News via the ISM

1.Soldiers invade Qarawat Bani Zeid
From IWPS the International Women's Peace Service

On the afternoon of January the 25th around 20 jeeps from the
Israeli Occupation Forces invaded the lower end of Qarawat Bani
Zeid. The Israeli army had taken occupation of four houses.
The house of Halil was surrounded with all the family members still
inside. The soldiers ransacked the home while the family members
watched. The family was kept in their home with the soldiers for two
hours while the soldiers wreaked havoc in their home. The soldiers
shot numerous bullets into the walls of the home. The 23 year son
of Hilal, Bilal has been arrested and taken away by the soldiers.
Two women of the IWPS are currently in the village. They report
that there no injuries in the village and that the soldiers have now
left the village.
For further information, including more detailed background
information on the village of Qarawat Bani Zeid please contact the
IWPS Office: 09-2516-644 Mobile: 054 694 0602 / 054 691 6841 or
IWPS [at] palnet.com.


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2. Palestinian Sheppards Face Down Settler and Army Violence
By Aaron Lakoff
Hebron, Palestine – February 17, 2005

We were in a van about 100 meters down the road from our destination
Of At-Tuwani, and it had only been half and hour since we had left
Jerusalem.
An Israeli woman turned to me from the seat in front, smiled, and
said, "Pretty fast, no?" I was in a van with a group of Israeli
activists, and we had just zipped down one of Israel's nicely-paved
settler roads. I was quite surprised, as I had traveled from Hebron
to At-Tuwani just the other day, and that took twice as long even
though Hebron is much closer. Mind you, the previous day I had been
with Palestinians using Palestinian roads. It's interesting how
convenient the settler infrastructure is if you have privilege here.
We were on our way to the small Palestinian village of At-Tuwani
this morning to join in a demonstration with local sheppards and
numerous international and Israeli activists groups.
The demonstration was meant to draw attention to recent incidences
of neighboring Israeli settlers intimidating and attacking At-Tuwani
sheppards.
Yesterday, two members of the Italian-based group Operation Dove
were badly beaten by settlers from nearby Ma'on. One of the
activists lost consciousness and wound up in the hospital with a
fractured jaw.
This had been the latest in a string of vicious attacks against
international activists who had been in the area to accompany At-
Tuwani's residents, as they attempt to get on with life as usual.
Today's demonstration was a pleasant one, as the sun was shining
down over the lush fields, and the sheppards seemed relieved by the
presence of so many activists from around the world.
When we arrived on the sight, there was already a presence of
military and settlers building up, with about 4 army jeeps and 20
soldiers and border police.
We began to walk with the sheep out into the fields at around
10:30am, and immediately the occupation forces made the predictable
move of declaring the whole area, including the grazing fields
belonging to
At-Tuwani, to be a closed military zone.
This news didn't seem to have the desired effect on the sheppards.
In fact, this Term shouldn't find any space in their vocabulary. At-
Tuwani is a 500-year old village. Sheppards and farmers have been
using these fields for generation upon generation. So this "closed
military zone" seemed to not bother them. These are their lands,
and no foreign occupying power was going to stop them from using
them this morning.
After about 30 minutes of grazing, the soldiers were beginning to
get increasingly frustrated that no one had left the area. So they
attacked the sheep. A large hummer pulled up and started racing
after flocks of sheep, sending them running frantically out of the
valley. Some soldiers jumped out of the vehicle, picked up rocks,
and began hurling a few at the sheep in desperate attempts to rid
the area of what they perceived to be security threats.
As the sheep were running off, the army also began to make grabs at
people, arresting one Palestinian man, and one Israeli activist from
the peace group Taayush.
We began to retreat from the commotion, when suddenly I was grabbed
from behind by an angry officer.
He had his handcuffs out and was ready to arrest me, shouting that I
was violating his precious military zone. I demanded to see the
legal documents illustrating that this was in fact a closed military
zone, and he pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. On
that paper was a photocopied satellite photo of the area, with a
squiggly line running through the middle. It looked like it was a 4-
year old's show and tell project. This is Israel's so-called legal
grounding in the occupied territories.
None-the-less, we avoided being arrested and backed off to just
behind the line with some of the sheppards.
A few minutes later, some of the soldiers approached us again, as if
to rub it in our faces that they had won this time.
I asked one of these soldiers why they felt it was necessary to
aggressively force peaceful sheppards and their sheep off of their
lands. The soldier replied that some of the sheppards could be
dangerous terrorists, and mentioned that one of them had killed a
male settler named Dov.
The case of Dov is notorious in At-Tuwani.
Dov Dribin was an Israeli settler who lived in Ma'on. Over the
years, he had gained a fearful reputation with the Palestinian
sheppards in his area. He must have felt it was his duty to beat,
harass, or insult any Palestinian within range. One day in April,
1998, Dov came across two sheppards in the field, and shot one of
them in the leg with his gun. The other sheppard, fearful for his
life, struggled with Dov, managed to grab his gun, and fired a
lethal blow into his body.
Dov's death still lingers in the air today, and is used as a reason
for the occupation forces to consider At-Tuwani to be dangerous.
I tried explaining the story of Dov from the Palestinian perspective
to the soldier, when another one of his colleagues cut me off.
"We love Dov!" he sneered. "He used to do our work for us."
Clearly, he did do the work of the army. But then again, in places
like At-Tuwani, it is hard to distinguish between the work of the
army and the work of the settlers.
As days like today make clear, both the settlers and the army have
the same goal – to dispossess and push Palestinians off of their
land. The army does this by quasi-legal avenues, while the settlers
seem to much prefer brute force. And then sometimes, the roles are
reversed!
The chain of events in At-Tuwani seems to defy all logic. The
settlers attack Palestinians and internationals. The army gets
called in, and they punish the Palestinians.
While Ariel Sharon and his government are trying to publicly
distance themselves from fundamentalist settlers in the Gaza strip,
the reality on the ground in the West Bank shows that they're
working hand in hand for a common objective.
Although the shame and insult of being driven off of their lands was
still lingering in the air, the sheppards seemed quietly content. A
500-year old village is weathered and worn, but it won't crumble so
easily to an occupation. Clearly, the threat isn't the flocks of
sheep and the men and women who care for them. The threat is the
colonial expansion of illegal settlements, and the Israeli
politicians who support this process. The roads, outposts, and
inhabitants of these places are slowly strangling Palestinian areas
around them. If the state of Israel doesn't stop supporting Ma'on
and other similar colonies, there will be bigger problems in the
region than a few sheep munching on blades of grass.

To view photos from this demonstration, visit:
http://gallery.cmaq.net/album39

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3. At Twani village tomorrow Sat 19th of February (near Hebron) has
called on Israeli and internationals to accompany them while they
fix their roads, ruined by the military. The villagers will be
joined by Taayush, CPT (Christian Peacemaking Teams),ISM and others…

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4. Some homecoming coverage of Pat O'Conner
http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=2963282
http://www.news12.com/NewCDA/articles/media_pop?CID=%26rid%3D3%
26region%3DCT%26id%3D130135