13th August 2014 | Operation Dove | at-Tuwani, Occupied Palestine
On August 12th, at approximately 9.45 a.m., near the South Hebron hills area village of at-Tuwani, Israeli Police beat a Palestinian and confiscated his tractor.
The 20-year-old man was driving his tractor, carrying a water tank, from the village of at-Tuwani to Yatta City when the Israeli police stopped him. Palestinian witnesses reported that policemen beat him and sprayed pepper spray into his eyes.
When international volunteers and medical relief arrived on the scene, they witnessed the man lying on the ground and shouting from the pain as two policemen surrounded him.
At 10.00 a.m. the Palestinian was accompanied to the hospital by Palestinian medical relief. After that, the police confiscated the tractor, leaving the water tank in the middle of the road. The police refused to give any explanation about the incident and prohibited the Palestinian man from speaking with his lawyer.
According to B’tselem, “the exercise of illegal force by police officers is a phenomenon characteristic of regimes that are abhorrent, and undemocratic, of the kind that trample on human rights.”
The policy of restriction, checkpoints, closures, arrests and confiscations carried out by the Israeli army and police, combined with the continuous settler’s harassment, denies the Palestinians’ rights of movement, basic sources and rights access and prevents the development of the South Hebron hills area communities.aa
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.
29th June 2014 | Operation Dove | Saddith Thala, Occupied Palestine
On June 27th, Israeli soldiers detained a Palestinian shepherd from the South Hebron Hills village of Saddith Thala. He was accused of throwing stones towards a setter’s car, passing on the Bypass road 317. He was released, as there was no evidence to support the charges.
A Palestinian shepherd and a group of children were drawing water from a Palestinian owned well nearby the illegal settlement of Carmel. While they were crossing the bypass road 317, settlers saw them and immediately called the Israeli soldiers. When the army arrived, they stopped and detained the only adult in the group of shepherds, and accused him of throwing stones in the direction of the road. At about 2pm, when Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills Popular Resistance Committee and international volunteers arrived, the shepherd was handcuffed by a plastic band and had been waiting an hour in the sun for the police to arrive.
After asking for explanations from the soldiers, a Palestinian member of the Popular Struggle Committee released the hands of the shepherd, cutting the handcuffs to allow him to pray. Palestinians and internationals reiterated to the soldiers their duty to show evidence and to consider the shepherd’s declaration of innocence and not only the settlers’ unfounded accusations. At 3pm the detained Palestinian was release and free to go back home.
The well from which the children were drawing water, lies between the illegal settlement of Carmel and Ma’on, This an area where the Palestinian population are constantly subjected to harassment, acts which prevent them from accessing their own land.
The coordinator of the Committee said: “The South Hebron Hills Popular Struggle Committee watches all violations of the human rights in the area, and we respond with non-violent direct actions.”
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.
On 15 May 2014, Israeli courts extended the mediation process between the Israeli army and the villages within Firing Zone 918 for another three months. The Israeli army wants to use this area for training. Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights organizations have condemned its bid to expel the villagers a violation of international law, which forbids forced transfer of the indigenous population of an occupied territory unless the occupying power is safeguarding them from an immediate danger.
During the previous period of mediation, the court allowed rehabilitation of damage done by storms, as well as access to the area by international humanitarian organizations. As a result, some development was possible in the area, specifically to the schools in al-Fakheit and Jinba. At the same time, as revealed in an article published on Ha’aretz, army officials admitted using firing zones as a way to deter the growth of Palestinian communities in Area C and to expel Palestinians from where they have lived since before the occupation of the West Bank in 1967.
Since 8 June, the Israeli military has conducted exercises in close proximity to, and on one occasion, inside the village of Jinba. Some weeks before, the army drove armoured vehicles over Palestinian fields close to Jinba and Mirkez, damaging their harvest.
