1 00:00:16,467 --> 00:00:21,567 Part of the material in this documentary is from the video archives 2 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:26,167 of Operazione Colomba and CPT and was filmed between 2006 and 2011. 3 00:00:48,700 --> 00:00:52,733 - Where are you from? - From At-Tuwani. 4 00:00:53,067 --> 00:00:57,433 Ale, there are three soldiers. They are talking with the boys. We are filming. 5 00:00:58,100 --> 00:01:02,100 Where is the knife? Where is the knife? 6 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:09,933 - It's not a knife… - Ok. Come. 7 00:01:11,700 --> 00:01:16,900 Ale, they are pushing them towards the truck. You should come. 8 00:01:17,433 --> 00:01:23,500 My name is Ameer and I'm 13 years old. I live in the village of At-Tuwani. 9 00:01:24,167 --> 00:01:30,100 What happened to you around two months ago while you were near an army position? 10 00:01:30,267 --> 00:01:35,833 I was going with some friends to gather some wild herbs. 11 00:01:36,233 --> 00:01:41,833 We took two foreigners from the international missions with us 12 00:01:42,133 --> 00:01:45,200 and we went to gather the herbs from our fields. 13 00:01:45,700 --> 00:01:50,267 Afterward a settler arrived and sent the army against us. 14 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:57,833 The soldiers arrived, they threw the herbs on the ground. Then they ordered us to sit down. 15 00:01:58,167 --> 00:02:02,567 Fortunately there were the two internationals otherwise they might have beaten us. 16 00:02:28,533 --> 00:02:33,933 I told him: “I'm not old, I'm not old” and ran away. 17 00:02:34,300 --> 00:02:40,267 A soldier followed me with his rifle and wanted to shoot me. 18 00:02:40,633 --> 00:02:45,933 So I stopped, got in the jeep and they took us up. 19 00:02:46,700 --> 00:02:57,067 - Up where? - Up in the settlement. They interrogated us: “Age? What's your name?” 20 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:02,700 Then a police officer came who wanted to beat us. 21 00:03:03,300 --> 00:03:09,067 They told us: “Don't come back here any more. There’s no more land for you here. 22 00:03:09,333 --> 00:03:14,200 This land belongs to the settlers, it's not yours anymore.” 23 00:03:14,767 --> 00:03:19,033 Since then I'm afraid of them. I no longer go on our land. 24 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:24,200 Go away with the camera. This way you can film. 25 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:02,433 What we are going to be passing from now on 26 00:04:02,900 --> 00:04:08,767 is the biggest block of settlements. One of the first. 27 00:04:10,433 --> 00:04:13,833 There, that's the wall. 28 00:04:14,633 --> 00:04:19,467 What we can see there where the buses are is the check-point 29 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:24,833 which as you can see resembles a toll booth. 30 00:04:25,300 --> 00:04:29,000 Here you need to film with discretion. 31 00:06:23,900 --> 00:06:28,767 These are settlers that swear to the Arabs that they will exterminate them. 32 00:06:31,033 --> 00:06:38,200 This is my mother. 33 00:06:41,967 --> 00:06:47,700 They fire on our sheep, because they want to deprive the Palestinians 34 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:52,033 even of that which they can nourish themselves with. 35 00:06:52,333 --> 00:06:59,867 They have burned pieces of land. After a Palestinian works for weeks 36 00:07:00,300 --> 00:07:05,667 on his land the settlers arrive and set in on fire. 37 00:07:06,067 --> 00:07:10,867 This is only a small part of what the settlers do. 38 00:07:12,700 --> 00:07:17,433 I am Saber Huraini, mayor of At-Tuwani. 39 00:07:17,767 --> 00:07:23,367 The township of At-Tuwani was founded with the birth 40 00:07:24,033 --> 00:07:29,533 of the Palestinian government in 1997, and in that year I was elected mayor. 41 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:36,900 During the 30 years of colonization the area of At-Tuwani has always been on the fringe. 42 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:45,000 The village was without water, electricity, roads: without anything necessary for survival. 