CPT Palestine Journal

9:13pm: Security hits a new high - or low
Airport security is never fun, but they really outdid themselves this time. I didn’t get much in terms of interrogation, but they searched everything in my bag (and gave me a thorough inspection as well) and they took my computer. The security guard kept leaving with my computer but then coming back. Eventually, he told me it needed further examination and would be sent on the next plane to DC, hopefully later in the day. I told him I wanted to wait for it, but he said that was not possible. We argued for awhile, and when he realized that I was about to miss my flight, he radioed for a golf cart which took me past the other security and customs checkpoints and all the way to the gate. I think at that point, he was just trying to save face and not allow me to wait for the next flight. They actually had to hold the plane for me. I was promised that the lost luggage office at Dulles would have information for me by the time I arrived, but it hadn’t even been entered into the system yet, which meant it was not through security. The man in the office (who, ironically, happened to be Palestinian) told me that some of the stuff simply never makes it through. Long story short, I got a call this afternoon that my computer had arrived. But my AC adapter and my flashlight (which was also confiscated) did not pass the security check. I can’t begin to imagine how either of those things are a threat to national security. It’s more likely that I upset the wrong person and they are teaching me a lesson. Well, the lesson that I have learned is that I will not be bringing my computer with me the next time I go to Tuwani.

9:09pm: Coral Beach
Jess, Joy and I spent the last few days enjoying the Red Sea in Eilat. It was great. The last time I went, I spent my time at North Beach, which I later found out is the lesser of the beaches. So this time, we went down to Coral Beach which is really spectacular. We snorkeled all day and got a little too much sun, but it was incredibly relaxing. Last night, we enjoyed seafood and fruity drinks on the beach and a mercifully air conditioned hostel. Great way to end the month.

I’m in Tel Aviv right now, preparing to head home. Jess and I are going to spend tomorrow on the beach before going to the airport. I don’t quite feel ready to leave. The month went by more quickly than I had expected. I’m still reeling from the recognition that the occupation is another year older and another year worse. But being back with the people of Tuwani felt so right. One of the older women always tells me, “God willing, the next time you return to Tuwani it will be not for work but for a visit.” I look forward to that day more than I can express.

9:09pm: Just throw it at him!
On the way home from shepherding this morning, Jessica, Joy and I noticed a man standing at the Ma'on bus stop. We crossed the street so as to avoid any unnecessary interaction, but I heard him asking us for water. Joy and I decided to ignore him, but Jessica insisted on being the good Samaritan. I was willing to set the bottle of water on the ground and let him take it; Joy suggested “tossing” the 2-liter (which was, admittedly, only about a quarter of the way full) bottle in his general direction. Jessica walked it over to him and partook in a uniquely awkward conversation while her faithful teammates continued walking away - hand on the video camera all the way. The poor man was flustered and confused, the bottle was dropped, but Jessica eventually returned to us, in one piece. This story probably does not mean much to anyone reading it, unless you have been here. But we all feel like it speaks volumes to the environment of fear and mistrust we live with. How are we to behave when we truly believe that everyone who dresses a certain way is out to kill us? Part of my reaction was born of exhaustion – it was a hot morning and we had been out for hours. But the majority of it was genuine fear. I simply did not want to get close enough to this man to be hurt. I tend to guess that the implications of this minor incident are bigger than I realize. Can I be a peacemaker when I so readily look beyond the humanity in another person? I still don’t know how to digest this experience, but I am certain it will stick with me for a long time.

9:08pm: Walking to Jinba
The last few nights, a few of us have been enjoying long walks through the hills. The weather has been so beautiful and the evenings are incredible. Tonight, Joy, Joel and I decided to walk the road to the village of Jinba. When we were just barely outside of Tuwani, we were stopped by soldiers who informed us that this was a closed military zone and demanded to see our passports. Neither of my teammates had theirs with them, and, after seeing what happened when soldiers got their hands on Kristin’s passport the other week, I didn’t want to be the only one to hand mine over. After some haggling, it was decided that Joel would return to Tuwani, get the passports and bring them back. When he returned, I slipped mine in with the others and we turned them in. Another jeep had arrived by that time, and the commanding officer was just a terrible human being. He took the passports, said he knew mine had been in my pocket the whole time and said I might be under arrest for lying to a soldier in occupied territory. (For the record, I did not lie. When I was first told to show my passport, I said I didn’t want to. I was never asked whether or not I had it by the commanding officer.) After a few minutes, Joel and Joy got theirs back and were told to leave. “The liar stays with me,” said the soldier. My teammates did not leave, of course, risking arrest themselves for their insubordination. But they backed up and were not pursued. I called the US consulate and explained the situation. The man I spoke with assured me he would start making phone calls and be in touch. Ten minutes later, the soldiers got back in their jeeps and started to drive away – with my passport. I was back on the phone with the consulate immediately, but, thank God, one of the jeeps stopped by Joel and Joy and a soldier handed Joel my passport. All this for an evening walk! I’m willing to be arrested when it serves a purpose – getting in the way or if a Palestinian asks me to participate in a march or the destruction of a roadblock, for example. But this would have been a total waste.

