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At-Tuwani diaries, by the CPT

At-Tuwani Update: 28 March - 8 April, 2005
By the Christian Peacemakers Teams

Monday, 28 March.

CPTers Lorne Friesen and Christy Bischoff arrived in the Palestinian village
of At-Tuwani. Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) and Operation Dove* (OD)
accompanied shepherds from At-Tuwani and Mufakara to the area of Khoruba.

In the morning three people from the Israeli National Park
Authority came to look at the poison that was spread on the grazing land
last week. (See CPTNet release, `Poison pellets spread on hillside where
Palestinian sheep graze,` 23 March 2005). They told the Palestinian
shepherds they did not want members of CPT and OD around. When an OD member
told them of a stork that may have died from the poison, they refused to
look at it.

Around 2:00 p.m., Israeli soldiers arrived and declared that
Mufakara shepherds could stay in Khoruba and the Tuwani shepherds must
leave.

The soldiers detained a 16-year old boy, saying it was from an
incident that took place on Saturday. At 9:00 p.m. the boy was dropped off
in the village. He said he had been beaten by soldiers and settlers, that
his hands had been tied behind his back, and that he had been blindfolded
and tied to a fence. He said he saw two Israelis that he recognized from
the Hivat Ma`on outpost on the base which beat him. He recognized one as
being at the attack on internationals on February 16.

Tuesday, 29 March.

CPTers on school patrol observed 13 children walking from Tuba to Tuwani,
with no police walking with them. A parliamentary order stipulated that
Israeli soldiers and police provide a vehicle and walking escort to the
children because of danger from settlers at the illegal Hivat Ma`on outpost.

The shepherds from Tuwani took their sheep to Khoruba, but left
them with the Mufakara shepherds because of the military order preventing
them from grazing their flocks in that area.

Wednesday, 30 March.

The shepherds from Tuwani and Mufakara took their sheep to Khoruba as on the
previous day. The CPT and OD members walked up the hill of Khoruba to
better see the shepherds. At that point Israeli soldiers arrived to tell the
internationals to leave.

At 3:30 p.m. a shepherd from Mufakara reported to CPT and OD
that a sheep had just died. The shepherds found new poison in the area of
Khoruba. In addition to the one sheep who had died, two were bleeding from
their noses, a symptom of the poisoning. Israeli police responded to take a
report of the incident, but did not go near the poison.

Thursday, 31 March.

The Israeli military arrived two hours late to escort the children from Tuba
to Tuwani. When CPTer Friesen and an OD member called to complain, the army
spokesperson said that there were new soldiers in the unit, that they were
not organized, and that they did not get the children. When the children
did arrive in Tuwani, the children said the soldiers were in Tuba earlier,
but there were also settlers there. Four times the children walked toward
the army, but the settlers shouted and whistled and the children ran back,
scared. The army reportedly did nothing, eventually leaving and coming back
1 ½ hours later.

CPTers Kim Lamberty and Friesen went to Mufakara to photograph
police taking dead sheep away. The police shouted at Friesen saying, `No
pictures, no reports,` and held his passport for several minutes. The
police left without taking the sheep.

Two hours later the police returned and told CPTer Bischoff and
three OD members, `No pictures, no reports,` but the four were able to
photograph the police taking the sheep.

In the evening villagers of Tuwani had a meeting about the
results of the analysis of the poison, which was found to be flourocetamide.
The poison is considered very dangerous and is illegal in most of the world
except Israel. It may cause long-term neurological and reproductive
problems. The people spoke of their concern for their children who had been
drinking the milk of sheep who may have ingested the poison, as well as for
their economic situation, which has been devastated by the poisoning of
their sheep.

Friday, 1 April.

Friesen and Operation Dove members went to see if there was any poison in
Jawia, another hillside near the Israeli settlement of Ma`on. They found
none.

In the afternoon, Bischoff, Friesen, and OD members stayed with
shepherds near Ma`on. A settler security man drove up with a new Israel
military officer in his truck, followed by an army jeep. The settler
security man introduced CPT/OD to the new army officer. An OD member
recorded on video the settler security official saying that he knew settlers
from Hivat Ma`on had planted the poison.

Saturday, 2 April.

Around 9:30 a.m., Friesen and two OD members went to accompany Tuwani
shepherds to Jawia. They found Israeli settlers and Palestinians involved
in a confrontation. Twenty-five members of the Israeli group Ta`ayush,
arriving to help villagers clean poison off their fields, were also present.
Israeli soldiers called to the scene were able to separate the two groups.

CPTers Bischoff, Lamberty, and Claire Evans, with OD and
Ta`ayush,
cleaned poison from the fields in the area of Khoruba for several hours.

About 2:00 p.m., teammates called the CPTers and members of OD
to report a confrontation nearer Tuwani between about 20 settlers from
Ma`on,
including many young boys, and Palestinian shepherds as they were grazing
their sheep. Israeli Police took statements and arrested one Palestinian on
what they say was a separate charge.

Sunday, 3 April.

During school patrol, Bischoff and Evans clocked the Israeli military escort
as 2 ½ hours late. After repeated calls to find out where the escort was,
Bischoff was unable to continue calling because authorities had evidently
blocked her cell phone number.

