Before visiting Hebron on Saturday, we stopped at the small village of At-Twani. We heard horrific stories of settlers from the settlement (#1) nearby who routinely charge into their homes with dogs and guns, who poison their lands, it is atrocious. We met with the local Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) volunteer, you read more about their presence in Hebron and in the village of At-Twani and their website here (there is an article on the settler violence here as well).
But most disturbing of all was the violence toward children in the area. CPT volunteers initially came to At-Twani for the sole purpose of helping kids from a nearby village (#2) come through that path to the school (#3) every day. Settlers were jumping out of the forest (#4) and scaring the children and blocking their paths. So, members of CPT and from Operation Dove came to escort children from the nearby village to school every day. It was about a 10-15 minute walk. However, they were soon told that they would have to take a route around the right of the forest (#5). This was about a 30 minute walk. One of the most controversial episodes was the beating of both CPT and Operation Dove volunteers by masked settlers, jumping out of the forest – this happened on two separate occasions, and send volunteers to the hospital with broken arms, punctured lungs and memory issues.
Eventually, the Israeli decision was to block off that route to any internationals, and have the IDF troops escort the children to school every day, following a much longer route (#6) which took close to 1.5-2 hours. The children would walk in front of the tank, while the soldiers drove behind them. So, you have Israeli IDF troops who are escorting children (but making them walk over 1.5-2hrs) to school, protecting them from Israeli/Jewish settlers, who are attacking the volunteers, children and members of the At-Twani village.
These are stories. Sad stories. One of my primary purposes of this trip was to hear stories, to share stories and make people aware of what is happening over here. People may have problems with my “politicized” language, or views against Israel, but you cannot argue with stories.