43 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:56,500 The village of At-Tuwani is in Area C. Therefore it is an area of the West Bank 44 00:08:56,867 --> 00:09:01,000 that under total Israeli military and administrative authority. 45 00:09:01,033 --> 00:09:10,667 The soldiers frequently patrol the villages. Frequently they enter the villages. 46 00:09:11,533 --> 00:09:22,800 At night they raid houses, looking for weapons or just trying to intimidate people. 47 00:09:23,500 --> 00:09:30,600 It's a particularly disadvantaged area, like there are many of, and it's particularly militarized. 48 00:11:16,833 --> 00:11:21,133 The citizens of the town have to use a generator for electricity, 49 00:11:21,433 --> 00:11:25,533 that as you can see lights up this lamp. 50 00:11:25,633 --> 00:11:34,233 This stays on for around 3 or 4 hours a day, after sunset, til ten when it is turned off. 51 00:11:34,833 --> 00:11:43,933 We have made agreement with the Palestinian government in order to obtain electricity. 52 00:11:45,033 --> 00:11:53,333 But when the project was already finished, there was an Israeli raid. 53 00:11:53,733 --> 00:12:01,233 They confiscated the pylons and all the tools and machinery present in the area. 54 00:12:01,300 --> 00:12:05,700 So we have gotten used to using the generator. 55 00:12:06,367 --> 00:12:12,200 As a township we act to provide any service, even simple things, 56 00:12:12,233 --> 00:12:18,067 to the people of this area and also to the people of nearby areas. 57 00:12:18,633 --> 00:12:25,000 The problem is that Israel prevents us from doing anything, even from building a road. 58 00:13:41,700 --> 00:13:49,433 What are the differences between the settlements and the situation you live in? 59 00:13:50,133 --> 00:13:55,767 What a question! When you talk about situation there are differences. 60 00:13:56,633 --> 00:14:08,467 To the settlements Israel supplies all services: roads, electricity, buildings. 61 00:14:08,467 --> 00:14:14,133 The settlers already have everything they want and everything they need to live. 62 00:14:14,567 --> 00:14:20,867 For example, they have irrigation for trees. 63 00:14:21,467 --> 00:14:29,467 One of their trees consumes more water than all what the inhabitants of At-Tuwani consume. 64 00:14:29,867 --> 00:14:32,300 There’s an enormous difference. 65 00:14:32,700 --> 00:14:38,567 It is a well-studied policy of colonization that aims at the eviction of areas like this, 66 00:14:38,900 --> 00:14:43,267 reduced to ruins, to empty them of their real citizens. 67 00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:47,133 This is the Israeli's goal. 68 00:14:47,667 --> 00:14:54,867 We presented some documentation of the village, but four years ago Israel were rejected. 69 00:14:55,267 --> 00:15:01,633 Currently there are Israeli lawyers, left-wing non-violent movements 70 00:15:02,167 --> 00:15:07,367 that support us the non-violent popular resistance. 71 00:15:07,933 --> 00:15:13,200 But our requests have not been approved: they don't want to give more space to the people, 72 00:15:13,700 --> 00:15:19,200 so that they might spread out and build houses for their children on this land. 73 00:15:38,300 --> 00:15:49,267 Since 1995 we have been subjected to a bloody assault by the extremist Israeli settlers. 74 00:15:49,300 --> 00:15:55,533 All Israelis are certainly not extremists, but a large part of Israeli 75 00:15:56,033 --> 00:16:00,133 extremists are here in this area, especially to the south and east of Yatta. 76 00:16:00,767 --> 00:16:06,833 This is our land. We are not terrorists. The terrorists are the settlers. 77 00:16:07,367 --> 00:16:12,133 I ask the foreigners that are here: have you ever seen a Palestinian 78 00:16:12,433 --> 00:16:17,667 go to them in the settlements of Ma'on, Karmel or Susiya? 79 00:16:17,833 --> 00:16:25,567 No. It is always them who come to us and the soldiers are always on the settlers side. 80 00:16:25,700 --> 00:16:31,133 This is not a “problematic area” like they say. 81 00:16:31,433 --> 00:16:38,267 The problems are only caused by the settlers with the help of the soldiers. 