tay’ush, along with Palestinian women from At Tuwani, conduct the two week camp. The children have music, art, and many games that can help them cope with the stresses of the occupation. On Wednesday we spent a few hours at the camp, held at the At Tuwani school, and were impressed with the program.
 

At 6:00am Monday morning the two of us set out for the walk around the Ma’on settlement and Havat Ma’on outpost, to the town of Tuba. This was MPT's third stay in the town in the past few weeks. As we walk from At Tuwani to Tuba, we pass several abandoned cave villages on hillsides. Hafez told us that vicious Israeli attacks in 1999 is what drove those families from these homes.
 

Each day during the At Tuwani two week children’s day camp, about 15 children from Tuba participated. They had to walk from Tuba to the outskirts of the Ma’on settlement, and then be escorted by the Israeli military past the settlement until safely on the At Tuwani side. Without the escort, settlers would intimidate and physically attack the children. Our task each day was to observe from the Tuba hill that the children safely reached the military escort which then led them past the settlement.

When the escort was out of our sight, we phoned CPT on the At Tuwani side to observe that the children arrived safely in At Tuwani. At 1:00 pm the process was reversed, and we got the call from CPT to be on the lookout for the Tuba children coming home after leaving the military escort.

In 2004, the Israeli Knesset (high court) Committee for Children’s Rights ordered the  Israeli military and police to escort the Tuba children to and from the At Tuwani school each day during the school year, and during this summer two week camp.

While in one of the cave homes one day, the eldest son came to us excitedly indicating that while he was shepherding his sheep, trouble with settlers was happening in the Khoruba valley near At Tuwani. We followed him to where we could observe the confrontation in the distance.  Settlers had come out to the shepherds tending their sheep, ordered them to leave, threatened them, kicked some of their sheep, and pushed some of the shepherds.  Two military jeeps were nearby, and the soldiers did nothing to intervene. CPT filmed the abusive behavior. CPT by phone told us that we did not need to come.  After awhile the soldiers told the settlers to leave. This was the third day in a row that these settlers had been abusive to the shepherds in the Khoruba valley, but this day their abusiveness was more blatant. At times, the CPT videotapes have proven useful when presented to the military. For example, the settlers will accuse the shepherds of physically attacking them, but the videotape disproves the claim. Ordinarily, settler and police abuse is more severe when internationals are not present.

The Israeli military, police, settlers and government collaborate in the constant assault on the Palestinians in their occupied lands. We see it clearly operating in these South Hebron Hills.

While staying with the Tuba families, we showed them the photos of themselves printed in our previous Tuba MPT reports. They were delighted, and we promised to give them larger photos when we return to Tuba next week.

In Tuba, we live with the families, and the continued hospitality we experience with each  stay never ceases to amaze us. They clearly want us there as a protective presence.

Outside of At Tuwani, along the settler road number 317, the Israeli military had built a three-foot high concrete wall extending 25 miles. The wall obstructs Palestinian shepherds from crossing the road with their sheep and goats to graze on their own land. The Israeli High Court in December, 2006, had ordered the military to dismantle the wall within six months. The military did not obey the order. While MPT was in Tuba in late July, the High Court questioned why the military had not carried out its order, and ordered it to dismantle the wall within two weeks.