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Settler violence

AT-TUWANI REPORT: The Dangerous Road to Education. Palestinian Students Suffer Under Settler Violence and Military Negligence

Jan 4th, 2011
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CPTnet Digest

4 January 2011

A newsletter written by members of Christian Peacemaker Teams and Operation Dove.

Operation Dove (Nonviolent Peace Corps of Association “Comunit” Papa Giovanni XXIII) and Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) announce the publication of the 2009-2010 report on the Israeli military escort to the Palestinian schoolchildren from the villages of Tuba and Maghayir al-Abeed.

An average of eighteen Palestinian children from the villages of Tuba and Maghayir al Abeed attend school in the neighbouring village of At-Tuwani.

To reach school, the children typically use the primary road that connects their villages with At-Tuwani and passes between the Israeli settlement of Ma’on and the Israeli outpost of Havat Ma’on (Hill 833).

Since 2001, Israeli settlers from Havat Ma’on have routinely attacked the children on their journey to and from school, but it was not until November 2004 that Israeli authorities established a daily military escort.

Despite the Israeli military escort, the children have been victims of violence 104 times between November 2004 and June 2010.

The soldiers carrying out the escort have at times failed to protect the children and have frequently arrived late, causing the children to wait, sometimes for hours, before and after school.

During the 2009-2010 school year, children missed almost twenty-seven hours of school and waited fifty-three hours for military escort after school.

In addition, the soldiers regularly failed to provide a complete escort of the children, almost always leaving the children to walk unescorted beside settlement buildings, in an area where settlers have attacked them.

Despite the children’s right to access education, the military fails to provide a consistent escort for the children. When the military does not arrive, the schoolchildren must take alternative routes that take up to two hours by foot through a rocky, hilly landscape. Furthermore, settlers attack the children and their relatives on these longer paths.

Members of Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams have had a continuous presence in the village of At-Tuwani since 2004 and daily monitor the military escort of the schoolchildren.

The report, “The Dangerous Road to Education. Palestinian Students Suffer Under Settler Violence and Military Negligence” is available as a PDF. Click here for the PDF document.

AL-KHALIL (HEBRON) REFLECTION: Preparing children for peace

Dec 3rd, 2010
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CPTnet Volume 36, Issue 3
A newsletter written by members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams

This autumn, a local businessman alerted three CPTers to the presence of a group of soldiers outside the Ibrahimi School, located in the heart of the Old City.

Upon arrival, the school principal informed CPT that a settler boy, around seven years old, had accused two Palestinian boys from the Ibrahimi School of throwing a rock at him.  Soldiers wanted to enter the school with the settler child to identify and arrest the Palestinian boys, and the school principal responded by saying they would first need to get
permission from the Palestinian Minister of Education.

Over a period of three hours, fifty Israeli soldiers, twenty settlers and Israeli police gathered outside the school. When the Palestinian Ministry of Education told the soldiers that they could not enter the school, the Israeli army disregarded his decision and entered the school with the settler boy in tow.

Two Palestinian boys under the age of eighteen were arrested in front of their peers and taken to the local police station. The Israeli army and police informed the Minister of Education that these arrests were necessary for “maintaining the peace,” because the group of settlers gathered outside the school had threatened to remain and harass the school
children if the police did not arrest the Palestinian boys.

Over the years, people on the Hebron team have witnessed settler children attack Palestinian children many times, and to the best of our knowledge, no police officer has ever taken a Palestinian child into an Israeli school to point out his/her attackers.  Indeed, when adult Palestinians and internationals provide documentation of settler children attacking Palestinian children and adults, police and soldiers usually dismiss them rudely.

The Ibrahimi School incident not only shows the lack of impartiality on the part of the police, but also that settler accusations supersede preserving the educational environment of Palestinian children.

The entry of soldiers into educational institutions signifies to children that schools are not safe places for them, thus creating further barriers to education.

The young settler boy that made the rock throwing accusation was prompted by his father and other adult settlers to demand entry into the Ibrahimi School during school hours. Settler adults brought a number of settler children with them to the school and refused to obey the soldiers instructions for children to leave the scene.

Children need safe environments where they can learn and grow. Unfortunately, what CPT observes here in Al-Khalil is that children, both Palestinian and Israeli, are not being brought up in a spirit of love or respect for others.

The Israeli authorities in this area are not preparing children for a life of peace, tolerance, and equality — a life that all children deserve.

For footage of the Ibrahimi school incident, click here

AL-KHALIL (HEBRON): Shepherd made homeless, livelihood threatened, son in prison.

Nov 3rd, 2010
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CPTnet Digest, Volume 35, Issue 1
A newsletter written by members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams
29 October 2010

AL-KHALIL (HEBRON): Shepherd made homeless, livelihood threatened, son in prison.

On Monday 11 October, at 8.00 a.m. the Israeli military arrived at the home
of Noah al-Rajabi in Bani Naim without warning and destroyed the family’s
water cistern, tent, and a small wooden structure family members used for
cooking and storage.

Al-Rajabi told CPTers, who visited after the incident, that soldiers kicked
and beat some of the animals and that one pregnant ewe aborted.  When his
fourteen-year-old son objected to their actions, soldiers arrested him,
accusing him of “obstructing the military” and scratching a soldier’s
face.

Ten weeks earlier, the Israeli military demolished al-Rajabi’s house. His
wife and the younger of his seven children now live in two rented rooms in
Hebron. Al-Rajabi and his oldest son remained in a tent supplied by the Red
Cross, so that they could continue working with his flock.

CPTers met al-Rajabi in Hebron on 12 October. He did not know where his son
was being held, or where he could get water for his animals. They
accompanied him to three Israeli police stations. The only information
Israeli police gave them was that his son was being held in Ofer military
prison. They refused to accept a complaint against the Israeli soldiers for
their behaviour.

CPTers also visited Al-Rajabi’s rented accommodation in Hebron where they
met his wife and some of his other children. “Please bring my son
home,” his wife pleaded with them.

Al-Rajabi’s brother has been watching his sheep and goats, and has moved
them to another hillside where there is water. Agencies in Hebron are
trying to reconnect Noah’s water supply, but the cistern will have to be
rebuilt, and will run the risk of demolition in the future.

For further information on the imprisonment of Palestinian minors by the
Israeli military, please refer to the annual reports of Defence for Children International (Palestine).