82 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:49,800 The soldiers are coming 83 00:17:15,067 --> 00:17:20,767 You just saw the soldiers, equipped with American weapons, that stopped me. 84 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:28,467 They came to me on a piece of Palestinian land, that the settlers have destroyed. 85 00:17:29,100 --> 00:17:37,267 This shows that they support the settlers. 86 00:17:43,300 --> 00:17:49,500 They told me to go away. I am not near the settlement, I am kilometers away. 87 00:17:50,067 --> 00:17:55,033 These people don't want to leave us in this town. 88 00:19:18,033 --> 00:19:24,167 The occupation 89 00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:55,367 Before the settlements life was hard but there weren’t the settlers and the suffering of today. 90 00:23:56,200 --> 00:24:03,300 Our torture started in 1982 with the construction of settlements in the area, which was 91 00:24:03,767 --> 00:24:13,467 the beginning of the suffering and the mass expulsion: 92 00:24:14,300 --> 00:24:24,167 in 1997 they destroyed these villages and didn't even leave a wall standing. 93 00:24:32,100 --> 00:24:42,633 Afterward, thanks to journalists from Umm el Fahem that drew attention to our problem 94 00:24:43,767 --> 00:24:50,833 we were able to re-enter into Tuba thanks to a court decision that recognized 95 00:24:51,567 --> 00:24:58,800 our right to return. They tried to negotiate with me to get me to live somewhere 96 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:07,600 else but I refused, preferring to die rather than leave my home. 97 00:30:26,367 --> 00:30:31,133 The settlement of Ma’on 98 00:30:49,367 --> 00:30:54,867 My name is Mahmoud Hamaamda, from the village of Um Fagarah. 99 00:30:55,133 --> 00:30:59,433 I was born here in 1965, before the Israeli occupation. 100 00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:05,400 Until then we lived with dignity, even if in caves and as shepherds, 101 00:31:05,733 --> 00:31:14,133 as our ancestors before us. 102 00:31:17,133 --> 00:31:28,233 This until 1982, when they began building the settlements of Karmel and Ma'on. 103 00:31:29,167 --> 00:31:35,900 From the settlements they would provoke us and around 1985 we were prohibited 104 00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:41,200 from farming our lands, which had been declared a military area. 105 00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:47,100 The 14th of December 1999 the Israeli army 106 00:31:47,500 --> 00:31:53,433 decided to deport 4 villages of the area, including mine. 107 00:31:53,767 --> 00:32:03,967 We went to court, with the lawyer Neta Amar defending us. On March 29th 2000 we won 108 00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:11,400 our case thanks to the support of several associations, 109 00:32:12,100 --> 00:32:23,200 like B' Tselem, Peace Now and “Rabbis against the destruction of houses” 110 00:32:23,667 --> 00:32:31,433 But we understand now that we were deceived. 111 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:38,300 We re-entered our lands on April 1st 2000 and the settlers are still here. 112 00:32:39,067 --> 00:32:43,967 So far they have confiscated two thirds of our land, if not more. 113 00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:53,833 Havat Ma’on. Illegal settler outpost 114 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:17,600 House of the Rabai family Havat Ma’on. Illegal settler outpost 115 00:35:42,033 --> 00:35:48,067 In this field of olive trees here, they destroyed the first seven in the middle in February 2008. 116 00:35:48,500 --> 00:35:56,767 And few months ago they destroyed the others. Therefore almost the entire field is destroyed. 117 00:35:57,267 --> 00:36:05,233 It's the most damaged field because it's near the outpost and not visible from the village. 118 00:36:05,733 --> 00:36:12,800 Therefore the Palestinians who own the land can never see what happens to it. 119 00:36:35,833 --> 00:36:40,500 God help us... Where can we go? 120 00:36:41,167 --> 00:36:47,133 We can't leave our houses? God help us... 121 00:50:10,167 --> 00:50:18,400 There are truly many contradictions in this place. And it takes time to understand them. 122 00:50:19,700 --> 00:50:24,733 It's important to make distinctions, one has difficulty understanding what is right or wrong. 