Residents of Jinba told CPT that they received a “solution” to the current legal battle from the Israeli army via their lawyers at the beginning of June. The army asked that all of the Palestinian residents voluntarily leave the area for thirty months so that the Israeli military could conduct its exercises. After that, the Palestinians could return to their homes. The villagers refused the offer, affirming they would not have anywhere to go with all their livestock. Even if the army allowed them back, no one would care for their crops and flocks for that thirty months.
The army is not asking Israeli settlers in the area to leave Firing Zone 918.
21st June 2014 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | At Tuwani, Occupied Palestine
Today in the village of At Tuwani, villages and popular committees in the South Hebron Hills and international activists, came together to celebrate the seventh festival of non-violent resistance in this area of the West Bank, and the end of a local children’s summer camp. Each year a summer camp is held in the South Hebron Hills for the children, with many different activities.
“This is the moment to give each other strength, to continue to fight without surrender to violence”, said Hafez Huraini, member of the Popular Resistance Committee of South Hebron Hills.
“We remember together our story and our hard-earned achievements. But we also want to send a strong message to everyone, Palestinians and Israelis, with our example: nonviolence is possible, is effective, and it is the only way to fight for justice, dignity, and peace.” – taken from the invitation by Operation Dove and At Tuwani village council
During the day speeches were held by the Popular Committee in the South Hebron Hills, the Mayor of Yatta, the Governor of Hebron, and international organisations such as ISM, CPT [Christian Peacemaker Team], and Operation Dove. Throughout the day the children showed the crowds what they had been practicing during the summer camp, performing dabke [a Palestinian dance], singing and theater shows. Discussions were also held in the area about experiences of non-violent resistance.
The festival then turned into a protest, moving to a hill in front of the illegal settlement outpost of Havat Ma’on. The children were flying kites and brought balloons, to send a colorful message of peace and justice. The Israeli military and Israeli police stood in front of the outpost and cut off the road. The protest was peaceful and calm, with no violence or arrests.
Settlers in the area often harass villagers from the South Hebron Hills. The settlers are living in the illegal settlements of Suseya, Ma’on, Metsadot Yehuda-Beit Yair, and Karmel. As well as the outposts of Hill 833 (Havat Ma’on), Avigayil, Mitzpe Yair-Magen David, and Lucifer Farm (Yair Farm). The settlers living in this area are highly nationalistic and considered to be some of the most radical settlers in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
The Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills are often prevented from accessing their fields to pick wheat, lentils, and olives. Settlers also regularly burn the Palestinians harvests and fields. The settlers have also destroyed Palestinian caves and poured poison inside water tanks.
In 1999 residents of this area formed the South Hebron Hills popular committee and began to non-violently resist against the Israeli military. The resistance is daily, consisting of rebuilding demolished homes, continuing to farm in spite of settler violence, and replanting destroyed olive trees. Several Israeli and international organisations support the committee and the people of this area, primarily through accompaniment work and legal aid.
During the last several years many Palestinian families who left the area decided to return to their village.
20th June 2014 | Operation Dove | Khallet Forem, Occupied Palestine
On June 18th, the Israeli army, along with border police officers and DCO (District Coordination Office) officers entered in the Palestinian village of Khallet Forem, in South Hebron Hills, and demolished seven houses, a bathroom, and a shelter.
No demolition orders were delivered for these structures.
According to Palestinian witnesses, a woman was injured by the soldiers during the operation.
The seven houses, the shelter, and the bathroom were owned by the Abu Dahar family. These demolitions involved at least 26 people, 12 of them are children.
In the same day, Israeli forces demolished the main road of Ar Rifa’Iyya Ad Deirat and built a roadblock in order to prevent the access from that road to the bypass road 356.
According to PHROC (The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council), the recent wave of demolitions, arrests, attacks, killings, and total closure of large parts of the West Bank following the disappearance of three Israeli settlers is a form of collective punishment against the Palestinian people. This is in direct violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that forbid reprisals against protected persons and their property, as well as collective punishment.
Photo by Operation DovePhoto by Operation Dove
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.
[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]
