Tag: South Hebron Hills

CPT: Armed man kills two animals near Maghayir Al-Abeed village; Escapes to Havat Ma’on settlement

24 January 2011 | Operation Dove & Christian Peacemaker Team

In the early afternoon of 23 January 2011, an armed man killed two animals near the South Hebron Hills village of Maghayir Al-Abeed. Two teenage shepherds reported that they were watering their family’s flock at a well just above their village when a man running through the area, carrying an M-16, fired four or five shots at the dog which accompanies their flock. The shooter proceeded to chase the flock, kicking a ewe and throwing rocks at its head. The dog died immediately from four gunshot wounds and the incapacitated sheep died approximately two hours after the beating.

The two teenage shepherds, Mohammed Mahmoud Mukahmri, 15, and ‘Awli ‘Ali Mukhamri, 13, ascended the hill, following the assailant from a distance, in time to see the man enter the grouping of trees which surrounds Ma’on settlement and Havat Ma’on outpost. They reported the man had a dark brown beard and was wearing black pants, a black shirt, and a yarmulke.

Ninety minutes after the incident, Israeli authorities arrived to investigate the crime scene and take testimonies from those present during the incident.

Hani Salaami Mukhamri, the owner of animals who arrived at the scene mere moments after the shooting, reacted sharply to the police investigator’s doubts that Mukhamri could be certain the assailant that he saw was an Israeli settler, and not an Arab. “Palestinians in this area don’t have guns, never in my life have I seen a Palestinian civilian with a gun. Only settlers have guns here.” Mukhamri also lamented the utter disregard for the lives of his animals, “three lives were lost here today: my shepherding dog, a sheep, and the unborn lamb that the ewe was carrying.”

The well where the shooting took place is a main source of water for the families in Maghayir Al-Abeed . In early 2001, Mukamri’s mother was shot in the leg by an Israeli settler while she drew water from the very same well.

International peace activists from Christian Peacemaker Teams arrived at the scene after the shooting, taking testimony and photo and video documentation.

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

Israeli settlers lay in front of tractors; attempt to prohibit Palestinian agricultural work

23 January 2011 | Operation Dove & Christian Peacemaker Teams

At-Tuwani, South Hebron Hills, West Bank – On Saturday, 22nd of January, Palestinian farmers successfully plowed fields in Khoruba valley, despite heavy harassment by settlers from the nearby settlement of Ma’on.

In the early morning, about twenty farmers from At-Tuwani started sowing seed and plowing fields in Khoruba valley, southeast from At-Tuwani. Soon thereafter, five settlers arrived from nearby Havat Ma’on outpost and positioned themselves in front of the tractors, in an attempt to prevent the farmers from completing their work. As more settlers arrived, tempers flared and the farmers attempted to move the settlers and physically block them from interfering with the land cultivation.

Approximately thirty minutes later, Israeli soldiers and Border Police arrived and immediately stopped the tractors from plowing. The Israeli forces took the ID cards of three farmers while removing both settlers and farmers from the immediate vicinity of the tractors.

The Israeli District Coordinating Office (DCO), the branch of the Israeli military responsible for the coordination of civilian affairs, later confirmed the right of Palestinians to plow the fields but the Border Police requested that all Palestinians and international peace activists leave the area, except for the farmers directly involved in the agricultural work.

Three settler youths moved from Khoruba valley to an area one kilometer south where they stopped another tractor from plowing and proceeded to throw stones at a Palestinian shepherd and his flock. Israeli forces again intervened, removing the settler youths from the area.

After the completion of the agricultural work, one Palestinian farmer was taken to the Kiryat Arba police station for questioning, and later released, after a settler made a formal complaint that he was assaulted.

An international delegation with four British MPs, was present for part of the incident and spoke with Palestinian farmers, Israeli forces, and an Israeli settler.

In the last five years, through several coordinated nonviolent actions, Palestinians from At-Tuwani and Yatta have successfully cultivated fields previously made inaccessible due to settler violence and harassment, Through the reacquisition of this land, Palestinians are asserting their right to the land and working to ensure their food security for the coming seasons.

Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and 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.]

Thirteen homes and three school buildings destroyed by Israeli forces

12 January 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Dkaika children outside their destroyed classroom

More than 13 homes and three school buildings were bulldozed this morning by occupation forces in the small Bedouin village of Dkaika near Yatta south of Hebron. One eye witness – an English teacher at the school – said “the Israeli army arrived at the village at around 7:30am with over fifty military vehicles and at least six bulldozers before forcibly removing the children from the school and destroying three classrooms.” He went on, “the children, some of whom are as young as seven years old, were crying and shouting at the soldiers to stop.”

