A Bittersweet Memory

So, I’ve been avoiding writing one final blog entry about this summer…not sure why, but the process of putting thoughts and experiences down seemed so exhausting when I first returned two weeks ago. Now, it feels like it’s going to be a relief, like I need to get something out or I will explode!

I promised I would write about the action that happened in At Tuwani on August 2. When I think about that day, which was actually a really successful action for Palestinians in the area, the first thing that comes to mind is a young girl named Amira. She’s the same feisty girl I wrote about in June who declared that she didn’t like At Tuwani because of the incursions by Israeli soldiers and settlers. Amira is a very interesting little girl, at times really aloof and at other times extremely intense and focused.

One ridiculously hot afternoon in July, Joy and I were working on a piece of writing when Amira showed up. We were intent on finishing the document before the computer battery died and she was intent on convincing us she needed to take our bottle of bubbles to her house. I tried a million ways to tell her she had to use them at our house (as every kid in a radius of two miles would be banging down our door to do the same if we let her take them), a million ways to tell her we could talk to her after we finished writing, but she wasn’t having any of that. She tried pleading, peering over our shoulders, playing with the keyboard, staring us down, speaking loudly with another girl from the village about how unfair we were being to her; she was relentless. Joy remarked at one point, “She’s driving me crazy, but this girl is going to make a great resister.”

Well, Amira got to test out those resistance skills on August 2 as she and her neighbors tried to march from At Tuwani to villages her classmates come from, villages she has never before seen in her life though they are just a 20 minute walk from her house. The Israeli police and army refused to let us march the route on which the children and CPTers had been attacked by Israeli settlers a week earlier. In fact, they proceeded to push the marchers back, attempted to arrest others, and one soldier even went as far as choking my teammate Tarek as he pinned Tarek down on the ground. Things were at a stand still. In the end, they Palestinians negotiated with them and gained permission to march on the road between Havot Maon settlement outpost and the settlement of Maon. As I mentioned before, no Palestinian has stepped foot on that road in the past eleven years except for the children from the villages of Tuba and Maghayer el Abeed who are escorted by the Israeli military to school. The simple act of walking on this road was a miracle in and of itself.

I was one of the last people to arrive at the final agreed-upon march route, and as I reached the crest of the hill overlooking the marchers I saw Amira walking slowly towards me.

“Sarah, I’m scared,” she muttered.

“You’re scared?”

“Yes."

For some reason, I didn’t hesitate in my reply. I merely said, “Don’t be scared, Amira. We are all together, right? We are much stronger together. It will be ok.”

She nodded her head and took a hold of my hand as we made our way down toward the road. I don’t remember seeing her join the group of 150 or so Palestinians who set off with drums and banners, nor did I see her after she returned, but I know she was able to catch a glimpse of the place her classmates’ call home for the first time in her eight years of life. She was able to participate with her community in letting those who had threatened and beaten her neighbors know that this community wasn't going to run away in fear. It was such a tiny victory, but it brought me tremendous joy.

I will never forget the elation of seeing people I have come to call friends march to see their neighbors that day and I will never forget Amira’s panicked face as she said, “Sarah, I’m scared.” As a result of realities surrounding the Israeli occupation, Amira is being forced to grow up very quickly; her world is not the carefree world I knew when I was her age. So, for me, August 2, 2008 is a bittersweet memory, but one I will hold onto for a very long time.

One of my young neighbors getting ready to march.

Palestinians trying to convince the Israeli police to let them march.

March from At-Tuwani to Tuba a success

CPTnet
3 August 2008
AT-TUWANI: March from At-Tuwani to Tuba a success

On 2 August, more than one hundred children and their parents from the South Hebron Hills marched from the village of At-Tuwani to the village of Tuba, calling for an end to settler violence and settlement expansion in the area. The march was a part of the annual South Hebron Hills summer camp for children and a response to recent settler attacks on children walking to the summer camp in At-Tuwani.

The children and their parents, accompanied by a few Israelis and internationals, took the most direct path to the village of Tuba. For the past eleven years, school children escorted by the Israeli military have been the only Palestinians able to use this road. Palestinian parents organized the march to call attention to the violence faced by school children, the failure of the Israeli army to protect them and the effects of Israeli settlement expansion.

The march initially attempted to take the path that children use when unaccompanied by the Israeli military, around the settlement outpost Havat Ma’on (Hill 833)—which the Israeli government ordered dismantled in 2006. The Israeli military then declared the whole area a closed military zone and restrained the march with force, targeting leaders. Seeing a soldiers attack and try to arrest a Palestinian man, a CPTer tried to intervene. Soldiers knocked them both down and started choking the CPTer. Other participants in the demonstration then intervened nonviolently and stopped the attack. An Israeli and Kristin Anderson—who has worked both with CPT and Operation Dove (an Italian peace group that, with CPT, forms the At-Tuwani team)—were arrested.

Palestinian organizers negotiated with the soldiers, and the Israeli military agreed to accompany the children and parents on the short path, using the road between Ma’on settlement and Havat Ma’on (Hill 833).

A large group of settlers came out of Ma’on and harassed the marchers. A smaller group of settlers followed directly behind the marchers, but Israeli military and police prevented them from attacking the group. One village elder accompanying the children walked this road for the first time in years. Surprised by the settlement expansion, she shared with a soldier about how she plowed this land years ago.

Participating in the march were children from the villages of Tuba and Maghaer Al-Abeed, whom settlers have regularly attacked as they walked to primary school in At-Tuwani. The children rely on an Israeli military escort to accompany them to school and prevent Israeli settlers from attacking them, but the Israeli military has recently declined to carry out the escort for summer camp. The most recent settler attack took place on 27 July, when the Israeli military refused to escort the children. Settlers flung rocks at the children with slingshots and physically assaulted CPTer Joel Gulledge, inflicting a head wound requiring stitches.

Trying to walk the original planned route of the march where settlers have recently attacked children and CPTers.

Palestinians marching along the road between Ma'on settlement and Havot Ma'on settlement outpost. Most of the marchers hadn't stepped foot on this road for over eleven years, even though the land itself is owned by various Palestinian families.

CPTer faces possible deportation

I was at this action yesterday and will write more about it later and include photos. It was a really big success for Palestinians in the area. As far as the CPTer mentioned below, Kristin was released at 2am and her legal status is still unknown. They were trying to charge with assaulting a soldier, which is completely false and we have video footage of the event to prove it.

CPTnet2
August 2008
AT-TUWANI: CPTer faces possible deportation

The Israeli authorities detained Kristin Anderson, a U.S. citizen working with Christian Peacemaker Teams in the South Hebron Hills, today during a non-violent action in At-Tuwani. Israeli soldiers took Anderson's bag and passport, and police detained her when she stayed behind to retrieve them; they then took her to the Kiryat Arba police station. The Israeli authorities may move her to the Russian Compound in Jerusalem for a trial and possible deportation.

The public witness was a response to four attacks Israeli settlers perpetrated against Palestinian children in the last week as they walked to or from summer camp in At-Tuwani. About 300 Palestinian adults and children as well as Israelis and internationals marched from At-Tuwani to Tuba to protest the continuing violence and the expansion of the settlement outpost Havat Ma'on.