Report Seven: “We need you to go home and alleviate our suffering”

The delegation finished its work on the ground in Israel/Palestine this past Saturday, and most of the delegates have returned to the United States.  A few have stayed on for a few extra days and will be returning later this week.  This will be our last report from the delegation.

Thursday, July 27: Hebron

Today we drove to Hebron to tour the city, visit the Ibrahimi Mosque, and meet with Christian Peacemaker Teams. This is a conservative Muslim city and as visitors, we were advised to cover our hair to be in alignment with local culture. However, we later met internationals who observed western dress codes and were at ease and accepted in the city.

Hebron is a region in the West Bank that experiences heightened turmoil between Israeli settlers, Palestinians, and Israeli soldiers compared to other areas of the West Bank.  Settlements in Hebron are some of the most rural and furthest away from Israel, and these settlers—considered radical by many Israelis—often have chosen to live in these places for ideological purposes. The ideology that these Israeli Jewish setters subscribe to is that the land of Israel (including the West Bank) was promised to the Jews by God, and they feel that they are pioneering and fulfilling God’s will by venturing into the farthest territories possible so that Jews can claim all of their land.

Hebron is a 1,060 year old city and today, has a population of 200,000. In 1929 there was a massacre of Jewish residents of Hebron. Jews returned to Hebron in 1967, when the first Israeli settlement there was established. Today, there are four settlements in the city of Hebron.  In 1994 a settler named David Goldstein went into the Ibrahimi Mosque during Ramadan and killed 14 Muslims and injured 70. This event served to severely divide the community and since that time, Christians and Muslims are allowed into one section of the mosque, and Jews have a section to themselves.

Palestinian residents in Hebron were very welcoming to us, as in all other West Bank towns. Shopkeepers and passersby greeted us and said welcome. We didn’t encounter any settlers on the streets and unfortunately, had no interaction with them.


Ibrahimi Mosque

In order to enter the Ibrahimi Mosque we had to walk though two IDF checkpoints. At the first checkpoint we were asked to identify our religion and to submit to a bag check. We have two Jewish members of our group and the remainder of us identified ourselves as Christian.  The two Jewish members of our group had their passports checked and were lead in a different direction. After our visit, we learned that the IDF soldiers told them that they should be very careful and they might die.

The rest of our group (the Christians) went thought another checkpoint and were screened by having our bags checked and walking through metal detectors.  Then we were able to enter the mosque.

I appreciated the opportunity to be inside a mosque. The floors were covered with gorgeous deep red Persian carpets, there was artistic Arabic script adorning the walls. There was a pulpit, or minbar, that was 800 years old sitting in the back of the mosque.

Also contained in the mosque are the tombs of Sarah, Rebecca, Isaac and Abraham. Their monuments are inside the mosque for viewing, and their true tombs are in a cave far below the earth.

At Abraham’s tomb, the father of Jews, Christians and Muslims, I knelt as I had seen one Muslim man do, bowed to the floor and prayed for peace for us all.


Christian Peacemaker Teams

In the afternoon we met with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). CPT works with the local community to support nonviolent resistance to war and conflict. CPT has had a constant presence in Hebron since 1995. As written in their brochure, CPT, “stands[s] with Palestinians and Israeli peace groups engaged in nonviolent opposition to Israeli military occupation, collective punishment, settler harassment, home demolitions and land confiscation.”

CPT’s philosophy is that their peacemakers should be as committed to peace as a soldier is committed to fighting for their country. Peacemakers should be willing to die for peace. In Hebron, many CPT volunteers have been severely injured in their work.

In early evening, we drove to At-Tuwani, a tiny village near Hebron with a population of 150. Homes consist of rough, small, stone, one-story houses usually with livestock in their side yard. There is virtually no grass—just dust. They have no running water and no electricity, and are subsistence farmers. CPT works in this village as the Palestinians have constant conflict with settlers in the area.

The settlement of Ma’on is within eye sight of the village, and lies on land belonging to At-Tuwani. The settlers live in modest homes with red tiled roofs. A wooded hilltop rests near the settlement as well. The Israeli government provides settlers with running water and electricity.

The settlers of Ma’on seem to dislike the fact that At-Tuwani exists and have attempted to scare and drive them away. In order for the Palestinian children to go to school, they must pass by Ma’on.  Settlers have repeatedly attacked the school children as they pass, mainly by throwing rocks at them. These attacks were so prevalent that CPT volunteers began walking the children to school and back each day.

In one instance, settlers viciously attacked a group walking to school and severely injured CPT volunteers. One 41 year old man suffered a punctured lung and a 44 year old woman suffered a broken bone. The fact that internationals received this abuse called international attention to the problem and Israel responded by requiring that IDF soldiers escort the children to and from school.

Today, soldiers still escort the children, but CPT must work to ensure this happens. Often times, the soldiers are late and sometimes they don’t show. CPT must repeatedly call government offices in some cases to ensure the soldiers arrive.

