FEBRUARY-MARCH 2008

Report: JNF parks to mark demolished Palestinian villages
_{By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent}
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/950689.html
An organization campaigning for the commemoration of Arab villages destroyed in the 1948 War of Independence said that the Jewish National Fund has agreed to place signs in parks on which former villages once stood. During the War of Independence in 1948, about 500 Palestinian villages were demolished. Some of their residents fled, fearing the approaching Jewish forces, and others were actively expelled. Most of the villages have been replaced with new settlements, parks and nature reserves. The historical existence of only a handful of them is mentioned in some capacity on the land they used to occupy.

"Zochrot" (Remembering), an organization advocating the right of return of Palestinian refugees, has been leading for some years a campaign to commemorate the demolished Palestinian villages in Israel. Last week it bore fruit. JNF officials said that in Israeli parks that stand on former Arab villages where signs that tell the history of the area are fixed, these will include information about the defunct villages. In addition to 12 villages that are already mentioned in JNF parks, 31 others will reportedly be commemorated in national parks nationwide. Among them are Amuka in Biriya Forest, Reihaniyya in Ramat Menashe Park, Jimzu in Ben Shemen Forest and Saraa in Tzora Forest. Zochrot said that the JNF decision is an "interestingly radical change." Director Eitan Bronstein told Haaretz that he thinks "today there is more openness about the issue, and it is beginning to be less menacing . The sky won't fall if we admit that we expelled Arabs and demolished villages." Most villages were demolished by IDF troops during the 1948 war, and others were handed over to the newborn state. Zochrot says that the land of 86 demolished villages is in the boundaries of JNF parks.

A few years ago Zochrot petitioned the High Court of Justice, demanding that the West Bank villages of Yalo and Emmaus, which were demolished in 1967, after the Six Day War, be mentioned in Canada Park near Latrun, to which their lands were annexed. In 2005, following the petition, the JNF agreed to fix signs commemorating the villages, but they were vandalized and removed a few weeks later. In light of the new decision, Zochrot will make information from its database available to JNF wardens. The JNF declined to officially confirm, but conceded that a discussion on the matter took place last week.

An ancient Palestinian village struggles to survive Israeli settlement expansion and settler violence.

At-Tuwani

At-Tuwani is a village in the Hebron District, southeast of Yatta. It has a population of approximately 150-200 people, with five main families and 27 households. There is one elementary school which serves the children from At-Tuwani and children from five neighboring villages. The oldest houses in At-Tuwani are between 300-500 years old, some of the caves are said to be from the Roman times.

The village has one diesel generator that provides electricity for the village for four hours every night. There is one spring-fed well that provides water for drinking and cooking, but does not provide enough water for washing. Rainwater is collected in cisterns for washing and for the animals.

At-Tuwani is surrounded by the Ma'on settlement (northeast), Havat Ma'on outpost (east) and Avi Gai outpost (southwest). Caravans establishing the settlement at Ma'on were first put in place in 1982. Since then, the settlement has confiscated more than 1500 dunams of land from At-Tuwani villagers, at the rate of approximately 70-100 dunams confiscated from the village each year (1dunam = 1/4acre).

*Historical information gathered primarily from interviews with Palestinian villagers.vvvvvv

Christian Peacemaker Team brings Tuwani Children to school

Saber Hereni of At-Tuwani stands by his house that Israeli authorities destroyed in June of 2004. Israeli authorities have destroyed numerous buildings in the village, including their mosque. 11/03/2004

The Israeli military frequently destroys and blocks the only Palestinian road that leads to At-Tuwani. This blockage impedes movement into the areas larger population centers of Karmil and Yatta.

During the night Israeli settlers burn crops in the field or stacks of crops. Three stacks of lentils like the one in the background of this picture were burnt in fields across the Israeli bypass road from the Ma'on settlement. 01/05/2005

Palestinians grazing their sheep on fields near Ma'on and Havot Ma'on. Here Israeli settlers frequently attack Palestinians. CPT and the Doves accompany shepherds in this area. 04/2005

Barley seeds coated in a rat-poison called 2-fluoroacetamide. Very low quantities of this poison can be lethal to humans and animals.In the two villages of At-Tuwani and Mufakara, as of June 9, at least 57 adult and 46 new born sheep and goats have died from effects of the poisoning.Since the first poison was discovered near Tuwani on 22 March 2005, more fields have been targeted in the same region.

Palestinian shepherds and Israeli Park Rangers remove poison from the land near Khoruba. One Dove tells a Park Ranger about the dead stork and shows him a picture of it. The Ranger refuses to take away the body of the bird and says that it would be strange for a stork to eat barley seeds. A settler on a tractor comes down from the Havat Ma'on outpost, drives in the direction of the shepherds and stops about eighty meters from them. The settler yells to them saying, "Today you eat, but tomorrow you will cry."
Israeli soldiers come to the valley where the shepherds are removing the poison and tell them to stop. Soldiers say only the residents in Mufakara and not people from At-Tuwani are allowed to stay. The soldiers arrest a seventeen-year-old boy from At-Tuwani who was standing and watching. The soldier refuses to give his name and explain the reason for the arrest. One soldier says that they will take the boy to the Israeli military base near Suseya. A military car drops the boy off on route 317 near At-Tuwani in the afternoon. The boy says two settlers and some soldiers beat him inside the military base. He says the soldiers and settlers taunted him by saying, "Where are the internationals and the members of Ta'ayush now?"
www.cpt.org/.../Tuwani_media_packet.htm