9:05pm: Taste the revolution
I’ve had the last few days off and haven’t done much of note. I spent it in Hebron, enjoying nice dinners in Jerusalem and Bethlehem with various teammates who are also out of Tuwani right now. Joel and I were supposed to come back to Tuwani today, but when I called one of the Doves last night to see if there was sleeping room for us to bring a friend of the Hebron team along, she told me that there are six Doves in the village until tomorrow afternoon and suggested that he and I take another day off. So, for a change of scenery, we’re in Ramallah for the night. This afternoon, we went to the village of Taybeh, outside of Ramallah. Taybeh is the home of the Taybeh brewery which makes some of the best beer I’ve ever had. After wandering around and almost leaving because we couldn’t find an open door, we were shown in and given really fresh, really cold beer, and shown a video on the company. The tour took all of ten minutes, but it was well worth the half hour cab ride and half hour of being lost in Taybeh that preceded our arrival at the brew house. Our guide, the son of the founder of the company, told us about the difficulty of running a corporation under a harsh occupation, and the struggles they have endured. They do have a brewery in Germany, but are not optimistic that they will be able to open one in the States anytime soon. It’s a shame. I bought a poster that says “Drink Palestinian: Taste the Revolution.” I love it!

2:01pm: Festival day and the roadblock comes down!!
Today was the festival and press conference in Tuwani. Jessica and I got to the school early to match captions to photos (which turned out great, by the way) and get things set up. Unfortunately, we didn’t allow ourselves enough time and we didn’t count on a hundred kids, all wanting to look at each picture, beating us up there. It was chaos, to say the least. But to be honest, I would have preferred a little more chaos than there actually was – we were missing the kids from Tuba. The military refused to escort them, settlers spooked them and they were too afraid to walk on their own. It breaks my heart that they missed it.

Just as things were getting started, we were told that there were soldiers at the road. Joel and I went down and learned that the area had been declared a closed military zone and no one could enter the village. Luckily, most of the people were already there. The two of us stayed down there for a few hours, missing the entire festival, where I’m told the children did a skit absolutely roasting the internationals and our strange behaviors! After we had been there awhile, a man from Yatta came walking our way from Tuwani. He told us that he, his brother and his mother had been grazing sheep on their land just outside of Tuwani when they were approached by soldiers. The soldiers took their ID cards, his phone and his brother’s car and drove away. Thankfully, Joel is nicer to soldiers than I am ever willing to be, so the checkpoint soldiers were able to radio the others and determine that the car, phone and IDs were a few kilometers away at the Beit Yatir checkpoint (the entrance to Israel proper) and could be picked up at any time. So the three Palestinians had to walk all the way there without any sort of identification on a day when the area was closed. I just hope they made it okay.

I left for Hebron this afternoon, and on my way out of Tuwani saw soldiers and a bulldozer. Naturally, this made me nervous. But it turns out the soldiers were there to tear down the largest of the roadblocks, thus opening the road to Yatta! The whole village came out to cheer them on and celebrate. It was wonderful and I hope it lasts for a long time.

2:01pm: A couple days in Yatta
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Yatta getting things done with H. All of the school kids are going on a trip to the sea sometime in the next couple of weeks, but there is work to do in order to get the permits required by Israel. We’ve also been working on getting the pictures printed for the festival. Computer problems have been the theme of the last two days, but we’ve managed to do what needs to be done. Jessica and I both went today, and had a lot of fun. According to H, there were 23 weddings in Yatta today – a town of 70,000 people! He sent us to one party while he worked, instructing us to bring him as many sweets as we could smuggle out of there. We don’t know whose wedding it was, but that didn’t seem to matter. We were made to dance and eat, and they brought two chairs to the front of the room so we could sit next to the bride. We certainly felt out of place, but such is the plight of internationals at Palestinian weddings. We were in Yatta until after midnight, but, once again, thanks to strong coffee in mass quantity, I’m wide awake.

As long as I’m up, a note on the weather. It is beautiful! Typically, during the summer I sleep with a sheet just to keep the bugs off. But I’ve been sleeping with a sheet and two blankets every night. During the day, the sun is hot, but the air is comfortable and there is always a breeze. No one, Palestinians included, seems to know what’s going on, but we all love it. It will make my return to DC that much more difficult though.