Bischoff, Evans and Lamberty went to Khoruba after passing
several shepherds taking their flocks there. Israeli soldiers have asserted
the area is a closed military zone, but they are unable to specify the
boundaries in a consistent way. Soldiers have said that Mufakara shepherds
are permitted there every day, but At-Tuwani shepherds only on Fridays and
Saturdays. Residents of the settlement outpost of Hivat Ma`on claim the
land is theirs. As CPTers arrived, seven settlers walked down the hill
toward the shepherds. Two took photographs of CPTers and shepherds. An
altercation ensued, with shouting and shoving on both sides. Lamberty and
Evans stood between the two sides, while Bischoff videotaped at a distance.
Lamberty repeatedly called the police before they responded. Police
separated the settlers and shepherds and arrested one Palestinian, although
from what CPTers saw, he had not only not been involved in the shoving, but
had in fact tried to calm one of his companions. (See CPTNet release, `CPT
members intervene in settler clash with shepherds,` 7 April 2005.)

Later in the afternoon Israeli soldiers came to the house of one
of the Tuwani community leaders to say the shepherds are forbidden to graze
their flocks in the Kharouba `closed military zone` except on Fridays and
Saturdays, when they now can do so only by special written permit.

Monday, 4 April.

During school patrol, Bischoff, Evans and Lamberty noticed the military
escort was in Tuwani at 7:15 a.m. instead of being in Tuba where they are
supposed to meet the children in the morning. Bischoff went across the
valley to talk with them and was finally able to convince them to go to
Tuba. Because of the delay, the children were over an hour late for school.

Bischoff, Evans and Lamberty planned to go with an Israeli
acquaintance and three shepherds to make statements regarding the previous
day`s incident at the Kiryat Arba police station. However, the acquaintance
left with the Palestinians before the CPTers returned from school patrol,
saying that she thought the presence of internationals could be
counterproductive. One of the Palestinians was arrested at the station,
based on the statement of a Hivat Ma`on settler who was there at the same
time.

At 11:30 a.m., representatives of the Palestinian Authority
Ministry of Agriculture arrived to talk with the shepherds about the
poisoning. They took the report on the poison prepared by Birzeit
University and statistics on the numbers of dead and ill sheep. CPTers and
OD members reiterated the community`s request that the ministry take
responsibility for testing all the sheep and also the children who might be
affected by the poison.

Tuesday, 5 April.

Lamberty and Evans accompanied over 40 men, women, and children from
At-Tuwani and Mufakara to Hebron for a press conference and vigil regarding
the poisoned grazing lands. The Kiryat Arba police refused to take
responsibility for the bucket of poison the villagers had brought to them
for disposal. (See CPTNet release, `Shepherds confront police with poison
that kills their sheep,` 7 April 2005.)

Two village leaders with an Israeli friend also worked on
getting the two Tuwani men released who were being held in connection with
Sunday`s incident. The police released one of the men without charge, but
refused to release the man arrested Monday. Bischoff, Evans and Lamberty
were prepared to make statements to police regarding the two men, but the
police refused to take their statements at that time.

Wednesday, 6 April.

Evans and two OD members went with representatives of the Palestinian
Authority Ministry of Health to take samples of water from two wells near
the poisoned fields. The officials took samples of milk also.

The Kiryat Arba police called Lamberty to say they would take
her statement regarding Sunday`s incident. She and Bischoff returned to
Hebron to make statements. The man was released on bail and faces a court
date. CPTers assert that the man was involved in neither shouting nor
shoving during the incident, but had kept in the background the whole time.

Evans and the OD members were accompanying women picking lentils
on the hillside across the valley from Hivat Ma`on when an Israeli military
jeep on routine patrol stopped nearby. The OD members engaged the soldiers
in a lengthy conversation.

Shepherds discovered new poison placed on a hillside closer in
to the village than the previous poisoned areas. This poison is pink
pellets, rather than the blue ones previously used. Sheep had already
consumed some of the pellets. Evans and OD members arrived on the scene
about 11:00 a.m. Israeli police and a TV news crew arrived about 1:30 p.m.
Police took pictures, samples, and statements. They said a military unit
would be responsible for cleanup. The poison was later identified as
Bromfenacoum or Brodifacoum.

In the evening Evans and OD members attended a gathering to
celebrate the release of the man who had been freed from jail that day in
connection to Sunday`s incident.

Thursday, 7 April.

During school patrol, Evans and an OD member noted the military escort was
about half an hour late. The noon escort was also at least half an hour
late. Evans had called to inquire about the situation, and then called
again to let the authorities know the escort had arrived, and discovered her
phone number was blocked.

Representatives of the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Hebron Governor`s office, the Israeli
National Park Authority, Amnesty International, and Ta`ayush all arrived to
document the new poisoning incident. Later, Bischoff, Evans and OD members
assisted villagers in cleaning poison from the field.

Friday, 8 April.

All was quiet. Most of the people of the village went to pray and then to
an engagement party in Yatta.

*Members of Operation Dove have requested that their names not be listed in
releases.

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