123 00:50:25,433 --> 00:50:32,000 Take the the escorting of children to school for example, it is an enormous contradiction. 124 00:50:32,500 --> 00:50:37,700 After years I still have difficulty getting used to the idea that it is normal 125 00:50:37,700 --> 00:50:47,433 that Israeli soldiers have to protect Palestinian children from attacks by other Israelis 126 00:50:47,600 --> 00:50:53,433 who by Israel's own laws couldn't be there because they are living in an illegal outpost. 127 00:50:54,233 --> 00:51:00,333 And every morning it's the same thing: you see children walking on the road from the village, 128 00:51:00,767 --> 00:51:05,667 a road they should walk on normally because it's public, 129 00:51:05,667 --> 00:51:09,400 and instead they are escorted by soldiers. 130 00:52:23,900 --> 00:52:33,700 The school was rebuilt at night, because the Israelis wouldn’t give the license to build. 131 00:52:35,400 --> 00:52:41,933 Thank God the school is still functioning today, even with the 132 00:52:42,567 --> 00:52:50,333 difficulties created by Israel and the violence of the settlers. 133 00:53:09,967 --> 00:53:14,500 The main reason for our presence as internationals 134 00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:20,567 has been that of accompanying the children to and from school. 135 00:53:20,767 --> 00:53:28,167 The shortest route between the villages of Tuba and Maghayir Al-Abeed and At-Tuwani 136 00:53:28,500 --> 00:53:33,967 passes in between the settlement of Ma'on and the outpost of Havat Ma'on. 137 00:53:34,367 --> 00:53:43,333 Children on this route have been attacked and beaten by settlers several times. 138 00:53:56,733 --> 00:54:03,500 For around three years the students were obliged to go the long way. Then the internationals took the task 139 00:54:04,167 --> 00:54:11,300 of accompanying them on the main road, to save time and energy. 140 00:54:12,200 --> 00:54:19,433 The first 2 days everything went well, the children were accompanied without any problems. 141 00:54:20,067 --> 00:54:29,333 The third day however we were ambushed by settlers in ski-masks. They started beating 142 00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:37,433 everyone with sticks and chains. Our children are used to such situations 143 00:54:38,233 --> 00:54:47,933 and managed to escape with slight injuries, but the internationals were savagely beaten. 144 00:54:48,467 --> 00:54:55,800 Because of this single episode there was American and European pressure on Israel 145 00:54:56,433 --> 00:55:01,167 to protect our children from the settlers, 146 00:55:01,500 --> 00:55:09,233 to take them to school and accompany them back safe and sound every day. 147 00:55:09,533 --> 00:55:17,533 And since that day there are soldiers that patrol the road and accompany them 148 00:55:18,567 --> 00:55:26,067 in the morning and in the afternoon, so our children can go to school. 149 00:55:27,267 --> 00:55:35,467 The soldiers often arrive late out of spite, but we go forward just the same. 150 00:55:36,133 --> 00:55:42,433 That day we were going to school with the internationals. The children were in front, 151 00:55:42,867 --> 00:55:48,167 and I was further in back. We didn’t want to pass because of the settlers, 152 00:55:48,767 --> 00:55:56,367 then I saw people coming back: the settlers had beaten a girl and an international. 153 00:55:57,033 --> 00:56:03,300 I had stopped and they were coming towards me: the settlers were chasing them. 154 00:56:04,100 --> 00:56:08,500 The internationals stopped and the settlers started beating them while the children escaped. 155 00:56:08,933 --> 00:56:13,467 That day we didn’t go to school and since then they started sending the soldiers with us. 156 00:56:13,867 --> 00:56:18,533 On one side there were the settlers, on the other as well, we felt doomed. 157 00:56:18,933 --> 00:56:22,300 We come to study and we want go and return safely. 