1:52pm: School patrol and roadblocks
The kids waited for an hour this morning before deciding to walk to Tuwani on their own. A few minutes after they started walking, the soldiers showed up. The kids continued through the hills, ignoring the soldiers, which must have made them mad, because they refused to come in the afternoon. I called the army office so many times that they eventually recognized my phone number and refused to answer. But the last time they did answer, the woman picked up the phone, yelled “The soldiers are on their way!!!” and hung up. The soldiers were not, in fact, on their way. Fede called them shortly after that and they had the audacity to tell her that this was the first they heard of school patrol today – since the kids “weren’t there” in the morning, the soldiers assumed it was cancelled. The kids, meanwhile, were going nuts. They were bored, hot and thirsty, and their behavior reflected it. Finally, they decided to walk. Again, the soldiers showed up while they were walking, and again the children ignored them. They made it home without trouble, but this is ridiculous.

A few months ago, soldiers erected a huge roadblock on the road to Yatta. That road is the only way out of the South Hebron Hills region, so the Palestinians immediately cut a path through an adjacent olive grove. In the late morning, soldiers came with an earth mover and set up a roadblock here as well. In the evening, some of the teenaged boys from the area went down to the main roadblock and started dismantling it. It is far enough from the Israeli road that passing army (or settler) vehicles couldn’t see the work that was going on. They got about halfway done before breaking for the night and are hopeful that they will be able to complete it tomorrow.

H came over tonight to go through pictures for the end of summer camp festival this Saturday. We put together a file of pictures that highlight the history of nonviolent resistance in the region. He is going to have them blown up and hung all over the school for the festival, which includes a press conference. It was getting late when he decided to go home and get his own computer, and when he came back with a huge pot of coffee and a fresh pack of cigarettes, I knew we were in for a long night. But it was wonderful. He, Jessica and I stayed up until 1:00, looking through years of photos and reminiscing about some of the best and worst moments of our lives. The coffee is still coursing through my veins and sleep is impossible, but it was well worth it. It still sometimes seems unreal that I’ve been able to be a part of all this.

1:48pm: Tuwani action and another night in Tuba
Yesterday’s action has been deemed a success by the Palestinians. It got off to a really slow start. Twenty Israeli activists were detained and then arrested on their way here, but for some reason, we were under the impression that they would still be able to make it. We began with an attempt to walk the middle path. The soldiers set up a blockade which we pushed for awhile, and one of the Israelis that did make it here was immediately arrested. It eventually became apparent that we were not going to gain any ground without physically moving the soldiers out of the way, and the village was not prepared to do that. So we went up to the school, making a big deal about how we had tried and failed, but it was okay. The plan, of course, was to wait until the soldiers left and try it again. The action directors spent a long time discussing different options while the rest of us ate shawarma that someone provided all 200+ of us with. After about an hour, the directors told us that some of the soldiers had left and it was time to go again – this time, on the short path. I was walking with the last group of Palestinians and internationals to reach the point of departure, so by the time I arrived, the soldiers who had stayed behind were there en masse. I was told that one of my teammates, Kristin, had had her passport taken and was likely under arrest, but my biggest concern at that moment was the fact that the kids were setting off down the path and all of the internationals were still in the village. I started to run towards them and was immediately grabbed by a police officer and told I was under arrest. My passport was in my bag, and I was being dragged up the hill by my bag so I could not get it out to show them – this turned out to be a good thing because they had to let go of me and when they did, I walked away. They didn’t care – they just wanted me to leave. And I just wanted to get up high enough to see the kids. It was amazing. The soldiers were escorting all 100 or so children who were singing, chanting and waving flags. Only a handful of Palestinian adults were able to go along with them, so I was terrified that something would happen once the kids were out of sight. But nothing did. They went to Tuba, and were escorted back home. It was a triumphant march, and probably a historical moment – children escorted to and from a demonstration by agents of the very government they were protesting! And the children from Tuwani were so excited to finally see Tuba. One of them walked home with me later on, and told me it was one of the most beautiful places he had ever been.

As for the aftermath, we were concerned, of course, about settler retaliation. The settlers did follow the kids back to Tuwani and started to come into the village, but the soldiers held them back. They may be planning something, but we have no way of knowing, and so far, things have been fine. Kristin was arrested and spent most of the night in jail with all of the Israeli activists and a few internationals who had been arrested elsewhere in the area. They accused her of hitting the soldiers, which is their standard “we have no case against you so we’re going to make up some garbage” response. She is in Jerusalem now, resting and making plans with her lawyer.

Fede and I went to Tuba for the night. We took the long path, and after an intense and busy day, had our butts kicked by it. But there was no way we were going to walk a more dangerous route a few hours after an action. We stopped for tea with one family and eventually went on to the home we stayed in. The whole family was as tired as we were, so it was a quiet night and we went to bed fairly early. The dogs woke me up in the middle of the night. They were barking furiously and running down the hill in the direction of the outpost. But with dogs, you never know if they are barking at settlers or a gazelle, so I waited, preparing mentally to jump up and run. I saw a member of the family stand up and look out towards the outpost for a few minutes, and then return to bed, so I went back to sleep. There were no problems.

