24 August, 2005

 

Villagers Plan for Night Assaults by Israeli Settlers

 

Last Sunday, a group of Israeli settlers spent the night terrorizing Palestinian villagers in the northern West Bank around Nablus. According to a source at the UN, settlers marched through eight villages chanting, threatening, and destroying Palestinian property.

 

We Internationals in At-Tuwani have been advised to not all leave the village for extended periods of time as the “Hill-Top Youth” (a fanatical group of settlers known to build outposts and terrorize Palestinians) are being evicted from Gaza en mass and returning to the West Bank. We know of at least one settler youth from the near-by settlement of Ma’on that was arrested by Israeli police in Gaza, and we fear many others will be returning to our neck of the woods soon, now madder and more violent than ever.

 

In light of this information, Tuwani villagers called an all-village meeting to discuss the threat and potential responses. It was agreed that the attack would likely come at night, so we decided to post night patrols, two Palestinians and two internationals to watch the settlement and outpost from midnight to three AM every night. Most villagers sleep outside because of the heat, so we plan to use a megaphone with a siren to warn the village in the event of an attack so they have time to get inside. We also agreed that we would call the police and military immediately, as they often respond more quickly to internationals (though still not that quickly).

 

The UN had advised the villagers to go inside and lock their doors in the event of an incursion; however this was not acceptable to Tuwani. Most Tuwani villagers don’t have door locks, and they are certainly not going to cower in their homes while settlers attack people and livestock and destroy their property. “We’ve got to keep them from entering the village” said Tuwani villager Mohammad adamantly, “When we see them coming, we should all go block them, and throw stones or whatever we have to do to keep them out”. The rest nodded their heads in agreement. We assured that we would accompany them to videotape and try and deter settler violence.

 

Mahmud suggested that each family read a passage from the Koran each night to protect them, and all affirmed the idea. Another jokingly suggested that if settlers come into the village we should all go to the settlement, and laughter broke the heavy mood.

 

They told us about when this happened before. Last summer, settlers came two nights in a row and threw stones at the house nearest the outpost, so the third night the village had a meeting and decided to wait for the settlers and throw stones at them as they approached. The settlers didn’t come back after that.

 

It was all excitement and agreement until it came time to choose who would stay up that night. Mohammad patted Samir and said “Samir you!” and Samir patted Mohammad saying “Mohammad, you!”, and it was decided that the first two would be Samir and Mohammad.

 

Staying up isn’t so hard for me. We make alternating pots of tea and coffee, pick grapes and figs, and chat in basic Arabic and English. Those of us not watching sleep in our clothes with our shoes, flashlights, cameras, and video cameras close by.

 

Please continue your prayers for these amazing Tuwani villagers, determined to resist the ongoing Israeli ethnic cleansing and terrorism.