September 2006

Interview with H, a village leader of At-Tuwani, South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestinian Territories:

“I’m H, age 35, and I have four brothers and three sisters. I married in 1996, and shortly after, my brother S., who is the Mayor of At-Tuwani, had his new house demolished by Israeli Military.

When I was a boy, I went to school in Yatta. I traveled there by walking or by donkey. Years later I went to Bethlehem University for one semester. At the time, this was all I could afford due to the economic situation. I feel lucky in that many of my peers were not able to attend the University.

The people of At-Tuwani live simply and off the land. We depended on agriculture and grazing animals. Before the Israeli settlers arrived in the 1980’s and took land, Palestinian families were able to graze more animals. It was not uncommon for small families to have 100+ sheep and larger families to have 500+ sheep. As a kid I raised and grazed sheep where the illegal Israeli settlement, Ma’on is now situated.

In 1982 - Ma’on was established. At first the settlers started with a few caravans – but each year took more and more land. This of course effected the economy of our village. Having less land meant less agriculture produced, therefore more to buy – which meant selling our sheep to buy food.

Settlers soon began attacking villagers; people became fearful and started leaving the land. We complained to Israeli police (in Kiryat Arba) but the police did nothing. Soldiers would follow settlers’ orders on matters of ownership of land, and soldiers themselves were settlers. Palestinians were viewed as guilty and villagers began losing hope.

After 1999 demolitions and expulsion of Palestinians from their cave homes in the region, the leaders of At-Tuwani invited in Israeli peace groups. Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) and Ta’ayush began showing up regularly. Israeli commanders in the area began targeting the local leaders because of this. Soldiers came into our homes during the night, destroyed property, and warned us not to let the Israeli human rights workers in. But we had nothing left to lose because the settlers took most of the land and were harassing us.

We noticed that after the human rights workers would leave, the soldiers would punish the village. Soldiers stopped this when human rights workers stayed in the village for longer periods of time. I remember at times the soldiers would declare our land a closed military zone, and human rights workers would have to hide and observe military interactions with villagers. The military would confiscate IDs, which cost the people time and money. Soldiers would shoot out the wheels of tractors. The soldiers did not want anyone supporting the rights of the Palestinians.

Palestinians were under pressure, and feared any reaction to Israeli violence would lead to being shot. That defense by fighting back would make things worse, so in 2004, the village of At-Tuwani decided it was necessary to have a full time international presence, and contacted Christian Peacemaker Teams and Operation Dove. This was the first time people felt security; for the first time, people could somewhat relax.

People in this area want food for their family and want to simply live; to live without struggle. Some sheep and land, this is enough. But there is not much hope. We have lived under occupation we don’t want our children growing up under it. Israel took not only our land but our rights. We want our rights back.”

Video interview conducted by Matthew Chandler. Transcribed by Joel Gulledge September 2006

August 2005

K’s story - taken by Mary Yoder, August 2005

“The women in At-Tuwani work side by side with their husbands, but don’t have the same rights. I feel that this is because most are not educated. Girls here usually only attend school to grade six. A woman may find herself in an unhappy marriage and want to go back to her parents. Sometimes tradition keeps the woman from going anywhere. She can’t learn anything new. This is not a good tradition. In 2000, the British ngo EMR came to At-Tuwani. They made cisterns for the people. You can see many of the cisterns outside. They supported the women here and listened to us. We talked to a woman by the name of Rose, and told her how some of the woman suffered. Rose taught us how to conduct an official meeting. So we had a meeting and a summer camp was proposed.

We thought this was a fun idea. Some of the women were not allowed to participate. I challenged that, and we had camp anyway. It was successful and every year it has become more acceptable and more women participate. After that we formed a co-op. Rose explained that through the co-op, women had more control of their lives and could do things they want to do. An official co-op needs to register in Hebron and we had problems with this because most of us cannot get to Hebron. We also needed to make weekly trips to Hebron for this, but in a poor society, this is difficult. So we have our own museum here, and we try to make and sell things to people who come to visit.

In this economy, we cannot seem to sell things in other places such as Yatta or Hebron. A dress in the museum takes about four to five months to make, as a woman makes it in her spare time. If four to five women make a dress together, it only takes one month. Big baskets take fifteen days; a big bag takes two months, and a small bag takes one month to make.

The proceeds are going into a fund to help girls attend school beyond 6th grade. This requires extra money because they must go to Yatta after grade six. They must either pay for daily taxi trips or live with relatives.”