CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAM - A PROTEST MARCH NEAR TUWANI

By invitation from Palestinians living in the village of Tuwani, we traveled from Hebron to Tuwani on the morning of July 8 for a Walking Action. Palestinians were protesting the extension of a settlement onto land belonging to Palestinians. At Tuwani we joined Palestinians, Israelis and internationals at a school for the march. School children lead the way with banners. One banner read: “We want to live in peace and dignity.” About 100 participated in the Action.

When the group had traveled to Humra, the children began to water trees which settlers from the Havot Maon Outpost had destroyed two months ago. The Military, using a bullhorn, declared the March Action area a “closed military zone.” The land we were marching on had Palestinian gardens, although some of the land near the settlement was fallow. Some Israeli activists in our group began to go toward the illegal extension of the Havot Maon Outpost. The Palestinians tried to reason with the commanding offer, an Israeli general and the police. An Operation Dove member and a Palestinian were arrested, and the soldiers, Border Police and Blue Police advanced and threw sound bombs followed by tear gas. A number of marchers were affected by the tear gas and smoke. No one was seriously hurt. The Palestinians dispersed, but Amiel, leader of Tay’yush gathered the Israelis and internationals and debriefed with them about what happened. He pointed out that the the Palestinians decided to offer no resistance. All activists followed suit.

CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKER TEAMS - HEBRON

During the month of July I am participating as a Christian Peacemaker Team member in Hebron, Palestine. Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is a faith-based organization that supports Palestinian-led, nonviolent, grassroos resistance to the Israeli occupation and the unjust structures that uphold it. CPT has demonstrated that teams of four to six people trained in the skills of documentation, observation, nonviolent intervention, and non-anxious presence can make a difference in explosive situations. Peacemaker teams are present in places like Hebron where the distribution and exercise of power stimies real peace efforts. Hebron typifies conditions in which one party has most of the power and the other has little. Until both parties have hope for a fair relationship at the nogotiating table,the conflict appears to be headed toward an ever vanishing place called Palestine. CPT workers try to emphasize or encourage nonviolent methods for redress and get in the way of violence when they can.

CPT maintains one team at two sites in Palestine. Half of the team is in the city of Hebron/al-Khalil in the southern West Bank. The second half is located 25 kilometers (15) miles further south in the Palestinian village at-Tiwane (near Yatta) very close to the Israel settlement of Ma'on.