158 00:56:22,933 --> 00:56:27,267 I have dreams about how they are dressed, their masks, them attacking me. 159 00:56:27,600 --> 00:56:33,600 I start to be paranoid about how they will attack. Sometimes dreams are very real. 160 00:57:28,567 --> 00:57:33,567 The popular resistance 161 00:59:13,033 --> 00:59:19,767 If we had used any form of violence you wouldn’t find any of us still on this land. 162 00:59:20,167 --> 00:59:26,467 With the excuse of violence they would transfer all of us from here. It's the excuse they are 163 00:59:27,100 --> 00:59:34,000 looking for. The settler approaches us when we are on our lands: he wants to provoke us. 164 00:59:34,500 --> 00:59:40,700 We ask him why. “I do it so that you'll try to kill me” “But why do I have to kill you?” 165 01:01:23,933 --> 01:01:28,700 Firstly, we are women. Our role is to support the popular resistance. 166 01:01:28,833 --> 01:01:34,033 I'm more interested in you women. You think: we're women and our role is limited to the house. 167 01:01:34,467 --> 01:01:40,400 What else can we do? Our role in the resistance is more important than that of the men. 168 01:01:40,933 --> 01:01:45,267 Here in At-Tuwani the situation of women is difficult. 169 01:01:45,633 --> 01:01:51,533 The role of women in this area is to look after the children and to do housework. 170 01:01:51,833 --> 01:01:56,067 They have no other role in life other than these things. 171 01:01:56,400 --> 01:02:01,600 It came to me to organize something just for the women of the village. 172 01:02:02,133 --> 01:02:08,800 The women that were here hadn’t studied but all had manual skills, needlework, work of wool. 173 01:02:09,100 --> 01:02:14,433 All this to make the role of women in life active, to make the woman understand 174 01:02:14,767 --> 01:02:21,333 that her role is not just having children and doing housework. We can do more. 175 01:02:21,867 --> 01:02:26,867 In the non-violent resistance as well: 176 01:02:27,267 --> 01:02:33,000 when the men and their children go out with the sheep the women are with them. 177 01:02:33,267 --> 01:02:39,133 If there is an attack by settlers or the army the women are on the front line. 178 01:02:39,667 --> 01:02:46,100 They are subjected to the violence of the settlers, they get the men away 179 01:02:46,633 --> 01:02:53,433 from the place of confrontation, because the army will come and take the man to prison. 180 01:02:53,667 --> 01:03:02,700 After being jailed there’s a four to five thousand shekel fine to permit him to return home. 181 01:04:09,633 --> 01:04:15,500 Don't have a role? The woman is half of society. They have a role. 182 01:04:16,400 --> 01:04:22,333 For example, settlers came to house but there weren’t any men. Do we let them in? 183 01:04:22,733 --> 01:04:26,833 Of course we don't let them in. 184 01:04:27,067 --> 01:04:32,100 We must resist as much as we can and if we must die we die. 185 01:04:32,467 --> 01:04:37,000 The woman fights more than the man, the woman exerts herself more than the man. 186 01:08:53,000 --> 01:08:59,300 The settlers are raising the level of conflict and trying to provoke us even more because 187 01:08:59,933 --> 01:09:05,167 we are responding with a weapon even more powerful than a firearm, which is the camera. 188 01:09:05,633 --> 01:09:11,267 Images become a powerful weapon and when they see that they run away, 189 01:09:11,900 --> 01:09:17,500 they don't know what to do, they cover their faces and try to destroy the camera or attack 190 01:09:17,833 --> 01:09:22,500 some activist or some Arab: it's all they can manage to do. 191 01:09:42,000 --> 01:09:50,033 Every day we accompany the shepherds that take their herds out on their own land. 192 01:09:50,500 --> 01:09:58,400 The fact that we have cameras enables us to document everything that occurs here 193 01:09:58,900 --> 01:10:04,333 so that in case of arrest or settler attack we have proof. 194 01:10:04,900 --> 01:10:09,400 Very often the shepherds, especially when attacked by settlers, 195 01:10:09,833 --> 01:10:14,800 press charges through the Israeli police and thanks 196 01:10:15,067 --> 01:10:21,533 to videos manage to win. It is something that would not happen 197 01:10:21,800 --> 01:10:27,167 if they did not have proof of having been attacked. 