Tag: Christian Peacemaker Team - Page 11 - International Solidarity Movement

Nonviolent resistance in the south Hebron hills

18 June 2009

A couple of months ago I had the great pleasure of watching Palestinians successfully graze their sheep near Avigail settlement, on land where they are regularly attacked and harassed. The joy I felt in watching my friends and partners grazing their sheep on their ancestral lands was overwhelming. Sitting on the hill and eating lunch together felt like having a party.

As the day drew to an end, Mahmoud, one of the Palestinian elders, excitedly explained to me the strategy he had used in dealing with the Israeli army and settlers that morning. He told me how, even though the army had declared the area a closed military zone, he firmly stood up for his rights. He explained how he pretended to slowly begin to comply with the military order, all the while challenging the soldiers and insisting on his right to graze his sheep. Eventually, he said, the army lost control of the situation and gave in. When he finished his description, Mahmoud turned to me and grinned. “I read in a book that this is called nonviolence,” he said, laughing.

When US President Barack Obama called on Palestinians to practice nonviolence, I laughed just like Mahmoud. Palestinians like Mahmoud have never needed to be told about nonviolence. The English word may be unfamiliar but the steadfast, daily acts of resistance known as nonviolence are nothing new. In the south Hebron hills, Palestinians face Israeli soldiers and violent Israeli settlers who are illegally expanding their settlements and attacking Palestinians, including children walking to school. In response to this profound injustice, Palestinians are organizing demonstrations, refusing to comply with military orders, filing complaints against settlers, and courageously working their land despite the risk of arrest and attack. They don’t need President Obama to tell them to practice nonviolence.

Palestinians have practiced nonviolent resistance for the last 60 years. From the “Great Revolt” during the British Mandate to the first Palestinian intifada in 1987, to the loose-knit but powerful community-based movement of today. Certainly, it’s inaccurate to omit armed resistance from Palestinian history, but it is equally false to claim that Palestinians are unfamiliar with nonviolence. President Obama missed the point in his Cairo speech — Palestinians do not need to be admonished towards peacefulness. It’s radical Israeli settlers and the Israeli government who do.

Instead of preaching to Palestinians, Obama should insist emphatically on the dismantlement of Israeli settlements that violate international law and the enforcement of laws to prevent Israeli settlers from attacking Palestinian villagers, a frequent occurrence in the south Hebron hills. After 42 years of Israeli military occupation, it is time for an American president to call on Israel to stop its violence towards Palestinians.

Joy Ellison is an American activist with Christian Peacemaker Teams, an organization that supports Palestinian nonviolent resistance. She lives in At-Tuwani, a small village in the south Hebron hills which is nonviolently resisting settlement expansion and violence. She writes about her experiences on her blog, “I Saw it in Palestine.”

Palestinians demonstrate against Susiya settlement expansion

Christian Peacemaker Teams

5 May 2009

Over one hundred Israeli and Palestinian members of Combatants for Peace gathered peacefully in the Palestinian village of Susiya on 5 May to mark the installation in the village of solar panels and a wind turbine which will provide electricity to the Palestinian village in the South Hebron Hills.

After viewing the panels and turbine, and listening to leaders of the nonviolent resistance in the South Hebron Hills, the group walked towards a house that settlers from the nearby Susiya settlement had built on Palestinian land. Soldiers met the group and read aloud an order declaring the area closed. The group then returned to the village and remained for two hours, talking together and learning about the effects of the occupation on the area.

The original village of Susiya was established in the 1830’s when Palestinians from the South Hebron region purchased the land on the outskirts of the region. Israeli settlers established the settlement of Susiya in l983, and in l986 the Israeli military evicted the villagers from their original cave homes. Some of the families returned to their land but lived in homes scattered over several hilltops.

In the l990’s the military established a military base about 2 km away, and under this military protection Israeli settlers were able to expand onto more of the land that originally belonged to the village of Susiya. Settlers became increasingly violent, and stopped Palestinian farmers form cultivating their land; regularly attacking them. During the l990’s three Palestinians were murdered. In 2001, after the murder of a settler, the entire village was again forcibly evicted by the Israeli army, which used heavy machinery to destroy the cave homes. Over one thousand olive trees were destroyed, and wells were blocked up with sand and rocks. Fields
were destroyed, and livestock were buried alive in pens. Residents were again forcibly removed, but again many returned to their land. Since that time the village has waged a legal battle in the Israeli courts for the right to exist.

Nonviolent action by Palestinians and internationals stops settler road construction in Um al Kheir

Christian Peacemaker Team

Palestinians block earth-moving equipment in Um al Kheir

26 April 2009

Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills village of Um al Kheir today changed the route of a road being constructed by settlers from the illegal settlement of Karmel. The villagers, acting with internationals, nonviolently blocked the road-building equipment as it prepared the roadbed on land which belongs to Palestinians living in the village of Um al Kheir.

Palestinians and internationals gathered to confront settlers from Karmel, Israeli soldiers, and Israeli border police as work began at 7:00 AM. Israeli soldiers allowed the road work to continue despite a pending legal complaint filed by the village in Israeli court. One older Palestinian man who was sitting in front of earth-moving equipment was accidentally struck by stones which were dislodged by the work.