Today, the team was sitting outside when a military jeep pulled up next to our house and began counting us. We are fairly certain that they are once again trying to eliminate the international presence in the area. We certainly need to be careful, but they have tried this before without success. As much as I hate to think of her as a sacrifice, I do hope they are satisfied with having arrested Kristin and leave us alone from now on.

1:48pm: Settlers on parade
The settlers from Karmel went trekking today. At least 150 of them walked through the fields of Jawiyya and up the road to Yatta until they got to al-Bierke. Al-Bierke has a large cistern that serves as a swimming pool for Palestinian boys during the summer; it is a major hub of activity in the area. And the settlers decided to take a swim. They had military and police accompaniment the entire time, and no violence broke out. But Palestinians were not allowed to use the roads while the settlers were there. We, of course, do not expect similar treatment from the military on our walk to Tuba tomorrow.

We are a team of twelve right now. Not everyone is officially on team; several are former Tuwani team members who are visiting for a bit. But we all hung around the house this evening, smoking argille and even had a good old fashioned sing-along. It sort of feels like a camping trip with friends – except, of course, for the addition of pervasive violence and enormous injustice. It’s a nice atmosphere and we’re excited about tomorrow.

1:45pm: Visit to Tuba
Yesterday, my teammate, Jessica, and I went to Tuba after morning school patrol. We spent a couple of hours with shepherds, had tea with a family and met the kids again after camp. We were watching from Tuba and saw the military jeep drop them off at the far end of the chicken barns (the outpost buildings closest to Tuba) and drive away. Five settlers were waiting for them at the near end of the barns. They startled the kids and began throwing stones. One settler jumped over the fence and started to chase after them. Jessica ran to meet the kids and I filmed, and upon seeing us, the settler went back to the outpost. I called the army, absolutely livid, and reminded them that the escort is supposed to provide safe travel home – not to the chicken barns and then the kids are on their own. We called all of the military numbers we had, and Jessica finally spoke with someone who said he would “look into it.” Of course he will. None of the kids were hurt, and some of them were laughing by the time they got home. It is such an unhealthy situation and, for the millionth time, I found myself marveling at the psyches of those growing up with daily violence.

The rest of our time in Tuba was truly wonderful. We visited and played with the kids, took the donkey out to the well to haul water back to the cave and ate…and ate, and ate. At one point, one of the girls, who is far too serious for her age, commented that we had been laughing all day in Tuba. I was so glad to see her happy, but also struck by how sad it is that constant laughter (and it was nearly constant) is so unusual as to warrant notice.

School patrol this morning was better than usual. The soldiers parked at the far end of the barns, and two of them walked to the near end to accompany the kids the entire way. I spoke with the soldiers this afternoon as well, and they promised they would send two people on foot to the end of the barns again. I don’t know whether or not that happened, but there were no attacks today. We spent the rest of the morning with the shepherds (actually, the vast majority of that time was spent looking for the shepherds) and one very affectionate young goat. This was her first time going out into the far fields with the adult animals, so the shepherds said she was nervous. When Jessica and I, being the odd foreigners that we are, showed her some affection, she attached herself to us and refused to go anywhere unless she was right up against one of our legs. It was very sweet, but she did try repeatedly to eat my camera bag. We also learned some sheep calls from the shepherds and taught them how to speak in what we call “silly voice,” which I can’t even begin to describe in words – ask me about it later.

The afternoon was a little difficult. We are trying to figure out how to cope with the individual and team trauma of the attack a few days ago, and are having a hard time agreeing on much of anything. I still feel removed from the situation but I don’t want to alienate myself from my teammates. It’s a hard line to walk. But tonight, I’m feeling like we may have taken some steps in the right direction. It is sometimes very difficult to know how to best support someone in need of help, but completely essential to our work that we find a way.

