A Hard Day in At-Tuwani, by Art Gish

21 February 2005, about twenty shepherds from from around At-Tuwani met Israeli officials on the hill above the town of At-Tuwani. The Israeli officials, all armed with M-16 assault rifles, along with a dozen soldiers also armed with M-16s, had come for a conversation about where shepherds would be or not be allowed to graze their sheep. Twenty settlers, some also heavily armed, observed the conversation.

The Israeli authorities informed the shepherds that they are forbidden to graze their sheep on vast tracts of their own land. There was no proposal from the military as to how the shepherds can now feed their sheep.

I asked the military official in charge why the shepherds cannot go on their land.  I received no answer.  I tried to point out that the Israeli government keeps taking more and more Palestinian land.

After the soldiers and settlers had left and the shepherds and their flocks were making their ways home, shepherds noticed two settlers walking on the road above them toward their village. When the settlers approached the village, they circled a field near the village, and then returned the way they had come.

Two hours later, villagers discovered that one hundred fifty young olive trees had been uprooted the night before in the field which the settlers had encircled. Those olive trees were donated by the YMCA in Jerusalem and had been in the ground about three months.

At-Tuwani villagers then learned that another hundred olive trees that had been planted just two days earlier were also uprooted.

Israeli soldiers came to investigate. I asked them again what the shepherds were doing wrong, why they couldn't be on their land and why they couldn't have olive trees.  The soldiers did not answer my questions.

When asked what this means for the village, one shepherd said, "What the soldiers and settlers did today is what we expect. They destroyed our olive trees, but we will plant more olive trees." Another shepherd said, "We will keep going back on our land even if they arrest us."

CPTnet
March 1, 2005

AT-TUWANI REFLECTION: A different vision of the future by Art Gish

At a time when the policy of the Israeli government involves keeping Israelis and Palestinians separate (apartheid), Israeli peace activists are living according to a different vision for the future.  Instead of bowing to fear, they reach out in love to their Palestinian cousins.  Against the wishes of the Israeli government, these Israelis are traveling to the West Bank and maintaining relationships with Palestinians.  Instead of accepting the repressive nature of the Israeli occupation, these activists are able to see the failings of their own government and their own people.

Palestinians trust these Israelis and have their phone numbers.  Every time Israeli settlers attack the Palestinians here,  Israeli activists will be there with their Palestinian friends in the next few days, if not in the next few hours.  After the violent attack by settlers on 16 February in At-Tuwani, Israeli activists were out in the mountains with At Tuwani shepherds the next day.  They have come in the night when villagers were attacked by soldiers.  They have slept in the village to help prevent attacks.

Each October and November, Israelis come to help protect Palestinians from settler attacks as the Palestinians pick their olives.  Within two days after Israeli settlers destroyed 200 olive trees in the village of Ma'im, Israelis were there replanting trees.  In April and May, the Israelis come to protect the Palestinian farmers and their barley harvest, some of which settlers burn each year.

Most Palestinians never have any positive contact with Jews. Their only contacts with Jews involve settlers and soldiers--relationships that are oppressive and degrading. The people of At-Tuwani have a different perspective.  Repeatedly I have sat with Israelis and Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, and Christians breaking bread together.  These relationships are visible demonstrations of a future that could be.