Michigan Peace Team (MPT) was asked by CPT (Christian Peace Teams) to go to the small village of Tuba, which is near At Tuwani because the residents, who are all shepherds, have requested assistance. This is in the south Hebron District, almost to the southern border of the West Bank.

The villages of At Tuwani and Tuba are plagued by the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’on, as well as the illegal (Israeli law even declares this) Israeli outpost of Havat Ma’on, both of which are positioned in between the two villages. These settlers have repeatedly stolen their land, attacked their civilians, poisoned their water and sheep (which is their livelihood), uprooted their olive trees and burned their harvests since 1982. On top of this, the military continues to confiscate land, demolish homes and buildings, and conduct night incursions into the village.
 

Since 2004, CPT and Operation Dove have held a constant presence in At Tuwani at the request of the residents. Internationals from these groups have also been accosted by the soldiers. The most traumatic incident occurred when two CPTers were attacked as they were accompanying children from Tuba to school in At Tuwani. They were kicked and beaten with chains and bats by five Israeli settlers from the outpost and taken by ambulance to the hospital. One international suffered a broken arm and knee, while the other had to undergo surgery for a punctured lung.

Internationals began accompanying the children to school because these children have been routinely accosted by settlers on their way to school in At Tuwani. Finally, starting in November of 2004 due to media attention and diplomatic pressure, the Israeli military, police and civil administration, started escorting the children of Tuba to school. Yet, settlers continue to harass and assault the children during military escorts.
 

Beth and Peter arrived in At Tuwani on Sunday, July 15 and met with two CPT members, who introduced us to the local Palestinian organizer, Hafez. He told us some of the history of At Tuwani, as well as his activist stories. He and his family members (including his 74 year-old mother) have been attacked on a number of occasions by Israeli settlers. He has recently become the Coordinator of the Regional Committee of the South Hebron Hills, trying to unite all of the villages in the area to resist the occupation. He coordinated the first nonviolent demonstration in the area on April 22 of this year. He was arrested and repeatedly beaten by the police. Hafez suffered a broken rib, which caused him troubles breathing, but was not taken to a doctor for four days. He was jailed for a total of two weeks. He told us that the Israeli government “wants to keep this area in a circle of struggle.”

Beth and Peter were joined later that night by two other CPT members, who were returning from Tuba. They explained to us how that very morning the Israeli settlement security officer, Gadalia, was telling Palestinian shepherds near the settlement that they were on Israeli land, and that they had to leave. Gadalia is infamous in the area for his past intimidation and attacking of Palestinians. The two from CPT were filming the event. The Palestinians insisted that they were on their own land and had ownership papers to prove it. The police came to the scene and also tried to tell the Palestinians that they could not use the land. CPT-ers, after much effort on the phone, were able to get the District Coordinating Office (DCO) to come out. The DCO has the authority on such matters, as they hold the legal documents. When they arrived in Tuba, they confirmed that it was indeed the Palestinians’ land. Gadalia had to accept the DCO’s word, and left the Palestinians alone. We were told that because this was a victory for the Palestinians, Gadalia was embarrassed and were warned that he may try to seek some sort of revenge in the next few days.
 

The next morning we awoke early for our trip to Tuba. Our main task in Tuba was to be ready to quickly go to any place where soldiers or settlers were intimidating or abusing the shepherds to do what we could to intervene and film the incidents.

In order to get from At Tuwani to Tuba we had a one hour hike up and down the hills, going around the settlement and outpost. This is the “long road”, which the children previously had to take to school every morning in order to avert being attacked by the settlers in the illegal outpost
 

When we arrived the first morning, we were greeted warmly by a Tuba family and fed breakfast and tea. Although we do not know Arabic and the family did not know English, we held our own little “School for Arabic” that day, in which we used the few words of Arabic we knew along with hand gestures to learn knew words and phrases. The family was happy to help. They also showed us and let us participate in their daily activities, such as baking bread, milking sheep, and digging new caves. That night, Peter entertained the children with coin tricks, animal noises, and juggling.

During our time with the family, they told us some of their troubles with the settlers. We were told that the settlers are constantly spying on the villagers with binoculars. Also, just last month another outpost tent was put up, which is extremely close to Tuba. The children have experienced the troubles of being accosted on their way to school. The mother of the family told us proudly that her fifteen-year old daughter, who is very talkative and bold, is called “Captain Amalia” (true name withheld) by the army because of her lack of fear around them and the settlers.

After this family fed us breakfast the next morning we moved to another home on a hillside. This next family was quite large, as the whole extended family lives together. They live in a large cave. During the day Beth became ill and the family took great care of her, giving her a mat to sleep on and some herbal tea, while Peter again entertained the children.

That evening we asked the father if there were any problems with the settlers. He said that once while he was grazing his sheep, Gadalia had come out, looked around, and then left. The shepherd felt no need to call on us for help.

Nothing critical happened during our time in Tuba, which is a very good thing. And we had a chance to get to know some of the people in the village.
 

On our final morning in Tuba, we said good-bye to the two families we had stayed with and assured them we would be back very soon. We then went to the cave home of Ali and his family. We ate breakfast with him and his children and then he and his son led us back to At Tuwani. The way back was much easier on us because Ali considerately put our backpacks on the donkey.

Peter and Beth were struck by the extreme kindness and hospitable nature of these people. They live a very simple life, a life which does nothing harmful to the earth. However, most of them are not able to go very far in their schooling because they lack the funds and need to be home to help with all the work. They once told CPT-ers that if there was no Israeli occupation and seizure of their land they would have homes and electricity.  They currently are not allowed to build or even extend on the housing they have.