1:44pm: Organizing and planning
The action planned for Saturday is going to be great. All of the kids from summer camp, along with their parents, other Palestinian adults, internationals and Israelis are going to march from Tuwani to Tuba along the path on which they were just attacked. Along the way, the kids are going to deliver “demolition orders” to a newly constructed settler house on the outskirts of the outpost. The orders are going to come in the form of enormous signs which they will post in front of the building. The kids are excited but are also excited to simply go to Tuba for a visit. Many of them have never been to the village despite having grown up in school with Tuba children and living only a couple of kilometers away their entire lives. So today was all about planning. I even made a trip to Yatta to do some internet work. The trip home was something of a comedy of errors. The taxi driver was determined to get me into his cab in spite of the amount of stuff I was bringing with me (I did some shopping for the team while I was out). With children sitting on their mothers’ laps, there was one seat for me – all the way in the back. The driver, in an apparent attempt to be helpful, took everything from me and threw it all to the back of the cab. So now I had to climb over not just women and children, but all of my bags. The women helped until I was sitting, then they piled everything on top of me, including a bag of roasted chickens I had bought for dinner. The bag slid down and got wedged between my leg and the leg of an older woman sitting next to me who started to scream when the heat made its way through her dress and began to burn her thigh. I eventually managed to get settled, but all to no avail, as the women sitting to my left were the first ones to get out of the cab, and I had to create space for them to climb over me. Two of my teammates began calling themselves Grace and Beauty because of the impossibility of attaining either quality while traveling in Palestinian cabs. It was a Grace and Beauty moment for me.

In the office, I spent some time searching for news stories about the attack on Joel and the kids. I found nothing. It is incredible how much that has changed in just a few years. In the past, the hospitalization of an international has gained world wide attention for at least a minute. But no one seems to care anymore. This sentiment was echoed by the journalists and photographers I spoke with this afternoon when I was making endless calls to the media, inviting them to the action. They are not interested. We have even been having difficulty getting support from Israeli activists over the last few months. It is a really scary and vulnerable feeling to be so alone. We cannot do this work without support and the Palestinian resistance will go nowhere without it. I’m hoping that my sense of things is a little misguided because of my long absence, and that the situation isn’t quite as bad as it feels right now. It is something I will be taking notice of over the coming weeks.

1:31pm: Hit the ground running
My flight and entry into Israel were without incident. The plane was only half full so I had two seats to myself and even managed to get a couple hours of sleep. Walking through Damascus Gate and into the Old City of Jerusalem felt sort of like a homecoming. The colors and smells that I had ceased to notice a year ago were almost overwhelming, and the shopkeepers trying to sell me everything from T-shirts to pottery were not the nuisance they once seemed to be. After unloading my bag at the hostel, I set off to find dinner. It was a hodgepodge of everything I had missed the most, purchased at whichever shop had become my favorite for that particular item: baklava at Ayyoush Sweet Shop, lamb shishlik at the café whose sign simply reads “Restaurant,” Arabic coffee at the Samara, a Taybeh beer at the Jerusalem Hotel. I dragged myself back down the cobbled road toward the hostel, making a stop at Mike’s Internet Café to check in with my family and see if any of my teammates had requested that I bring anything along with me to Tuwani the following day. The news waiting for me was not good. That day, the Israeli military, which provides an escort for the children from neighboring villages, to allegedly protect the kids from settler attacks, had refused to come see the children home safely from summer camp. Two of my teammates, Joel and Jan, decided to walk the kids home themselves, as we are often compelled to do. When they reached a valley, just out of sight of others who were standing guard, three settlers came down from the outpost and began throwing stones. The kids and CPTers started to run, but Joel was slowed down significantly after being hit in the leg with a large rock. The settlers caught him and beat him with that rock and with his video camera. When they heard the shouting, the rest of CPT/Doves and a crowd of Palestinians came running, and the settlers ran away. Joel was eventually taken to the hospital in Hebron for head trauma, after waiting an unacceptable amount of time for the Israeli police to show up. He is doing alright now, resting in Jerusalem at the Dove’s apartment.

The team is obviously shaken up, so arriving in Tuwani was a little strange. I’m glad to be able to provide some relief for the team, but I’m also wary of the danger of trying to become too involved in a situation of which I was not really a part. I actually think that that will be an issue for me throughout the month. I made the move from full timer to reservist a year ago, but this is the first real test of that transition. CPT makes the effort to diminish the gap between full timers and reservists by emphasizing the Team part of Christian Peacemaker Teams. But I’ve been on the other side and I know that there are differences in the roles played by each.

I did school patrol shortly after arriving in the village. School is not actually in session right now, but the kids are coming to Tuwani for summer camp until the end of the week. I’m glad it worked out for me to come during the camp because there would likely be children from Tuba and Maghayer al-Abeed that I would not otherwise see. The patrol went well, as it usually does in the wake of a major attack. Sadly, I don’t even know that it will last through the end of the week. We always seem to be back to square one by the beginning of each school year.