Survey markers placed the previous week in the village indicated that construction of the road would include the demolition of a Palestinian home and several agricultural structures. As marked now, the road will include the annexation of a large area of Palestinian land by the settlement, but will not include demolition of the home. A legal decision on construction of the road is expected within ten days.

Representatives from the United Nations Refugee Works Administration (UNRWA) were also present during the work because the villagers have refugee status. Residents of the Bedouin village of Um al Kheir bought the land the village currently occupies, including the land being used for construction of the settler road, fifty years ago. They were forced to move the village from its original location near Arrad in 1948, after the creation of the state of Israel.

Recent expansion of the Karmel settlement has included the construction of twelve double houses around the perimeter of the settlement. These are surrounded by a fence and a military road, which encroaches onto Palestinian land. The new road as proposed will extend the settlement farther into Um al Kheir, and will result in the annexation of a substantial area of land outside the existing settlement houses. Numerous other Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills have been impacted by the expansion of settlements and outposts in recent months.

The residents of Um al Kheir, along with villagers from nearby At-Tuwani and other villages in the area, remain committed to nonviolence as they struggle to oppose the illegal expansion of Israeli settlements and outposts. Villagers have filed legal complaints, and staged nonviolent grazing actions in the South Hebron Hills throughout the spring grazing season.

Israeli soldiers arrest journalist, close village of Um al Kheir

Christian Peacemaker Team

24 April 2009

[Note: According to the Geneva Conventions, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and numerous United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts are considered illegal under Israeli law.]

On 23 April Israeli soldiers arrested a Palestinian journalist in the village of Um al Kheir and declared the village a closed military zone after settlers from the nearby settlement of Karmel resumed construction of a road on Palestinian land. The proposed road passes within a few meters of Palestinian homes, animal enclosures and gardens. Due to a pending legal action in Israeli court filed by Um al Kheir villagers, settlers had previously suspended construction but resumed the work Thursday afternoon.

When he observed internationals filming the road construction, the Karmel settlement security guard called the Israeli military. Soldiers arrived
quickly, and when internationals asked for an explanation, they were told to wait for police. Police arrived shortly and stated that the bulldozer
was being used for “military work.” At 12:00pm, an officer arrived in a second military jeep and declared the area a closed military zone for 24 hours. Soldiers forced the journalists and internationals to leave, and arrested a journalist who did not leave immediately.

Villagers from Um al Kheir reported on Friday that work on the road had been suspended, but stated that they feared it would resume in a few days time. A legal complaint filed by the village states that the proposed road is an expansion of the settlement of Karmel and is therefore illegal. Um al Kheir residents have witnessed substantial expansion of Karmel settlement in recent months. The contested road is planned to surround
the existing settlement, effectively expanding its borders.

The Palestinian villagers of Um al Kheir bought the land on which the village now lies fifty years ago, when the state of Israel was created. At that time they were forced to flee their homes in the area south of Arad.

The village of Um al Kheir has also experienced recent settler violence and harassment. On 10 April four male settlers attacked three women from the village as the women grazed sheep near the village. One of the women, who is eight months pregnant, required hospitalization for a serious injury to her arm. The women have filed a legal complaint against the four settlers.

The residents of Um al Kheir remain committed to nonviolent resistance to settler harassment and settlement expansion.

Israeli settlers destroy crops near village of At-Tuwani

Christian Peacemaker Team

18 April 2009

On 18 April Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills reported that Israeli settlers had destroyed a large privately owned Palestinian wheat field by allowing a flock of goats and sheep to graze on it. Palestinian owners discovered the destruction when they arrived to harvest the crops on the morning of 18 April. The field, located in Meshaha Valley, is the property of a family living in the nearby village of At Tuwani.

Also that morning Israeli soldiers declared a large area of land east of At Tuwani to be a closed military zone and forced Palestinian shepherds
and their flocks to leave their land. Land owners and internationals were told they would be subject to arrest if they remained. The soldiers also ordered Palestinian landowners to advise the military every time they intend to access their own land within the zone. Israeli soldiers refused to provide Palestinian land owners with copies of the map of the military zone boundaries and would not state how long the closure would last. Throughout the morning, a group of at least ten Israeli settlers conferred with the soldiers.

The Palestinian owners of the land said the area of destroyed crops was approximately 40 dunum (or approximately 10 acres). Palestinians from At Tuwani and nearby villages have repeatedly observed settlers from the illegal outpost of Havot Ma’on with a flock of sheep and goats grazing on Palestinian land east of the outpost in recent months. Israeli settlers with the flock have threatened Palestinian shepherds and disrupted the grazing of Palestinian flocks on several occasions this spring, prompting Palestinians to file legal complaints against them.

The crop destruction represents a severe economic loss, as the area is experiencing an extremely dry spring and the field was one of the few near At Tuwani which produced a spring wheat crop. Spring crops and the raising of sheep and goats are central to the economy and way of life in Tuwani and the surrounding small villages of the South Hebron Hills, and disruption by the Israeli military or settlers of agricultural work at this time of year constitutes a substantial threat to the villages.