Taysir Abu Mifrah, Age 43

I live in Tuqu', which is situated about twelve kilometers as the crow flies east of Bethlehem. About 8,500 people live in the village. Jinata and Harmala border the village on the north, and al-Mani and Sa'ir on the south. West of the village lie Marah Rabah and Jurat a-Sham'a.

In the mid 1970's, the first Israeli settlement on Tuqu' land was established - Teqoa. It was built on Mt. Qanan a-Saqer, which lies northeast of Tuqu'. The mountain contained hundreds of dunams of wheat and barley fields. In 1995, the second Israeli settlement on Tuqu' land was established, in the area east of the village. This settlement was referred to as Teqoa C.

In September 2001, Israel paved a dirt road that joined Teqoa C and the eastern part of Tuqu', which the settlers had taken control of. The road passes through Mt. Ruman. This mountain, too, was farmland - about 400 dunams that were used for growing wheat and barley, and as olive groves. On October 2001, settlers put up twelve caravans on about 100 dunams of land on the mountain and surrounded then with a barbed-wire fence. One family lived in the caravans, and security officials stayed there on a permanent basis. These caravans were called Teqoa settlement D.

The Arab landowners in the area went to the Civil Administration. The officials there told the residents that the road had been paved for a nature reserve - the Wadi Khartoun Nature Reserve - that began east of Tuqu' and reached all the way to the Dead Sea. The landowners from Tuqu' were not happy with the answer and filed a petition with the court in Israel. In late 2001, the court decided that the caravans had to be removed and the land returned to their owners. Of course, the decision has not been implemented, and the situation has not changed at all. For the past three years, residents of Tuqu' have been separated from their lands east of the village and have not had access to Mt. Ruman and their fields in that area. About one thousand dunams of these lands are olive groves, and the villagers have been unable to pick the olives. The owners are the Z'al Jabrin, 'Ali Khalef Jabrin, Musa Hassan D'adura, and Salameh families. None of these families live in Tuqu'.

On 8 February 2004, 'Aa'ed Jabrin and Tareq a-Zir called the Tuqu' Municipality. The two of them own houses that are situated next to land in Fatura, which lies between the village and Teqoa D. They told the official that settlers were planting olive trees on about five of the five hundred dunams of land in the area. 'Aa'ed and Tareq wanted us [officials from the Municipality] to go there and stop the settlers.

Around noon, I went with Kamal Jabrin, who is a member of the Village Council and a landowner in the Fatura area. We went in a municipal vehicle, and when we got to Fatura, I saw about two hundred residents from Tuqu' who owned land in the area gathering. We got out and went over to them. On one plot, I saw about fifteen settlers and three soldiers. I saw four passenger vehicles parked near where the settlers were standing. Kamal and I asked the residents to stop and not approach the settlers. He and I walked toward the settlers until we were about five meters away from them.

The three soldiers and one of the settlers came over to us. The settler introduced himself in Arabic. He said his name was Uzi, and that he was in of the security of Teqoa settlement. He was about 1.5 meters tall, wore a small cap, and had sidecurls and a white beard. He was of medium build, fair-skinned, and wore a white shirt and black plants He looked about forty years old. He spoke Arabic well. He told us to move the people back and to ask them to leave the area. I told him that they would not leave until the settlers stopped planting olive trees and got off the land. One of the soldiers introduced himself as an army officer. He spoke Hebrew, was about 1.7 meters tall, fair-skinned, and had a moderate build. He was dressed in a light-green uniform. He said that Kamal and I had to move the people back. Kamal told him in Hebrew that we cannot get them to back away because they were the landowners and wanted to protect their land from the settlers. The officer fired six shots into the air in an attempt to get the residents to flee. They did not move. I told him in Hebrew that he was crazy, and that somebody was liable to get hurt.

That same moment, a Mitsubishi pulled up and parked about fifty meters away. Three soldiers and four settlers got out. They were all carrying rifles. They came over to where we were and stood behind me. Before I managed to turn around, one of them hit me behind my ear with his rifle. When I turned around, I saw a settler raise his rifle to hit me. Instinctively, I pushed him and he fell. Another settler hit me on the shoulder, and the two other settlers beat up Kamal. Kamal fell down. The officer and the other soldiers did nothing. The residents came over to protect us. Then, the fifteen settlers who had planted the trees began to fire in all directions without aiming their weapons. The soldiers pushed the residents back. One of the four settlers who had arrived in the Mitsubishi slammed Mahmoud Hussein Jabrin, 65, in the chest with his rifle. Mahmoud fell down. The three settlers beat three other residents with their rifles, and the other fifteen settlers continued to fire in the air.

Some of the residents moved away because of the gunshots and the beatings. Kamal, a few other residents, and I remained there. The settlers continued to fire in the air until two army jeeps arrived. Soldiers got out of the jeeps. The stars on their shoulders indicated they were high-ranking officers. The settlers stopped firing. The soldiers asked us what we wanted. We told them that we wanted the settlers to get off the land.

While we were talking with the soldiers, a white Mitsubishi pulled up, and four people got out. They came over to us, and one of them introduced himself as Azhar, an Israeli army liaison officer. He wanted to know what happened, and we told him. Azhar said that if we brought documents proving our ownership of the land, the very next morning the settlers would uproot the tees that they had planted. We told him that we have the relevant documents and that we would bring them. We agreed to meet at the Etzion police station.

When we spoke with Azhar, two police patrol cars came by. When the settlers saw them, they fled, and only Uzi remained. Six of us had been injured by the beatings. The police officers asked us what happened, and we told them. They saw the marks from the beatings, and the blood. They collected the bullet shells from the shots that the settlers had fired and asked us to go to the Etzion police station to file a formal complaint against the settlers. They told us to bring documents proving our ownership of the land so that the trees could then be uprooted.

We all left and went home. That same day, the other residents brought me their documents proving ownership. The six of us who had been injured got into a municipal vehicle and drove to the Etzion police station. Kamal was one of the people injured. He, too, brought his documents of ownership. Around 7:00 P.M., we reached the station and filed our complaint. The police officer there took our statements. Azhar, the liaison officer, arrived at the station. We handed the documents over to him and then left. That was around 9:30 P.M.

The next day, around 9:00 A.M., I went with others to our fields. Around 9:30 A.M. ,Azhar and other police officers arrived at the site. We asked them to uproot the trees. They hesitated and then refused. I told Azhar, "If you don't do it, then we will get all the residents of Tuqu' and demonstrate and cause a disturbance." I went back to the municipal offices to await developments. Around 5:00 P.M., we went back to the fields and saw that the trees had been uprooted and that our problem had been resolved.

Taysir 'Issa Khalef Abu Mifrah, age 43, is married with seven children, and works as a secretary of Tuqu' Municipal Council, resident of Tuqu', Bethlehem District. The testimony was given to Suha Zeid at Tuqu' Municipal Council offices on 25 February 2004