In addition to the destruction wrought upon the school, ISM representatives were led by the crushed earthen tracks and violent gouge marks left by bulldozers to the tell tale piles of rubble and twisted steel which littered the surrounding area. If there had been any doubt that each had once been a home, then the hurriedly assembled mounds of personal possessions, furniture, and children’s toys which accompanied each pile of rubble surely testified to the fact that these were dwellings.

As it was, there were plenty of family members eager to testify themselves, and in the moments following the re-opening of the village’s only road, EAPPI and ISM members– who had been prevented by road blocks from accessing the scene – moved in to speak to those left homeless by the action.

When asked what reason was given for the demolition, the above witness, visibly upset, replied “they do not want us to live here, that is the reason. I would like to tell you that this community has been here since before the establishment of the Israeli [state]. They took most of our land during the Nakba and they would like to dismiss us from here completely”.

Israeli military demolishes water wells and cisterns in the South Hebron Hills

14 December 2010 | Christian Peacemaker Teams

The Israeli military demolished three water cisterns and two wells in the Khashem Ad Daraj – Hathaleen region on Tuesday, December 14th . The military gave no reason for the destruction of the wells and cisterns.

The demolitions follow a pattern of destruction of Palestinian property by the Israeli military in Area C, as defined by the Oslo Accords. Rather than delivering the demolition orders to the residents of the villages in the area, the Israeli army instead left the orders under a stone two days earlier.

The demolished cisterns and wells supplied drinking water to the villagers as well as their sheep and goats. The wells were up to 300 meters deep and over 70 years old, pre-dating the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian Territories. International Humanitarian Law and Israeli Military law state that structures created before 1967 are protected and not to be destroyed by the occupying power.

The villages are in the southern West Bank, less than 15 km from the Dead Sea. This hilly region is arid, and receives an average yearly rainfall of between 150 – 250 mm.

Shepherding of sheep & goats is the primary source of food and income for the villages in this area. The destruction of the water wells & cisterns directly impacts their livelihood.

Israeli bulldozers: demolishing homes, ruining livelihoods

26 November 2010 | Stella, International Solidarity Movement

Palestinian mother sitting with her kids on the rubble of her home
How can a kid understand Israeli demolitions if neither adults can?
A tent with view on the ruins of a 200 metres house

In the last few days, with a wave of demolitions, Israeli bulldozers have spread destruction and despair in the villages across the West Bank: in Qarawat Bani Hassan near Salfeet, in al-Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley, in Hizma, near Jerusalem, in Khirbet Yarza, east of Tubas, and in the South Hebron Hills.

Yesterday I went to the village of al-Rifayaia, east of Yatta in South Hebron, where at 8:15 AM Israeli forces had demolished a house that had been home to two families of twenty people (16 of them minors).

I arrived there around 1 PM, to at least show the ISM’s support and to document what had happened.

Many people were gathering around the rubble to support the two families that had lost their houses. The many kids around had disoriented expressions while they were playing on the ruins of what used to be a nice 200 square meter house.

The women, even if they still had their eyes wet and red, did not forget hospitality and I was immediately offered a cup of sweet tea. Everybody encouraged me to take many pictures as if they wanted to show to the world all the details of their unjust distress.

A young man explained that his two brothers, with their families, were living in the house that was demolished. One of them was sitting not too far from us with a somber, worried expression. He won’t be able to rebuild a new house for his family. In fact, he has no permit to go and work in Israel and his economic situation is very bad.

The Israeli bulldozers didn’t even let them remove their belongings before demolishing the house.

The Red Cross visited them just before me and brought a couple of big tents, some plastic chairs, two camp stoves and a few boxes of humanitarian aid. Not enough to help them now that the cold winter is coming. I was asked if I could help them in any way, but unfortunately I could only assure them that the news about what had happened to them would be spread so that more people in the world would know how the Palestinian people are forced to live.

After a while Hamed Qawasmeh arrived. He works for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). He explained to me that there are not many organizations that help to rebuild houses that Israel demolishes, and that the UN can only provide some services to mitigate the harsh situation of the two homeless families.

While I talk with the UN representative, not too far from the ruins of the house the men of the family put up the two tents that the Red Cross had donated. At least these two homeless families, during the next cold winter months, will be surrounded by the warm support of their relatives and their community.