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NEWS & LETTERS, February - March 2007Defending Palestinian right to plow landNear Hebron, Occupied West Bank--Last month several friends and I headed down to Tuwani, a small village near Hebron, to support Palestinian farmers who had not been able to plow their fields. Local Jewish settlers have routinely engaged in violence against the villagers, attacking farmers and even children walking to and from school. Israeli authorities have interfered with villagers’ access to their fields, save for the land on the Tuwani hillside. On this day, armed with a recent court decision guaranteeing the villagers the right to work their land, Tuwani farmers attempted to till their land. Israeli and international human rights workers hoped to discourage settler attacks--the plowing was done all at once so as to be too much for the settlers to sabotage. Three Israelis and I sat atop a hillside as a local farmer and his son sowed seed before we saw a police jeep. Moments later, just as the farmer began to plow, settlers with dogs came toward the farmer. As they approached, I said, “Shalom.” A few settlers sat down at our feet to block the tractor; I attempted to convince them to turn around, to which the settlers replied with curses in Hebrew, so I replied “Shalom.” One settler answered, “No peace for you! You’re thieves!” I said, “I only wish peace for you,” to which he replied, “I only wish death for you.” After 15 minutes Israeli military jeeps and more police jeeps arrived. Eventually the soldiers and police convinced the settlers to leave the area. Several Swedish and English friends accompanied other farmers to their fields, and had similar encounters with settlers. An English human rights worker grabbed one settler’s arm as he swung his fist towards a Palestinian farmer. This settler then turned to the Englishman and attacked him with a walkie-talkie. As a result of the efforts of the Tuwani farmers, with a bit of support from Israeli and international human rights workers, and with a bit of enforcement on the part of the Israeli military and police, the Tuwani farmers were able to plow all of the land on their side of the hill, all of the land in the valleys, and most of their land on the Havat Ma’on side of the hill. --U.S. youth |
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