There was also an incident in April when At-Tuwani’s goats were poisoned. Many goats began dying and CPT found rat poison in the barley being fed to the animals. Many goats died and the villagers couldn’t drink goat milk for weeks for fear of contamination.

At-Tuwani residents get their water by collecting rainwater and from a well. They also have one generator that provides two hours of light per day. Each family chips in monthly to purchase fuel for the generator. Our group donated money to At-Tuwani to cover a month’s supply of fuel for their generator.

As we were leaving At-Tuwani, an elderly man said to us, “It’s nice to take pictures, but we need you to go home and alleviate our suffering. It’s your government that’s doing this.”

Friday, July 28: Struggling to keep the family farm

This afternoon we toured Daher’s Vineyard which is a Palestinian-owned 100 acre farm, vineyard and youth camp, located near Jerusalem. The farm is completely surrounded by settlements, and the settlers and Israeli government have been relentlessly trying to prove either that the land doesn’t belong to the Dahers or to purchase the land from them.

Since 1967, the land surrounding the Daher family’s farm has been systematically taken (in some cases purchased, in others just confiscated) for illegal Jewish settlements.  Palestinian landowners have been forced out by Israeli government officials who make the Palestinians prove ownership in a variety of ways, with documents dating back to the Ottoman Empire. 

Palestinians rarely held titles to their land because a system of formal title deeds was of no significance to them. They knew what was theirs, and they knew what belonged to their neighbors. Sometimes rock walls or cactus rows would delineate where one person’s property ended and where another began.

Furthermore, there were other disincentives to formally registering land.  When the Ottomans ruled the area, they instated a property tax and required Palestinians register their land so they could be taxed accordingly. But many Palestinians neglected to register their land because they wanted to avoid paying taxes. Another tactic to evade taxation was to register their land under a church’s title or the Islamic waqf, because these religious institutions were free from paying tax.   Additionally, some Palestinians registered their land incorrectly by claiming they had one acre when they really had 100 in order to lessen their property taxes.

When Daoud’s grandfather bought this land in 1916, he registered it properly with the Ottoman Empire. Daoud’s grandfather was an exception—many Palestinians registered their land incorrectly for one reason or another, which has proven to have dire consequences.

Despite the correct registration of the Daher family farm, Israel once declared that all of the Dahers’ land—and that of their neighbors—belonged to Israel, and that anyone claiming otherwise needed to report to court within 45 days. The Dahers went to court and began a long and costly legal struggle to retain their land which continues to this day.

First, the court surveyed the land to see if the Dahers’ documents were correct. This study took months. The Dahers were then required to obtain the signatures of all their neighbors (many of whom had moved away) on their map to demonstrate they agreed with the Dahers’ claims. After that, the Dahers were required to bring people to court who could provide eyewitness testimony that the land belonged to them. They had a bus full of witnesses who traveled to the courthouse one day, only to be told that they all needed to come back tomorrow. It seemed that the court was doing all in its power to make the Dahers’ give up.

In 2001 the court said they still didn’t have enough proof that they land belonged to the Dahers. The case was transferred to the Supreme Court of Israel, and the Dahers had to hire a different lawyer—an Israeli lawyer, because West Bank lawyers are not allowed to represent clients in the high court. This lawyer required $10,000 upfront, which the the Dahers managed to pay by collecting donations.  They also asked international friends to write the Israeli government and ask for justice in their case. This raised the case’s profile, and the Dahers noticed that their case was being treated more carefully.

The high court decided that in order to understand the case, new documentation needed to be drawn up. The Dahers had to hire a yet another surveyor to survey their entire property, and to travel to Istanbul, and later to London to compare maps and prepare a report. The total cost of this study was $70,000. The surveyor was willing to accept installment payments, and the Dahers are paying this off currently.

Through all of this, the Daher family has been holding out—and they say they will never give up.  Settlers have offered millions for the land and safe passage out of Palestine, but the family remains steadfast.  Daoud, the grandson of the original owner, told us:  “We are not allowed to give up.  This land is our mother.  My mother is not for sale.” 

Today, the Daher farm raises vegetables, fruits, nuts and animals. They also hold youth camps called “The Tent of Nations” that focuses on intercultural understanding and building bridges between people to facilitate reconciliation, peace, and justice. The Dahers recognize that children are our future and want to invest in the younger generation to ensure a more promising tomorrow.  “Peace is like a tree,” Daoud  says, “first you have to nurture it, give it lots of water until the roots are established, and then it can grow on its own.”

Daoud’s wife Jihan who has a degree in computer science on her own time, is running a computer class for women in Nahalin, the Palestinian village at the foot of the hill.  A settlement is built right next to and above Nahalin, as if spreading down the hill to strangle it.  They are ringed by settlements.  And the wall is coming that will further restrict movement and potentially cut the villagers off from their land. 

This is a special place. A place where hope triumphs over despair and anger, where suffering is transformed into creation and building for the future.

--Mark Braverman