It’s been fun to reconnect with people here. My Arabic is even worse than it once was, but I’m pretty good at “I’m happy to be back in Tuwani,” which seems to satisfy most of the questions put before me. Some of the kids have grown so much I barely recognize them. Others have hardly changed at all. There is more construction in the village than I’ve ever seen. In fact, I’ve been told that two new families have recently moved into the village – this is amazing news; the brutality of the occupation tends to send people running from this area, despite their deep attachment to the land. The “security wall” along Bypass 317 is gone, ilhamdilla. At the same time, things are getting worse. The military has erected more checkpoints and regularly enforces more road closures than ever before, which has made it impossible for water trucks to get to the villages. The water situation is worse than I have ever seen it. Rising world food prices have likewise impacted the families here, as has continued construction in the outpost and the corresponding theft of Palestinian farming and grazing land. Even worse, though, is the increase in violence over the last few months. Settlers are attacking shepherds and the children with more regularity and have even begun shooting into flocks of Palestinian sheep. A handful of sheep and goats have died, which is costly for the shepherds, but it is nothing compared to the fear of being shot without warning that is now being driven home like never before.

But the people here are stronger than ever. An action is planned for next Saturday and a press conference for the week after that. I’m excited to be a part of all this once again, and only hope I’ll be able to support the work in some small way.

10:34pm: Masaalame (Goodbye), Tuwani!
I’m not sure exactly when I’ll be back in Palestine. Although I had signed up for three years here, I have decided to move to part time with CPT and start grad school in the fall. I will be working on my MA in Ethics, Peace and Global Affairs at American University in DC. My time here has convinced me that in order for things to change here, the US has to stop handing over $3 billion a year to Israel. So this is where I’m going to focus my energies for now. But I will undoubtedly be back. I may continue with the blog from time to time over the next years, so check in every once in awhile if you like. Thanks for reading!

10:33pm: Better day in Susiya
The action in Susiya was much better than yesterday. I was supposed to be “directing” the internationals since I know the land pretty well. That meant I was supposed to keep a slight distance and be somewhere I could see everything that was going on. But there just wasn’t any place to do that, because the “action” was happening over some really high hills. So I went back to the village and spent the day there, in case there was some sort of retaliation. The shepherds ended up not taking their sheep out with them; they just took a walk to fields they had not been able to reach in years. About seventy settlers came out, and a day-long standoff ensued. The settlers had a prayer service (this must be the new tactic) and their children busied themselves with calling the internationals Nazis and telling them to go back to Germany. The border police arrived and negotiated with a settler and a Palestinian, both of whom agreed to have “their people” leave the area. On the way back, the settlers started their taunting again, and the Palestinians decided to sit down until it stopped. This happened several times, so it was a long walk back to the village, but I think it was a great strategy. There is no way those settler children could think they were the ones forcing the Palestinians to leave. The Palestinians were happy with how things went, and plan on taking larger steps towards reclaiming the land in the coming weeks.

10:32pm: Palestinians attacked
There was a grazing action in al-Bweeb today. I stayed in Tuwani (I’m going to tomorrow’s action in Susiya), and can’t decide if it would have been better for me to have gone. It seems that everything that could have gone wrong did. Most of the Hebron team came down for it, and we are a large team right now, so we sent ten internationals. The settlers were outnumbered, but managed to keep everyone so busy that they couldn’t spread out enough to cover everything. So when settlers started attacking a Palestinian woman with her sheep, there were no internationals there to get in the way. But our team translator was. He ended up getting beaten pretty badly, possibly re-breaking the ribs the police broke a year ago, and having his phone destroyed. But, having worked with CPTers for the last three years, he thought to take pictures with his camera phone, and remove and hide the memory card before they attacked. What was amazing to me, was how fast the story got out on the internet. I got phone calls from the States and Italy before I heard about it from the team on the ground! Like I say, I wasn’t there, so I can’t say exactly what went wrong, but I’m feeling just terrible about it. H mentioned not too long ago that new team members aren’t getting the orientation they need, and this may be an example of what he’s talking about. We spent a long time this afternoon talking about scenarios and dividing up roles for the action tomorrow, so things should be better. I hope things are better.

10:26pm: Sea of Galilee
Meanwhile, in Tuwani…I did school patrol Monday morning before leaving. There were no problems. In the afternoon, the soldiers didn’t show up. Ilse and Cassandra made a number of phone calls to the army, and were told there was no school because it was Israeli Veteran’s Day. They were also told the escort had not come in the morning; a story they stuck to even though all evidence (me having seen the soldiers, children from Tuba in Tuwani) suggested otherwise. Unbelievably, they actually showed up – but three and a half hours late. On Tuesday, in celebration of Israeli Independence Day, one hundred settlers took a walk through Tuwani. Soldiers arrived while they were having a prayer service; the soldiers then joined them for ice cream after the prayers were over. And on the way back from Yatta, Ilse and Fatieh were stopped by soldiers and made to wait while a bomb was detonated. Yes, a bomb was found in a field a kilometer from Tuwani. It apparently fell off a military jet passing by. That’s a little too scary for me to have processed at this point.

