Tag: Operation Dove - Page 4 - International Solidarity Movement

‘Price tag’ attack in South Hebron Hills

10th May 2013 | Operation Dove, South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine

On May the 10th at about 6 a.m. some Palestinians from At-Tuwani and two Operation Dove volunteers found out that 62 olive trees had been cut during the night in a field next to the Bypass road 317.

Olive trees cut down (Photo by Operation Dove)

On a small wall nearby the olive field the sentence “price tag for those who steal” was found. The “price tag policy” (Hebrew: מדיניות תג מחיר) is, according to B’Tselem, the name given to “acts of random violence aimed at the Palestinian population and Israeli security forces” by radical Israeli settlers, who, according to the New York Times, “exact a price from local Palestinians or from the Israeli security forces for any action taken against their settlement enterprise”.

The olive trees grove belongs to the Amor Palestinian family and had been planted approximately 30 years ago. The members of the family which were present on the scene were particularly shocked for the loss.

The first jeep of soldiers arrived at about 7 a.m. followed by another army vehicle and a DCO (District Coordination Office) car. Around 7.30 a.m. a police car reached the area and an officer taped the incident’s scene with a camera. One member of the owner family spoke with the policeman giving him some information about the history of the olive trees. The Israeli police did not speak with the international volunteers and did not give any further details about the investigation. Around 8 a.m. Ma’on security chief arrived near the olive trees, spoke with the police and the soldiers and took some pictures. Some ten minutes later a DCO officer tried to detain a Palestinian shepherd from At-Tuwani accusing him of lacking respect to his authority. The Palestinian man denied and claimed that he did not say nothing bad to the officer.

Around 8.30 a.m. an Israeli soldier in charge of analyzing footprints started his investigation on the field. At the end of his research he declared that 6 people damaged the olive trees (5 men and 1 woman) while others were watching from distance.

In the afternoon, at about 2.30 p.m. a group of settlers set fire to a Palestinian wheat field close to the Palestinan village of Tuba. A Palestinian teenager saw them from distance while they were running away. The field belongs to the Aliawad family that has immediately called the Israeli police. When the police arrived the kid and his brother have been driven to the police station of Kiryat Arba for filing a complaint.

The olive trees and the wheat are an essential resource for the Palestinian community in South Hebron Hills area and their damaging causes a serious economic loss.

Nevertheless the Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills area are still strongly committed in the nonviolent popular resistance against Israeli occupation.

Operation Dove maintains a constant presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Palestinian woman protests the destruction of the olive trees (Photo by Operation Dove) — Palestinian woman expresses her devastation at the destruction of the olive trees (Photo by Operation Dove)

Message from settlers "price tag for those who steal" (Photo by Operation Dove) — Message from settlers: “price tag for those who steal” (Photo by Operation Dove)

South Hebron Hills Popular Committee member arrested during nonviolent action in Khelly Valley

6th April 2013 | Operation Dove, At-Tuwani, South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine

On April 6, Border Police officers and army soldiers arrested a member of the nonviolent South Hebron Hills Popular Committee, while he was harvesting on his private owned land in Khelly Valley, nearby the village of At-Tuwani, during a nonviolent action.

The goal of this action was to affirm the right of the Palestinians to enter their land despite the Israeli Military Administration restrictions, which until today do not have any legal support.
Since 9:00 am the soldiers and the Border Police, in coordination with Ma’on security chief, prevented the Palestinian shepherds from grazing their flocks down in Khelly Valley. An old woman and his nephew were stopped as well while trying to reach the valley.

Israeli Border Police Officers arresting popular committee member (Photo by Operation Dove)

Around 11:20 a.m. some women and children from At-Tuwani went down in the valley to harvest, challenging the imposed restriction. The Popular Committee member reached them and started to work as well. A few minutes later the army declared the valley a “closed military area” but the Palestinians refused to leave, claiming their right to work their private land. This was the reason for the soldiers to arrest the only man who was attending the resistance action. At 11:30 am he was taken to the Border Police jeep and detained there for about two hours. The women and the children kept on gathering grass in the valley in spite of the soldiers’ threats and pressures (i.e. a soldier ran after a child). The nonviolent action ended at around 12:00 a.m.. Some hours later the activists of Ta’ayush were informed about the fact that the Palestinian had been taken to Kiryat Arba police station. At 6:00 p.m. he was released under the payment of 1.000NIS.
Palestinians have been facing problems in Khelly since 2004, when around one hundred cherry trees were planted by the settlers on part of the valley nearby Ma’on. Since then the Israeli administration has been confiscating Palestinian land step by step in order to annex it to Ma’on. At the end of 2011 Khelly Hill was declared “State Land” and some residential buildings were built on it. Some months later, in March 2012, a paved street was created in front of the new houses. Starting from those expansion works the Palestinian shepherds were definitely prevented from entering the area of Khelly Hill. Since January 2013 until now the shepherds were also prevented from using Khelly Valley. In the last month the shepherds were chased away 10 times by soldiers and police and 4 times by settlers.
Nevertheless the Palestinian community of South Hebron Hills area continue to resist the occupation using the nonviolent struggle.

South Hebron Hills: IDF demolition in Saadet Tha’lah and Ar Rakeez

16 February 2012 | Operation Dove

At-Tuwani – On February 15th 2012, the Israeli Army demolished five buildings in the Palestinian village of Saadet Tha’lah and destroyed a water tank and tore down 50 trees in the Palestinian village of Ar Rakeez.

