Our fifth day began very early in the morning. One of the main things CPT does in Tuwani is monitor children on their way to school. CPT does not try and solve the problems of the situations they are asked to come to, but join in with what the people are already doing, and what they ask CPT to help with. This is one of the things CPT is asked to do. It began by CPT escorting the children (very young children) on their way to school. They were asked to do this because Jewish settlers from the settlement literally above Tuwani on the hill would come down and attack the children with stones and other things on their way to school. At first CPT’s presence subdued this, but after a while the settlers got confident and even began attacking CPT members. As a result the military is to provide an escort for the children so that they don’t have to walk the 2-3 hour route around the settlement. However, the military doesn’t always show up on time, or at all. So, CPT watch to make sure the children are safe and being escorted, bringing video and still digital cameras to document any thing that happens. Below we are waiting to see the children walk over the first hill in the distance.
To the south we could see hills stretching all the way to Jordan (below).
Above the children can be seen first appearing in the distance (I am using a 200mm lens, which is multiplied to 360mm by the cropped sensor of the Canon 40D, thus showing that they were quite a ways off). Below is the barn they walk to, then head to the end where they can see if the military escort has arrived. If it hasn’t they wait, and if it doesn’t they have to walk all the way home.
Above the barn is one of the settlers’ homes from where we could see the family watching for the children. They did this both mornings (above). The below image is not my own, but another delegate’s photo. It shows the military escorts bookending the children on the road to the settlement.
Our next stop that day was to another settlement in the area, called Susya. We met with two Jewish settlers that told us straight out that they did not want a democracy, but a theocracy. The also told us that if Israel lowers its weapons it will be destroyed, but if its enemies lowers their weapons there will be peace. This was among many similar statements to these. We talked with them in the safe confines of a very nice house, which had an amazing ceiling of wood (which is almost impossible to come by over there).
The above and below pictures are of the settlement, but the bottom image is another delegate’s and not my own. The settlement looked like many places I’ve been in many US suburbs.
We then visited the village which had originally been there, and has now been demolished on the next hill over where they can look back at their stolen land (below). Many of the settlements are named after the Palestinian villages they are trying to take over.
The above kid liked my sunglasses. Below you can see the tents they are now forced to live in, although the military could come and demolish them whenever they wanted. Why? No building permit. This is the same case for all Palestinians. The Israeli government has made it so that any Palestinian needs a permit to either build or keep their house upon their land. The application for the permit costs the equivalent of around $1500, takes months to be “processed” and then most Palestinians are denied the permit (unless they get a Jewish lawyer, as did Ata – see my earlier post). For this reason places like At Tuwani have a standing demolition order on the whole village, and the military could come demolish the whole area if they choose.
Energy is gathered through the above solar panel.
We later returned to Tuwani for a tour of the area, which was fairly short as it is a small village.
We ended the day with another amazing home cooked meal, including the below pita which was still warm!
by Joel
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