 

10:20pm: Sheep Shearing

Finally, a wonderful day in Tuwani! I went out with the shepherds early this morning, but at 10:30, they started heading back to the village. It was time to bathe the sheep in preparation for shearing. I’d never really spent much time wondering how sheep were washed here, but any notions I may have had were completely shattered today. It is quite the production. Two men grab a sheep, flip it upside down, hold it by its legs and take it over to a rough, flat rock. Then someone throws a bucket of water over it and they swing it back and forth over the rock. Then they scrub it back and forth over the rock. Then they cover it was soap (the same soap used to clean toilets here) and wash it by hand. They finish with a couple more buckets of water, let the sheep stand up and laugh as it shakes itself and tries to figure out where it is and how to get out of there. CPT was relegated to hauling water, but we were happy with that. In the evening, the shearing began. It is all done with hand shears and I can’t believe the sheep don’t walk away bloody and mutilated. But the shepherds are very efficient and the sheep seem to give up once they have been tackled to the ground. I’m so glad to have been in the village for the first day of shearing this year. It is just another part of traditional, Palestinian life that I am blessed to see and participate in.

 

1:43pm: Settlers steal sheep
There was a harvesting and grazing action in Tuwani today. It was very successful. Settlers came out, but the police really wouldn’t let them leave the outpost. But while we were all gathered in Tuwani, settlers were stealing sheep in Tuba. A few Israeli activists managed to get to Tuba while the settlers were still there. They saw the sheep in the back of Gadalia’s (the settler security guard) pickup truck. The settlers were trying to hide it, but it was terrified and was bleating incessantly. In the end, the settlers said they would return the sheep, if the Palestinians left. The Israelis wanted to keep pushing and get the police over, since all of this was on video. But the shepherd just wanted his sheep back, so they agreed to leave. I don’t blame him.

1:42pm: Birthday demolitions

To celebrate my 25^th Birthday, the IDF decided to uproot 50 young olive trees and demolish a cistern in Tuwani and destroy seven houses in Qawawis and Imneizel. We never made it out to the home demos, but were kept pretty busy in the village. Cassandra, Jill and I went out to the field where the trees were being demolished right away. The soldiers met us before we got there and told us it was a closed military zone and if we kept walking we would be arrested. We could hear the bulldozers on the other side of the hill, so we decided to split up and try to get past anyway. I had absolutely no trouble getting around the soldiers, although they were stationed everywhere. After getting fifteen or twenty minutes of really good footage, they came over and told me to leave. I said I wasn’t going anywhere until I saw the closed military zone order and the map. It took them awhile, but they did bring it. I still didn’t really feel like leaving, so I made them escort me down the hill. They left soon after, and we went up to the field with some Palestinians to survey the damage. It was huge. Fifty olive trees and the only cistern in the area are gone. Apparently they told the landowner that this is State land and they are doing “construction” on it. I have no idea what they are planning to build, if anything at all.

Back at home, my Birthday was nice. The Hebron team gave me chocolate and a salami, and my teammates gave me a Palestine travel guide, dental floss, sparkling strawberry juice and a Winnie the Pooh dressed in a chipmunk suit. I’ve never had such a variety of gifts before. It was a memorable day.

1:41pm: A day at Kiryat Arba
Things went well at the Kiryat Arba police station today. It had the feel of a school field trip, actually. Me and the boys going to the big city. We had to drive to Hebron and walk up to the police station since Palestinian cars are not allowed on the roads to Kiryat Arba. This meant going through the internal checkpoints. Of course, they got held up at the first one. After half an hour, I called CPT Hebron and they were about to come down to respond when the men were released. Apparently, a police officer called J to find out where he was. He explained that he was being detained. The officer said, “Let me talk to the donkey who is detaining you.” They spoke over the phone and the IDs were returned immediately. At the station, we each spent about two hours giving statements. The officer interviewing me was obviously upset that I couldn’t say I saw the settlers attack the police. He was also disappointed with the video because it was taken from too far away to show faces clearly. He said CPT needs to get some better cameras. Funny, because usually the police are the ones ordering us not to film anything. But we all left feeling pretty good. We had a nice lunch in the city, went shopping (the men wanted candy and socks) and went back to the village. While we were at lunch, J got a phone call from someone in the village asking if they could borrow his tractor. A police jeep was stuck on a rock and needed to be pulled off. After all the horrible things the police have put the people of Tuwani through, they are still more than happy to tow their jeeps when they get stuck. It’s unbelievable.