198 01:10:28,133 --> 01:10:34,200 We ask ourselves what else can be done in addition to being here 199 01:10:34,567 --> 01:10:40,533 and bringing our solidarity to the Palestinian cause. Because it is not enough, 200 01:10:40,667 --> 01:10:46,900 because it is not our objective. We are not here to take someones side. 201 01:10:47,333 --> 01:10:53,267 The action of Operazione Colomba is not an action of an NGO that comes to build. 202 01:10:53,567 --> 01:10:57,800 We do not have money. We are not here to build anything. 203 01:10:58,067 --> 01:11:06,333 What we do is live with the people. It's a relationship that is built step by step. 204 01:11:06,900 --> 01:11:12,133 We are here because there is something that needs 205 01:11:12,500 --> 01:11:18,933 to be defended, and that is a minimum of justice necessary 206 01:11:19,367 --> 01:11:25,200 before being able to attain any eventual peace between Israelis and Palestinians. 207 01:11:25,667 --> 01:11:30,367 Non-violence and the peaceful popular struggle are a very important part of the history 208 01:11:30,833 --> 01:11:34,867 of the Palestinian people in their resistance to colonialism. 209 01:11:35,233 --> 01:11:40,500 Our duty is to make this concept more and more dear, but this is done together. 210 01:11:40,900 --> 01:11:48,433 There are also some Israelis, and we keep them close to us for the good of the Palestinians. 211 01:11:48,467 --> 01:11:55,400 There are supporters from Europe and America that feel the suffering of the Palestinians, 212 01:11:55,733 --> 01:12:03,433 that share their concerns and those moments of popular struggle against Israeli colonization. 213 01:12:04,000 --> 01:12:11,433 The choice we have made today is that of popular resistance. 214 01:13:23,733 --> 01:13:29,433 Many families are built around the work of women because it has become a fixed income, 215 01:13:29,967 --> 01:13:34,133 because the settlers have stolen much of their land and poisoned their herds. 216 01:13:34,533 --> 01:13:42,900 When there is no income coming in from outside, the work of women becomes central. 217 01:13:43,433 --> 01:13:52,533 If they cut off a source we open another, if Israel prohibits something we find another way, 218 01:13:52,900 --> 01:13:59,767 if Israel cuts off the supply to something we produce something else to survive. 219 01:14:00,133 --> 01:14:06,267 We fight the Israeli occupation with non-violence a without the instrument of war. 220 01:16:46,533 --> 01:16:53,800 I always hope that our children will live in a more secure situation than our. 221 01:16:54,267 --> 01:17:00,467 I hope the same things for the children of the Jews: they have no responsibility. 222 01:17:00,800 --> 01:17:05,100 The peoples aren’t involved in what happens. 223 01:17:05,367 --> 01:17:09,300 It is the orders of the governments that unleash conflicts on the people. 224 01:17:45,800 --> 01:17:50,300 In 2010 the inhabitants of At-Tuwani were able to obtain electricity for their village 225 01:17:51,200 --> 01:17:56,233 The 23rd of March 2011 Israeli secret services raided the village, in an attempt to destroy the popular resistance 226 01:17:56,833 --> 01:18:02,200 Operazione Colomba and CPT maintain their presence at At-Tuwani, bringing solidarity and monitoring the events of the area around the hills south of Hebron 227 01:18:03,033 --> 01:18:07,933 In 2010 another 88 young Israelis refused to be drafted into the military 228 01:18:08,500 --> 01:18:15,700 The experience of grassroots resistance of At-Tuwani has spread to other villages, and is slowly making itself known on the entire political scene of the West Bank 229 01:18:16,633 --> 01:18:22,367 The road to school taken every day by the children of Tuba is still insecure 230 01:18:29,233 --> 01:18:35,267 I dream that the army and the settlers leave. That the problems between us and them end, because we have much fear. 231 01:18:35,600 --> 01:18:41,333 What must we do? The have rifles and weapons. What must we do? 232 01:18:41,667 --> 01:18:46,767 We have our hands and our sticks. What must we do? 233 01:18:49,567 --> 01:18:52,033 Thank you, Ameer. 234 01:18:55,433 --> 01:18:57,600 Thank you.