Click here for more photos, courtesy of Operation Dove

At around 12 a.m. two bulldozers and three vehicles of DCO (Disctrict Coordination Office) raided in the village of Saadet Tha’lah, escorted by four jeeps of IDF (Israeli Defense Force). One house, two water tanks and two stables for the flocks were demolished. The inhabitants said they have not been allowed to make their animals safe. Five lambs died under the rubble. The owners declared their buildings were under demolition order since 2004.

After the demolitions in Saadet Tha’lah, the army vehicles and the bulldozers reached the near Palestinian village of Ar Rakeez, where they demolished one water tank under construction and uprooted 20 olive trees and 30 almond trees planted less than one year ago.

The Palestinian villages of Saadet Tha’lah and of Ar Rakeez are situated in the South Hebron Hills area, respectively near Karmel Israeli settlement and near Avigayl outpost, which are constantly expanding without any kind of restriction by the Israeli authorities, despite the outpost is considered illegal even according to the Israeli law.

Both the villages are located in Area C, under Israeli civil and military administration. In this area every construction must be approved by the Israeli civil administration. According to OCHA oPt, the 70% of Area C is off-limits to Palestinian construction, the 29% is heavily restricted and less than 1% has been assigned by the Israeli Civil Administration for Palestinian development. Since 2011 Operation Dove registered an increase in the area of demolitions, in particular against electricity and water services.

This policy of restrictions, closure, demolition, evacuation and abuse, combined with continuing violence by settlers in the area, denies the human rights of Palestinians, hindering the possibility to live in their villages and cultivate their lands by preventing development of local communities.
Nevertheless, the Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills are strongly involved in affirming their rights and resist to the Israeli occupation choosing the non-violent way.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

CPT-Palestine closes At-Tuwani project

November 2, 2011 | Christian Peacemaker Team – Palestine

In 2004, the village of At-Tuwani and its Israeli partner, Ta’ayush, approached CPT’s Hebron team and the Italian peace group, Operation Dove, asking if they could provide accompaniment for the children of the village whom settlers regularly attacked as they walked to school.

Although CPT had made regular visits to the South Hebron Hills villages over the years, the team on the ground and the organization as a whole deemed it important to respond to the villagers’ request for a permanent presence in the village of At-Tuwani.

Seven years later, CPT-Palestine is closing its At-Tuwani project. The growth of the South Hebron Hills nonviolent organizing work has made the presence of CPT less critical. The shepherds of At-Tuwani and surrounding villages now are part of a large nonviolent resistance network encompassing various regions of Palestine. They are part of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, and South Hebron Hills leaders regularly plan nonviolent actions to which they invite Israeli and international groups and offer nonviolence trainings to men and women in the region.

The village has grown significantly since 2004, when all the homes were living under threat of demolition. Defying these threats, At-Tuwani has constructed ten new homes, a health and community centre, electrical infrastructure, a paved road through the village, a new cistern, and a mosque. It has a woman’s co-op that sells traditional crafts to groups that come to the village, which helps to support families and the new infrastructure. The village has also received grants from various agencies, one of which it used to buy several computers to provide IT training for village youth.

The end of CPT’s permanent presence in At-Tuwani does not mean the end of its relationship with the South Hebron Hills villagers. CPT-Palestine will continue to support them by maintaining media and public awareness of the area, participating in actions organized by the nonviolent Popular Struggle Committee and bringing CPT delegations to the South Hebron Hills.

Because of the villagers’ stalwart nonviolent resistance, they now have relationships with hundreds of Israelis, Palestinians and internationals who support their efforts. Two international groups will continue to have a physical presence in the area. The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) now has an office in Yatta, the urban hub of the South Hebron Hills, and Operation Dove will continue to live in At-Tuwani.

AT-Tuwani team member Laura Ciaghi writes, “I think we have done a good job of empowering the community in doing nonviolent resistance, mostly by creating a safer space for people in Tuwani and lifting some of the heavy pressure of living under occupation, so that they had the time, the energy and the space to organize themselves. The olive tree we planted in our courtyard on Christmas 2005 this fall has yielded for the first time, a full bucket of big olives, and maybe this tells the story better than anything else.”

Palestinians protest expansion of Havat Ma’on Outpost

19 July 2011 | Christian Peace Makers Team

At-Tuwani: Palestinians protest expansion of Havat Ma’on Outpost; Israeli Military responds with violence

On 18 July 2011 around 6:35 p.m. three settlers attacked two members of Operation Dove and one member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) with clubs and stones in the Meshakha valley outside of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. The settlers came out of the Havat Ma’on outpost, covering their faces with scarves and then ran with clubs toward two Palestinian shepherds who were grazing their sheep in a valley nearby.   The masked settlers could not catch the shepherds who, alerted to the approaching danger, left the vicinity. The attackers then turned and ran toward the internationals, who had entered the valley to intervene and document the attack. The settlers then made threats and attempted to strike the internationals as they filmed the settlers’ actions. When the internationals retreated, the settlers begin throwing stones, narrowly missing their targets.

No Palestinians or internationals were injured in the incident.   This incident follows a similar attack of 13 July 2011 where three settler youth attacked Palestinian shepherds. Five attacks by settlers from the outpost of Havat Ma’on against internationals and Palestinians have occurred within the last 30 days.

Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Additional photos of the incident are available here. (The unmasked men in the photos are the internationals)

Video of the incident is available here.