1:40pm: Havat Ma'on settlers arrested!!!
Settlers came out into the fields today and chased S and beat his donkey. I was in the area so I ran to tape what I could, but it wasn’t much. My only real concern at that point was making sure S was okay. There were eight settlers on the hill where the tent had been erected (which was gone as of this morning!). About half of them were masked. I relaxed a little when I saw that S was far down the valley and moving towards the Tuwani shepherds. One settler asked me if I was a Christian. I said yes. He asked if I know how to read. I said yes. He said, “Then you know that God gave me this land.” I said nothing. J called to say he was watching me from another hill, and this settler was leading me down into the valley and out of his sight. Also, the other settlers were headed my direction. So since no Palestinians were in danger, I had no moral qualms with turning around and running back. It is so comforting to know that the Palestinians watch out for us, probably more than we watch out for them. The police arrived pretty quickly; I’m guessing the settlers called them to complain about Palestinians on “their” land. They were out on the hill with the settlers for about half an hour, and then several of them were taken away in jeeps. I was videotaping and thus watching what was happening through a very small screen, so I assumed they were getting a ride to the police station to file a complaint against the Palestinians. But the shepherds, who have much better eyes than I do even when I’m not looking through a camera, said the settlers were in handcuffs! It was amazing. S asked me to go to the police station with him so we could show the video. H also had to go to bail N and F out of jail. So the three of us went down to the road to wait for a jeep to pick us up. When it arrived, the driver said he only had room for two. So I handed the tape over to H and let them go. A police officer called me this afternoon and asked me to come in tomorrow to give testimony. He also requested that two other shepherds come in to make statements. So the three of us, plus the two who were finally released today but need to return to get their things, are going to Kiryat Arba on the morning. While H was waiting to pay bail, he saw several of the settlers sitting in an office in handcuffs. Apparently, the settlers attacked the police when the police told them the Palestinians were not on settlement land. So, for once, the police want to use our (international and Palestinian) testimony to press charges against the settlers. I’m quite looking forward to going in tomorrow, and hope the video is worth anything.

1:39pm: Seven-year-old boy detained

Grazing near Avigail has continued without much interference from settlers or soldiers. It seems that something like an absurd arrest isn’t enough to deter the shepherds. The two men are still in prison, by the way, and have yet to be charged with anything.

Marco and I were on Avigail duty this afternoon when a Palestinian boy came up over the hill behind us and said someone was being arrested. We found several Palestinians from Qawawis grazing their sheep near Rte 317. One said soldiers arrived, handcuffed and blindfolded the man’s son, and took him away. The soldiers refused to speak to anyone or tell them where they were taking the young man. This evening, we found out that that was the second arrest of the day. The exact same thing happened in Imneizel a few hours earlier. The first was taken soon after Palestinians saw a settler, Yacov Dalia, flag down and jeep and talk with soldiers for a few minutes. Both men were taken to the army base at Suseya and released after dark, to walk past settlements unaccompanied. But the absurdity of today’s arrests pale in comparison to what we learned happened yesterday. A seven-year-old boy from a village near Imneizel was grazing his family’s sheep by the Beit Yatir outpost. Palestinian shepherds don’t use sheep dogs to herd the flocks in the right direction – they use stones. They throw stones next to the sheep that are wandering off, and the animals come back. So he threw a stone and it bounced off the fence of the outpost, under a security camera. A few hours later, when he was at home, the soldiers showed up looking for him. The whole village came out to see what was happening and heard a soldier say he had video of the child throwing “rocks at the outpost” and he was going to be arrested. The boy was crying hysterically, and the soldiers eventually allowed his sixteen-year-old cousin to accompany him in the jeep. They took them to the Beit Yatir checkpoint, on the green line. It is only a few kilometers away from the village, so the people of the village followed on foot. When they got there, only one person from the village was allowed to talk to the soldiers. They told him they were going to arrest the boy. The cousin asked if he could go in the child’s place and the soldiers agreed. So the IDF knowingly arrested a sixteen-year-old for something he wasn’t even present for. He was released a few hours later. Sometimes I wish the Palestinians didn’t tell us about everything that goes on around here. I really don’t know what to do with this information.

1:32pm: Harvest begins
Georgia and I helped a Tuwani family with the harvest today. It was warm and the jackets came off soon after we got started. I was rather surprised to see one of the boys wearing a tank top with a picture of a cartoon bunny on it that said, “Life’s a bitch…And so am I.” It always makes me a little sad to see the things that are donated and passed out to people in need without being understood. But come on, this is funny. 

 

1:32pm: Havat Ma'on expands
The settlers from Havat Ma’on have begun to expand their outpost. Last night, they set up a tent and two of them camped out over night. Marco and Georgia saw them climbing out of it and stretching this morning during school patrol. We called the police and DCO, but only soldiers came out today and they say they can do nothing about it. In light of all that has been happening in Avigail, this seems so small, but it has me more worried than just about anything else. They are camping on a hill that the Palestinians reclaimed just this season and graze their sheep on almost every day. It makes me sick that two people with a Coleman tent have the power to dictate where a village can and cannot graze.